Cho had the upper hand and it was a quick, brutal skirmish. The Korean drove his knee into Virgil’s midsection, knocking the wind from the old man’s lungs, then quickly grabbed the scaling knife and thrust it between the ties Virgil had used to secure his lifejacket. The blade was sharp enough to puncture the old man’s chest, and when Cho wrenched the handle from side to side, the serrated edge shredded Virgil’s internal organs and then slashed his heart, killing him instantly.
Cho took a moment to steady the boat, yanked the knife from Virgil’s chest and staggered back to the other man. Johnny had just begun to regain consciousness. Cho leaned over and viciously dragged the serrated blade across the oarsman’s neck, finishing him off. In all, it had taken the Korean less than thirty seconds to kill the men and take control of the boat.
Getting rid of the bodies was a more tedious and time-consuming task. Cho dumped Johnny over the side first, then stripped Virgil of his hat, shirt and life jacket before easing him into the water, as well.
Once he’d donned the dead man’s clothes, Cho pulled the hat brim low over his forehead and took up Virgil’s position on the rear bench. The outboard motor was still running. Cho figured if he would wrangle his way out of the reeds without being spotted, he could race the boat downriver, then ditch it along the banks. After that, he’d try to find a way back to the safehouse.
Using one of the oars, Cho pushed the boat away from the bodies as well as the stolen personal watercraft, then slowly opened the boat’s throttle, heading shoreward as he negotiated his way through more of the reed thickets. All the while he listened carefully for the approaching sound of other boats or the man on the other Jet Ski. All he could hear above the purr of the motor, however, was the quacking of a few ducks as they fluttered up out of the water in front of him. Soon he was less then ten yards from the embankment. The water was so shallow he could see the river bottom.
With all his concern about his pursuer’s whereabouts, Cho had failed to consider the possibility that someone might have picked up his trail from overhead, where a steep, thirty-foot-high cliff rose abruptly from the embankment. He was within a few yards of clearing the reeds when a few stones clattered down the face of the cliff, tipping him off to the fact that he was being followed. Startled, he glanced up just in time to see a woman on a mountain bike streaking through the air directly toward him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jayne Bahn had done a good job of raising the handlebars as she vaulted over the cliff, but she’d slightly misjudged the distance to the boat, and instead of landing directly on top of Cho Il-Tok, she came up a few feet short, rear wheel striking the outboard motor instead. The boat’s engine died but it had enough play that it gave slightly on impact, tilting to the right so that when Bahn brought down the bike’s front wheel, it glanced off the side of the boat and splashed into the water. Bahn was thrown forward, somersaulting over the handlebars into the nearby reeds. The vegetation was dense and thick enough to help cushion her fall, and saved her from breaking her neck. As it was, however, the crash landing was hard enough to knock her out.
Cho, who’d lunged forward a split second before the bike had struck, had been nonetheless knocked clear of the boat, as well. He hit the shallow water headfirst and caught a faceful of silt from the river bottom before surfacing with a sputter, still shocked by the unexpected nature of the attack.
When he stood, grabbing the side of the boat to steady himself, the water was waist-high around him, so cold that he already could feel his fingers going numb. He splashed some of the mud off his face, then looked across the boat for some sign of his attacker. All he could see at first was the rear tire of the mountain bike; it poked up out of the water at a slight angle and he could see the frame was bent. Then he spotted Bahn, a few yards away, partially concealed by the reeds. She wasn’t moving.
The Korean turned and glanced out toward the river. The surrounding reeds obstructed his view and all he could hear were the drone of a few boats farther out on the river and the lapping of water against the embankment. Cho’s first instinct was to climb back aboard the boat and try to start the engine, but he was still incensed by the way he’d been attacked. So he tracked down the scaling knife he’d used on Virgil and Johnny and waded around the boat, intent on killing the woman who’d tried to thwart his getaway.
The water was only up to the Korean’s knees by the time he reached the reeds Bahn had fallen into. He tightened his grip on the knife and leaned over, using his free hand to part the fronds so that he could plant the blade in the woman’s chest.