I shouted, “Jake! Jake! No!”
But it did no good. He was staggering like a drunk, his hands flopping back and forth, his eyes wide with fear. One of the men behind the Chinese vehicle raised up, saw him coming, and nailed him right between the eyes. He collapsed on the road like he’d fallen asleep while running, sliding forward on the pavement, his face grinding into the asphalt.
The man who’d fired realized he’d killed the wrong target and screamed in frustration. I saw his partner start sprinting from the other side of the car, trying to flank me on the hillside.
I raised my pistol, took a slow bead in my holosight, led him a fraction, and punched two bullets center mass. He staggered across the pavement and then fell into the hillside on the far side of the road, looking like a deer that had been shot and had kept moving until its body told him it was done.
I shouted, “Paul, Paul, get on Fly Boy!” and leapt up.
The second man put down a fusillade of lead at my appearance, and I dove back down behind the cover of my rental, the bullets puncturing steel and shattering glass. I heard an engine up the road, and Knuckles came around the corner, driving flat out. The man saw him coming and stood up, punching rounds through the windshield in an effort to get him to stop, but it did no good.
Knuckles ducked down below the wheel and slammed his car into the open door of the man’s vehicle, hammering it hard enough to launch the man hiding behind it over the cliff.
I turned around, seeing Fly Boy leaping down the slope, Paul in pursuit. Down below me, on another switchback, I saw another car on the road.
Fly Boy reached it, the door was flung open, and Chen Ju-Long appeared. He looked at me, and I saw recognition. I snarled into the air, but there was nothing I could do to stop what was happening.
Fly Boy piled into the back, and the car executed an accelerated J-turn, snapping around like it was nailed into the road by the hood, and then began racing toward the valley.
I raised my weapon, wanting to shoot, but I knew it would do no good. Paul made his way back up the slope and stopped at Jake Shu’s dead body.
I went to Knuckles’s car, finding him and Brett outside, searching for the bad man in the bushes, but there wasn’t anything left to harm us. He was dead from the impact.
Knuckles said, “Is this how it was supposed to end?”
I could tell he was pissed. My plan hadn’t gone the way I’d thought it would, but that was water under the bridge now, and there was no reason to dwell on it. Instead, I gave it right back to him.
I said, “You mean you crashing your car into a guy we could have interrogated, launching his ass off a cliff?”
He grinned and said, “Well, I could have let him kill you.”
I said, “Check your vehicle. Make sure it runs. We need to get out of here.”
I got on the net and said, “Koko, Veep, exfil on the alternate route. We’ll see you at the hotel.”
Veep came back, “What happened?”
I said, “I’ll tell you at the hotwash, but it isn’t pretty.”
I walked over to Paul. “He alive?”
“No. He’s most definitely dead.”
I sighed and said, “Fuck. What a debacle.”
Paul said, “There is a silver lining.”
“And what, pray tell, is that?”
“Chen Ju-Long is driving Colonel Won’s car. And it still has the beacon.”
Chapter 84
Chen Ju-Long drove for about a mile and a half to the valley floor. Before he accessed the on-ramp of the north-south highway he pulled over, saying to Zhi, “Take the wheel. I have to make a call.”
She did so, and he dialed his control, waiting on the encryption to synchronize. When it did, and the line cleared, he said, “This is Tiger. The implant was a success, but we have a problem.”
“Problem? What happened?”
“The Americans from Australia appeared here in Taiwan. I was wrong about it being a coincidence before. It wasn’t just an anomaly based off the killing of their friend. I don’t know who they work for, but they are definitely tracking us.”
“Can you evade them until we initiate MANTIS? After that, it won’t matter what they do.”
“That’s the primary problem. They interdicted Ocelot and Bobcat’s vehicle. Ocelot gives us the access we need to the bases here, but Bobcat built the program. He had the back door to execute. And he was killed.”
“Killed? By the Americans?”
“Yes. They also killed the two men you sent from Tainan. They are skilled. Ocelot managed to escape, and he’s with me now. We’ve broken the surveillance effort through the fight and by a change of vehicles, but we don’t have a way to initiate now.”
His control said, “This is very disappointing. Continue your mission. I’ll call you back.”
Chen hung up and said, “Go to Tainan.” Zhi entered the highway and he turned around to Ocelot, saying, “What happened up there?”
Ocelot looked like he wanted to throw up, holding his head in his hands. “I don’t really know. We were hit by a car, knocking us into the guardrail. Before I could even figure out what had happened, there was a gunfight between your men and the car that hit us. Bobcat freaked out and ran toward your men, trying to escape, I think.”
“And the Americans killed him?”
Ocelot said nothing. More forcefully, Chen said, “And the Americans killed him? Talk to me.”
Ocelot pulled his head out of his hands and said, “No. Your men killed him. He ran toward them seeking escape, and they shot him.”
Chen slapped the dashboard in frustration. Zhi said, “They didn’t know who he was. It isn’t their fault.”
“Yes it is. Continue to Tainan. Maybe Control can salvage this mess.”
After two hours on the road his phone rang again. He saw the number and realized it wasn’t his control. He answered, saying, “This is Tiger.”
“This is Lion. I understand there is an issue with the execution of MANTIS.”
“Yes, sir. We’ve lost the ability to initiate. Bobcat is dead. I don’t have the back door. I have no way to execute now.”
“I have one here, in Beijing.”
“How?”
“The American here worked with Bobcat on the program. He has the access control. He can initiate. Let me know when you arrive at the airbase in Tainan. It has to happen today. The full mission profile of the PLA exercise begins soon. We need that signature to quell any fears that the algorithm is incorrect.”
Traveling down the road, Chen wondered if they weren’t pushing the issue. Wondered if they hadn’t extended themselves too far. It had happened in the past, but it wasn’t his job to question why.
He said, “Yes, sir. I’ll let you know.”
He heard some steel through the phone. “Tiger, make no mistake, Ocelot has to use his power to get the command to launch the missiles. Once we initiate, he needs to convince them that it isn’t an exercise. Today is the day for victory. Tomorrow is too late. Do you understand?”
Chen said, “Yes, sir. I understand. I’ll get it done.”
We evacuated the target area, reconsolidating the surveillance effort at a roadside stand just outside the entrance to the valley highway. The team arrived one by one, coalescing around a picnic table under a gazebo.