Dragon Head

by James Houston Turner

  Glancing over her shoulder, Su Yin saw the tall woman running across the street toward her. Jumping up, she grabbed the fence and looked up, wondering if she could climb it. It was too high and she was too tired. She looked both ways for some kind of an opening. To her right was a damaged section of fence that had been repaired with large sheets of plywood. Graffiti had been spray-painted on the panels.

  Su Yin ran alongside them, looking for an opening. Nothing. Ahead was another gate.

  When Su Yin reached the gate, she saw that it was padlocked with a heavy chain. She started to run on but stopped when something caught her eye. Like the other gate, the frame of this gate was made of galvanized pipe. Unlike the other gate, the bottom corner of this gate was bent and a small flap of fencing had come loose.

  With her heart pounding, Su Yin sat on the ground as she had before, braced her feet, and pulled at the flap.

  By now, people in the park had stopped to look. A little girl had been running frantically beside the fence, looking for a way to get into the construction site. Now she was pulling at the fence. What was going on? Who was that woman chasing her? Was that a gun?

  Su Yin fitted her head and shoulders through the opening, then used her feet to try to push through. But the sharp ends of the wire had snagged the pink cloth of her leggings. She pulled and yanked, but her legs were caught. She was trapped.

  Exhausted and panting, Su Yin collapsed back onto her elbows, wanting to cry but knowing she couldn’t. She looked up. The tall woman was almost upon her. She saw the tall woman’s enraged eyes. Saw the tall woman’s bared teeth. Saw the tall woman raise her pistol.

  An old man with wispy white hair shouted something. Sofia paused and shouted back at him, and when she did, her sharp voice jolted Su Yin, who began pushing and twisting until she finally pulled free.

  And jumping to her feet, Su Yin began running for her life.

  CHAPTER 82

  A winded Talanov ran out of the arcade and saw two bicycles laying on the sidewalk in front of an electronics store. Traffic was intense, so he paused at the curb and waited until there was a break so that he could dash across.

  He had seen Su Yin and Sofia ride into the arcade, and now, judging by the two bicycles on the sidewalk, Su Yin had run into the electronics store and Sofia had run in after her.

  Entering the store, Talanov paused to calculate probabilities. Where would Su Yin go? To his right was an escalator that led up to a mezzanine. One way up. One way down. Su Yin would not go there. She would run straight ahead, toward the other door at the far end of the store. With shoppers pausing to stare, Talanov ran the length of the store and out the other door onto the sidewalk, where he paused and looked both ways. What would Su Yin do next? Would she go into another store? There were many from which to choose, but calculation and probability told him she would try something different since she had not been able to ditch Sofia in stores thus far. She may not be consciously thinking that way, but her instincts would guide her that way.

  Across the street was a highrise construction site. The chain link fence fronting the site was too tall for Su Yin to climb. In fact, it was too tall for most people to climb, save teenagers like Kai and Jingfei. Instinct would tell Su Yin to run for that fence. To find a gap in the fence where Sofia could not go, assuming, of course, that such a gap existed, and assuming further that Sofia had not already caught her.

  Calculation and probability. Right now, it was all he had.

  Across the street, Su Yin paused to catch her breath in the damp stairwell between the second and third floors of the new highrise. The walls of the stairwell were raw concrete, and the steps were littered with nails and debris. Wind was blowing up the shaft, and it was cool.

  The tall woman would be here soon, and Su Yin was not sure how much longer she could keep going. She didn’t know why she had chosen the stairwell. It was just something she felt she should do, because remaining on the ground floor meant she would have to keep running until she found a way out, and she was tired of running. At least up here, among the equipment, pallets, stacks of lumber and other supplies, she could find a place to hide and rest.

  Su Yin looked down at her leg. It was bleeding from where the fence had cut her. The bleeding had mostly stopped but it still hurt.

  She wondered if Alex would be able to find her. He had said he would come for her, but that was at the academy, and now she was here, in a construction site a long way from the academy. She knew Alex would never desert her, but how could he keep his promise when he didn’t know where she was?

