A good hump always left him calm and alert. He’d taken a bullet once, been nicked by many blades, but he still had all his parts. His body was lean and tough like boiled leather, crisscrossed with ropes of scar tissue. He shifted in his chair, tightening his biceps and forearms, enjoying the clench of corded muscle.

Swann understood one rule in life, and it was not the Golden Rule. Only a saint or a crazy man-he didn’t see much difference-would choose the first alternative. The way the world worked, you could suffer, or you could make others suffer. He had taken many lives, for many reasons, and sometimes for not much of a reason at all. Swann had a long acquaintance with death. No one knew that he was on the job, and his job was death. No one would look at him or remember him. He wore a tan jacket over a black T-shirt. No one joined him he projected an aura that deterred company. He sat away from the dance floor, a glass of melting ice near his hand. The girls underfed, the boys wiry and hard, showing off piercings, shaved heads, elaborate tats. Most of the patrons were young and stoned. A hundred shouted conversations, all going unheard.

Sweaty dancers jerking to the antic beat. SWANN sat at a corner table, dressed to be invisible, as he always was on a night when there was killing to be done. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Riptide (2010 e-book and print-on-demand) Titles published under the name Michael Prescott: Titles originally published under the name Brian Harper:

Shadow Dance by Douglas Borton