He took a rope and grappling hook from his backpack and began swinging the hook.

Laurel followed his lead and did the same.

“You sure you’re up for this?” he said to her.

She gritted her teeth and nodded.

“Your shoulders were hurt during the interrogation.”

“I’m not going back now, Lance.”

“You’re acting on emotion,” he said.

She made to say something but instead, swung her hook three times and let go, sending it in a high arc over the parapets of the Senatskaya Tower above them.

“See you on the other side,” she said, and leapt.

She arced through the air, flying over a thin stretch of trees and shrubs, and landed solidly against the Kremlin’s outer wall, stopping herself with her feet.

Immediately, she began climbing the rope toward the top of the tower.

Lance swung his rope over the parapet next to hers and followed her.

She was waiting for him on the tower’s turret. She reached down to help him over the wall. He looked at her. There was a mischievous grin on her face.

“Too proud to accept help from a girl?”

He grabbed her arm and let her pull him up.

“You all right?” she said.

“I’m fine, Laurel.”

“You want some help with the next jump?”

“I think I’ll manage.”

“I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

“All right, Laurel.”

“I mean, I’m only looking out for you because I care.”

“I get it, Laurel.”

“You don’t like it either.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“No you didn’t.”

They pulled up their ropes and rounded the turret. From its height, they could see out across the Ivanovskaya Square toward the Dormition Cathedral and the Patriarch’s Palace.

Soldiers from the elite Presidential Regiment were on patrol but it was clear from their bearing that the alarm hadn’t been triggered.

“All clear,” Laurel said.

Lance nodded and flung his rope across the gap separating the tower from the senate building. The hook caught onto the eave of the dome and he tested it before making the leap. He swung across the gap, sixty feet above the courtyard, and as soon as he reached the wall, the hook lost purchase and slipped a few feet to a lower ledge. He dropped about three feet and had to catch onto the railing of a balcony and pull himself onto it. At that very moment, the hook lost purchase again and fell past him to the stone ground, where it clanged loudly.

He looked up at Laurel who was still on the tower’s turret. She gave him a thin smile then flung her hook higher onto the dome, where there was a more substantial ledge for it to grab onto.

She swung across the gap and climbed safely to the domed roof. Then she brought her rope over Lance’s balcony and let him use it to join her.