“This one’s empty.” He looked back inside. “But someone was here.”
Qin immediately stormed toward the room, along with Xinzhen’s first agent who still kept the doctor’s throat gripped tightly in his huge hand.
When Qin saw the bed and its blankets thrown off, he turned back to Lee. “Who was in here?”
The man’s grip tightened when the doctor didn’t answer.
“Where is she?!”
From inside the small closet, Li Na tried to sense what was around her. When she heard the gunshots, she froze. Her father was right. She checked the doorknob for a lock, but found it smooth and featureless. She continued searching with her hands.
There were shelves on both sides, filled with things she didn’t recognize. Some she did, like small cardboard boxes and sealed plastic bags with pieces of plastic inside. Some were softer. Probably bandages.
She stepped back and stumbled into a large object on the floor, slamming it loudly against the wall. Tall, thin objects fell onto her as she scrambled to catch what she couldn’t see. One of the missed items struck her in the forehead.
She cried out softly and rubbed her head. What was the doctor thinking? This was a terrible idea. There was nowhere to go. He must have thought he could convince them she wasn’t there.
But if he couldn’t, this was the worst possible place to be.
With a nervous hand, Li Na turned the knob and pushed, just enough to crack the door open.
She could see part of the bed, positioned against the door. Against the other wall, a shelf held clear tubing, boxes of latex gloves, and linens. After a moment, she leaned out and nervously peered around the closet door.
That’s when she heard the voices.
Qin was eyeing the doctor with anger. He opened his mouth to speak again, but stopped when his eyes caught something behind them. The rest of the hallway was clean. Yet at the far end, two IV stands lay sprawled on the floor beneath a rolling bed that was turned at an odd angle. On the other side of the bed, a dim light reflected out through the room’s doorway.
Qin’s eyes moved back to the doctor, who was now watching him nervously. Without a word, Qin stepped around the agent who still held Lee and walked silently down the hall. Unlike the first two rooms, the second two had patients who hadn’t woken up from the commotion.
When Qin reached the rolling bed, he pushed it carefully out of his path. He stepped over the fallen equipment and drew his gun as he inched closer to the doorway. He glanced back at the other men only briefly before stepping inside.
Qin scanned the room, noting the worn cot and small closet with an open door. Inside the closet were stacks of cleaning supplies with several haphazardly placed brooms and mops. On the floor, a plastic bucket lay on its side.
Qin examined the rest of the room.
What he was searching for was hiding less than a meter away, directly behind him.
52
Wil Borger didn’t take his eyes off the screen. He watched with annoyance as the latest satellite image slowly came in, overlaying the old picture. When the transfer finally finished, the lights he had been tracking were exactly where he was afraid they would be.
“Crap!”
He zoomed in as far as he could. Even in the dark, the outline of the small building was recognizable, along with the helicopter parked less than a hundred feet away.
Borger grabbed his phone and dialed again. There was no answer. He turned to another screen and zoomed back in on Clay’s satellite phone. It was still moving.
He was almost there.
Qin stood silently in the room, listening to the final whirring outside from the helicopter’s rotors. He looked down at the small cot and studied the blankets. They were messy. The position of the rusted frame so near to the closet looked out of place. Intentional.
He couldn’t hear Li Na’s breathing behind the door, not over the rotors or Xinzhen’s men continuing to shout at the doctor. But he knew she was still here in the room. He turned slowly with his raised gun and looked behind him. There was only one other place to hide.
He reached out with his left hand and fingered the doorknob, pulling it decidedly away from the wall.
The door’s shadow moved with it, revealing the terrified young face of Li Na Wei standing against the wall. Her dark hair was messy, with bangs stopping just short of her wide eyes.
The resemblance to her father was unmistakable.
“Well, well, well,” Qin breathed quietly. “You are alive after all.”
He looked her up and down. Her clothes were as disheveled as her hair. “Where is it?”
She didn’t answer.
Qin lowered the gun slightly, pointing it at the girl’s midsection, and raised his voice over the noise from outside.