Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Part Three: Prey
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Publisher
PART ONE (#u08ac49f2-464f-5853-bbc4-8da0dc9e7638)
LIBERTY (#u08ac49f2-464f-5853-bbc4-8da0dc9e7638)
Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.
—JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE
from Oceana, or, England and Her Colonies
PROLOGUE (#u08ac49f2-464f-5853-bbc4-8da0dc9e7638)
Blood drips from fingertips, splashing the floor. A mosaic of white hexagons, outlined in black, now splotched with red. Droplets, then a puddle, a pond, a lake.
Blood. Purpling. Coagulating before his eyes.
Darkness presses against the outer reaches of his periphery, narrowing his vision. The world grows dim.
He reaches out a hand against the blood-smeared wall. Fingers squealing on tiles. Tries to call for help but the words get strangled in his throat. He collapses to the floor.
Eyes land on a knife, its razor edge trimmed in red. Blood. His blood.
Darkness closing in. The world reduced to a pinprick. Fatigue washes over him like a summer storm.
My final moments, he realizes. All come down to this.
