Chapter 16

16

May 11, 10:44 P . M . MSK

Moscow, Russian Federation

Seichan opened the stairwell door that led out onto the fifteenth floor. She crouched low and inspected the hallway. It was deserted.

As she expected it would be.

The explosions and gun battles had sent the apartment dwellers into hiding—which was no surprise. From the Soviet years until now, Russians had learned it was wise not to be overly curious. The phrase zanimaytes' svoim delom —mind your own business—was as common as dasvidania .

She straightened and exited the stairwell.

While climbing the ten flights, after ambushing one of Valya's teammates, she had eavesdropped on the enemy's chatter, using the radio she had stripped from the man she had hobbled. It had allowed her to roughly follow the battle at the embassy.

She had also discovered the channel where Valya communicated to her team leaders, including a woman named Nadira, who sounded like her second-in-command.

Seichan thumbed over to that channel as she continued down the hall. So far, there had been no indication over the radio that anyone was aware she was in the building. Even Valya's commands were ripe with a combination of gloating and growing frustration. The latter was understandable.

Her team had a limited time frame to carry out this attack.

The flurry of sirens racing here made that abundantly clear.

You're running out of time, Valya.

Then again, so was she.

As Seichan headed down the hallway, she kept to its center, carrying herself low, out of the sightline of the peepholes to either side. She feared Valya might have posted guards, hidden in a few of the rooms across this level.

But no alarms were raised.

No doors burst open.

She noted the odd-numbered apartments faced toward the Vatican embassy. It offered some assurance that the man she had interrogated had been telling the truth, but she had to be sure, especially as she carried her method of entry over her shoulder.

The RPG launcher hung heavy across her back. She intended to blast her way inside, then follow through the smoke and destruction to her target. But to avoid any collateral damage, she needed to make certain it was the correct apartment. Torture didn't always glean honest information, just desperate responses, anything to stop the pain.

A familiar voice burst into her radio earpiece. It was Nadira—Valya's lieutenant. "Good news. We have secured the botanist. And an unknown combatant with a large dog."

Seichan's pace slowed.

Were they talking about Tucker and one of his Malinois?

She struggled to understand how the pair had been captured. She expected Gray and the others to have been long gone by now, to have used the escape route into the subterranean tunnels. That had been the plan. It was why she had full confidence in abandoning the others and attempting to ambush Valya. Plus, this news further reinforced her suspicions that someone was leaking intel to Valya or her Russian employers.

It also supported Seichan's earlier decision.

To tell no one about this gambit.

Valya responded, "What about our other targets? Any sign of them?"

"Negative. But we have the building locked down."

Valya's voice grew more frustrated, biting off each word. "Then they must still be inside."

Seichan sneered, enjoying the woman's aggravation, and continued toward the door stenciled with the number 1509. She crept forward, dropping even lower below the line of peepholes.

Once at the apartment, she glanced back to make sure all remained quiet, then leaned her ear against the door.

In her other ear, she heard Nadira's warning. "The police and military are closing in. Two helicopters are inbound. And fires are rapidly spreading throughout the building."

"And the others still haven't shown themselves?" Valya noted. "Not even to flee that growing inferno."

Nadira didn't bother responding to this. Instead, she focused on the timeline. "Should I call a retreat?"

Valya stayed silent, then spoke with an icy certainty. "Yes. Clear out. The others must already be gone. Somehow."

As Seichan eavesdropped, she heard a muffled voice through the door. While she couldn't discern the words, the cadence and tone matched what was spoken through the radio.

Valya's definitely in there.

Getting this confirmation, Seichan pulled back and retreated down the hall. But Nadira's next question gave her pause.

"And our captives?"

Seichan listened more intently.

"Take them to Sergiyev Posad," Valya ordered. "Archbishop Sychkin will want his botanist. And I'll deal with the other. See what use we can make of the man."

As Nadira acknowledged these orders and signed off, Seichan backpedaled farther down the hall. Once at a safe distance, she dropped to a knee and lifted the RPG launcher to her shoulder. She squinted an eye and centered the weapon's sights on the 1509 stenciled on the door.

She waited for Valya to show herself.

Each second grew longer than the last.

C'mon...

