False Horizon (17 page)

Annja smiled at Vanya. “You know as well as I do that I cannot give up and surrender myself to you.”

Vanya frowned. “You’re breaking your word? You promised you would surrender if we let the little man go.”

“Yeah,” Annja said. “I lied about that.”

“Then you leave me no choice,” Vanya said. She gave a scarcely perceptible nod and Hsu Xiao immediately stepped forward.

Annja had the sword in her hand a split second later. She grinned at Vanya. “Are you sure you’re comfortable with the idea of me killing your best and brightest here? Once I’m done with her, there’s not going to be anyone left who will be able to stop me from killing you.”

Vanya sniffed. “As if it will even get to that point. Hsu Xiao will make quick work of you. I trained her myself.”

Annja frowned. Did that mean that Vanya was an elite killer as well?

There was no time to think about it because Hsu Xiao didn’t wait. She launched her offensive immediately, rushing in at Annja, trying to close down the distance between them.

Annja knew the tactic. With her sword, her optimal range was greater than Hsu Xiao’s. The Chinese assassin needed to be in close to wreak havoc with her claws. And Annja needed to keep her at least six feet away.

Annja dodged the initial attack and cut backward as Hsu Xiao’s body shot past. But Hsu Xiao knew what to expect and used her claws to block the sword cut. Then she swept the sword blade up and slashed in at Annja’s exposed right shoulder.

Annja felt the claws cut deep into her flesh and grunted back the pain. She felt hot blood cascade down her shoulder. A little deeper, she thought, and those damned claws would have severed muscle.

And that’s exactly what Hsu Xiao seemed to be hoping for. If she could take away Annja’s ability to hold the sword she wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Hsu Xiao launched a series of kicks at Annja’s midsection.

Annja stabbed straight out and the point of her sword nicked a line along Hsu Xiao’s lead leg, ripping the assassin’s pants and shredding the top of her thigh. Hsu Xiao let no sound escape her lips and retracted her leg out of range.

But Annja pressed the attack; coming up and lifting the blade high into the air, she chopped down at Hsu Xiao. She saw the momentary spark of fear in her eyes and Annja drove in hard, cutting down.

But then Hsu Xiao rolled away, got to her feet and flicked her wrist. Annja snapped her blade up in front of her, slicing this way and that. She heard the half dozen clangs as the throwing spikes all met the flat of her sword and fell harmlessly to the ground.

Hsu Xiao leaped onto the stone wall and waited for Annja to circle. Then she jumped from the wall to the ground, rolled and came up under Annja’s blade as she attempted to cut down. Hsu Xiao raked her claws across Annja’s midsection.

Annja felt like a razor had just passed over her belly and she let out a gasping breath. Hsu Xiao rolled away again, just out of range. Annja put one hand against her stomach and it came away wet, red and sticky.

She’s going to slice me apart, Annja thought. She dropped back and waited for Hsu Xiao to come at her again. But Hsu Xiao only smiled. There was no way she was going to be fooled that easily.

Annja circled the assassin slowly. Vanya had backed away—content, it seemed, to let her prodigy take care of business. Annja felt herself growing annoyed with Vanya all the more because of it.

Annja’s foot rolled over one of the throwing spikes and she knelt down to grab it. At that moment Hsu Xiao unleashed another volley and one of the spikes embedded itself in the top of Annja’s left foot.

Annja grunted. She reached down and yanked it free. A line of blood spilled from the hand-forged iron spike and splattered the ground. She threw the spike back at Hsu Xiao, who just reached out and plucked the spike from the air with hardly any effort. Annja was amazed and frustrated. She’s playing with me. Treating me like I’m only a nuisance.

Annja waved her on. “Come on. Let’s do this.”

Hsu Xiao danced closer and Annja studied her footwork. It seemed like a combination of a drunken style of Kung fu that Annja had once seen combined with a rare version known as Dragon. Her drunken style seemed to be the setup and then Hsu Xiao used the Dragon techniques to close the deal.

