The safe door hit the floor with a heavy thud — victory's sound. But outside, the Okhrana were taking positions, and that was the sound of a trap springing shut. Pavel and his men froze, caught between triumph and dread. They had the letters — Jake's holy grail — but they were sealed inside a building under quiet, patient siege.
A breathless message shot through the chain of runners, slipping under the sleeping city, down into the dark sewer where Jake waited.
"Prize secured. Street compromised. Okhrana. Four men. Watching exits. Awaiting orders."
Jake's gut went cold. He had planned for everything but this — random surveillance, sheer bad luck. The kind that killed good men. A gunfight was out of the question. They had to vanish the way they came.
He sent new orders, sharp and clear.
"Stay calm. Go to the roof. Not the balcony. Use the servants' staircase. Wait for my signal."
The escape turned into a slow nightmare. Pavel's team crept through the servants' corridor, every step a risk, every creak a thunderclap. They reached the ladder to the roof and waited, trapped in the dark, breathing too loudly.
Miles below, Jake was still and focused, a pulse of calculation in the gloom. The runners' signals came in — they were ready. Now he had to move them across the rooftop while the Okhrana's eyes were elsewhere. It was a bet on human boredom.
"Report," he told Misha, the street lookout.
"They're watching the front," Misha whispered. "Two smoking. Talking."
"Good. Signal them. Now."
The faint flicker came. One light. Move.
Pavel's men darted across the roof, boots scraping on slate, shadows against the night. They leapt the gap to the next building — and vanished. For now, they were free.
But a new problem was walking straight toward Jake.
The patrol above wasn't hunting revolutionaries. They were checking on a report — a vagrant near a sewer grate. But their slow, methodical sweep was heading right for Jake's only exit. One glance inside, and it would all be over.
Kamo heard the boots, too. He looked from the map to the man he guarded. Jake was still focused on the mission, on the fragile thread connecting him to Pavel's team. Kamo looked at the manhole, at the tunnels, at the distance between this dark hole and Nevsky Prospekt. He understood in an instant what had to be done.
He put a hand on Jake's shoulder. "Stay here," he said, low and calm. "Keep them moving. Don't stop until they're safe."
Before Jake could reply, Kamo was gone — a blur swallowed by the dark.
He didn't run to escape. He ran to draw fire.
In the grim industrial quarter, Kamo struck. He didn't sneak. He made noise — massive, violent, impossible to ignore. He ambushed a gendarme carriage, his revolver roaring. He didn't shoot to kill, only to break the silence. Splinters flew, glass shattered, the night exploded.
Every whistle in the district screamed. The Okhrana turned. Patrols converged. The city's attention shifted away from the sewers and toward the storm Kamo had unleashed.
It worked. Jake's position cleared. The search pulled back. The pressure vanished like a held breath released.
An hour later, Pavel's team stumbled into the sewer, filthy and trembling but alive. Pavel handed Jake the small leather box. "The letters," he said simply.
Jake took it, heavy with victory that felt hollow. He knew what Kamo had done. He knew what it had cost.
He had won. But he had corrupted the best man he knew to do it.
The story cut away.
Far from St. Petersburg's filth, in the dusty backroom of a print shop in Kutaisi, Kato was alive — and no one was saving her.
The room smelled of ink, turpentine, and old paper. Across the table sat "The Artist," a small man with ink-stained fingers and a mind like a blade. Kato handed him a photograph. He held it to the light, studying her face — sharp, defiant, unmistakably dangerous.
"I can make you papers," he said softly. "Good ones. No one will question them."
He laid the photo down, leaned closer. "But a face like this? This face costs extra."
His smile was slow and knowing. "You'll need more than documents, madam. You'll need friends. Safe houses. Escorts at stations. My friends can arrange that — for small favors. Deliver a letter. Carry a parcel. Nothing dangerous."
He didn't see a client. He saw an asset — smart, brave, desperate. A valuable piece to move across the board.
Kato understood. She'd escaped one cage only to find another waiting — not made of iron this time, but of obligation.
And the game, as always, had already begun.