The Noah Reid Series: Books 1-3: The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series Boxset

by Wesley Robert Lowe

  Noah stood over his vanquished foe, panting as he bled. He was in mental and physical shock—he had never killed a man before.

  Garret walked up to him. “Now you know what blood tastes like.”

  Suddenly there was the sound of thunderous applause. Noah turned to see the restaurant and casino patrons, and even the Chinese acrobats, giving him a standing ovation, thinking the battle between Noah and Duke was staged. Shouts of “Bravo! Fantastic! Best show in town!” rang through the celebratory atmosphere.

  One giggling girl came up to Noah, “Can I have your autograph? I watched the whole thing from the time you entered. I couldn’t figure why you all were running up to the tiger, but this was just so perfect.”

  She handed him a pen, and Noah signed. “Thank you and...” She whispered in his ear and handed him a card. “Call me anytime.” She made a little roar like a tiger. “Raar!”

  As she left, Noah collapsed to the ground. The combination of the strenuous battle and loss of blood was too much. Abby grabbed a tablecloth and, using a table knife to cut off a strip, she tied it tightly around Noah’s middle to stem the bleeding.

  Garret picked up Wing by the scruff of his neck. “Now get us up there, Wing.”

  Suspended a foot off the ground, the swinging Wing whined, “I don’t know how. Mr. Chin always does it himself.”

  Noah, lying on the ground, looked at the huge picture of the tiger. He pointed. “Look. Isn’t that a lever inside the tiger’s mouth?”

  Garret dropped Wing, nodding. “I knew there was a reason I hired you, Noah.” He went to the wall and, from the restaurant’s impressive collection of martial arts weapons, picked out an ancient gold-headed spear with a jet-black shaft.

  Garret eyed the lever, aimed the spear and hurled it. Bull’s eye. The spear slammed directly into the lever. After a moment, part of the wall slid open, revealing the doors to a hidden elevator.

  Garret looked at Noah. “I’ll bring her back.”

  The weakened lawyer nodded. “You better.”

  As Garret and Abby entered the elevator, there was another round of applause, and shouts of “Bravo!” came from the guests. As the elevator door closed, Garret turned around and bowed.

  ***

  There were no elevator floor numbers on the panel. It rocketed upward by itself with a mind of its own.

  “I hope Olivia’s all right,” ventured Abby.

  “Don’t worry. She is,” stated Garret with a determined grin.

  The elevator stopped and opened automatically. A welcoming party of Chin and his henchmen waited. Beside Chin was Olivia, bound in a chair with her mouth taped.

  “You certainly are irritating, Garret. I take you, you escape and then you come back on your own,” mocked Chin.

  “I changed my mind.”

  “Does that mean you are reconsidering my offer? However, I told Duke you were supposed to come by yourself. Or is Tommy’s daughter a present for me?”

  “Duke won’t be taking orders from you anymore,” said Garret icily.

  The meaning was not lost on Chin. He ripped out a dagger and put it to Olivia’s neck. “You have taken my son.”

  “Not me. Duke lost to Noah. And Duke broke the code.”

  “Your daughter will see you die,” Chin roared.

  “Last time we fought, I whipped your ass.” Garret smiled contemptuously.

  “That was thirty years ago. You are no match for me now, Garret. A fat cat lawyer’s life has made you soft. You have lost the heart of the Tiger.”

  Marco screamed. “Get the access codes first!”

  Garret grinned. “Predicament, isn’t it? I’ll only give you the numbers if you kill me. But, if I am dead, I won’t be able to tell you what they are.”

  Chin pressed the dagger to the base of Olivia’s skull. Garret stopped cold and said softly but firmly, “She’s a bystander, Chin. Killing her means you break the code, too. But you and I know that that’s the only way you can beat me.”

  Chin suddenly threw the dagger at Garret with the force of a rocket launcher. Garret easily deflected it with a flick of the wrist into the hands of Abby. Abby whipped over to Olivia and slashed the ropes.

  “Bring it on, cowboy,” sneered Garret.

  His words incited a battle royale; everyone got into the act.