Annja knew that Dragon was a truly formidable system. If Hsu Xiao knew Dragon and knew it well, then Annja was definitely going to have her work cut out for her.

Hsu Xiao smiled and her teeth showed for the first time. “I am enjoying myself, Annja Creed. Are you?”

“Having a great time, thanks. How’s that cut on your leg?”

“It is nothing of consequence. But you seem a great deal more troubled by the three injuries you are suffering from.”

“Hardly worth my time,” Annja said.

“She will destroy you, Annja Creed,” Vanya said. “But it doesn’t have to be this way.”

“Oh? What’s my alternative? Give up and die, anyway? No, thanks. I’ll go down fighting if I go down at all,” Annja said.

Vanya called off Hsu Xiao and the Chinese assassin backed away, always obedient to her mistress.

“Put your sword down, Annja.”

Annja frowned. “No way.”

Vanya stepped closer. “It doesn’t have to be the end. Perhaps there is another alternative I didn’t consider until just a moment ago.”

“And what’s that?”

“Join us.”

Annja heard the words and broke into a grin. Her shoulder throbbed and the injury to her foot ached. Her stomach didn’t feel much better. “Join you? For what? So we can all rule China together?”

“If you wish, yes.”

“I’ve already got a country to call my own,” Annja said. “And I don’t feel the need to take over another nation.”

“I’m giving you the opportunity to be a part of something amazing here. Use your sword for us and what we wish to accomplish.”

Annja shook her head. “More delusions of grandeur. There’s no way your plan is going to work, Vanya.”

“It will work. And you’ll see that if you join us. I promise to make you a very wealthy woman. Imagine that. Why, you could even afford to get the very best medical care for your friend Mike.”

Annja frowned. “Mike’s condition is inoperable. The doctors said they couldn’t operate for fear of Mike dying.”

“Western doctors claim that,” Vanya said. “You would be amazed at the advances that we’ve made in China. A lot can happen when you don’t have to answer to a huge government bureaucracy.”

“Yeah, what kind of advances?”

“The ability to slow the growth of cancer cells. In some cases, we have been able to permanently arrest cancer growth. If Mike’s tumor never gets any larger, he’ll be able to live out the full measure of his life in peace and prosperity. And you can make that happen.”

“Just by joining my sword to your cause.”

“Exactly.”

“And what would I have to do?”

“Remove any troubling people from our path. Much the way Hsu Xiao does for me right now.”

“So you’d have two assassins instead of just one.”

“The more, the merrier. Isn’t that the saying in the West? With two of you by my side, we can truly take over anything that we want. And we can rule the world as a triumvirate of power.”

“I told you before that the sword doesn’t make me invulnerable. You’ve seen yourself how Hsu Xiao was able to injure me.”

“She is able to do that because she is the best at what she does. I trained her to be that way.” Vanya shrugged. “But others? They would fall before you like the long grass before a harvesting scythe.”

“How poetic,” Annja said.

Vanya smiled. “Stow your sarcasm and join our cause, Annja. We have room in our organization for another powerful woman. Join us and see what the future may hold for you.”

Annja looked at Hsu Xiao. “And how do you feel about that job offer? You cool with Vanya offering me a place next to you?”

Hsu Xiao smiled. “Whatever my mistress wishes, it is my duty to obey.”

Annja frowned. “That’s not exactly the warm and cuddly answer I was looking for.”

Vanya waved her hand. “Hsu Xiao will do whatever she is told. If that means accepting you into our ranks, then she will do so gladly. I did not raise her to dispute my desires.”

Annja nodded. “See? That’s kind of what I have a problem with. Maybe it’s an authority-figure thing. I just can’t seem to get over this idea that following orders blindly without engaging the ol’ noggin is a good way to go for me.”

“It’s the only way for you now, Annja. If you don’t agree, then you’re leaving me no choice in the matter.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Annja said. “Seems to me that Hsu Xiao and I could team up and just cut you out of the picture entirely. Why share something three ways when a partnership is so much more powerful?”

