Through the gaps in the flooring, he could just make out a dark figure leaping and dodging above him.
Not SWAT. The assassin … it has to be Red Phoenix! he thought. Bernatto wasn’t lying after all.
Sean squeezed himself between the controls and the edge of the lift. Another shot streaked toward him, slamming into the lift controls. The panel exploded in a shower of sparks. Sean cried out, covering his head with his hands.
Caine cursed and turned his gun towards the lift. He aimed at the air hoses underneath the platform and pulled the trigger. After a brief crackle of gunfire, the gun’s magazine was empty. He heard a loud hissing sound. The hoses underneath the lift whipped and snaked through the air. His bullets had torn them to shreds, releasing the compressed air in the tanks.
The lift platform dropped. Its decent was slow at first, but an instant later it picked up speed. One more high-power shot rang out from above, but it struck the empty lift cage as the platform fell out of view.
The shadowy figure above him leapt through the gap and landed in a crouch on the floor, next to the empty lift. They were dressed head to toe in black tactical gear. A hood covered their face, and a variety of knifes, pistols, and other weapons hung from a harness. A DT SRS A1 Covert, a compact short-range sniper rifle, hung from a strap around their shoulder.
Caine charged towards them, swinging his empty gun like a club. The figure sprang up and sidestepped the blow. Whoever they were, they were small, nimble, and fast. Without missing a beat, the assassin closed in, pummeling Caine’s chin and shoulder with a series of rapid elbow strikes.
Their leg swung up in a sideways kick, aiming towards his knee. Caine twisted his body, blocking the kick with the empty gun. Then he released the gun and slammed an elbow into the assassin’s face. He heard a gasp of pain as the blow connected. The dark figure took a step back.
Caine hunched down into a boxer’s position … head down, shoulders up, hands loose in front of his face. He feinted with a left jab. The assassin bobbed on their feet, weaving back and forth like a cobra. Caine caught a glimpse of brown eyes beneath their hood.
Something about those eyes … he thought. They were familiar to him.
He pivoted and his right arm exploded out in a powerful hook. The assassin blocked with an open left hand, then clutched his shoulder as the punch went wide. Their right arm swung up, slamming into the crook of his arm. They ducked underneath his arm, grabbing his knee with both hands.
Their movements were like lightning … rapid, precise, and devastating.
Caine struggled to maintain his balance, but the assassin’s momentum was working against him. They spun their small body around, and he felt his leg raise up into the air.
As he slammed down to the ground, his legs sprawled open. The dark figure raised a foot into the air. Caine rolled right, barely avoiding their boot as it stomped into empty space.
He heard a deafening roar beneath him. The flooring rattled and vibrated. Through the cracks below, he could see some kind of massive vehicle moving beneath them. It was driving towards the edge of the foundation pit.
Caine spun his body around as the assassin’s leg shot forward in another kick attack. He hooked their descending leg with his left arm and pushed his body up, using his right arm as a lever across their knees.
The assassin tipped backwards and dangled over the edge of the building. Caine rolled on top of the dark figure and pulled his fist back for a punch attack.
As he swung, the assassin went limp, letting their upper body drop lower over the edge. His punch sliced through thin air. The assassin wrapped their legs around him. He felt powerful muscles crushing his torso.
Gunfire screamed overhead and ricocheted off the metal bars of the lift cage. Caine turned his head and saw more SWAT team members charging towards them. He knew that, unlike Sean, they had no need to take him in alive.
The rumble of the construction vehicle beneath them became deafening. Caine looked down and saw it moving directly beneath them as it exited the pit.
The assassin shifted their body and struggled to reach for a knife strapped to their harness. He grabbed their arm at the wrist and gave one last look back at the armed men storming towards his position. They were aiming their weapons, preparing to unleash another barrage.
There was only one avenue of escape left. Caine moved without hesitation. He rolled towards the edge of the building. The assassin gasped.
