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brEE WAS LESS THAN two hundred yards from Alex and Mahoney when she spotted Justice Blevins’s headlamp coming through the woods. At the same time, she spotted a gray smudge she thought could be a person crouched amid hemlock trees on the opposite creek bank.

She slipped down the bank into the running water, ignoring the wet and the cold, using the sounds of the creek to mask her movement, closing the gap in the low light, wanting to be sure she wasn’t seeing things.

Then she saw the headlamp go off and the form on the far bank shift as Justice Blevins came closer to a footbridge that spanned the creek. At ten yards away, Bree brought up her pistol, popped up, aimed it over the bank at the figure in the hemlocks, and shouted, “Put the weapon down, Katrina! Down!”

What happened next unfolded in a matter of seconds.

Justice Blevins heard the shout, startled, and skidded to a stop on the path, blocked from White’s view by the hemlock trees but mere feet from her waiting assassin. The Sparrow shifted toward her target.

“I’ll put one through the back of your head, Katrina!” Bree shouted. “It’s over!”

Alex and Mahoney came charging onto the scene, drawn by the shouting.

“FBI!” Ned yelled. “Justice Blevins, stay where you are!”

“Drop the weapon!” Bree shouted again.

“Drop it!” Alex said, coming near the bridge and aiming at Malcomb’s assassin from another angle. “We don’t want to kill you, Katrina!”

White hesitated and then did something none of them had expected.

The Sparrow put the triggering device in her mouth, raised her hands, turned to face them, and bit down.