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knows now that I am Katerina’s
bodyguard. There was no way around it. But now that I know he’s no
longer a terrorist, I feel better about the whole thing. I
should’ve believed Katerina. She believed in him. I should have
too. I trust her judgment. She knew her dad wasn’t a bad
guy.
    My chest hurts, thinking about her. I wonder
where she is and if she’s doing okay. She’s a strong person—a great
fighter. I know that she will be all right. She has to be. I’m glad
Damon is with her. At least she isn’t alone.
    I’m also glad Damon is with her, because it
means a lot more people are looking for them. I know that sounds
selfish, but if he wasn’t with her, we wouldn’t have the United
States helping us. The president doesn’t care about some Russian
girl. And I’m not sure any of this would be possible without their
help. I definitely wouldn’t have access to the technology that we
do without their help.
    We have been all over Moscow, looking at
security footage from the airport, and trying to track where they
went. It’s harder than I thought it would be. I guess I had hoped
that we would find them right when we got to Russia. I am impatient
when it comes to Katerina. I can’t let anything happen to her. I
want her back. I want her safe.
    My own family was torn apart because of this
terrorist group. My mom and dad was so close to bringing them down.
In the end, knowledge is why they are dead. But I am going to
finish their work for them. I am going to bring this to a final
end. Maybe then, I can have my family back.
    I understand why my siblings don’t want
anything to do with me. I chose this lifestyle, even after seeing
what happened to our parents, my older brother and younger sister.
They made a choice to do nothing. They wanted out of the lifestyle.
But I couldn’t do that.
    “ Got anything?” I ask the guy who
has been looking through video footage for the past five hours. He
has a couple empty cans of Red Bull sitting in front of him, and I
saw him grab a third one just a few minutes ago.
    He pushes something on his keyboard and brings
up a clip. Katerina and Damon are both being carried and put into
the back of a van. They aren’t moving at all.
    “ We believe they were drugged,”
the guy says. “They have to be. They’d be fighting if
not.”
    “ Is that Matthews?” I
ask.
    I know Matthews well. He’s been Damon’s
bodyguard for over a year now. He’s good at what he does and he’s
never once done anything to make me question him. This can’t be
Matthews.
    “ Yes and no,” he answers. “That is
Gaidar. Born in Moscow. Was recruited to Mikhail’s Vasin’s group
right out of high school. His loyalties changed about a year and a
half ago. He’s working on taking down Mikhail Vasin. His coverup
was a good one. He passed all our security checks.”
    “Why would he want to be Damon’s
bodyguard? That doesn’t make sense. Katerina wasn’t going to New Hope Academy back
then.”
    “ No. But Dean Bello was there,” he
explains.
    “ Right.” Dean Bello is Elizabeth
Vasin’s sister. I let out a sigh. “What are we going to
do?”
    “ We’ve got Gaidar and Rafael’s
faces everywhere in Russia. There isn’t a person here who hasn’t
seen their face and everybody is looking for them,” the says. “Now,
we just wait. They can’t hide forever.”
    No, they can’t.
    But they can hide a while.
    “ I don’t like this,” I say, hating
that I can’t do anything right now. “I’m going out to help the
search parties. I have to do something.”
    “ All right,” the guy says. “I’m
going to keep looking.”
    I grab my jacket before heading
outside.
    I will find Katerina.

TWO
    Can’t blame a girl for
trying.
     
    Katerina.
    I wake up when the sun shines through the
small window and right into my eyes. Damon is still asleep. He’s
slept a lot. I hope he’s okay. Maybe the medicine just affected him
more than it did me. I hope that’s it. I hope they find us soon so
a