Chapter 14
Dubai, present day
Andrei
The night air outside Revenant’s tower tasted like dust and exhaust.
We burst out into the open behind the loading docks in an uneven wave of bodies and guns, boots slamming onto the cracked asphalt. The door slammed shut behind us, muffling the alarms but not silencing them completely.
Above us, the tower loomed, a slab of glass and steel stabbing into the sky, its gleaming facade now smeared with smoke from the server room explosion. On any normal night, it looked untouchable. Tonight, it looked a little wounded and that made me happy.
“Keep moving,” Dmitri snapped, already scanning the perimeter. “They’ll be on us in seconds.”
He wasn’t wrong. Floodlights snapped on along the back of the complex, bathing the loading bay in harsh white light.
A siren system separate from the internal alarms kicked on outside.
Somewhere beyond the concrete barriers, I heard the metallic clatter of weapons and the thud of boots pounding in our direction.
We weren’t out yet.
Not even close.
Kara blew out a breath and checked her weapon. “We need cover. And preferably a car. Or ten.”
“We have cars,” I said. “And cover.”
“Define ‘cover,’” Roman said, flexing his shoulders.
I tilted my chin toward the sky. “Ask her.”
Katya, standing just to my left, already had the controller in hand—if you could call it a controller.
It was a slim tablet device, custom-coded interface, dark screen flaring to life with a quick swipe of her fingers.
She had tied it into the drone guidance system earlier, back at the Markov receiving warehouse.
We’d only had time to prep four drones. Four was enough. It had to be.
Viktor dropped to one knee, bringing up his stolen rifle, eyes narrowing. “Company incoming. Four… no, six.”
Lev shifted to the side, taking up a position behind a rusting shipping container, his movements smooth and economical. “More than six. There’s a full response team swinging around the north side.”
“How close are they?” she asked, not looking away from the screen.
Viktor fired a warning shot toward the sound of approaching guards. “Close enough to be irritating.”
“Sixty meters and closing,” Lev added, voice cool and unshaken.
I looked at her. “You ready?”
She didn’t answer. She didn’t need to.
Katya tapped a command.
Somewhere beyond the edge of the property, four dark shapes lifted into the night sky on whispering rotors. They had been tucked out of sight behind a service shed at the end of the back service road, pre-positioned by one of our main men, Grigor Petrov.
The drones rose like sleek black predators into the sky. Their lights were off. From the ground, they looked like moving shadows. Our tech guy, Demyan Vostrikov had programmed them to work on our command.
“Flight paths locked,” Katya said, voice tight with focus. “Targets assigned.”
“We only get one shot,” I reminded her.
She smirked in my direction. “Then let’s make it spectacular.”
The floodlights along the back wall swung fully toward us as Revenant’s exterior squads that had spilled around the corner made their way toward us, a cluster of armored figures in tactical gear, helmets glinting, rifles raised.
They moved in formation, confident, trained, and utterly convinced they owned this strip of asphalt.
Then the first drone dropped out of the darkness above them.
It cut through the air like a blade, then hovered for a split second over the front of the formation before its payload ignited.
The explosion wasn’t enormous. That wasn’t the point. It was contained, tight, perfectly placed. Fire erupted in a blossom of orange and white, swallowing three of the guards and creating a shockwave that knocked them off their feet and sent them crashing to the ground.
The others staggered, formation broken.
“Beautiful,” Roman breathed, grinning like a lunatic, but it faltered when a cluster of armored vehicles came careening around the corner.
The second drone came in lower, skimming just above the loading dock roofline. Katya had programmed it to track the heat signatures of armed clusters outside of a fifteen-meter radius of her signal, which put the guards coming after us in a really bad situation.
It angled, corrected, and then dove.
The guards who saw it fired too late.
It slammed into the hood of one of their armored vehicles and detonated, flipping the front end into the air. The entire vehicle crashed onto its side, metal screeching as smoke poured out from the shattered engine block. Two more guards went down under the falling wreckage.
Gunfire erupted wildly from the disoriented squad.
“Take cover!” Dmitri barked.
We scattered behind crates, pillars, and an abandoned freight loader. Bullets tore through the air overhead, clipping the side of a container near Kara’s head. She ducked, cursing as she did so.
Lev leaned around his cover, exhaled once, and put a bullet directly through the visor of an advancing guard. The man dropped mid-stride.
“That’s one,” Lev said.
