With her foot flat on the accelerator, Alex sped back onto the byway toward the city. Trusting only her memory and senses, she looked at her wristwatch. When the kidnappers left the warehouse with her earlier that morning, it was roughly twenty minutes to the Oudong temple. She reduced her pace to what she estimated their speed was.
Her eyes frantically searched for a road that was meant to turn off the road. Recalling the name from the faded sign at the abandoned warehouses, she looked for any pointer signs, but there were none. She pulled the van over to the side of the road. It had to be close. The minibus motored slowly down the road. Up ahead Alex spotted an overgrown dirt road and decided to take a chance at it. The bumpy road brought about some familiarity, but she couldn’t be sure. It was then she became aware of the tall steel pipes from the deserted factory plant next to the warehousing. Her heart leaped out through her throat. This was it! She had found Sam’s location. If only she knew how to get him out. She reduced the van’s speed to a quiet murmur as she rolled closer. If guards were watching the entrance she’d be detected, so she veered off the dirt road and parked under a nearby tree. Hunched over she used the van to hide behind and scouted across at the deserted industrial plant. It was ghostly quiet. The luxury black sedan was no longer parked out front, and there were no signs of any life. She was positive this was the right place but nevertheless searched for the faded name sign. Relieved, she spotted it much further up along the fence.
Sam’s warehouse was about a hundred and sixty feet ahead of her. She was sure there would be at least two guards patrolling the perimeter, but she couldn’t see anyone. Doubt entered her mind over the possibility that they might have moved Sam. She needed to be sure though and there was no way of knowing without going in.
She’d have to take her chances and make a clear run for it. She couldn’t risk getting captured now. Apprehension gripped her throat and her pulse throbbed at her temples. It’s now or never. Scanning the perimeter she set off toward the boundary posts. Her legs felt heavy as she sprinted across the thick terrain. Once at the fence, she fell flat onto the ground between the bushes praying no one saw here. She paused and surveyed the area again. Still, there was no sight of anyone. Crawling on her elbows, she reached the entrance gate, which was padlocked from the inside. Not much of a climber she resolved that she would have to squeeze through the gap. Alex wedged her body between the two gateposts. Frazzled by the rattling sound of the heavy chain and padlock against the fence, she bolted across the tarmac and ducked behind the nearby water tanks. Gasping for air, she decided to stay put to make sure she wasn’t heard or seen.
Several minutes later and everything was still as quiet as when she had arrived. Her eyes were glued to the warehouse door. Having regained her breath, she readied herself for another quick run to the warehouse. The crackling sound of tires on a dirt road alarmed her. Two cars pulled up to the entrance gate behind her, and she crouched back behind the water tanks. Alex watched as two luxury black cars drove through the gates and parked a mere thirty feet in front of her. An Asian chauffeur climbed out of the front car and opened the rear door for another male to step out. He was not Asian and impeccably dressed from head to toe in a black pinstriped suit. His raven hair was tied back into a low ponytail. Beneath it, the tail of a black scorpion tattoo was visible just above his white collar.
Alex held her breath praying for them not to see her. She dared not make a sound. She was too close. Sweat trickled down the outer corner of her brow. Still hunched, her legs quivered uncontrollably. Alarmed by the possibility that the top of her head might be showing she fell on her hands and knees in a crawling position and peered around the containers.
From the second black car another three male figures appeared who walked over to the man in the black suit. What Alex saw next knocked her wind out. Her eyes didn’t deceive her. There was no mistaking one of the three men’s identities. It was Ollie, a very formal looking Ollie dressed in black pants and a white collared shirt. Alex blinked several times. It looked nothing like the bantering Aussie from the Australian outback she had met before. Alex poked her head further out from behind the tank to see better. She watched as Ollie shook hands with the man in the suit whose authoritative voice cut across the barren industrial site. Alex shut her eyes as she recognized his voice. He was her kidnapper. The man she never saw, the man who ordered Sam’s torture with the snapping of his fingers, the ringleader.
A wave of nausea engulfed her insides. She always knew there was something off with Ollie. Her instincts had been substantiated. He was one of them. Alex crawled back behind the water tanks and listened to the men exchange pleasantries. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to cry or rush over and knock their lights out. Fighting the urge to be the GI Jane in her head, Alex bit down hard on her lip. Sam was still in there, and she couldn’t leave there without him. No, she had to get a hold of herself and wait for the right moment to make her next move.
Relieved that the water tanks provided sufficient hiding, she sneaked another look at the group of men. Ollie had his back toward her and there, in the nape of his neck, the image of a black scorpion stared back at her. Alex cursed under her breath. Vile visions of punching his lights out plagued her thoughts. She should have known. This betraying fraudster knew their every move. He had been ahead of them all this time, and they walked right into his trap. Alex wiped the sweat from her right eye as she listened in on their conversation. They were talking about the urn and relishing in the knowledge that, as far as they knew, Alex was out with their men finding it.