Vanya shook her head. “You’re crazy. Hsu Xiao would never throw her loyalty from me to you. I’ve done too much to help her. I’ve taken care of her family—all of her brothers and sisters enjoy a wonderful standard of living in China’s new economy thanks to me and the power I exert on their behalf.”

“And I’m sure she’s grateful for that,” Annja said. “But really, no one likes being under anyone’s control for too long, do they?”

If Hsu Xiao had any reaction to Annja’s words, she wasn’t showing it. Vanya glanced at her and then back at Annja. “You’re wasting your time.”

“Am I?”

“Hsu Xiao will not turn against me. We’ve come too far together to throw it all away just because you talk a good game.”

“Seems to me I’m talking the same game you’re trying on me,” Annja said. “So who’s to say who is better at it than the other.”

Vanya looked at her watch. “We’re running out of time, Annja. I need your decision.”

“What’s the hurry?”

Vanya smiled. “Let’s just say that my power grab relies on something very big and terrible happening so as to start the cracks of unbalance back in Beijing.”

“What the hell does that mean? What have you got planned?”

“You no doubt realized that there were very few people still around last night?”

Annja nodded. The place had seemed deserted. “Yeah, I noticed all right. What about it?”

“They’re all dead.”

“You killed them?”

Vanya shrugged. “They had fulfilled their requirements. Each one of them was contracted to work for a certain amount of time and then they were to be released in order to go back to China proper.”

“All that to sell us on the idea that this was Shangri-La?”

“You still don’t get it, do you? This isn’t Shangri-La at all. I told you that.”

“I know that. So what is it?”

Vanya stared at Annja. “Are you going to join us or not?”

“I don’t think so.”

Vanya frowned. “That’s truly unfortunate. Very well, then. You leave me no choice but to finish what we’ve already started.” She glanced at Hsu Xiao. “Kill her.”

Tuk led Mike back down the corridor. Each man was armed and Tuk felt better about Annja’s chances now that there was definitely help on the way. And hopefully, Garin would find his way into the cave and bring reinforcements.

But he knew they couldn’t rely on that. Tuk raced along the corridor and then drew up short as they approached the room with the giant Buddha statues. He pointed out the explosives to Mike.

“Vanya has the entire room wired to go up at any time. It’s what she used to get us to come out into the open.”

Mike inspected one of the bundles and shook his head. “This is serious military-grade stuff. How did she ever get her hands on it?”

“I don’t know, but Vanya is certainly not all that she seemed last night. She’s much more dangerous.”

“I’d guess so, judging from how these were positioned. She had to have help from the military in order to do this.”

Tuk pointed. “We’re almost there.”

Mike nodded. “All right, how do we play this? Straight-up assault or do we hold back and make them think we’re more than we actually are?”

Tuk frowned. “I don’t know much about military tactics, Mike. Your guess is as good as mine, if not better.”

Mike checked the status of his gun and nodded. “I say we just shoot them both and be done with it. No sense letting them hang around any longer than necessary. And considering what Vanya is trying to pull here, it’d be better if she was dead.”

Tuk held up his hand. “Wait, shouldn’t we keep her alive so she can stop the installation from exploding?”

“I don’t know if she even could,” Mike said. “Short of fishing those bodies out of the treatment facility—which would mean exposing ourselves to immense radiation—there’s nothing we can do. And when the treatment facility goes, everything else is going boom. This is the last place we want to be.”

“I see.” Tuk frowned. The idea of a nuclear waste treatment plant exploding made his heart ache with the thought of what would happen to the surrounding region.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Mike said. “But it can’t be helped. If we had a team who knew what they were doing and had equipment, then maybe. But we don’t have any of that. And we’d die trying.”

“I know,” Tuk said. “It just seems like it’s going to result in a terrible environmental catastrophe.”

“It will,” Mike said. “Absolutely. But we need to find Annja and then get the hell out of here or no one is going to be alive to care about the cleanup. And we have to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again somewhere else.”

“All right.” Tuk made sure his weapon was ready. “Let’s go and get this done before my heart goes soft.”