As the SWAT team opened fire, the two entwined figures tumbled over the edge. They plummeted towards the foundation pit below.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Sean grasped the metal railing in a white-knuckled grip. The plummeting lift wasn’t quite in free fall, but it wasn’t what he would call a controlled descent either. With a loud crash, the platform slammed into the bottom of the lift cage. A shockwave ran through his body from the impact.
He tumbled out of the cage, stood up, and looked back up at the building. He heard gunfire and saw sparks fly through the air as bullets ricocheted off metal girders. A massive rumbling filled the air. Something was moving towards him.
He turned and saw a massive dark shape rise up from the sunken pit below the construction site … a towering yellow construction vehicle bore down on him.
Sean darted to the side as the monstrous truck roared towards him. As he moved, he caught a glimpse of two bodies tumbling over the edge the building. They fell towards the truck. Then the mammoth vehicle was upon him, and he could see nothing else. It seemed to go on forever. The ground shook beneath his feet. Eight pairs of heavy-duty wheels, each one taller than him, thundered past.
More gunfire crackled above him. A man in SWAT gear looked down from the edge of the building and pointed his way.
“Time to bounce,” Sean muttered as he ran from the construction site. He headed towards the street.
Reaching the sidewalk, he waved his hands, struggling to flag down a taxi in the mass of traffic whizzing by. Instead, a sleek, white limousine cut through the rows of cars and cruised to a stop in front of him.
Sean squinted his eyes in surprise. The dark, tinted window hummed down, revealing the face of a beautiful Chinese woman. Something about her amused stare was hypnotic. He could not bring himself to look away. She leaned towards him. The creamy tan skin of her neck and chest was accentuated by droplets of jade … a dangling necklace splayed across her exposed skin.
“Ni hao, Sean. My name is Iris. Would you like a ride?”
“You know my name?” he asked in a hesitant voice.
He heard shouting behind him. He turned and saw the man in the expensive suit burst out the front door of the apartment building. The man jogged towards him, flanked on either side by SWAT team members.
“Your destiny is in your hands,” Iris said in a low, husky voice. “You can stay here, with them. Or you can come with me.” She smiled. “Either way, the choice is yours.” Again, Sean felt the hypnotic pull of her uncanny stare.
“Well, when you put it like that,” he muttered. He opened the door and slid into the back seat of the limo. Iris moved over to make room and arranged her flowing dress to cover her shapely legs.
The limo pulled away from the curb. “You see,” she said, as she turned away to look out her window. “I told you he would come. No one can escape their destiny.”
Sean turned and saw another figure sitting in the front of the limo. Dark shadows covered the man's face, but Sean could see he was dressed in a pristine white suit.
The man leaned forward. A cold smile flickered across his chiseled, handsome face.
It was David Fang.
“Welcome, Mr. Tyler. Please, don’t worry about your friend … My men will take care of him.”
Sean tried to force a note of confidence into his voice. “Wouldn’t count on that if I were you.”
Iris tilted her head, stared at him a moment, then laughed. “I like this one. He has yonqi … courage.”
“We shall see,” Fang snapped.
> The man reached into his ivory blazer and removed a short, fat knife. Chinese characters adorned its worn blade. The handle was smooth, polished wood.
“This is a lingchi knife, Mr. Tyler. It was used in ancient China to execute prisoners. Lingchi is known as ‘the death by a thousand cuts.’ Small knives like this cut tiny strips of flesh from a man's body, one at a time, over a period of days. Starting with the eyes, then the ears, then genitals. As you can imagine, death did not come quickly. And even worse, the mutilations were said to carry over into the afterlife. The victim was condemned to an eternity of pain and suffering.”
Sean eyed the knife but said nothing.
Fang placed the tip of the blade on his index finger. He twirled the knife until a tiny drop of blood appeared and ran down the length of his finger.
“Now, Mr. Tyler. Let us talk.”
“We’ve got nothing to talk about,” Sean said.
“Fahzhi, on the contrary. I am quite interested to hear everything you know about something called … TANGENT.”
