Page 77 of Stars

Black smoke billowed from the medical school courtyard, mixing with shouts and cries and the ringing of old fire alarm bells. Men and women screamed in Russian, and students and professors milled in the courtyard, rubbernecking a blaze consuming one of the slender faculty townhomes.

“It’s Dr. Sevastyanov’s!” Jack shouted. “We have to—”

Ethan collared Jack, holding him back from running up the steps of the home as a fireball blew out the windows. Glass rained down on the crowd, and the onlookers scattered, screaming. Across Tomsk, the wail of police and fire engines rose. “Jack, don’t!” Ethan shouted. “It’s not safe!”

“We have to see if she’s alive!”

“I’ll go.” Ilya shouldered past, pulling off his coat and covering his mouth and nose before jogging up Dr. Sevastyanov’s front steps. Her flower pots, the carefully tended blooms and bulbs, were shattered and toppled over, mountains of dirt and trampled petals scattered on her stoop.

“I’m going with him.” Jack shook Ethan off and ran to catch up, Ethan chasing Jack.

They followed Ilya into Dr. Sevastyanov’s house, Pete and Blake hot on their heels. Smoke clung to the walls and the ceiling, thick and hot, scratching at their lungs with every coughing gasp. Jack dropped to a crouch, Ethan at his side, and they trailed Ilya as he crab-walked through the foyer.

“Jack!” Ilya shouted. His voice was muffled by his coat. Through the haze, Jack saw him wave and beckon to them. In moments, his figure was lost in the smoke again. Jack pushed on, ducking his head and pulling his shirt up to cover his mouth and nose. His eyes watered and ran, rivers cascading down his face as he tried to blink away the burning smoke.

His foot hit something soft. He looked down.

He saw a delicate foot inside a high-heeled shoe, a thin leather ankle strap wrapping around a slender leg.

“She’s dead!” Ilya roared, suddenly right beside him, grabbing Jack’s shoulder. “She’s gone!”

“What happened?” Was it the fire? Was it the smoke? They could drag her out, get her breathing again—

“Someone murdered her!” Ilya stabbed his finger in the center of Jack’s forehead, then twice in his chest. “She’s shot!”

Sirens blared outside, police and fire arriving in the university’s courtyard. Swirling lights strobed against the gloom, almost dancing in the darkness.

“Fuck,” Ilya spat. “Hurry, crawl straight ahead and to the left. Head through the kitchen to the back door. The smoke clears once you pass through this room.”

The smoke couldn't get any worse. Jack’s lungs were cramping, barely working, struggling to drag any molecules of oxygen from the toxic haze. “Ilya—”

“Go!” Ilya roared. “You can’t be found here! Go now!” He shoved Jack’s shoulder and pushed him over Katina Sevastyanov’s body. Jack landed flat on top of her, his face pressed to the warm, wet side of her cheek, smeared in blood and bits of brain and gritty bone.

Ethan grabbed him and hauled him forward through the haze and toward a break in the smoke. Pete and Blake followed, the sound of their hacking rising over Jack and surrounding him, like waves pounding on his skull. Dizzy, he slumped forward, but Ethan caught him and scooped him off his feet.

Everything was a blur: Ethan’s wide, worried eyes gazing down at him as they stumbled out of Dr. Sevastyanov’s home. Coughing. Pete and Blake spitting as they jogged in zigzagging lines down the dark Tomsk alley.

Sirens rang inside Jack’s skull until squealing tires screamed to a stop behind them.

“Get in!” Welby hissed. “We have to get out of here, now!”

* * *

22

Earth’s Orbit

“Status check?”Mark’s voice rang over the radio, his words mixed with faint static, the hiss of the space-to-space radio.

“Nearly finished,” Sarah said. “I’ll be able to separate the warhead from the missile in an hour.”

“How’s your O2?”

“Tank is at 60 percent. I’ve got another four hours.”

“Excellent.”

Sasha watched Mark rise up the side of the satellite, his SAFER jet pack blasting small puffs of exhaust behind him. Mark was distorted through Sasha’s fishbowl EMU suit helmet, nothing more than a giant blob of white against the infinite blackness of space. He was impossible to miss.