Blood and Ashes (30 page)

‘Go for it, I’ll be right behind you.’

Rink set off, using the bar for cover as he rushed to the far end. I scanned the room for any sign of danger. Rink positioned himself at the far end, his Glock levelled, and now I sprinted forward and past my friend. I made it to the back of the bar room where I rested with my back to the wall, the TV playing over my shoulder. A brawny man lay on his back, staring through sightless eyes at the ceiling. Doorman, I guessed, who’d tried his best to stop the Koreans; unfortunately his best hadn’t been good enough. Another man, a small ferret in comparison to the dead bouncer, was crouching in a nook beneath the dance stage. He pointed up, confirming my assumption that the Koreans had sought higher ground. I aimed the SIG at the stairwell. A sign tacked to the wall pointed to restrooms upstairs. A toilet was as good a place as any to find crap.

A scantily clad woman jumped up from under a nearby table, running screaming for the front door. I let her go, making my way instead into the stairwell. Rink moved to the position I’d just vacated. Then I entered a space that was one of the most dangerous for anyone tasked with clearing a building. On the stairs there was the twin disadvantage of being on the lower ground and confined in a narrow place. I went up the stairs with my left shoulder tight to the wall. Anyone above would have to exit fully from the door on the left before they would see me ascending.

Three steps down from the landing, I twisted across to the opposite wall and covered the open door while Rink came up the stairs. Down in the bar there was a rush of bodies as the staff and clientele made a break for freedom. They would be replaced within minutes by the police storming inside.

‘Where are you, you chickenshit muthas?’ Rink whispered to himself.

Normal practice would see Rink move on while I covered him, but before he could do so, I went up the remaining stairs and into the hallway. It was bad enough that Rink had followed me to his possible doom, let alone allowing him to go first. I searched the dim space ahead. Someone, probably the Koreans, had flicked off the lights. At the far end the doors to the restrooms were edged in a pale glow. They wouldn’t be cornered in there; too constricting. There was another door on the left. As I crept along I noted that there was no light on in the room beyond and surmised this was where the Koreans were waiting. Still, we couldn’t ignore the toilets. I’d have felt stupid if someone burst out from behind one of those doors and cut me down, though not for long, I thought grimly.

Using hand speak, I motioned Rink on, directing him to check the restrooms. Rink went without comment, padding silently along the hall. How such a large man could move as quietly as an errant breeze through tall grass always impressed me. I stepped out, raising the SIG to offer cover. Rink opened each restroom in turn, nodded the all-clear. I went down on one knee, crouching over to make the smallest target possible. Nudged open the final door.

Gunfire rang out, tearing up the wall above and behind me. Plaster particles drifted down. I ignored the sure death whizzing inches above my head, noting and zoning in on the muzzle flash of a semi-automatic handgun. Returning fire, I used the flashes as a gauge, and heard a high-pitched scream that was immediately curtailed when I fired another round at the source of the noise. Something thundered down, shifting stacked furniture by the sound of the resulting crash and rumble.

Rink sped to replace me at the door frame and I went inside. I got a snapshot image of the room, analysing it in the same moment I checked both sides were clear of danger. I dashed to where I’d brought down one of the Koreans, placing the ill-stacked pile of tables and chairs between me and the length of the room. The dead man had knocked over a table, which gave ample cover, and I peered round one side of it. The windows had been painted over in an attempt at sparing less-open-minded individuals getting an eyeful of what happened inside the Red Moon’s upper level. Still, the years had conspired against the coating of paint, flaking it away in places so that bars of light cut through the dim interior. Motes of dust and a trail of cordite drifted through the laser-cuts of light, giving the room the look of a haunted space. The room had been partitioned off with rails from which drapes made private enclaves. In each booth was a mattress. It seemed that some of the dancers sidelined in further acrobatics for those willing to pay for a private show.

