Ling pounded the ball of his fist against the heavy metal door, his ire rising as each knock went unanswered. Above him, he could see the camera angle down as he removed the fedora covering his face.
“It’s me, you idiots, open the damn door.”
Anger roiling through him, he smashed the hat back down atop his head and knocked twice in succession. He exhaled and waited a full second before knocking a third time.
The door swung open on cue a moment later.
Ling burst through with long steps, moving straight down the hall. A beefy guard with dark hair and bushy eyebrows stepped out from the guard room beside the door and said, “Sorry, Ling, you know the...”
Before he could finish the sentence, Ling snapped a straight left into his mouth, smashing lips against teeth and sending the much larger man toppling backwards.
“There’s what I think of your rules,” Ling spat and left the man on the floor, headed for Gold’s office without looking back.
Despite the late hour, the house looked just as it always did. A few servants roamed the halls, each giving him a wide berth, and the interior was well lit. Crossing the open foyer to the stairwell in the corner, Ling bounded up, taking the stairs two at a time, and entered to find Gold sitting behind his desk as if expecting him.
“I take it this visit isn’t a social call?” Gold asked without preamble.
“No,” Ling replied, the word little more than a hiss.
“What went wrong?” Gold asked, peering at his employee, getting right to the crux of the matter.
“Somebody was waiting for us.”
“Isn’t there always somebody waiting for us?”
“Yes,” Ling conceded, “but this time was different. It was almost like they knew we were coming and what we were going to do.”
Gold made a motion for Ling to continue before pulling his hand back and lacing his fingers before him, saying nothing.
“Two man team,” Ling recounted. “One went right for the container, the other came for me in the crane.”
“You take care of them?”
“The one dumb enough to come for me,” Ling said. “Never had a chance at the other.”
A disapproving look fell over Gold’s features, his lips pursed. “Not like you to leave survivors.”
“I didn’t think there were any. He surfaced just as I was dragging the others to their feet.”
“They were on the ground?” Gold asked, his brow furrowed.
“The first one put them down before he went in after the container,” Ling said, his eyes and voice both lowered.
Gold accepted the information without comment, nodding slightly. “Have we seen him before?”
“No,” Ling said.
“But he’s good?” Gold asked, raising his eyebrows, looking up at Ling expectantly.
Vitriol boiled within Ling as he stared back, pulling his mouth into a tight line. “He was lucky tonight. Won’t happen again.”
“You’re sure?”
Ling knew what Gold was doing, was fighting with everything he had not to let it get to him, but there was little he could do to stop his hatred from flashing.
“I’m going after him as soon as I leave here,” Ling seethed.
Gold raised a hand. “If he was just lucky, as you say, then he can wait. Right now our focus is on the meeting in a couple of days.”
While he did not agree with the answer, Ling chose not to challenge it. “Do we change our approach to the docks at all?”
A long moment passed as Gold considered the question, tilting the top of his head to the side. “Were you seen?”
“No,” Ling said. “They’ve put up cameras, but we shot them out before they got a look at us.”
“Then I see no reason to stop what we’re doing there. You know as well as I that the docks are central to our plans. Without them, the meeting and everything we’ve worked for is useless.”
Ling could feel the flush of blood pooling into his cheeks as he endured the same lecture he’d heard a hundred times before. Still, he remained silent.
“And if this meeting is worthless,” Gold continued, “we’re going to anger a lot of people, people much more dangerous than a single dock worker.”
The last part was no doubt a jab, the heat rising even more to Ling’s face. “Yes, sir.”
Without waiting for the old man to continue, Ling pivoted on his heel to leave. He passed through the curtain at the top of the stairs and descended, again taking them two at a time. His anger still sat heavy within him, but there was nothing he could do about it for the time being.
As his foot touched the bottom landing, Gold’s voice called out from above.
“Ling, do you think we were set up tonight?”
Ling turned to see Gold sitting atop the staircase, holding the curtain back with the gold-tipped end of his cane. “Set up?”
Gold leveled a knowing stare at Ling, but said nothing.
Ling peered back as the realization of what - or rather who - Gold was referring to set in. He considered it a moment before shaking his head in the negative.
“Too spur of the moment for a planned setup. Like I said, the kid got lucky.”
Gold stared a moment longer before putting the wheelchair in reverse and speeding away. The last Ling saw of him was the gold tip of his cane as it disappeared and the heavy curtain swung back into place.
Chapter Twenty
Liberation Day - A Thorn Byrd Novel Page 21