Lethal Risk

by Don Pendleton

  “Additional units are on the way,” Cai said. “Whether they try to get on the freeway or use the city streets, we should be able to set up a roadblock in the next few kilometers or so.”

  “Very good. If we are able to capture these insurgents, there will be a commendation for you.”

  “Thank you, Agent Fang, but I am simply doing my job,” she replied as she jerked the wheel to the right, narrowly missing sideswiping a street-cleaning machine. Even with the more crowded city streets, they still hit speeds of fifty and sixty miles an hour. Fang clenched his teeth at the thought of an innocent bystander—or even worse, some drunk tourist in the wrong place at the wrong time—getting splattered all over the road.

  To her credit, Cai was driving masterfully, but she couldn’t control everything that happened outside her car. As if to illustrate, the truck ahead seemed to falter and slow. For a moment Fang was hopeful that one of his bullets had hit something vital and they would be able to take the occupants prisoner without any more danger. However, it proved to be a feint. As the lead patrol car sped up to take advantage of the momentary lapse, the truck braked even further and the driver rammed into the patrol’s car’s front fender. Caught off guard, the police car fishtailed back and forth on the road before T-boning a parked car and spinning to a stop facing them, its one working headlight nearly blinding both Fang and his driver.

  Cai swore as she twisted the wheel and they shot the gap between the stalled car and the velo-taxi parked on the other side of the street. This time they weren’t so lucky. The speeding car scraped both sides, shoving the three-wheeled taxi onto its side on the curb and rocking the police car back and forth on its axles. However, she maintained control and they were soon gaining on the truck again.

  “They’re heading for the freeway. Left! Left!” Fang said.

  “I see it!” she replied, turning onto the on-ramp and accelerating into the lighter but still busy traffic on the eight-lane highway. The white truck was already trying to lose them among the larger trucks and other vehicles cross the city, but Cai was just as determined and doggedly pursued their target.

  As they got closer to the white pickup, it pulled alongside another tractor-trailer, and as Fang watched, an arm extended out the passenger window and aimed something at the truck’s large tires.

  “They’re trying to crash the tractor! Hit them, hit them now!”

  Cai stomped on the gas and her car leaped ahead. Orange flame spurted from the pistol in the shooter’s hand, but nothing seemed to happen—the tire didn’t explode and the truck kept going.

  As the passenger shot again, they had gotten close enough to smack the truck’s rear bumper. The white vehicle surged ahead and the pistol was drawn back inside the cab.

  “There isn’t a lot we can do without potentially causing a much larger accident here,” Cai said. “We may have to fall back and try to take them once they take an exit.”

  “However you think it is best to apprehend them,” Fang replied. “Is there any way to head them off ourselves?”

  “Maybe,” she replied. “But we might risk losing them completely— Wait! What’s happening up there?”

  Fang squinted through the exhaust and pollution-choked night to see movement in the cab of the truck. It slowed again then sped up as the head and shoulders of a masked man appeared out the passenger-side window and he leveled a submachine gun at them.

  “Down!” Fang cried, scrunching low in his seat as the criminal let off a burst of rounds. Even as he fired, Cai deftly turned the wheel, sending them into the left lane and dodging most of the bullets coming their way. Their right headlight blew out in a flare of sparks and glass, but the car kept going without further damage.

  “Nice driving,” he said.

  “Thanks,” she replied. “I don’t suppose you could shoot back, could you?”

  “My pistol doesn’t have the range,” he said.

  “I’d have you use mine, but that would complicate matters tremendously,” she said. “Uh-oh.”

  “What—oh, damn!” Fang said as he watched the white truck pull alongside another tractor-trailer, this one hauling two trailers. Unable to do anything but watch, they stared as the masked man put a long burst into the semi’s front tire.

  The bullets exploded the wheel, making it disintegrate in a spray of rubber and sparks as the steel rim bit into the roadway. The semi slewed left, almost taking out the white truck as it crossed three lanes in seconds.

  “Don’t stay behind it!” Fang shouted, gripping the door handle as Cai fought to avoid rear-ending the crippled big rig.

  “I’m trying not to!” she said as the semi jackknifed across the freeway, making other cars, vans and trucks skid to a stop in its wake. Cai yanked the wheel hard left and punched the gas pedal, aiming for the widening gap at the end of the trailer as the semitruck careened into the right concrete barrier.

  “I think we’re going to—” Fang began. But even as he spoke, the tractor hit the barrier with such force it rebounded and started coming back over again. The stress on the coupling was so great that the second trailer broke free and began heading straight back into traffic—directly toward their car.

  “Punch it!” Fang shouted as he saw their escape hole quickly closing.

  “It’s on the floor right now!” Cai screamed back. It was too late to brake or to turn as they streaked toward the narrowing opening. Fang wanted to close his eyes but couldn’t as Cai hunched over the wheel, as if somehow she could impart the extra bit of necessary velocity needed to make it through.

  They shot through the gap and Fang instinctively glanced left to see a wall of tractor-trailer door inches from the driver’s side. Then, with a thud that almost sent them into the left concrete safety divider, they were through. He looked back to see five lanes blocked by the semi, with the other three already clogged with cars trying to avoid the sudden traffic jam.