  Su Yin climbed another switchback flight of steps and emerged on the third floor. Apart from the concrete walls of the stairwell and the elevator shafts, the third floor was a vast open space. There were no exterior walls. Just unimpeded views in all directions.

  The floor was full of construction supplies. There were stacks of lightweight ceiling tiles and piles of steel “jack posts,” which had been used to reinforce the concrete floors above while the concrete hardened and cured. There were piles of studs, both wood and metal, which would be used to construct interior walls. There were pallets of paint in forty liter metal cans, which had been shrink-wrapped together. Other pallets contained bundles of insulation, sacks of plaster, mortar, and boxes of electrical supplies. Nearby were numerous large spools that contained miles of electrical cable. In the middle of the floor were piles of pallets in jumbled disarray. Suspended from the underside of the ceiling were dozens of plastic sheets. The sheets had been fastened to lightweight metal channels that would eventually hold acoustic ceiling panels.

  While the sheets of plastic flapped in the wind, Su Yin ran from pallet to pallet, looking for a place to hide.

  One floor below, Sofia stepped out of the concrete stairwell and listened. She could hear no footsteps, which meant the girl had found a place to hide. She had seen her run into the stairwell, so that meant she was somewhere on one of these upper floors. The question is, which one?

  Outside, Talanov ran alongside the fence, looking for a way to get into the construction site. To his right, he noticed an old man with wispy white hair. Dressed in a white tank top and baggy black slacks, he had been practicing tai chi. Running up to the man, Talanov said he was looking for a little girl. The old man didn’t understand what Talanov was saying but did understand his hand gestures about a little girl of a certain height. Talanov then made a hugging gesture that let the old man know she was dear to him.

  The old man motioned for Talanov to follow and led him to the padlocked gate, where he pointed at the bent flap of fence.

  Talanov knelt and saw a bloody piece of pink fabric caught on the bottom of the fence.

  Su Yin had entered here.

  CHAPTER 83

  The old man grabbed the fence flap and pulled it back, then made a gesture for Talanov to scoot through, which Talanov did. The old man told Talanov to hurry and pointed in the direction of the new highrise apartment building. Talanov replied with an appreciative smile and ran toward the building.

  When Talanov entered the cavernous first floor, the temperature dropped immediately, and the damp air smelled of seaweed and fish.

  Running to the far side of the building, Talanov looked over a temporary fence of orange mesh. The seawall on which the highrise was being constructed fell away into the sloshing brown water of Victoria Harbor. Multiple signs fastened to the mesh warned of deep water in both English and Chinese. In the near distance was the elevated expressway and Talanov could hear the whoosh of traffic. Across the harbor was the densely packed skyline of Kowloon.

  Talanov looked both ways for any signs of Sofia or Su Yin. Nothing. He ran back to the center of the floor and looked around. What would Su Yin do? The cavernous space of the ground floor was nearly three stories high. The ceiling, also of concrete, was supported by dozens of huge columns that supported more than a dozen other floors. There would be stacks of supplies on those floors. Su Yin would be tired and scared. She would want a place to hide
. Calculation and probability told him Su Yin was up there somewhere.

  And so was Sofia.

  Up on the third floor, with her knees drawn up to her chest, Su Yin sat huddled beneath a lean-to of pallets piled against one of the walls of an elevator shaft. After crawling into the cavity, she had scooted two boxes in behind her, one on top of the other. Sitting in the darkness, she thought of Zak and how he had taught her to pray whenever she was afraid. She was afraid now, but what should she say? She wished Zak was here with her right now, because if he was, he would know what to say.

  Leading with her gun, Sofia emerged from the third floor stairwell and paused to listen. The only sound was of the wind flapping plastic.

  She crept toward a pallet of shrink-wrapped cans of paint, but with so much debris on the floor – nails, cans, scraps of metal – making noise was unavoidable. But the wind was also making noise, so it was unlikely the girl would hear her.

