Jax reached back for the comforting feel of his Glock 9mm pistol but stopped when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. Still scanning the entrance and the surrounding grounds for any sign of the assassin, he pulled his phone from his pocket and answered without looking at it. “Yeah?”

“Jax!”

“Punky?”

“What the hell is going on?”

As if that simple question had suddenly brought everything into focus, he jumped into action. He ran past the bright blue muscle car and entered the gate code into the control panel and listened to the electric motor whine as the gate swung open. “The key,” Jax said.

“What?”

Jax didn’t wait for the gate to swing open fully and wedged through, then ran for the idling pickup truck. He didn’t know where its occupants had run off to, but he only needed to get back to Margaret and the safe house before it was too late.

“He said she’s the key. Hurry.”

* * *

Tan Lily followed Margaret down the hall while contemplating her options. She knew Shen Li was tucked away in a bedroom with Cher and would be safe, but she wasn’t willing to sit around and do nothing while things spiraled out of control.

“Base, Road One,” a breathless voice said over the walkie-talkie in Margaret’s hand.

The older woman brought it to her mouth and pressed the push-to-talk. “Go ahead.”

“Target has moved into the woods west of the property. There’s no sign of him, but we are pursuing on foot.”

Margaret stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall and entered a code into the keypad set into the wall. The light turned green, and the door unlocked with an audible click. “Base copies,” Margaret said, turning the knob to open the door into a darkened room. “Break. Road Two, come in.”

Another voice answered. “Road Two.”

“Move into the woods and set up a blocking position. Cher and I will protect the principal in the safe room.”

Tan Lily felt her face flush at the comment. “Just you and Cher?”

Margaret reached inside and flipped a switch to turn on a set of overhead lights, illuminating what looked to be an armory with all manner of pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, knives, and cases of ammunition.

“Road Two,” the voice replied.

Tan Lily heard the front door open and close beneath them as the only other person protecting the house left to pursue the unseen threat outside. Her heart raced when she realized that she and Shen Li were alone in the house with only Margaret and her dog.

But Margaret ignored her question and walked to the far wall to retrieve a short-barreled bullpup pump action shotgun from where it was mounted. Tan Lily followed closely behind, scanning the room for a weapon she might be able to arm herself with. Her eyes settled on a folding knife resting on the table in the center of the room, and she scooped it up without a second thought.

While Margaret opened the breech and began feeding 12-gauge shells into the shotgun, Tan Lily watched her closely while her thumb stroked the stud along the blade’s handle. She had hoped it wouldn’t have to come to this, but she knew she couldn’t afford to squander the opportunity the Security Protective Officer had given her by sending the other man out into the woods.

Her thumb pressed on the stud, and the blade sprang open with a click.

Margaret slid another shell into the breech, then paused. She turned and locked eyes with Tan Lily, then glanced down at the knife in her hand. “What are you doing?”

Without a second thought, the operative known as SUBLIME shoved the knife up under Margaret’s rib cage and pierced her liver before quickly pulling it out and stabbing straight into her neck to the side of the larynx. Margaret’s eyes grew wide, and her fingers released the shotgun as Tan Lily yanked the blade sideways and severed the older woman’s carotid artery and jugular vein.

Blood showered Tan Lily, but she only gave a subtle shake of her head as she watched the woman crumple to the ground at her feet. All she needed to do now was get Shen Li and escape before the Americans figured out that the man in the woods wasn’t there to kill her.

He was there to rescue her.

56

Guo Kang stumbled and fell forward into a thicket of ferns, struggling to take a breath as he fought through the dense vegetation west of the safe house. He knew he wouldn’t likely survive the ordeal. He could hear men behind him, pursuing him away from the front gate and deeper into the woods. They would harry him until he had no more energy left, and then they would kill him.

“This can’t be happening,” he muttered.

He was one of the Ministry’s most skilled operatives, and the General had only tasked him with retrieving the doctor and bringing her in so she could activate the weapon aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. It should have been simple. But, for some reason, the Americans got to her first.