  “That was incredible,” he said.

  “It will be all for nothing if we don’t catch these people,” she replied as they once again began gaining on the white truck. It suddenly crossed four lanes of traffic, making three cars hit their brakes, their drivers all honking angrily as it took an off-ramp at an insane rate of speed.

  “Keep on them!” Fang said as she turned the wheel, crossing behind the slowed cars to take the ramp at a slightly less suicidal rate of speed. For a brief moment he hoped they would find the truck in a smoking wreck at the bottom of the exit. It would be worth it to lose them all to a fiery collision, but that was not the case.

  “Whoever’s driving that thing has the devil’s own luck!” Fang growled.

  “It won’t last forever,” Cai said as she grabbed her mike again. “They left the freeway and now they are ours. It’s only a matter of time.”

  Speaking into the mike, she arranged for local units to set up a roadblock a few streets away. However, every time she did that, they seemed to know when it was happening, and turned off before they could spring the trap.

  After the third time, Fang had had enough. “Damn it! Bring in more squads ahead of us! We’ll trap them between us, and stop them that way!”

  Cai did as he ordered, and soon two cars were a half kilometer ahead of them and closing in fast.

  “Just stay on him. We keep him on this street and we can box him in on the next block,” Fang said.

  Cai just nodded grimly, every sense focused on traversing the road, which was in poor condition in this neighborhood.

  Thirty seconds later they were almost on the other cruisers. “Steady…steady…now!”

  The cruisers ahead turned on their roof lights and both turned into each other, blocking the road in a V formation, with the front of one car pointing directly at the side fender of the second one, ensuring that the truck wouldn’t be able to smash through without sustaining crippling damage. Both sides of the road were filled with parked cars, leaving no way out.

  But the truck didn’t stop. It didn’t even slow as it approached th
e roadblock. “Are they trying to kill themselves?” Cai muttered.

  Fang was wondering the exact same thing.

  Then, maybe fifty meters before they were about to crash into the two cruisers, the truck’s brake lights flared then winked out. Along with that came a long screech of rubber, followed by the sound of scraping metal as the vehicle disappeared from view.

  “Stop, stop, stop!” Fang ordered, making Cai almost stand on the brakes to bring the car to a screeching, shuddering halt in a cloud of smoking rubber. Fang looked both ways to see what might have been the rear of the truck as it turned right out of a narrow alley that he could only see because they were perpendicular to it.

  “Left, left, left!”

  Already radioing the two lead cars to pick up the chase on the next block, Cai backed up and headed into the narrow alley. Fang saw a long scrape of white paint on the side of the building, confirming they were back on the trail. They squeezed into the alley, snapping off both side mirrors. Cai had to go slowly to make sure she didn’t wedge the car and trap them there.

  It took most of a minute but eventually they came out the other side and took a sharp right, accelerating to catch up to the white truck. But as they sped through the now-quiet city blocks, Cai got a call on her radio that made Fang’s brow furrow.

  “We’re on our way,” she replied. A few moments later they turned into an automated parking lot packed with cars. Two other police cars, their lights still flashing, blocked both entrances.

  Cai stopped her car behind the first one, making sure their suspects couldn’t ram their way out through them. Fang and she got out and, staying low, ran to the driver’s side. “Where is it?” he asked.

  The officer pointed at the crumpled rear end of the pickup sticking out behind a van with tinted windows. “Pure luck that we spotted it. I thought we’d lost them, but then Jun saw the rear of the truck there, and we immediately blocked them in.”

  “Call for backup. They’re armed and very dangerous,” Fang said. He glanced at Cai as he drew his revolver again. “You ready?”

  She also drew her service weapon. “I cannot promise to take them alive.”

  “You don’t have to take the man alive, just the woman and children if possible.” Fang didn’t elaborate on why, feeling his reasoning was obvious. “Apprehend them any way you can. We’ll parallel each other on the approach. I’ll take the front, you take the rear, all right?”

  She nodded.

  “What about me?” the other patrolman asked.

  “You stay here and back us up if needed,” Fang replied. The officer nodded and checked the load in his own revolver.

  “Let’s go.” Staying low, Fang headed around the car’s hood to the front of the row of vehicles. He waited until Cai had reached the back of the row, then they started walking toward the van in front of the truck.

  It took less than a minute to reach the large van, and Fang held up three fingers, counting down silently. On one, he rushed forward to cover the driver’s side with his pistol.

  “Don’t move! Don’t—”

  It was definitely the same truck they had been chasing throughout the city, but there was no one inside.

  A flash of movement alerted him that Cai had reached the passenger side. She glanced up at him and shook her head. Fang reached for the driver’s door handle and jerked it open, only to be greeted by an empty seat. He checked the rear cargo area, but they were gone. A scattering of brass cartridge jackets on the floor was the only evidence that a gunman had ever been inside in the first place.

  Fang stood on the floor of the truck and lifted himself up to look around, trying to find any trace of where they might have gone. The parking lot was framed by two multistory buildings to the west and south, and the open street on the north and east, all of which were framed by more buildings with narrow alleys in between. Even with the Caucasian, all they needed was a one-minute head start to get to cover, and it would take a small army of police to search every direction they might have gone.

