***
Meanwhile, Noah pulls hard on the steering wheel and propels his head inside and knocks the side of Boris’s head.
Disoriented, the driver starts swerving wildly.
The motion is just enough to loosen slightly the tight grip that Dima has on Olivia. She pulls her arm away from him then swings it back, delivering a sidearm smash to his head.
Again not a whole lot of effect. She tries flailing but Dima is just too strong. “For that, I do you twice.” With his teeth, he rips off part of Olivia’s top.
Noah sees this and throws his elbow at the driver’s jaw, knocking him out. Unconscious, the driver’s foot stays on the accelerator and the SUV picks up speed.
Noah grabs the steering wheel and steers away from oncoming cars and pedestrians. Totally crazy. One wrong inch and someone’s gonna get killed.
Dima roars and reaches out to grab Noah. This is the distraction Noah wanted.
“Get out, Olivia!” shouts Noah as Dima’s hand reaches for him.
Olivia opens the side door but sees Dima’s hand choking Noah. Dima is about to mash Noah’s head against the steering wheel when Noah quickly jabs a thumb into the Russian’s eye.
Dima backs off, howling in pain.
Noah leaps into the back, grabs Olivia, and the two jump out the side door.
Noah holds her tight to cushion her from the impact of hitting the ground. Landing on Noah’s side, they roll twenty feet before coming to a stop.
Both look up to see the SUV straightening itself out and losing itself among the traffic.
Noah painfully smiles. “Why is it that when I’m with you, I get shot at, mugged and attacked?”
Olivia shrugs. “Maybe I’m your good luck charm.”
***
“Hello.”
“Okay Queenie. Job is done.”
“I hope you didn’t hurt them. Just scared them, right?”
“We are professionals. You say kill them, we kill. You say hurt them, we hurt. You say scare them, we scare. You say make the guy a hero, the guy’s a hero.”
“Good enough. Five thousand coming at you.”
Five g’s for an hour’s work. Not bad by anyone’s standards.
“I like doing business with you. What do you want me to do with the Chinaman? I can remove him now if you like.”
“No, I need you to keep him neutralized but alive for a few days.”
“That’s another five. Alexei has an apartment.”
Queenie is well aware of this space. When she has a shipment, she often makes deliveries there. Among the ‘goods’ stored there are a slew of young Russian and Ukrainian girls, brought over illegally to serve as prostitutes. Alexei knows what the girls are worth and would never let them escape.
“The apartment is perfect.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Perfect is not likely the word Wangdan would use to describe his situation. When he wakes up, he is surprised to find out that he is in a room with a dozen young girls, all between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. All the girls are so thin they seem anorexic. They are also listless with glazed eyes. Looking at their arms shows rows of pinprick scars. All are wearing threadbare shorts and T-shirts.
This large windowless concrete room itself is a pigsty. Stale smoke, stale urine, stale body odor and stale sex permeate the room. Old boxes of Chinese takeout, pizza, Ukrainian sausage and perogies are on the floor, sofa and counters.
These are the girls that make men’s fantasies come true. Once every hour, the door opens and some tough comes in and pulls selected girls out of the room. In twenty minutes, they are washed, have their hair blow dried, have make-up applied by professional quality estheticians, all turning them into delectable young harlots for a clientele that includes diplomats, judges, Wall Street brokers, and politicians. The girls always satisfy their men no matter how perverse or kinky the requests. They have seen what happens if they don’t.
Wangdan approaches them and asks, “Where are we?” but there is no response. They are too afraid to say anything. Wangdan sees one of them looking at a clearly mounted video camera and he understands their reluctance to speak.
Inside this concrete prison, his cell phone is useless for its normal function of talking with the outside world, but that doesn’t stop it from being a tool of communication.
Wangdan deftly turns to angle himself so that the video camera cannot see what he is doing. He types a note on the cell phone. “How to get out?” and discreetly shows it to one of the girls.
The girl leaps up and slaps Wangdan on the face and screams at him. “I wouldn’t have sex with you in a million years. In ten seconds, the door is going to open and someone is going to come in and beat the crap out of you.”
She then tries to kick Wangdan in the balls but she is too high to have control of her muscle coordination and she stumbles to the floor unconscious. She was not too high to have communicated exactly what she needed to. Unseen by the video cameras, she mouths to Wangdan, “Save me.”
Just like the unwilling young prostitute predicted, the door bursts open and three toughs enter. They’re frustrated because they have to babysit Wangdan, irritated that they can’t kill him, and mad because he’s trying to have sex with the girls for free.
Raoul, two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of Russian muscle, barks, “No freebies. Leave the girls alone,” and launches a ham-fist right at Wangdan’s head.
Bad move.
Wangdan ducks Raoul’s arm strike and counters with a kick to the groin.
No effect.
The two other toughs rush at Wangdan but the Shaolin master strikes out with his palms, hitting each bruiser in the throat.
Raoul charges at Wangdan but Wangdan dives at his legs with arms extended and takes the Russian’s feet from under him.
