For a second, everything goes silent in my head. Then it all comes back at once.
“Kirill,” I say. “Can you stop this?”
He skids to the device and drops to a knee. His eyes move fast over the wires.
“This is not clean work,” he says. “He built it from mixed parts. Some are real, some decoys. I don’t know his pattern. If I pull wrong, we all go now.”
The timer keeps dropping. 01:58.
I see Raina’s face. I see Nadia’s face. There is no choice.
“We don’t defuse,” I say. “We move her.”
“Sergei, the charges are on the chair and the walls,” Kirill says. “If I cut the bolts, we still have wires. You carry her and the bomb together.”
“Then we outrun the room,” I say. “He packed this for a small space. We give it that and no more.”
I step behind the chair. Raina’s skin is cold under my fingers. “Raina,” I say close to her ear. “Stay with me. We’re going home.”
She makes a low sound. Her head moves a little.
I slice the tape at her ankles with my knife, then cut at her wrists. The tape is thick. My hand slips once. The timer hits 01:31.
“Cut the floor bolts,” I snap.
Kirill pulls a compact tool from his pocket, clamps it on the metal bolts, and twists. His arms strain. One bolt snaps with a harsh sound. Another. The device is still wired, but no longer fixed to the stone.
I rip the last tape from her ankles and haul her up with the chair. The bomb comes with us, still wired to the frame. Her weight slams into my chest. I lock one arm around her and lift the back legs of the chair so they clear the floor.
“Move,” I bark.
We run. Kirill backs out of the room beside me, holding some of the wires so they don’t snag. The two men behind us cover the walls with their bodies to shield us if something blows early.
Outside, Oleg shouts, “Timer?”
“Under a minute,” Kirill says between his teeth. “Forty seconds.”
“Behind the dam wall,” I say. “Now.”
We sprint across the narrow path. My legs burn. Raina’s head bumps against my shoulder. She groans.
The dam wall has a lower service walkway on one side. I head for the access stair, hauling her and the wired chair down, step byhard step. My boots slip once on ice. Oleg grabs my elbow and steadies me without a word.
We reach the lower level. Concrete rises high in front of us. The lake lies above on one side, the narrow drop on the other. This is the thickest part of the structure.
“Ilya wanted a roof,” I think. “Fine. He gets one.”
“Drop it there,” Kirill pants, pointing to a small recess in the wall. “At least it will direct the force.”
“Timer,” I say.
“Fourteen,” he answers. “Thirteen. Twelve.”
I lower the chair into the recess and cut the last tape from Raina’s wrists. Her hands fall free. I grab her under the arms and drag her backward.
“Everyone down,” I shout. “Cover heads.”
We hit the concrete. I pull her in against my chest and curl over her body. My men do the same around us, forming a half ring.
