As I watched Nicolai testing his restraints on the screen, I made him a silent promise. "I'm coming for you,medved,and when this is over, I'm never letting you go again."
The Russian endearment slipped out unconsciously—a word I'd never spoken aloud before, heard only in the recesses of my mind when I thought of him. Bear. My bear. The man who'd given me shelter when I had nowhere else to run, who'd offered protection when I'd known nothing but pursuit.
I turned back to the facility systems with renewed purpose. I might be running on fumes, my body failing and my mind fracturing under the strain, but I would get Nicolai out of there if it was the last thing I ever did.
And if O'Rourke got in my way, he'd learn exactly how dangerous a cornered electronic manipulator could be.
The facility's power grid fluctuated wildly under my command, lights throughout the complex pulsing like a heartbeat gone arrhythmic. Each surge drained more of my strength, but I couldn't stop now—not when I could see Nicolai on the monitor, eyes alert and searching, a dangerous smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
He knew we were coming.
Somehow, despite everything between us, he trusted that I wouldn't leave him here. That trust was worth more than my safety, worth more than the blood now flowing freely down my face, worth more than the stabbing pain behind my eyes that threatened to split my skull in two.
On the security feed, Nicolai's gaze fixed directly on the camera as if he could see through it to me. The lights in his room flickered in a precise pattern—three short flashes, three long, three short again. SOS. The classic distress signal, but in his eyes, I saw something other than distress. I saw certainty. Faith.
"He knows we're coming," I whispered, blood now freely flowing from my nose. I didn't bother wiping it away anymore; there was no point. "Look at him."
Yuri leaned over my shoulder, watching the monitor with narrowed eyes. For a moment, even his stoic expression softened at the sight of his boss—his friend—silently communicating his awareness through the camera.
"That bear is resilient," Yuri acknowledged, a hint of pride in his voice. "Always has been."
I nodded weakly, immediately regretting the motion as the room spun violently around me. My body swayed dangerously in the chair, and for the first time, genuine concern flashed across Yuri's face as he steadied me with a firm hand on my shoulder.
"You've done enough," he insisted, his tone unusually gentle. "Let the team handle the rest."
I tried to shake my head, but the movement sent a fresh wave of agony through my skull. I could feel something warm trickling from my ear now—blood. Not a good sign. But I couldn't stop, not when we were so close.
"I need to finish this," I managed, pushing myself upright despite the tremors wracking my body. My voice soundedstrange in my own ears, distant and slurred. "Nicolai needs a clear path out."
Yuri's grip on my shoulder tightened. "Mishka, you're killing yourself."
The use of my name—not "kid" or "hacker" or any of the other dismissive terms he usually employed—caught me off guard. I looked up at him, surprised by the genuine worry I saw there.
In the short time I'd known him, Yuri had never shown me anything but suspicion and reluctant tolerance. This protective concern was new territory.
"Worth it," I replied simply, turning back to the monitors.
The screens showed Dima's team closing in on Nicolai's location, engaging with guards as they fought their way through the corridors. Zev and his group had secured the nearest exit point, preparing for extraction. Everything was going according to plan, but there was still too much that could go wrong.
I focused on the controls again, fingers trembling as they danced across the keyboard. The connection between my mind and the facility's systems was fraying, like trying to hold onto smoke. Each command required more concentration, more energy I didn't have to spare.
On the security feed, Nicolai's eyes suddenly snapped toward his cell door. He'd heard something—the approaching rescue team, perhaps. The scientists around him were panicking, gathering data drives and research materials, more concerned with saving their work than their subject.
One of them, braver or stupider than the rest, approached Nicolai with the syringe I'd seen earlier. Without thinking, I sent a surge of power directly to that room's electrical systems. The lights exploded in a shower of sparks, plunging the space into darkness except for the emergency red glow.
The effort cost me. My vision tunneled, black edges closing in until I could barely see the screens. Something warm and wet trickled down from both ears now, joining the blood already soaking the front of my shirt.
"Mishka!" Yuri's voice seemed to come from very far away. "Stop this. Now!"
I ignored him, focusing what little strength I had left on unlocking the final barriers between our team and Nicolai. Security doors clicked open. Elevator overrides disengaged. The path was clear.
"Northeast quadrant secure," I whispered into the comm unit, my voice barely audible. "Primary target located. Extraction team has clear access through Route C."
Through the haze of pain, I watched as Dima's team burst into Nicolai's containment room on the security feed. The scientists scattered like roaches, abandoning their research and their prisoner in favor of self-preservation.
Smart move.
If they'd stayed, I doubt Dima would have shown much restraint after seeing his boss strapped to a table like a lab rat.
