Unlike Sadie, who must’ve also entered the building by now, Jonathan didn’t have the floorplan memorized. He hid behind the curve of the staircase and touched his earpiece.

“Sadie? Can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, Johnathan.”

“I’m on top of the staircase. Where’s the smallest room from here?”

“To your left should be two doors. One of them should be on a slightly tiled wall. That’s the smallest room on the floor.”

“Thank you”, Jonathan said and removed his finger and snuck around the staircase. The door in question was opened slightly and the sound of laughter was getting out.

Jonathan approached the door and listened. He could make out three distinct voices, one of them being female. He hesitated for a second, but then still slid in through the door.

The laughter immediately stopped, and the people froze in shock for the exact amount of time, it took Jonathan to unsheathe his sword. The two men were standing right across each other in front of Jonathan and it took less than a full second for him to sever their head from their necks. The woman had more time to react while Jonathan was busy, so she took a leap and tried to grab his wrist. She missed, but her long fingernails managed to put a few deep scratches into his skin. He pushed her down with his elbow onto the glass coffee-table. She hissed at him, but before she could get up again, Jonathan had buried his blade in her chest.

She tried to grab the blade with her hands to pull it out, but a quiet sizzling implied that it was burning her skin.

“Curse … you”, she hissed with her last breath, before going completely limp.

Jonathan pulled the sword out of the body, put it back into its sheath and sourly ogled the cuts on his wrist. Suddenly, a voice entered his ear.

“Jonathan, I’m joining you upstairs”, Sergeij said. “Downstairs is clear.”

“Roger.”

He then left the room, prying though the half-opened door to check if someone else was alerted by him. He saw Sergeij’s salt-and-pepper hair on the staircase and left the room slowly, so that he wouldn’t be a target from the corner of his partner’s eyes. Both men made eye contact with each other and gestured to split the remaining rooms between them. Charlotte continued to stay with Sergeij.