“Well, that’s a start,” Viktor muttered approvingly.
The third drone swung wide, circling toward the building itself. This one wasn’t for guards. It was for a distraction.
Katya’s fingers danced over the tablet. “North face, mid-section. Now this should grab their attention.”
It veered and then surged forward, rotors whining as it picked up speed. It hit the second-story windows and exploded, sending a shower of glass and concrete down onto the ground below. The inside of the building caught fire, licking upward.
The fourth and final drone hovered above us, waiting like a patient vulture.
“Hold that one,” I told her.
“I know,” she said. “I’m not wasting it.”
The guards that remained were disoriented but not entirely out of it. The front line regrouped, shielding their eyes from the smoke. Someone shouted for support.
Dmitri had already begun moving us backward toward the service road. “We can’t stay here,” he said. “We’re too exposed.”
“Limos will be here in ten seconds,” I said. “If the drivers didn’t bail.”
“They won’t,” Viktor said confidently. “I’m sure you paid them well enough.”
Dmitri snorted. “And threatened them well enough, probably.”
“There was some of that,” I admitted.
We reached the edge of the loading bay, where the asphalt dipped into a ramp leading down to a lower service road that curved behind a line of utility buildings.
Headlights cut through the darkness from the far end.
Two long, sleek armored limousines approached. They moved fast, smooth engines humming with expensive restraint.
Roman whistled. “You brought us some pretty toys.”
“I called in a few favors, bribed a few officials, and promised my left kidney,” I said.
The first limo slid to a stop, blocking half the road. The second pulled in behind it, forming a shield.
The drivers didn’t even get out. Smart men.
Gunfire cracked again near the corner of the tower.
Viktor flinched as a bullet whined off the concrete near his ear. “All right,” he said. “Time to go.”
“Not yet,” Katya said.
The commander’s men had regrouped at the top of the loading ramp. A fresh squad was pushing out. There were more than a dozen men this time, helmets down, guns up, moving with lethal intent.
I saw the exact moment they spotted us in the wash from the limo headlights.
“Now,” she said.
She drew a breath, adjusted the angle on the tablet, and sent the last drone careening straight toward the ramp.
It dropped low, hugging the ground, almost invisible in the chaos. The guards didn’t see it.
We did.
It slid over the gravel like a shadow, then zipped upward at the shin level of the front line.
The explosion flared brighter than the others, heat rippling over us even from a distance. The front half of the squad vanished in fire. The rest were thrown backward, their bodies slamming into the wall or each other.
Smoke rolled down the ramp.
Viktor whooped. “That’s my girl.”
Katya shot him a glare that didn’t quite hide the satisfaction burning in her eyes.
Lev nodded once. “Effective.”
“We’re done here,” Dmitri said. “Get in.”
Kara opened the door of the first limo and dove inside, sliding across the leather. Lev followed, smooth and economical, checking his gun even as he moved.
Viktor gave me a look. “Which one?”
“You, Katya, and me in the second,” I said. “Kara and the Markovs in the first. Split the risk.”
“And if one gets hit?” he asked.
“Then we improvise.”
He grinned. “Story of our lives.”
Katya paused beside me. “You coming?”
“In a second,” I said. “Go.”
She hesitated for a heartbeat. Then nodded and slid into the second limo. Viktor ducked in behind her.
Roman bolted for the first limo, where Kara and Lev were already waiting. “Come on, pretty boy,” he called to Dmitri. “I’d like to live long enough to traumatize people with this story.”
Dmitri gave him a flat look but moved, climbing in beside them without a word.
I made one last sweep of the yard.
The tower burned in patches. Alarm lights pulsed on every side, like a wounded animal lit up from within. Bodies lay scattered at the top of the ramp.
“Go,” Dmitri snapped.
I dove into the limo with Viktor and Katya and slammed the door.
Both vehicles peeled away almost in unison, tires spitting gravel, engines snarling as the drivers took us down the narrow service road and then out onto a wider lane that hugged the outer fence.
Shots rang out behind us, pinging off reinforced panels. Neither car slowed.
I twisted to look out the rear window.
Revenant’s tower diminished into the increasing distance, smoke spilling from its side, the drone’s handiwork etched into its perfect face. The facility that once made me feel like a gnat under a magnifying glass now looked… mortal.
Broken.
I sank back against the leather seat, chest still tight, adrenaline still burning a hole through my composure.
For a long moment, none of us spoke.