<P>Then: As if one half of a moving train had suddenly reversed directions, tearing the vehicle apart on its tracks, so Dominic's thoughts did the same.
<P>
<P>Something different had just happened to him.
<P>
<P>He was used to having strange experiences. He was used to the ringing in his ears and the way the headaches built towards the front of his head, then tingled slowly, languidly throughout the rest. But this was new. Never before had he heard the screams. And they seemed to cleanse him, as though the experience was a desirable one.
<P>
<P>As though something unusually pure had just touched his brain.
<P>
<P>Yet he remember the blue-faced man. Ignore it, the man said.
<P>
<P>Somewhere, perilous and shadowed, there was a deep rift.
<P>
<P><JC>--- --- --- ---
<P>
<P>Rain poured down. 
<P>
<P>A great vertical apacolypse; Thunder shook ominous clouds brooding overhead. The weather frowned upon Wan Chai.
<P>
<P>The sun had almost set, and even if it were still hanging at its peak in the sky, the thick, angry storm would have blackened all light. Sullen darkness lingered. There was serenity within chaos.
<P>
<P>Jess stood in the downpour. She could have waited inside, but who cares? Water is water. The rain was cooling. The noise soothed her. She toyed with her weapon. It gleamed, reflecting light of unknown origin.
<P>
<P>The magnum was powerful.
<P>
<P>There was a noise at the gate;