Jordan slowed her climb as she neared the crest of the hill, carefully watching where she placed her feet. The red clay was slick underfoot, the soil saturated by monsoons. Sensing Davis close on her heels, she signaled him to stop. The men’s voices were louder, and she could make out some of their words.
“How did the American agent know where to look for you, zuk-sing?”
If she had her Cantonese right, the man had to be talking to Zhen, zuk-sing being a derogatory term used for a Chinese person born away or who identifies too closely with Western culture.
“Are you eager to go back to the U.S., Zhen? You no longer want to be in China?” The voice sounded like it belonged to her favorite aggressor, the man Davis had laid out in the street.
“Why would I want to leave?” That had to be Zhen, and he sounded scared. “The Americans want to try me for espionage. I’m as good as dead if I go back.”
“You’re as good as dead here.”
“Please, dude, I’m telling the truth. I don’t know why the bitch was here.”
“Mr. Ping wants to know what happened at the police station.”
“Nothing happened. It was total chaos. The police held me for a while, asked me some questions, then they just cut me loose.”
“Why would they do that?”
“How should I know? I was just glad to be free.”
Inching forward, Jordan could see Zhen now. He looked younger than eighteen, the age listed on his dossier. Fear had drained the color from his face, and he was trembling. From the look of things, it wouldn’t be long before he was begging for his life.
Unless she did something before things escalated. She considered leaving him to the Triad and saving the U.S. taxpayers the expense of a trial. After all, he was a traitor. An alleged traitor, she reminded herself, which meant turning her back on him wasn’t an option. He was an American and as such deserved a fair trial by a jury of his peers, a group that would no doubt remand him to prison. How long he stayed there would depend on what kind of deal he cut for himself, how forthright he was about what he knew, and what he’d done. None of which concerned her in the least. Her only job was getting him home.
Davis’s camera clicked, and Jordan turned, making a chopping motion across her neck. He snapped her picture and then twisted his camera around to rest on his back. Jordan pointed to a spot on the path with a little more height.
From either vantage point, she couldn’t see much—Zhen and the feet of the man he was facing. Otherwise, she only had a view of the backs of the trucks. There was no way of telling how many Triad members were below them or how well they were armed. From what she’d seen when the trucks left REE, there were at least eight gang members, and they’d been armed to the teeth.
Signaling Davis, she backed off the ridge, and he followed. They needed a diversion, some way to draw off the guards.
Charlie!
Once back in the safety zone, she filled Davis in on her plan. “He just needs to drive the car farther up the road toward the mines. If we can lure some of the Triad members away, it would leave Zhen with minimal supervision, at which point we could attempt a rescue.”
“Are you nuts?” Davis said.
“I know it’s a risky plan, but I know you can fight, and there’s no reason for the gangsters to hurt Charlie. By most accounts, they simply run locals off.”
“Except these guys are on edge. What if this is the time they decide to send a message?”
She’d texted Charlie while they talked, and now her phone emitted a tiny beep. She held up Charlie’s reply for Davis to read. “He’s good with the plan.”
“Only because he knows kung fu.”
“This’ll work.” It had to. It was their only window of opportunity. “Are you in or out?”
“In.”
“Great. Let’s hope we at least cut the number of guards by half. I’ll go for Zhen. You disable any vehicle left behind.” It went without saying they’d have to take out the guards. “Any chance you carry a knife?”
Davis shook his head. “I’m a weapon-free zone.”
“Not anymore.” She handed him her tactical pen. “The end is razor sharp. Stab the tire sidewalls and tear sideways.”
“Perfect. And if we’re caught, I can use it to commit harakiri.”
“Not in China. That’s a Japanese custom.” She started up the hill, then turned back around. “Just remember, you’re the one who wanted to come.”
The two of them returned to their perch on the ridge and watched as Charlie snaked the car up the red dirt road. Her instructions had been for him to get as close to the mining operation as possible in order to lure as many gang members away from Zhen as he could. It worked, with one exception. The gangsters piled into both pickups, which meant the Triad still had both sets of wheels.
