I pulled my jacket tighter around me and shivered as the cold wind blasted straight through it. Just a few hours ago, I’d sat on a bench in Central Park, enjoying a late autumn afternoon, and now I was freezing to death at the top of the Empire State Building, waiting for… hell, I wasn’t even sure what I was doing here. Damned cryptic phone calls.

I leaned on the parapet and looked down at the city, scattered squares of light reaching to the darkness of the rivers. An orchestra of horns drifted up from below, muted by the gale-force wind blowing around me. I glanced over as a young couple bounced off the wall, all cuddles and happiness. My mind wandered, clouding with thoughts of her…

The hand fumbled clumsily in my jacket pocket and my fingers whipped around the wrist, yanking out the intruder. I turned, my eyes drawn to the small scrap of paper that fluttered to the ground, a white, blue-lined leaf laying on the concrete.

“You’re good.” His voice was soft. “You might actually get through this alive.”