I quickly pull out the scope I use on my Five-seveN and focus on Herzog. He knocks on the door, briefly turns to look around and make sure no one is watching, and then faces the door again. When it opens, I see a Chinese man standing on the threshold. He smiles and shakes Herzog’s hand. It’s Eddie Wu. I’m sure of it, even through this downpour. Great, no more passive surveillance. It’s time to kick some butt.
I get out of the taxi, dart across Sunset, and approach the driver’s side of the limo. It’s raining so hard I feel like I’m taking a shower. I rap on the window and the driver lowers it just in time to receive a powerhouse punch in the nose. Before he can react, I reach inside and apply a choke hold. Thirty seconds later he’s in Dreamland. I open the door, search the guy for a weapon, and find a Browning 9mm inside his jacket. I take it, push him over, and shut the door. As I walk toward the motel room door, I drop the handgun into a trash bin.
Quietly, I approach and put my ear to the door. I expect to hear conversation but there’s nothing but silence. Are they in there?
To hell with knocking. I kick the door in and go inside, my Five-seveN drawn and ready. It’s a bungalow-style place with a bedroom, living room, and kitchenette. And the place is completely empty. The back door, leading to a parking area behind the motel, is wide open.
Damn!
I look out the door and see another stretch limo pulling out of the parking lot. The bastards pulled a switch! These guys certainly aren’t stupid. I run out of the room and back to the limo in the front parking lot. To hell with darting back across Sunset to the taxi—it’s raining too damned hard. After opening the limo, I grab the still unconscious driver and pull him out onto the pavement. I jump inside, shut the door, and start the ignition. I’m not used to driving a stretch limo—I back right into a Volkswagen hiding behind me. I throw the limo into drive, turn the wheel, and screech onto Sunset Boulevard. Hmm, maybe I should have taken the time to get into the taxi again.
The other stretch limo is already ahead of me, driving west. I change lanes, speed around the traffic, and pull up next to it. The windows are tinted, naturally, so I can’t see the passengers. But I can see the driver, and he’s an ugly Chinese guy with an eyepatch. Just as he turns his head to glare at me, I rotate the wheel and ram my car into his. Horns blare behind us as Enemy Limo slams into three parked cars on the north side of Sunset. The driver quickly recovers and gets back into the lane. He takes a risk by increasing his speed to move in front of me, momentarily merging into the oncoming traffic lane to go around a truck, and then continues in the westbound lane at around seventy.
Fine. Look out, people.
I accelerate and tear around the truck as well, forcing a splash of water the size of a small tsunami onto it. But I accidentally swing the long tail end of my limo too widely, hitting a BMW Z3. Yikes, sorry about that, fella. I hear him cursing at me and I don’t blame him. They say people in L.A. don’t know how to drive in the rain and I’m sure he’s thinking the same thing about me.
“Sam, what is going on?” Coen’s voice surprises me. I forgot she’s in the vicinity somewhere.
“I’m after Eddie Wu,” I announce. “He and Herzog are in a limo heading west on Sunset. I’m behind them . . . in another limo.”
“My God, Sam, it’s rush hour.”
“Tell me about it. It looks like they’re getting on the freeway up ahead. I’m on their tail. I’ll talk to you later. I need to concentrate here.”
“I’ve got your position by satellite—barely. This rain is really hurting us. I’ll follow the best I can. Good luck!”
Sure enough, Enemy Limo gets onto the 101 and heads northwest. Traffic is a bitch. I lean on my horn, indicating to the bozos in front of me that I’m going around them whether they like it or not. I pull out of the line of cars waiting on the entrance ramp, pass them by driving on the curb and splashing them with Niagara Falls, and shoot onto the freeway in front of a ten-wheeler doing sixty. The driver’s horn screams at me with the subtext of a million obscenities as I swing out of his lane.
Enemy Limo is speeding ahead, maybe six car lengths in front. The driver has no regard for the traffic around him. He zigzags through the stream of vehicles, knocking cars out of the way as if he’s playing a video game. I fear this chase might end up being deadlier than I anticipated. I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a hindrance when I hear police sirens in the background.
