The last three commandos nearby all drew their guns and pointed them in my direction.
“I just want to talk!” I shouted, knowing that having Lu as a human shield didn’t entirely protect me, as Chen had learned the hard way. “Tell them to lower their weapons.”
Lu issued an order in Mandarin and his men did as I asked, but I knew my time was short.
“You’re an honorable man, Colonel,” I said hurriedly. “I’m sorry I doubted that. My mistake. If I had trusted you, I would have honored my word. So how about we try this again?”
I considered negotiating for our release but was sure he would die before letting this happen. “Promise again you won’t hurt us,” I continued, “and I’ll surrender. Better to patch the major up and use her as leverage than to teach me a lesson. You saw my reaction just now. Kill her and I’ll find a way to take my own life. I meant that before, and I mean it now. Your Politburo wants to see me. Do you really want to explain to them how you let me die?”
I paused, but only for a moment. “So let’s end this. Give me your word you’ll treat the major’s wounds and I’ll let you go. No one else needs to get hurt.”
Lu remained silent.
“Come on, Colonel. Take me to China and I’ll tell your leaders all about our alien visitors. I’ll give you alien tech that breaks every known law of physics. If you agree, I’ll let you go right now. I’ll put myself at your mercy.”
I paused, making sure I still had Lu’s gun pressed firmly against the back of his head. But after several seconds, he remained stubbornly mute. Tessa had now been brought to within eight feet of me and had managed to retain consciousness, but she looked too weak to speak. If she didn’t get medical attention immediately, she wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Please,” I pleaded as panic threatened to overwhelm me. “Tessa’s running out of time. And so are you. There have been too many explosions, too much gunfire. We may be isolated, but we aren’t that isolated. The cops will be here any minute. You’ll kill them easily, but they’ll sound the alarm that you’re Chinese military, which will bring America’s armed forces into play.
“Let me help you get out of here,” I continued. “We came here in a fake Amazon delivery van. We can use it and all get out clean. It’ll be seen as a harmless van going about its business. But we need to move! Now!”
Lu remained silent, perhaps enjoying my ever-growing panic.
“Please!” I begged. “I’ll do anything you ask. Anything! But spare Tessa. Patch her up. Please!”
When Lu still didn’t respond, I backed up quickly and held the gun against the side of my own head. “I’m pulling the trigger in five. Four. Three. Two . . .”
“Okay,” said Lu finally, perhaps deciding he had tortured me long enough. “We have a deal.”
“Thank you,” I gushed in relief, immediately removing the gun from my temple and handing it to him. I then knelt on the pavement with my arms behind my back, ignoring the blood seeping from the gunshot wound in my thigh.
“I trust that you’ll actually honor our deal this time,” said Lu.
“Absolutely,” I lied. “You won’t regret this.”
But the fact was, he would regret it, and I knew it.
Still, I needed to take the win. I had transformed into an action hero somehow, and had bought time for Tessa. My success in getting the drop on several commandos was nothing short of a miracle.
The problem was, in our current situation, one miracle wasn’t going to be nearly enough.
Lu’s men zip-tied my hands behind my back and yanked me up to face him. My eyes widened as the colonel pointed a gun at me, one different from the one I had temporarily taken.
“I’m glad we’ve finally reached an understanding,” he said.
And with that, the Chinese colonel pulled down on the trigger, and everything went black.
12
I gradually regained consciousness, flittering between a dream state and reality until reality finally won the day. Keeping my eyes shut, I felt strangely at peace, even after the memories of recent events rushed back into my consciousness. I had thought for sure I was dead, but apparently not. I vaguely recalled being shot in the neck, but instead of encountering death as a slug took out my jugular, I had felt a sharp stab instead.
Lu must have shot me with a tranquilizer dart. Which explained why I was still so calm. The drug hadn’t fully worn off.
It had been a good move on Lu’s part. I had been a harmless puppy who had turned into Cujo when Lu had threatened the woman I loved. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to sedate a rabid dog before I could do something else insane. Like causing harm to his men—or worse yet, in Lu’s view, to myself.
I slowly opened my eyes, and my vision swam into place. I was sitting in a spacious leather chair that was as comfortable as it was decadent. In front of me was a small but spectacular white marble table, and just across from me a duplicate of the chair in which I was sitting.
I heard a shushing sound to my left and jumped, barely managing not to scream out.
It was Tessa!
She was alive! Thank God!
She was sitting just a few feet away from me, her pointer finger across her lips, signaling silence. She was on the edge of a full-sized bed, bandaged extensively, but looking better than I ever could have hoped for. Her ankles were bound with zip ties, which in turn were attached by a flexible cable to a steel ring that had been welded to the floor.
I realized at that instant that I was trussed up the same way, to the same steel ring between us, although our leashes gave us about seven feet of play, enough to move around, stretch, or even lie at full length on the bed.
We were in a cramped but luxurious hotel room. New age, with what appeared to be white onyx walls curving up at gentle angles to meet the low ceiling above. A single lacquered wooden door at the end of the narrow, fifteen-foot-long room was shut, and two giant oval windows, with their wooden shades drawn, decorated both curved walls about four feet off the ground.