by Alex Archer
Tuk cupped his hand to Annja’s ear and replied. “Guge is in there. He’s not dressed like my father anymore.”
“How is he dressed?”
“Military fatigues.”
“Chinese?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What else?”
“There are several soldiers in there. They’re all armed with automatic weapons. And there’s one other person in there, as well.”
“Who?”
Tuk frowned. “Hsu Xiao.”
Annja sighed. So the assassin was involved in this somehow. But what did Guge have to do with this and why were they connected?
“How should we play this?” Tuk asked.
“We need your phone, right?”
“Yes.”
“And Guge has it, so we need to get it back from him. The sooner we can call in the cavalry, the better.”
“You mean Garin.”
Annja nodded. “I’d settle for a Boy Scout troop if I thought it would help. But yes, Garin should be brought in here if possible.”
Tuk nodded. “All right, then. Let’s go get the phone.”
Annja stopped him. “How many soldiers?”
“Four.”
Annja frowned. Six to two. Not good odds. Especially since Tuk was unarmed and they were facing automatic weapons and a top-drawer assassin. Taking the room down would be a challenge even if Tuk had a weapon. But going in there without one was virtually suicidal.
“Stay here,” she said.
Tuk frowned. “I’m going with you.”
Annja shook her head. “I understand that you want to come with me, but you can’t. You don’t have a weapon, and the instant the bullets start flying I won’t be able to protect you. Those soldiers will turn you into Swiss cheese if they get even half a chance.”
“Don’t I have any say in this?”
“No. I rescued you back there, so you owe me, right?”
“I suppose.”
“Then do as I say.”
Tuk held her arm. “Annja, that assassin—Hsu Xiao—she’s not going to be easy to kill.”
Annja shrugged. “They never are.”
Tuk released her arm. “Just be careful.”
“As much as I can.”
Annja crept back up the corridor. She could sense Tuk watching her from behind and hoped he would be all right. She didn’t like the idea of leaving him alone in the corridor, but it was better than if he came with her.
She paused outside of the room and checked her position. Inside an animated conversation continued.
Wish I knew what they were saying, Annja thought.
She gripped her sword and looked into the blade. Her own reflection stared back at her and she smiled in spite of herself. Here we go again, she thought.
She took several deep breaths, flushing her system with an abundance of oxygen. Adrenaline dripped into her veins and Annja’s heart thundered again, ticking into overdrive in preparation for battle.
There was movement in the room. Some part of Annja’s gut told her that, in a few short seconds, the hallway was going to become very crowded.
It was time.
She gripped the sword.
Took a final breath.
She burst into the room, her blade already starting to spin and cut and slash as if under its own control.
Annja was merely along for the ride.
27
As Annja entered the room, she took in everything at once.
One soldier on the right, hands off his weapon.
Two soldiers at ten o’clock chatting with each other in low voices.
Guge talking with a woman draped in black who must be Hsu Xiao.
One other soldier sitting at a computer terminal.
A door on the far side of the room, closest to Hsu Xiao.
At Annja’s sudden appearance, the room stopped moving. The soldier on her right managed to react first. He gripped his AK-47 and started to thumb the safety off.
Annja’s sword cleaved the barrel of the assault rifle and she backhanded the blade up and into the soldier himself. He screeched as the blade tore into his upper torso, slicing deep into his thorax, dumping blood on the room’s stone floor. The soldier twisted in agony and then dropped.
Annja kept moving, making a beeline for the pair of soldiers. The one farthest away brought his gun up and then Annja heard the terrible sound of fully automatic gunfire. The AK-47 selector switch went from safety to full auto and the soldier seemed content to spray the room full of lead.
Annja twisted and leaped through the air, arcing high and then coming straight down at the soldier who was attempting to jerk the barrel of the gun around toward her even as he still unleashed the hail of lead.
Annja sliced down, landed and then cut back up under the gun, driving the sword into the young soldier’s lower torso, severing entrails and disemboweling him. Blood sprayed everywhere and the soldier died on his feet.
A bullet ricocheted off the wall nearby as the second soldier abandoned his rifle and went for his pistol instead. Annja flicked her hands up, catching the soldier’s gripping hand just beneath the wrist. The soldier screamed as he looked down at the bloody stump of where his hand had been seconds before.
Annja spun and cut the man across the throat. He dropped to the floor and lay still.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw the door open and close quickly. Her consciousness registered that Hsu Xiao had fled the room.
Annja wondered why, but she couldn’t afford to get distracted.
As Guge backed up against the wall and attempted to get out of the door, only to find it locked from the other side, the soldier seated behind the computer terminal stood and rushed Annja headlong.
He caught her around the waist and they went down in a tangled heap. Annja lost the sword and then felt the impact of a punch in her face that seemed like it had jarred a few teeth loose. The soldier brought his head down hard against the cheekbone and Annja grunted from the impact.
She pushed him off and tried to get the better position, but his legs came up instinctively, using them against her hips so she couldn’t get any purchase.