  Abby hurled the knife at the forehead of one of the attackers, causing instant death. Olivia grabbed a sword as another tough lunged toward her. She stuck it in front of her and impaled her attacker with such force that it went through his stomach and back, severing his spinal cord. He lurched, teetered and slumped to the floor. Behind her, another aggressor with knives in each hand and waving them like a banshee screamed as he rushed to the attack.

  Garret yelled, “Watch out, Olivia!”

  Olivia wheeled around and kicked the knife-waving henchman in the windpipe with such force that it snapped his neck.

  “Where did you learn that?” asks her astonished father.

  “A girl has to learn to defend herself in New York,” countered Olivia.

  Abby was a whirling dervish. Clawing, kicking and slapping with both hands and feet. A well-placed knee into the groin of a would-be assailant caused him to drop to the ground, helpless. A double hand chop to the neck, followed by a ferocious stomp onto the vertebrae, finished him off.

  “Enough of this!” shouted Chin.

  Four brutes walked up to Abby and Olivia. The two women were no match for them. Blows deflect off them; kicks hurt themselves more than they hurt their opponents. The experienced thugs subdued them easily by grabbing their hair and putting them in headlocks. The gangsters maneuvered the girls so they could watch the main event between Garret and Chin.

  A lifetime of hatred, love, jealousy and competition culminated in an intense, dirty, personal mano-a-mano combat.

  Evil versus more evil, white versus yellow... power versus power.

  Chin charged Garret with circular arm movements, hands formed in the trademark tiger claw with thumb and fingers spread through his open hands. Garret prepared with the Leopard paw, a half fist that prepared to strike with the second knuckles of his fingers.

  Switching on a whim to the Crane’s beak, the Snake’s hand and the Dragon’s hand, these skilled veteran warriors mixed up their stances and moves as they put on a dazzling display of Hung Gar Shaolin martial arts kung fu. Dancing with precision and control, efficient and lightning fast, power rocked the room for the prize of being king of the lair.

  An unexpected snapping kick from Chin propelled Garret against a stone lion statue. His passport flew out. Chin caught it in midair and scanned through it.

  “Well, well, Garret.” Almost invisible was a tiny set of numbers on the back page prefaced by the letters KOK. “The King of Kentucky access codes, I do believe.”

  The impact broke Garret’s leg, and he remained on the ground as Chin tossed the passport to Marco. The computer specialist typed furiously. Then his face filled with horror. “There’s only eight million dollars in these accounts.”

  Garret looked up. “That’s the salary you’ve paid me for the last fifteen years. I never took a cent of it since you killed Mary in the plane explosion. And, as I have told you, there is no more. Now let Olivia go.”

  Silently, Chin walked to the wall and took down one of the ancient iron swords.

  Olivia and Abby tried to break free but were no match for their captors’ strength. Chin’s hoodlums brought the girls beside Garret.

  “Please don’t, Mr. Chin,” pleaded Olivia.

  Chin walked to Garret and plunged the sword into him. Garret gurgled as he lay dying.

  Olivia screamed, “No!”

  Chin turned to Olivia and Abby and said, “Your fathers not only pronounced their own deaths but yours as well.”

  He raised his sword to Olivia’s neck to behead her when an arrow flew through the air and stabbed him in the back, going right through his body. The head of the arrow protruded through the front of his chest. The h
enchmen fled as Chin began reeling.

  All eyes turned in the direction the arrow came from to see Noah holding a crossbow. “Say hello to the fat boy for me.”

  Chin, bleeding profusely, pulled the arrow out. “My son will be avenged.”

  “Yeah? Like father, like son, and I’d say you’re both going to the same place, so you can have coffee with him there.”

  Howling like a banshee, Chin charged Noah and began whaling on the younger man. Left uppercut. Right uppercut. Chin’s arms rose, forming double claws and attacks with the full force of the Dragon. He followed up with a double twirl kick to the head, knocking Noah down. As Noah got up, Chin did a flying leap with arms outstretched that sent Noah crashing to the floor again. He rose but, just as quickly, Chin kicked his legs out from under him. Rather than a battle between warriors, it looked like a man playing with a boy.

  Olivia went to grab a spear, but Noah shouted, “No!”

