Noni looked at our little group with a frown. “Nova, you should have told me you were bringing company over after school. At least then I could have made sure there were snacks ready.”

Nova gave a slight jerk, but never let on how upset she was as she answered. “Hello, Noni. How was your afternoon?”

Noni huffed. “You mean beside the fact that someone has rearranged my entire kitchen? And I can’t seem to find my good plates. Have you seen them?”

Noni was getting worse. Confusion aside, she recognized the kitchen layout was wrong, but she hadn’t realized it was the wrong kitchen entirely.

“Hey, Nova, Eli,” Mr. Lewis said, greeting us as he walked into the living room. “Ah, who’s this?”

Nova introduced Murphy and Jared, all the while worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

And when Noni ushered everyone into the kitchen, I hung back, catching Mr. Lewis by the sleeve. We needed to talk.

“I’m sorry to have sprung all of this on you,” I said.

“Something tells me there’s a whole lot more you want to say.”

I nodded. “Yes, there is, and it’s… complicated.”

“Stay right there,” he said, leaving me in the middle of the living room.

“Be back soon, Nova. Just got to pick up some things from the cafe. Eli’s coming along to help me,” he said, gesturing me to head for the door with a wave that told me to move my ass.

He closed the door behind us and said, “You’ll have to drive. Didn’t want to take the chance someone else would want to come along.”

Flakes of snow spit at the windshield as we sat in front of the cafe with the engine running. Mr. Lewis turned in the seat, as much as space allowed him to, and arched his brow at me. “We don’t have much time, so the condensed version would work best.”

So the condensed version was what he got. And when I was finished, he sat staring out the windshield while drumming his fingers on his leg. “And you have no idea when you’re leaving?”

“No, but I have a feeling it’s going to be very soon. That’s why having Jared and Murphy here is a good thing.”

He slumped against the seat with a deep breath in and then let it out. “I haven’t said this in front of Nova because I know how much it will upset her, but seems to me you need to know.”

He paused, and I braced for whatever it was.

“She’s not going to get better. She’ll never be who she once was, not even if we get a glimmer of it from time to time. It’s getting worse. Nova’s getting blips of it here and there, but when she’s not here, Noni sits in that living room recliner and disappears into the fragmented pieces of her mind.”

It hurt him to say it. I could see just how much by the tilt of his head and the sag of his shoulders. He loved her, and it was killing him to watch her disappear before she was even gone.

“What will you do when she can’t remember anything?” I asked.

“That’s the hell of it. I can’t do anything at all. It’ll be Nova’s call, and Nova, for as loyal as she is, thinks she’ll be able to handle it. She won’t, but there’s no telling her that. I know what this disease can do. I know that once Noni slides to a certain point, that we’ll never get her back. Nova, however, will be the last one to accept it.”

I wanted to tell him I’d be there to help, but couldn’t. Once I left Nome, there was no telling what would happen. Another mission? An emergency in Rome? A crisis in South Africa? My day could start off in one continent and end in another. And Nova would be in the last place I saw her, fighting the same battle I swore I’d stand beside her in.

“Maybe you should have a heart-to-heart talk with Nova. I know it wouldn’t be the easiest conversation, but I think she’d at least listen to your concerns. She knows how much you love Noni, so your opinion would matter to her.”

He made a noise that came out like a cross between a laugh and a scoff. “That obvious, huh?”

The world outside my truck was a swirling dance of white like a freshly shaken snow globe. Alaska had grown on me in the short time I’d been there, but Nova, Noni, and Mr. Lewis had grown on me more. “Mr. Lewis—”

“Stanley. My friends call me Stanley.”

My heart ached even more. “Talk to Nova, Stanley. It might upset her at first, but she’ll at least know that you’ll be there for her no matter what. Maybe, after she thinks about it, she’ll come to see that she can’t do it alone. She’s already depending on you more than she ever would had the fire not happened.”

He nodded. “Given the choice, would you give up on someone you loved?”

“Are we talking about Noni’s situation, or my own?” I asked, unsure if it were a simple question, or if he was taking a jab at me for my obligations.

His hand came up between us as he shook his head. “I know what it is to have a job to do. I spent four years with the Army, and then another four with the reserve. If anyone understands the spot you’re sitting in, between a rock and a hard place, it’s me. You don’t get to make your own choices when you sign on the dotted line. You go where you’re told to go, and you do what you’re told to do.

“That’s not the case with Noni. Nova would give up everything to take care of her grandmother. In truth, she’s already done it. She left Haiti and came home to be a full-time caregiver. Every moment of her life since then has been about Noni. Everything will be about Noni. But what happens when the worst comes? When Nova can no longer take care of her, but refuses to give up, even when the best thing for Noni would to be put her in a place with round-the-clock care?”

I chewed on the question, trying to find a solution, or some sort of answer. The truth was I had neither. “I don’t know. But I think if it gets to that point, you’ll find Nova looking to you for guidance.”

