Rising Tiger (17 page)

She ran her fingers up to the side of his short hair and scratched at his temple. “And you?”

“You know how I feel about you.”

“Do I?”

Jake had a terminal problem verbalizing his feelings. He liked to think he showed those he loved through his actions, but he knew this was a flaw that had kept him single for all these years. Well, that and the fact that he never stayed in one place long enough to really establish and solidify a relationship.

“It’s hard for me,” he had to admit to her.

“I know. We all thought you would get back together with Toni. But now she’s gone.”

“And she died before she could tell me about my son.”

“Have you been able to spend any time with him?”

Jake shook his head. “No. We met for five minutes. I have since run a background check on him. He seems like a fine young man.”

“You’ll have time to catch up after we’re done here,” she assured Jake.

“Assuming we don’t get killed.”

“There’s always that.”

“Come on. Let’s show off that nice chest of yours.”

They both looked over the room one last time to make sure they could live with what they left behind. Then they headed out toward the stairwell. Jake checked out the security cameras at the end of the hallway and hoped they weren’t being actively monitored.

Getting up through the stairwell to the top floor, Jake checked the door. It was locked. He pulled his gun and stepped behind where the door would open.

Alexandra adjusted her breasts to expose more flesh. Then she started to knock on the metal fire door. Not too loud, but noisy enough to get some attention from an alert security guard.

When Jake heard footsteps coming, he grasped the door handle with his left hand and kept his Glock along his right leg.

As the door opened and Alexandra could see who it was, she pled to the man in German, saying she was running from her husband and needed help.

Before the security guard could say a word, Jake opened the door and shoved his gun at the man’s face. The guard ran, yelling something in Chinese.

Jake rushed into the private hallway, his gun pointing his way ahead. Alexandra was right behind him.

The first bullets whizzed by Jake, striking the window at the end of the hallway. Jake narrowed his signature with a one-hand hold on his Glock, firing three times at the two men ahead. Both men scurried behind a service cart.

Jake took that as a sign to rush forward, closing the distance in a dead run. When the men poked their heads out, Alexandra, who was prone on the low carpet, shot four times, dropping the man on the right side of the cart.

With a final push, Jake slammed his right foot into the metal cart, crashing it into the one who had answered the door.

As the man hit the floor on his back, Jake was on the guy in a second, kicking the guy in the face and knocking him out.

Turning to see Alexandra approaching, Jake raised his gun toward her. She hit the floor a second before Jake shot twice at a man behind her, dropping him in a crumpled ball onto the floor. It was one of the men from the lobby.

Alexandra shook her head as she got up and walked toward Jake. “That was close,” she whispered. “Is that one dead?”

“No.”

Just then the elevator bell dinged and the light above the door lit up.

“Crap,” Jake yelled. He looked at the penthouse door and realized they were trapped. The other man from the lobby would show up either in the elevator or the staircase.

When the elevator door opened, Jake was ready with his gun. Bullets struck the wall next to his head, but he just ducked and fired three times, hitting nothing. Jake pulled himself out of view across from the penthouse door. Then with a rush he flung himself at the double wooden doors, hitting the structure right next to the handles. He hit the floor with a thud, the wind nearly taken from him.

Alexandra covered for Jake, shooting toward the elevator.

Recovered now, Jake got up and slammed his left shoulder against the door. It gave but didn’t collapse all the way.

Now Alexandra turned and shot twice more toward the stairwell emergency exit. “One more time, big guy,” she yelled in German.

Jake backed up, his gun ready to fire, and he hit the door one last time with his shoulder. The door collapsed and crashed inward. Jake rushed in, his gun aimed at anything that could be a target.

Alexandra was right behind him, taking a position at the door.

Hurrying through the large penthouse, Jake cleared every room while Alexandra kept firing.

“I hear sirens,” Alexandra yelled. This time in English.

Jake came back to the front door and said, “The place is empty.”

“Are you sure?”

