Target For Revenge

by Laura Scott

  Sun didn’t mind driving in the middle of the night, far less traffic compared to the congestion that made getting around DC impossible in the daytime.

  But despite her exhaustion, she was keenly aware of Mack’s large presence beside her. He wore some kind of woodsy aftershave that was driving her batty.

  “Where exactly is this place?” Mack asked.

  She pulled her wayward thoughts together with an effort. “It’s an apartment building that looks like it should be condemned.” She glanced at him. “I’m planning to leave the car someplace safe, then hailing a taxi to get to his place.”

  Mack nodded. “The only problem with that idea is that it makes it difficult for us to leave in a hurry if something goes south.”

  “I know.” She’d already considered that possibility. “I can park it somewhat close, but I don’t want this vehicle to be compromised in any way.” Bad enough her safe house had been found, she didn’t want to give up her only vehicle.

  “Your call.” Mack’s affable agreement made her frown. It wasn’t like him to give in so easily.

  Then again, their reunion hadn’t been anything like she’d imagined.

  Of course, Mack hadn’t come to see her for personal reasons. Well, other than he’d been attacked and had discovered that she and her mother were in danger.

  But that wasn’t the same as finding her because they’d been friends and had often spent holidays together while other boarding school kids went home to their families. They’d bonded over their similar situations and bickered over everything else.

  And he preferred pretty blonde’s like Abigail rather than her.

  Whatever. All of that was in the past. She wasn’t interested in starting something with Mack, even if that was a possibility. Most of the time she found him incredibly annoying.

  “What’s the address of the apartment building?” Mack glanced up from the smartphone in his hand.

  She gave it to him, and he quickly punched the information into the phone.

  “There’s a drugstore that’s open twenty-four seven less than two miles from that area,” he said. “If we leave the car there, we can easily run back to that location if something goes wrong.”

  It irked her to admit he had a point. “Okay, fine. We’ll park the Chevy in the drugstore lot and walk over from there.”

  “Do you know where the drugstore is, or should I turn on the GPS?”

  She mentally visualized the area, irritated that she hadn’t thought of doing that herself. “I know where it is, thanks.”

  “No need to get testy,” Mack said, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

  “I’m not testy.” Although she knew her voice sounded like she was. “I have the same eidetic memory you do.”

  “Then why didn’t you think of going to the drugstore?”

  She tightened her grip on the steering wheel so she wouldn’t give in to the urge to punch him in the arm. After exiting the interstate, she drove down toward the drugstore. “Listen, when we get to the apartment, I want you to back me up outside while I go to talk to Hyun-woo.”

  “You’re not going in alone.” Mack’s voice was firm.

  Oh, for pity’s sake! “Are you going to argue every step of the way? I’ve already met with Hyun-woo, he clearly knows me. He won’t talk to you.”

  Mack scowled. “You’ve already mentioned it’s a lousy neighborhood.”

  “Yeah, but I’ve been there before and know how to take care of myself.”

  Another long moment of silence, up ahead she saw the lights of the drugstore sign. When she pulled in and parked, she turned toward him. But before she could say anything, he surprised her. “Fine, I’ll stay out of sight in the hallway.”

  Taking the compromise, she nodded. “Let’s go.”

  As it turned out, they didn’t see a single taxi as they made their way down toward the dilapidated apartment building where Hyun-woo lived. It burned her to admit Mack had offered the better option, but she didn’t plan to tell him that.

  His ego was already too big for his head.

  The apartment building looked worse in the dead of night, and a shiver of apprehension slid down her spine. She whispered, “He’s in apartment 2B, which is on the second floor to the right.”

  “Got it,” Mack replied.

  The door to the apartment building had a broken lock, no surprise there. The stairs creaked loudly as they took them to the second floor. Upon hitting the landing, she stopped abruptly when she saw the door to apartment 2B hanging open.

  Not good.

  She glanced at Mack. He had his weapon in his hand and clearly wasn’t going to stay in the hall. And maybe that was okay. This was one of those times it was nice to have backup, even though she was armed too.

  Giving the door a push, she gagged at the horrific smell that wafted toward her. And she knew in an instant what she’d find inside.

  Two steps into the room confirmed her suspicions. Hyun-woo’s dead body was sprawled on the floor, blood congealing around the deep slice in his throat that stretched from ear to ear.

  The North Korean defector had been murdered.

  Chapter Six

  January 19 – 2:38 a.m. – Geneva, Switzerland

  Hana kept her head down while keeping a wary eye on the people milling about the airport terminal.

  When she caught a glimpse of two men of North Korean descent, her blood ran cold. She held her breath, keeping her gaze down at the book in her lap. She’d decided to purchase one to give herself something to do and to help with her disguise.

  Now she feared her disguise was useless. If these men found her here, she’d be dead before she had a chance to board the plane heading to London and then on to Chicago.

  Only an hour had passed since she’d purchased her ticket, and there was still another hour to wait until it was time to board.

  Too long.

  She concentrated on slowly turning the pages of her book as if she were deeply engrossed in the story, rather than using every one of her five senses to keep tabs on the two men. How had they replaced the man she’d taken out of commission so quickly?