“It won’t be a matter of if. It’s a matter of when,” Stanley said, reaching for the door handle. “Best go get the stuff I need so we can get back home.”

Damn.

Stanley wiped his hands on a towel, laughing at something Noni said. I hadn’t caught it. In fact, I hadn’t caught most of the conversation happening around me because my mind was on the earlier conversation with Stanley.

Nova bumped her shoulder into mine and gave me a questioning look. “You okay?”

Jared’s phone rang as I was about to answer her. I snapped my mouth closed, stomach plummeting.

His eyes darted to mine.

It was time.

“Hurry back?” Her words echoed in my ears as I closed my eyes when the snowcat rocked to a stop.

A fur-rimmed head with goggles and a face protector banged on the window beside me, then pointed at his goggles and back at my face. Ace or Aiden? Hard to tell with all that gear on.

I nodded and geared up for the brutal weather outside as the driver steered us over to the side of the solitary metal building. It was blue, and all I could think was that it looked like a blueberry sitting on the top of a big bowl of vanilla ice cream. My stomach growled in response.

My door was pulled open once I’d covered my head and settled the goggles over my eyes. I hoisted my pack over my shoulder and bent into the wind, following the rigged-out guy who’d tapped on my window.

Siberia. I was in Siberia.

Hurry back?

Oh, God, Nova… I’ll try. I’ll try my hardest.

It was pitch black inside the building until a beam of light cut through the darkness.

“Feel like you’re on the edge of the earth?” Aiden asked.

He slapped his hand against my shoulder, and then guided me past a short row of snowmobiles and a snowcat to the other side of the room.

“The only thing I feel right now is tired. I can’t even imagine how it was coming from Chicago.”

He chuckled. “Long. Come on, I’ll show you where you can stow your gear.”

“And you can fill me in on everything since I don’t even have the slightest idea where the hell in Siberia we are,” I said, fighting a yawn.

Aiden slowed and gave me a look of disbelief. “No one told you?”

“When would they have had the chance? The call came in and I was pretty much hustled out of Alaska like a convict on the run.”

Aiden snorted. “They told me, and I still don’t understand where we are. All I know is that there’s some huge-ass crater…” He stopped, turned in a circle with his finger out, and then dropped his hand with a huff. “I can’t even get a sense of direction here. Anyway, there’s a huge crater, and we’re just a few miles to the north of it.”

“Crater?”

“Big one,” he answered as we walked into a small room with cots along one wall.

I dropped my bag by the cot Aiden pointed out, then removed my jacket and hung it on an empty peg beside his. The chill in the air was like icy fingers against the back of my neck, and I shivered in response.

Aiden sighed, gesturing for me to follow him. “I can’t wait to go home. I’ll never bitch about another Chicago winter again after being here. How was Alaska?”

“Cold,” I answered. “And way more populated.”

“Soup’s on,” Ace said, setting a steaming pot down on the only table in the small room.

“Heat!” Aiden said, rushing over to the stove and rubbing his hands together vigorously over the cooling cooktop.

“Idiot,” Ace said, smirking as he pulled out a seat. “Better dig in, Eli. Aiden’s appetite has doubled since we’ve been here. If you don’t get your share quick enough, he’ll eat it.”

“Must be from shivering so much. I don’t think I’ve stopped since we got here,” Aiden said, tucking his hands into his armpits as he made his way over to the table. “And I wouldn’t be freezing my ass off if you’d have been the one to meet Eli outside.”

Ace gave him a toothy grin. “Not my fault you lost the coin toss.”

Aiden snorted as he filled his bowl and then sighed when he cupped his hands around it. “Whatever.”

“So where exactly are we in Siberia?” I asked in between bites.

“We’re in East Siberia just outside of Batagay. I’ll show you on the map when we’re done eating,” Ace said.

“And the mission?” I asked, covering a burp.

“Intel reported the movements of a Russian scientist by the name of Aleksandr Petrov.”

“Since when have we been interested in the movements of a Russian scientist?” I asked.

“Since Viktor Ivanov tried to recruit him, and Aleksandr Petrov turned him down,” Ace answered as he pushed back in his seat and crossed his arms.

There had to be a reason why Ivanov would seek out a scientist and try to put him on the payroll. “Any idea why he wanted Petrov?”

“Why does any madman want a scientist?” Aiden countered with a snort.

Ace shook his head. “Ivanov has kept his reasoning close to the chest. But we can bet that whatever he wanted to hire the scientist on for wouldn’t have been good.”

“What does Petrov study? That should give us some sort of clue, right?” I asked, wondering why someone hadn’t dug into Petrov’s background to at least have a general idea.

“Why do you think we’re here?” Ace asked, sighing as he uncrossed his arms and leaned forward.

“It damn sure isn’t for the scenery. Which is white, by the way. Blinding white some days, and blistering cold on all the others. Why couldn’t Petrov decide to come in the summer?” Aiden piped in.

Ace shook his head. “Has to do with the crater. Maybe he wanted to get readings on it after the thaw and record them.”

