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“Maksim changed the rules,” Belov says quickly. “Captains made their own decisions.”

Maksim steps closer to the glass.

Dmitri tightens his hold. “That wasn’t an answer.”

Belov’s breath shortens. “I told Vlasov to remove the problem.”

“Marina was the problem?”

“She copied pharmacy records, ambulance sheets, and names from the trauma ward. She kept asking where patients went after they left her floor.”

“Gurin told Vlasov?”

“He sold him her complaint and her schedule.”

Leonid writes the answer beside Gurin’s name.

“What did Gurin know?” Dmitri asks, releasing Belov’s hand.

Belov scoffs. “Can’t Maksim work that out himself? Elena made him soft, and the captains saw it.”

Dmitri bends until their eyes meet. “I’ll ask once more. What did Gurin know?”

“He knew Vlasov’s men planned to threaten Marina,” Belov says.

“Gurin claims he didn’t know they were going to kill her.” Dmitri turns Belov’s injured hand against the steel. “You believe him?”

Belov laughs, then winces when his split lip opens. “Belief is for priests.”

A buzzer sounds at the lower entrance. Roman appears on one of the security screens with two guards and a man between them.

Semyon Vlasov’s face is swollen, and his gray coat hangs open over a bloodstained shirt. He limps as Roman brings him through the passage. A clear bag in Roman’s hand contains several hospital badges, a disposable phone, and Marina’s hospital identification. Her photograph faces the camera.

My hand closes around the edge of the table.

“Put Vlasov where Belov can hear him,” I tell Abramov.

Roman takes Vlasov into the room across the passage. The door shuts, then Dima locks his wrists to a steel ring fixed to the table.

Abramov switches on the speaker.

“Marina saw one of your men carrying a gun on the surgical floor,” Roman says as he places her identification in front of Vlasov. “She reported it to Gurin, and Gurin sold the complaint to you.”

Vlasov studies the card.

“Belov has already named you,” Roman adds, pulling out the second chair. “You can protect him, or you can tell us who held her down.”

Vlasov looks at the dark glass. “Pyotr Kireev and Pavel Nosov.”

Yuri searches both names.

“Kireev died during the west-wing breach,” he says from his desk. “Nosov was arrested at Zarya tonight.”

“Who injected her?” Roman asks through the speaker.

“Nosov gave the first dose. Kireev gave the second after she scratched him.”

Abramov opens the report from the medical examiner. “They recovered skin from beneath Marina’s fingernail. I’ll have our contact send Nosov’s sample directly to the forensic lab and put the comparison at the front of the line.”