She couldn’t manage the slope as quickly as Connie, and at one point needed a hand up to get over a fallen trunk, but they made it to the ridge, a bit winded, but not too scratched up by the underbrush. Another few hundred meters south along the ridge brought the area under the dam into view, in a spot clear of excessive foliage.
“Nobody here,” Ip said.
Connie sat on the ground, legs straddling a large rock, and scanned the area for a suitable base. “We’ll give it another minute, and try to catch our breath. Give me a range to the center of the railing below the dam.”
“One, two, two, five,” Ip read from the scale.
“Good, twelve hundred twenty five. Look for anything moving in the wind, give me the reading.” Connie scanned the horizon for buildings roughly their height. “Eight stories… which puts us at roughly nine hundred,” she muttered, and went through the MOA calculations, and adjusted the scope on her rifle with a series of clicks. “No place to lie down. I’ll have to use this tree, lean against the trunk, rest my hand on this branch. Field is free.”
A distant rumble, the sound of an automobile engine racing. A moment later, a lone sedan cleared a corner a half klick away, veering slightly toward one side, then finding a straighter line toward the dam. Connie trained her scope on the windshield and gestured to Ip to do the same.
“Tell me what you see. Who’s driving?”
“Too dark. One person. No one in other seat.”
“Either she’s alone,” Connie said. “… or she’s trying to draw them away from the kids… or they’re in the back, behind the seats.”
“Tinted windows in back. Too dark.”
“More sedans. I think we picked the right spot.”
Ip laughed. “Now what?”
Connie lined up the crosshairs on the lead pursuit vehicle and calculated the probabilities. She might take out the first driver, and the second, since they were in one line, but she wouldn’t be able to take out the others, and the passengers would scatter before she could get to them. They might even send a team to their position. No, a better moment would come once they’d exited the vehicles.
The car almost rolled over at the speed Emily took the ramp, and she had to stomp on the brakes to take the turn at the bottom. Left went under the highway and looked decidedly more promising, more lights, more turn-offs. Right led away from the lights and the city. A lonely country road with no turnoffs would just box them in. There was no traffic on the streets at the far end of Pu’er, but she flicked the headlights on anyway, so as to blend in if that became possible, or necessary.
A four lane road circled around the north edge of the city, and Emily figured she could choose one of the avenues, speed down a block or two, and double back unseen to the highway and head south again. Of course, this all depended on making the first few turns before the pursuit had eyes on her.
Yu Fei had said to wait until morning to cross, which meant they needed to find a place to hide and rest along the way. But for now, the most important thing was to get off this road and into the warren of city streets, where they might have a chance of disappearing, then ditch the car in Xishuangbanna and find a ride to the border. Emily had run the ever-changing details of the plan through her mind a few hundred times already, and found it difficult to turn her mind to anything else.
Sitting on the front porch of the farmhouse, Yu Fei had dismissed the idea that the authorities would be able to track an electronic signal in these mountains, but Emily hadn’t been nearly as confident. Events seemed to confirm her suspicion.
“I can draw them away, but they’ll come back, maybe within a day.”
“It doesn’t matter. When they return…”
“When?”
“… we will deal with them. We may not have been born on the same day, but we will die on the same day.”
“But that’s…”
“Yes, it’s that stupid line Shao Yao is always quoting. I’m sure he bored you with it, didn’t he?”
“Well, yes… he told Li Li all about it.” Yu Fei scowled and shook her head. “But Li Li was charmed.” Emily noticed a new glow on Yu Fei’s face, and her eyes seemed to sparkle. “Don’t stay here, waiting for them. It’s suicide.”
“No. This is the only way. He can’t be moved yet, and I am prepared to pay him what I owe.”
