urora's body had been a weapon, honed by years of training. But this body was softer. Weaker. Her calves strained, an

gles, the weight shifts-remained. She drag

ny, panting girl, he sneered and pulled a knife

of pain shot through her untrained spine as the steel sliced empty air. B

test. But the strike landed exactly where she'd aimed: the sof

d dropped the knife. He crumpled

ching shoulder. Not bad for a bo

hadn't anticipated this. One of them hurled the polished wooden box at

hasing them. Turning on her heel, she sprinted back

rple, his breathing shallow and ragged. A classic myocardial infarc

shattered. "There's traffic! They said

odore would b

old man. "Lay him flat," she order

by out of his panic. He scrambled to comply, his

pulled her worn backpack around. She reached i

ng military surplus. Beneath a stack of moldy canvas, in a crevice she had cut into the wall a lifetime ag

revealing a row of sil

rd. "What are you do

sequence of pressure points. The teenager was gone; in her place knelt a seaso

nto a point just below Theodore's st

rd. A fourth. In seconds, seven silver needles were embedded in Theodore's c

t and his men rounded the

e's stabbing hi

d on the precise geometry of the needles on Theodore's

derground doctor known as "The Surgeon." A ghost who operated in war z

irl was performing

low. His chest rose and fell in a steadier rhythm, and the purple tinge

at June in st

lcohol swab, and returned them to the cloth roll. Her muscles ached from forcing an untrained

ute myocardial infarction," she told Barnaby. "This was

backpack, turned