Before we’d left Walter, the CIA man had told us there were four Koreans, though this hadn’t been confirmed. Any more than that and resistance would have been much more concerted than it had. In all likelihood therefore we had an equal number to contend with. The difficulty being, while we intended taking at least one man alive, the Koreans wouldn’t be working under such constraints.

From below came the rumble of feet as the NYPD or FBI entered the Red Moon. Time now was the issue, because they’d be coming up and maybe they wouldn’t be as indiscriminate about collateral damage this time.

Rink hollered a command in Korean. I understood enough of the language to get the gist: put down your weapons. Do that, you live, refuse, you die. The answer was much easier to comprehend. ‘Fuck you!’

‘You speak English?’ I demanded.

‘Better than your friend speaks Korean, Yankee.’

‘So you know that when I tell you you’re fucked, I’m telling the truth?’

‘If that was true, then you wouldn’t be waiting for me to throw down my gun, and come out with my hands up. Go ahead, Yankee. You think I’m finished, go ahead and see what happens.’

‘OK. But you know how this is going to end, right?’

‘Yes. I will kill you and every Yankee who comes into this room.’

‘You sound pretty sure of yourself.’

‘I am Korean.’

Rink grunted something that was a curse in any language. ‘Goddamn pussies, you’re all wannabe Japanese, but
very
poor copies. C’mon asshole, put down your gun, let me show you the real deal.’

‘Ha!’ said the Korean. ‘I am
Kwon
. I will destroy you.’

‘The Hand, huh? C’mon out here and I’ll shove it up your ass like you’re a glove puppet.’

‘I would crush you in seconds.’

‘So let’s do it. I’m guessing your Korean style is as inferior to karate as everything else.’

It would have been laughable if the situation wasn’t so dire. Listening to the loathing between two Eastern nations was no different to arguments that raged the world over. Allowing Rink and Kwon to exchange insults, I crept round the stack of furniture. Directly ahead was one of the booths and I slowly slipped the curtain aside and stepped over a futon-style mattress lying on the floor. Kwon evidently couldn’t see me, because he continued to trade insults with Rink. I was no idiot, though, and credited Kwon with as much sense. The Korean was trying to play us as much as we were playing him. Rink was keeping Kwon busy, and Kwon was happy to oblige while the fourth Korean moved to a better position. I readied myself.

Had only seconds to wait.

As Kwon screeched something in his own language, the hidden Korean came out from the next booth, levelling his pistol at Rink. I didn’t bother with a warning shout; bullets were much faster. I merely caressed the trigger of the SIG, fired a single round that punched into the would-be assassin’s neck. The man fell to the side, becoming entangled in a curtain that wrapped round his body as he fell. Following the movement, I saw that the man was dying but still able to pull a trigger. Shot him again, once in the heart, once in the head.

Kwon fired, forcing me to skip away to avoid joining the man on the mattress. Rink’s Glock made a rattle like a firecracker, bullets firing as rapidly as he pressed the trigger. The sounds of Kwon running for cover came to me, even as I tore a way past a curtain and through another booth. Footsteps sounded loud on the stairs as law enforcement officers hastened up.

If the cops came in the room we’d never get the chance we needed. Terrorist or not, Kwon would be arrested and afforded the treatment laid down by law. Torture wouldn’t be permissible.

‘Rink! Get the door,’ I shouted, trusting that he would hold back the stampede while I got the job done.

At the same time I moved, and that was good because Kwon fired at the sound of my voice. Bullets tugged at the drapes, continued on and smashed one of the painted windows. Mid-afternoon light flooded into the room, the moving curtains causing a ripple and sway of shadows. I moved with them, dodging through the room like a living silhouette. Saw a figure ten feet ahead.

Again I wondered about how fate played games, how I’d travelled from one red moon to another. I remembered the cockerel-crowing man I’d strangled to death under that first moon and how he’d fancied himself as a tae kwon do expert. Kwon had the build of a fighter, and listening to his bravado, I guessed that the Korean was a true tae kwon do exponent, probably from military service since all soldiers in the North Korean army had to train to black-belt level. I was no black belt, had never felt the need to test my abilities when every day my work had done that for me. But the notion was there of how I wouldn’t mind testing Kwon in combat. The pain from my injuries had miraculously fled now that I was fighting for the lives of countless others, and the challenge of taking down Kwon could do my self-worth nothing but good.