Nodding, Jake said, “Yeah. I checked everywhere.”

“Probably out at the same same but different bar,” she joked.

Not answering, Jake went out to the hallway and shot twice toward the exit and twice toward the elevator. Then he grasped the security guard he had knocked out and dragged the man back into the room.

“Hold them back for a minute,” Jake said.

“You got it, boss,” she quipped.

Before Alexandra could shoot again, gunfire erupted out by the stairwell, the blasts echoing through the building.

“We’ve got more company,” she yelled.

“Police?”

She aimed and fired twice down the hallway. “I don’t think so. It’s that Asian woman.”

“Jesus, I thought she worked for Remington,” he said. “Why is she still coming?” Jake found a pitcher of water and brought it to the man he had knocked out.

“Because I think she might be the female version of you. She’s a relentless bitch.” Alexandra shot two more times and then checked on her bullets in the magazine. “What kind of guns were those guards using?”

Jake checked the man’s pockets and found two extra magazines. “Glocks like ours. We’re flush. Fire away, my dear.”

“What about the cops?”

“I have a feeling they’ll hold back a bit. They’re probably not used to this kind of gun fight.”

Alexandra shrugged and fired in both directions until her slide stuck back, indicating she was out. She dropped one magazine and jammed another into the handle. Then she hit the mag release and cycled another round into the chamber.

Jake found the pitcher of water again and emptied it onto the guard’s face, waking the man in a rush of flailing arms and legs. Now Jake had his gun trained on the man’s face.

“You speak English, dirtbag?” Jake asked.

The man said nothing. His jaw tightened, though, and Jake took that as a sign of understanding.

Alexandra continued holding off the bad guys with shots in both directions. She did this with casual indifference, like an inattentive mother checking on a child at the park monkey bars.

Jake asked the Chinese man a couple more times in English if the man understood him. But he wasn’t saying a thing.

“I don’t have time for this crap.” Jake quickly turned the gun from the man’s head and shot the guy in the right knee.

Now the guard screamed like a little baby. First in Chinese and then in English.

“Okay, so now we’ve established your language skills,” Jake said, his gun aimed again at the guy’s head. “Now, tell me where your boss went.”

“You are dead mother fucker,” the guard said, holding his shot knee.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been told that before. Now, where is General Wu Tang?”

The Chinese guy laughed. “Wu-Tang Clan is American rap group.”

Jake stepped on the man’s wounded right knee, bringing instant pain and screaming. “You know who I mean.”

“More sirens, dude,” Alexandra yelled, and then shot a few more times.

“Where is Wu Gang?” Jake asked through clenched teeth.

The guard finally showed an appropriate level of fear. “If I tell you, I’m dead.”

“Sounds like you have a bit of a problem. You tell me and I’ll let you go. Then you can tell your boss I’m coming for him.”

“You can’t do that,” Alexandra said in German.

Jake turned to her and answered in German, “He doesn’t know that. Besides, the locals will have this guy hauled off to jail and throw away the key.”

Alexandra nodded and then shot a few more times.

“What you say?” the guard asked frantically.

“I told her it was same same but different.”

“What? I am not same same but different. I’m Chinese. I work for legitimate businessman.”

“General Wu Gang is more than that and you know it,” Jake taunted. “Now, where is he?”

The man seemed to be considering his options. But he wasn’t coming up with anything good, Jake could tell.

“He left this afternoon to check on his business in Saigon,” the Chinese guard said.

“Then why didn’t you go with him?” Jake wanted to know.

“He has many men and many assets. We protect this place.”

The man had just made a major tactical error. Now Jake would have to find out about General Wu Gang’s other locations. The man was softened to comply. The problem? Jake was running out of time. They were up against two sets of shooters, and the local police were closing in on them as well. Jake couldn’t help feeling trapped with no chance of escape. His ears were ringing like the constant drone of a fire alarm.

The police sirens had silenced, but as Jake looked out the window he could see the cars still flashed their lights outside the front of the building. He had to believe they would have the building surrounded. How could they escape? They needed more confusion, at least on the part of the police.

