Chapter 19: Nadia Is Taken

The knock came at 6:47 AM.

Viktor registered it before it happened — or rather, registered the footsteps before they reached his door, the particular weighted gait of someone moving fast but trying not to show it, the faint elevation in cortisol that human physiology broadcasts before the conscious mind decides how to walk. He had been awake since four, sitting at his desk with his research log open and Nadia's annotated formula spread in overlapping pages across the surface, working through the third binding coefficient again with the focused insomniac patience of someone who has run out of other things to usefully do with three in the morning.

He recognized the gait before the knock.