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his hands in defense and then delivered a kick that Deavers easily dodged. Then Deavers threw a punch at Andrisi that was so fast Luther thought it was another bluff, but the blow hit Andrisi on the temple and dropped him to one knee.
    Andrisi was about to move when Deavers said, “Get up and I’ll kill you.” Andrisi stayed down.
    Deavers put down Sharon and the other two cadets in similar fashion, each time faking an assault, then countering the aggression with a punch or kick that was too fast to defend.
    Deavers got to Luther, and Luther swore he could see the shadow of a smile on his lips. Luther stood fast and then searched Deavers’s face. Their eyes locked, and Luther saw something that set him at ease. Deavers raised a leg and aimed a side kick at Luther’s head. Luther barely dodged the assault but did not attack. Deavers then executed a series of moves, and Luther struggled to survive them. Finally Luther landed a punch, but Deavers swept his legs from under him, ending the contest.
    â€œFighting is not about hurting your enemy; it’s about understanding him, then killing him,” Deavers had said. “This cadet avoided my assault as best he could until he saw a weakness. Butof course he had the advantage of seeing die rest of you fail, didn’t he?” And now Deavers did smile.
    That day the cadets were told something of the institution called E-1. They were given as much info as they needed, which was not much. Luther surmised that he was being trained to kill, and the prospect excited and terrified him.
    During the next year, Luther was taken under Deavers’s wing and forged into another person. Deavers liked Luther’s youth and brashness. The young kid soaked up everything Deavers had to offer, learning the history of the agency and its secrets and memorizing the E-1 rule book, the blueprint for their future.
    Luther also learned to focus his anger and aggression into useful energy. Deavers trained him and the others to look at their exceptional status as human beings in a new way. They were elite and had to remain unburdened by the false morality of common people. They were being trained to eliminate the enemies of their country. They were machines to this end, and duty, honor, and patriotism were their fuel.
    Luther was accepted into E-1 at the age of twenty-one, the youngest agent in the agency’s history. He was given a document called the vita pactum , a simple one-page document in which the agent promised to give his life to the agency, and in return the agency would always take care of his every need. Luther signed it and was married to E-1 forever.
    Luther took to his new job with the same fierceness and brilliance with which he did everything else. Alex Deavers saw to it that Luther was not wasted in his new occupation. He sent Luther on a mission the first week after his graduation.
    Luther was dispatched to Germany to neutralize an arms dealer who’d become troublesome to peace negotiations inEastern Europe. Luther knew nothing of him until he got there. When he received the file, he saw that the man, Caesar Reniddo, was a former army lieutenant trained in fighting and weapons. He was also a black man.
    That was Alex, Luther had thought. He wanted to test Luther in every way, including his racial loyalty.
    Luther neutralized Reniddo and his two bodyguards on his first night in the country. The bodyguards were killed with a silenced weapon. Reniddo’s throat was cut as he slept. Luther felt a great rush of emotion at his first kills. He was excited, guilty, sickened, and empowered by the feeling. It was like hearing bright music crescendo, then recede into silence—the cold, deep space of the human heart.
    Luther left an angry note, handwritten in Lebanese. The authorities made the normal assumptions, and the matter was closed. After that first assignment, Luther had gone on mission after mission, building his skill and confidence. His former