Chapter 51

51

May 14, 6:07 P . M . ANAT

East Siberian Sea

Sensing death was near, Gray rushed low. The left side of his face burned. A grenade had struck too close, shattering stone, pelting him with shards, several still embedded to bone. He fisted blood from his left eye, clearing his vision—the little that there was.

Seichan kept her flashlight muffled with a palm, only periodically letting a bright sliver shine through to illuminate their path. And it wasn't only the darkness that stymied them, but also the thickening smoke.

The initial salvo of grenades and rockets had chased them deeper into the city, then back again as a fusillade of blasts exploded in front of their path. Both knew what was happening. The Russians were driving them into a kill zone. Gray and Seichan had tried hiding, believing they had found a deep enough rabbit hole, but a rocket had struck, nearly collapsing the structure atop them.

So, they ran on, trying to keep one jump ahead of the enemy.

But the soldiers were closing that noose, coming from multiple directions.

"On the left," Seichan hissed.

Gray dropped, his rifle at his shoulder. He caught the merest shift of shadows. He fired at it, raging on full auto for three seconds. He heard rounds ricocheting off stone—then a sharper cry.

They both turned and dashed through a doorway, across a room, and out a far door into a small yard, walled by stone. A flash of Seichan's light revealed steps up to the next home. They rushed over and climbed quickly, leaping steps. At this point, it felt like they were fleeing through an M.C. Escher painting—one that was slowly burning around them, leaving them little room to maneuver.

Shots rang out, sparking around their feet in the darkness.

A sniper.

Still a ways off.

By now, Gray was certain the soldiers were not only aided by night-vision, but also with thermal scopes. He and Seichan jumped off the roof into the next street. Gray gasped as he hit his ankle wrong, the one already badly sprained. He fell to a knee.

Seichan crouched next to him. "Can you keep going?"

"Don't have much choice."

He shoved up and hobbled on, more hopscotching than running. They passed a recent rocket impact. The area still smoked. The site's heat was an open oven.

Seichan grabbed his arm and pointed to where a wall had fallen crookedly, balancing on the stump of one of the city's many pillars. "Under there," she said. "It's warm enough it should mask our body heat."

He nodded, limping after her. "We're not far from the icefall. There's a little reflected light reaching here, which should help us."

As they reached the shelter, a savage barking erupted, picked up by another.

Gun blasts followed.

"Tucker," Gray whispered.

He and Seichan had heard spats of automatic fire from deeper in the city, indicating the former Ranger was still on the run, putting up a determined fight. But this barking was far closer.

A soldier ran past their position, weaponless and panicked.

The Russian moved too fast for Gray to pick him off. Then a shape burst low and sped after the fleeing man. A body thudded heavily, followed by a scream and savage growling. Another armored shape pushed into view, his face hidden by a helmet and night-vision goggles.

Seichan twitched her SIG Sauer in the soldier's direction, but Gray pulled her arm down. A dog hugged this newcomer's side.

Kane.

The Malinois whined and pointed his nose toward their hiding spot.

Gray pushed up. "Tucker."

The Ranger lifted an arm, clearly unsurprised. He stared in the direction that Marco had gone.

Distracted, Tucker failed to notice a shadow running across the rooftops toward them, rifle at his shoulder, heavy with a grenade launcher. It was likely the sniper who had taken potshots at them earlier and was now rushing in for the kill.

Gray lifted his AK-12, took a breath, then let it out slowly as he pulled the trigger. The weapon rattled out a short burst. Startled, Tucker ducked low. Kane spun in a circle. But no one was more surprised than the sniper. The impact of rounds lifted him off his feet. The Russian fell backward. As he crashed, his weapon fired. A grenade flew—but not at them.

A trail of smoke through the darkness led to the ice wall.

The grenade blasted into a ball of fire that reflected tenfold off the ice.

Gray grimaced at the unlucky shot.

If that all came crashing down...

