Free Heart of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno

people, but with their laser-targeted munitions his planes could cripple the infrastructure of any nation and leave the population intact. The Aztec empire had been built on slave labor. Aztlan, the reborn empire, would do the same.
    First, though, this...atrocity in Miami had to be dealt with. His brother-in-law, the oil minister, slaughtered like a cow. The indignity to Argusto and the nation must be avenged. Venezuela was the most likely culprit, furious with Aztlan for doubling the tolls for their ships to traverse the Canal. Or perhaps Brazil was responsible, a veiled warning against Argusto's territorial ambitions.
    Argusto's boot heels clicked along the floor as he turned the problem over in his mind. Sooner or later he would find out the guilty party, and then his great silvery birds would wreck vengeance from the sky. A grand day was coming.

    Rakkim turned off his headlights, driving by starlight now, invisible to anyone who might be watching. He bounced along the winding road with nothing but the sound of the wind to keep him company. Being alone didn't stop him from listening for Darwin's voice, or looking to see him capering by the side of the road, but there was no one there...not this time.
    Killing Darwin had changed him, but a mission to the Belt a year ago had made Rakkim realize to what degree he was no longer himself. Captured by some murderous hillbillies, Rakkim had been hauled off to a clapboard shanty, forced to drink moonshine laced with turpentine and handle snakes as a test of his faith. Bitten by a timber rattler, Rakkim writhed on the floor of the church, dying. In his hour of need, Darwin had appeared to him, mocking his weakness, contemptuous as ever.
    Hey, dumbass. You just going to lie there and die?
    "Leave me alone," Rakkim had said. "You're dead. I killed you."
    I was playing with you and you got lucky. That'll teach me a lesson.
    "What do you want?"
    I want to be alive.
    "I'd just kill you again."
    Darwin smiled.
    "What's so funny?"
    You.
    Rakkim watched the timber rattler that had bit him slide toward him across the wood floor. The snake stopped, triangular head flicking side to side, then retreated.
    Rakkim felt himself drifting, barely able to keep his eyes open. "Go away. I got no time for ghosts."
    Ghost? Oh, I'm a lot more than that. Darwin moved closer. You don't look so good, Rikki.
    Rakkim tried to get to his feet. Sat back down.
    Don't try and stand. Just relax and slow your heart down. You need time to metabolize the venom. Slower. You can do that, can't you?
    "I don't need your help."
    You need something. Darwin shook his head. I still can't believe you killed me. It's embarrassing.
    "I killed two men in Seattle last month. Bodyguards for a Black Robe. Good fighters, ex-Fedayeen, and I killed them so fast...so very fast. I'm not even sure how I did it."
    All that blood. Darwin's laugh sounded like wasps buzzing. Kind of intoxicating, isn't it?
    "I'm not like you."
    Don't worry. You're getting there.
    It had been a year now and Rakkim hadn't seen Darwin again. Hadn't sensed his presence, not even in his nightmares. He still had Darwin's killing skills, but he was alone again inside his skin, and grateful for it. A brown rabbit darted across the road, practically ran under the wheels of the car before it scooted into the brush on the other side. Rakkim accelerated, happy to have avoided crushing it. That was something.

CHAPTER 8

    The Old One stood on the balcony of his penthouse, wanting to burn the world to a cinder and scatter the ashes among the stars. The world and everyone in it. He could still hear his chief physician's lugubrious voice-- A systemic breakdown, master. Deterioration at the cellular level. A death sentence was a death sentence, no matter how carefully it was worded. A death sentence for him but not for the world. Where was the justice in that? To die now, when he was so close to achieving everything he had worked for? What was Allah thinking ?
    Far up the