Caine and the assassin struck the mound of earth and debris that filled the rear of the massive truck. They split and rolled in opposite directions towards the edges of the massive vehicle.
He grunted in pain as his head struck the metal sidewall. Every bone and muscle in his body ached, but he forced himself to stand. He struggled to maintain his balance as the vehicle shook and vibrated.
Looking around, he realized he was standing in the rear bin of a WTW220E … one of the largest dump trucks in the world. The incredible vehicle was almost fifty feet long and twenty-five feet wide. At over twenty feet tall, the goliath towered above the other traffic in the street.
Caine felt the vehicle lurch forward as it left the construction site and began to pick up speed. The roar of the engine was deafening, and wind blew dust from the vehicle’s payload into his eyes. The size of the truck was mind boggling. It felt as if a small city block had been torn up and placed on wheels.
Caine squinted, looking left and right, searching for the assassin. In front of him, the slanted wall of a demolished house jutted out from the hill of earth and rocks. It had been sheared off and deposited in the dump bin with the rest of the debris. Jagged shards of broken glass still clung to the window frame. Scraps of wood siding stuck out from the wreckage like broken bones.
He trudged forward through the loose earth and rock. As he moved towards the jagged wall, he heard footsteps pounding across the dirt. The assassin vaulted over the barrier and leapt through the air towards him.
Their feet struck him in the chest, knocking him towards the front of the truck. His head slammed into the metal wall of the bin. He threw up his hands just in time to block a rapid series of pummeling strikes. The assassin continued their furious assault. Caine pivoted his body left and right, bearing the brunt of each blow on his shoulders and forearms.
Ducking down, he scooped up a handful of dirt and flung it up into the assassin’s face. As they coughed and stepped back, Caine charged forward. His shoulder slammed into his attacker’s solar plexus.
He heard the assassin gasp for breath as he lifted them up into the air. He continued to push forward, ramming them into the remains of the house. They smashed through the broken window and tumbled to the ground on the other side of the wall.
Grabbing the upper sill of the window, Caine swung through the opening. He dropped down next to the prone, gasping figure in black. Dirt and rocks shifted beneath them as they struggled to get up. The assassin rolled away from him, tumbling down the side of the dirt mound.
Caine slid down the dirt after them. They were moving towards something sticking out of the debris. Caine squinted as his feet skidded down the mound. He realized it was the short-range rifle … It had fallen from the assassin’s shoulder when they struck the vehicle!
The dark figure rolled to a stop and reached towards the rifle’s polymer stock. Caine charged towards them, shifting his body to adjust for the vehicle’s motion. As he closed in, he dipped down and felt his hands wrap around a shattered metal pipe.
Dirt flew through the air as the assassin yanked the rifle from the debris. The bolt action clicked as they pulled it back with their free hand. Caine saw the green laser flash towards him.
Then he was on top of them. He swung the pipe. As it struck the rifle barrel, he heard the whine of a bullet whip past his ear. He had thrown off their aim just in time.
The assassin leapt to their feet. They tried to aim the rifle towards him, but the vehicle lurched into a right turn. The assassin wobbled on the loose dirt and rocks as they struggled to recover their balance.
Caine lunged forward, slamming the pipe into their gut with a loud thud. The dark figure dropped the rifle as they gasped for breath. Caine kicked it away and it clattered across the rocky debris.
He darted behind the assassin and wrapped his forearm around their throat. With his other hand, he yanked off their black hood and threw it into the wind.
A wave of long dark hair flew across his face.
“You!” he gasped. “You’re Red Phoenix!”
Finish it! the voice inside his head screamed. He tightened the grip on her neck. He felt her struggling, felt her nails clawing at his arms. He heard her gasp for breath.
She lied to you! She tried to kill you, tried to kill Sean!
He clenched his teeth. He knew the voice was right. She was dangerous. She had made him lower his guard, blinded him to her true intentions.
She’s an enemy, he thought. A foreign assassin. She’s a killer.
