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He thinks about that while Vera closes his coat. “Will Mama come back?”

“Yes,” I say, resting my hand on his shoulder. “I’ll bring her back.”

He turns the yellow car between his palms. “Are you coming back, Papa?”

I close my fingers around his small wrist. “Yes. I’m coming back.”

“Promise?” he asks, searching my face.

“I promise.”

Misha nods once, then holds out the yellow car. “For the road.”

I push it gently toward him. “You keep it safe until I return.”

He tucks it beneath his chin.

My radio crackles with Abramov’s voice. “Zarya ambulance approaching the outer gate.”

Cara lifts Misha, and Oksana wraps the thick gray blanket around him. Vera kisses his forehead, then walks beside them.

We pass through the guard points and cross the secured family hall to the west service elevator. I follow more slowly.

Inside the elevator, Vera instructs Misha to rest his head on Cara’s shoulder and stay still. When the doors open into the west garage, Vera takes him and holds him against her chest.

Roman’s voice comes through my earpiece.

“Ambulance entering the sally port,” he says. “First gate closed.”

Misha keeps his face against Vera’s shoulder. He thinks this is a game with rules he must remember, and he follows every one.

Dmitri’s voice comes through the radio.

“Driver and attendant secured. No call went out.”

Dima speaks a moment later. “We have their phones, identification, and radio.”

Abramov’s voice follows. “Open the inner gate.”

“Now,” I tell Vera.

The white ambulance enters with Dmitri behind the wheel and Dima beside him. Zarya Medical Clinic is printed on the rear doors.

Dmitri backs toward the loading bay until the side door faces the secure passage.

Yuri’s voice comes through my earpiece. “Garage camera is live.”

Vera carries Misha toward the rear doors. Oksana rolls the stretcher behind her, and Cara follows with Misha’s pediatric kit.

Yuri has reopened the captured guard’s maintenance account but given it access to only the garage camera. Whoever is still watching through that account will see exactly what we want them to see—a worried mother, a bundled child, and enough medical equipment to make the story believable.

Dima gets out beyond the camera’s angle, pulls his cap lower, and walks around to open the rear doors. Vera climbs inside with Misha, then sits on the bench while Dima locks the stretcher into the ambulance floor clamps. Cara places the pediatric kit in the child seat, and Oksana puts the medical bag beneath the seat opposite.

I climb in last and lower myself beside Vera.

Misha peeks over the blanket. “It smells funny.”

Vera rubs his back. “All ambulances smell funny.”