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“You go this way,” I said. “Find the family. I’ll take the apartment.”
Zhang Daiyu nodded and went into the concealed corridor. I shut the panel behind her and ran through the front door of the apartment.
I crept into the huge living room. No movement. Clear. I sprinted across the wide space and ran into the hallway leading to the bedrooms. At the far end, you couldn’t miss the devastation around the entrance to the panic room. A huge hole had been blown in the wall. If Molly and her family had been close to the explosives, they would have been done for.
I raced toward it. The gunmen couldn’t have got—
The taller of the two assailants stepped through the hole. I was no more than three paces away, and he was just as surprised as I was. But I recovered more quickly and his hesitation gave me the opportunity I needed.
I drove my shoulder into his gut as he tried to raise his pistol. The force of the impact knocked the gun from his hand, and it clattered to the floor. He pummeled his fists into my back as we tumbled through the hole. We landed on the rubble and wreckage of the explosion.
On my feet first, I sensed movement behind me. Across the smoke- and dust-filled ruins of the panic room, I saw the second gunman raise his pistol. He was no more than ten feet away and would have had an easy shot if his companion hadn’t tried to tackle me at that precise moment.
I grabbed the big man’s shoulders and spun him in front of me as the gunman opened fire. A brace of bullets hit my captive in the chest, and he cried out and groaned before going limp. I pushed him ahead of me and drove him at the second gunman, who swiftly sidestepped.
I tackled him as his companion landed on the floor, dead. We traded blows and wrestled. I held his arm to stop him using his pistol. He kicked at my legs, but I sucked up the pain and headbutted him. He staggered back, dazed, but didn’t drop his gun. While he came to his senses, I ran back to the blast hole and found his accomplice’s gun. I pivoted, raising the pistol as the masked gunman focused.
“Drop your weapon!” I commanded.
The panic room was fifteen feet square, strewn with the remains of a couple of bunk beds, some supplies, a video and communication console, and computer gear. There was no sign of any separate exit. Molly and her family’s escape route was a mystery that had frustrated their would-be assassins. It also meant the gunman thought there was only one means of escape—through me.
He raised his gun and fired wildly, forcing me to reply. His aim was off, perhaps because of injuries, but mine was true and I hit him twice in the chest. He went down instantly.
I hated taking another’s life but here I had no choice. Yet another death to haunt my dreams, but at this moment I couldn’t let emotion get the better of survival instinct. I quickly used my phone to photograph both dead men in the flickering light of the ruined panic room. I didn’t recognize either of them. When I’dtaken pictures of their faces, I pulled back their sleeves and saw the same tattoo as on the man who’d planted the bombs at the Beijing office and attacked us on our way back from Qincheng Prison: two dragons coiled around a third larger one. There was no longer any doubting it: this was gang insignia.
I heard distant sirens. Lots of them. I dropped the gun amid the wreckage and hurried out of the apartment. I took the elevator down to the ground-floor lobby, where I found Zhang Daiyu with Molly Tan and her family.
“What just happened?” Molly asked me. “How did you know about those men?”
“They won’t be a threat to you or your family again,” I replied, ignoring the question.
The sirens were getting closer now.
“We need to leave,” Zhang Daiyu said.
“We owe you our lives, Mr. Morgan,” Molly said. “If there’s ever anything I can—”
I cut her off before she had a chance to finish her sentence. “Tell me the truth. Tell me why you hired my firm to investigate David Zhou.”
Molly looked toward her husband, who stood a few feet away with their children. The boys were distressed and he was doing his best to console them. He nodded to her.
“A man came to my office a while ago,” she said. “He had photographs of my family taken from inside our home. He said he would kill us if I didn’t hire your people to investigate David Zhou.” She hesitated. “I’m sorry. He told me not to tell anyone. I didn’t think people would get hurt.”
“Seems they were going to kill you anyway,” I said. “Did you know him? The man who came to see you?”
She shook her head, so I produced my phone and showed her the photos I’d taken of the dead gunmen.
Her eyes lit up with recognition when she saw the picture of the man I’d shot.
“That’s him.”
“Do you know who he is?” I asked.
“No. I’m sorry.”
“I do,” Zhang Daiyu said to me. “And I’ll tell you if we can just get out of here.”
The sirens were very close now. I nodded.
