Something was pressing down on his body, heavy and thick, pushing in from all sides. He struggled to move. The realisation that he couldn't forced him to lay still, keep calm and try to figure out where the hell he was. Danny opened his eyes a crack and something fell into them, grainy and sharp, that he couldn't blink away. He tried to move his head and the soft substance covering him seemed to move with him, fitting itself to his body. Panicking, he opened his mouth and tasted earth as it filled. He focused on trying to lift one hand. The weight above it gave with a shock of movement and he reached up into empty space. He scrabbled at the ground, gripping and pulling himself up, head, shoulders, his other arm, out of the ground and into the clear air. He gasped, filling his lungs.

Standing slowly, he rubbed the dirt from his eyes and spat it onto the tilled ground. Looking around him, he recognised the graveyard. Recognised the grave too, his wife's name carved in stone and the angel that stood guard above it. The densely packed clay that should cover the grave was scattered around it, wood showed through beneath the little that remained. He knelt down by the grave and carefully smoothed the earth back down on top. Then he stood, took a last look, and turned and walked towards the bright lights of the city.


The night fell and streets lit up as he moved through them. The pain and muscle aches of the last day were gone. For a long time Danny's life had been full of nothing but confusion and doubt. Now he was so sure of himself; his world had narrowed down to one aim, and he was certain he could fulfil it. Lights were brighter, everything was clear now. He felt like he could see through the buildings, there was a path straight ahead. He walked through the city purposefully, knowing exactly where he was going. He only slowed down as he reached the hotel.

The neon sign above the entrance was gone, but the shadow of the letters was still there, paint around them bleached by the sun, 'Bee's Honey Pot'. Two men stood guard outside. They had no masks and their suits were not the usual style, but Danny could recognise Watchdogs anywhere. It was the way they stood, the way they looked at him. If they thought he was prey they were mistaken. "I want to see Leo."

The Watchdogs exchanged a glance, then looked back at Danny. "Kaspar?"

Danny nodded slightly. One of the Watchdogs spoke a few words into a walkie-talkie and went inside. The other moved in front of the entrance, watching Danny intently. Danny gazed past him into the lobby. He recognised this place. His mind flashed back to an image of the desk, the hotel receptionist walking away. But that didn't interest him now. He waited impatiently for the Watchdog to return, every second ticking dragged out ahead of him.

When the Watchdog did come back he moved over to Danny and quickly patted him down. "Go inside. There will be someone waiting for you."

Danny walked into the lobby. The place had changed. The lighting was brighter, less red, and the nudes had been taken down and replaced with modern art. There were two men there already, heading down the stairs towards him. One in a shirt and trousers, the other in a Hoodie and jeans, carrying an AK47. "You! You wanted to see Kaspar?" the man in the shirt called out.

"Yes." Danny walked over to them. The hotel's décor might have changed but it still had the same threatening atmosphere. Something was wrong here, a warning siren stared up in the back of his mind. He ignored it. Nothing was going to get in his way. He was finally going to do what he had put off so long. No going back.

"Follow me." Danny followed the two men up the stairs and into a long hallway with doors along the side. Shirt man stopped outside one, smiling. Hoodie man opened it up and Danny stepped inside.

He remembered this as a fairly typical hotel room. Now it was bare, carpet torn up, furniture and wallpaper removed, the windows boarded up. Electrical wires trailed from a small device on a stool to the main fixture of the room, a heavy wooden chair fitted with restraints, which Leo sat in. Strapped down, electrodes trailed under the dirty white t-shirt and jeans. He looked terrible, bags under his closed eyes and he had lost weight, muscle and fat stripped away.

Leo looked up, looked surprised to see Danny, and then smiled. "Back so soon?"

Danny hadn't thought about exactly what he was going to do when he got here, but now it seemed so obvious. He stepped forward and punched Leo hard in the face, once, then again, and again until he felt something smash into his own face. Head reeling, he didn't resist as the two men dragged him out of the room.

Outside Hoodie man slammed him into the wall. Danny stood there. While Hoodie man held him there, Shirt man had taken a step back and appeared to be listening to something. Danny noticed for the first time the earpiece in his ear. He looked back at them. "Right, we need to take him to the boss."

Hoodie man grabbed Danny's arm and pushed him in front and Shirt man started down the corridor. Taking a regretful look back at the door, Danny followed. He had to go along with this, for now. He glared at Hoodie man, with enough aggression to make him back off a little, but there was no point trying to fight them. Danny knew he would get another chance. It was just irritating, an interruption at the worst time. He hadn't even got to the point where hitting Leo stopped being an automatic response and became satisfying.

They reached the end of the hallway and headed up some stairs. Danny barely noticed the corridors they passed through. His mind was still back there in that room, with Leo.

Shirt man stopped and knocked on a door.

"Enter."

They trailed in and the two men stood aside. There was someone in a chair behind a desk but Danny's gaze was immediately drawn to the wall full of screens behind him. His gaze travelled over cells, empty and full, until he found the one that showed Leo.

"I take it you're not a friend of Leo Kasper's."

