Hans took the gun from her hand and flipped the safety on.
“Sometimes you have to let your lizard brain take over.”
“My lizard brain?”
He tapped her temple. “Yes, the part of you that developed survival instincts millions of years ago. There’s a fancy term that scientists named your lizard brain, but what it boils down to is your gut, your instincts. These men coming after you have one goal: to kill you. There will be no mercy, no chance to reason with them. They will just act. So you must as well.”
He was right, but Elena didn’t like to admit it. If it came down to it, she might have to kill someone to live.
“The men they send here won’t be innocent or novices—they will be hardened killers with blood on their hands. They will murder whoever they are told to without question. That’s who you are fighting. Some might argue they are fighting for their country or some other bullshit, but if their government is afraid of a twenty-year-old girl for no reason other than her ancestry . . . well, that government has bigger problems and shouldn’t be in charge. Point is, you don’t owe these men any mercy.”
Elena swallowed hard and stared at the snowy woods. The sunlight had emerged from the cloud bank and lit up the dusting of snow that had fallen the night before like diamonds. Soon these quiet woods would be full of violence.
She pulled her coat tight around her. “Let’s go back inside.” Hans put a hand on her back, indicating for her to go ahead of him.
Inside, the house had changed. Furniture had been moved around to provide clear pathways, windows had been boarded up on the ground floor, and strange reflective panels had been installed along many of the thinner walls. Cody had explained that they were meant to reflect any heat detection systems from the outside. So if anyone was attempting to get an accurate reading of how many people were in the house, they wouldn’t be able to.
Hans set the gun on the kitchen counter, and Elena dropped into a chair next to Leo, who was working furiously on his keyboard. Cody sat next to him, his own laptop open. The two of them spoke occasionally, checking each other’s screens and speaking in a tech language that left Elena completely baffled. The two men hooted in triumph, and Cody held up his hand for a high five, which Leo gave with a boyish grin.
“What are you guys doing?” she asked.
Leo turned his smile on her. “Well, we just found a back door in the Department of Homeland Security.”
“And I’ve gotten permission from the boss man to use my new drone.” Cody cracked his knuckles and leaned back in his chair with a cocky grin.
“A drone?”
“Yep, the boss man has military contracts. We’ve been working on a prototype that flies low enough to go unnoticed by most government systems. If we fly that over the woods, I’ll be able to see their heat signatures coming up on us. We’ll know how many there are and where they are.”
“That’s incredible,” Elena said. It boggled her mind that they actually had access to that level of technology.
“Dimitri asked for you to come find him when you’re done,” Leo said before he and Cody resumed their discussion.
Elena, not for the first time, was aware that she was the only woman in a house full of dangerous men. It unnerved her a little, even though none of them were a threat to her. She left the kitchen and began searching the house until she found Dimitri in the loft, which had a relaxing den with a sectional and a big-screen TV.
Maxim sat beside him on the couch, and they were speaking together softly in Russian. They stopped when they spotted her coming up the stairs. Maxim got up and nodded at Elena before excusing himself.
Dimitri patted the seat next to him. She came over, glad for a chance to cuddle up. He curled an arm around her shoulders and, not saying a word, she closed her eyes. Just being with him always brought on a wave of peace. She drifted off for a moment, only feeling a little guilty that he probably had better things to do than be her personal pillow.
Sometime later, she was shaken awake by a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Kiska, it’s time. You need to eat and drink some water.” Dimitri stood over her. Darkness had fallen outside.
“It’s time?”
“Yes.” Dimitri stroked her hair back from her face. “Leo spotted Vladimir in town a few hours ago. Fenn and Maxim were able to put a tracker on his car and have been keeping tabs on him, waiting to see what he’d do. He’s now headed up the mountain.”
Elena sat up, rubbing at her face as she tried to shrug off her weariness. Panic was starting to take over.
“How are you so calm?” she asked him.
He gave a wry smile as he stroked her cheek. “Because I’ve trained for this my whole life. Now come and eat. Then we’ll get you ready.”
She followed Dimitri into the kitchen, where everyone was eating protein bars and drinking bottles of water. They were all quiet except for Cody, who was calling out updates on where Vladimir’s car was.
“He’s one mile out, but he stopped alongside the road,” Cody said.
Leo frowned and bent over his laptop. Maxim was pulling a Kevlar vest out of a black duffel bag.
“Eat quickly,” Dimitri urged. Elena hastily chewed on a protein bar and drank a bottle of water, but her stomach churned. She had to concentrate on something else or risk throwing up. Dimitri took the vest from Maxim.
“Come here.” Dimitri led her into the bedroom and helped her remove her sweater, then put the Kevlar vest over her white tank top and covered it with the sweater.
“You will have a backpack with food, water, a space blanket, and a satellite phone. If we get separated, you will have what you need
