Page 2

CHAPTER 1

Chicago, not long ago

THE AIR IN the tunnel was fetid and stale. I felt like I was suffocating with every step. Just five minutes earlier, I’d been walking with Kira in the fresh autumn air. Now we were both underground, running for our lives.

If we hadn’t been together, I would have been chased down already. Kira knew the city tunnel system by heart—every entrance, every exit, every turn. She knew me inside out, too. After all, she was the one who trained me. She pulled me to a stop and listened. Slimy wastewater rose up to our calves. I could hear the trickle of fresh runoff from the streets above. And then—the splash of footsteps behind us.

“They’re still coming,” I whispered.

“No shit,” Kira whispered back. “It’s what they do.”

We both understood who was chasing us. They were operatives from a Russian school for killers—the same school Kira had escaped as a girl. That made her a prime target.

So far, our maneuvers hadn’t shaken our pursuers. We’d just managed to outpace them. Now we were in a section where the overhead work lights were off. The dark made for good cover, but I could barely see the curve of the tunnel ahead.

“There should be a branch about thirty yards up,” Kira said. She pulled me along by my sleeve. “C’mon, Doc. Move! ”

The nickname still jarred me. I still thought of myself as Brandt. But to Kira and the people trying to kill us, I was now Doc.

Doc Savage.

The name alone made me a wanted man.

The splashing behind us was getting louder. We’d seen a pack of ten or twelve up top. Clean-cut. Young. Like a bunch of college students out for a walk. Except for their sick little smiles. It was a trademark they all seemed to share. When they came for us on the street, we had to move fast. We dodged traffic all the way south from Hyde Park. At first, I thought we’d lost them at the tunnel entrance. I didn’t think they saw us go down. I was wrong.

And now I was mad.

I grabbed Kira by the arm and turned her around to face me. “Hold on!” I said. “Maybe we should stand and fight. Get this over with once and for all. We can take them. You and me. Right?”

She looked at me like I was demented. “Did you bring guns?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“Me neither,” said Kira. More splashing behind us. “But I guarantee they did.”

A blast went over our heads. In the tight space, it sounded like a cannon.

We took off again.

Kira was right. They had the advantage. There was no telling how many had followed us down into the tunnel, or how many others were still waiting for us above. They were excellent trackers. I knew that. Kira knew it, too—even better than I did.

A flashlight popped on behind us. All I could see was the center beam and a hazy halo. I turned back toward Kira. Her copper-colored curls now showed bright against the curved tunnel wall.

“Get down!” I grunted.

A bullet hit just above her head, sending chunks of brick flying. We got up again. We were half running, half crawling through the muck at the bottom of the tunnel. Then, there it was! The tunnel branch, right where Kira said it would be. A three-way split.

I looked back. Two lights now. Another shot! The water in front of us exploded in a big white geyser. The next shot would be right down the middle. High-caliber ammo. A round like that would blow right through both of us.

Kira got to the junction first. “C’mon, c’mon!” I knew she was trying to keep her voice low, but even her whisper echoed. She stopped and stared back down the tunnel for a second.

Then she reached down and ripped a button off her blouse.

The splashing was getting closer. Flashlight beams waved across the tunnel.

Kira held the button flat in her palm and slapped it hard against the bricks. A thick curtain of vapor surrounded her. She pulled me into the cloud. I pressed my back against the curved wall next to her and held my breath.

I heard footsteps approach, then pause, then splash down another branch. By the time the fog cleared, the footsteps were fading into the distance.

Safe. For the moment.

I let my breath out slowly. Kira shot me a little smart-ass look. Okay, her button-sized smoke bomb did the trick. But I felt I deserved part of the credit.

Hell, my ancestor invented it.