A silver blade sliced through the curtained exam room, its target the helpless patient of Dr. Megan Bradley. The hand that held the blade was crusted with grime, fingernails whitening as it squeezed the handle with the force of fury. Megan clutched the cold steel of a revolver in her hand, aimed it at the faceless attacker's chest and pulled the trigger.
    No burst came from the chamber. No sound touched her at all. She tried to scream. Silence. The blade reflected Megan's contorted features as it plunged downward again. The pressure of her scream threatened to explode from her chest. She fought her way out of the silent nightmare of a Corpus Christ rescue mission clinic and into her soft bed in the darkness of her tiny cabin in the Missouri woods.