The Target

by David Baldacci

  stairs leading down.

  Reel had already eyed it. “Probably the cellar,” she said. “Curved staircase.”

  “Constrained fields of fire,” he replied, understanding immediately. “Gives us an edge.”

  “Not much choice. Let’s do it.”

  They propelled the first family down the steps. The cellar was even smaller than the room above and had no exit.

  They were trapped.

  There was a stout wooden table that they immediately overturned, putting Eleanor and her children behind it.

  They could all hear the gun battle taking place around them. There were screams, and the zings of bullets missing, and then the thuds of bullets hitting and then bodies falling.

  Claire was now hysterical.

  Tommy simply seemed paralyzed.

  Eleanor looked at Robie; she was scared, but when she spoke her voice was firm. “How do we get my children safely out of here, Agent Robie?”

  Reel was surveying the staircase. She had already reloaded and she’d also taken pistols from the slain agents. She flipped a spare to Robie.

  Robie said, “We’re working on it, ma’am. We will do our best.”

  He tried the walkie-talkie three times but no one answered.

  Eleanor looked at him in disbelief. “But that means…” she began, shooting a worried glance at her daughter, who was still sobbing uncontrollably.

  Robie nodded and said quietly, “They’re all gone.”

  He punched 911 on his phone. It just rang. “They must be swamped with calls,” he concluded.

  He looked at Claire and Tommy.

  “Tommy?” The boy didn’t look up.

  “Wolverine! You with me?”

  He looked at Robie and gave a small nod.

  Reel said, “Claire? Claire? Hey, Stevie Nicks! Listen up.”

  Claire gulped, stopped sobbing, caught her breath, and finally looked at her.

  Reel ran her gaze along the three of them. “We can’t sugarcoat this. The situation is bad. We’ve got some cover here. And we’ve got some weapons. We don’t know how many there are out there. But there’s got to be more of them than there are of us.” She looked at Robie and then continued. “But we are here with you and we will stay with you the whole way. To get to you, they have to go through us. Okay?”

  The three slowly nodded.

  “Now stay down behind the table.”

  A few seconds later, three shots rang out and a man tumbled down the stairs and came to rest at the bottom.

  Robie looked over to see Reel lowering her weapon, smoke still rising off the muzzle.

  She said, “He was trying to be quiet, but didn’t quite manage it.”

  Eleanor said, “I don’t hear any sirens.”

  “The police force here consists of about thirty sworn officers,” said Reel. “There were ten assigned to your detail. They might already all be dead. The other side has MP5s, which can do a lot of damage in a short period of time. And pistols are pretty much useless against them. The rest of the cops might not be here yet.”

  Robie looked around the room and was also listening for footfalls from above. The ceiling was thick. He didn’t think the other side could fire through it. They would have to come down the stairs. But they had already sent one man in and they knew how that had worked out. Robie and Reel had the advantage here because of the curved staircase. Their enemies couldn’t attack them en masse or straight on. The curve allowed Robie and Reel to fire before the attackers could line up their shots.

  They suddenly heard a loud bang from upstairs and then people screamed and then there was gunfire. And then more screams. And more gunfire.

  And then silence.

  And then they heard voices. But the words were not English.

  “Shit,” muttered Reel.

  She looked at Robie. His gaze was on a shelf in the corner.

  On the shelf was a stack of old clothes. She once more glanced at Robie, who nodded.

  Reel ran and grabbed some of the clothes. She flipped out her knife and started cutting them up.

  “What are you doing?” asked Eleanor.

  “Getting us some protection,” Robie answered.

  “But those won’t stop bullets,” said Eleanor.

  When Reel was done they worked the small strips of cloth into their ears and then tied other pieces that Reel had fashioned in the size and shape of kerchiefs around their necks. They helped Eleanor and the kids do the same.

  “What are these for?” asked Tommy.

  “Flash-bangs,” answered Reel. “That’s what we just heard. They’re really loud and the light flash is blinding. And there’s a lot of smoke. The other side obviously has them.”

  “They’re used to disorient,” added Robie. “And they do that job well.”

  They heard more shots come from upstairs and then a number of footfalls.

  Robie and Reel eyed each other and then pushed Eleanor and the kids flat to the floor. “Cover your eyes and nose with the cloth and put your hands over your ears. And stay down.”

  Robie and Reel took up their positions, each with one hand on their kerchiefs to pull them up quickly. Only they wouldn’t have much time to recover and return the fire that was surely going to follow the flash-bangs. But then they didn’t have any other options.