I press my implant. “Coen?”
“Yes?”
“Get on to the police. Let them know what’s going on. Maybe they can divert traffic or something. It’s gonna get messy up here the way that guy is driving.”
“Aerial traffic control is grounded because of the storm,” she says, “but I’ll see what I can do.”
We pass Universal City on the right as we approach the fork separating the Hollywood and Ventura Freeways. Enemy Limo changes lanes and makes like he’s going to stay on the Hollywood, but at the last possible second he slides over and exits onto the Ventura. Two cars are plowed aside in his wake—and I do mean wake. One of them does a flip over the side of the damned freeway and sails to the ground below. Christ.
It’s tricky but I make the exit. Like a good boy I put on a signal, honk my horn lightly, and get over to one of the correct lanes. I see Enemy Limo a quarter mile in front of me, so I step on the gas, scoot around a U-Haul truck, and gain on my prey. I’m now directly behind them, so I speed up a little more and ram their back fender. This is the catalyst for a man to lean out of a lowering passenger window. He points a handgun at me and fires. I duck as the windshield shatters with tremendous force. I’m covered in broken glass and feel the sting of what seems like a hundred needles pricking my face. My limo invariably swerves across the freeway and I barely get it under control before I crash into the rail.
Pulling the car back into the lane, I take a moment to brush myself off. The rain batters me through the gaping hole, now making it nearly impossible to see. I reach into my backpack with one hand, grab my goggles, and slip them on. Now I could drive through a dust storm and it wouldn’t bother me. I then glance in the rearview mirror and see that my mug is lightly dotted with streaks of blood. Sons of bitches. I draw my own handgun and speed up. Most of the other drivers on the freeway are now aware of us and try to give us a wide berth. It’s as if they’re all communicating with each other—“Stay away from those mad-men in the limos!” Only in Hollywood.
I’m now neck and neck with Enemy Limo, riding alongside his left. I lower the passenger window, point the Five-seveN, and squeeze the trigger. The round sears the driver’s nose, destroying his window in the process. I hear the guy yell as he grabs his face. Enemy Limo skids into mine and we both careen across the lanes, out of control. I’m forced to apply the brakes to avoid spinning into another goddamned limousine. They’re all over this town! Enemy Limo has a few seconds to recover and the driver picks up speed. I straighten the wheel and take off again in pursuit. With the gun in my left hand, I reach out the window and fire at the limo’s back tires. The road is too bumpy and my aim isn’t great with my left. I succeed in knocking out a taillight but that does little good except prompting the bozo with the weapon to lean out his window again. This time, however, he’s got a rifle.
The guy is Yvan Putnik! Katia’s killer! He was in Enemy Limo all along.
He fires but I’m already jerking the wheel to the left and guiding the limo into the next lane with the force of a tank. I broadside a taxicab but bounce back into the lane as I hear police sirens growing louder. I can see them now, three patrol cars with lights blazing, making their way through the scattered traffic behind us. We’re getting closer to the 405 again as we cross over Sherman Oaks on the left and Van Nuys on the right. I can see another block of congestion ahead and I dread there’s going to be some real carnage if I don’t put a stop to this real soon.
Enemy Limo finds itself trapped between a ten-wheeler in front and a bus in back. This gives me the chance to floor the pedal and shoot
up the lane beside it. I raise the handgun, aim out the passenger window, and squeeze the trigger as I pass the driver. This time I don’t miss. The guy’s head explodes in a mass of red and black goo.
Whatever causes the ten-wheeler’s driver to suddenly change lanes, I don’t know, but that’s what he does—right in front of me. With no one at the wheel, Enemy Limo wavers, finally moving on a collision course with the right rail. I desperately try to steer around the stupid ten-wheeler when the asshole slams on his brakes. I remember two things. The first is that I see someone in Enemy Limo climbing over the partition to grab the steering wheel. The second thing is the back end of the ten-wheeler in my face.
