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The bleakness of our situation suddenly crashes down on me We’re screwed Ironically, in the cell, I had hope But out here? Our chances aren’t looking good We have no weapons and Besov, a skilled assassin, has two Plus, Alex is bleeding I glance at his side where his coat has fallen open Underneath the jacket, his shirt is torn and soaked with blood It looks like a stab wound He needs stitches If the bleeding doesn’t stop, he’ll soon be too weak to drive, never mind defend himself

“Turn right here,” Besov says

The fancy neighborhood with the big houses e and drive alongside the river It starts to snow, flakes drifting down onto the windshield Alex switches on the wipers

We drive for another few s run thin and we finally leave St Petersburg behind We’re on a road leading toward the countryside Heus somewhere isolated to kill us

The silence in the car is stifling The road runs straight for as far as I can see Besov isn’t giving directions any longer With no witnesses around, he raises both guns, pushing one against ainst Alex’s

Alex flexes his jaw, but he keeps his eyes on the narrow road, navigating us through the snowfall that turns into a stor sounds, batting left and right as Alex puts them on maximum speed Our visibility diminishes The snow falls down harder, the flakes illuhts of the car

Trees dot the sides of the road They quickly grow denser We’re entering a forest Clutching the edges of n of blood loss Turning his head no aze from the road to my face

“I love you,” he mouths

The words are silent, but their ed

Scraping together all the courage I can er focused on the road It only lasts for a second, but I know instinctively that this is the moment our lives are supposed to flash in front of our eyes

With a sharp movement, he jerks the wheel to the left Our bodies are thrown to the side as the car skids across the road The seatbelt cuts into my chest I scream I can’t help it At the sah the air Aroes off

Pain lances into my shoulder

The car crashes through a barrier and barrels down an erip We torpedo ahead, hitting a ditch at full speed The thick snow breaks our velocity My neck jerks violently as we coht of the back pulls it over The world tumbles past my e roll onto the roof The crash joltsand s exploding

Then silence

I’m still for a moment Disoriented

It’s snowing too hard toother than that I’m upside down, squeezed into a narrow space

“Katerina!”

Alex’s voice penetrates the strange nu me