Marco raced back, joining Tucker and Kane. "Time to move," Tucker warned. "Don't want to stay in one place too long."

Gray and Seichan headed over, both eyeing Tucker's combat armor.

"Borrowed it. The guy wearing it no longer needed it."

"How did you find us?" Seichan asked.

Tucker patted Kane, then Marco. "A dog's nose is better than any thermal scope."

They set off.

With each step, Gray's ankle shot electric fire up his limb. After a minute, a howl of raw agony echoed to them, coming from the direction of the waterfall.

Gray stopped and stared that way. As he did, a large sleeve of ice calved away and fell like a dagger. It shattered to the ground with a crystalline ring.

Tucker tried to lead them deeper, but Gray grabbed his arm. "Everyone else is still down that tunnel, behind that icefall."

Tucker understood and looked at Gray's leg. "We need eyes on the situation. Can you manage?"

He nodded. "Let's go."

Tucker set a hard pace, which Gray appreciated. Tucker cast his dogs to either side, to extend their range of sight. The guy's lips were set in a grim line. Gray knew who the man must be especially worried about. The Ranger had grown close to the botanist over this long ordeal.

After a few minutes, Tucker led them to a three-story structure. It stood thirty yards from the frozen waterfall. They climbed to the second story, which offered a decent view. Tucker left his dogs to guard below. They wanted no surprise visitors.

A wide doorway out to a balcony offered the best vantage.

To the right of the icefall, red lamps glowed, illuminating a cluster of men, all dressed in camo. The angle made it hard to estimate their number.

A wounded man moaned loudly, whimpering in turns. His face was a ruin, bleeding heavily. His eye sockets looked empty, giving him a sepulchral appearance. A soldier injected him with something, likely a sedative or pain reliever.

Another soldier looked to be cursing, pointing toward the waterfall.

Gray struggled to understand.

Tucker made sense of it, clearly zooming in with his goggles. "The angry one is Captain Turov. I remember him from the naval base. The one next to him looks like he's got the stars and bars of a senior lieutenant, likely the strike team's leader."

"What about the wounded man?" Seichan said. "One of the soldiers?"

Tucker turned with a lean grin. "Oh, that's Archpriest Sychkin. Seems he's having a bad day."

"What happened to him?" Gray asked.

Tucker turned back to the scene. "As far as I can tell, I think he came from that tunnel of yours. Evacuated by one of the Russian soldiers."

Gray cursed under his breath. "Our friends?"

"No clue. No sign of them out there."

"Then they must still be in there."

"Or dead," Seichan offered coldly.

Gray recognized this possibility, too, but... "Considering Sychkin's condition, someone put up a fight." He turned to the others. "If it was our group, then they could still be alive. We need to find out before we run out of time."

This was reinforced by another resounding pop of ice. A huge section of the icewall broke away and crashed to a scintillating ruin in front of the thrones.

"It's coming apart for sure," Tucker said. "I can make a dash with my dogs, try to get through. For now, with all that ice raining down, the soldiers are keeping their distance."

"No," Seichan said. "I know what's back there. You don't. You and your dogs will be more useful here. Someone needs to lock down that exit before I bring the others out."

Gray heard the unspoken caveat to her statement.

If we get out...

Tucker nodded. "We'll cover you from here."

"Only shoot if you must. Don't give your location away."

She turned to leave, but not before leaning over and kissing Gray, hard and desperate—then she shoved away, rolled to her feet, and set off.

Gray and Tucker maintained a vigil. A full minute ticked by, which felt like forever. Then a shadow darted out of the cityscape. Using the coverage of the tumbled blocks of ice, Seichan made it behind the throne carved with sea life—and vanished away.

Gray's finger rose to touch his lips, feeling the lingering bruise of her kiss. It was as if Seichan were pouring all that was unspoken between them, expressing her fears and hopes.

He lowered his hand.

It had also felt like good-bye.