Now that was seriously going to hurt during the healing, Beth thought, and then felt bad because she was glad that if it had had to happen to one of them, Oksana was the one.
Bad Beth, she told herself as she turned to peer at Nika and the wire. There was a slight lip at the door of the barn where she’d been standing a moment ago. Beth had stepped down perhaps two inches when she’d ducked under the wire, and now found that while the wire was at a level just under Nika’s armpits, it would have hit her at about the middle of her throat. Unlike the taller Oksana, Beth would have been beheaded and would now be in only two pieces rather than four, she thought absently as she looked over where the wire was embedded in Nika.
There wasn’t much to see. The wire was paper-thin, and the nanos had already stopped the bleeding so that there was just a thin red line to show where the wire had cut in. It had gone almost halfway through before being stopped by the end of the track, she noted.
“Nika,” she said with a frown. “We have to get you off this wire before the nanos heal your body with it inside.”
“What? Heal?” she gasped with alarm, trying to look down at herself.
“If they haven’t already started,” Beth added under her breath and then grasped the wire on either side of the bodyguard’s arms and said, “Just don’t move for a minute.”
“Da. Nyet,” Nika said weakly, apparently confused. Although, really, who wouldn’t be in this situation?
“I’m sorry,” Beth said sincerely. “This might hurt.”
“Just do it fast, da?” Nika said, trying to be brave.
“Da,” Beth responded. “On the count of three. One, two—” She yanked the wire toward herself, concentrating on keeping it level, and was amazed when it came right out.
“Back up,” she instructed Nika. “Back—Oh!” Beth said with surprise when the woman toppled backward like a felled tree. Releasing the wire, she ducked under it, grabbed Nika’s wrist and quickly dragged her away from the building to rest by Kira, Liliya, and Marta.
“Call Mortimer and have him send out blood,” Beth barked as she straightened. “Lots of it. And some backup, and a cleanup crew or something. Christ, just tell him to send everyone,” she added, turning to hurry back to the barn.
Beth heard Kira bark, “Do it!” but didn’t glance back, so was surprised when she stopped just before the wire and Kira whispered, “What do we do now?”
Giving a start, Beth scowled at the girl. “I told you to stay back.”
“You cannot do everything yourself. We are team. I will help,” Kira said firmly, and then turned to peer into the barn.
“You are worried there is another trap,” Liliya said, and Beth’s head shot around to where the other woman now stood a step back on her right. Apparently, no one felt they had to listen to her.
“I told you to call Mortimer,” Kira snapped at the girl.
“Marta is calling,” Liliya assured her and then looked inside the building and pointed out, “If they planned to kill and not just maim, there will be another trap. It will probably be fire.”
“Yes. That’s what I’m worried about,” Beth said on a sigh.
“You think there is another trap?” Kira asked with concern. “Obviously this is trap. There is tip about coffin, yet no coffin here, the cutting wire instead. Maybe that is all.”
“I don’t know,” Beth admitted. “But a secondary trap is a possibility that has to be taken into account.”
“Da, but we must get Oksana out soon or she will die,” Kira murmured with concern, and then frowned. “How long before blood dies when cut off from heart? They tell us in biology class, but I no remember.”
“The nanos will keep Oksana’s heart pumping for a little while even without directions from the brain, and the nanos can repair or replace the dead brain cells once the head and shoulders are reattached,” Beth said solemnly, her gaze sliding slowly around the barn in search of anything that might hint at another trap. A big sign reading Explosives! TNT! or Incendiary Device! might have been nice. Sadly, there was nothing that helpful.
“How long nanos keep heart pumping without head and shoulders attached?” Kira asked.
Beth shrugged. “No one knows.”
“Well, they should find out. We should know these things,” Kira said with irritation.
“Da,” Liliya agreed.
Beth eyed them with exasperation. “To find out, you’d have to decapitate immortals and keep the head away from the body so it couldn’t heal for increasing lengths of time. Who the hell would volunteer for that?”
Neither woman responded. Presumably, they wouldn’t volunteer.
“Okay,” Beth said and took a deep breath. “You two stay here and I will run in, grab Oksana and run right back.”
“What if there is another wire?” Liliya asked.
Beth glanced at her uncertainly. “Another wire?”
“Well, it would be smart. If one was injured by first wire, the natural instinct is for others to rush in to help. A second wire would take the rest out.”
“Damn,” Beth breathed and thought she should have considered that herself. Heaving out a sigh now, she said, “Right. I will crawl in, throw the arms out and then drag the upper and lower body quickly back out as fast as I can and pray there isn’t a fire trap.”
“You cannot crawl and carry both parts of Oksana,” Kira said with exasperation. “I will crawl in with you and take the upper, while you take the lower.”
“Forgive me, Kira,” Liliya murmured. “But I think you should wait here for us while I go in with Beth. Because,” she continued firmly when Kira tried to protest, “were you to die in there, your father would have me beheaded anyway. At least this way, if I die it is with honor for having saved you. Da?”
Kira hesitated, but then sighed and waved them away. “Very well, I will wait here . . . unless you need my help.”
“Good.” Beth dropped to her hands and knees and began to crawl forward. A moment later, she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and knew it was Liliya following her. Beth tried to keep her focus on the ground in front of her as well as scan the area as she went. She was still hoping to spot any potential threat before it became a deadly one.
Her gaze shifted over the track on one side of the barn, and she thought that must be the reason for the new nails poking through the wooden walls. In the next moment, though, Beth frowned as she realized that the track ran along the sides of the building. The nails she’d encountered had been along the front as they’d approached the door. They hadn’t gone anywhere near the side of the building.
That realization made Beth stop. She suddenly had a bad feeling creeping along the back of her neck.
“Should I throw the arms to Kira?” Liliya asked uncertainly after a moment when Beth didn’t move.
She glanced to the woman, and then down to see that she was just inches from Oksana. Instead of answering, Beth turned her head to glance back the way they’d come. For a moment, she didn’t understand what she was looking at. There was, in fact, a set of tracks along the front wall on either side of the doors. There was also a wire running from the end of each track to the outer edge of each door.
Beth stared at the setup silently for a moment and then considered it logically. If the wire was supposed to move on the tracks, and the wire was now hanging loose along the door, then the track must pull the wire back rather than snap it forward . . . which would pull the doors closed.
“Huh,” Beth muttered. Why pull the doors closed? To lock them in. But why? Turning her head slowly, she examined as much of the building as she could again. Beth still didn’t see anything to raise alarm, but she couldn’t see behind the broken bales of hay.
“Liliya,” she said solemnly, “I think you should back slowly out the way you came.”
“What do you see?” Liliya asked quietly.
“There are wire tracks leading up to the doors. I think they’re rigged to pull the doors shut and keep them shut,” she admitted.
Liliya was silent for a minute, considering, and then said, “Fire. To prevent escaping fire.”