Tina clutched her side as she stumbled out of the favela and onto the neon-lit streets of São Paulo. Blood covered the entire left side of her skintight jumpsuit from the ribs down, and seeped from the gunshot wound Raul had managed to land. At least, she assumed it was him who had fired. Thankfully, a heavy rain now fell from the night sky and had already washed the excess blood from the places the dark blue material of the jumpsuit couldn’t hide.

She leaned against a palm tree and vomited what felt like a gallon of blood. Her head spun.

Her body was eating itself alive, trying to treat wounds she knew it couldn’t heal. She needed the injection now more than ever. Empty-handed or not, she needed to face Marcos.

Tina spotted a line of rickshaws at the far end of the street and headed toward them, pushing through the rain. At least she’d managed to survive the attack from the two assassins Raul had hired to take her out.

Yeah, right. The idea felt ridiculous even as she thought it. Raul wouldn’t have gone through that kind of trouble just for her. She had no clue who those two men were, or what type of military or paramilitary outfit they were connected with. They’d sounded American; what were men like that doing in São Paulo? And talking to a scumbag like Raul, no less. More importantly, why the hell did she have to go and kill them?

Who knew what kind of heat this would bring down on her, now. Or the entire city for that matter.

But all of that was secondary for the moment. She needed her treatment, and badly.

Tina stumbled toward the rickshaws and hefted herself into the first one she reached. The wooden frame creaked loudly and nearly flipped backward as she tumbled inside. A shout rang out, and she heard quick footfalls splashing through the rain.

A young, bronze-skinned boy poked his head into the carriage with a look of dismay. “Are you serious? I can’t pull you!”

“Yeah, that big-ass, horse of a bitch should be the one pulling!” a boy’s voice shouted from outside, and a crowd of kids she couldn’t see laughed in response.

Tina reached into an inner pocket of her jumpsuit and withdrew a roll of reais, tossing them into the boy’s face. “Take me into the city,” she said. “And go get as many of your stupid little friends as you need to pull me.”