“SAM? Sam? Sam? Sam? Sam? Sam . . . ? . . . Sam . . . ? . . . Sam . . . ?”
I think I hear Coen’s voice. I’m not sure if it’s a dream or what the hell it is. I feel pain in my shoulders and back. I’m aware of a puffy balloonlike thing in my face and then realize it’s an air bag. I’m wedged in the front seat of the limo. I see my arms and hands flailing on the outside of the bag and there’s blood on them. I then notice the odd angle of the horizon outside the bent and misshapen dashboard. The road is perpendicular to the limo’s hood. Damn, the car is on its side and I’m stuck inside. And there’s water everywhere.
And then everything goes dark.
31
I open my eyes inside an ambulance. Coen is sitting beside me with an expression of concern on her face. The vehicle shakes and bounces over the road and I hear the piercing siren above the rumble of the engine. I take stock of my body and am happy to find no oxygen mask attached to my face. I feel pain in my side but for some reason I’m not dead.
“Hey,” Coen says. “Look who’s still with us.”
“What’s going on?” I manage to ask. My voice comes out hoarse.
“You’re on the way to the hospital, pal. Doesn’t look too serious, so you can relax.”
Then I remember. “I wiped out.”
“Yeah, but your bulletproof vest saved your life. And the air bag.”
Damn, I forgot about that, too. Lambert and Coen made me put it on under my civvies before I left the Sofitel.
“They have to X-ray you,” she continues. “You’re gonna be pretty bruised up. And your face looks like a pizza. But other than that you’re probably gonna be fine.”
I’m suddenly overwhelmed by fatigue. “Then if you don’t mind, I’m going to take a nap until we get there,” I say.
“Go right ahead.”
And I do.
I’M released from the hospital around dinnertime. Coen was right, it wasn’t too bad. I have two cracked ribs that should heal on their own if I take it easy. There’s a bad gash on my left leg from when the limo crashed into the truck. That required eight stitches. My shoulders hurt like hell from the impact but thankfully nothing was broken or sprained there. I suppose my neck might have been broken, but as they say, I was lucky. Finally, my face looks like I’ve been through a perforator. Again, it appears worse than it is. The nicks and scratches should heal within days and leave me with no permanent scars.
However, for the wound on my heart—Katia’s death—they couldn’t do anything.
In the morning I’ll be flying to China via Osprey. Lambert and I had a long talk at the hospital and we agreed it was the best thing for me to do. If I went home to Maryland now I’d simply go nuts. I’d be so consumed with the thirst for revenge that I’d probably go berserk in a shopping mall. Cracked ribs aside, I’m in good enough shape to go after the bastards. Mentally, I’m focused and determined. I have to see this mission through to the end.
The three characters in Enemy Limo got away, of course. By the time the police arrived at the scene, the dead driver had been thrown onto the road and someone else had taken the wheel. Because of the rainstorm there were no police helicopters in the air to follow the car. However, the limo was found abandoned off of one of the freeway’s exits. We figure the passengers were Oskar Herzog, Eddie Wu, and Yvan Putnik. Where the trio is now is anyone’s guess but Lambert believes they’re already out of the country. A chartered plane registered to GyroTechnics and carrying three passengers left Burbank Airport a couple of hours after the freeway incident. An hour ago, when the FBI figured out that GyroTechnics was now a defunct company, it was too late to stop them. The plane had already landed in Hawaii and was left on a private runway. The three fugitives must have caught another means of transportation back to Hong Kong or wherever they’re headed. My guess is that they’re going straight to China to meet up with the controversial General Tun in Fuzhou. And they’re most likely carrying the MRUUV guidance system device.
As for the outspoken general, Tun has stepped up his television appearances in China. For the past two days he’s been delivering barbed speeches against his own government, accusing them of not having the guts to take what naturally belongs to them—that is, Taiwan. He pointedly states that China is afraid of the United Nations and the United States. The main thrust of his rhetoric is that it’s time for him to take the matter into his own hands, with or without the support of the Chinese government. Of particular concern is that Tun’s army, which has mobilized in Fuzhou across the bay from Taiwan, appears to be readying for an offensive strike.
