But I may have no choice.
A buzzing vibration suddenly irritated her left ear, as if a gnat had flown in there.
But it was no annoying fly.
It was her radio earpiece.
Through the ringing from the blast, she made out a few words.
“... where are you?”
It was Tucker.
She palmed her throat mike, pressing it more firmly. “Third floor. South wing.”
She waited for a response, but it either didn’t come, or she was deaf to it.
What she did hear was the massiveBOOMthat shook the entire mansion. The ceiling cracked overhead, shaking down dust. A gout of flames burst up the main stairs at the end of the hall.
One of the combatants fled into view, attempting to escape.
She shot him in the back.
Smoke quickly flooded into the hallway, obscuring everything.
Knowing this would be her best chance, she crawled out of hiding and crossed to the crater in the floor. But the opening was narrower than she had thought.
She dropped to a knee—as a round burned across the crown of her head.
She ducked lower as two combatants ran toward her, shedding the smoke around them.
She swung her rifle up, but two sharp retorts blasted out in the hall.
Both men collapsed, shot from behind.
Through the smoke, Yuri appeared, running forward. His words were muffled, but she made them out. “Been radioing nonstop. Luckily, I was in this wing when you replied.”
She pointed to her ears, but before she could explain, Yuri helped her up.
“Need to get going,” he said. “Tucker blew the boiler. Flames are spreading fast.”
She found her voice. “What about the others? Kowalski? The botanist?”
“Don’t know. Let’s hope they weren’t in the basement. Tucker failed to account for the size of Russian gas pipes and a century-old boiler. A bad combination. In winter, we lose many houses that way.”
Seichan stared below, a question foremost in her mind.
Where the hell are the others?
9:03A.M.
Kowalski pushed himself off the floor of his cell.
Smoke choked him, filling the space.
What the hell?
He had been finishing a volley of return fire and ducking into cover when a thunderous blast had shaken the mansion to its foundations. Out of the corner of his eye, he had caught sight of a steel door, likely the one sealing off this subbasement, flying and rebounding wildly off the walls.
