Every morning, my neighbor Evelyn dragged three, four, sometimes five enormous trash bags to the curb of our quiet Oak Park street. One day, I finally looked inside. I really wish I hadn’t.

Vance stumbled back into the smoke, pulling a small silver pistol from his suit jacket.

Before he could raise the weapon, I tackled him at full speed, slamming both of us through the utility doorway and tumbling out onto the concrete pavement of the Level 3 parking garage!

The gun skittered across the floor, sliding under a parked sedan.

Vance was older than me, but he fought with the frantic, terrifying strength of a cornered predator. He slammed a right hook into my jaw, sending a metallic taste of blood into my mouth. I crashed onto my back, my vision swimming with white spots.

He lunged forward, pressing his leather-gloved hands around my throat, shutting off my airway.

"You ruined... thirty years... of research!" Vance snarled, his eyes bulging with insane fury as he squeezed harder.

I choked for air, my hands clawing uselessly at his wrists. My vision began to narrow into a dark, suffocating tunnel. I reached out blindly with my right hand, my fingers scraping along the dirty concrete floor until they brushed against something hard and metallic.

The heavy tire iron I had thrown earlier.

With the last surging ember of strength in my body, I whipped the iron bar upward, striking Vance across the side of his knee with a sickening crack!

Vance let out a horrific shriek of agony, clutching his shattered kneecap as he collapsed off me onto the pavement.

Gasping wildly for oxygen, I rolled over, grabbed the tire iron, and forced myself up onto my feet. I staggered toward the black medical van where the second guard was trying to load Sarah’s unconscious body into the back.

"Get away from her!" I roared, charging across the garage like a madman.

The guard turned around in surprise, reaching for his holster, but he was too slow. I smashed the iron bar against his arm, disarming him, then shoved him back against the open van door, slamming it shut against his shoulder until he collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

I reached into the van, pulling Sarah’s limp body into my arms.