1x2 Narc... -

Tonight, the equation was about to collapse.

“Four. No—five. They want to see the product.”

He pulled his service weapon from the right. 1x2 Narc...

“How many?” Marcus asked.

Carlos laughed. The other four fanned out, hands near their waists. The air turned thick with diesel and dread. Tonight, the equation was about to collapse

His informant, a jittery kid named Leo, stumbled out of the shadows. “They’re coming. All of them. The Reyes brothers.”

Outside, gasping in the rain, Marcus finally hit the emergency tone. They want to see the product

Marcus pulled the bag from his right pocket. He tossed it. Carlos caught it, sniffed the seal, and nodded.

“Officer down?” the dispatcher asked.

Detective Marcus Cole was a one-man equation the department didn’t like to solve. They called him “1x2”—one narcotics officer with two faces. By day, he was the golden boy of the DEA’s field office, clean-shaven, sharp-jawed, with a binder full of successful busts. By night, he sat across from the very men he was supposed to destroy, sipping whiskey from a glass they’d poured.