Danny realised the room was silent, and the man was sitting there, waiting for a response. He took a good look at him for the first time. An overweight, balding man with a beard. No one he recognised. Who was this guy? He didn't look like part of the project, but who else in the city had this kind of power? Danny felt a growing uncertainty. He had suddenly come back to earth, and was on unsteady ground again. He figured he had better say something. "No, I'm not."

"What's your name?"

"Daniel... Smith."

"Really. My name is Starkweather. I run a media business. Valiant Entertainment. You may have heard of it?" He paused and looked at Danny, who said nothing, since he hadn't. "I've had my own issues with Mr Kasper, so I do understand your urgency to see him. However, very few people see the inside of my offices, Mr Smith. That pleasure is usually reserved for employees and the extremely unlucky." He paused again looking at Danny, who again figured it was better to say nothing. Starkweather sighed. "I enjoy giving people what they want Mr Smith, and I would like to see you spend some more time with Mr Kaspar. Maybe if that turns out to my satisfaction I could offer you some more opportunities. What do you say?"

"Ok." A few minutes ago he had felt so certain of himself. But now this world had thrown up a new threat, something he hadn't expected. He knew he would have to tread carefully.

"Then it's settled. My boys will take you down to him now."

Danny turned to leave.

"Just one thing Mr Smith. Don't kill him yet. I haven't finished with him. And don't let me down."

Danny followed the men until they filed through the door into the torture room. Leo didn't move, eyes closed, head down, though the rise and fall of his chest showed he was still breathing. Without hesitation Danny walked over to the electric board and flipped a switch. The current ran through Leo for several seconds, Danny watched him stiffen, muscles contracting, and relaxing at speed. Hoodie man stepped forward and Danny flicked the switch back and walked over to Leo.

Leo looked up. "I knew you couldn't stay away." He tried to smile.

"Why did you do it? Why did you have to fuck up everything?"

Leo opened his mouth to respond but Danny had already walked away, back to the switchboard, where he sent another series of shocks through Leo, four or five, in quick succession. When Danny stopped he just stood there for a moment, before walking back to Leo. Leo's breath was quick and harsh and he took longer to look up this time.

"I knew I would bring out this side of you, sooner or later."

"It's good to see you destroyed your life here as well as mine. At least that's something."

"These things just happen to me. I guess I'm just unlucky."

Danny shocked him again, watching him twitch until Hoodie man stepped forward and raised a hand to stop him. Danny wandered over and waited while Leo recovered.

"So what are you doing here? Things not working out so well at home?"

"No, they're not. I guess you got your revenge."

"You still think it was about revenge?"

Danny turned, walking back to the controls. "How long have you been here Leo? Think you're ever going to leave?"

"I don't know. I've got all the time-"

Danny cut off Leo, shocking him again. He left the electricity flowing a good few seconds, and again the hooded man stepped forward and said something Danny couldn't hear over the crackle of electricity. Danny cut the current. Hoodie man checked Leo, who was still, but apparently still breathing, since Hoodie man gave a thumbs up to Danny and moved away.

Danny looked at Leo, who was slowly struggling to sit up. He turned towards Hoodie man and took a step forward.

"Do you think this is enough? Do you think I'm mixing things up enough? Is your boss going to be happy with it?"

"Probably not," Shirt man said, over by the door.

As Hoodie man smiled Danny lunged forward, wrenched the gun from his hands, flipped it round and smashed the butt upwards into his nose. The man stumbled back and Danny let off several rounds behind him into Shirt man, before he could pull out a weapon. Hoodie man steadied himself and reached out for the rifle. Danny shot him once in the forehead.

Danny stepped back and gave the dead men a fleeting glance. No going back. He walked over to the chair and untied Leo. The look Leo gave him was somewhere between approval and suspicion, before his gaze flashed to the door, already thinking out an escape route. As Danny finished untying him Leo pushed himself up off the chair and ripped off the wires. He stumbled over to Shirt man and picked up his gun while Danny went over to the doorway.

The way looked clear and Danny ran out into the hall, Leo followed. Danny headed towards the stairway, only to almost run into a burst of gunfire, bullets slamming into the wall just in front of him. There was a Watchdog heading up the stairs towards him.

Leo ran past, vaulting over the handrail and shooting the Watchdog twice in the chest before disappearing down the stairs.

Danny half-turned, hearing a gunshot behind him. A figure stood in the doorway at the end of the corridor. Danny dove around the corner, getting a bit of cover behind the locker room wall. He saw the man emerge from the hallway and fired his way, saw him fall. In the ringing silence after the shots faded he heard running feet from the same direction.

Danny jumped up and ran down the stairs. He saw Leo in the lobby, heading back towards him and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the front doors.

They ran into the street, gunfire behind them. There were a row of cars parked across from the hotel and they ducked behind one.

"Can you wire a car?"

"Of course I can." Leo sounded insulted, as though Danny had asked him if he could read. He smashed the window with an elbow and opened the door. Crouched low on the floor, he reached in and pulled out the wiring.

Danny moved to the trunk and fired at the hotel door where a couple of Watchdogs had taken cover, holding their attention. He heard the engine crackle into life and sprinted to the car, diving over Leo into the passenger seat as they accelerated away.