  He slammed his fist on the truck’s roof hard enough to dent it, then got down and walked over to Cai. “Come on.”

  They trotted back to the other two cars. “Get on the radio and get every patrol car in a ten-kilometer radius here right now,” Fang said. “The three of you start a street sweep in your cars, you take east, the other two split up west and south. I’ll wait here for the reinforcements and direct them where to go. You’re looking for a one-point-nine-meter-tall Caucasian man with blue eyes, and three Chinese—a woman in her late thirties or early forties, and two preteen children.”

  “Got it.” Cai began talking on her vest mike while running.

  Fang was left to look around in frustration, wondering how they could have gone to ground so quickly. It’s not over, however, he thought as he pulled out his phone and dialed headquarters. Not over by far.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The Mercedes-Benz sedan was incredible. Even though it was a six-figure luxury car in China, Bolan still felt invisible behind its tinted windows, which he suspected were illegal in the city, but right now he didn’t care.

  He checked on the kids, who were now both slumped over, fast asleep in the soft, wide backseat. Then he looked over at Baozhai, who was fighting to stay awake.

  “You might as well get some sleep. We won’t be there for a while,” he said.

  After abandoning the white truck and disappearing into the neighborhood, they had walked a dozen blocks then paused to catch their breath. Bolan had taken the still-sleeping boy from Baozhai halfway through their trip, and had looked around to find that they were near a cluster of sleek high-rise buildings surrounding a small park. A large backlit sign was prominent.

  “Let me guess, it’s an insurance company?” he’d asked.

  Baozhai shook her head. “Commercial real estate. One of the largest in the city.”

  “Even better. Come on.” He started walking toward the nearest brightly lit lobby.

  “What are you doing?” Baozhai said as she hurried to catch up with him. “They have cameras everywhere!”

  “That’s not a problem.” He walked up to the door and stood in front of it for a few seconds. After about a minute the light changed from red to green, the door clicked and Bolan pulled it open.

  “Where are we going?” Zhou asked.

  “To get a new set of wheels,” Bolan replied. They walked to the elevator and down to the parking level, which was much cleaner than the previous one. Outside the elevator, Bolan stepped into the middle of the first row and just stood there.

  “What are we doing here?” Baozhai asked. “We need to keep moving, right?”

  He nodded. “Right. And—” he waited until the lights of a car halfway down the row flashed twice “—that’s our new ride.”

  Walking over to the burgundy Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG, he opened the driver-side door.

  “We’re really going to steal this car?” Baozhai asked.

  “Well, it’s at least forty kilometers to the airport we need to reach,” Bolan said as he opened the rear passenger door and deposited the boy on the backseat. “So unless you like walking, this is how we’re getting there. Don’t worry, I’ll drop it off at the airport parking lot, the police will eventually find it, and it’ll be returned to the owner none the worse for wear. Now come on, everyone’s been through enough tonight as it is.”

  She hesitated only long enough to sit, but once she sank into the dove-gray leather seat, it was all over. She had put her seat belt on, and only when they were out of the parking structure—with the gate and barrier both rising as if by magic in front of them—did she truly start to relax.

  “Where—” she spoke through a huge yawn “—are we going now?”

  “You and the kids are being dropped off at an airport, where a private plane is going to take you out of the country. You’ll be safe.”

  “Thank you.” She exhaled a quavering sigh. “I know I have no right to ask this, but what about my husb
and?”

  “He’s why I’m not coming with you,” Bolan replied. “I’m going to try to find him, as well.”

  “Oh—” Her eyes shining with tears, Baozhai clapped both hands over her mouth. “Oh, thank you, sir, you have no idea what that means to me.”

  “Don’t be thanking me just yet. We’re still looking for him,” Bolan replied. “We found you and your kids easily enough, but there are a lot of places where your country sends its political dissidents that are way off the radar.”

  “But you will find him, right?”

  “We’ve got our best people on it right now. If there’s any possible way, we’ll locate him.”

  Baozhai leaned back in the seat and watched through the darkened windows at the passing streetlights. “I will pray for your success.”

  Bolan glanced sidelong at her. “Are you a religious woman?”

  She smiled ruefully. “Not until tonight.”

  “What’s that old saying about no atheists in foxholes?”

  That brought a true smile from her, which Bolan matched. “It was unfair of your country to persecute your husband for doing what he thought was right.”

  “But when they are saying that what he is doing is acting against China’s best interests, who is right, then? It is just like your Edward Snowden, yes? But I do not see your President offering him a pardon.”

  “It’s true, he broke the law,” Bolan replied. “But at the same time, he did what he thought was right to uncover what he saw as illegal activity undertaken by our government. There comes a time when too many secrets held by a few against everyone else becomes as limiting as open aggression. While I may not agree with his methods, I have to respect his conviction to risk everything to do what he felt was right.” Bolan glanced at her. “Just like your husband is doing.”

  She nodded. “I just hope you can find him in time.”

  “We’re doing everything we can to locate him,” he replied. “You should try to get some rest if you can.”