“Just remember what Vanya’s plans will do to your country and use that to fire yourself up,” Mike said.

Tuk nodded. “I will.”

Mike stepped forward and then stopped. His voice was a harsh whisper. “Tuk.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t…move…a muscle….”

“What’s the matter?”

Mike pointed at the floor. “There’s a trip wire and my foot is resting against it. If I move anything, this whole room will blow up.”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me. Look at the wire and tell me what’s it’s connected to. And hurry up about it.”

Tuk carefully followed the line of almost invisible wire across the room to where a large bundle of explosives sat wedged in with a claymore mine. He read the lettering
front toward enemy
and then retreated back to Mike. He’d seen them before in his intelligence days.

“Claymore and an explosive package wedged in with it. The claymore is American.”

Mike frowned. “It is?”

“Yes.”

Mike nodded. “All right. I’m going to ease my foot back. But before that, I want you to go into the corridor we just came from. If I do this wrong, one of us has to stay alive and help Annja. Can you do that for me?”

“Sure. I just can’t figure out where this could have come from. I ran down this corridor only a few minutes ago in order to get to the trapdoor.”

“It might well have been meant for you,” Mike said. “Vanya’s men could have easily laid this trap in the hope you would hit it on the way out. Did Vanya seem almost willing to let you go earlier?”

Tuk frowned. “Actually, yes. She didn’t put up nearly the fight I thought she would have.”

“That was probably part of her plan. With you blown up, the surprise would have enabled her to overpower Annja. Only the way you ran or walked must have carried you right over the trip wire.”

“So I missed being blown up by luck?”

Mike smiled. “I could use a little bit of that luck right now, my friend.” He nodded at the corridor. “Now go and let me get this done. One way or another I’ve got to get free of this or else we’ll die.”

Tuk retreated to the corridor and wedged himself in against the wall. If Mike was unsuccessful, the explosion would no doubt cause some serious damage to the facility, especially given how much explosive was in that room.

Tuk shook his head. How had he managed to get himself wrapped up in all of this, anyway? All because some stranger named Garin had hired him to look after Annja and make sure she was safe.

Tuk sighed. He didn’t think he was doing such a wonderful job.

Mike’s face appeared around the corner. “Okay. I think we’re all set now.”

Tuk let out a breath. “Thank God. I thought the entire room was going to explode if you didn’t manage it.”

Mike nodded. “I got myself free and then replaced the pin in the claymore so it wouldn’t go off. I did a quick check of the room to make sure there weren’t any other surprises lying in wait for us. It’s clear.”

“They probably didn’t have time to set anything else up,” Tuk said. “And then Annja killed them, anyway.”

Mike smiled. “She did, did she?”

“Oh, yes.”

“She’s a marvel that one.” Mike gestured with his gun. “Now come on, let’s get out there and see what we can do to help.”

Tuk led them back to the statue room and then toward the doorway. He could hear voices. And he gestured for Mike to get low.

Tuk looked out and saw Annja with her sword in her hands. Across from her stood Hsu Xiao and Vanya. Tuk frowned and looked at Mike. “Annja’s injured.”

Mike nodded. “I can see that. But how badly? Do you think she can still fight?”

“You’ve known her longer than I have,” Tuk said. “But if I had to place a bet on whether or not she could, I’d definitely say yes.”

“So would I.”

“Look at Hsu Xiao’s leg. It seems like Annja managed to get something in on her, too.”

Mike chuckled quietly. “Good, that means she’ll be easier to take care of.”

Tuk looked at him. “I don’t know. She scares the hell out of me.”

“Nothing to it. She’ll die as fast as anyone else once she’s got enough bullets in her.”

“Well, do you mind shooting her, then? I’d rather not have to deal with her.”

“Fine.”

Tuk leaned back and looked at Mike. “Are you ready?”

“Time’s ticking, my friend. Let’s get this done.”

