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“Hired?” he responded derisively. “I don’t work for anyone but China.”
“You made a trade. My life and my friends and business for an alliance. There was an agreement and a price. That makes you a hired gun in my eyes.”
I could see I was getting to him, which was good. I might be able to force a mistake.
He smiled, but the expression looked strained and he was clearly masking deep anger.
“You think what you want, Mr. Morgan. Using your employees’ murders to imprison David Zhou has created many new opportunities for me and my allies. We are consolidating our power now, so what I have done to you and your business is in my own interests. I’m a patriot, helping China take its rightful place in the new world.”
“You’re a greedy extremist. I’ve met people like you before. Your ambition gets people killed—my friends and colleaguesamong them.” I allowed him a glimpse of my own anger. “You will answer for their deaths.”
“No, I won’t,” he sneered. “All three of you will die here tonight. The girl first.” He indicated Zhang Daiyu, who looked back at him defiantly. “You broke into my home and killed this woman and her colleague to cover up your involvement with the criminal Liu Bao. He will be sacrificed to protect our objective, and your dreams of justice will die with you. The circumstances of your death will destroy Private’s reputation and the company you’ve built will be ruined, fulfilling my arrangement with the Russians.”
I stared at him, wondering how I was going to prove him wrong.
There were twenty feet between me and the large man holding Zhang Daiyu at gunpoint. I had no chance of reaching him before he shot her. The second bodyguard produced a pistol, which he levelled at me. Hua and I were easy targets, and I think Fang Wenyan realized I’d understood how badly the odds were stacked against us because he beamed broadly.
“You see, don’t you? You’ve lost. This is the end for you, Mr. Morgan. Kill them.”
He repeated the command in Mandarin, and Zhang Daiyu’s captor pressed the barrel of the gun against her temple.
She struggled and cried out, but he held her fast.
Zhang Daiyu was about to die.
CHAPTER 76
A CRASH BEHIND me made me start. It had the same effect on Fang Wenyan and his men. The apartment came alive with the thud of boots, the clatter of heavily armed men and the commands of those in authority.
The place was being raided.
Fang Wenyan looked lost, but his initial disbelief was soon replaced by indignation. Zhang Daiyu’s captor moved the gun away from her temple to point it at the squad of Special Forces operatives who were storming into the apartment.
At their head, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a Type-67 submachine gun, was Ma Fen, Zhang Daiyu’s Guoanbu contact. Fang’s indignation turned to anger as he recognized her and shouted something to his men.
They immediately opened fire on Fen and the officers with her. My ears rang as pistol shots cracked at close range. Fen andher squad responded with shots of their own as they took cover behind Fang Wenyan’s opulent furniture and sculptures.
His bodyguards faced an answering hail of bullets, but the suicidal attack had achieved what Fang Wenyan wanted. It bought him time to grab Zhang Daiyu and drag her at gunpoint behind a column set to one side of the room. He placed his hand against the black wall next to it and a section of the shiny surface retracted, revealing a secret entrance.
As bullets thudded into the column shielding him, Fang managed to pull Zhang Daiyu inside and the door started closing behind them. I rushed across the room as Fang’s bodyguards fell to the ground, dead, and just made it through the gap before the secret entrance closed. I heard a locking mechanism seal it shut behind me.
I realized this wasn’t a panic room but a staircase leading up. I heard Zhang Daiyu struggling with Fang and caught a glimpse of them on a landing above. He was heading for the roof.
I sprinted after them and was met by a couple of gunshots that ricocheted off the iron stairs around me. I heard the stairwell door open and slam shut. Moments later I burst through onto the roof myself and saw Fang Wenyan dragging Zhang Daiyu toward an AC311 helicopter that stood idle on a landing pad. I guessed like me he was a chopper pilot.
He brandished his gun at me, which was a mistake because Zhang Daiyu elbowed him in the neck and, when his grip loosened, took a swing and punched him in the face. He staggered back, waving his gun around, and I seized the opportunity she had created to rush him.
I caught him with my shoulder, which hit him in the gut and knocked the wind out of him He dropped the gun as he fell onto his back, and I gave him a couple of jabs to disorientate him.
“Tell me who ordered you to do this,” I growled. “Tell me who ordered you to do this to us.”
He looked up at me and laughed. Something in me snapped. I grabbed him by the collar and hauled him to his feet. I pushed him toward the edge of the roof and might have thrown him off if I hadn’t needed the identity of his Russian contact. He dug in his heels, resisting with all his strength.
“You won’t kill me,” he said. “I know who you are, Jack Morgan, you’re the all-American hero.”
His tone suggested he thought that the worst thing a person could be. I was about to tell him he was wrong when Zhang Daiyu joined us and spoke before I got the chance.
“He might not kill you but I will.” She leveled the pistol he’d dropped at his face. “You’re a murderer who has betrayed this country.”
