Maybe he had found her, buried within himself.

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” Yeah, that. Because maybe he wasn’t the villain, but the hero.

Somewhere above, a crash sounded. One of the drones, maybe, finding open space. But it made Sergei glance up.

That’s all Colt needed. “Don’t think so, Petrov.”

He found his feet, and as the drones fell around him, propelled himself at Sergei.

A shot went off, resounding in his ears as his body collided with Sergei’s.

Then they both hit the floor.

SIXTEEN

Sergei was going to kill Colt.

But Tae couldn’t watch the fight. Ever since Colt had launched himself at Sergei, she had focused on one thing.

Get to the computer.

She’d scooted around the edge of the room, nearly on her stomach, going from workbench to tires to table to finally getting on her feet and ducking behind a toolbox.

Right about then, she’d heard Colt howl, and deep inside she knew—just knew—he was having a heart attack. Or bleeding out. Or maybe Sergei would just shoot him and—

Stop! She was what-iffing herself right into a panic attack. Writing the end of the story with a dire conclusion.

Focus. Get to the computer.

The sound of the grunts and gasps and smacks that could only mean crunching bones from the fight could crumple her, but she searched for the computer and spied it on the workbench where Sergei left it.

If she shut down the program, the drones would land, stop deploying the toxin, and then, at least, they could contain it before one broke through a window.

And leeched the virus out into the world.

Because that’s why she was here. She couldn’t fight men like Colt could, but she could fight the evil they created.

She tuned out another terrible growl of pain from Colt and scrabbled over to the computer. Opened it.

The program was still running, twelve minutes left.

The drones would escape long before then.

As if confirming her fears, another drone hit a window, cracking it. The drone bounced off, however, toward the ceiling, slamming hard and dropping.

It shattered onto the floor.

She reached up to grab the computer, pulled it down to her lap, but a drone swung down, near her head. She screamed, ducked, and the computer fell on the floor.

No! Scooping it up, she crawled with it under a table, the drones buzzing like wasps around her.

She opened the computer.

The screen had locked.

Of course it had locked. Because just when she thought—

“Saving the world is not your responsibility. That doesn’t belong to any of us. Our job is just to do our part.”

Okay, yes. Think, Tae. She bit back a sound of frustration and typed in Sergei’s name.

Nothing.

Tried her name.

Nothing.

Think. She closed her eyes.