Experience a heart-pumping and thrilling tale of suspense!Originally published in THRILLER (2006), edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author James Patterson.New York Times bestselling writer Gayle Lynds has been called the "queen of the spy novel." And for good reason. In this tense Thriller Short, Lynds's character Liz Sansborough is put to the ultimate test, one that involves a character who goes by the rather ominous sobriquet of the Carnivore. Don't miss any of these exciting Thriller Shorts:James Penney's New Identity by Lee ChildOperation Northwoods by James GrippandoEpitaph by J. A. KonrathThe Face in the Window by Heather GrahamKowalski's in Love by James RollinsThe Hunt for Dmitri by Gayle LyndsDisfigured by Michael Palmer and Daniel PalmerThe...

Six master assassins--each a legend in the dark corners of international espionage--band together to steal a fortune from the middle of a war zone. But the mission goes tragically wrong, and they retreat into the shadows. Now THE ASSASSINS are back. Former military spy Judd Ryder is walking to his D.C. home when he spots a man coming out of his row house, who looks like Ryder and is wearing his clothes. As Ryder slows to follow, the imposter is killed in a hit-and-run that's no accident. Was the man the intended victim, or was it Ryder himself? Soon Ryder learns that the key to the mysterious events of the past and to his double's murder is an infamous Cold War assassin, the Carnivore. Two of the last people to see the Carnivore were Ryder and CIA trainee Eva Blake, and someone is using them to lure him out. From Washington D.C. to Marrakech and Baghdad, the assassins wage a final battle--this time against one another--fighting for their reputations and Saddam Hussein's long-missing billion-dollar fortune. In the end, only one can be left standing. Caught in the crossfire, Judd and Eva go on the run while desperately unraveling the tangled past and battling not only for their lives, but for their destinies.**

Liz Sansborough thought she had left her past behind forever. A former CIA field agent as well as the daughter of perhaps the most notorious Cold War assassin, the man known to the world only as The Carnivore, Liz is now a university professor in Southern California specializing in the psychology of violence. But her dead father's legacy has come back to overtake Liz. Someone, somewhere is claiming to have possession of the Carnivore's secret files and is using the information contained within them to blackmail prominent world figures to promote some secret agenda. Files that Liz swore her father never kept. First Liz herself is attacked and almost killed, then Liz's cousin Sarah Walker is kidnapped in Paris and her husband, CIA agent Asher Flores, is gravely wounded. The only ransom the kidnappers will accept is the Carnivore's files. Now if Liz is to save Sarah, she must somehow resurrect her old tradecraft skills and, in a desperate hunt across two...