Page 45 of Fate and Family

Alana interrupts us. “Ask him which codes he’s already done.”

I scroll through my brother’s phone, trying to deduce what he could have set the code to. Each minute feels like ten years.

“Do you know what codes you already put in?”

Ian’s tiny voice cracks through the speakers. “Mama fell on the board.”

How could she do this? How could she leave her son in a panic room just to die? Why wouldn’t she give him the code to escape? Unless she thought he wasn’t going to be saved. Oh god, she knew her husband was already dead. I can imagine how terrified she must’ve been. What were her last thoughts?

“Are the codes numbers or letters?” Katya asks.

“Numbers,” I answer. “Birthdays, anniversaries would be public knowledge, so he wouldn’t use any of those.”

“What languages were they fluent in?” Alana asks.

“Russian, English, and French,” I reply. At least my sister-in-law was.

Katya sits on the bed. “Were there any words she repeated?”

Ian sniffles. “Snuggles.”

She raises an eyebrow at me, like she’s not sure if she heard it right. I supply the missing piece of information. “Snuggles? It’s a stuffed octopus he used to carry around with him.”

“76844537,” she whispers. “Ian, this is Katya. We met at your grandpa’s party. Remember?”

“Un-huh.” His voice hitches as he says, “Hi.”

“Hi, sweetie. Okay, this is what I want you to do. I want you to find the numbers and press exactly what I say. Are you ready?”

“Uh-huh.”

She takes every number slowly and has him repeat it back to her before he presses each button. The moment he presses the last number, we hear a series of clicks and gears moving, and the door pops open. Alana and the man in black vanish through the door. The hammerhead guy grabs a blanket off the couch and follows behind them as Katya reaches for my hand and squeezes it.

It feels like ten lifetimes, but Alana comes up the stairs with Ian clinging to her. She unhooks the phone from the panel and says, “Target in hand.” She wraps his arms around her neck and presses his head to her shoulder, steps over the injured men, and carries him out the front door and away from the carnage.

The man dressed in black carries a wrapped body and moves out of the frame. The hammerhead man and the man in black follow Alana through the door, pulling it closed behind them. A moment later, it flings back open as the man in black sprints up the stairs. He’s in and out of frames until he reaches Ian’s room. Seconds later, he has a bundle of blankets in his arms and runs back out the front door.

“We’re en route,” a male voice says. And the phone disconnects.

We wait for a few more minutes, watch the hammerhead return, and follow his progress as he shoots Mikhail’s men in the head, dragging their bodies out to the shed in the back, and dumping them one by one. He wipes every room our rescuers were in. The security system reports a fire on the property and asks if we want to report it. I decline. One minute later, there’s a notification that the garage door opens and shuts.

Katya presses her lips to mine and holds me. “Time to pick up your son.”

It’s early, but we flag a cab to drop us off a mile away from the airfield. I look at the sky and watch as the three dots of lights get closer and finally land. The stairs take forever, and I sprint to them. Ian—that’s all I care about. His tiny, tear-stained face contorts as the sobs start all over again. He’s small and pale, and he wet his pants at some point, but he’s here, alive and safe.

Alana is even younger than the screen showed her to be. Beautiful, blonde, and with a face that doesn’t seem to smile. “I have a secondary mission I need to fulfill while I’m here. I need to find the body of Uri Koslov.”

I don’t understand. “His body? He’s not dead, he’s on his way now.”

She furrows her brow and glances around the plane. “What?”

“Uri is my cousin. He and his handler are on their way now.”

The man in black extends his hand. “Small fucking world.” He peers at Ian, who has me in a death grip. “Freaking world.”

But Alana frowns more. “I don’t like it. Too convenient. But I’ll take the win.”

Where’s Katya?

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