  Noah, totally spent, collapsed under a series of machine-gun blows to the head and midsection.

  Chin sneered and pushed a button on the wall. The wall opened, and a dozen enraged cranes charged out. Majestic birds with huge wingspans, these feathered animals had been trained as malicious, savage predators. Their long beaks bit and pecked at the air and anything in their way.

  “I think maybe now is a good time to do something,” said Noah.

  Olivia yanked a sword from the wall and threw it to Noah. She took a spear for herself as Abby grabbed an ax. Together, the three hacked away at the onslaught of the feathered foes. The cranes were formidable and fed with a maniacal desire for destruction, using their wings, beaks and talons. Gradually, though, the unlikely triumvirate prevailed. They hacked the heads off the long necks of the birds, skewering them with spears or with hands and feet, kicking their bodies into submission.

  Noah, Abby and Olivia fell to the ground, entirely exhausted but thrilled with victory.

  Chin leered at them. “Did you think it would be that easy?” He pressed another button, another wall slid out and an enraged Bengal tiger vaulted to the attack. Noah leapt to his feet and jumped in front of the girls.

  Mano-a-tiger duel to the death. Noah versus the tiger. Protection of beloved versus unfettered animal fury.

  The clash was ruthlessly violent as man and beast tangled and rolled on the floor. No amount of Hung Gar training was going to help. Noah chopped the beast on the back, but his blow was ineffectual and only served to infuriate the tiger. It roared as it disentangled itself from Noah and circled him... watching... waiting.

  At just the right moment, the tiger catapulted itself at Noah, knocking him down like a bowling pin. Noah sprung up, but the animal swung its paw as it tried ferociously to shred him to pieces. The feline knocked Noah down again and jumped on him, scratching, biting Noah’s face, arms, torso and legs.

  Bleeding and bitten, Noah tried to fight off the tiger. In the recesses of his mind, he tried to think of anything that could help. Two things came to mind. One was a Bible verse taught to him by his mother. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou are with me. The other came from Master Wu’s indoctrination of Confucian thinking. The virtuous man is free from anxiety, he is free from perplexities and he is free from fear.

  Then somewhere deep within, from a place he didn’t know he had, Noah summoned strength and erupted. “Not this time, not ever!” he shouted.

  With the strength of Samson pushing away the temple’s pillars, Noah threw the tiger twenty feet away. Enraged, the feline charged back but, with dazzling speed, Noah evaded the tiger’s chomping jaws. The young attorney went on the attack. He picked up the chair that Olivia sat on and bashed the tiger on the head, stunning the beast. He then went after Chin. The two wounded warriors, one with the experience of a thousand battles against the giants of the world, the other driven by the most powerful force in the universe, love.

  Hammer-punching bone-breaking blows; punch, counterpunch; broken rib exchanged for teeth knocked across the room; bloody, broken nose traded for lacerated, bleeding eyeball; savage, spinning drop kick countered by head butt to the jaw.

  Noah grabbed Chin by the mouth. Chin bit down hard, causing Noah’s fingers to bleed, but the young lawyer refused to let go as he squeezed and tried to pull Chin’s jaw out of the socket. Then, suddenly, Noah let go. Chin was off guard for a split second, just long enough for Noah to leap and double kick the Tiger Master. Once, twice, three times.

  Noah was possessed—acrobatic, artistic and awe-inspiring. Noah spun and hooked his foot, landing it hard against Chin’s shoulder, knocking him to the floor. Chin was down, but another problem arose.

  The tiger regained consciousness and ran toward Noah, who grabbed Marco’s computer and whirled it like a sling, like a modern-day David. He released it, and the projectile smacked the tiger full force in the side of its body. Incensed, the tiger leapt at Noah. The young lawyer picked up Chin and threw him directly at the tiger.

  The tiger caught Chin in his mouth midair. With a bite force of over five hundred pounds, the tiger sank its jaws into Chin’s chest. With the sound of crunching bones and Chin’s screams filling the air, blood gushed out.

  Noah raced behind the animal, grabbed it by the nape and gave it a sharp blow to the middle of its head, knocking it unconscious.