  Sofia looked behind the pallet. Nothing. She then moved to the large spools of wire and checked behind them. Nothing. She crept ahead, her eyes and ears peeled, looking and listening for any sign of the girl. Ideally, she would like to shoot her in front of Talanov and make him suffer the anguish of watching her die. But Talanov was not here, so she would have to let the media feature gruesome photos of the girl’s body on television. Talanov would still see what had happened, and still suffer, and forever live with the knowledge that he had been unable to save Babikov’s kid.

  If Talanov had a vulnerability, it was Babikov. The two were close, like brothers, so making Babikov suffer would make Talanov suffer, and making Talanov suffer was almost as important as seizing control of Dragon Head’s empire, which included Talanov’s old KGB bank account.

  Still leading with her gun, Sofia turned toward the elevator shafts, which had been designed in pairs of two, facing each other. There were no elevators yet in the shafts, nor were there any doors. Just gaping openings fenced off with waist-high orange mesh. The perfect place to hide? The girl was resourceful, so hiding in one of them, as dangerous as it would be, was a distinct possibility.

  Sofia glanced down into the first shaft. Nothing. She then did the same with the other three. Again, nothing.

  Moving left, Sofia saw more pallets of supplies. Some were shrink-wrapped and some were banded together with metal straps. Beyond these pallets, at the other end of the floor, was another stairwell. Had the girl—

  A sharp crash snapped Sofia’s head to the right.

  Su Yin gasped when one of the boxes she was trying to scoot closer fell over and burst open with metal brackets. She could see the shiny metal brackets scattered all over the floor. The tall woman would know where she was.

  Sofia circled quickly around the sheets of flapping plastic and paused. She could see an overturned box of metal brackets next to a pile of pallets. The pallets were leaning against the back wall of an elevator shaft. Was the girl hiding between those pallets and the wall? By the sound of it, the girl had knocked over that box of brackets. Had she then scrambled out of her hiding place and hidden somewhere else? It was hard to tell because the flapping sheets obscured a clear view of the rest of the floor.

  Creeping over to the pallets, Sofia peeked inside the cavity. It was empty.

  Backing away from the pallets, Sofia turned a full circle. The girl had been here, she was sure of it. Where was she now?

  “You can come out now,” Sofia called out, then pausing to listen.

  Nothing.

  “Talanov is not a nice man,” Sofia continued, ducking beneath a sheet of flapping plastic and looking behind a pallet of boxes.

  Nothing.

  “I want to help you. Hong Kong is a dangerous place. Come out. I’ll take you to safety.”

  An empty can clanged in the direction of the other stairwell and Sofia ran between several sheets of flapping plastic. She paused at the sight of a can rolling slowly across the floor. The girl must have accidentally kicked it while running for the other stairwell.

  Sofia sprinted to the other stairwell, then suddenly stopped. The little monster had already doubled back on me in the store. Was she doing the same thing again? Had she rolled the can across the floor as a diversion?

  Sofia thought about that for a moment. Judging by the girl’s behavior, it made sense.

  Doubling back by circling wide around the perimeter of the room, Sofia ran past numerous spools of wire, pallets of shrink-wrapped paint cans, and bundles of ceiling panels. She then made a quiet approach toward Su Yin’s original hiding place along the backside of the elevator shaft.

  And there the girl was, crouching behind the pallets, her back to Sofia, looking and waiting.

  Sofia smiled and raised her pistol.

  CHAPTER 84

  Su Yin cautiously stepped from behind the pile of pallets. She had seen the tall woman run in the direction of the far stairwell, then lost sight of her behind the sheets of flapping plastic. She just hoped the tall woman was heading upstairs or downstairs by now.

  “Looking for someone?” asked Sofia.

  Su Yin jerked around and gasped at the sight of the tall woman and her gun.

  Sofia smiled at the horrified look of shock on Su Yin’s face that slowly became what appeared to be a wide-eyed . . . smile? Why would the girl be—

  Talanov’s roar reached Sofia’s ear a full second before his shoulder met her lower back with the force of a locomotive. The blow arched Sofia’s back and lifted her arm just as she fired.