What did she owe Shao Yao? The thought danced before Emily’s eyes, as she raced through the side streets on the north end of town. The cold, bleak architecture of the buildings brought a sudden realization – these are the city government buildings. Of course, there was no traffic here now. But it was too late to force her way downtown, where the nightlife would still give her some cover. A gray sedan pulled alongside, very much a fellow traveler of the car she drove, and prevented a left turn. Two more sedans up ahead blocked the through way and forced her to veer right, onto an access road. There was nothing to do but press the pedal to the floor and hope to outrun them, but the area they were funneling her to was dark and empty. Around the next bend, the concrete façade of a large dam came into view and Emily recognized the dead end her pursuers had in mind. Now she understood what Yu Fei thought she owed her lover. She means to sacrifice herself, to die with him as they had lived.
31
A Women’s Reunion
“Get out,” Emily shouted over the seat back. “Hurry. You can make it to the trees.” The car drifted sideways and rocked to a halt at the far end of the dam’s runoff apron, a large paved area, but covered here and there by silt from past releases of water. The sedan now faced the direction their pursuers would have to arrive from. But the children hadn’t moved, their eyes frozen, gaping at her. “Run while there’s still time.”
She’d bought them maybe fifteen seconds on the approach to the dam. If she could delay the men in the cars that were about to make the last turn, Stone might be able to lead Li Li over the ridge, though she had no idea what might lie beyond it. She had no reason to think he’d know what to do next, or even how to take care of Li Li, keep her safe in a strange land, much less find a way to bring her home. He’d found them by some sort of miracle that she hadn’t had time to ferret out of him. Perhaps the same magic that had brought him this far could carry them both home.
First two cars rounded the corner, tires squealing, then three more, then a sixth paired with a dark van, and Emily gunned the engine and tore off in their direction once Stone pulled Li Li out of the back seat, the door swinging shut from the force of the acceleration. If it had been a game of chicken, Emily would have won, but she couldn’t risk such an ultimate challenge before the kids had time to clear the ridge. So she spun the wheel again and brought the sedan perpendicular to their advance, popped the door open and stood gingerly, glowering at them over the hood, hoping to use the car to conceal how weak she really was.
In a matter of seconds, the sedans took up positions on all sides, effectively surrounding her, but whoever was driving the van didn’t fall for the distraction she’d hoped to set up, and sped to the far side of the dam to head off Li Li and Stone. Emily watched helplessly as several men poured out of the sliding door and corralled them. The worst had come to pass, and no sacrifice on her part, no hideous paroxysm of violence was likely to save them.
Still, violence was in the air, and Emily felt it in her heart, despite the overwhelming feeling of helplessness. Today, it was Stone’s turn to act, when one of the men in the gray suits tried to grab Li Li – a wrist seized and twisted down and back, a kick to the knee of a second man who tried to intervene. The voice in Emily’s heart approved of his newfound ability to defend in more than one direction at a time. A third man tried to apply a stun gun to Stone’s neck, but a quick turn – still clutching the first man’s wrist, dragging him around like a screaming ragdoll – and he slapped the gun away, and swung his open hand back again to slap him to the ground. He followed the rotation through with a now clenched fist to strike down the second man, before bringing his knee through the face of the hapl
ess ragdoll.
More men emerged from the van, and Stone readied himself, but another man came unnoticed around the front, and fired at him, a pair of wired spikes sticking in his shoulder. With back suddenly arched, and torso convulsed, a second pair of spikes struck him in the center of the chest, and in a few seconds he’d collapsed to the ground, twitching, helpless. Emily shouted to Li Li not to touch him for fear she’d experience the same current, but the distance was too great to be heard. Fortunately, when she threw herself on his still-trembling body, the stun guns were not sending an active charge, and she tore the spikes out and clutched his shoulders.
He’d been their savior in Kunming, coming on the scene unexpectedly, and taking advantage of the element of surprise to great effect. But here, though he’d fought bravely, he was no match for a team of seasoned professionals.
“They’re children,” Emily shouted. “Leave them alone. Take me, I’m here.”