Tuk got to his feet and readied the assault rifle. Everything was set to go and he flicked the selector switch to semiautomatic. Perhaps, he thought, if he got the drop on Vanya quickly, he wouldn’t have to shoot her. That would be a good thing. Maybe there was a way to stop the facility from exploding. Maybe Vanya knew what to do.

“Tuk!”

Tuk looked at Mike. “Sorry.”

“Come on, man, let’s get this done. I’ll go after Hsu Xiao and you take down Vanya. Don’t stop for anything until we have them both down and dead, okay?”

“Mike, what if Vanya knows how to stop the facility from exploding?”

Mike shook his head. “Listen to me, Tuk. That treatment installation is not going to tolerate the infusion of scores of bodies. It wasn’t designed for that. Vanya knows that and that’s exactly why she’s done what she’s done. She wants this place to blow up. She’s got no interest in saving it, and if you think she does, you’re wrong.” Mike leaned closer to Tuk. “Now listen to me. I know this isn’t what you signed on for, but we’ve got to do something here or else we’re all going to die. Do you understand?”

Tuk nodded. “Yes. I understand. Sorry.”

“I’m not a killer, either, Tuk. This isn’t something that I do every day. But at the same time, I know that these people are responsible for unleashing some truly bad stuff on the world. And I think it’s fairly safe to say that they deserve to be punished for their crimes.”

“I agree with you, Mike. It’s just that, in all my years of work, I was always beyond that type of work. And I never minded being there.”

“I’m afraid there’s no one else who can do what needs to happen. Two targets. Two of us. It’s the only way to make sure we’re successful,” Mike said.

“All right. I’m sorry.”

“Forget about it. Let’s just get this done.”

Tuk moved up and took his position. “I’m ready.”

Mike brought his gun up into his shoulder and sighted. “On three, okay?”

“Okay.”

“One…”

Tuk took a series of deep breaths. His heart pounded against the inside of his chest like a hammer going a thousand times a minute.

“Two…”

Tuk steeled himself. He let his trigger finger come to rest just outside the trigger guard. He brought the weapon up so he had a clear sight picture. He settled the sights on Vanya. Mike was right, he decided. Better to finish this and then get the hell out of here. No sense dying for no reason. And at least they’d be able to tell the world what happened so it didn’t occur again elsewhere.

Tuk heard Mike start to say “three” but the word died on his lips as they suddenly heard another voice from somewhere behind them.

“Stop.”

It wasn’t a shout. It just a simple command. Softly spoken. But most definitely a stern command.

Tuk frowned. Something about that voice reminded him of someone.

“Put your weapons down or we will shoot you where you stand.”

“Mike?” Tuk whispered.

“Better do it, Tuk. There’s a gun barrel aimed at the base of my skull right now and I don’t think these guys are fooling around.”

Tuk lowered his weapon.

“Very good. Now both of you turn around very slowly. If either of you moves too fast, we will shoot.”

Tuk gulped and then turned around slowly. Mike was in front of him but he heard the surprise in Mike’s voice. “You.”

“Move aside so I can see the man behind you, Mike.”

Mike moved and Tuk was startled. Three men stood there. He recognized the sneering smiles on the faces of Burton and Kurtz.

And in the middle, his eyes hidden behind a huge pair of sunglasses, stood Mr. Tsing. He held a silenced pistol in his hand and gestured with it. “Step away from the doorway. We wouldn’t want to interrupt the party out there too soon, now, would we?”

Mike kept his hands up. “What’s this all about Tsing?”

“It’s about me making sure my investment doesn’t run away from me.”

“I’m not running.”

Tsing smiled. “I must say you’ve done a fantastic job, Mike. I almost didn’t expect you to find it. But you have. And I’m ready to take it over for my very own paradise.”

Mike shook his head. “I don’t think you want to do that. This isn’t Shangri-La at all. It’s a nuclear waste treatment facility disguised by the Chinese as a palatial tropical paradise.”

Tsing laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I wish I was,” Mike said. “But the woman who created this entire mess is standing right outside. You can ask her if you want.”

Tsing eyed Mike but then frowned as he cast a glance at the doorway. “Perhaps I shall.”