That made Alex smile with satisfaction. These corrupt criminals had no idea that at least two of their gang members were dead and that she had managed to escape. She was ahead in their wicked little game of chess. Several minutes later the men, including Ollie, got back into their cars and left the site as quickly as they had arrived. This must have been their rendezvous point. To Alex’s surprise there were still no guards anywhere near the warehouse. Alex waited a few more minutes just to be sure they were gone and ran to the warehouse door. It was locked from the outside with another padlock. She cursed their attention to detail and looked around for something that could break the door open. A rusted metal pole the size of a crowbar lay around the side of the warehouse. She had never needed to break open a lock, but she had seen similar scenes in the movies. It couldn’t be that hard, she thought and pounced on the padlock. Within seconds the inferior latch popped off the door and the chain fell with a loud clanging to the floor. If there were in fact any guards inside or nearby, they would be sure to come running, so she gripped the make-shift crowbar and lay back against the warehouse wall behind the open door. She was in luck. No one came.
Alex slipped inside the dark storeroom. The beam of sunlight shone a torchlight through the pitch-black depot. It was completely empty. Gripping the steel rod, she stealthily moved across to the staircase and briefly paused. The rusty steel steps groaned under her feet as she cautiously climbed them. At the top of the stairs, the door was closed. Her knuckles were white as she clasped the steel pipe firmer and yanked the door open.
Sam lay on a dirty mattress in the corner of the small room. His hands and feet were tied.
“Sam!” A relieved Alex cried out and rushed to his side. “Are you alone?” she added as she untied the ropes.
The smile on Sam’s swollen face melted her heart.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes, Alex Hunt,” Sam replied wearily. “I knew you’d come for me.”
“Of course I would, silly. Are you okay? Can you walk?”
Sam merely nodded. He was still quite weak and had several cracked ribs.
“We need to get out of here, we don’t have much time,” Alex added as she helped him up and swung his arm over her shoulders.
Sam groaned under the pain in his ribs as they descended the stairs. They had barely reached the bottom when they spotted two ninja guards running through the open warehouse door. Grateful for the poorly lit room, they huddled under the stairs sending stabs of pain through Sam’s tortured body.
“Shh!” Alex whispered covering his mouth with her hand.
The guards ran up the stairs above them and, within seconds, came storming back down. Barking commands at each other they searched frantically for their escaped prisoner before they left the warehouse and ran back outside.
“Now what?” Sam whispered.
Alex paused as she tried to come up with their next move.
“Can you run?”
“That depends. How fast and how far?”
“I have a van parked about a hundred and sixty feet on the other side of the fence. Wait here.”
Alex glided against the wall toward the open warehouse door and popped her head outside to gauge the guards’ locations. They had split up and were hysterically running between the storerooms in search of their escapee. She ran back and pulled Sam from underneath the staircase.
“Let’s go!”
Hunched over Sam obeyed.
“See those tanks over there? We need to bolt for them. Think you can make it?”
“Do I have a choice?” Sam smiled.
When the coast was clear the pair ran from the warehouse and ducked behind the tanks just in time before spotting the two guards run back inside the warehouse. Without a second thought Alex ran back to the warehouse and slammed the door shut behind them. She ran the chain around the handles and wedged the steel rod through the links.
“That should buy us some time,” she announced as she helped Sam up and ushered him to the gate entrance.
The opening between the gates was too narrow for Sam to get through and having used the steel pipe to lock the guards inside the warehouse, Alex was out of options. She frantically looked around in search of a solution.
“Wait here,” she ordered and hurriedly slipped through the gate.
A minute later Sam watched as Alex came speeding down the dirt road toward the gate, managing to take cover just in time before she blasted through the gates with the minibus.
“Get in!” She rushed Sam along as she flung the passenger door open from the inside.
Once inside the van, a stunned Sam looked across at her as she powered up the dirt road toward the highway.
“Okay, who are you and what have you done with Alex?”
Still wide-eyed with adrenaline rushing through her veins, Alex broke into laughter. “I missed you, Sam Quinn.”
Sam smiled wincing with pain as the minivan hit a significant bump in the road. “Now what?”
Alex paused. His question reminded her that they were on the run.
“I have no idea, Sam. But we’re not safe anywhere. Ollie is a scorpion guy too.”
With still swollen eyes, Sam looked sideways at Alex. This wasn’t her usual suspicious intuition talking. She was dead serious.
“You’re joking, right?”
“I’m afraid not. I saw the traitor with my very own eyes, outside the warehouse. I hid behind the water tanks and he and the perfect English-speaking kidnapper pulled up in fancy black cars. They were very friendly with each other. They both had scorpion tattoos on the back of their necks. Just like the bikers, and he wasn’t in his Aussie safari clothes either. The guy was neatly dressed up in black pants and a crisp, white shirt, like someone important.”
