It was going to be a beautiful day.

The sun climbed above the eastern horizon, the cloudless red sky of dawn turning to blue as it ascended. Stark morning shadows cut across the sprawling boroughs of the great city, the eastern faces of the skyscrapers at its heart glowing in the golden light.

New York was already wide awake. By half past eight in the morning, the streets were a crush of cabs and cars, the dawn chorus of Manhattan not birdsong but horns. People flooded onto the island, filling every floor of each of the towers. The world’s financial powerhouse was gearing up for another busy day.

Seven miles south of Manhattan, the massive span of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, connecting the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, marked the dividing line between the Atlantic and New York Harbor. Dozens of ships passed beneath it daily, few of them ever attracting more than a casual glance.

The Ocean Emperor was one of them.

Sophia stood on the yacht’s bridge once more, watching as the vessel made its way up the Narrows and rounded the jutting Bay Ridge district of Brooklyn. Ahead lay Governors Island-and rising beyond that, the glittering spires of Manhattan, alight in the morning sun.

“They almost look like they’re on fire, don’t they?” said Komosa with a hint of awe.

Sophia smiled. “They will be soon enough.”

Lenard turned to her from the controls. “The autopilot has been set and locked, ma’am. The ship will follow the GPS waypoints to the East River, then turn for shore just before the bomb goes off. Even allowing for drift, it will be no more than fifty meters from land.”

“Good,” said Sophia. “The closer the better.” She turned away from the window. “I think it’s time we left. Captain, get the crew to the plane. Joe…” She smiled. “I’ve had a change of heart. Go down to the hold and kill Eddie.”

Komosa beamed back maliciously. “It’ll be my pleasure. What about the woman?”

“Leave her.”

He was surprised. “Really?”

“I want you to make Eddie’s death as quick and clean as possible,” she told him. “I owe him that much, at least. But her…I want her to suffer.” She raised a hand to the deep scratch across her cheek. “She can spend her last few minutes looking at the body of her dead love. I owe her that much.”

Komosa took out his silver Browning from under his leather waistcoat. “Consider it done.”

“Quick and clean,” Sophia reminded him as he left the bridge, sunlight gleaming from his piercings. “We take off as soon as the plane’s ready. Don’t be late.”

“I won’t be,” he assured her with another diamond-tipped smile.

The timer reached 00:10:00, then continued its countdown.

“Well,” said Chase, “now would be a good time for any last-minute brainstorms.”

“Afraid I’m out of ideas,” Nina replied glumly. They had tried every way they could think of to get free of their bonds, with no results except cut and bloodied wrists.

Chase rattled his chain against the pipe. “I’m starting to wish I’d tried Sophia’s suggestion.”

“What was that?”

“Bite off my own hand.”

Nina managed a tiny smile. “Bit extreme.”

“It’s an extreme situation.”

“We seem to have a lot of those, don’t we?”

He nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been through quite a lot together, haven’t we? But…”

Something in his voice, an almost confessional tone, prompted Nina to sit up. “Something you want to tell me?” she asked softly.

“Well, now’s the time, isn’t it?” He flicked a hand at the bomb. “I just meant that, even though we had some problems… the last year and a half with you’s been the best time in my entire life. I just wish I’d appreciated it more instead of acting like a selfish arse.”

“Aw, Eddie…” She gave him a sad, sympathetic smile. “You weren’t the only one being selfish. I’m as much to blame. But we did have some really good times, didn’t we?”

“Yeah. We made a good team.”

“We were good matches.”

“Great matches.”

“Mm-hmm.”

They looked at each other for a moment. “I, uh…” Chase began.

“What?” Nina asked. “Nothing.”

“No, go on. As you said, now’s the time.”

“Good point.” Chase paused, gathering his thoughts. “There was a question I’d been thinking about asking you.”

Nina could guess what it was. “Since we made up?”

“No, before that. I mean, not while we were in the middle of an argument or anything. But it’d been on my mind for a while.”

“So… go ahead. Ask me.”

He gestured at the bomb again. “Well, there’s not much point now, is there?”

“I suppose not.” Nina sighed. “But…”

“What?”

“I think you know what my answer would have been.”

“I think I do.” He smiled, then let out a brief laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“Something just occurred to me. If we’d done it and decided to hyphenate our names, we’d be the Wilde-Chases. Sort of appropriate.”

“You only just realized that?” Nina said, laughing herself. “I thought of that a year and a half ago!”

Chase raised an eyebrow. “You were thinking about that right after we got together?”

“Well, it crossed my mind!” They both laughed.

And then the door opened.

Chase and Nina jumped to their feet as Komosa entered, gun in hand. “Not quite what I expected to hear,” he said with mocking disapproval. “But I can soon put that right.”

“You still here?” Chase asked. “Sophia dumped you already, has she?”

“Actually, she asked me to put you out of her misery.” Komosa moved to stand between Chase and Nina, just out of reach of either of them. “I’ll be leaving with her in a minute. She has a good vantage point picked out on Staten Island.”

“Yeah, you can see all the best landfill sites from there,” Nina told him sarcastically.

“So, Sophia’s finally let you come and kill us?” said Chase.

“No,” replied Komosa, pointing his gun at Chase, “just you. She wants Dr. Wilde to suffer much grief in her last few minutes alive.”

Nina’s defiance was swept away by a wave of cold horror at the thought, but before she could react Komosa continued. “But I have a better idea. I want you both to suffer-especially you, Chase. So I’m going to shoot you in the gut. You’ll spend the last few minutes of your life in unbearable agony-and you,” he added, looking back at Nina, “will have to stand there and watch.” He aimed his gun down at Chase’s stomach.

“Don’t I get any famous last words?” Chase growled.

Komosa smirked. “Only ‘aargh!’” He thumbed the chromed hammer back with a click-

Chase lunged at him, lashing out with his legs as the chain of his handcuffs rasped around the pipe. Komosa, caught by surprise, stepped back even though he was out of range.

He recovered his composure, took aim again, smiled- and lurched forward as Nina delivered a flying kick with both feet into his back.

She dropped hard onto the deck, cuffed arms outstretched above her head. Komosa staggered forward before regaining his balance-

Crack!

Chase leaped up and delivered a brutal head butt that split the giant’s lower jaw in two between his front teeth, a sharp edge of bone slicing through Komosa’s gum and lip.

The Nigerian screamed, his mouth gushing with blood as Chase landed, head level with his chest.

Chase clamped his teeth around the silver ring piercing Komosa’s left nipple and pulled back with all his might, dragging his opponent towards the pipe before the ring tore loose, ripping a chunk of bloody flesh out with it.

His own face streaming with blood from a deep gash on his forehead, Chase spat out the gory jewelery and swung around the pipe to grab Komosa’s gun with his cuffed hands, pointing it away from him as he tried to twist it from the other man’s fist.

But despite the pain, Komosa was recovering. Mouth hanging open, a revolting mix of blood and saliva drooling out over the now jagged line of his teeth, he lifted his arm…