by David Archer
Her only hope, she had concluded, was to attack one of the guards and pray that he killed her in self-defense. She had begun watching out the window several times a day, paying close attention to the lone guard who always worked her side of the house. Every so often, the path he walked would bring him to just under her window. She began to think about jumping out onto one of them. If she could make enough of an impact, surely the man would turn and shoot her before he could think.
The server returned and took the tray away, but there was another knock on the door a moment later. She opened it to find Chung standing there with another man, a man who was considerably older and wore the look of someone who was accustomed to being obeyed.
“Sarah, this is Xiao,” Chung said. The look on his face was one of resignation.
Xiao stepped into the room and looked her over, walking all the way around her as he examined her from head to toe. Sarah steeled herself against the feeling that she was being undressed in his mind, and force herself to put on a smile.
“Mr. Xiao,” she said. “I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you.”
Xiao looked up at her, his eyes suddenly wide. “Go and sit down,” he said, pointing at the chair she used when she was eating. She looked at him for a moment, then went and sat down in the chair. Mr. Xiao followed her and sat in the other chair, just as Chung had been doing.
“So you are the driver for Camelot,” he said, more of a statement than a question. “Tell me about him.”
Sarah stared into his face, but said nothing. Xiao looked from her to Chung and back.
“I have no interest in you, young woman,” Xiao said. “I wish to know about Camelot. You will tell me what you know of him, now.”
Sarah raised her chin. “No,” she said, “I will not.”
Xiao struck so quickly that she didn’t even see him move, but his hand came across her cheek so hard that it threw her and the chair to the floor. Her head was reeling and she saw stars, and it took her a moment to realize what had happened. Blinking back tears, she rolled off of the chair and onto her back.
When she looked up, Xiao was looking down at her. “I will tell you this again,” he said. “You will tell me what you know of Camelot, and you will tell me now.”
Slowly, Sarah got onto her hands and knees, then pushed the chair back upright. She leaned on it, still somewhat dizzy from the blow, and got to her feet before sitting in the chair again. She looked at Xiao and steeled herself for whatever might come next.
“I will not,” she said.
Xiao stared into her eyes for a moment, then leaned forward. He reached a hand toward her, and she flinched backward, but he moved slowly until his hand rested on the side of her face, just where he had struck her. He gently caressed her face for a moment, but then, with the speed of a striking snake, he twisted his hand and drove his two middle fingers down into the flesh between her shoulder and her neck, digging in behind her collarbone.
She screamed. The pain was absolutely incredible—she never would have believed that anything could be like that. He dug in even deeper, and she wondered if he was going to rip her collarbone completely out. She reached up and grabbed his wrist, trying to push his hand away, but the man was incredibly strong.
It ended suddenly. He yanked his hand back and leaned back in his chair to watch her face. Sarah was crying, sobbing aloud at the agony she had just felt, but she forced herself to sit up straight and look him in the eye again.
“Young woman,” Xiao said, “you have been shown great patience until now. It is unfortunate for you, however, that my superiors insist that you tell me what we need to know. The simple tests I just used show me that you do not have sufficient tolerance for pain to resist me for long. Tomorrow, if you still refuse to answer my questions, I will show you pain a thousand times greater than what you have felt tonight. Think of this, as you try to sleep tonight.”
He rose from the chair and turned away, walking directly out the door. Chung was standing just inside it, simply looking at Sarah, and she could see the tears trying to overflow from his eyes.
The forbidden sympathy came without warning. She looked up at him and forced a smile onto her face. “It isn’t your fault, Chung,” she said. “Go on, now. I need to try to relax for a while, and I can’t do that with you watching me.”
He stood there for another minute, then turned and walked away. He pulled the door closed behind him.
There was no way she would be able to resist Xiao’s tactics, she knew. If he managed to begin his tortures, she would be broken within hours, at most. The thought of betraying Noah and Allison was simply abhorrent to her, and so she decided it was time to take action.
She got up from the chair and walked over to look out the window. As always, the single guard was pacing along the side of the house, and she waited until he had made it all the way to one end before she raised the window as quietly as she could. It wasn’t large, but fortunately she wasn’t either. When the guard turned and started walking back the other way, she stood back just enough to keep from drawing his attention to the window and waited until he would be just underneath.
She lunged headfirst, and her timing was perfect. She landed on the guard’s back and instinctively wrapped an arm around his throat, letting her weight drag them both to the ground. Her momentum, however, was still angular as she fell, and her body swung around as if his neck was a pivot pole. The grisly snap came as they hit the ground, and the rattle of exhalation shocked her as she realized that she had broken his neck.
The man was dead, and for at least a moment, no one was aware that she was outside. She grabbed the AK-74 he had been carrying and quickly made sure that its selector was set to auto, then threw her back against the house.
There were additional single guards on each side of the house, and she didn’t even entertain the notion of trying to fight her way out. She had picked up the rifle instinctively, but had no intention of deliberately engaging any of the guards; all suicidal thoughts had gone out of her mind at the moment she realized the guard was dead. The tree line was less than 100 feet away, and she sprinted forward immediately.