Raoul wheels around, only to have Wangdan’s fist meet his jaw. Raoul’s tongue is caught between his upper and lower jaw and the tip of it gets cut off. Blood starts flowing out.
The other two shake off the pain and attack Wangdan with hands and feet. Right arm. Left leg. Double arm. Open hands. Closed fists. Using every means possible. Wangdan parries and deflects every blow, countering with his own punches and kicks.
In a fair fight, a street fighter is no match for the agility and skill of a martial arts master. However, the Russians have not built their reputation for being the most brutal gangs in the world by fighting fair. They have nothing like the Shaolin code of honor in battle nor the underlying Catholic morality of the Mafia. No, the only principle is to win at all costs.
Raoul takes out a gun and fires rapidly.
Wangdan picks up the first thug and uses him as a shield. Raoul’s first bullets penetrate him.
Raoul then fires at Wangdan’s legs, but the second gangster is thrown to the ground and his body suffers the full slug attack.
Raoul now has a clear shot at Wangdan and fires his last two bullets.
The ammunition flies through the air. Wangdan stands firm and grabs them out of the air! The hand-eye coordination required to do this is found only at the highest level of Shaolin mastery.
Raoul cannot believe what just happened. Wangdan charges at the Russian and with two powerful hammer punches knocks him unconscious.
One of the thugs on the ground has an open shot at Wangdan and is about to fire when one of the young girls jumps on him and pushes a used syringe into his hand.
It gives Wangdan a moment to recover and he delivers a knockout blow to the head of the third assailant.
All three attackers are decommissioned. The girls swarm their unconscious captors and beat them but they are so weakened and malnourished, their blows have little effect. So they satisfy themselves with rifling through the men’s wallets.
Jackpot. Five thousand bucks in cash. The leader of the girls fearfully hands it to Wangdan. “You save us?”
Wangdan nods. “I save you.”
All the girls are now free. But with no proper clothes and no papers ... where are
they to go?
***
Olivia and Abby lie on the bed together side by side staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly, New York is even more of an adventure.
“He likes you still,” says Abby.
“He would have done that for anyone. Remember, he’s a missionary’s kid. Saving the world is in Noah’s DNA.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
Olivia sighs. “He could have been killed. I could have been killed ... but we are so different.”
“Different is good.”
“How about we talk about you instead?”
“My clock’s ticking,” says Abby.
“You’re killing me, Abby. You’re not even thirty. You’ve got at least a dozen years. Besides, there’s no one in your life.”
When Abby is silent, Olivia comes to a realization.
“No, you’re not thinking of Tim, are you?”
“No. Besides he’s married and has three kids.”
“He’s divorced.”
“Even if he is, I am so not ready for motherhood.”
“Then ... are you asking about Noah because you’re interested in him?”
“Olivia, are you out of your mind? No way. Even if I had the slightest interest, which I don’t, I would never go after the ex of my best friend. Besides, I hate martial artists.”
“You’re interested in Jonny? He owns a studio, he’s got connections in the biz, and he is definitely hot.”
“Remember my no Asian guys rule, girlfriend?”
“Well that pretty well cleans out the list of everybody I know you know, at least in recent memory.”
“Not everyone.”
Olivia’s eyes widen. “You said no Asian guys. You just said no martial artists.”
“I haven’t broken the rule yet.”
“But you might?”
Abby smiles coyly. “You know what they say about rules.”
***
When he got back to The Seventh, Noah spent an hour in the Jacuzzi, then half an hour in the steam room, then got a massage for an hour, then slept for two. Now Noah steps out of his half hour shower, finally starting to feel human again.
He looks at his cell phone but still no message from Wangdan. Yes, Noah knows that stuff was on the martial artist’s mind, but it is completely out of character for him to not be in communication all day.
There is something else bothering Noah too. It was almost too easy to escape from the Russians. The Russians are undoubtedly the most ruthless and fierce thugs in the world, far surpassing the Yakuza, Triads and Mafia.
The two that snatched Olivia were either stupid, extremely junior ... or maybe they were instructed to let Noah and Olivia get away. None of these options makes any sense though.
Or maybe he’s just reading too much into the situation...
At any rate, if Wangdan isn’t going to show up, he is going to go to Skyscape by himself.
He sends Wangdan a text.
Sorry I missed you today. If you can make it, there’s something happening at Skyscape at 5:30. Likely, dinner with the girls afterwards. Call.
***
Funny how pressure brings people closer together. Even an estranged father and daughter.
“So how do you think I proceed from here?” asks Queenie.
“This is where things are critical. You have everything in place?”
“As well as can be imagined.”
“Be prepared to constantly improvise. From here on in, there is no map that is guaranteed to lead you to where you want to go because there are just too many variables.”
“Everything’s happening at Skyscape. That’s a controlled situation.”
“Yes, you have control of the space but that’s not the concern. People are fluid, unreliable, and inconsistent. You don’t have the money in place. You don’t know what everybody is thinking. They can always change their minds. And Noah? He has shown he won’t give up the money even if the lives of all his friends are on the line.”