  The war was over. The blood-drenched Noah triumphed. He panted at Chin, “The first time we met, you asked if I liked tigers. Didn’t answer you then, but I’ll do that now.” Noah glared at the older man. “Damn, sure I do. But I sure can’t stand you.”

  Olivia and Abby ran to the exhausted Noah.

  Chin lay on the ground, in the spasms of death. Noah’s crossbow was beside him, and he slowly put an arrow in it.

  Staggering, he rose unsteadily, aimed it at Noah and fired. The arrow sliced the air as it sped toward its destination. Noah ducked, but he was not the target. The arrow embedded itself into a wall socket, causing an electrical short. Electricity zapped the air, and a fire broke out.

  Chin aimed at another wall socket on his left and shot another arrow. It found its target on the other side of the room. Now there were two fires on opposite sides of the room, igniting walls and furniture. Chin picked up another arrow and shot it at a wall socket on his right. The wall started burning. From left, right and behind, three blazing infernos grew. Noah, Abby and Olivia had no place of refuge and hugged a wall as flames grew closer and closer to the trio.

  Chin readied another arrow. If another fire started, there would be fire on all four sides of the room. A bleeding Garret somehow rose to his feet. He faltered to the staggering Chin, moving so slowly that his clothes caught fire. He embraced Chin tightly. Chin struggled but could not escape as the two began to burn as one.

  Chin gasped, “I can still make you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.”

  “You still don’t get it do you, Chin?” Garret said hoarsely. “This is not about money. This is not about honor. This is about Mary. And Jocelyn. Tommy and I planned this for years. This is the culmination.”

  Olivia tried to approach them, but the conflagration was too intense.

  Garret looked at Olivia. “I have waited until now to avenge your mother. You were always right. It was my fault. But I hope that I’ve made it right. I love you, Olivia.”

  “I love you, too, Daddy!”

  Garret gave one final look at his daughter. Now, I can die.

  He pulled Chin even tighter. They burned like a single human candle as the flames consumed them.

  With the fire consuming the room, Noah, Abby and Olivia desperately tried to find a way out. The elevator wouldn’t cooperate, and there were no windows or openings anywhere. They were going to be barbecued.

  Suddenly, sunlight broke out from the far side of the flames on the other side of the room. Master Wu stood on the balcony, beckoning them. “Hurry. Come!”

  The three had no choice but to brave the flames to get to the sunlight. Fire licked at th
eir clothes. Finally, they joined Master Wu on the balcony. The only problem was that they were fifty-four floors above ground. But, even here, they couldn’t escape the flames, and the fire reached out to touch the balcony.

  There was no choice. Noah, Abby and Olivia leapt over the balcony. Screaming, plummeting down, down, down. Then they heard a roar and looked up. The tiger had leapt, too!

  All four accelerated to their inevitable end—the deep end of the apartment’s swimming pool. They hit the water, which broke their fall, but the momentum carried them another fifteen feet down. They touched the bottom before rising to the surface. Gasping for breath, they bobbed up and down in the water.

  Noah called out, “Where’s Master Wu?”

  Olivia pointed to the high rise. Master Wu was descending the building wall like an experienced cat burglar.

  “Just jump in!” yelled Noah.

  Master Wu shouted back. “No way, Noah. That’s too dangerous. I might drown.”

  They all laughed as the now-friendly tiger tried to lick them.

  Chapter 43

  Noah, Olivia and Abby all sat at Master Wu’s tea table. A tea ceremony was in progress, there was a gas burner boiling some water in a teapot, and tiny earthenware teacups and pot were all arranged on the table.

  Master Wu pointed to the tea set. “Take them off, please,” said the sifu.

  A strange request, but Noah, Abby and Olivia weren’t about to argue with someone who had just saved their bacon. Master Wu went to one end of the table and readied himself to lift the tabletop. “Help me, please, Noah,” he said.

  An even stranger request, but Noah obediently helped Master Wu lift the top off the elongated table. They put it to the side. The three youngsters gasped in surprise at the sight of what was underneath. Billions upon billions of dollars in various denominations and currencies were stored below the table.

  Master Wu nodded. “And what you see is just the tip. It goes down another eight feet.”