Just before she reached it, there was a shout from behind her. The burst of adrenaline that hit her at that moment thrust her forward even faster, and when shots rang out a moment later, she could hear them thudding into the trees behind and around her.
She’d been seen, which meant the rest of the guards would be coming for her. Her chances of escape had dropped to almost zero, she knew, but she wasn’t going to give up without a fight. She dropped into a small ravine and turned to face back the way she had come, the rifle steadied on the bank as she watched for the guards to enter the trees searching for her.
One of them came running in, charging like an enraged bull elephant, and her squeeze of the trigger sent three rounds into the center of his chest. He was dead before he hit the ground, and the next man to come running into the woods suddenly slowed, but not quite soon enough. Sarah got her sight lined up on him and squeezed off another three round burst. Two of those rounds missed him completely, but the third entered his right eye and blew most of his brain out the back of his skull.
Through the gaps in the trees, she could see that there were quite a few more soldiers approaching the tree line, but they were staying low and she couldn’t draw a bead on one of them. There was no real hope that she could escape, she knew, and suddenly the terrible weight of impending torture and the fear of her own betrayal of those she cared about was too much for her.
She slid down into the natural ditch of the ravine and put the butt of the rifle on the ground between her feet, while she leaned her forehead against its muzzle. She had her thumb resting on the trigger as she whispered a silent goodbye to Noah, to Neil and to her father, who didn’t even know she was alive.
She steeled herself to press the trigger, and everything went dark.
* * * * *
Hong Kong International Airport is on a small offshoot of La
ntau Island, a neighbor to Hong Kong Island. The mainland is reached by a highway that spans more than a dozen miles, and hops two other islands on the way. There is no direct bridge to Hong Kong Island, so it is necessary to drive almost 20 miles around and through the mainland in order to reach that portion of the city.
Team Camelot arrived at Hong Kong International at just after seven PM local time. The concern about being boarded turned out to be baseless, and they were able to leave the plane and walk into the customs line of the terminal with no problem. That line, however, turned out to be quite long because there was no special lane for private flights and two jumbo jets had landed just before they did. It was well after eight by the time they made it to the declaration desk.
When they finally got done with customs, Neil spotted a man holding a sign that said “Ross Duncan,” and pointed him out to Noah. The man smiled as they approached, held out a hand and said, “Mr. Duncan? I’m Peter McDermott. Welcome to Hong Kong.”
“Thanks, it’s great to be here,” Noah replied. “Got someplace lined up for us?”
“Yeah, and I hope you don’t mind,” McDermott said, “I’m putting you at the Island Resort, over on Hong Kong Island.” He was leading them out of the terminal as he spoke, but the walk to his car took almost fifteen minutes, itself. Once they were inside, he turned to Noah and became more official.
“Camelot,” he said, “it’s an honor to meet you. Heard an awful lot about you over the last year or so. I understand your situation, and I’m ready to provide anything you need, up to and including combat personnel.”
“Really? How is that?”
“It’s part of my cover. Officially, I’m the owner and manager of McDermott Corporate Security Company. We provide security to quite a few American-based businesses that have big offices over here. Most of my people are regular security guards, but I’ve got about two dozen that I don’t keep assigned to any one job, and every one of them was special forces before I got ’em. They’re all cleared, and I’d trust any one of them with my life or my wife.”
Noah nodded. “That’s good,” he said. “You were briefed on where I’m headed? The Tung Li Estate?”
“Yep. I don’t know the place personally, but I’ve heard of it. The resort where I’m stashing you is only about four miles away, but it’ll take eight miles of crooked road to get you there.”
“Okay, what about weapons and vehicles? I want to get out there tonight and do a full recon.”
“Well, if you want to go in stealthy, I’ve got just the thing for you. Ever heard of the Zero Motorcycle?”
“Electric motorcycles,” Neil said from the backseat. “Pretty awesome, from what I’ve read.”
“They are indeed,” McDermott said. “And I’ve got eight of them. We use them occasionally for patrolling construction sites, but they’re all free at the moment, and fully charged. Mine are the DS models, good for riding on the road, or off the road, and the nice thing about them is that they are just about silent. That sound like it would work for you?”
“Yes,” Noah said, nodding. “I’ll need three of them.”
“You got it,” McDermott said. He took out a cell phone and placed a call, telling someone to load three of the motorcycles into a truck and deliver them to the resort along with “that care package I put together.” When he got off the phone, he turned to Noah. “The care package you heard me mention is some weapons and equipment that we have on hand, stuff I think you might need. I got you set up with three Glock forties, couple extra mags for each and spare ammunition, plus three China South QCW-05 submachine guns. Don’t let the fact that they’re made in China throw you, these are some dandy little weapons. Fifty-round box magazine, sound-suppressed so it barely makes any noise at all, and accurate up to fifty meters with the silencer in place. If there’s a better gun for a nighttime stealth assault, I’ve never seen it.”
