Outlaw

“I’ll take her,” Jax said, moving to escort the doctor.

Punky relented. “Fine. Call ahead to the school and have them pull her out of class to wait for you in the principal’s office.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

Tan Lily yanked open her door and raced through the hall toward the elevator with Jax hot on her heels. Punky hesitated for only a moment as her mind scrambled to make sense of things. If the doctor really was at risk, then maybe her investigation into SUBLIME was more important than merely using it as a lead into discovering KMART’s identity. Maybe there was another attack afoot, and the doctor was the key to preventing it.

Jax and Tan Lily disappeared into the elevator, and she waved them on when Jax made a move to hold the door. “Get to her daughter,” Punky shouted. “Then call the Southwest Field Office, and they’ll patch you…”

The door closed.

Punky stabbed at the call button and anxiously waited for the elevator to return and carry her to the ground floor. When it did, she found herself bouncing with nervous energy, as if she were in a race against an invisible opponent. And that opponent had a head start.

“Come on, come on,” she muttered, watching the floors tick down at an agonizingly slow pace.

When she reached the lobby, the doors opened, and she ran outside and turned toward Gilman Drive and her frostbite-blue Dodge Challenger in the parking lot across the street. She saw Jax’s Audi S3 sport sedan pull a U-turn away from the curb and head east.

Then she saw a matte gray Audi sport wagon pull out behind them.

10

Guo Kang cursed when he saw the doctor exit the Medical Teaching Facility with a tall man he had never seen before at her side. He hadn’t expected getting to Tan Lily would be easy, but he never thought she would have a personal protection detail either. And there was no question about it — the man next to her knew his business.

He watched the man tuck her into the passenger seat of an Audi S3 sport sedan, then get behind the wheel. He made a phone call and checked his surroundings before pulling away from the curb and making a U-turn to head east on Gilman Drive. Guo Kang hesitated for only a second—Who is this guy? — before putting his sport wagon into gear and pulling out behind them. If the General’s target package was accurate, the doctor and her protector would most likely be headed to retrieve her little girl from Torrey Pines Elementary School.

Guo Kang felt the engine’s restrained power purring like a snow leopard as he turned the corner and passed an idling campus bus. He was in no hurry and knew it was best to hang back to avoid detection, but he was comforted by the knowledge he had the horsepower available if he needed to hasten the hunt. So what if they reached the little girl? It would only make his job that much easier if both were in the same place.

He followed his quarry south toward La Jolla Village Drive, observing the way the S3 maneuvered in and out of traffic with practiced precision. The man had obviously been trained in evasive driving, and Guo Kang couldn’t help but wonder who was behind the wheel. FBI? Local law enforcement? He was certain he and the General had done nothing to alert authorities to their activities, but the imposing man driving the sedan was evidence to the contrary.

The Audi S3 turned left onto La Jolla Scenic Drive just as the light turned red. Guo Kang coasted to a stop. He knew that Torrey Pines Elementary School was only a short drive through a residential area filled with mid-century modern homes adorned with red tile roofs. But the best part was that there was only one way in and one way out. The doctor would not escape him.

Guo Kang pulled out his cell phone and opened the Signal app to send a simple six-character alphanumeric message to the General: 6o%fe3. The code didn’t quite portend disaster, but it indicated the need to speak with the General immediately.

His phone rang ten seconds later, and he answered the encrypted call with a tone of reverence. “General.”

“What is it?”

“The doctor has left her office for the girl’s school.”

The older man grunted in acknowledgment. “That doesn’t fit her normal pattern of behavior but is not in itself troubling. Maybe the little girl has a doctor’s appointment. Or…”

Guo Kang didn’t want to interrupt the General, but he needed to amend his instructions and the clock was ticking. “A man is with her.”

“A colleague?”

The light turned green, and he smoothly accelerated into the intersection, turning left into the La Jolla neighborhood. He thought about the General’s question for a moment but quickly dismissed it. “I don’t think so. He moves like a professional. The way he carries himself. The way he drives.”

“Law enforcement?”