She’s just like you.
Suddenly, his body rebelled against his own cold, emotionless logic. He pushed her away. The woman fell to the ground. She rolled into a sitting position, her back against the shattered wall.
“Enough,” he said. “It’s over.”
Jia Zhao looked up at him, her face twisted in a combination of rage and sorrow. Her hand moved towards the knife on her harness as her chest heaved up and down, sucking in lungfuls of air.
Caine shook his head, “Don’t. Just don’t.”
She dropped her arms to her side.
He glared at her, panting for breath. “The prison riot … I didn’t save you, did I? You were trying to get arrested. You wanted them to bring you inside. So you could get to Sean.”
She returned his glare with equal intensity. “I had no choice. I was doing what I had to do.”
“A man named Ted Lapinski has leverage on you. He’s turned you, made you work for him.”
Her eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”
He looked down at her, still unsure if he had made the right choice. “What does he have on you? What made you turn? Money? Drugs?”
“Qu ta ma de ziji!” She spat the words out, like venom. “You think I would betray China for money? Do you know the things he made me do? Can you even imagine?”
“I can imagine.”
The truck lurched as it swung around a corner. Caine felt his body sway with the motion of the massive vehicle. To his right, above the edge of the metal dump bed, he could see row after row of tiny shacks. Abandoned homes, silent and empty, soon to be demolished for future construction.
Jia’s cold anger seemed to thaw slightly, and she gave him a curious look. “Perhaps you can. So why didn’t you kill me? What stopped you?”
Before Caine could answer, a pair of gray Audi sedans shrieked around the turn. They accelerated towards the massive vehicle.
Caine ducked down next to Jia as a hail of gunfire sprayed into the rear of the truck. Chunks of wood exploded from the crumbling wall. Without hesitation, his hand darted towards her chest. She gasped as his fingers wrapped around the barrel of a small pistol that hung from her harness.
“Hey, duibuqi!” she snapped.
Caine yanked the pistol from the holster and opened fire on one of the cars. The gun was a tiny Glock 42, chambered for .380. It was not a powerful weapon, but in Caine’s hands it was accurate and effective.
&nb
sp; The gun roared three times. Caine smiled as a spider web of cracks appeared in the front windshield of the lead Audi. The car’s wheels screeched across the pavement as it veered off to the side of the truck. He fired again, sending a double tap towards the other Audi. A man leaned out the rear passenger window of the sleek sedan. He was wielding a submachine gun.
Caine ducked back behind the mound of dirt as more bullets thudded around him.
“Are they from the Ministry?” Caine asked, shouting to be heard over the noise of the truck.
She shook her head. “I doubt it. Those vehicles and weapons aren’t standard issue. They must be Triad.”
“David Fang,” Caine snarled. “If he was watching the construction site, he may have captured Sean.”
Jia was silent. Caine glanced over at her. “I know your orders. Lapinski wants Sean dead.”
“Who are you, how do you know all this?”
“There are people in the U.S. working to expose him. This whole operation, what he’s done to you … it’s about to blow up in his face. When that happens, he’s going to have to clean up loose ends.”
Jia’s face went pale. “Wo zhiadao … I know. I’ve seen how he operates. He’s used me to clean up loose ends before.”
“This time you’re the loose end. You’re going to have to trust me. Jia, please …” Caine grasped her face in both hands. His emerald-green stare met her wide, fearful brown eyes. She looked confused … lost Something he had said had struck a nerve. “Trust me. Help me. And whatever he has on you, I’ll help you get out of it.”
Finally, she nodded. The frightened, lost look in her eyes hardened into a determined glare. “All right. I will help you. But if you betray me, I swear I will kill you.”
More gunfire pelted the dirt around them.
“Join the club,” he muttered.
Caine heard bullets ricochet off metal towards the front of the truck. The lead Audi was firing at the driver.
Red Phoenix: A Thomas Caine Thriller (The Thomas Caine Series Book 2) Page 27
