Kane reached and touched a cold nose against his.

“That’s right. You are.”

Half an hour later, Tucker sat in the sedan with the broken headlamp, the engine idling. He had freed Aliza and her father and told them all that had happened. He was going to leave it to them to explain as best they could to the authorities, leaving his name out.

Aliza leaned her face through the open window.

“Thank you.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay? If only for another night.”

He heard the offer behind her words, but he knew how complicated things would become if he did stay. He had two hundred million reasons why it was time for him to go.

“What about a reward?” she asked.

He pictured Csorba falling into his own grave, snapping his neck.

“There’s too much blood on that gold,” he said. “But if there’s any spare change, I know of some hungry dogs that share this forest. They could use food, a warm place to lay their head at night, a family to love them.”

“I’ll make it happen,” she promised. “But aren’t those things what we all want?”

Tucker looked at the stretch of open road beyond the brick archway.

Maybe some day, but not today.

“Good-bye, Aliza.”

He revved the engine.

Kane’s tail thumped heavily on the seat next to him, his head stuck full out the window. As Tucker gunned the engine, a howl burst from his partner, an earsplitting call, singing to his own blood.

The sedan shot forward and barreled out the archway.

Behind them, the forest erupted with a chorus of yowls and wails, echoing up into the night and chasing them out into the world.

As they raced away, the wind blew brochures around the car’s interior. It seemed the prior owner had been dreaming of faraway trips, too, ways to spend that gold.

One landed against the windshield and became plastered there crookedly.

The photo depicted palm trees and sandy white beaches.

Its exotic name conjured up another time, a land of mystery and mythology.

Zanzibar.

Tucker grinned, and Kane wagged his tail.

Yeah, that’ll do.

So ends this adventure with Tucker and Kane — but a larger one looms ahead for the pair as they reach Zanzibar in a novel titled Bloodline. A fateful crossing with Commander Pierce of Sigma Force will cast them into an adventure spanning the globe, one that will reveal a frightening scientific truth about the nature of mankind: That immortals are walking among us today.

JAMES ROLLINS is the New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers, translated into more than forty languages. His Sigma series has been lauded as one of the “top crowd pleasers” (New York Times) and one of the “hottest summer reads” (People Magazine). In each novel, acclaimed for its originality, Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets — and he does it all at breakneck speed and with stunning insight.

Find James Rollins on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and at www.jamesrollins.com.

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