The pair went quiet as they reached the end of the dirt road.
“Which way? Left or right?” Alex asked. Without waiting for a still surprised Sam to answer she turned left toward the town.
“We need to go to Mr. Yeng-Pho and report all we know. He’s the only one that can help us now.”
The engine picked up speed as they pushed toward the Commissioner-General’s office building.
The revolving doors posed a challenge when Alex helped Sam walk into the Cambodian judicial department. Assuming Alex and Sam were a threat, the paramilitary guards took one look at Sam’s tortured body and pulled their weapons.
“No, no! We’re here to see Mr. Yeng-Pho. We were kidnapped. He knows us!” Alex explained causing more of a commotion than intended.
Moments later two more guards joined them, and before you knew it, the department was up in arms.
“Please? Just call Mr. Yeng-Pho. Tell him Alex Hunt and Sam Quinn are here. We need his help!”
Still suspicious, one of the guards radioed someone, and several minutes later, Mr. Yeng-Pho came to their rescue.
“Miss Hunt?” He yelled surprised, ordering his men to let them go.
“Mr. Yeng-Pho! Oh thank heavens. They kidnapped us, and Sam is hurt. You have to help us!” Alex cried out.
Still caught off guard by the pair’s surprise arrival, Mr. Yeng-Pho ushered them into a closed office and ordered his men to stand down and leave the room.
Alone in the room, the Commissioner-General sat them down. “Miss Hunt, please continue. Who kidnapped you? Tell me everything you know.”
For the next hour, Alex described the entire ordeal in great detail. How they met Ollie and their stay at his hideout in the middle of the jungle. How they discovered the scroll that led them to Vietnam. About how Sam got shot, their kidnapping and his torture.
“Miss Hunt, this was a most unfortunate event, but please tell me, are you saying there is in fact another golden urn and that the one that got stolen was a counterfeit?”
Alex nodded. “Exactly! One the Royal family was aware of, in fact. Apparently, it is protocol for them to hide the original one, to protect it from ever being stolen.”
Mr. Yeng-Pho leaned forward. “And you have the authentic urn in your possession?”
“Not quite, no but I’m certain I can find it. The scorpion men blackmailed me to find it. With the clues from the first scroll I have managed to already complete half the search but since they held Sam captive, I had to escape and go back for him and now we’re here.”
Mr. Yeng-Pho pulled out his chair and clasped his hands together. “Please excuse me for a moment. I’ll be right back.”
Alone in the closed office, Alex breathed a big sigh of relief for the first time in days. Sam sat quietly next to her, still holding his ribs.
“It’s going to be okay, Sam. We’re going to get you medical attention and put all of this behind us. Hang in there, okay?”
“Nothing a good plate of food won’t fix. The bruising will subside and I don’t suspect my ribs to be broken. I’ll be fine in a couple of days,” Sam replied.
The two sat silently waiting for Mr. Yeng-Pho to return.
Sam tapped his fingers on the table. “Where do you think Mr. Yeng-Pho went? He didn’t say much did he?”
As if the Commissioner-General was right outside listening at the door, he re-entered the office.
“Please come with me,” pulling out Alex’s chair.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Alex helped Sam up and followed Mr. Yeng-Pho into the parking garage in the basement. A scrawny looking Asian man accompanied them and ushered them toward a parked black sedan. Alex paused as they neared the vehicle. Her pulse raced as she realized what was going down. Seconds later Mr. Yeng-Pho pulled a gun from his jacket’s breast pocket and pointed it at them.
“You didn’t honestly think you’d get away with this, did you?” he sneered. “Get in!” pointing to the car.
His scrawny sidekick produced his own weapon and shoved it in Sam’s bruised side.
Confusion lay bare across Alex and Sam’s faces.
“You’re one of them?” A still in shock Alex asked after which Mr. Yeng-Pho exploded in a mocking laugh.
“ONE of them? Miss Hunt, you underestimate me. I’m THE one! I’m in charge of this entire operation. Now get in before I shoot the charming Dr. Quinn and put him out of his misery.”
Mr. Yeng-Pho’s scrawny sidekick shoved Alex and Sam into the backseat of the car, cuffed their hands to the door handles and taped their mouths shut. The Commissioner-General slipped in the front seat and instructed his accomplice to drive.
Alex felt utterly broken and defeated as she looked across at Sam who showed much the same evidence of betrayal on his face. How did they get this so terribly wrong?
Handcuffed to the car, and unable to speak, tears flooded Alex’s eyes. Fear ripped through her body while feelings of total hopelessness overwhelmed her. Her heart felt heavy with the prospect of not knowing where they were going and how they were going to escape or survive this awful turn of events.