Chapter 16

One, two, three, four

Kenzie fell into the cathartic pace of counting her strokes as she did laps in the massive underground pool of the Lotte Hotel. The square blue tiles along the pool bottom seemed to glow like neon from the underwater pool lights. She felt weightless, as if she were swimming in a distant galaxy of glowing stars rather than a pool in Moscow.

She swam until her arms burned. With each stroke she tried to banish the memories of the horrors she'd faced.

Monte gripping her throat, squeezingwood splintering above her. Glass and splinters raining down on hergunshots piercing the night, louder than she'd ever imagined they could bebullets embedded in the wall where her head had beenbroken glass glittering on the expensive stone floors like hundreds of diamonds.

She'd never been close to death. She'd never seen the ugliness of true violence or crime. She had lived a sheltered life full of love, happiness, and her textbooks. Dinosaur bones over human bones. She could neve