So Andrej sat through the wake and the memorial service and then the burial. He said his prayers and gave his condolences. He hugged Mariya and told her Misha was proud of her. He looked Anton straight in the eyes and shook his hand and he realized, much to his surprise, that he wasn’t afraid of his old teacher anymore. Didn’t want to take him on, maybe, but that bone-deep childhood terror was gone. Apparently, watching your best friend, your brother, face down an antitank missile without a blink of fear put things in a different perspective.

He walked away, then, black duffel bag slung across his back, over the green lawn, between the lines of headstones, to disappear in one of the cemetery’s shady groves—and that was where the NSA agents watching the proceedings lost him.

A few minutes later, a young man dressed casually in jeans and a graphic T-shirt strolled past the office building at the east side of the grounds and out of the gate. There was a small gravel parking lot across the street, framed by trees and bushes, and he made his way over there to a beat-up pickup truck parked beside a muscle car.

Kolya was leaning against the muscle car, looking too cool for his pants, as usual.

Two very familiar men were leaning against the truck, comfortably close, matching cat-got-the-cream smiles on their handsome faces. They looked like they’d gotten laid very recently and the sex had been pretty damn fantastic. Lucky bastards.

“Yes,” Andrej said wryly, “it was a beautiful service. I think the wailing women were paid by your mother, though. Also, your sister is all kinds of scary.”

Misha beamed at him. “She’s taking over?”

“Like a boss,” Andrej confirmed. He slipped the duffel bag off his shoulder. “Got something for you,” he said, and tossed Misha his guns.

Goddamn if Misha didn’t coo at them like an idiot. Riley rolled his eyes, pretending not to be charmed by his antics. Andrej smirked and reached into his bag again, this time to fish out a 1994 Heckler & Koch pistol. He tossed Riley his father’s gun and laughed at him when he almost dropped it in surprise, only to have his fingers close around the grip all by themselves.

“I can’t believe you fuckers swam an underground river all the way to Carlsbad,” he grumbled as they stashed the weapons in the back of the truck. “This kind of shit doesn’t happen in real life.”

“I can’t believe Kolya knew where to go to fish us out,” Misha threw back over his shoulder, trying to fit his guns in with the rest of the arsenal.

“I did most of the heavy lifting,” Riley reminded him, a flash of silver in his eyes and his pitch a bit off, just enough to make Andrej shudder and think that he was never going to get used to McClane.

“Augh,” he muttered. “Shut up, I’m not talking to you, you’re creepy.”