Another punch caught her in the chest and she gasped as the wind burst out of her lungs. Annja heaved and dropped an elbow onto the soldier’s sternum again and again. She drove the elbow hard against the xyphoid process and heard the small bone break. She let her full weight come down and then she felt the soldier stiffen before going slack as Annja drove the fragmented bone into his heart.
She rolled off the soldier just in time to see Guge going for her sword. Annja concentrated and the sword vanished. Guge stood there mouth agape.
“It was just there!”
Annja rolled off the dead soldier and then grabbed Guge by his lapels and tossed him against the stone wall. “It’s time you and I had a talk,” she said.
Guge shook his head. “Where did the sword go?”
Annja paused and suddenly the sword was back in her hands. She held the gleaming edge of the blade under Guge’s chin, pressed it ever so slightly against the skin on his neck and allowed it to bite just enough to score a thin line of blood.
Guge gasped at the pain. Annja pressed her point once more and then removed the sword.
“There. Now that I’ve got your attention…” Her voice trailed off.
Guge felt his neck and saw that his hand came away bloody. “You wouldn’t kill me, Annja.”
Annja smiled. “What makes you think that?”
“Because we saved you. We rescued you. If it hadn’t been for us, you would have died in that cave.”
Annja shook her head. “We were fine.”
“Mike would have died.”
Annja paused. “Perhaps you’re right. But don’t assume that means I won’t kill you. Especially since it looks like you’ve been lying this entire time.”
“It couldn’t be helped.”
“The lying?”
“Of course! H
ow else could we accomplish this?”
Annja shook her head. “All right, Guge, or whatever the hell your name is. You and I are going to have a nice long talk. And you’re going to sit down and explain every last bit of what’s happening to me.”
She shoved Guge into the chair behind the keyboard. Annja studied the screen but it was filled with complex Chinese characters that she couldn’t understand. She pointed at the screen. “Does that have something to do with what’s going on here?”
Guge glanced at it. “Of course.”
“And you understand what that says?”
Guge smiled.
Annja frowned. “Don’t even think about lying to me again. I heard you speaking Chinese right before I freed Tuk.”
Guge looked shocked. “You freed Tuk?”
“Of course I freed him.”
“How did you figure out how to do that?”
Annja sighed. “I’m not a moron, Guge. I discovered the depression in the wall. The button disguised as a part of the rock. It took a little time, but I found it.”
“You must be proud of yourself.”
“I’m not proud of anything. What I am is beside myself with wanting to know what exactly is happening in this place. And you’re going to tell me.”
“Hello, Father.”
Annja looked up as Tuk entered the room. “Tuk, maybe you should stay outside.”
He shook his head and looked at Annja’s handiwork. “It smells a lot worse than I thought it would.”
“Stick around a while and it gets much, much worse.”
Tuk knelt and removed a pistol from one of the dead soldiers. He slid the magazine out and made sure there were still bullets inside. Then he slapped it home again and racked the slide.
“Tuk, tell Annja to let me go.”
Tuk looked up and almost laughed. “I’ll do no such thing. I’m as anxious to hear your answers to her questions as she is.”
“But I’m your father, Tuk. You can’t do this.”
Tuk rushed over before Annja could stop him and placed the barrel of the pistol on Guge’s left knee. In an instant, there was a muffled pop and Guge screamed as if he’d been set on fire.
“Tuk!” Annja said.
But Tuk had already placed the gun barrel next to Guge’s other knee. “Are you my father? Tell me!”
“No! No! I’m not your father!” Guge’s face was pale and sweat boiled off his head, running down into his neckline. He clutched at his wounded knee and Annja could see that the bullet had effectively hobbled him.
“Tuk, let me do this, will you?” she said.
Tuk stepped clear of Guge. “Well, at least we’ve established that he is not my father.”
Annja glanced at him. “What if he had been?”
“Then I would apologize for crippling him. But that’s a moot point now, don’t you think?”
“Apparently.”
Annja looked at Guge, who was moaning and clutching his injured leg. “As you can see, Tuk is pretty upset with you for lying to him.”
Guge rocked back and forth, cradling his leg. “My God, it hurts.”
“It’s going to hurt even worse if you don’t start telling us the things we want to know.”
Guge looked up at Annja. “You don’t understand what’s happening here. You don’t get it.”
“That’s our point. You’re going to tell us now.”
Guge shook his head. “She’ll kill me if I tell you.”
Annja leaned in closer to his face. “And I will kill you right now if you don’t tell me exactly what I want to know.”
Guge looked at her and then nodded. “Very well.”
Annja leaned back. “First, where is Tuk’s cell phone?”
Guge gestured at his right leg. “In my pocket. The cargo pocket halfway down my leg.”
Annja felt around for the phone and found it. She handed it to Tuk. “Call Garin. Find out where he is and if he’s any closer to finding a way to get through to this place.”
Guge laughed. “He’ll never find it. It’s too well hidden.”
“You thought I wouldn’t be able to find the cell release for Tuk and I found that easily enough. Garin’s a pretty sharp guy. Something tells me he might just figure it out even without our help.”