The vice president has flown to Beijing to speak with China’s president. So far the word is that General Tun has been sternly warned to temper his statements but we all know that means nothing. General Tun apparently has the support of most of the CCP Politburo. The highest authority in China rests with the Standing Committee of the Politburo, which comprises twenty-five members, and, below that, a 210-member Central Committee made up of younger party members and provincial party leaders. The CCP also controls the State Council, which supervises the day-to-day running of the country.
Another wild card in all this is the power of the military branch in China. The nearly three million members of the People’s Liberation Army are divided into seven military regions, each with its own leadership and strong territorial affiliations. The Chinese army, navy, and air force function under one banner and stand as a very strong voice in the actions of the government. General Tun is considered something of a folk hero in his region and has been successful in recruiting the common men and women from the rural areas around Fuzhou to join his cause. To discipline Tun would be embarrassing to the Chinese government. As we all know, the culture there is about saving face. I suppose if General Tun makes a stupid blunder, attacks Taiwan and fails miserably, then the government can then discipline him and say, “I told you so.” On the other hand, if he attacks and is successful, the government could rally to his defense and challenge the rest of the world. It could be an extremely serious situation.
Lambert provided me with satellite photos of General Tun’s camp on China’s southeastern coast. His army is nearly 200,000 strong, consisting of land, naval, and air forces. There are three suspicious structures built right on the coast that appear to be airplane hangars. I have a feeling they’re submarine pens. It’s difficult to determine what kind of firepower Tun’s got up his sleeve but we know about the MRUUVs, of course. And we know he probably has the missing nuke that was shipped to Hong Kong from Russia. The problem is that our intelligence has no idea what the general plans to do with the MRUUVs. Attacking Taiwan with a nuke doesn’t make sense. But the presence of the submarine pens tends to refute that line of thinking, doesn’t it?
My job is to find out what the hell the guy plans to do with his nuke.
When we get to Edwards Air Force Base, Coen and I spend several hours going over my equipment. She helps me restock my supplies and ammo, fixes the bullet hole in my backpack, and provides me with maps, papers, and passports. It’s tricky going into a Communist country on a Third Echelon assignment. I’ll have to enter illegally and for all intents and purposes I do not exist. Coen will not be going with me; it’s just too dangerous. The political ramifications of being caught in China would be a public relations disaster for the NSA. I’ll pick up m
y equipment and be in direct communication with an official at the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, but even the consul will Protocol Six me if I’m arrested. I don’t relish the thought of being accused of spying in the People’s Republic of China. The unfortunate souls who have had that experience most often do not live to talk about it.
Before I retire for the night, I arrange for five hundred dollars’ worth of flowers to be delivered to Katia’s mother. Coen tells me that Katia’s body was shipped to San Diego, where she’ll be buried after a quick Jewish funeral. The official explanation for her death is that she was a victim of gang violence and caught a stray bullet. I suppose her mother is not going to question why gang violence erupted at Beverly Center, one of the more fashionable parts of Los Angeles.
In my note to Katia’s mom, I say that I was one of her daughter’s students and was very fond of her. I also provide my personal contact information in case there’s anything I can do to help settle Katia’s estate in Maryland. There will be the Krav Maga class to deal with and all . . . hell, perhaps I should offer to take it over. I’ll have to think about that. It would be a good way for me to honor her memory.
As I settle in for the night, I think of Regan. I haven’t thought about my former wife in depth in a while and I try to define my feelings for her at this point in time. I’ll always love Regan even though she’s a distant figure in my past. Katia would never have replaced her. No one could. After a stormy and intense relationship, Regan and I ultimately couldn’t continue living together. She’s been gone a long time but our hearts were always linked. At least I still have the result of our union, my dear Sarah. I’ll have to call my daughter in the morning before I leave.