She nodded and Lance left. He bought a small bottle of vodka and some Coke.

When he got back to the sleeper, the lights were out and the women were lying in their beds, their blankets pulled up over them.

“I get it,” Lance said, leaving the vodka and coke on the foldout table.

He went back to the bar and ordered a beer.

He sat and watched the last lights of Yekaterinburg go by. Before long, there was nothing out the window but blackness.

He thought about Laurel.

He knew the kind of place they’d have taken her. He also knew the kinds of things they would be doing to her.

This was the first chance he’d had to stop and think. And all he could think of was Laurel and what was happening to her.

If he could have willed the train to go faster, he would have.

He’d just finished his beer when the train started slowing down for its first stop. It was the city of Pervouralsk, not far from Yekaterinburg. The conductor said they would be there for fifteen minutes so Lance got off the train and found a pay phone on the platform.

He called Levi’s secure line and prayed he wasn’t redirected.

“Lance?” Levi said.

“I never thought I’d be so happy to hear that voice,” Lance said.

“What have you got for me?” Levi said.

“The lab’s destroyed. Whatever samples they had have been incinerated.”

“Okay,” Levi said. “That’s good work.”

“What about Laurel?” Lance said. “What have you got?”

“We think we might have something. We tracked Timokhin. He’s been visiting a secluded shed in the middle of a forest.”

“Where is it?”

“North of Moscow.”

“Okay,” Lance said. “Listen. I’m on the train. We just left Yekaterinburg. It won’t be in Moscow until tomorrow night.”

“I don’t think she has that long,” Roth said.

“Neither do I,” Lance said.

“You’re going to have to risk the airport.”

“What do we know about the shed?” Lance said. “Do we have confirmation Laurel’s there?”

“No. We only know that Timokhin’s traveled there. It looks consistent with the type of place they’d hold someone though.”

“Can you give me the coordinates?”

Roth read out the coordinates and Lance memorized them.

“Are there any flights from Pervouralsk to Moscow tonight?” Lance said.

“I’m checking. Yes. There’s one. But you’ll have to be fast. It leaves in ninety minutes. If you catch that you’ll be in Moscow before morning.”

Lance hung up and got back on the train. He went to the sleeper and began writing a note on some scrap paper. Sofia turned on the light.

“What are you doing?” she said.

“I have to go.”

“What are you talking about?”

He wrote down the name of a hotel in Moscow.

“I’ll meet you at this hotel,” he said.