Chapter 55

Kiana and Christine followed Olivia down a long, narrow hallway, then up a metal staircase. About two flights up they heard an explosion in the distance. It had come from outside of the building, but clearly from somewhere inside Voronov’s compound. A second after they heard the explosion, all of the lights inside the building went out.

“What was that?” Kiana asked. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Olivia said.

“I have a good idea,” Christine said. They both turned to look at her so she continued. “It was your dad. He loves to blow things up. On one mission in Siberia a few years back he blew up an entire tanker truck. It was so loud it deafened me for about fifteen minutes.”

“What is he doing?”

“I bet the minute we were captured he started devising a plan to rescue us. If I know him, he probably found a way inside the compound, took out several of the guards, then blew up a building as a distraction. He’s probably trying to locate us right now.”

Christine knew Michael well and her description was practically spot on. In reality, what he had done was this: he had found a large drainage pipe along the compound’s southernmost edge and had climbed through it to get into the compound without being seen. From there, he had made his way along the compound’s southernmost edge, ducking behind buildings as needed, and one-by-one he had started eliminating any guard who had come near. Much to his delight, one of them had had a grenade in his pocket, so he had taken it from him. He had then made his way to the holding pen with the bizarre creatures inside, had opened its gate, and had let them loose. To further distract the guards and to eliminate the compound’s security cameras, access gates, and electronic locks, he had made his way to the compound’s main power generator and had blown it up with the grenade he had taken from the guard.

Kiana, Christine, and Olivia continued up the staircase, which was somewhat challenging in the dark, and they finally reached the building’s ground floor which was a laboratory of some sort. Most of the laboratory’s technicians and assistants had already started heading for the building’s main exit, no doubt curious to see what was happening outside. As such, the room was largely empty as they made their way across it. Unfortunately, however, they were forced to come to a quick halt as they spotted one notable exception. Unlike the rest of the people, who were heading for the room’s exits, there was one man who was heading directly for them. It was Voronov’ assistant, Dimitri. His eyes filled with surprise and disbelief as he saw that Olivia was leading Kiana and Christine forward.

“Olivia. What are you doing? What is the meaning of this?”

Olivia smiled. “Sorry, Dimitri. I work for the good guys.”

Immediately upon hearing her response, his eyes filled with rage and it was clear he could not believe he had been fooled (and betrayed) by Olivia. With a roar of frustration he charged forward.

Olivia turned to Kiana and Christine. “This guy is bad news. Big time. We must work together to beat him.”

It began less than a second later and it was a fight for the ages. Kiana, Olivia, and Christine spread to the sides in an attempt to surround him and confront him all at once. They had him outnumbered and they hoped to overwhelm him but he was a warrior of exceptional skill, a cold-blooded killer who would do anything necessary to win a fight. Kiana had never faced anyone (including Master Gwon) who was as fast or as powerful. Every part of his body, including his fists, felt like it was made of metal. The four of them battled from one side of the room to the other, exchanging kicks, punches, and other attacks of all types, including a nasty elbow that grazed the side of Kiana’s head. Twice Dimitri managed to sweep her feet out from under her and knock her to the ground, and once he did it to Olivia. Despite knocking them down on occasion, however, he was never able to finish them off for every time he tried to get at one of them he was confronted by the other two. At one point, Christine jumped forward and punched him straight in the face, then kicked him in the stomach. Unlike Kiana and Olivia, Christine did not know much taekwondo, but her fighting skills were amazing anyway and she had clearly been in several fights in the past, maybe even some that were similar to this. So what she lacked in technical skill she made up for with experience, grit, strength, and sheer determination. Unfortunately, however, her blows were only powerful enough to stun Dimitri temporarily and the fight resumed from there. They made their way back across the room, a complete blur of motion, and for a brief second it looked like they had actually gained the upper hand on him. Olivia tried to kick Dimitri with a roundhouse, and in the time it took him to deflect her kick, Kiana took him down with a sweep. He fell onto his knees and Christine pounced on him from behind. She got him in a chokehold that would have squeezed the life out of a normal person. Unfortunately, however, Dimitri wasn’t a normal person and using his enormous, Herculean strength he was somehow able to lift Christine up and flip her completely over him. She landed hard on the ground, flat on her back, directly in front of him. He immediately jumped on top of her and punched her twice in the side of the head. He would have hit her a third time but Olivia knocked him away with a kick to the side.

Unfortunately, the damage was done. Christine was still conscious, but barely, and she wasn’t getting up.

As such, it was up to Kiana and Olivia. The two of them, newfound sisters, were going to have to finish this fight by themselves.

From there, the intensity turned up a notch. Kiana and Olivia were both worried, for their chances of winning the fight had decreased with the loss of Christine, and they were getting more and more desperate as the seconds raced by. The fight had already gone on for several minutes and they were tiring rapidly, and they did not know how much longer they could hold out against such a strong, powerful foe. Regardless, they had no choice but to fight on, and Kiana managed to land several good kicks, as did Olivia, and Dimitri started to stagger to one side. Olivia hit him again, this time with a punch to his left temple, and for a brief second he looked like he might go down. But then, much to their surprise he lunged out with one hand, grabbed Olivia by the throat, and pulled her toward him. With his other hand, he grabbed her by the top of her head, and as he got a good grip on her Kiana realized what he was going to do.

He was going to break her neck.

At that point, Kiana remembered the day, which now seemed so long ago, when she had been at the USIA training facility in Nevada. She had been sparring against Smitty, Jamie, and Jennie, and Jennie had won the fight by grabbing Kiana by the ponytail and pulling her to the ground. Kiana had been furious and had claimed Jennie had cheated, but Master Gwon had corrected her and had told her that when you were in the field and you were fighting for your life, there was no such thing as cheating. In the field, people did anything, no matter how dirty or unfair, in order to survive.

Kiana had decided to do the same. To save her sister, she was going to do whatever was necessary.

It was the most powerful snap kick she had ever thrown. And since Dimitri had both hands on Olivia, he had no way to block it.

It hit him right between the legs.

His entire face went pale immediately upon impact, his eyes glazed over, and he dropped to his knees. As he fell, Olivia pulled herself free and scrambled away. She and Kiana raced over to Christine, helped her up (she was slowly starting to recover but was still unable to stand on her own), and raced for the building’s exit. They stopped briefly as they heard a scream behind them, then looked back to see Dimitri, who was still on the ground where he had fallen (with his hands between his legs). The creature that had once been Zander was on top of him. Apparently, it had made its way up the same staircase they had used and had entered the room just a few seconds ago. It had immediately gone for the nearest available prey, which had been the fallen Dimitri (thank goodness they had defeated him when they had; otherwise it would have gone for Christine). Kiana’s eyes filled with shock as the creature killed Dimitri, then started to devour him right there on the spot. Within seconds, blood was everywhere.

“Let’s get out of here,” Olivia said.

She didn’t have to say it twice.