And missed.

She didn't get a second chance.

Something appeared in the hand of the dark figure. A flashlight. The beam played wildly across the wall as the intruder's arm swept up and then down viciously across the side of the scientist's head.

The pain was sharp and bright. It exploded from around the point of impact, racing through her already numb brain.

Judith dropped to all fours on the cold floor. Weakly, she tried to push herself up. No good. She collapsed over onto her side.

A wave of blackness bled through her mind.

"There's another one in here!" she heard the woman who had struck her exclaim. The voice echoed.

Judith's distorted vision caught a final glimpse of black sneakers scuffing past her and into the main lab. They seemed fuzzy, far off.

There was a final, plaintive moan from the last BBQ.

Then a night shroud of warm oblivion swept in. The wave of intense darkness engulfed Dr. Judith White.

Chapter 2

His name was Remo, and he was explaining to the inmate that he had just masterminded a prison break. It was a tough sell, considering they were sharing a tiny solitary-confinement cell in the Supermax maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado.

"What are you talking about?" Todd Grautski blinked, his voice thick with sleep. He was a gaunt man with a face that appeared to have been tied in a knot at one time and never completely unloosened. Wild eyes darted beneath a mop of uncombed, graying hair. His gray beard was like an unkempt ostrich nest.

It was dark in the small cell. A silvery pool of dull light spilled in through a barred panel in the door of the cell. The closed door.

The solemn red numbers on the cell's new digital clock told Todd Grautski it was after midnight. Grautski was suspicious of the clock, just as he was of all things mechanical. Unfortunately, the timepiece was not his.