  They heard the door open and then down they came.

  Not one flash-bang or two.

  There were three of them.

  Robie and Reel hit the floor a second before the trio of explosives detonated. The combined sound was deafening, blowing right through the bits of cloth pushed into their ears, and the hands that covered those ears couldn’t do much to deaden the noise. The smoke penetrated right through the flimsy cloth and into their mouths, noses, and lungs. And the flashes of light were like looking into the sun even though they were staring at the floor.

  Eleanor and her children screamed and then all three passed out.

  By the time Robie and Reel staggered to their feet, coughing and sickened by the blasts, smoke, and light, they were surrounded and outgunned.

  MP5s against pistols.

  North Koreans wanting bloody revenge.

  It was over.

  Chapter

  75

  BY THE TIME ELEANOR AND her children came to, Robie and Reel had had their weapons taken from them and they stood with their hands behind their heads. Their faces were ashen and they swayed on their feet, looking nauseated and unbalanced.

  “Oh my God,” said Eleanor as she rose, pulling her children up with her and then putting them protectively behind her.

  Composing himself, Robie said to the North Koreans, “This place is surrounded. You’re not going to get away. If you surrender now, you will not be harmed.” He knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that the North Koreans didn’t care about getting away. He could see it in all their faces.

  Five men and one woman. The woman was dressed as a pirate. She looked vaguely familiar.

  Chung-Cha stepped forward and said, “We are here to right the wrongs of your president.”

  Reel said, “Gotta tell you, this is not a great way to go about it.”

  Chung-Cha said, “You and he were in our country. You took prisoners that belonged to us. Your country planned to kill our leader. For that you must and you will pay. All of you.”

  Eleanor said, “I have no idea what—”

  Jing-Sang fired shots into the ceiling. “Do not interrupt, woman!” he roared, as Eleanor, Claire, and Tommy dropped to their knees, shaking with fear.

  Chung-Cha continued. “You will all die right here. This will be a message to the world that the evil empire of America cannot and will not attack our great country without retribution that is fierce and swift and noble.”

  Robie said, “You’ll need hostages to get out of here. Five is unmanageable. Take me and my partner. Like you said, we were the ones over there. We took your prisoners. These folks did nothing. Leave them here and use us to get out of
here.”

  “We are not getting out of here,” said Jing-Sang. He pointed his muzzle at the floor. “We die right here. After you do, that is.”

  “So this is a suicide mission,” said Reel.

  Jing-Sang smiled and shook his head. “It is death with great honor.”

  He looked at Chung-Cha. “Comrade Yie is the very best that we have. She has killed more enemies of our country than you could possibly imagine. Your deaths will at least be efficiently done, that I can guarantee.”

  Chung-Cha sliced the air with her hand and Jing-Sang fell silent and took a respectful step back, bowing as he did so.

  Chung-Cha slipped a pair of knives from sheaths riding on her belt. The blades were customized, serrated and slightly curved. She looked first at Robie and then at Reel.

  Robie expected to see a face of pure hatred staring at him. Or perhaps he would only be looking at a blank face, all humanity long since driven from her.

  But that was not what was staring back at him.

  Jing-Sang said nervously, “Comrade Yie, we must hurry. We killed many of the enemy, but they will undoubtedly have more on the way.”

  Chung-Cha nodded, said a few words in Korean, and then looked at Robie and Reel.

  She said, in English, “I am sorry for this.”

  Then she attacked.

  She turned and gutted Jing-Sang with one of her knives, ripping upward. His gun fell from his grip but she snatched it before it hit the floor. She fired once, hitting the next man in the brain. With her free hand she threw her other knife and it plunged into the third man’s chest.

  The other two men were stunned by Chung-Cha’s action but opened fire. However, she had gripped the third man, spun him around, and used his body as a shield, absorbing the fired rounds.

  She then pushed him forward into the two men, dropped low, slid across the floor, and kicked the legs of the fourth man out from under him. As he fell, she pulled the knife free from the chest of the third man and raked it across the throat of the fourth man. Arterial spray covered her and the floor.

  Chung-Cha never stopped moving. She somersaulted across the floor as the remaining man fired at her but missed.

  Robie and Reel had grabbed the first family and thrown them behind the table again. Then the pair scrambled across the room to retrieve their weapons.