  Because the regime had hundreds of men who would jump to do Kim Jong-un’s bidding. No matter the cost.

  Each one of them knew they’d be dead regardless. Not following orders would get you killed, and if you died in the line of duty, then at least your death brought honor to your family.

  How messed up was that?

  After what seemed like forever, but was only fifteen minutes, the two North Korean’s moved on.

  Still, there was no time to rejoice. The Geneva airport was large, but there were likely more men searching for her now than the two-man team that had staked out her apartment building.

  The sick feeling in her stomach intensified. They’d be back. Oh yes, they would be back.

  She needed to be on board the plane before they discovered her true identity.

  * * *

  January 19 – 2:53 a.m. – Washington, DC

  “Sun? Let’s get out of here!” Mack clamped a hand on Sun’s arm, not liking this turn of events one bit.

  Sun nodded and turned away from the gruesome sight. He was mentally kicking himself for not coming to question Hyun-woo sooner, before he’d been taken out.

  As he headed to the door, a man darted out from the shadows. He reacted instinctively, kicking out at the gun in the guy’s hand. The weapon clattered to the floor, and from the corner of his eye, he noticed Sun kicking it farther out of reach.

  He struck again, hearing his sensei in his head. Strike, block, strike!

  The man backed up but didn’t go down despite the power in Mack’s kick. He had to give the guy credit, most men would have been on the floor by now.

  Sun joined the fight, kicking the guy’s head as Mack struck him in the chest. The duel assault made the guy stagger backward all the way through the doorway and slam into the hallway wall.

  In the back of his mind, Mack knew they couldn’t
stay long. Hand-to-hand was less alarming than gunfire, a sentiment Sun obviously shared as she hadn’t pulled her weapon, but this amount of noise was still bound to raise an alarm. Someone would eventually call the police, and while he had his creds, he wasn’t so sure Sun would be as protected as an employee of a private security firm.

  Sun kicked the guy again, in the chest, and the man groaned and then threw up. Mack figured he’d probably had enough and lifted a hand to stop Sun from coming at him again. He crouched next to the man, who appeared dazed and confused.

  “Who sent you?” Mack hissed in a low voice.

  The man wore a full face mask covering his features, and his head lolled to the side as if the man didn’t have enough strength to keep himself upright. Mack reached over to yank the mask off but stopped when he heard someone yelling through a door at the end of the hall.

  “The police are on the way!”

  He pulled off the mask. The guy’s face was swollen from where their combined kicks had connected with his cheekbone.

  The assailant was a stranger. And also not of North Korean descent.

  “Come on, Mack. We need to get out of here,” Sun urged.

  She was right, but he went through the guy’s pockets anyway. He found cash, a disposable phone, and nothing else.

  He pocketed the cash and the phone before rising to his feet. Once again, Sun led the way out of the apartment building while he covered her.

  The wail of sirens proved the resident of the nearby apartment hadn’t been lying about calling the cops. Which was somewhat interesting as the police weren’t often viewed as trustworthy in neighborhoods like this.

  At least, that was his experience in New York. Could be that DC was different.

  When the sirens grew louder, he looped his arm over Sun’s shoulders and pulled her close to his side. Lowering his head, he spoke directly into her ear. “We may need a place to hide out for a bit.”

  “Not yet, let’s keep walking. Acting as a romantic couple hopefully won’t attract attention.”

  As much as he enjoyed playing the role of being romantically involved, he didn’t agree with her logic. “Unless the person who called it in saw the two of us through their peephole.”

  She blew out an annoyed breath. “Fine, have it your way.”

  “This way.” Taking a page from her earlier playbook, he drew her through the front yard of a residence and through to the next street. From there, he went one more block, then crouched in the shadows.

  Bright red and blue flashing lights lit up the sky from the very direction they’d come. Two squads from what he could tell.

  And the minute they found the dead body, there would be dozens of officers fanned out and searching the area.

  “Time to run,” he whispered.

  Sun’s response was to jump up and sprint out of their hiding spot.

  The woman was fast, no doubt about it. It took him longer than he cared to admit to catch up with her, but when he finally did, he stayed a step behind mostly so he could continue to cover her back.

  It wasn’t unusual for Mack to put his life on the line for his country, but covering Sun was personal.

  He’d do whatever was necessary to keep her safe.

  Sun didn’t slow her pace until they were about a block from the drugstore. They slowed to a walk so as not to attract undue attention. Once again, Mack put his arm around Sun’s slim shoulders, keeping her close, but it wasn’t easy to remain nonchalant. He kept expecting the police to show up to arrest them at any moment.

  When they reached the car, he dropped his arm from Sun’s shoulders, but he still didn’t draw a breath of relief. Sun backed out of their parking space and drove sedately back toward the highway.

  “You think the drugstore has cameras?” He hadn’t seen any but felt certain most drugstores, especially those in this type of neighborhood, would have them. Narcotics would always be a target.

  “Maybe, but didn’t you notice how I muddied the license plates?” Sun glanced at him. “I might not work for NSA, but I’m not a rookie either.”

  “I never said you were.” He let out a soundless sigh. “We just lost our best lead.”

