Qin’s eyes moved back to the doctor, who was now watching him nervously. Without a word, Qin stepped around the agent who still held Lee and walked silently down the hall. Unlike the first two rooms, the second two had patients who hadn’t woken up from the commotion.
When Qin reached the rolling bed, he pushed it carefully out of his path. He stepped over the fallen equipment and drew his gun as he inched closer to the doorway. He glanced back at the other men only briefly before stepping inside.
Qin scanned the room, noting the worn cot and small closet with an open door. Inside the closet were stacks of cleaning supplies with several haphazardly placed brooms and mops. On the floor, a plastic bucket lay on its side.
Qin examined the rest of the room.
What he was searching for was hiding less than a meter away, directly behind him.
52
Wil Borger didn’t take his eyes off the screen. He watched with annoyance as the latest satellite image slowly came in, overlaying the old picture. When the transfer finally finished, the lights he had been tracking were exactly where he was afraid they would be.
“Crap!”
He zoomed in as far as he could. Even in the dark, the outline of the small building was recognizable, along with the helicopter parked less than a hundred feet away.
Borger grabbed his phone and dialed again. There was no answer. He turned to another screen and zoomed back in on Clay’s satellite phone. It was still moving.
He was almost there.
Qin stood silently in the room, listening to the final whirring outside from the helicopter’s rotors. He looked down at the small cot and studied the blankets. They were messy. The position of the rusted frame so near to the closet looked out of place. Intentional.
He couldn’t hear Li Na’s breathing behind the door, not over the rotors or Xinzhen’s men continuing to shout at the doctor. But he knew she was still here in the room. He turned slowly with his raised gun and looked behind him. There was only one other place to hide.
He reached out with his left hand and fingered the doorknob, pulling it decidedly away from the wall.
The door’s shadow moved with it, revealing the terrified young face of Li Na Wei standing against the wall. Her dark hair was messy, with bangs stopping just short of her wide eyes.
The resemblance to her father was unmistakable.
“Well, well, well,” Qin breathed quietly. “You are alive after all.”
He looked her up and down. Her clothes were as disheveled as her hair. “Where is it?”
She didn’t answer.
Qin lowered the gun slightly, pointing it at the girl’s midsection, and raised his voice over the noise from outside.
“Where is it?!”
Li Na stared at him, and in an act of unexpected defiance, shook her head from side to side.
Qin gazed at her coldly. He didn’t have time for this. He didn’t know where the American was, and on top of that, the fewer of Xinzhen’s men who knew, the better. He stepped away and peered through the door, back down the hall. “Bring him here.”
Li Na remained still, listening to the scuffle outside. The doctor was abruptly thrown into the room where he stumbled to the far wall. He turned and looked at Li Na apologetically before reluctantly facing Qin.
“Our young lady appears to have forgotten how to speak. And I have very little time, so I’ll ask you once and once only. Where… is… it?”
Lee glanced at all three men, careful not to look in the direction of the closet. He knew it didn’t really matter where it was. They’d find it eventually. What mattered more was that Lee had monumentally failed both Li Na and her father.
He failed to heed her father’s warning as quickly as he should have. He thought he had more time. To help her. To understand exactly how Wei had saved her. And to prepare her. But it was too late. The man before him had an unmistakable look in his eyes. He was going to kill them no matter what he said. Of that, the doctor was sure. Lee might buy Li Na a few minutes, but that was all. And it wouldn’t be enough to matter.
There was nothing else he could do. He stared at Qin’s gun pointed squarely at his chest. His life was going to end there. That morning. In the tiny hospital that he had helped to build with his own hands.
Lee was surprised when a wave of emotion suddenly passed over him, squelching the fear. It was the feeling of… satisfaction. The satisfaction that if it had to happen here, there was no place more appropriate. It was in this tiny hospital that with only the barest of resources, Lee had saved hundreds of lives. And with the money General Wei had donated for helping his daughter, it would go on to save hundreds more. Maybe thousands.
In the end, his life wasn’t any more important than those he’d cared for. For those he had brought into the world and for those he had helped out. It was simply-
The doctor’s last thought was cut short by an explosion from Qin’s gun. The bullet ripped into his chest and through one of his ventricles. He collapsed onto the floor and was dead within seconds.
Li Na screamed, horrified. She watched helplessly as the life slowly faded from the doctor’s eyes. She stumbled backward against the wall, beginning to hyperventilate.
With a sickening grin, Qin turned back around and faced her.
“I’m going to ask you one… more… time.”
A wave of terror welled up through her chest as Li Na tried desperately to speak through the shock. But she couldn’t. Her lips wouldn’t move. She tried to say something. Anything.
Suddenly, the second of Xinzhen’s men, who was guarding the door, appeared to take a clumsy step forward before collapsing in front of them with nothing but a blur visible behind him. It was the blur of a rifle butt, now spinning in the air just as the larger of Xinzhen’s men drew his gun.
He was fast. So fast that he managed to get off two rounds before a flash erupted from the end of the AK-47’s barrel now pointing into the room. Three bullets hit him in the chest, sending the agent into the wall and then to the floor, where the pistol rattled from his limp hand.
The barrel of the rifle immediately swept across the room and stopped against the doorjamb, angled directly at Qin.
In a flash, Qin pulled the teenage girl in front of him. He kept her between himself and the door before glancing back at Xinzhen’s men, lying still in front of him.
His eyes darted back to the barrel of the AK. The American had arrived.
53
Out of breath and with his chest heaving, John Clay remained pressed against the doorjamb while peering over the top of the rifle, his aim locked in on Qin and Li Na. Even with his sweating hands and throbbing legs, the rifle remained motionless, waiting for the slightest movement from Qin.
In response, Qin twisted and managed to slouch further behind the girl’s outline, leaving very little of his body exposed. His eyes peered around her with a hidden smirk.
“Ah, the American.”
Clay’s stonelike expression didn’t change. “In the flesh.”
“And who exactly might you be?”
“My name isn’t important. Let her go.”
Qin paused, waiting to see if there was anyone else with the American. Hearing nothing, he relaxed slightly but kept Li Na close. “My name is Qin,” he said in nearly perfect English.
“Good for you.”
“And as you can see,” he said, gripping the girl’s arm tighter, “you’re too late.”