Outlaw

He stomped on the gas, trying to lurch clear of the kamikaze attack, but he was a beat too late. The Audi sport sedan slammed into his left quarter panel and spun the Challenger almost one hundred and eighty degrees. The air bags deployed, and his head rang with the impact and sound of shattered glass and splintered carbon fiber, but he quickly shook himself free from his paralysis.

He yanked on the door handle and threw his shoulder into it, spilling out of the driver’s seat just as several rounds from the shooters in the pickup trucks plinked into the Challenger. He fell to the ground and rolled onto his back, spreading his legs wide and rising in a half crunch to aim his pistol toward the airfield where the rifle rounds were coming from. He sighted in on the passenger from the lead truck and squeezed the trigger.

Click.

In the chaos of the crash, he had forgotten to reload. He flopped back to the ground, found his spare magazine, then slipped it into the magazine well and released the slide to chamber a round. He craned his neck up and spotted a man racing toward the fence while firing his suppressed rifle at the Challenger.

The concrete on either side of Guo Kang splintered and flew into the air with the impact of dozens of high-velocity rounds. He squeezed off two more shots without taking aim, then rolled to his stomach and aimed at the Audi S3’s crumpled nose where he expected the driver to emerge. But the driver’s door was still closed.

He didn’t waste time savoring his small victory of stopping Tan Lily from leaving the compound. He was pinned down by an adversary with superior firepower, and he ignored the rounds impacting around him to push himself upright and improve his fighting position.

Move!

Like a sprinter, he launched himself across the driveway to the low fence on the other side. He had taken fewer than ten steps when a red-hot hammer slammed into his upper back and pitched him forward. The impact jarred the pistol from his grip, and it skidded across the asphalt as he struggled to take a breath, wincing from the bullet lodged in his upper back to the right of his spine.

Get up, dammit!

Guo Kang pushed himself up, hobbled two steps to retrieve his fallen gun, then stumbled into the bushes on the other side. If he could get out of sight, he might have a chance of surviving the day.

And reaching Tan Lily.

* * *

Tan Lily’s body shook as she stretched it to cover as much of Shen Li as possible. Her daughter trembled but remained quiet, crying silently as the truck reversed away from the gate. She had her arm around Shen Li’s head and stroked her silky hair in between kisses and whispered words of comfort. But she knew it was her fault her daughter was in danger.

The truck’s tires squealed, and her body flung sideways as Margaret quickly spun them around, then accelerated back toward the house. Tan Lily remained on the floorboard, her tensed body sheltering her shaking daughter while listening to the sound of gunfire retreating behind them.

“Mama?” Shen Li whispered in a muffled voice.

Tan Lily kissed her hair. “Yes, my precious?”

“Are we going to die?”

She opened her mouth to reply but couldn’t find the words. When she had agreed to take Shen Li to the United States, she never expected she would have had to answer such a question. Yet here she was, lying on the floorboard of a pickup truck, preparing to sacrifice her body to keep her daughter safe from stray bullets.

She swallowed hard. “No, my precious. We’re not going to die.”

She sounded more confident than she felt, but she knew the time had come. She could no longer cower in the back of a pickup truck and wait for others to decide her fate. She needed to take matters into her own hands and get them out of this mess. There was no reason the sins of the mother needed to fall to the daughter.

She felt the truck fishtail as Margaret steered them off the street onto the long driveway and heard small rocks bouncing against the undercarriage. When they came to a skidding halt, Margaret put the truck in park and jumped out. Tan Lily kept her head down and kissed her daughter’s hair, trying to comfort her even while her own heart and mind raced with fear. The back door opened, and she turned to see Margaret’s outstretched hand.

“Come,” she said. “We need to get you inside.”

Tan Lily lifted herself off her daughter and pushed Shen Li to the open door. The little girl moved without hesitation and wrapped her arms around Margaret’s neck and clung to her chest. Tan Lily followed Cher from the truck and hurried to keep up with the CIA Security Protective Officer carrying her daughter to the house.

They scampered inside and raced for the stairs. Margaret bounded up the steps with Shen Li in her arms, and Tan Lily followed barely two paces behind with the cur hot on her heels.

“What’s going on?” Tan Lily asked.