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On the shore of that lake

She shook her head There had been no need to hunt down Dr Polk He’d been dead already

Lights appeared ahead

It gloith the hope for a brighter future

The heart of Operation Saturn

3:15 PM

"They’re planning on doing what?" Monk said, a bit too loudly as he walked alongside the riverbank

He and the kids had been walking alongside the churning river for the past hour It was not the same ay as where they’d encountered the bear Monk had forded that turbulent strea a series of boulders and followed it down to this larger river, buried in a dense fir forest Monk had studied the topographicthe watershed that drained the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains On the western side, the Urals shed their rainwater and snowmelt into the Caspian Sea; on this side, it all flowed into a region of massive rivers and hundreds of lakes, all of which eventually emptied into the Arctic Ocean

What the Russians were planning…

Shock had rung in his voice

Konstantin winced at his sharpness

"I’ voices traveled far in the mountains He had been the one to warn the children to speak only in whispers He obeyed his own rule now, though his voice was still strained "Even with the hole inis madness"

"They will succeed," Konstantin countered y We"--he waved to Pyotr and Kiska, then in a generalthe other children like hiround coed probable outcolobal data, studied environmental impact, and extrapolated end results It is far from madness"

Monk listened to the boy He sounded ain, Monk remembered the cold steel behind Konstantin’s ear They all had theical steel buried in the fur behind her ear During the past hour, Konstantin had also used the time to demonstrate his skill at calculations The mental exercise had seemed to cal and mimic it in perfect pitch

Only Pyotr seemed shy about his abilities

"Empath," Konstantin had explained "He can read so contrarily One teacher said he was a living lie detector Because of this, he prefers the coerie He’s the one who insisted we bring Marta"

Monk stared at where the boy walked with the elderly chi how he interacted The two seelances, a pinch of brow or pucker of lip, a swing of arm

He watched Pyotr suddenly stiffen and stop Marta did, too Pyotr swung to Konstantin and spoke in a rush, a frightened babble, first in Russian, then English His s for some miraculous salvation

"They’re here," the boy whispered

Monk didn’t have to ask who Pyotr meant It was plain from the raw terror in his voice

Arkady and Zakhar

The two Siberian tigers

"Go!" Monk said They ran down the riverbank Konstantin led the way His sister, Kiska, as fleet-footed as a gazelle, followed behind hih the blueberry bushes, scraggly brush, and boulders that lined the riverbanks Monk kept a watch on their back trail He had to be careful Streams of straw-yellow spruce needles flowed froe and created patches as slick as ice underfoot

Pyotr slipped on a patch and landed hard on his backside Marta scooped hiot him back on his feet Monk herded them forward Konstantin and Kiska widened the distance ahead of thean to slow the Tenhalf trot

The group closed together again

There remained no sound of pursuit, no crash of branches or snap of twigs No sign of the tigers

Konstantin, panting and red-faced, glared at Pyotr and spoke harshly in Russian, plainly berating the boy for the false alarasped out

Pyotr wore a wounded yet still terrified expression

Marta hooted softly, bu Konstantin

Kiska also scolded her brother in Russian

Monk had been warned that Pyotr could not judge distances well, only intent He had to trust that when the tigers got really close--