5Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Aslan ‘The Lion’ Terzi heard a strangulated warning cry over the blaring prison alarms. Crouched by the open bay door of the Mil-24D gunship, the former Syrian rebel leader pivoted. Outside, over the prison complex, a roiling cloud of black smoke issued from the breached roof of the panopticon. The cloud obscured the placid blue of Lake Andozero. Leonid Rashnikov lay by Terzi’s feet. The HVT was clad in his prison-issue jumpsuit. He was panting from his exertions of abseiling out of the panopticon into the helicopter.
In the milliseconds it takes for the human body to spin a hundred-and-eighty-degrees, Terzi’s mind was already telling him their daring prison break was in jeopardy. His grey eyes flicked to the right. In his peripheral vision, Terzi had an impr
