With the click, though, Jake glanced over to find Su in bed, one leg hanging from the sheet. He left the bathroom light on, but left the door open only a crack to shine some light into the room as he moved over toward the door clothed only in his underwear.
The first thing he saw was a gun, silenced, inching into their room. With one quick movement, he shoved his shoulder into the door, knocking the gun to the floor.
The intruder let out a yell as his hand crunched between door and door frame. Jake jammed it again, but the hand had retreated. He fumbled with the lock. It wouldn’t go.
Then the door shoved in on him with great force, knocking him back into the room.
By now, Su had woken and let out a gasp as she pulled the sheet up to cover her nakedness.
Jake recovered, catching the first man in the sternum with a kick. The thrust knocked the first man into the second one, pushing them back a couple of feet.
Moving to his left, Jake caught the second man with a kick to the knee. There was a snap as he dislocated cartilage, bringing the man to his one good knee.
The first man hit Jake in the head with a backfist, dazing him slightly.
Su gave up her dignity and leapt from bed, her first strike a kick to the gunman’s groin. Then she swiveled and rear-kicked the other man in his forehead, hurtling him backwards out the door.
Jake sent an elbow into the head of the man eating his own balls. The man, the first gunman, struggled to depart, helping his friend to his feet. Together they mumbled and went off into the early morning darkness.
Slamming the door shut, Jake jammed a chair under the door latch and turned to find Su still in a fighting stance, her breathing heavy. He wanted to linger and watch her lovely body, her breasts heaving with each breath, but he knew they had to leave.
“Let’s go,” Jake said. “Get dressed.”
They hurried around the room, shoving things into their backpacks and throwing on clothes.
“Who were they?” Su asked, confused. She put on her bra and then pulled a sweater over her head.
“I don’t know. But I sure as hell don’t want to hang around and find out.”
Jake put on his pants and then his socks and shoes. While he was leaning down to tie his shoes, he noticed the gun under the table. He was about to pick it up when he thought about prints. Putting on his leather driving gloves, he picked up the silenced automatic pistol. It was a knock off of the Russian Makarov in .22 caliber. Small caliber but quiet with a silencer.
“That was their gun?” Su asked.
“Yeah.” Jake pulled out the clip. Without counting, it looked to hold at least fifteen rounds. He pulled the bullet from the chamber.
“Why are they trying to kill us?” she asked him. She was now dressed and ready to roll.
Jake shrugged. “They have to be part of what’s going on up north. But the better question is, how did they find us?” He had cut the handle off his backpack and checked everything else out thoroughly. As far as he knew, everything he had was clean.
“Why you looking at me?” she said, her head to one side.
There was nothing on her, he knew. She had never left his sight, so she couldn’t have called anyone. And why would she? But how else?
“Do you have anything in your pack. Any way they could trace you?”
“No.” She looked hurt and disturbed by his question.
“I had to ask.”
She put her hands on her hips. “What about the car? They would have found the man. His car was gone. They would know we took it.”
“That’s why I parked it in the isolated part of the parking lot,” he said. It wasn’t the time to argue about it, though. They had to leave now.
After unscrewing the silencer, he shoved the empty gun into his inside jacket pocket.
“Come on,” he said. “They’ll be back with their friends soon.” He checked his watch. It was almost six a.m. and the sun was still a ways from coming up.
They both put on their packs and went to the door. Cautiously, Jake left first, checking both ways. He headed out down the corridor in the opposite direction that the men had gone. Jake thought about going by the front desk and taking care of the person who had given away their room, but he realized that just about anyone would have done so with a gun shoved up their nose.
Instead, Jake lead them out a side exit. They couldn’t go to the car, that was certain. Hurry, Jake, think fast, he thought, as he glanced about the parking lot.
Then he saw his answer just as he saw a small van with blue lights on top, swirling about, approach from the road that lead to the airport. There would be more to come, he knew. Move it.
There was an airport shuttle van parked just down from the lobby entrance. It was their only chance.
Su looked nervous as Jake pulled her forward toward the van.
The van was empty except for the driver, a tiny man with hair almost to his shoulders. Su got in first, telling the man they had to hurry or they would miss their flight. The man, whose face was weathered, looked at Jake with suspicion, his cigarette bobbing from his mouth as he said something to Su.
She told him to get going, waving her hand at him.
Reluctantly, the man put the van in gear and pulled out of the parking lot.
“What’s going on?” Jake whispered to her.
“He asked about the blood on your head. That hit broke open your wound.”
Jake felt with his left hand, pulling back a swatch of blood on his palm.
“I told him you were an American kickboxer,” Su said, “and you had another fight tonight. Here.” She handed him a silk scarf.
“That was quick thinking,” Jake said. “This is silk.”
“Does not matter.”
He wiped the blood and then held the scarf against his wound. “I was about to pistol-whip his ass.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Pistol whip?”
“Pull the gun and knock him into next week,” Jake explained. “Didn’t you watch American T.V. at Stanford?”
“Stanford is hard. No time.”
The driver pulled out into light traffic and made a comment when another police van swished past, its blue lights flashing. Su answered him and he laughed in response.
“What’d you say?”
“I said a young couple were having a fight, throwing furniture around their room. I said they had kept most of the hotel up all night with their fighting.”
“You’re good at this,” Jake told her, whispering in her ear.
They got to the airport moments later and the driver dropped them off at the curb. Jake gave him a modest tip. Maybe he wouldn’t remember them. But Jake doubted that. He was sure there were not that many Americans traveling in this area of China.
Once inside the small terminal, Jake thought about an immediate problem. He still had the gun in his pocket. His solution wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.
Jake brought them to a row of chairs against a wall of windows that overlooked the tarmac. Across from them was a ticket counter with three lines of people. It was much busier than he expected, and that would work to their advantage. They needed to split up, Jake thought.
Jake handed her a stack of cash. “Take what you need to buy two tickets for yourself. Pay cash for the seven a.m. flight to Beijing.”
“But…”
“We’re not going there. Change lines, and then buy a ticket to Seoul for seven fifteen.”
“What about baggage? They’ll want me to send that to Beijing.”
“Tell them you have to go to visit your sick mother and were in too much of a hurry to pack anything.”
“I’ll bring you your bag for the Seoul check in, but first I have to take care of something. Go.”