  The bullet hit the ceiling and spit chips of concrete down on Su Yin.

  “Run!” Talanov shouted while driving Sofia across the floor into a pallet of ceiling tiles, where they crashed to the floor, causing Sofia’s pistol to bounce free.

  Frightened but unwilling to leave, But Su Yin remained standing where she was.

  Sofia hammered a knee at Talanov’s head but he rolled away. Sofia sprang on top of Talanov him and began smashing him in the face. Talanov grabbed Sofia around the waist and log-rolled away with her, where they began a close-quarters punching contest on the dirty concrete floor, inches from one another, growling, grunting, thrashing, trying desperately to land a disabling blow.

  Talanov suddenly broke free, kicked his legs up over his head and sprang to his feet just as Sofia scrambled to her feet. Talanov flew toward her with a leaping front kick that Sofia blocked to the side before launching a fierce counterattack, which Talanov blocked. Back and forth they fought, advancing then retreating, the gun between them on the floor, neither one able to grab it.

  “Run!” Talanov shouted again, but again Su Yin refused.

  “I won’t leave you!” Su Yin cried.

  “You’ve got to!” shouted Talanov. And when he pointed to the stairwell, Sofia drove a roundhouse kick into his side.

  Talanov heard his ribs crack and fell to his knees, doubled over with pain, unable to breathe.

  When he fell, Sofia sprang for the gun.

  The sight of Sofia lunging toward the pistol triggered an automatic reflex in Talanov that overrode the pain he was feeling. There was no time to think, no time to breathe, no time to do anything but keep Sofia from reaching that pistol.

  Exploding to his feet, Talanov made a desperate dive for the pistol. He missed but slid into Sofia’s ankles, felling her like a tree. Sofia rolled quickly onto all fours and lunged again for the gun.

  Talanov grabbed her by an ankle and began dragging her away from the pistol.

  Sofia kicked Talanov in the head, rolled on top of him again and began punching him in the face with one fist then another, back and forth, again and again. Blood was flying everywhere.

  With shaking hands and tears in her eyes, Su Yin grabbed the gun and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the stairwell wall and spit chips of concrete onto Sofia.

  Sofia jerked back to see a frightened Su Yin holding the pistol in her two quivering hands. With an angry curse, she jumped to her feet just as Su Yin ran beneath a sheet of flapping plastic. Sofia batted the plastic
away and chased Su Yin around a pallet of floor tiles. When Su Yin turned and tried aiming again, Sofia grabbed her hand and wrenched the pistol away. Su Yin screamed and began punching Sofia, who used the pistol to backhand Su Yin to the floor.

  Panting with hatred, Sofia straddled Su Yin and took aim at the crying little girl.

  “I’ve had enough of you!” yelled Sofia.

  Like a runaway dump truck, Talanov charged into Sofia, again causing her shot to miss. With an angry scream, Sofia began smashing her pistol against the back of Talanov’s neck. But Talanov’s head was tucked beneath her arm while he powered them forward through one sheet of plastic after another until they hurtled off the edge of the floor, where they flailed apart while plummeting downward three stories into the sloshing brown water of the harbor.

  Talanov and Sofia hit separately with huge splashes. Sofia landed on her side and Talanov on his bottom, bent at the waist, legs in the air.

  Su Yin ran to the edge and looked down at the water, which slowly subsided until Talanov finally thrashed to the surface, gasping and coughing. With a scream, she ran to the stairwell and down the steps to the ground floor, where she raced to the water’s edge just as Talanov paddled awkwardly to the wall, wincing and gasping and clawing for some kind of handhold.

  But there was nothing to grab . . . no handholds, no ladder, no anything to keep him from going under from exhaustion and pain.

  Looking desperately around, Su Yin saw a loose board, ran over and grabbed it, then ran back to the top of the wall and extended it down to Talanov, begging him to take it.

  Talanov tried, but Su Yin could not hold on and the board slipped from her hands. When the board hit Talanov in the head, he went under again. Screaming and crying, Su Yin prepared to jump into the water.

  Kind hands pulled her away from the edge.