44
You can”t harm my people
Aleksa
The shots and explosions came without warning.
I was about to confess everything they wanted when the first gunfire was heard.
Our captors became nervous instantly, especially the one holding me, who started yelling at the man with the rod, named Liú. I didn”t have time to give him the false location I had thought up for Miss Wang.
My strategy was to lead him towards Dante and have him sound the alarm, although I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be necessary anymore. Something told me that, somehow, our people had found us. Maybe one of our patrols saw us being forced into the car and followed us, and they didn”t intervene earlier because they were waiting for reinforcements. Whatever the case, we had a chance to get out of this alive.
My captor went over to his companion to confront him, and he put his hand to his ear. I hadn”t noticed that he was wearing an earpiece. He repeated the same words over and over again. It seemed like their device was malfunctioning or something. Luck was starting to smile on us.
”Is something wrong?” I asked jokingly. I flashed a smile while the guy in charge of the operation yanked the device out of his friend”s ear and stomped on it. He came towards me, furious.
”Shut up! You”re coming with us!” he exclaimed, threatening me with his gun. He turned his face towards Liú and shouted something in his language.
The man with the rod came over to me and dropped it on the ground. He pulled out a knife and went for the ties binding my hands to the armrests.
”Don”t you dare move, or you”re done for!” the leader of the operation spurred me on. I had no intention of doing so, or not just yet. To make any significant move, I had to be completely free, and then, may Buddha help them, because I wasn”t going to stop until they were dead.
I remained silent, feeling my first wrist free. My eyes flew to Andrey; he was worried. He didn”t move an inch, hanging in a position that must have been killing his shoulders. His head hung down and it seemed like he was still breathing, though I wasn”t entirely sure.
”Come on, Russian, hang in there, it takes a lot more than the electrified stick of a stupid Chinese to screw you up, surely those are the cheap ones.”
As if he had heard me, he slightly raised his face and gave me a lethal look, followed by a subtle gesture to bring them towards him. Then, he discreetly lowered his head again. That was all I needed for an adrenaline rush. We were in this together, and we were going to screw them over.
I now had both wrists free and the barrel of the gun pressed against my temple. The Chinese man kept hurrying Liú, clearly anxious.
The sound of gunfire was getting closer. I slightly moved my neck, and the gun pressed tighter against my skin.
”Don”t you dare move, or I”ll blow your head off,” he threatened, agitated. Liú knelt down to go for my feet.
”I would never dream of it with such delightful treatment from you,” I murmured, calculating the movements I needed to take them down. ”Hey, Liú, while you”re down there, clean off the left shoe for me; it”s got a nasty stain on the tip. I think it”s crap from your boss because he knows you”re in deep trouble.”
”Shut up!” the Chinese man squawked.
”Touchy, aren”t you? You weren’t one of the creators of ”Takeshi”s Castle,” were you?”
One ankle free, one foot to go.
”If you keep yapping, you won”t live to talk about it,” he threatened. He had no intention of killing me; he wanted the information he thought I possessed, so it didn”t suit him to end me with a bullet in the temple.
All I was trying to do was make him nervous.
The sound of a machine gun whipped him into a frenzy. My captor started badgering the other again, the rope on the second foot loosened. The moment I had been waiting for arrived. I took a breath, gave a slight side tap with the remaining shoe in front of Liú against the chair leg, and... surprise! I felt like shouting.
The retractable blade hidden in the toe of my shoe sprung out before the wide eyes.
He had no time to react, the sharp tip sliced his jugular in a movement as precise as it was lethal while I used my hands to block my opponent’s wrist, dislocating it to disarm him. It didn’t matter that he squeezed the trigger, because the bullet shot out toward the frame of one of the windows.
The bastard screamed in pain and looked at me horrified as he saw his colleague clutching his neck, blood gurgling like a fountain.
”No, no, no...” he whispered, backing away. My rib hurt, but above the pain was my thirst for revenge. ”I was just following orders... I wasn’t going to kill you, I just needed to know where Xia was.”
”You should have thought better before messing with the wrong men.”
His gaze shifted to calculate the distance to the emergency door behind Andrey. His aim was clear. He couldn”t go out the main way, as the shooting hadn’t stopped.
”Let me go and I’ll tell my boss that... that...” Whatever he was about to say hung suspended on his tongue. He didn”t realize that my partner had already recovered and was too close.
The Russian grasped the chains for support and anchored himself to deliver a side kick to the head that sent him flying several meters. I smiled at the crushing crunch. This was my guy, the one who wouldn”t stop even if they fried his balls.
”Shoot the ceiling anchors!” he roared. We didn’t have the key and he wanted to be released, of course, I did it without wasting time. I raised the gun and fired several shots to free him.
The Chinese crawled on the floor, disoriented. Did he really think he could get out of this? He wasn”t lacking in hope.
The door to the main stairs burst open, two of our men, along with R and Koroleva, emerged brandishing their weapons.
”Don”t touch him!” Andrey bellowed, closing the distance to the Oriental. ”This bastard is mine,” he spat, reaching him.
No one said or did anything to prevent the Russian from taking his revenge. The Chinese tried to sweep him with a kick, but it was impossible. Andrey looped the thick chains dangling from his wrists around the neck and pulled with all his might, dragging him along.
He tried to rid himself of the iron strangling him, oxygen no longer entering his lungs. The ear where he had received the kick was bleeding, probably burst his eardrum given the violence of the impact.
Our people entered the room and my boss came over to check on me. Koroleva never took her eyes off her man, clearly proud of his reaction.
The emergency door opened and four more of ours appeared, pointing their weapons. R raised a hand to stop them.
Andrey dragged his prey to place him over the puddle of water where he had been tortured and looked for my face.
”Bring it to me!” With his gaze, he pointed at the electrified rod.
I bent down to pick it up and brought it to him limping.
”Here you go, mate. Fry that son of a bitch.” He nodded.
He moved the chains from the neck, turned the power up to maximum, and positioned the head to unload all its power into the groin, as had been done to him.
Unlike the Chinese, Andrey did not stop no matter how much the Chinese begged, and he didn”t stop until the body went from convulsing to deadly stiffness.
I placed a hand on his shoulder and patted it.
”It”s done, mate, that guy”s never going to mess with us again.” My partner dropped the rod and let out a roar that shook the building.