“Let’s go.” Jordan slid down the side of the hill with Davis behind her. Wrapping her arms around small tree trunks, she worked to stay on her feet before pushing through the undergrowth. At the sound of breaking branches, the two remaining gang members turned.
She moved in one direction. Davis moved in the other. One gang member charged into the brush after Davis, while the other kept a tight grip on Zhen.
Circling around behind Davis’s attacker, Jordan scooped up a rock and struck him in the back of the head. He dropped like a stone. Then a sharp blow from the side drove Jordan to her knees. The other gangster had left Zhen and was about to come at her again. He grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her off her feet.
“Get Zhen,” she yelled at Davis.
“If it isn’t the bitch from Guangzhou.” The gangster’s breath, warm on her neck, reeked of garlic.
It was the man from Shangxiajiu.
He tried lifting her off her feet again, but Jordan hooked her legs behind his. As he struggled to get a good grip, she grabbed one of his fingers and snapped it back. He loosened his hold and she twisted, jabbing her thumb into his eye socket.
The gangster screamed and backed away, and then his hand came up with a knife. Flight was no longer an option.
Ignoring the pain in her ribs from his earlier blow, Jordan sucked in a breath and assumed a fighting stance. When he thrust the knife at her, she sidestepped and circled out of range.
“You think you’re tough?”
Jordan didn’t react to the taunt. She kept her eyes on him and the weapon. She didn’t know where Davis was, but she hoped he had collared Zhen and headed back to the rendezvous point.
The gangster lunged again.
Jordan deflected the blow. Then using a move she’d only trained for, she slid her hand down his forearm, grabbed his wrist and bent it inward. To her surprise, it worked. Next thing she knew, she was standing behind him, hyperflexing his wrist. Applying pressure, she stepped forward, tripping him and sending him to the ground. He let go of the knife as he fell, and per training she followed him to the ground. In the final move, she locked her feet around his torso and brought his right arm down on her leg, twisting until she felt his elbow give.
His scream shattered the quiet of the pullout. It was time to go.
“Davis!”
“Here.” He had Zhen by the collar, his hands bound by the laces from Davis’s shoes. Between them they dragged their prisoner back up the hill.
“Any sign of Charlie?” she asked.
“He passed by a few seconds ago. If we can outrun the gang, he should be in place.” Davis gestured behind them toward the oncoming trucks. “We’ve got to move.”
It took the gangsters a few moments to realize what had happened. By then Jordan and Davis were dragging Zhen down the hill toward the car.
“Get in,” Jordan yelled, taking shotgun.
Davis pushed Zhen into the backseat and climbed in beside him.
Jordan slapped her hand on the dashboard. “Let’s go!”
“I also took race car driving lessons,” Charlie said, lurching onto the road. Jordan spotted a blue pickup in the rearview mirror. Davis looked over his shoulder.
“Then why are they gaining on us?” he asked.
A gunshot shattered the back window of the car, and Davis pushed Zhen onto the floor.
“You going to have to pay for that,” Charlie said, looking at Jordan.
“Just go!”
Hunching over the wheel, he pressed down hard on the accelerator, and the car leapt forward. The lead truck closed the gap, pulled up tight, and rammed the back bumper of the sedan.
“You’re going to pay for that, too.”
“Move it!” Jordan yelled.
The pickup veered toward them, and Charlie slammed on the brakes. Jordan braced herself against the dashboard as the truck careened across the road in front of them. Then punching the accelerator, Charlie clipped the truck’s back fender, sending it into a spin on the mud. Jordan caught a glimpse of the terror and anger on the gangsters’ faces as the pickup climbed the embankment and the sedan shot past. The truck flipped, coming to rest in the middle of the road like a turtle on its back. The second truck slid to a stop.
“Didn’t I tell you I know how to drive?”