None of the men responded, and all merely stared at her as if her words had no meaning. Finally, the door to one of the sedans opened and a tall woman stepped out, a face all too familiar, and the agony and self-doubt of Emily’s earlier judgments came back to her. She’d been right about Kit Yee all along. But what could she possibly want, and why had she mounted a full-scale operation to hunt them down? Emily had not anticipated anything like this. After all, they’d committed no crime, and ought to have been protected by diplomatic immunity.
“Bring the girl,” Kit Yee commanded, and one of her men signaled to the group by the van. Once they pulled Li Li off Stone and dragged her across the pavement, Kit Yee turned to face Emily. “You misunderstand, Captain Tenno. We have no interest in you. It is only the girl we care about.”
Emily stared at this apparition, her mind awash in abortive attempts to comprehend the instant reality confronting her in Kit Yee’s face. What game was she playing? It couldn’t be one last gasp of General Diao’s failed coup, not if she wasn’t a target. What other interest could drive such hate?
“She has diplomatic immunity. You have no right to hold her.”
“We shall soon see if that’s true. You will be detained until my superiors decide whether to expel you as a spy or execute you. In the meantime, we will hunt down your associates, your entire network.”
“Don’t shoot.” Connie pulled Ip’s arm down. “You’ll never hit anything from here, and it’ll just alert them to our position.”
Ip stared at her, waiting. “Do something, Mrs.”
Connie looked through the eyepiece of her scope and weighed the likelihoods again. If she fired now, she might be able to take down three or four before they took cover, but then they’d be on the run. If they made it back down the other side of the ridge, their vehicle didn’t have sufficient horsepower to outrun the Ministry’s cars, not to mention the tires or brakes. No, to shoot now would mean a death sentence for both of them, and the sacrifice would not prevent these people from harming Li Li or Stone, or Emily.
“Not yet. This isn’t our moment.” She reached out to check the suppressor on the end of the long barrel of her rifle.
“But young man… need our help,” she said, gesturing towards Stone and Li Li.
“The hero of this little drama hasn’t arrived yet.”
Connie winced as Stone’s body shook from the current, and Li Li covered him. “Our best chance is to cut the head off the snake.”
She believed this, though she couldn’t help wondering how Emily had allowed the situation to come to such a dire conclusion. She seemed to have left herself no tactical options. Through the scope, Connie saw that something was very wrong – Emily’s posture, the way her head lolled to one side, and especially the way she propped herself up on the hood of the car. She looked exhausted. But why hadn’t they moved to seize her, if she was as vulnerable as it now appeared?
Michael had told her about the first incident, but it only became concrete when Ip showed her the reports in one of the local papers – Terrorist Attack at Wudang Temple Complex – several dead, more wounded. If Emily had been involved, if she’d killed their fellow agents, it would make sense for them to be eager to take her down, to exact some measure of vengeance. But this looked more like a stalemate, even though the sides were so unequal.
When the passenger door on one of the Ministry sedans swung open, and a tall woman stepped out, Connie knew this was the person in charge. A sharp word to her subordinates, a hand gesture, and Li Li was dragged toward the central group of cars and people. Words passed between the woman and Emily, inaudible at this distance, and Connie watched through the scope, looking for an opportunity to place the crosshairs on her.
“Why no shoot, Mrs. Connie? Do something.”
“You have a soldier’s heart, my young friend, but not a tactician’s mind… at least, not yet.”
Another car came around the last turn into the runoff area, bearing down on the central group, and all turned to look. In a skidding stop, no doubt intended to overawe the others, the car came to rest a few feet away. When the driver stepped out, Connie’s eyes grew wide.
“Jiang Xi. What side is he on?”