  But they were not as fast as Chung-Cha. She had pushed off the far wall, flipping completely over the last man. As she went past him the thin razor line was revealed in her hands. She slipped the wire around the man’s neck while she was in midair, hit the ground on both feet, and pulled with all her strength, at the same time crossing her arms and forming an X.

  The man gurgled once and then dropped to the floor, bleeding out a few seconds later from his nearly severed head.

  Chung-Cha straightened and then dropped the wire. She turned to look at the devastation she had wrought. Five men dead, all by her hand, all in less than a minute. She was breathing rapidly, her eyes focused and her limbs tensed.

  She turned to face Robie and Reel, who had their weapons now. They were pointed at her, but neither agent had a finger on the trigger guard.

  Robie said, “You want to explain why you just did what you did?”

  Chung-Cha looked back at Eleanor and her children as they slowly rose from behind the table. Eleanor put her hands over Claire’s and Tommy’s faces so they wouldn’t see the dead men.

  “I hope that you are not hurt,” said Chung-Cha.

  Eleanor slowly shook her head, but her face betrayed her bewilderment.

  “I’m okay,” she said slowly. “We’re okay. Thanks to you.”

  Chung-Cha turned back to Robie and Reel.

  Reel took a cautious step forward. “That was the most amazing piece of close-quarter combat I’ve ever seen,” she said admiringly. “But like my partner said, why?”

  “We were sent here to kill them,” said Chung-Cha, indicating Eleanor and her children. “The others always intended to do this.”

  “But not you?” asked Robie.

  Chung-Cha did not answer right away. “I do not know,” she said. “But in the end I could not kill this family,” she added. “I just could not.”

  “Change of heart?” asked Reel with a skeptical look.

  “I do not have a heart,” said Chung-Cha firmly. “I am from Yodok. I will always be from Yodok. They took my heart many years ago. You cannot grow another back.”

  “Yodok,” said Robie. “Then you were…?”

  “Yes.”

  Reel studied her more closely and said, “I’ve seen you before. Near the beach. You were with a little girl.”

  Chung-Cha nodded. “Her name is Min.”

  Tommy spoke up. “She was dressed as a frog. She told me she was ten. And that she needed help or something.”

  Robie looked at Chung-Cha with incredulity. “You brought a child on the mission?”

  Chung-Cha said fiercely, “Min is not involved with any of this. She is innocent. She is just a little girl. From Yodok too. She still has her heart. Do not take it from her. Please do not. She is just a little girl who knows nothing.”

  Reel looked at her. “Why did you bring Min here?”

  “I told my superiors it was for part of our cover. That Americans do not think badly of children.”

  “But the real reason?”

  “To get her out of my country. To give her…a chance…elsewhere.”

  Chung-Cha reached into her pocket and slipped out one of the poison vials. “None of us were supposed to survive this,” she said.

  Robie said, “Death with great honor?”

  “Including Min,” said Chung-Cha slowly. “But I…I could not let that happen. She has done nothing wrong. Min is just a child. An innocent child.”

  “Then I don’t think you lost your heart at Yodok either,” Reel said quietly.

  Robie added, “But it was still extraordinary to turn on your own team.”

  “I…am…just…tired of it,” said Chung-Cha simply, and her limbs relaxed as she said it. “Of it all.”

  Robie and Reel exchanged a knowing glance. He said, “What is your name? Other than Comrade Yie.”

  “Chung-Cha.”

  “Who were those men, Chung-Cha?” asked Reel, indicating the dead.

  “From my country. Their identities do not matter. There are many just like them back home. There will always be many just like them back home.”

  “I won’t lie to you, Chung-Cha,” said Robie. “You’re in a world of trouble. Even with what you did here.”

  Eleanor said, “But surely saving our lives will count for a great deal.”

  “You’ll have to cooperate and give a full debriefing,” said Reel. “Exactly how you were able to get here undetected, how you knew of their itinerary, how you breached security—”

  The shot rang out and the bullet pierced Chung-Cha’s neck.

  Robie and Reel looked over at the curved staircase. A young deputy was holding his pistol in two shaky hands. He smiled and yelled, “I got her. I got the little Asian piece of shit.”

  Chung-Cha did not fall right away. She simply stood there as blood poured down her front.

  Robie screamed, “No, you idiot!” He lunged for the deputy and knocked the gun out of his hand.

  Reel was able to grab hold of Chung-Cha before she fell to the floor. She gently laid her down. She saw the bullet’s entry wound and stuck her