Finally, the door opened. Voices carried to her. The first to appear was not Valya, but a hulking figure in body armor. The escort had a pistol in hand and an assault rifle slung behind him. He stiffened as he spotted Seichan down on a knee, with a weapon aimed his way.

Shock slowed him for a fraction of a heartbeat.

But even that was too long.

Seichan pulled the trigger. The explosion of the rocket's exhaust gasses deafened. Blue-gray smoke burst behind her. The grenade launched out the tube, traveling a hundred meters a second.

The gunman had no time to blink. The grenade hit the half-open door. The detonation blew his body into armored pieces. Black smoke blasted into the hallway.

Seichan threw the launch tube aside and burst forward, like a sprinter off a starting block. As she closed the distance, she slipped a dagger into a hand and pulled her SIG Sauer into her other grip. She ducked low through the smoke and spun past the shattered ruins of the doorway. Fires flickered all around her, casting up embers as she passed.

As she continued into the apartment, a breeze blew toward her, shredding the swirling mix of dust and smoke around her.

Damn it...

She knew what that must mean. She dove headlong to the left. A barrage of rounds tore where she had been. But that wasn't her main concern.

She hit the floor and shoulder-rolled into a low crouch. She spotted the source of the breeze. An open window fluttered with drapes. Past its sill, a dark figure hung from a rappelling line.

Valya.

It appeared Gray wasn't the only one with an emergency exit plan.

The woman slipped down the rope, vanishing from view.

Seichan rushed to the window and ducked her head out. She caught the barest glimpse of Valya sailing down, using her legs as brakes, one gloved hand on the line. The woman leaned back and fired up at her.

Forced away, Seichan lifted her SIG's sights to her eyeline and waited for a breath. Valya was armed with an assault rifle, an unwieldy weapon when fired one-handed. The recoil from the barrage would worsen that aim.

With rounds still bursting past the window, Seichan leaned out and fired down at her target. By now, Valya had descended four floors, making for a harder target. Even worse, the woman's body swung wildly on the line, either purposefully or due to the gunplay.

Most of Seichan's rounds missed, but one bullet struck Valya's shoulder, nearly tearing her off her rope. Valya lost her rifle, but she snatched the line in a two-handed grip to secure her roost.

Recognizing a clean shot was unlikely, Seichan holstered her pistol, reached out, and grabbed the rappelling line. She pulled the rope closer and attacked it with her knife. She sawed with the blade's serrated edge. One stroke cleared the outer sheath. The inner nylon weave proved tougher. Still, her finely honed Japanese steel cut deep with every saw stroke.

The line suddenly yanked in her grip, ripping free of her fingers.

She looked down.

Valya swung wide from the building, rappelling off the wall to gain that distance.

Seichan cursed, suspecting the other's intent. She caught the rope again as Valya's body rocked back toward the building. With two more strokes, the line snapped and snaked away. But it was too late.

From the corner of her eye, she watched Valya dive feetfirst into an apartment six stories below. Its window had clearly been left open, part of Valya's emergency exit plan.

Seichan spun away, fearing the worst.

Knowing Valya, once she was safe and off the line, the assassin would have an additional countermeasure in place if she ever had to use that escape route.

Seichan raced through the smoke and growing fires from the grenade blast. She hit the hallway at full sprint. She rebounded off the opposite wall and sped away. Behind her, a deafening explosion tore through the apartment, shaking the floor under her. Debris blasted into the hallway.

She kept running, praying that was it.

She hit the stairwell door and headed down. She knew she had no chance of closing in on Valya. Sirens echoed, coming from every direction. They all had to get clear of the area.

Still, Seichan took a circuitous path, crossing various floors and descending other stairs. Once halfway down, she called up an elevator, climbed atop its cage through a ceiling hatch, and rode it into the basement, where a three-level parking garage spread beneath the complex.

From there, she made her escape.

Amidst the chaos, she easily cleared the cordon of arriving police, ambulances, and fire trucks. She continued across the city, heading for the team's secondary safehouse, their fallback position. Behind her, helicopters buzzed the smoky column rising from the battlefield.

She scowled back, knowing this was only the opening volley of a greater war to come. She pictured Valya vanishing into the building and made a promise.

Next time, one of us won't be walking away.

Still, Seichan acknowledged another outcome, one that was just as possible—and maybe always fated to be.

She coldly accepted this, too.

Or neither of us will walk away.