  “I know.” Sun’s expression turned grim. “And it’s my fault.”

  That surprised him. “No, it’s not. I should have mentioned going to confront him sooner.”

  “Only because I didn’t get enough information from him the first time,” Sun countered. She lightly smacked her hand on the steering wheel. “What is going on here? Did you notice the assailant wasn’t Korean?”

  “Yeah, I noticed. What about the guy at the safe house? Think they’re one and the same?”

  Sun slowly shook her head. “The man we just left behind at the apartment building wasn’t injured, and I know my shot hit the guy at the house. I heard him cry out in pain.”

  “So there’re two of them,” Mack surmised.

  “Or more.”

  Great, wasn’t that just peachy? Two different factions trying to kill them? Or did all roads lead to one guy in charge of the whole shebang?

  He wished he knew. As it was, they were fighting blind, trying to find a nuke that could be just about anywhere.

  Talk about being set up for failure.

  It would take a minor miracle for them to pull this off in time. And these days? He didn’t believe in them.

  * * *

  January 19 – 3:03 a.m. – Chicago, IL

  Jarek would have preferred to drive in the taxi for what was left of the night, but he sensed his driver becoming impatient. He finally settled on a low-budget motel that was located to the north of the city.

  He paid the man well, but he noticed his stash of cash was beginning to dwindle. He’d purposefully stocked up with cash for his trip, which had thankfully come in handy. Still, he couldn’t keep doing this, running from one place to the next like a scared rabbit.

  What he needed was some sort of plan. But it was difficult to think clearly after witnessing the callous murder of your closest friend.

  Pasting a benign smile on his face, he approached the desk clerk, a young kid with a bad case of acne. “Good evening. My car broke down a few miles from here, would you happen to have a room available? I hope to call my brother for assistance come daylight.”

  The kid shrugged. “Yeah, I gotta room. Didn’t you see the vacancy sign?”

  Of course he had, so much for his attempt to be polite. “Thank you. How much?” He pulled out his cash clip.

  “Gotta have a credit card.” The kid stared at him as if he was a numbskull. “That’s the rule, in case of damage to the room.”

  “Well, you see, I don’t have a credit card, but would an extra hundred suffice?” He slid the money across the counter. “Perhaps you’d like to put this toward your college fund?”

  The kid eyed the money suspiciously, then snatched it up. “Okay, room’s fifty-eight bucks, and you gotta be out by eleven.”

  “Thank you.” He gave the kid a fake name, praying he wouldn’t ask to see an ID. Thankfully, he didn’t, likely swayed by the hundred-dollar bill that was already stashed deep in his jeans pocket.

  Jarek took the key to room seven and turned to go back outside. He walked down the sidewalk, glancing over his shoulder before using the key to enter his room. The interior was dim and reeked of stale cigarette smoke, mold, and some heavy air freshener that didn’t come close to masking the obnoxious odors. The accommodations were sorely lacking, but he told himself that it was better to suffer the awful smell than deal with a gunman intent on killing him.

  He shot the dead bolt home and added the chain lock too. After another peek outside, he pulled the curtains closed. Lastly, he dragged a heavy chair across the room, placing it in front of the door.

  Yet he still didn’t feel safe.

  And worse, this was only a pathetic and temporary haven. He had no idea what his plan might be when checkout time rolled around.

  * * *

  January 19 – 3:12 a.m.
– Washington, DC

  Sun couldn’t erase the image of the dead North Korean defector from her mind. A common problem when you had an eidetic memory.

  Every gory detail remained imprinted in her brain, forever.

  She glanced at Mack, knowing he was likely suffering the same way. Their Mensa brains, complete with photographic memories, had been their bond when they were young.

  Now they were partners in a deadly game. One in which they had no clue who the players were or why they’d come after her. The regime, she understood, but this latest attack? Very strange.

  And she desperately needed to get in touch with her mother. But how?

  “Where are we headed?” Mack asked.

  “Another motel.” Thankfully, her previous work with Jordan provided several potential places they could use in a pinch.

  “I think we need to stay close to DC,” Mack said. “After all, that’s where the nuke is supposed to be.”

  “Yeah, okay. There’s a place just outside of DC we can use.” She glanced at her watch. “I’ll need to call Jordan in a few hours; we could use more cash.”

  “We’re okay for now.” Mack waved his hand. “I came prepared, and what I took off the assailant helps too.”

  She supposed stealing from a man who’d tried to kill them didn’t count as a real crime, although it still made her uncomfortable. “I don’t understand why a non-North Korean would have killed Hyun-woo.”

  “Why does the nationality of the assassin matter?”

  She flushed. “It doesn’t, except that we’ve been dealing with North Korean bad guys until now. The Korean culture is such that outsiders are not trusted. Especially Americans.”

  “You’re the expert on Korean culture, so I can’t argue that. And we already established the guy at the apartment building wasn’t the same one you injured outside the safe house.”

  “One thing the North Koreans have is manpower. Lots and lots of obedient soldiers who will do anything to make their commander happy.” The stories relayed by her mother painted a grim picture of her mother’s homeland. Sun knew she was half American and half Korean, yet she preferred to think she had more American blood running through her veins.