The Target(139)

“Oh my God,” said Eleanor as she rose, pulling her children up with her and then putting them protectively behind her.

Composing himself, Robie said to the North Koreans, “This place is surrounded. You’re not going to get away. If you surrender now, you will not be harmed.” He knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that the North Koreans didn’t care about getting away. He could see it in all their faces.

Five men and one woman. The woman was dressed as a pirate. She looked vaguely familiar.

Chung-Cha stepped forward and said, “We are here to right the wrongs of your president.”

Reel said, “Gotta tell you, this is not a great way to go about it.”

Chung-Cha said, “You and he were in our country. You took prisoners that belonged to us. Your country planned to kill our leader. For that you must and you will pay. All of you.”

Eleanor said, “I have no idea what—”

Jing-Sang fired shots into the ceiling. “Do not interrupt, woman!” he roared, as Eleanor, Claire, and Tommy dropped to their knees, shaking with fear.

Chung-Cha continued. “You will all die right here. This will be a message to the world that the evil empire of America cannot and will not attack our great country without retribution that is fierce and swift and noble.”

Robie said, “You’ll need hostages to get out of here. Five is unmanageable. Take me and my partner. Like you said, we were the ones over there. We took your prisoners. These folks did nothing. Leave them here and use us to get out of here.”

“We are not getting out of here,” said Jing-Sang. He pointed his muzzle at the floor. “We die right here. After you do, that is.”

“So this is a suicide mission,” said Reel.

Jing-Sang smiled and shook his head. “It is death with great honor.”

He looked at Chung-Cha. “Comrade Yie is the very best that we have. She has killed more enemies of our country than you could possibly imagine. Your deaths will at least be efficiently done, that I can guarantee.”

Chung-Cha sliced the air with her hand and Jing-Sang fell silent and took a respectful step back, bowing as he did so.

Chung-Cha slipped a pair of knives from sheaths riding on her belt. The blades were customized, serrated and slightly curved. She looked first at Robie and then at Reel.

Robie expected to see a face of pure hatred staring at him. Or perhaps he would only be looking at a blank face, all humanity long since driven from her.

But that was not what was staring back at him.

Jing-Sang said nervously, “Comrade Yie, we must hurry. We killed many of the enemy, but they will undoubtedly have more on the way.”

Chung-Cha nodded, said a few words in Korean, and then looked at Robie and Reel.

She said, in English, “I am sorry for this.”

Then she attacked.

She turned and gutted Jing-Sang with one of her knives, ripping upward. His gun fell from his grip but she snatched it before it hit the floor. She fired once, hitting the next man in the brain. With her free hand she threw her other knife and it plunged into the third man’s chest.

The other two men were stunned by Chung-Cha’s action but opened fire. However, she had gripped the third man, spun him around, and used his body as a shield, absorbing the fired rounds.

She then pushed him forward into the two men, dropped low, slid across the floor, and kicked the legs of the fourth man out from under him. As he fell, she pulled the knife free from the chest of the third man and raked it across the throat of the fourth man. Arterial spray covered her and the floor.

Chung-Cha never stopped moving. She somersaulted across the floor as the remaining man fired at her but missed.

Robie and Reel had grabbed the first family and thrown them behind the table again. Then the pair scrambled across the room to retrieve their weapons.

But they were not as fast as Chung-Cha. She had pushed off the far wall, flipping completely over the last man. As she went past him the thin razor line was revealed in her hands. She slipped the wire around the man’s neck while she was in midair, hit the ground on both feet, and pulled with all her strength, at the same time crossing her arms and forming an X.

The man gurgled once and then dropped to the floor, bleeding out a few seconds later from his nearly severed head.

Chung-Cha straightened and then dropped the wire. She turned to look at the devastation she had wrought. Five men dead, all by her hand, all in less than a minute. She was breathing rapidly, her eyes focused and her limbs tensed.

She turned to face Robie and Reel, who had their weapons now. They were pointed at her, but neither agent had a finger on the trigger guard.

Robie said, “You want to explain why you just did what you did?”