“Sounds good so far,” Noah said. “What about surveillance gear? How are you fixed for that?”
“In the care package,” McDermott said. “Three Armasight PVS7 goggles. Pure starlight vision, crystal-clear. Put them on in a pitch-black room and it suddenly looks like daylight, only green.”
Noah glanced over his shoulder at Marco, who grinned. He turned back to McDermott. “Peter, it sounds like you’ve got us pretty well set up. Let’s get to the resort, and we’ll do our recon tonight. By morning, I should be able to have a plan in place.”
“Sounds like a winner to me,” McDermott said. “My guys will be delighted if you can figure a way to include them in this thing. We’ve got an old factory building on the mainland that we use for training and practice, but they’ve been itching for some actual action for a long time, now.” He looked over at Noah and winked. “These boys are some of the best I’ve ever seen at what they do, and I used to train guys like them, back in the day. What I would’ve given for a class made up of these guys!”
“Then make sure they’re ready,” Noah said. “When I go in, it’s going to be fast and hard, and I’ll take all the help I can get.”
NINETEEN
Dear God, my head hurts, Sarah thought, and then it dawned on her that she shouldn’t be thinking anything at all. She carefully opened her eyes and saw that she was back in her room, and a quick but gentle hand on her head revealed a knot the size of a small egg.
“So you’re awake,” she heard, and looked to her right to see Chung sitting on a chair beside the bed. “You managed to give me quite a fright, Sarah. Mr. Xiao was impressed that you got so far, and even more so that you were actually attempting to end your life when he found you. The knot on your head was a gift from him, but at least it kept you alive.”
“I should’ve done it sooner,” Sarah mumbled. “For just a moment, I thought I could escape, but I should’ve known better. I should’ve shot myself as soon as I got the gun.”
“Considering Xiao’s anger,” Chung said softly, “I could almost wish you had, but there is that part of me that is glad you did not. I do not want you to die.”
“Do you think I give a damn what you want?” Sarah asked angrily. “Chung, for all your trying to be Mr. Nice Guy, you’re still the enemy. Do you honestly think I could ever forget that? You’re keeping me a prisoner, and while I admit that I find you charming, had I gotten you in my sights when I had that gun, you’d be dead. Do you understand that?”
“Of course I do,” he replied. “That is your duty as a captive, and as an enemy combatant. If you can escape, you must do so, and with no concern for the lives of those who might stand in your way. However, it should be obvious now that you cannot escape, nor will you be permitted the avenue of suicide. Xiao will begin his interrogation in the morning, and there is no doubt that you will eventually give him all of the information he wants.”
He leaned forward and gently put a hand on Sarah’s arm. “I am going to tell you something, and I hope you can understand it. I have asked for and received permission to keep you in my custody once he is done with you. There will be no more interrogations after that, and I will do everything in my power to see that you’re comfortable. You will have the best medical care and—”
Sarah yanked her arm away from his touch and glared at him. “What, you think you’re going to keep me as a pet? Don’t you get it? If he breaks me, I don’t want to live! I wouldn’t want to live here with you, or anywhere else!” Tears began streaming down her face, but they were tears of rage rather than grief. “You know, when I was first captured, I thought I was being sold into the sex trade. If I manage to survive what your Grand Inquisitor is going to do to me, then staying here with you would be no different than that. I’d be broken, and you’d be able to do anything you wanted with me. Dear God, I’d probably end up thinking I was in love with you.”
“Would that be such a bad thing? Your own life is over; there will be no going back once Xiao is done with you. Would it be so bad to be my lover, in that case?”
Sarah shook her head, amazed that he could be so stupid
. “And I actually thought you were a likable guy,” she said. “You want the truth? That would be a fate worse than death. Now, do me one last favor and get out of my sight.”
She rolled over and closed her eyes, but it was almost a minute before she heard him rise and walk out the door. When she was sure he was gone, she got up off the bed and changed into the nightgown, then crawled in under the covers.
I tried, she thought. I really tried, but at least I took a few of the bastards out along the way.
* * * * *
The rest of the drive was almost like a tour, with McDermott pointing out different landmarks and features of the city. By the time they crossed the last bridge onto Hong Kong Island, Neil was looking out the window and making occasional whispered comments about McDermott’s talkativeness. Marco elbowed him in the ribs a couple of times, but even he was rolling his eyes periodically.
When they got to the resort, McDermott took them inside and got them checked in, then waited while they carried their bags up to their room. When they came back down, he drove them down the street a short distance to where a Mercedes delivery van was waiting for them, with McDermott Corporate Security on the side. The logo for the company showed a car, a helicopter and a small airplane all emblazoned onto a shield.
The driver had already unloaded the motorcycles, and the weapons and other gear were packed into saddlebags mounted on them. The two men showed them how to control the night vision gear, gave them a quick explanation of the little machine guns, and then drove away.
Each of the motorcycles had a helmet sitting on it, and Noah said it was time to find out if Sarah was actually present at the estate. They put on the helmets and climbed onto the motorcycles, turned the keys, and cranked the throttles.
