‘What was that?’ Sally said, but before Novitskiy could respond, another bead shot towards her. It hit her on the arm, leaving a deep red splat.
‘I think it’s — blood,’ Novitskiy said, his voice weak.
Looking at the stain on her arm and not where she was going, Sally bumped into the back of him. She looked up to see more beads of blood coming towards her, a mass of droplets expanding from a central point. That point was in the middle of the service module, curled up in a floating balclass="underline" Chris. His hands, soaked in blood, covered his eyes. Thick globules of life-giving liquid seeped out from between his fingers, floating away and smearing anything they touched with a dark red sheen.
‘Chris…’ Novitskiy said. ‘What happened?’
Chris sobbed, drawing his hands away to look up at them. Where his eyes had once been were two gaping holes. ‘I just wanted to get it out of my head,’ he gurgled, covering his face again. ‘I couldn’t get it out of my head…’
Novitskiy swore, grabbed a first aid kit from the wall and took it to Chris, who was moaning something incomprehensible under his breath. Sally, frozen, could only watch on in horror as Novitskiy did his best to patch Chris up. Once he was sure Chris was stable, Novitskiy took him to the medical bay, leaving Sally to clean the mess he left behind. Before she knew it, Novitskiy was back, alone.
‘I have to go,’ Novitskiy said, lifting a shaking hand to run his fingers through his hair. He hadn’t yet changed his coveralls, which were streaked with red. His face was too, a stark contrast to the whites of his wide eyes. Sally had managed to mop up most of the floating blood with a couple of towels, but still a dark sheen covered several large patches on the walls, and a metallic smell lingered in the air.
‘I have to go,’ Novitskiy repeated.
The instant Sally had seen Chris, covered eyes seeping blood, she knew she was staying. She couldn’t pilot Soyuz, and she wasn’t about to let either Chris or Gardner die up here. ‘Will he make it?’
‘I’ve had to sedate him. Hopefully he’s not done too much damage, other than — well.’ He didn’t finish the sentence.
‘Are you okay?’ Sally said, touching his arm. He looked surprised at the question, as if it hadn’t occurred to him how he felt.
‘I’ll be fine,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I’ll be fine. We’ll go tomorrow morning.’ He looked like he was about to cry. His emotional barrier had crumbled.
After they had cleaned themselves up, Novitskiy checked Chris over again, while Sally disposed of the bloodied towels. She did it without thinking, her chest hollow and her mind empty. When Novitskiy spoke to her again, she just smiled, reassuring his concerns with her new mantra: ‘I’ll be alright.’
Throat burning, Sean hailed the first cab he saw. It pulled over, and before it had even stopped, he bundled Aleks in, jumped in himself and yelled, ‘Get us out of here!’ The taxi driver was obviously no stranger to a client in need of distance from his current predicament, because he stepped on it. He took them east out of Korolyov, and it was only after the tall, industrial buildings began to thin that he pulled over and asked them where they wanted to go.
‘To Podolsk, the main road. I know a place where we can lie low for a while,’ Sean said.
They set off for Podolsk, and Sean wound the window down a little, letting the cool air chase the heat away, dabbing his brow with his sleeve.
‘How did you find me?’ Aleks asked him.
‘It’s surprising,’ Sean said, eyes shut, ‘how far you can get with an attitude that says, I belong here. That and a stun gun. Service entrance at the rear, a few corridors along to office thirty, and there you were.’ He took the device from his pocket and returned it to his holdall. He’d completely discharged it on those two guards. Thank goodness he hadn’t run into Bales or he’d have most likely been… well, he didn’t want to think about it.
‘I think you had a little help from Lev’s cat…’ Aleks said, a smile coming through the swollen lumps and bruises on his face.
Sean grinned. Then he laughed, an uncontrollable euphoria making him giddy and silly. He was happy to still be alive. ‘Aleks, my friend, if it wasn’t for you and Lev’s damn cat, we’d both be smoking holes in the ground by now.’ He took his notepad out from his bag and showed it to Aleks. ‘Office thirty. Two guards. Use back entrance. A genius bit of secret code if ever I saw one.’
‘Well, what can I say. You learn fast.’
‘To be honest I thought there’d be more security. The only weapons I saw were in the hands of your two guards, thank goodness.’
‘It’s a place of science, not the gulag…’
The car made a left and they hurtled on down the country roads at the usual taxi-driver breakneck pace. As the adrenaline wore off, the soft fuzz of exhaustion enveloped Sean’s senses, and he dozed for a while, only to be woken by Aleks jabbing him in the ribs. ‘Huh? What?’ he groaned, wiping drool from his chin.
‘Look,’ Aleks said, pointing out in front of them.
The taxi had stopped. They were in familiar surroundings, and Sean’s sleepy brain took a few dopey seconds to realise they had arrived. What confused him was the smell of ash that blew in through the gap in his window. He traced the source of the ash and saw what was left of a dilapidated farm building. It rippled from within towering flames that turned the dreary afternoon orange. All at once he was awake, his throat bone dry and his stomach twisted into a hard knot. Without knowing what he was doing, he jumped out of the car and sprinted down the road, his lungs stinging as he ran, his eyes joining them as smoke engulfed him.
‘David!’ he yelled as he tore up the driveway, but the deafening roar of the flames drowned out his voice. His streaming eyes blinded him and soon he was lost in among the smoke and ash, the searing heat of the fire sucking the oxygen from him and leaving him breathless. It was clear there was nothing he could do. The fire was so intense that if he went any further in, he knew he would be dead. Stumbling towards cooler air, he retreated, and once he was free of the smoke he toppled to the ground, great hacking coughs overwhelming his body. Thumping footsteps approached him, and in an instant Aleks was on him.
‘Are you okay?’ he said, helping Sean sit up, brushing the ash from him. ‘I thought you were gone for sure…’
Sean said nothing. His coughing had subsided, and so had the stinging in his eyes, but tears still ran from them. David was innocent. He had never harmed anyone. He was the nicest, most welcoming person Sean had ever met. He was a shining light in a dark world full of bitter, nasty people — and now he was dead. Worst of all, Sean knew it was his own fault he was dead. He thumped the ground, grinding his flesh into the stony dirt, punishing himself with the pain. He had led Bales right to David, given him up on a silver platter. His death was a message, a warning.
‘I can’t do this anymore,’ he said, his voice barely a whimper. He tried to thump the ground again, but his swing was weak and pathetic, just like him. ‘I can’t do this.’
Aleks sat down next to him and drew him close. The embrace was strange, but somehow comforting. Its warmth was different to the intense heat of the fire that had taken a man’s life: it was kind. Sean knew that, without words, Aleks was telling him it was okay, and that to give up now would be a waste of David’s life. After he had calmed, Aleks helped him up, and they hobbled together back to the taxi. Aleks said something Sean didn’t understand to the taxi driver, who nodded, and they set off back the way they had come.
‘I have a brother,’ Aleks said. ‘He will look after us until we know what to do next.’
‘I don’t want to bring anyone else into this.’