Guge looked up at her with hatred in his eyes. “You’ll never leave here alive, Annja Creed.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is all about you. From the top down, this is all about you. Don’t you get it yet?”
Tuk looked up from the phone. “I’m not getting a signal.”
Annja frowned. “I thought that thing could get reception anywhere?”
“I thought so, too. But the walls of this place must be extra thick or something.”
Guge laughed. “They are thick. You’re inside a mountain. You won’t be able to reach anyone by phone while you’re in here.”
“We need to get outside,” Annja said. “You’ll get a signal out there.”
Guge moaned. “Good luck. The alarm will have already gone out and you’ll get a very different reception than the one we staged for you this evening.”
“What do you mean this is all about me?” Annja asked.
Guge shrugged. “Well, in truth, it’s not all about you. You are just one person, after all. But combined with everything else, we thought this would be a very nice way to take care of some loose ends all at once.”
Annja regarded him for a moment. She needed Garin here. But Tuk couldn’t reach Garin unless they went outside. But outside meant more troops presumably. At the very least, Hsu Xiao would be waiting for them.
Annja made a decision and dragged Guge to his feet. Instantly, as weight came down on his hobbled knee, he shrieked. “I can’t walk on that leg.”
Tuk looked up. “What are you doing?”
“We need him to keep us alive. If we go outside without him, they’ll shoot us. At least with Guge, we can keep them from unleashing a lead shower on us.”
“You think that will work?”
Annja shrugged. “I really don’t know. But I’m running out of ideas.”
Guge leaned against the computer desk and gritted his teeth. “They won’t hesitate to kill me to get to you, Annja. You’ve got too high a bounty on your head for them to even blink at taking me out.”
Annja shoved him toward the doorway. “Well, maybe we’ll just go outside and test that theory of yours, shall we?”
“It will be the last thing you do.”
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that before,” Annja said. She looked at Tuk. “Better grab some firepower. Bring both rifles and the magazines. This thing could get really hot.”
Tuk bent and scooped up the guns and ammunition. When he was ready he nodded at Annja.
Annja shoved Guge forward. “All right, old man, let’s get going. Something tells me things are about to get interesting. And you can spill all your secrets on the way out.”
28
Annja led Guge into the corridor and back down the slope toward the opening near the prison cell. As they walked, Tuk brought up the rear, with the two AKs dangling from his shoulders.
“Tell me what this is about,” Annja demanded.
“It’s about you dying, Annja Creed,” Guge said. “We’ve known about you for a while now.”
“Who has known about me?”
“Various members of the Chinese intelligence service.”
“You mean the whole of the Beijing political apparatus?”
Guge laughed. “Of course not. Only a few select members. Can you imagine how crazy it would look if we went with this before the premier and his people? They would have had us all shot for suggesting that there is a woman with a magical sword roaming the planet who should be assassinated.”
Annja felt a small measure of relief. “But why target me? I wasn’t harming anyone.”
“It’s not necessary that you were harming anyone,” Guge said, still gritting his teeth to war
d off the pain he must have been feeling from the bullet hole in his leg. “It’s that you have access to that sword.”
“So the sword signed my death warrant?”
“Something like that. It was felt that it would be good to try to acquire the sword for our own usage.”
“Whose usage?”
“Our leader.”
Annja stopped and shoved Guge against the wall. “Who is it? Is it Hsu Xiao or whatever her name is—the woman in the room with you?”
Guge laughed. “Hsu Xiao is nothing but a tool of our leader. She does what she’s told to do, which just so happens to be dealing death. But she is nothing close to the brains of this operation.”
Annja then shoved him forward again. “Keep moving.”
Guge stumbled along. “It’s quite funny, actually. Seeing you so concerned about this. I mean, we heard that you didn’t even like having the sword. That you’d rather go back to the normal life that you had before the sword came into your possession.”
“Whoever you guys are, you’ve certainly had some highly placed sources near my life for some time.”
Guge smiled. “Our leader doesn’t do anything halfway. She’s special that way.”
“She?”
“Does that surprise you? That a woman would be in charge?”
“No. I’m all for equal rights. Madmen, madwomen, what’s the difference?” Annja shrugged. “It always come down to the same thing. How soon can I get rid of them?”
Guge shook his head. “You won’t be getting rid of her so easily. She knows all about you. She’s taken the time to study you intimately, in fact. She’s watched you over the years and has learned how to play you. This setup alone should prove that as fact to you.”
“What setup?”
Guge laughed. “Our little fantasy world here. It’s something, isn’t it? This make-believe Shangri-La? That’s the irony. We’re making believe that it’s a make-believe place. The irony is so thick you could cut it.”
They’d reached the prison cell and Guge blanched when he saw the dead Chinese soldier on the floor. “You certainly don’t seem to mind all the killing you unleash, do you?”
“I do what’s necessary. I choked him out first but then he came to and attacked me. I had no choice but to kill him,” Annja said.