They crept silently down the corridor, staying low and stopping at each window to check for soldiers. Inside the last lab, they saw the bodies of two researchers on the ground, blood all over their white lab coats.

“Monsters,” Sofia said.

“Come on,” Lance whispered.

He reached the corner and carefully peered around it. There were two soldiers standing there, talking to each other and smoking.

“Wait here,” Lance said, pulling a knife from a holster at his waist.

Silently, he crept up to the first man, staying very low. He rose up behind him and in a single motion, slid the blade over his throat. The man jerked, letting out a barely audible gasp. The second soldier reached for the gun at his waist but only in time for the knife to spin twice and strike him in the eye.

Lance crouched back down and scanned the corridor.

Everything remained silent.

“Come on,” he whispered, reclaiming his knife from the soldier’s eye socket.

They stopped outside the server room and carefully opened the door. The room was empty.

“Watch the corridor,” Lance said to Vasily.

Lance went inside and placed the explosives. When he came back out he said, “Is this all the computer data?”

Sofia nodded. “All our research is locked down here. The servers are completely isolated. Impossible to hack.”

“There’s someone coming,” Vasily said.

Lance drew his gun. Another two guards were rounding the corner from the direction of the elevator. They saw the bodies on the ground and were about to raise the alarm when a silenced bullet hit each of them in the head.

63

“What floor is the virus on?” Lance said.

Sofia answered. “Second floor, main lab.”

Lance turned to Vasily. “Are any of your team still on that floor?”

“None,” he said. “They rounded us up and brought us to the office as soon as they arrived. They thought we would sabotage the strains.”

“So what will we find there?”

“All the live strains of the virus,” Sofia said. “They’re in special isolation pods. We have to destroy them or all of this is for nothing.”

“How can we destroy them? I can’t just blow them up.”

“No,” Sofia gasped. “Each pod is equipped with its own incinerator. If you can get me to the pods, I can trigger them manually.”

Vasily nodded. “The science team from Moscow has been examining the isolation pods since they got here. They’re extremely wary of opening them.”

“They’re better trained than Yevchenko’s previous team then,” Sofia said.

Vasily nodded. “From what I could gather, they haven’t removed any of the live strains yet.”

“What about soldiers?” Lance said.

“Yes, they’re being watched by soldiers.”

“Like we always were,” Sofia said.

Vasily nodded.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Lance said. “You two are going to go join Olga. I’ll trigger the incinerators myself.”

“What?” Vasily said. “We can’t leave you here.”