TODAY

Moscow, Russia

Olesya stepped into the dark, stale armory and found Ark and Val already inside, cigarettes glowing between their lips as they muttered to each other while the armorer wrote down the items they withdrew.

Having grown up alongside the brother and sister, they'd become like a brother and sister to her as well. The three of them had come a long way since their training in Project GATE. Their teenage years were long gone, even the special forces soldiers they passed in the corridors looked younger. Now, Olesya's team was assigned to hunt the very operatives they were supposed to become.

Olesya shed her charcoal coat and folded it over the table. 'What's the brief?'

'Three operatives in Moscow,' Val said. 'They're on the move.'

Olesya picked up her thin bullet-resistant gel vest. It comprised layers of Kevlar and a type of liquid that hardened on impact.

'That's one each,' Ark said.

Val tucked a curl of dark hair behind her ear. 'Still more than we're used to.'

Olesya removed her shirt and slipped the vest over her head, then fastened the straps across her stomach. At barely two kilograms, it didn't weigh her down like Kevlar, yet it could absorb knife attacks, most rounds—including armor-piercing—without crushing her ribs or lungs.

'When was the last time we had three in our backyard at once?' Val picked one of the new pistols, a polymer Strizh chambered with seventeen 9mm rounds. It was angular like a Glock, except for the grooves on the slide that looked like shark's gills.

'They're getting more confident,' Ark said.

Olesya considered her options for a moment.

'Whoa, hold up a sec,' Val said. 'Olesya might actually try something different.'

Olesya picked out her favorite, the Gyurza—Russian for blunt-nosed viper—an ultra-compact pistol from the early '90s. It was small and shiny in her hand, with a tapered barrel that never snagged on her clothing. Despite its size, the Gyurza carried eighteen armor-piercing rounds.

Ark exhaled cigarette smoke. 'And hell might freeze over.'

'That happened already.' Olesya took three magazines and loaded one. She fed a round into the chamber and pulled the slide just enough to see the glint of brass inside, then holstered it under her arm.

Val and Ark were competing over who got to choose the non-lethal weapons on the table. Typically, that was decided by a game of Rock Paper Scissors — or as they called it, Assassin, Drone, Suicide Bomber.

Val's hand closed into a fist with a thumb nestled between her fingers, while Ark's remained flat, with his little finger and forefinger tucked underneath to mimic the shape of an arrowhead.

'You cruise, you lose,' Val said.

'How does a suicide bomber beat a drone, anyway?' Olesya asked.

'Easy. The drone can't kill what it can't see,' Val said.

'That might be the worst explanation I've ever heard,' she said. 'And I've heard Ark explain hot yoga.'

'Fortunately I missed that one,' Val said.

'But you are fighting over a Glue Gun.'

'Firstly, we call it the Ejaculator,' Ark said. 'And secondly ... OK, there's no secondly.'

Val gave Ark the sort of look that a sister occasionally gives her brother when she can't believe she's related to him, then took the Ejaculator and clipped it to her belt.

Olesya turned her attention to the knives section. She secreted a fling knife on her thigh and a survival knife inside her boot. On her belt, she holstered her combat knife, a Kizlyar Raven with a glass-breaker on its hilt. She almost forgot the compact titanium prybar, which she slipped inside her boot.

She put her shirt back on and clipped the radio unit to her belt. Then she shoved the near-invisible earpiece a little too far down her ear canal. All that was left were two sticky cams and her allowance of Russian currency. The amount had increased since the Fifth Column launched sanctions against Russia. She slipped the bills into her navy blue wallet along with her false identification for the FSB—Federal Security Bureau.

'Do you mind explaining why you're smoking in the only room you're not allowed to smoke?' Illarion said, from behind Olesya.

He was cleanly shaven today, which usually meant he'd received a visit from his superior. His steel-gray hair looked slightly more silver.

Looking down his pointed nose at Ark's cigarette, he said, 'By all means, feel free to continue your game while the clock is ticking.'

Behind Illarion was his recently assigned assistant, an intelligence officer by the name of Gleb. He had short, sandy hair and he blinked a lot. Olesya hadn't met him before, but he seemed excessively polite.

Ark crushed the cigarette under his boot. 'We're ready to move.'

'I'll expect you to clean that up later,' Illarion said, 'if you live through this operation.'

Val quickly took the Ejaculator before Ark could pinch it. She clipped it to her belt. Ark begrudgingly took the explosives detector instead.

Gleb extended his hand to Olesya. 'It's an honor to meet you, ma'am,' he said. 'I've read all about the Snow Maiden.'

Val cleared her throat. 'I wouldn't call her that.'

'Olesya is fine,' she said.

Gleb looked away. 'I'm very sorry.'

Olesya picked up one more item. She chose it every time and thankfully no one fought her for it. A black aluminum flashlight-sized device, the NetGun fired a lightweight tensile steel net, wrapping its target at a range of twenty meters and optionally delivering repeated electric shocks, subduing the target until they could be captured and removed. For every deployment, Olesya kept the electric shock enabled.

She pulled her charcoal coat back on and closed the studs to her neck.

Illarion led them to the garage for their transport. 'Gleb identified three operatives in Moscow yesterday. They went to ground overnight but they're on the move again.'

'What do they have planned?' Olesya asked.

'We don't know yet,' Gleb walked fast to keep up with her. 'Facial recognition tech is by no means foolproof, but these operatives came in at a seventy-percent match.'

'That's not enough to go on,' Val said from behind.

Gleb was quick to respond. 'Certainly, but in this case we matched the cluster of three operatives all together.' He handed Olesya a print of their low-resolution faces recorded from CCTV cameras.

Olesya looked at them. 'A little more than a coincidence.'

'It's unprecedented,' Illarion said.

Two females, one male. Olesya only cared about two things. Was the male operative her brother, Zakhar? No. Maybe they were other operatives she knew from Firebird Squad. What if the male was Damien or Jay? She wondered if they were still alive. If they were, it was possible she might encounter them again. And she would have to stop them, just like every other operative.

Hopefully not today, she thought.

She inspected the print closely. The woman stood side-on. She had straight black hair and wide eyes. There was a slight possibility this woman was Xiu.

Any operative out there could be Xiu.

Olesya tucked the thought away and handed the print to Val as they entered the garage, an underground level lined with an assortment of shiny armored cars and more commonplace sedans and bikes. It was loud and bright. The clamor of elite Zaslon soldiers—ultra-black Russian special operations—made her stomach knot. They were assigned to support her operation and that only happened when the situation was bad.

Illarion escorted them toward a three-door Lada Fora 4x4. It was silver and had seen better days.

'Don't engage until the operatives have separated,' Illarion said. 'Take them one by one.'

'Sure, but they might have other plans,' Olesya said.

On her left, two groups of Zaslon soldiers tucked themselves into white vans. They were staying mobile, a short distance from Olesya's team in case things went very wrong, but their essential purpose was to collect captured operatives.

'Once you take the operatives down,' Illarion said, 'keep moving and let our Zaslon teams transport them. Don't waste time. You need to capture as many of these operatives as possible.'

'Something tells me they aren't just going to shoot a politician and call it a day.'

Ark opened the back door to the Fora and climbed in. 'Not if we get there first.'

Val looked at Gleb for a moment, seemed about to say something, then climbed in after her brother.

'What about the rest of your team?' Gleb asked.

Olesya climbed in beside them. 'We are the team.'

Gleb stared at her. 'Don't you have full teams?'

'We did,' Olesya said. 'They were killed.'

***

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Nathan