Inside General Wu Gang’s penthouse, his chief of security, Shangwei, knocked on the general’s bedroom door. He didn’t like just barging in at this hour. The last time he did that he found the general gagged with a ball in his mouth while he took one girl doggy style, while the other girl took the general from behind with a strap-on. Not that he was judging. He was a trained former army intelligence officer. Since he now lived in the west, he might just consider writing a book about all that he had seen. Now, it was his job to simply relay security problems to the general, and of course to protect the man against all enemies. At least this time he knew the man was with only one woman, since he himself had escorted the regular prostitute up to the penthouse hours ago.
“Sir,” Shangwei said to darkness. He opened the door a little wider to let the light from the main living room stream across the bed.
The general sat up, pulling the covers off of his female companion and exposing her slight naked body.
“What is it?” the general asked.
“Some of the security cameras on this floor are out.”
The general sat up further, exposing just the head of his tiny penis barely sticking out of a black and gray curly pubic mound.
“Have you called the building security?” General Wu Gang asked.
“Not yet, sir. It could be nothing. They do maintenance at this time of night.”
Now the general scurried out of bed and put on his underwear. “I don’t like this. How many men do we have here?”
“Me and two others in the penthouse. Plus three more in the hacker room.”
“But most of the hackers are former army.”
“Yes, sir. But conscripts from before their college days. They’re not…”
“Arm them,” the general yelled. Loud enough to wake the sexy hooker in his bed. As he continued to get dressed, he pointed at his companion for the evening and said, “Go back to sleep.”
The girl shrugged, lay back down and pulled the covers over her body.
The general, mostly dressed now, went to his nightstand and found his own private handgun, a Colt .45 revolver with a pearl handle.
Shangwei left to round up his men and pass the word to his other men to be prepared.
32
Just a minute before midnight and Jake finally connected his phone to blue tooth, tapped on the ear piece deep in his ear, and got on the line to both Alexandra and Lin, who were already talking.
“What’s up?” Jake whispered.
“I hear some activity in the hacker room,” Lin said. “They might know we’re here.”
Jake checked his watch and saw that it was exactly midnight. He pulled his gun and then peered around the corner toward the main penthouse door.
“Nothing here,” Jake reported.
“Same here,” Alexandra said. Since she was just on the other side of the corridor from Jake, that made sense.
Before Lin could respond, Jake heard gunfire on the other side of the 88th floor.
“One down,” Lin said, her breathing hard.
The gunfire would surely waken anyone in the penthouse. Jake took that as a reason to move forward. He rounded the corner and stepped across the corridor, the same side as the penthouse door.
“Cover me from there,” Jake said to Alexandra, when he saw her moving out also.
Suddenly the penthouse door burst open and a gun appeared, firing wildly in both directions. But Jake had hit the floor and waited for a target. He could hear two men speaking Chinese. Then a man rushed out.
Jake fired twice, striking the man center mass and crumpling him to the tile floor, his gun bouncing across the surface and landing against the far wall.
The door slammed shut.
More gunfire across the building.
“What now?” Alexandra asked.
Jake wasn’t entirely sure. The general could just hole up in his penthouse with his remaining men until the police arrived. They wouldn’t be able to come by elevator, though. But they could rise up the elevator to the observation level above and come down through the fire stairs.
“We need to go in after the man,” Jake said with some hesitation.
“Is there any other way out of the penthouse?” Alexandra wanted to know.
“Not sure. The plans were incomplete after the general converted this from office space to his penthouse.” But if Jake had designed the place, there would have been another way out.
Jake got up and inched his way toward the door, his gun ready to fire again. He kicked the man he just shot. Definitely dead.
“Are you sure about this, Jake?” Alexandra asked.
“Not really.” Jake was about to kick in the door, when he saw a flash of movement behind the peep hole. He aimed quickly and shot out the peep. Then he heard the distinct sound of a body hitting the floor behind the door. “Two down here,” Jake said, and then slammed his body against the wall next to the door.
“Same here,” Lin said.
“I’m feeling left out,” Alexandra pouted.
Then Lin said something in Chinese and gunfire ensued. More yelling. Then there was a huge explosion, and Jake guessed she has used one of the grenades.
“Help,” Lin screamed.
Jake pointed to Alexandra and said, “Go help her.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“I got this. Go.”
In just the few seconds of silence, Jake heard a door slam down the corridor he had taken. Thinking for a second, he remembered there was a door that looked like it could have been a service door on the west side. An escape route. Damn it!
Jake rushed past the penthouse door and back the way he had come. He stopped at the corner and considered his options. When gunfire went off behind him and bullets struck the wall next to his head, he had no choice. He rushed around the corner and saw nothing.
Then Jake ran as fast as he could to the other end of the passageway toward Lin and the hackers.
“Lin, I’m coming your way from behind. Did anyone else come your way?”
“No,” Lin screamed. “I see Alexandra on the other side. Thank you.”
More gunfire.
Jake stopped running suddenly when he passed the door to the center of the building. This door was just a little offset from the one that had closed, the penthouse escape door.
With his hand on the door handle, Jake hesitated for a second, thinking someone could be on the other side waiting for him to rush out.
Then Jake caught movement at the corner by the penthouse, followed by flashes and the full report of a handgun.
Nowhere to go, Jake slammed down the handle and hurried inside, bullets striking the door but not penetrating.
Inside, Jake could see the massive dampen sphere lit by soft orange light. Just as he saw movement from the level above, Jake reacted by shoving his body low against a metal railing. A bullet struck the metal and then the sound of a large caliber gun echoed through the chamber.
“The general is inside with the dampen sphere,” Jake said to anyone listening.
Nothing.
The room must be interfering with the signal, Jake guessed.
“So, you’re Jake Adams,” the general said with an awkward sneer. “I thought you would be much taller.”
Jake scanned the area, looking down a few flights and then up at least four more. “I get that a lot,” Jake said, concentrating his gaze on the general. The man was carrying a western-style .45 caliber revolver with a six-round cylinder. Five left, Jake thought. Time to draw fire. Jake ran toward the staircase.
The general shot twice, hitting the curved wall behind Jake. By the time Jake hit the stairs, the general rushed out of view on his way higher up.