It was a hard truth.
Chen glanced at him and said, “Only he will determine his worth. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. But I promise, if he doesn’t, he’ll be in the ground just like the men we lost.”
Jake shrank back at Chen’s gaze and Zhi stood up, saying, “Let’s go. It’s a fifteen-minute walk to the car, and that boat isn’t waiting.”
Chen stood as well, picking up his duffle.
He turned to Bear and said, “Don’t mess around here. Get out. The men who are hunting us are good. Better than we’ve ever faced. Anyone that can track us like they did are worthy opponents.”
Bear grinned. “I have no fear of them. You leave, and there is no threat. They aren’t tracking me.”
Chen’s face hardened at the flippant attitude. He leaned over Bear, saying, “They have killed better men than you. Do not underestimate them.”
The humor of Bear’s statement evaporated like a breath in cold air. He nodded, asking, “What about your man down the hall? I’ll take my team and vanish, but what about him?”
“Let him recover, and then send him on his way. I don’t know what they gave him, but it wasn’t deadly. He knows what to do.”
Chen turned to Jake and, in English, said, “Let’s go.”
Jake shouldered his small duffle bag, glancing between the two of them. He said, “Where are we going?”
“Taiwan.”
Chapter 65
Knuckles crouched by the open door, staring hard down the hallway. He turned back to me and whispered, “I can see a kitchen island, but I can’t see who’s talking. The room opens up, but they’re unsighted.”
I said, “What’s your take on how many?”
“With the picture from the pub, and Shitpants out of play, probably four, not including Pirate.”
Four men. Not good odds given we’d cleared all the bedrooms behind us. They had to all be in the room, wide awake. With the element of surprise, we could probably drop them all, but not without a gunfight that would alert the renters below us. If they got off even one round, it would sound like an explosion in the house. And that was if all four were in the room, and not hiding somewhere else in an area we couldn’t see.
I made the hard call. “It’s an abort.”
Brett flicked his head into the room with the body and said, “What about Shitpants? We’re compromised either way now.”
I said, “I know. Can’t be helped. I’d rather be compromised clandestinely by the Chinese than the Australian authorities arresting us.”
I took a knee near the doorjamb, seeing the light outside and hearing the voices. I raised my barrel, picking up security and saying, “Search the room.”
Knuckles pulled his barrel away. “Okay. Man, this sucks. Such a clean entry.”
I said, “I know. Trust me, I know.”
And then Jennifer came on the net, saying, “Pike, this is Koko. Front door just opened. Pirate is with two others, a man and a woman. They’re headed out.”
We heard the call and froze. I said, “Koko, this is Pike. We’re committed inside. Can you interdict?”
I heard hesitation in her voice. “I can . . . but I can’t subdue. I’ll have to drop both of them to secure Pirate.”
I looked at Knuckles, wanting some miracle to come out of his mouth, but he just shook his head, knowing there was no Hollywood ending here.
I said, “Drop them. We take Pirate and get the fuck out.”
Jennifer heard the command clearly, but thought it was unwise. She said, “This is Koko. You want me to kill them in the yard?”
“Yes. We’re going to clean up in here. We’ll get out on foot. You take Pirate and exfil him with the van.”
She looked up at the landing, seeing the taller man talking to another inside the door, the woman looking out as if searching for something.
“Pike, we’re going to leave a couple of bodies on the ground next to the lower renters. Are you sure?”
She heard, “We’re leaving bodies up here as well. Get it done, and we’re on the Rock Star bird out of here with Pirate.”
She said, “Roger all,” then looked toward Veep, buried in the foliage ten feet away, whispering off the net, “You get that?”
He shifted, allowing her to see where he was in the darkness. He whispered, “Got it. Targets?”
She couldn’t see his face in the dark, but knew he was feeling the same adrenaline she was. She said, “I’ll take the woman. You take the man. Let them get down the stairs. We hit them at the base, and then assault to Pirate. Roger?”
She saw him rise up, taking a sitting position in the bushes to allow him a sight picture, raising his rifle and resting his arms on his thighs, the elbows sinking into the flesh. He said, “Roger all. Your call for the send.”
She did the same thing, seating her rifle into her shoulder, her legs crossed Indian style, her elbows on her thighs to give her a view through the bushes. She reached up and adjusted the throw lever of the scope, necking it down to two-power, then settled, her illuminated reticle centered on the woman’s chest.
She whispered, “Veep, I have control. I’ll take the first shot.”
He came back, so low she barely heard it, “Roger all. Second target is acquired.”
She watched them come down the stairs, waiting for them to reach the bottom, banishing from her mind that she was about to take a life. Controlling her respiration, she got into a rhythm, watching the reticle bounce slightly with each breath.
She watched the three of them descend, the woman in front, the two men behind. When the woman hit the third step from the bottom she whispered, “Stand by. Stand by.”
Then she took up the slack on her trigger.
Chapter 66
Jake waited for Chen to finish talking to the man called Bear, and the deadly woman took the delay to put her arm through his. Scaring the hell out of him.
She’d been doing it as a lark, but he knew it was also a threat. In fact, it was the ultimate threat. Disobey them and reap the results. He realized his life was no longer his own.
When Chen had said he was included in the delivery of the data he’d stolen, he’d thought it would be somewhere in Australia, believing he was going to instruct some Chinese computer geek on a laptop. He had no idea that he’d be literally flying out of the country. When Chen had mentioned Taiwan, it was one more stone emplaced in his growing conviction that he was a dead man. He regretted ever talking to the Chinese students on his college campus so long ago.
Jake was an intelligent man, and inherently understood that Chen and Zhi didn’t care one whit about whether he lived or died. Helping the Chinese for a little bit of cash was one thing. Flying with them to a country he’d never even googled was something else. He needed to break free.
He knew if he went to Taiwan, he would be dead.
Chen finished talking to Bear and they began the walk down the stairs, each step sealing Jake’s fate. He began sucking in oxygen in a pant, the panic reaching a crescendo. The woman turned to him, saw the sweat on his brow and the shallow breathing, and said, “Don’t worry, dear. We’re not really going to dive with the great whites. It’s just a boat trip to get you to safety.”