“Yeah, but from what I read online, there’s only one scientist who has been studying this crater, and it’s not Petrov,” Aiden added.

“Okay, so Petrov is here in East Siberia. Why are we here, too?” I asked, confused why agents would be called in, let alone a medic.

“Because intel picked up the movement of Ivanov’s Ukrainian henchmen, and guess where they were headed?” Ace asked.

“Siberia,” we said in unison.

“What doesn’t make sense is that the two Ukrainians have been following Petrov, but that’s it,” Ace added. “If Ivanov wanted Petrov so bad, why haven’t they taken him?”

“Is it possible Petrov decided to take Ivanov’s offer and intel is in the dark about it?” I asked.

“At this point, anything is possible. Especially since intel has hit nothing but silence,” Ace said, picking up his bowl and taking it over to the sink to wash it.

“So, in the meantime, we’re supposed to just sit here and wait?” Why would they bring me in if there was no reason for me to be there?

“The decision to bring you in early is partly our fault. But I felt better knowing we had a medic we could rely on should something happen here. As you’ve noticed, we’re not exactly close to much of anything,” Ace admitted.

“Something’s coming. I can feel it,” Aiden said. “That’s the only reason I agreed with Ace.”

That something came the following day in the form of an explosion that rocked the building’s foundation.

It was a scramble. Ace and Aiden were a flurry of arms and legs as they geared up.

“Eli, the medic room has been stocked, but you’ll need to set things up. Here’s a radio. Keep it close and stay alert,” Ace said, slapping the device against my chest.

Aiden held a high-powered rifle out. Ace took it, and then the two of them were out the door, leaving me almost spinning in place.

I turned the radio up and made my way to the medic room. There wasn’t anything I could do but wait. And waiting was nerve wracking when I had no idea what was going on. Instead of allowing my imagination to get the best of me, I focused on the task at hand until I had a field kit put together.

Once that was done, I wiped down the stainless-steel table, where impromptu surgeries would be managed, and then the long stretch of counter before laying out everything from scalpels to swabs. I felt a little better having my own weapons at hand.

The radio crackled to life, and I about jumped out of my skin.

“Medic team one, this is Alpha Charlie Eco…”

I grabbed the radio. “Medic team one, go.”

“Two wounded. One critical. ETA twenty,” Ace said, giving me a head’s-up.

“10-4.”

I set the radio down. After prepping a second tray of surgical instruments, I placed a stack of gauze along with a bottle of saline on the counter.

I was so caught up with trying to get everything ready for the arrival of the wounded that I didn’t hear him until it was too late.

The gun barrel cracked against the side of my face. I fell backward, crashing into the counter. Metal rained down around me as I fought to keep conscious.

The man yelled something I couldn’t understand as he hauled me up from the floor. I’d have toppled right back over had he not kept hold of me by the front of my shirt.

I had to do something and fast, or else Ace and Aiden would come in with the wounded men, unaware of the situation and nowhere near ready to protect themselves. The only problem was everything around me was bobbing and swaying. If I couldn’t get a handle on it, I’d be laid out on the floor, or worse, dead.

He shook me again as he yelled something else I couldn’t understand, and then dragged me across the room when I didn’t answer him.

Dread filled me when a second man poked his head around the corner and made a series of hand gestures while spitting out words. He scowled at me, bringing the barrel of his gun up.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to see it coming. But the shot never came because the guy holding me lost his damn mind. Shouting, he dragged me into the cot-filled room, grabbed the first jacket his meaty hand touched, and shoved it at me.

I didn’t have to understand his language in order to catch the drift of what he said. The fact he’d handed me the jacket and then belted out what was clearly an order with his finger pointed at me told me all I needed to know. Put the jacket on.

Putting a jacket on while someone was holding onto me and shaking me like a rag doll was as hard as it sounded. And it was only made worse by limbs that didn’t want to comply. I’d been able to get one arm through, but for the life of me, I couldn’t seem to get the other one in before I was marched out into the breath-stealing bitterly cold air.

Ace and Aiden had to be somewhere close by. They’d drop these two boneheads, and that would be that. I kept telling myself that all the way to the snowmobiles the thugs had waiting for a quick getaway. And then I prayed with everything in me that the vehicles wouldn’t start. And when that didn’t work, I called forth all my energy and shoved the man holding me.

He hadn’t expected it since I’d not given him any reason to believe I’d fight back. I spun, wobbled, and ended up on my hands and knees, sliding along the rough terrain. My palms stung like fire, but I kept going, kept bear crawling until I could get my feet under me. And I almost made it, too.

He tackled me, crushing my ribs as the air left my lungs in an explosion. I couldn’t catch my breath… couldn’t fight him off. With his knee in my back, he grabbed my wrists and bound them. Once I was secure, he jerked me upright, grabbed my elbow, and marched me back to the snowmobile. His buddy was waiting with a piece of rope that was wrapped around my chest and then tied off to a large metal ring at the back of the seat.

The choice was clear… sit down or be dragged. Either way, I was going with them.