“We’ve got more company,” she yelled.
“Police?”
She aimed and fired twice down the hallway. “I don’t think so. It’s that Asian woman.”
“Jesus, I thought she worked for Remington,” he said. “Why is she still coming?” Jake found a pitcher of water and brought it to the man he had knocked out.
“Because I think she might be the female version of you. She’s a relentless bitch.” Alexandra shot two more times and then checked on her bullets in the magazine. “What kind of guns were those guards using?”
Jake checked the man’s pockets and found two extra magazines. “Glocks like ours. We’re flush. Fire away, my dear.”
“What about the cops?”
“I have a feeling they’ll hold back a bit. They’re probably not used to this kind of gun fight.”
Alexandra shrugged and fired in both directions until her slide stuck back, indicating she was out. She dropped one magazine and jammed another into the handle. Then she hit the mag release and cycled another round into the chamber.
Jake found the pitcher of water again and emptied it onto the guard’s face, waking the man in a rush of flailing arms and legs. Now Jake had his gun trained on the man’s face.
“You speak English, dirtbag?” Jake asked.
The man said nothing. His jaw tightened, though, and Jake took that as a sign of understanding.
Alexandra continued holding off the bad guys with shots in both directions. She did this with casual indifference, like an inattentive mother checking on a child at the park monkey bars.
Jake asked the Chinese man a couple more times in English if the man understood him. But he wasn’t saying a thing.
“I don’t have time for this crap.” Jake quickly turned the gun from the man’s head and shot the guy in the right knee.
Now the guard screamed like a little baby. First in Chinese and then in English.
“Okay, so now we’ve established your language skills,” Jake said, his gun aimed again at the guy’s head. “Now, tell me where your boss went.”
“You are dead mother fucker,” the guard said, holding his shot knee.
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been told that before. Now, where is General Wu Tang?”
The Chinese guy laughed. “Wu-Tang Clan is American rap group.”
Jake stepped on the man’s wounded right knee, bringing instant pain and screaming. “You know who I mean.”
“More sirens, dude,” Alexandra yelled, and then shot a few more times.
“Where is Wu Gang?” Jake asked through clenched teeth.
The guard finally showed an appropriate level of fear. “If I tell you, I’m dead.”
“Sounds like you have a bit of a problem. You tell me and I’ll let you go. Then you can tell your boss I’m coming for him.”
“You can’t do that,” Alexandra said in German.
Jake turned to her and answered in German, “He doesn’t know that. Besides, the locals will have this guy hauled off to jail and throw away the key.”
Alexandra nodded and then shot a few more times.
“What you say?” the guard asked frantically.
“I told her it was same same but different.”
“What? I am not same same but different. I’m Chinese. I work for legitimate businessman.”
“General Wu Gang is more than that and you know it,” Jake taunted. “Now, where is he?”
The man seemed to be considering his options. But he wasn’t coming up with anything good, Jake could tell.
“He left this afternoon to check on his business in Saigon,” the Chinese guard said.
“Then why didn’t you go with him?” Jake wanted to know.
“He has many men and many assets. We protect this place.”
The man had just made a major tactical error. Now Jake would have to find out about General Wu Gang’s other locations. The man was softened to comply. The problem? Jake was running out of time. They were up against two sets of shooters, and the local police were closing in on them as well. Jake couldn’t help feeling trapped with no chance of escape. His ears were ringing like the constant drone of a fire alarm.
22
The police sirens had silenced, but as Jake looked out the window he could see the cars still flashed their lights outside the front of the building. He had to believe they would have the building surrounded. How could they escape? They needed more confusion, at least on the part of the police.
He returned to the guard on the floor, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out from pain. With the elevator stuck on the penthouse floor with two shooters and the crazy Asian woman in the stairwell, the police had no real way to get to the shooting scene. Maybe they really didn’t want to get here anyway, Jake thought. Regardless, their best chance was to go through the Asian woman in the stairway. She had to be running low on bullets by now anyway. But there was no good way to get past her. They would be retreating with two men shooting at their flank and one woman sending cross fire at them. Bullets from both directions was not a great plan. Yet, what other choice did they have?
“What’s the plan, Jake?” Alexandra asked. “We’re going to have fire coming from three directions in a few minutes.”
“Assuming the cops come up with a plan,” Jake said. “They might just hold back to see if we kill each other.”
Then Jake heard the helo for the first time. It was coming in slow from the west. He glanced at the injured man on the floor and came up with a plan.
“You want to get out of here?” Jake asked the guard.
The man nodded.
“All right. Here’s what you do.” Jake explained the plan, and it seemed to resonate with the man. Then he told Alexandra what they would do. The both of them made sure they had full magazines in all guns.
The distance from the penthouse door to the elevator was a little closer than the distance from the door to the stairwell. But Jake thought it would still work.
He helped the wounded man to his feet and toward the door. Then the guard yelled in Chinese that he was coming out and not to shoot. As the man walked out, the Asian woman was about to shoot, but Alexandra and Jake shot first, forcing the woman to retreat. Then the two of them continued a slow and steady salvo of firing as they ran at full speed toward the staircase exit. With the wounded man making his way slowly toward the elevator, the men inside could not fire at Jake and Alexandra out of fear that they would hit their own man.
As Jake reached the exit door first, he saw that the Asian woman had placed an empty magazine in the gap to keep it from closing. He turned back to see that the man had hit the floor and two men were now out in the open for the first time, their guns aimed and ready to shoot.
Jake had just a second to respond. Instead of shooting at the elevator crew, he slammed his shoulder against the door and rushed out into the stairway, his gun in search of a target.
But the Asian woman was gone. The concrete floor was littered with empty brass.
The two of them cautiously made their way down the stairs, Jake knowing that the elevator men might be coming at any second. They had to get to their room.
As they rounded the corner, Jake saw a flash of movement below. He aimed but didn’t shoot. Good thing. It was an older Asian woman peering her head out the door of their floor. Luckily she didn’t see Jake or his gun.
Jake heard yelling down below just as he heard the sound of the door above opening. He turned and shot three times at the exit door above. Then he rushed down the stairs to their floor. This door opened without a problem.
Peeking around the corner, Jake saw a few nervous guests curious and glancing out their room doors.
“We have to dump these guns,” Jake whispered to Alexandra in German.