But this was no place for egotism.

I shot Kwon clean and simple. That put paid to any number of black belts the man might hold.

Kwon howled, rolled on the floor, holding his damaged knee to his chest.

‘Drop the gun or I’ll shoot you again.’

Kwon howled even louder, interspersing his scream with a rapid-fire curse. This time I didn’t catch a single word.

My gun spat again.

Now Kwon didn’t know which knee to cradle, so dragged both of them to his chest. ‘You dog, you shot me!’

‘And I’ll shoot you again if you don’t drop the gun! Believe me . . . I’m not fucking around with you.’

Moving close, I pointed the SIG directly at Kwon’s head. The Korean’s face was pinched tight with agony, tears streaming from his eyes. If hatred was flame it would have seared me to the core.

‘Now!’

Kwon threw the gun from him. ‘I surrender, I surrender, OK, Yankee? You have me. Now you must arrest me and get me a lawyer.’

‘Yeah, right.’ I kicked him in his shoulder, knocking him over on to his back. ‘See, we’ve got a problem . . . I’m not a cop.’

Rink came up to my side, covering Kwon with the threat of his Glock. ‘And you’re not such a big guy now,
Kwon
.’

‘
You are dogs with no honour!
’

Rink and I shared a glance.

‘How’d you like that? Coming from a prick who wants to poison New York?’ Rink asked.

I crouched down and jammed the SIG in the Korean’s right eye. The barrel was hot from discharging rounds and I fancied I could smell the man’s flesh sizzling. ‘The cops
are
coming, Kwon. You
will be
arrested and given your rights. Chances are that diplomatic arrangements will be made for you to be released into the hands of your own government. You’ll return home just like that arsehole al-Megrahi did to Libya. Just think, you’ll be hailed a fucking hero when you get back. That’s if I don’t happen to slip and put a round into your brain first. Now the only way to stop that from happening is if you give me what I want. Are you ready to deal?’

Kwon tried to pull away from the barrel of the gun, but only to nod. ‘I will deal with you.’

‘Good. Now, I already know that you supplied some sort of radioactive isotope to Carswell Hicks, so you needn’t try and deny that. What I want to know is how much and in what form it was delivered to him.’

‘You do not understand—’

‘I understand enough. You supplied shit to an even bigger piece of shit. Now, tell me, or I swear to you, you will be going back to Korea but it’ll be in a lead-lined box with a nuke strapped to your arse.’

‘I demand to speak to your CIA,’ Kwon said through gritted teeth.

‘I’m afraid they’re not here right now. It’s me or a bullet, Kwon, take your pick.’

Pain made the man gag, perspiration running down his cheeks. He looked like he was going to throw up. The moment passed, and it was as though some new resolve stiffened his spine. He peered at us with calm eyes, like the deep dark pools found in hidden glades. Kwon described glass flasks sealed in lead containers, and the size and dimensions of each. He said there were two in total. I was no physicist, but in my estimation that’d be enough to contaminate the entire metropolitan areas of New York and New Jersey combined.

‘Tell me about Carswell Hicks,’ I said.

Kwon described how he’d met a man at a cargo-shipping compound near to the Elizabeth Town Marina, and how the transfer was completed. Then he cursed Carswell Hicks, whose name he hadn’t known up until that point. ‘You kill that bastard for me,’ he spat. ‘He told me to see the sights today! He knew full well he intended detonating the bomb and he meant to kill me along with everyone else.’

Sneering down at him, I said, ‘Sorry, Kwon, but I owe you nothing. I’m going to kill Hicks for all the people he has condemned to death. The same people
you
condemned when you handed over the isotope.’

‘I told you before, you do not fully understand.’