Another voice answered. “Road Two.”
“Move into the woods and set up a blocking position. Cher and I will protect the principal in the safe room.”
Tan Lily felt her face flush at the comment. “Just you and Cher?”
Margaret reached inside and flipped a switch to turn on a set of overhead lights, illuminating what looked to be an armory with all manner of pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, knives, and cases of ammunition.
“Road Two,” the voice replied.
Tan Lily heard the front door open and close beneath them as the only other person protecting the house left to pursue the unseen threat outside. Her heart raced when she realized that she and Shen Li were alone in the house with only Margaret and her dog.
But Margaret ignored her question and walked to the far wall to retrieve a short-barreled bullpup pump action shotgun from where it was mounted. Tan Lily followed closely behind, scanning the room for a weapon she might be able to arm herself with. Her eyes settled on a folding knife resting on the table in the center of the room, and she scooped it up without a second thought.
While Margaret opened the breech and began feeding 12-gauge shells into the shotgun, Tan Lily watched her closely while her thumb stroked the stud along the blade’s handle. She had hoped it wouldn’t have to come to this, but she knew she couldn’t afford to squander the opportunity the Security Protective Officer had given her by sending the other man out into the woods.
Her thumb pressed on the stud, and the blade sprang open with a click.
Margaret slid another shell into the breech, then paused. She turned and locked eyes with Tan Lily, then glanced down at the knife in her hand. “What are you doing?”
Without a second thought, the operative known as SUBLIME shoved the knife up under Margaret’s rib cage and pierced her liver before quickly pulling it out and stabbing straight into her neck to the side of the larynx. Margaret’s eyes grew wide, and her fingers released the shotgun as Tan Lily yanked the blade sideways and severed the older woman’s carotid artery and jugular vein.
Blood showered Tan Lily, but she only gave a subtle shake of her head as she watched the woman crumple to the ground at her feet. All she needed to do now was get Shen Li and escape before the Americans figured out that the man in the woods wasn’t there to kill her.
He was there to rescue her.
56
Guo Kang stumbled and fell forward into a thicket of ferns, struggling to take a breath as he fought through the dense vegetation west of the safe house. He knew he wouldn’t likely survive the ordeal. He could hear men behind him, pursuing him away from the front gate and deeper into the woods. They would harry him until he had no more energy left, and then they would kill him.
“This can’t be happening,” he muttered.
He was one of the Ministry’s most skilled operatives, and the General had only tasked him with retrieving the doctor and bringing her in so she could activate the weapon aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. It should have been simple. But, for some reason, the Americans got to her first.
He pushed himself up and propelled himself onward. He had accepted his fate, but he wasn’t about to quit without sacrificing himself for the operation. If he could get SUBLIME away from the Americans, then maybe she could still complete her mission. He wouldn’t be around to receive accolades for his role in the reunification of Taipei, but his legacy would be cemented in the annals of history.
There, in the hills north of San Diego, he would sacrifice his life for the future of his people.
Guo Kang stumbled again and fell to his knees. He coughed and spat thick blood onto the dirt underneath him, fearing that he was in worse shape than he first suspected. He took a labored breath and heard a rattle from his chest, recognizing the symptoms of his lungs filling with blood. He tilted his head up and spied the safe house through the trees only two hundred yards away.
I won’t make it.
He growled at the coward inside him and lunged upward once more. He refused to accept defeat and would use every last ounce of energy to reach SUBLIME. But to be safe, he needed to alert the General. If they stopped him before he could free her, he needed the General to know before he committed their forces to the invasion.
While struggling to put one foot in front of the other, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Forsaking standard protocols in favor of expediency, Guo Kang dialed the General’s number through the Signal app and hoped their leader answered the call.
“What is it?” the General asked when the call connected.
“I am…” Guo Kang coughed, and his mouth filled with blood. He spat it onto the ground before continuing. “I am finished.”
“Is she safe?”
The rattling in his chest was getting worse, and his odds of surviving were dropping with each step. But still he moved forward. Never retreat. Only attack.
“Not… yet,” Guo Kang said.
“Are you hurt?”
He hated to admit it. In all his years as a commando in the People’s Liberation Army and paramilitary operator for the Ministry of State Security, Guo Kang had never been wounded. He had never been bested on the field of battle, and he felt shame that it had happened in what was to have been his defining moment in service to the State.
“Yes,” he said. “I’ve been shot.”
He coughed again. More blood. His vision blurred, and he felt the world tilting around him as he struggled to remain conscious.
The General sighed on the other end. “Pull back,” he said. “We will get to her another way.”
“But…”
A searing pain erupted between his shoulder blades as a force slammed into him and toppled him forward. He barely had time to register the echoing sound of a gunshot behind him before he fell face first onto the ground. The impact knocked the wind out of him, and the rattling in his chest grew louder as blood poured from his mouth. He opened his mouth to warn the General, but nothing came out.
“Guo Kang,” he heard the distant voice cry out. He spotted his cell phone on the ground three feet away, but he knew it was too far. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sanitize it before his pursuers were on him, so he focused on staying awake long enough to make his last stand.
“Federal agent!” another voice called out.
Guo Kang lifted his pistol and pointed it behind him without looking. He squeezed the trigger and felt the gun recoil with each shot, but he didn’t know if any had found their mark. He only knew that he would die as a warrior, with a gun in his hand.
Another round slammed into him, and his body twitched with the impact.
Guo Kang suddenly felt nothing at all.
Tan Lily opened the door and saw Shen Li clutching Cher tightly around her neck. The cur stood erect, blocking the little girl with her body as she watched the door open.
“Mama? What’s happening?” Shen Li asked.
She crossed the room quickly, barely registering that the dog bristled as she neared and emitted a low rumble from deep within her chest. Then, she saw her daughter’s eyes grow wide with shock, and she realized she was covered in Margaret’s blood.
“We need to go,” she whispered. Cher growled when she reached for her daughter’s hand, and she stopped short.
“Mama, you’re bleeding.”
Tan Lily wiped a hand down her face, smearing the older woman’s blood. As if the cur could smell her master in the metallic scent, Cher growled louder and barked at the doctor. But Tan Lily had heard the gunshots too. She knew that meant whoever the General had sent to rescue her had either been stopped or had bested the Americans. Either way, she was running out of time.