“You are too pessimistic. Let’s assume that I can pull everything off. What happens then?”
“You can do with the girls whatever you want, but save Noah and Wangdan for me. Noah killed your brother Larry, and Wangdan killed your brother King. That’s not something a father forgets.”
“Excuse me, I have to take this call.” Queenie hits the call waiting button. “Yes, Alexei.”
“The Chinaman escaped.”
Queenie’s face drains of color. People are fluid, unreliable, and inconsistent. “Does he know who captured him or why?”
“Nyet.”
Is that Nyet as in ‘no’ in Russian or nyet as in the short form of ‘not yet’? In either case, Queenie can’t dodge bullets forever.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Two fabulous-looking young women step off the elevator. Noah smiles in approval as they approach. “Am I allowed to say how good you look, or would you consider that an act of male chauvinism?”
“We’ll take a compliment any day,” says Abby. “And you look very handsome too.”
“Where’s Wangdan?” asks Olivia.
“Haven’t seen him all day. He was gone before I woke up and still wasn’t back when I left. My best guess is that he ate a famous New York hot dog and got sick. That’s the trouble with vegetarians. Start barfing at the whiff of dead cow or pig.”
“That’s too bad. He’s a nice guy,” says Abby, hiding any hint of disappointment.
“Actually, he’s a huge pain in the ass. I have to put with him because he saved my life,” says Noah.
“Really, or is that another Reid joke?” asks Abby.
“For real. In China, we were attacked by snakes, martial artist navy seal types, and Wangdan came to the rescue. Or at least that’s an edited Reader’s Digest version.”
Abby tries hard not to show any emotions about this. “Maybe he can join us for dinner.”
“Only if you like rabbit food. Personally I’m kind of tired of discovering the thousands of ways of eating tofu,” says Noah.
He looks to Olivia and asks, “Why did you say it would take three business days to transfer funds? It shouldn’t take that long.”
“I just said three days to cover my butt.”
“If you like, I’d be happy to uncover your butt.”
“Now you know why he’s an ‘ex,’” says Olivia to Abby. “C’mon, let’s go.”
They exit the apartment building doors.
***
An hour and a half later, Wangdan is back at The Seventh with a dozen young Slavic girls. He has bought them all some new clothes, fed them, and they’ve all taken turns using the shower and bath in Wangdan and Noah’s hotel suite. Giggling and talking like teenagers should be talking, it doesn’t take them long to adjust to freedom.
They ignore Wangdan as he sits at a computer. He does a Google search. A frown shows on his face. Another search. Deeper concern.
Things are now crystallizing for him and he knows he needs some help. But not from Noah. This is not his expertise.
He makes a call.
***
“Are you crazy, Wangdan? I want to sleep for another five hours,” says a bleary-eyed Sam who is half-sleeping as he holds his cell phone to his ear, lying on the bed.
“Don’t hang up!”
Sam inhales. “This is so not cool. You and Noah leave me stranded here and now this poor defenseless child has to fend for himself. What if I got eaten by a bear? What ...”
“Get online. Now!”
There’s something about the tone in Wangdan’s voice that tells Sam something is up. He leaps out of bed and dashes to a computer.
“Done. What is it you want?”
“Check your email. I want you to tell me who these people are.”
Sam clicks onto his email and opens two files. One of them is the Facebook photo of that guy at the club who Wangdan thinks helped out the gorilla. The other is a link to a YouTube video of Wangdan pounding on the gorilla—someone with a camera phone
obviously thought it would be cool to show some martial artist in action.
“Wangdan, you are so the man! What up?”
“The guy at the end of the video helping the gorilla and the guy staring at us in the club? Are they the same person? If they are, I want you to tell me who he is.”
“Who do you think I am? You’re in New York. Get someone at NYPD to do it.”
“What am I supposed to say? I think this guy saved someone that I beat up?”
“So what makes you think I can do it?”
“Because I’m going to pay you a hundred bucks to do it. Two hundred if you can tell me within half an hour.”
“Consider it done. And get ready to pay me two hundred.”
“That’s what I’m counting on.”
What Wangdan is counting on is that Sam is like a lot of other young computer geeks for whom something like this is a personal challenge – and that they will be able to hack into anything if you give them enough time. And if they can’t do it themselves, they’ll know someone who can. That’s why Wangdan offered the bonus for quick delivery.
Wangdan is right on the mark. Sam asks his gaming buddy, IAMTHEWALRUS, a favor.
Hey Walrus, you got time?
Depends.
Fifty bucks time.
I’m interested.
Can you hack into NYPD database and find out who these two losers are? Sam quickly sends the files to Walrus.
Wow. Who’s the ninja?
Good buddy. Can you do it?
More.
More what?
More dough what else?
Seventy-five
A hundred.
Done.
***
At precisely 5:32 p.m., Abby, Olivia and Noah enter the lobby of the Vector Building to find the three old guys from the morning meeting, Byron, Leonard and Jeff, in deep discussion with Queenie. None of them seem to notice the newcomers.
The Noah Reid Series: Books 1-3: The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series Boxset Page 51