He returned to the guard on the floor, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out from pain. With the elevator stuck on the penthouse floor with two shooters and the crazy Asian woman in the stairwell, the police had no real way to get to the shooting scene. Maybe they really didn’t want to get here anyway, Jake thought. Regardless, their best chance was to go through the Asian woman in the stairway. She had to be running low on bullets by now anyway. But there was no good way to get past her. They would be retreating with two men shooting at their flank and one woman sending cross fire at them. Bullets from both directions was not a great plan. Yet, what other choice did they have?

“What’s the plan, Jake?” Alexandra asked. “We’re going to have fire coming from three directions in a few minutes.”

“Assuming the cops come up with a plan,” Jake said. “They might just hold back to see if we kill each other.”

Then Jake heard the helo for the first time. It was coming in slow from the west. He glanced at the injured man on the floor and came up with a plan.

“You want to get out of here?” Jake asked the guard.

The man nodded.

“All right. Here’s what you do.” Jake explained the plan, and it seemed to resonate with the man. Then he told Alexandra what they would do. The both of them made sure they had full magazines in all guns.

The distance from the penthouse door to the elevator was a little closer than the distance from the door to the stairwell. But Jake thought it would still work.

He helped the wounded man to his feet and toward the door. Then the guard yelled in Chinese that he was coming out and not to shoot. As the man walked out, the Asian woman was about to shoot, but Alexandra and Jake shot first, forcing the woman to retreat. Then the two of them continued a slow and steady salvo of firing as they ran at full speed toward the staircase exit. With the wounded man making his way slowly toward the elevator, the men inside could not fire at Jake and Alexandra out of fear that they would hit their own man.

As Jake reached the exit door first, he saw that the Asian woman had placed an empty magazine in the gap to keep it from closing. He turned back to see that the man had hit the floor and two men were now out in the open for the first time, their guns aimed and ready to shoot.

Jake had just a second to respond. Instead of shooting at the elevator crew, he slammed his shoulder against the door and rushed out into the stairway, his gun in search of a target.

But the Asian woman was gone. The concrete floor was littered with empty brass.

The two of them cautiously made their way down the stairs, Jake knowing that the elevator men might be coming at any second. They had to get to their room.

As they rounded the corner, Jake saw a flash of movement below. He aimed but didn’t shoot. Good thing. It was an older Asian woman peering her head out the door of their floor. Luckily she didn’t see Jake or his gun.

Jake heard yelling down below just as he heard the sound of the door above opening. He turned and shot three times at the exit door above. Then he rushed down the stairs to their floor. This door opened without a problem.

Peeking around the corner, Jake saw a few nervous guests curious and glancing out their room doors.

“We have to dump these guns,” Jake whispered to Alexandra in German.

“I know. That was my thought also.”

But the problem was they didn’t know if the shooting was over, or if they still needed the protection more than the possible incrimination. After all, they had each shot someone and the ballistics would prove that. For now, though, Jake shoved his gun into the back of his pants and covered it with his shirt. Alexandra did the same. Then they casually went out into their hallway and wandered to their room, looking like scared hotel patrons. Just like their neighbors.

Once inside their room, Jake let out a deep breath. “Wow. That was intense.”

“It’s not over yet, cowboy,” Alexandra said. “Now what?”

Jake thought about that for a moment. He knew they had to get the hell out of this hotel. But how? The chaos of uncertainty.

“Let’s go,” Jake said. “I have a plan.”

“Of course you do,” she said. “That’s what I love about you.”

Getting back out into the hallway, Jake looked around and saw that the curious hotel guests didn’t seem to be too inquisitive anymore. He found the fire alarm and pulled it down, sending a piercing siren throughout the building. As people started to come out of their rooms, Jake and Alexandra gathered more than a dozen guests and escorted them out of the stairwell exit. This only worked, of course, if the bad guys cared who they shot.