Hwang frowned at him, eyes narrowed. "Enough of this, as you say, bullshit. There must be other Koreans working with you. Names, please?"
Burke shook his head. The sonofabitch didn't believe him.
Hwang deftly flicked the knife across Burke's forehead, bringing a stream of blood that trickled down his nose and into the corner of one eye. He blinked and lowered his head, seeing the bright red drips falling into his lap.
"Names!" barked Hwang, waving the knife beneath his chin.
The only names he had were Lieutenant Yun and his two friends, who had helped out at the kisaeng house. Maybe he could make up some names, stall for time.
"Captain Lee of the Seoul Police Bureau," Burke said almost in a whisper, hoping it would sound as if uttered in despair.
"Full name."
"I don't know his full name. Just Captain Lee."
"Liar!" Hwang slashed at his neck, drawing blood again.
Burke shut his eyes and tried to visualize Lori. This would be a hell of a Christmas present for her. She had lost her father to vicious killers, and now her husband. That was his only real regret, what it would do to her. He didn't want to die, of course, but somehow he thought he could take that but for what it would do to Lori. And the twins. And his son, Cliff.
His eyes suddenly blasted open at the crashing sound of glass breaking. Then he realized it had been caused by a shot and looked toward the door, where the window had shattered. He saw the barrel of a gun in the opening and heard the crack of another shot.
The first bullet struck near Hwang, who immediately sprang back, then reached for an ankle holster. As he started to pull out a small gun, the second shot rang out, striking the floor beside his foot. He jerked his hand and the weapon slipped from his fingers. He ducked aside and darted toward the darkened interior of the building as the door behind Burke swung open and Lieutenant Yun Se-jin burst through. His face seemed frozen in a hardness that Burke had not seen before.
"Is that the man who killed my father?" he asked, pointing his pistol in the direction Hwang had fled.
"Yes," Burke said, "but be careful. He may have other weapons."
The Lieutenant glanced at Burke and saw the blood on his face and neck. He rushed over and grabbed the knife Hwang had dropped.
"What has the bastard done to you?" he asked as he slit the tape that bound Burke's hands and feet.
"Not nearly as much as he planned to," Burke said with a deep sigh. He looked around and found Hwang's gun, shoving it beneath his belt, then grabbed the Smith & Wesson off the floor. He pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed his neck and forehead. It was smudged red with blood.
"I'm going after him," Lieutenant Yun said, starting toward the darkened interior.
"Wait!" Burke held up a hand. "He may get away out the front. Why don't you run around the building? If you don't see him, break into the front entrance and I'll keep him from getting out this way. Maybe we can find a light switch and get him in the open."
"All right. Be careful, Mr. Hill."
The young officer sprinted to the door and disappeared outside.
Burke decided he was too much of a target standing there beneath the light of the office area. The opening to the main part of the building, through which Hwang had darted, was about six feet wide. Burke moved over to the wall where he was hidden from the opening. Looking around the room, he spotted what appeared to be a circuit breaker box with a row of switches beneath it.
Blood had trickled into his eye again, and he held the handkerchief against his forehead, trying to stem the flow.
Keeping his gaze on the darkened opening, he darted behind the counter where the circuit breakers were located. With his head down, he moved beneath the electrical box and reached for the switches.
The first one turned on flood lights in back of the building. Burke saw the light through the shattered window. The next two produced nothing he could see, but the one after that brought a flash of light in the front section of the building. Looking through the opening beyond the counter, he saw a row of bulbs along one side of the high ceiling.
About that time he heard a crash toward the front, which he took to mean Lieutenant Yun had forced his way in. It was followed by a shout in Korean and a gunshot. Burke flipped the last of the switches, which turned on a bank of lights on the other side of the open ceiling.
As he started through the opening that led into the cluttered open bay, jammed with stacks of boxes, mounds of rags and other scrap materials, he suddenly confronted the black-suited Hwang, no more than fifteen feet away. The Korean had no gun, but his right hand was drawn back, holding what appeared to be a knife. His hand thrust forward in an odd snapping motion aimed at Burke.
Instinctively, Burke dropped behind a row of boxes as the blade whizzed just above him and struck the wall with a loud thunk.
Burke shifted to one side and jumped up, gripping the Smith & Wesson in both hands, aiming at the dark figure with the hand drawn back, gripping another weapon.
Multiple sharp cracks echoed through the open bay as Burke fired repeatedly. One of the slugs caught Hwang Sang-sol just above the bridge of his nose and he slumped to the floor. At that moment Lieutenant Yun sprang out from between two rows of shelving ready to fire his own gun. Yun lowered the weapon when he saw the blood on the assassin's face.
He looked around at Burke. "I'm sorry it was you instead of me, but thanks for avenging my father."
Burke shook his head slowly and dropped the gun on the counter. "It wasn't vengeance, Lieutenant. It was plain old self-defense." He pointed back to the metal blade buried in the wall. "That one almost got me."
When he looked down at the floor beside Hwang's body, he saw the object the assassin had been about to hurl at him. It was a sharp-pointed shuriken, or "thowing star," similar to a weapon used by the old Japanese samurai.
Yun leaned down to check the limp form. "He's committed his last homicide." He tilted the face up and looked at it. "Damn! I know this man. He has an apartment next door to my fiancée. They knew him as Mr. Min, a technical representative with Reijeo Electronics who traveled all around the region."
"Great cover," Burke said. "Ties right in with everything else."
"Did you learn anything about the murders?"
"He had a tape that was playing when I came in, but he smashed it with his heel. I wish to hell I had—"
He stopped in mid-sentence and rushed over to where his coat lay on the chair. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out the microcassette recorder and checked it. It was still recording. He pressed the rewind button for a few moments, then switched it to play. Hwang's voice demanding "names" came clearly through the small speaker.
Burke grinned. "I've got it all here. I forgot about this thing. It was running the whole time."
He sat down on the chair and reached a hand up to gently touch where his forehead had begun to hurt, almost as though it had been scorched by fire.
"We need to get you to a doctor to check those cuts," Lieutenant Yun said. "Did you know your friend was lying out back, dead?"
Burke nodded, then looked up, frowning. "How the hell did you happen to come here?"
"In going through some papers and things my father had at home, I came across a small notebook with a lot of odd entries in it. Names and dates, money amounts, some cryptic notes. Dad had written 'Mr. Chon' in the front of it."
Burke's face lit up as he remembered. "I was with him when he got it over at the Namdaemun Market from the widow of Mr. Chon's grandson."
"When I looked through the notebook, I saw where he had written 'Hwang' with a question mark beside an entry for So Chi-ho. I checked out the name yesterday and found he is the owner of Namyong Iron and Metal Company. I intended to question him, but hadn't had time. Then I got the message that you were going out there."