“Computer programmer. We were at Stanford together.”
“You say he knows you’re coming? Maybe we missed him at the train station. Let’s check it out.”
She held his arm, stopping him. A car rounded the corner from behind, its lights shining on them. She wrapped her arm around his waist and pulled him to her. The car drove slowly down the block and turned right.
Now Jake was starting to believe her that something was wrong. There had been two men in that car, trying their best not to glare at the two of them.
“Now,” she said, separating from him and crossing the street.
They entered a dark stairwell from the street and started climbing the cement steps. Slowly. Methodically. Jake checked his back with each step.
At the top of the stairs, she stopped and gazed down the dark corridor, lit only by a single bulb about halfway down. Jake noticed the concern on her face, even more so than when the police checked the train earlier in the day.
She reached inside her coat and then shook her head, realizing her gun was gone.
They stepped forward quietly.
“Which apartment?” Jake whispered.
She nodded her head toward the door on the left. Almost knocking with her leather-gloved hand, she hesitated and tried the door latch. The door swung in.
She gasped with the sight of the trashed room. There were papers and items of clothing strewn about the floor. Seat cushions were ripped apart. And it was worse when she hit the light.
There in the center of the floor, naked, lay a man on his stomach. His body was bruised and cut, with a pool of blood seeping from each side of his upper torso.
Su immediately wept, but tried her best to hold back her pain. Keep from crying out. Setting her backpack on the floor, she knelt down at the man’s side, her hand over her mouth.
“Su, we’ve gotta leave,” Jake urged softly. “Let’s go.”
She said nothing, her face turning from anguish to shock.
Jake grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. He slung her bag over one shoulder and led her into the corridor with his free hand.
Just then he heard tires screech to a halt outside, followed by doors opening.
Glancing about the hallway, there was only one choice. They had to run to the end of the hall.
“Come on,” he said to her firmly.
Together they lumbered down the corridor. Jake hit the light as he passed, smashing it to the floor.
At the end of the hall, there was another stairway. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Jake heard the sound of footsteps running outside. He swung her backpack around and caught the first man in the face, knocking him back into the next man and back outside. Then Jake rushed them, kicking one in the face as he tried to rise.
Jake led her down the street and quickly turned right down an alley. Her expression had changed from pain and sorrow to anger. Determined now, she took her backpack from Jake and slung it over her shoulders.
“This way,” she said, decidedly.
She went down a narrow passageway and eventually they slowed their pace to silence their movement.
Soon they reached a park along the Songhua River and headed toward downtown. Before exiting the other end of the park, Su stopped and went to her knees in the snow alongside a patch of bushes. She cried and hid her face from Jake’s view.
“You were close?” Jake asked, his hand on her shoulder.
She didn’t answer. He looked around and realized they had left tracks in the snow.
“Listen, Su,” he said. “We’ve gotta get out of town. That was a major set-up.”
Finally she spoke. “Why?”
Jake gently squeezed her shoulder. “Someone wanted you in custody. Out of the way.”
“But it makes no sense,” she said, weeping. “All they know is we’re friends from college.”
“You’ve been compromised,” Jake said.
She glared up at him. “I killed him,” she muttered.
“No.”
“I did. I got him into this in college.”
“It’s not your fault.”
She shook her head.
Damn it. They needed to move fast before the police had a chance to close off the city. He pulled her roughly from the ground and shook her.
“I need you right now,” he said sternly. “Now get your ass in gear and move it.”
She looked as if he had just slapped her in a Buddhist temple. But she did what he said.
Together they moved toward downtown. When they got to a main road, they picked up a bus that brought them toward the train station. They watched with horror as they approached the station. There were three cop cars lined up outside, with officers watching the front door.
Jake had no intention of jumping on a train anyway, but his plans would have to change nonetheless. They continued on the bus for a while until they reached an area with many bars and restaurants. They got off and stood for a moment alongside the street.
“Now what?” Su asked.
“There.” Jake shifted his eyes toward the cab parked a half a block away.
“Are you sure?”
“Just keep your ears open.” Jake tried to remember a map he had viewed on the train before entering the city. “Make up an address along Anguo Street. Make it out a ways.”
She nodded and they got into the cab.
The cabbie considered him with interest. Apparently he wasn’t used to seeing Americans. He pulled away and seemed to be flying through the nearly empty streets.
It wasn’t long before they caught up with Anguo Street, which connected the southwest section of town to the downtown.
When they had reached an area that was mostly smaller buildings, the cab pulled over to the side of the road.
Su started to get out, but Jake stopped her. Instead, he got out on the driver’s side, opened the driver’s door and pulled the man to the street. Then, with the car still running, Jake jumped in and sped away.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, Jake watched Su in the back, stunned and shaking her head.
“You’re crazy,” she said. “He got a good look at you.”
Leaving her backpack behind, she climbed to the front seat.
“Nah. We all look alike.” Besides, he had a feeling the cops knew exactly who they were look for now. Jake took it slow, remembering from his map that there should be a road ahead that led toward the main north and south highway in Manchuria.
“What about me?” she asked.
“They already know what you look like. You were set up big time.”
She thought hard. “But why?”
“Your friend must have given you up.” As soon as he said it, Jake regretted having done so.
“Bullshit!” The word came from her mouth, but she made it sound more like a French soup than an expletive.
He couldn’t help but laugh to himself. But she still caught him.
“You think it’s funny my friend is killed?”
“No. I’m sorry. It’s just the way you say Bullshit.”
The road ahead looked about right, so Jake turned right onto it and picked up speed.
Time to heal the situation. Jake said, “I am truly sorry about your friend. And, we can’t be sure he gave you up, but he was obviously tortured. I certainly couldn’t blame him if he did.”
She considered that. “Doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
“What’s over?”
“Our job,” she said, defeated. “You might as well go back to Beijing, catch a flight back to Europe.”
Jake smiled. “You obviously don’t know me very well.”
She shrugged. “They say you pig-headed and…what’s that word? Obstacle? Obnoxious? No, that’s not it.”
“Maybe…”
“No I’ll get it. Give me a second.” The wheels were turning fast now. “Obsessed. No.”
Jake found the main highway and headed in the direction of Qiqihar. He wasn’t sure if they should stay on the main road, but for now it was the fastest way out of town.