She half ran, half limped forward. Her foot came down on something still alive. Someone screamed louder. She ignored it, lurched forward, blind. The window must be directly ahead of her. God help her if it wasn't.
"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" she yelled with all her saved-up breath.
Sam surged forward with what she had left, twisted her body at the last second to shield Kade, crashed through what little glass remained in the window after the explosion, hurtled into the pre-dawn air.
39
FRYING PAN TO FIRE
Feng shook her awake with mind and body. Even after all these years, this body still needed sleep.
Shu opened her eyes. "What is it?" she asked in Mandarin.
"Explosion. Nana District. Near where he was attacked on Monday."
She was awake instantly. Feng opened his mind to her, and she absorbed it all. She became one with her higher self, breathed deep in the glory of it, scanned the net for all public knowledge of this, saw how paltry it was. Thai Royal Police databases opened for her, told her fractionally more, not what she was looking for. Where was Kade now? Thai Telecom opened to her mental touch. There. His phone was at the site of the blast.
"Get the car," she commanded.
"This may be dangerous," Feng replied.
"Get the car," she repeated. Feng bowed and turned, sprinting for the other room in their suite.
"And your guns, Feng. Get your guns."
Sam landed hard in the alley. Pain shot up the damaged leg and it gave out. She couldn't roll with Kade in her arms, staggered instead, caught herself on one knee. Fuck. Jumping one story shouldn't hurt like that.
Coughing racked her body violently. Bloody mucus landed on Kade's scorched shirt. Kade had burns all over him. He'd passed out from pain or smoke or something else. She could hear the last fading mental screams of the dying in the apartment above, as the smoke and flames brought their lives to an end.
This is how my family died, she thought to herself.
More coughing racked her body. She'd inhaled too much smoke. Fuck. She didn't have time for this. She had to get them out of here. That way, the main street. Find a cab. Go to ground, somewhere, anywhere.
What had she done?
Time to think of that later.
Sam came up to her feet, lurched painfully down the alley towards the main street. She made it a handful of steps when she heard running feet behind her, a yell, in Thai. "There!"
She tried to turn, was too tired, too slow with Kade. Something jabbed her fast and hard in the back. Electricity coursed through her, convulsing her muscles. She screamed. A taser round. Oh, god, no. Not this again. Not now, when she was so tired…
A second round hit her. Her legs gave out. She stumbled, fell to her knees. Kade rolled out of her grip. Running feet approached. Her vision was fading. Someone kicked her in the face and she toppled backwards, into a pool of broken glass blasted out by the explosions above. She was vaguely aware of someone picking Kade up, hauling him off. She could feel someone's mind… A mind she'd felt…
Suk. Suk Prat-Nung. He was still alive.
An electrified shock baton came down on her. Her body spasmed. Kicks rained down, more shock batons. Three of them above her. Four. Maybe five. She pushed it all away from her self, like she'd pushed the beatings, the rapes, the humiliations and abuses.
She'd been so stupid.
"The Friday night event is a trap," the note had said.
Wats. It must have been Wats. That's why he'd been here. He'd known it was a trap. He came into it anyway, died trying to save Kade.
Thank you for saving my life, she whispered to him.
She felt a last feeble mental scream from someone upstairs, felt his skin turn to ash and his mind wink out. Loesan. That had been Loesan. Dead, all dead.
Her eyes opened. Wats had made her promise something. Promise that she'd keep Kade alive, keep him alive so he could make an impact.
They'd rolled her onto her stomach, she realized, brought her up on her knees, face down in the alley, on the cobblestones and the broken glass. There was a forest of legs around her, just visible in the pre-dawn gloom. One was yelling in Thai that she'd killed his brother. The blows had stopped coming down.
They were going to take her with them, he was saying. Then they were going to rape her. They were going to make her scream for hours. They were going to flay the flesh from her stupid body. They were going to make her beg for death.
Fools. They should have killed her here and now. Her hand closed on a long, jagged piece of glass, inches wide, a foot long. The sharp edges bit into her palm, her fingers. Blood welled up.
"Chaonai Rayum Khongkhun pen Kon Kaa!" she yelled. Your fucking boss killed him!
Sam lashed out behind her with a kick, felt it connect with one of them. She slashed to the right with the broken glass at the nearest leg, took him on the back of the calf, hamstrung him. Blood fountained out of the leg. The thug dropped to one knee, mouth open, screaming in pain.
She reached up with her left hand, grabbed the man above her by the hair, used it to pull him down and herself up, jammed the foot-long glass shard into the underside of his jaw – all the way up into his head – as she came up to her feet. Red arterial blood spurted out. The man gurgled and gasped for breath, dead on his feet.
There were rotor sounds above her. A helicopter. Someone kicked at her chest. She cut a furrow in his leg for his trouble. A spotlight illuminated them. An amplified voice boomed out in Thai, instructing them to halt by order of the police. Gunshots ricocheted off the brick walls. The thugs turned and bolted, scattering in all directions. Fuck.
An explosion ripped out of the apartment upstairs, some munition on one of the bodies finally going up. The chopper pilot jerked up and away, and the light came off her for just an instant. Sam rolled, painfully, came up with a limp, threw herself into a shaded doorway.
She had to find Kade. Where had they taken Kade?
Kade came to abruptly. Someone had smacked him across the face. He was slumped in a chair. One of his eyes wouldn't open. Everything hurt. His hands and the left side of his face burned. It hurt to breathe.
Someone smacked him again. He screamed in pain. Oh my god, that hurt. The skin of his face was on fire. His eye, he couldn't fucking see through one eye. It hurt like hell!
A fist landed in his gut. He doubled over, gasping for breath, retching. He couldn't breathe, couldn't breathe, couldn't breathe.
A voice spoke in Thai. The next blow didn't land. A tiny bit of air leaked back into his lungs. He gasped. He was in a large room of some sort. A warehouse. Where was Sam? Where was Wats? Oh my god, that was Wats. He'd felt his friend die. Felt them all die.
Oh no. Oh no. Dead, dead, dead, all dead. My fault. My fault. All my fault.