The man yowled in pain as James shook his head, shredding the cartilage in the man’s ear. He dropped the remote – surely what James wanted – but his fingers involuntarily tightened on it, first, inadvertently mashing every button on it.

Around the abandoned warehouse, several modified automatic garage door-openers clanked into motion. Closer at hand, a battery-powered circuit opened, snapping a small solenoid against a wad of nitroglycerin-soaked cotton in the collar around James’ neck.

James’ head flopped back, attached only by his spinal column and back muscles. Blood sprayed from his severed carotid artery and showered the man he held. The man, in turn, might have been pleased with the effectiveness of his work – had he used less explosive material. The blast, inches from his neck, was more than adequate to sever his internal and external jugular veins, with the result that most of the blood in his body ended up on the floor during the next several seconds instead of returning to his heart.