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As she ran, the ridge seemed to get longer and higher. When she reached it, she stopped short and gasped. The ridge was the top edge of a deep ditch, filled with broken glass, rusted metal, and coils of razor wire. Too wide to jump and impossible to crawl across.
Kira looked back. The students were closing in from two sides. A slow, deliberate pincer action. She realized that she was out of time and out of tricks. She had tried and failed.
She had only herself. And that was not enough.
CHAPTER 95
THE STUDENTS MOVED slowly toward her, scores of them now.
Kira looked down into the ditch and thought about diving in. With luck, a sharp scrap of metal would slice an artery and she’d bleed out before they could get to her. At least she’d be spared whatever Kamenev had in mind. He’d have to make an example of her—the school’s one and only dropout. Even if he didn’t kill her right away, he’d make sure that she never escaped again. One way or another, Kira knew, she was going to die at this school.
The speakers were silent now, except for a low crackle of static. But there was a quiet buzz from somewhere in the distance—getting louder by the second.
Kira looked to her right. Her line of sight was blocked by a huge target mound, tall enough to absorb a grenade blast. Suddenly an ATV vaulted over the mound, twenty feet in the air. It looked like a giant insect. The roar was deafening now.
The machine landed hard on the packed dirt. The driver bounced in the seat, then stood up as he cranked the wheel, kicking up a cloud of dust, riding the machine like a bronco.
Impossible! Kira couldn’t believe what she was seeing.Whoshe was seeing. The professor’s shirt was ripped open to his waist and his pants were torn. He vaulted out of the ATV and pushed Kira behind him, placing his body between her and the menacing crowd. For a second, she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Then she threw her good arm around his chest and leaned into his ear.
“You’realive??” she said. “I thought…”
“I know,” the professor replied. “Me, too.”
All around them, the students were massing for the final push, pounding their truncheons against their palms in unison. And smiling. Always smiling.
“Why aren’t they shooting?” asked the professor.
“They want me alive.”
“No problem. So do I.”
In another second, the first wave of students was on them. Doctor Savage took them as they came, tossing them aside in bunches, blocking punches and the blows from the long, black clubs. Kira stood back-to-back with the professor. She still had two good legs. Her roundhouse kicks connected time after time, slamming students to the ground.
But they kept coming. They just wouldn’t stop. A truncheon came down hard on Kira’s bad shoulder. She grimaced in pain as she kicked the attacker away. They were surrounded now, about to be overrun and pounded into the ground.
Doctor Savage grabbed the ATV by the upper frame and lifted it into the air. He threw it into the next assault wave, knocking a dozen students onto their backs.
Kira had her knife out. She slashed the air, daring the closest attackers to move in again. She knew that she was just delaying the inevitable, but she wasn’t about to go down without a fight. And at least she wouldn’t go down alone.
Suddenly, the air was filled with a tremendous vibration and a stinging blast of wind-blown dirt. The students were blown back, blinded by the swirling cloud. The professor turned toward Kira and pushed her to the ground. Her shoulder bent the wrong way. She grimaced in pain and nearly passed out. What happened next felt like a dream. She felt a strange calm come over her. The deafening noise became a gentle hum. The professor’s arms were wrapped around her. She realized that she had never felt safer.
Kira lifted her head and looked into the sky. Directly above, two massive Black Hawk helicopters were blocking the sun. Black-clad men with rifles were dropping out of the doors on ropes. When they hit the ground, they formed a solid cordon around Kira and the professor.
“Face down! Arms out!” a tall officer shouted toward the mass of students. Other commandos spread out through the crowd, kicking weapons away. The officer bent down until his helmet touched the professor’s head. Kira could read the insignia on the officer’s chest: INTERPOL.
“Sir!” he shouted. “Are you the one who called?”
Kira looked at the professor, stunned.
“Called??”she said. “Called fromwhere?”
Doc Savage looked stunned, too. The submarine radio hadn’t been useless after all.
“Holy shit,” he said. “Somebody actuallyheardme!”
CHAPTER 96
THE HEADMASTER’S DEMEANOR was calm, but his mood was dark. He was angry and disappointed. He had thought that this day would never come. In fact, he had taken extensive steps to prevent it. He believed he had placed people and money where it mattered, but somewhere there was a gap in his coverage, or a failure of loyalty. The defect needed to be corrected. But now he had more urgent things to take care of. Starting with his own survival.
