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Ca the newco that silhouette

The president of the United States

Here to support a vital nuclear pact between Russia and the United States

The major reason Pripyat had been cleaned up and sanitized was so it could host such dignitaries

Not wanting to be upstaged, Nicolas waited for the entire party to vanish into the hotel’s lobby Once the as clear, he headed out again

Everything was in place

He glanced to the Chernobyl plant as the sun sank toward twilight

By this time tomorrow, a neorld would be born

5:49 PM

Southern Ural Mountains

Monk stood on a ridge and stared out across the low , the valley below lay in deep shadows

"We have to cross that?" he asked "There’s no other way around?"

Konstantin folded thehundreds of miles to circle it, which would take many days The mine we must reach on the far side of Lake Karachay lies only twelve miles away if we cross here"

Monk stared down at the swampy valley The river they’d floated down due and fed into the wide valley below Many other creeks and streaht, waterfalls and cataracts shone like flows of quicksilver But shadowed by the low mountains, the valley floor was all drowned forests and wide stretches of open black rasses It would be difficult to cross, and once it got dark, it would be easy to get lost

He sighed heavily They had no choice but to cross the swa The kids still looked like a pair of half-drowned kittens They had ridden the river for a quarter mile until the chill drove them to shore Monk had the cats The water should break their trail, and the river only greider the farther down the ers would have to brave a stiff river crossing to pick up their scent

And for the past two hours, Pyotr had remained silent, plainly worried about Marta But at least the boy showed no panic, no sign he sensed the tigers nearby

Once out of the water, Monk had everyone remove their clothes, twist the the warmest part of the day had helped dry ain, and the sun was setting It would be a cold night

But Konstantin was right They had to keep round with two tigers stalking these highland forests The sould at least offer soe He helped Pyotr, while Konstantin held his sister’s hand The two youngest children were fading fast As a group, they sank out of the warrew heavier here,the , s draped with sullen shoulders, the tips of their branches sweeping the waters

Monk headed out, forcing a path The underbrush was a tangled rew clearer as the ground grewfromhoell the reen carpet covered rocky outcroppings and cli theged down as the patches of stagnant water rose around thele swept past ings as wide as Monk’s outstretched arers behind them

He increased their pace For once, the shter bodies floated over the sucking mud, whereas Monk had to watch each step or lose a boot

For the next hour, theyless than a mile by Monk’s calculation He spotted snakes that slithered frolimpse of a fox as it hopped from hillock to hillock and vanished Monk’s ears strained for every noise He heard things luh the swae of a massive elk

Before they knew it, they were ankle-deep in water,pattern froae and e grew darker as the sun continued to fall behind thepace

Konstantin side Monk’s flank He still held Kiska’s hand The girl was nearly asleep on her feet