Three bullets left, Jake hoped. Unless he had a revolver speed loader.
When Jake reached the position the general had just left, he heard the door below slam shut. Jake turned and aimed, making sure of his target. When he saw it was the general’s security chief, the man with the tattoos on his neck, Jake fired twice, striking the metal railing in front of the man. The security man returned fire, but Jake had already moved out of view chasing the general higher. Now he would have bullets coming from both sides.
“Inside the dampen ball area,” Jake said again through his Bluetooth, nearly out of breath.
Still no response.
But he did hear more gunfire from outside, so he knew the women were still in the game.
He rounded another corner and could see the general making his way toward the top of the ball enclosure area. Jake passed the doors to the public observation area, where tourists would view the city during normal business hours. He checked the doors, but they were all locked.
More shots from below.
The general yelled something, his voice echoing from the top to the bottom. Probably giving his man instructions, Jake thought. Without understanding Chinese, Jake was at a huge disadvantage.
Stepping forward, Jake stopped when he saw the general above him aiming at him.
Two more shots. That left one more bullet for the general. Assuming the man had not refilled the cylinder.
More screaming from above by the general. But instead of looking up, Jake looked below, his gun poised to fire.
“I could make you very rich, Adams,” the general yelled in English.
But Jake continued looking down.
The general’s man rushed up the stairs, his gun firing rapidly toward Jake. When Jake found an opening, he fired a number of times until the man hit the ground and Jake’s slide stuck back all the way. He saw his last bullet hit the Chinese man in the neck right between the head of the dragon and the tiger.
Jake was out. He dropped a magazine and replaced it with a fresh one from his pocket before releasing the slide, jamming a fresh round into the chamber.
Swiveling around toward the general, Jake aimed just as the billionaire shot one more time. The bullet struck the top of Jake’s left shoulder, knocking him back and stumbling to the ground, his gun releasing from his hand as Jake tried to catch his fall with his right hand.
Rolling down the stairs, Jake came to rest on the next landing. He shook his head and got to his knees.
The general was making his way down the stairs toward Jake, his gun clicking on empty cylinders.
Jake’s gun rested on the staircase a number of steps above. He tried to recover and limped toward his gun, but the general might make it there first.
With all his power, Jake thrust his body into motion, diving at the gun just as the general did the same thing.
Instead of grabbing the gun, Jake grasped onto the general’s foot, twisted it, and flipped the general onto his back. But as he was falling he hit Jake across the head with the heavy revolver, knocking Jake against the railing.
In the struggle and falling bodies, Jake’s gun had slipped through the stairwell and clanked down into the cavity, bouncing against the huge dampen ball and then to the floor five stories below.
Jake was dazed and his shoulder bleeding down his left arm, which seemed to be temporarily useless to him.
By now the general had recovered somewhat, got to his feet and was scurrying up the stairs toward the top.
Jake took up the chase. At the very top was a platform with a door. The general grabbed the handle and tried desperately to get out. But it was no use. The door was locked solid.
Getting to the top with the general, Jake squared up and tried to block the man’s escape past him.
“Come on, Adams,” the general said with a smirk on his face. “Look, you are bleeding from your shoulder and your head. You might just pass out soon.”
Jake shook his head. “Why did you do this? Why did you kill Bill Remington? Why did you set up my friend, Chad Hunter, to take the fall for shooting down that satellite? Why bring the two Chinese countries to the brink of war? And why did you try to shoot us down over the South China Sea?”
General Wu Gang laughed uncontrollably, his voice echoing throughout the enclosure. Then the man plodded toward Jake like a predator sensing the vulnerability of its wounded prey.
For a man in his fifties, the general was quite adept at hand-to-hand warfare. The two of them fought, striking each other with fists and elbows and knees and feet, one gaining the advantage and then the other. But Jake was bigger, younger and stronger. Despite his injuries, Jake landed a front kick to the general’s chest, sending him stumbling backwards until he hit the railing and his body flung over the top.
But the general was able to catch himself on the bottom rail before his body crashed six floors.
Jake’s mind swirled as his injuries finally brought him to his knees.
General Wu Gang screamed for help in Chinese, his fingers slipping on the rail.
Crawling toward the general, Jake considered his options. This was an evil man who had tried to kill him repeatedly. Did he deserve Jake’s help?
Just as Jake got to the railing and was about to at least make an effort to bring this man to justice, fate would take this out of Jake’s hands. The man lost his grip and flew backwards into the cavity, bouncing first off of the wire cables that held the ball in place, and then smacking against the massive ball before falling the rest of the way to the bottom of the six flights. His body hit with a resounding thud that could only mean death.
The last thing Jake could remember was looking over the edge and seeing blood pooling out from the general’s body from both sides. Then Jake’s head hit the floor and he passed out.
33
Alexandra could hear Jake over the Bluetooth, but for some reason she was not able to get through to him. When building security and the Taipei police finally reached the 88th floor, Alexandra had found her way to the center of the building with the dampen ball, her gun out and ready for anything.
Jake was not responding. But Alexandra did smell the distinct odor of gunpowder as she crept toward the edge and looked over the railing. At the bottom, with blood seeping out from both sides of his body, was General Wu Gang.
Now she became more desperate as she moved with haste upward, her gun leading her way and her hand shaking from the possibility of losing Jake.
She came upon another body, and checked for a pulse. This was the man Jake had told her about with the tattoos. He was dead. Her heart raced.
Moving higher yet, she came to a place on the stairs with blood spatter but no body. She hoped that was where the general had been shot and fell over the railing.
No. There was a trail of blood leading up the stairs.
Her pace quickened when she could finally see Jake laying face down on the ledge above.
“Jake, Jake,” she yelled as she checked his pulse. She found a heartbeat. He was alive.
She rolled Jake to his back and slapped his face trying to wake him.
Suddenly the door shoved open and Alexandra pointed her gun at the man propping it open. She nearly shot him.
The Chinese man said something in his language and then added in English, “Sorry. You must come with me. The police will be here soon.” It was Chan Le, the head of building security.
By now Jake was coming out of his daze, his eyes rolling around and trying to focus on Alexandra. “Are you all right?” he asked her.
“Jesus, Jake. You’ve been shot in the shoulder and your head is busted open and you’re worried about me?”
She helped Jake to his feet and toward the door.