The world outside was a black-and-white nightmare, a blur of snow and dark pines.
The stolen Volvo's engine screamed, a high-pitched cry of protest against the abuse. In the rearview mirror, the headlights of the two pursuing cars were a pair of glowing, predatory eyes. They were wolves, and they were closing in.
"They're gaining!" Murat yelled from the back, his voice tight with panic. He was clutching Ivan, trying to shield the wounded man from the violent lurching of the car.
These weren't thugs. Thugs would have just started shooting.
These were hunters.
One of the cars, a big, black sedan, pulled up alongside them. Its tires spat snow and ice against Kato's window. It was herding them, nudging them closer and closer to the soft shoulder of the road, where a deep, snow-filled ravine lay hidden in the darkness.
The other car hung back, a shadow cutting off any chance of retreat. It was a classic funneling tactic. A kill zone.
A window on the sedan rolled down. The square, black snout of a submachine gun poked out, a promise of sudden, violent death.
Before the first muzzle flash could light up the night, Pavel moved.
He didn't swerve away. He didn't try to outrun them.
He slammed on the brakes and wrenched the steering wheel hard to the left.
The Volvo screamed. It broke traction, entering a perfect, controlled 180-degree spin on the sheet ice. For one insane, suspended moment, they were sliding backwards, nose-to-nose with their attacker.
Pavel already had his pistol out.
The sound of two gunshots was deafening inside the car, a sharp, flat CRACK-CRACK that made Kato's ears ring.
The pursuing car's windshield didn't just crack. It exploded inward in a shower of glittering fragments. The driver's head snapped back, and the car veered sharply, its headlights carving a wild arc through the trees before it plowed headfirst into a thick snowbank with a dull, final thud.
One down.
"Are you insane?!" Murat screamed from the back, his voice cracking with terror. "What are you doing?!"
Pavel ignored him. The spin had bled off their momentum, but he was already correcting, slamming the car back into gear. He accelerated forward again, peering through the new spiderweb of cracks on their own windshield.
Kato understood with a chilling, terrifying clarity. He wasn't trying to escape. He was fighting.
His cold, brutal, weapon's logic had calculated the odds of escape and found them wanting. The only path to survival was the total annihilation of the threat. The predator had decided to become the hunter.
The second car, seeing its partner neutralized, became more cautious. It hung back, its headlights a constant, menacing presence in their mirror.
But it was too late to be cautious.
Up ahead, a dark shape loomed across the road. A massive pine tree, its trunk as thick as a man's chest, had been felled, completely blocking their path.
The trap.
Pavel stomped on the brakes, and the Volvo skidded to a halt just feet from the barricade. They were cornered.
Fifty yards behind them, the last pursuing car stopped. Its high beams flared, pinning them in a harsh, white glare, a terrified animal caught in a spotlight.
"We're finished," Murat whispered. It was both a prayer and a curse. "This is it."
Doors on the other car opened. Four dark figures, tall and lean, emerged. They were armed with rifles, and they began to advance slowly, methodically, their shapes black silhouettes against the blinding lights.
Kato looked at Pavel.
His face was perfectly calm. A chilling mask of calculation in the glare of the high beams. He looked back at her, his eyes asking the silent question. Not what he should do. But if he was permitted to do it.
He was waiting for his order.
All the fear, all the desperation, all the panic—it burned away inside her. It left nothing behind but the cold, hard fire of a cornered animal. The queen of a fallen kingdom, with only one piece left on the board.
She gave the only order that made sense.
"Kill them," she said, her voice quiet, but as sharp and cold as the shattered glass of the windshield.
"Kill them all."
Pavel didn't nod. He didn't speak. He just reacted.
He killed their engine and their lights in a single, fluid motion, plunging them into absolute, shocking darkness.
Before Kato's eyes could even adjust, he had slipped out of his door and vanished into the shadows of the forest. He made no sound.
The four men faltered, suddenly faced with an empty, dark car. Their flashlight beams cut nervous, jerky paths through the trees. They were hunting something they could no longer see.
A single, muffled shot cracked from the darkness to their right.
One of the flashlight beams winked out, its owner collapsing into the snow with a surprised grunt.
Panic erupted. "Contact!" one of them yelled.
They started firing wildly into the trees, muzzle flashes turning the forest into a terrifying, strobing slide show of violence and shadow. They were shooting at ghosts.
Another shot, this one from the left. A different sound. A rifle crack. He was using their own weapons against them. Another man screamed, a high, thin sound that was cut short.
Kato and Murat were huddled below the dashboard, the world reduced to sound. The frantic shouts of the hunters. The methodical, single shots of the predator. The horrifying screams.
Then, silence.
The only sound left was the wind whispering through the pines and the hum of the enemy car's engine. Its headlights still blazed, illuminating an empty, snow-covered road.
The silence stretched on, deeper and more terrifying than the gunfire had been. One second. Ten. Thirty.
Then, a single shadow detached itself from the trees.
It stepped into the high beams.
It was Pavel. He was untouched. He held his pistol in one hand and a captured rifle in the other. His face and hands were smeared with something dark that wasn't mud.
He walked calmly towards their car, a beast returning from a successful hunt.
And Kato knew, with a sudden, soul-freezing certainty, that her lie to Nicolai had been wrong.
She didn't have a leash for this monster. She only had a direction to point it in.