Of course, she knew he had to be on Li Li’s side, but would he pawn Emily’s life, and Stone’s, to protect her? Her finger pulsed on the trigger as she searched his face through the riflescope for an indication. The answer came quickly. The tall woman said something through a sneer, and the agents nearest him turned to her for instructions. Jiang Xi drew his sidearm and shot the nearest three at point blank range in the back of the neck. The others dove for cover, though this offered them no protection from an unsuspected sniper, and Connie took this as the occasion to fire on the three men who remained by the van, and each one perished in her crosshairs, the noise concealed by the exchange of gunfire over and around the cars between Jiang and his adversaries.
“Why doesn’t she run?” Connie muttered under her breath. “If she stays there, Li Li won’t know to run either.”
She placed the crosshairs on the chest of the man holding Li Li, but hesitated to squeeze the trigger. There was too much movement around her and she couldn’t risk a miss. Meanwhile, Jiang Xi was pinned down by fire from two directions, and Emily collapsed behind a car.
“Has she been hit?” Ip asked. “Your friend, she down.”
The blood pounding in her ears made it difficult to hear anything, and an overpowering desire to spray the area with gunfire gripped Connie. Just shoot anything that moves. Sort them out later. Reason returned, and she fired on the man clutching Li Li to his side, resisting the urge to make his head explode, if only because she preferred not to shower Li Li with gore and brains. He spun around from the impact and Li Li pulled free and ran to where Emily had fallen.
The tall woman rushed around the car where Emily had collapsed and seized Li Li by the hair, pressing the barrel of a gun against her temple, and yelled something to Jiang Xi – probably an ultimatum to drop his weapon and show himself. Three other men remained alive, and they moved to surround him. In the quiet, Connie ceased firing as well, so as not to betray her position, on the off chance that the living were still unaware of her presence. Of course, as soon as anyone scanned the scene, they’d realize there had to be another shooter to account for the bodies by the van.
Jiang Xi dropped his sidearm and rose to his full height next to the sedan he’d used for cover, and Li Li struggled to free herself, reaching vainly behind to break the woman’s grip. After an exchange of words – taunts probably – Jiang Xi’s shoulders slumped. Had he finally given up hope?
“Do something,” Ip cried. Connie reached out to prevent her from charging down the slope and getting herself killed.
“Just another moment,” she said, speaking to herself more than to Ip. “Stop moving… calmly, now… that’s my girl.”
In the sudden stillness, the tall woman turned toward the van, perhaps thinking to check on her other victim, and noticed that all the men there were down. Instinctively, she scanned the ridgeline, an
d just as her eyes met Connie’s through the scope, the first round tore through the middle of her chest, knocking her back several feet, where she finally collapsed. In the instant of freedom, Li Li ran over to Emily and tried to rouse her, and Jiang Xi dove for his weapon, and fired several shots at the remaining men. Connie cleaned up the scene methodically, with deadly precision, and a quiet heart.
“Let’s go,” she said to Ip, and slung the rifle over her shoulder and turned back toward their car.
“Shouldn’t we help them?”
“They’re in good hands. He’ll know what to do, and we mustn’t leave a trace.”
“Who was large man?”
“A friend of the family… the girl’s uncle.”
32
Crossing Borders
“She needs more than this,” the man whispered. At least that’s what Emily thought he’d said, but his accent, or maybe it was the dialect he spoke, seemed strange. The sounds of an active kitchen clattered in the dim distance. She cracked open an eye to see Jiang shake his head, and he noticed that she’d stirred.
“He wants to bring you to a clinic, sifu, but if you stay here much longer, there will be questions. Do you understand?”
“Where are we?”
“You’re safe for the moment,” he said.
“Are we in a restaurant?”
“Yes. Upstairs, a friend’s apartment above her family’s restaurant.”
Emily craned her neck to glance around the room. “Li Li, where is she… and Stone?”
“Don’t worry, sifu. They’re safe downstairs… with your guardian angel.”
“Guardian angel?” Emily began to wonder if she really had awakened, or if this conversation was just another artifact of her delirium. But if she could even pose such a question, she must be conscious.
Girl Goes To Wudang (An Emily Kane Adventure Book 7) Page 33
