CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

A hazy, late afternoon sunlight filtered in through the mosaic of glass skylights that comprised the roof of The Atrium, drawing a large crowd of employees and visitors from the gloomy inner sanctum of the Gau Lung Building like moths to an open flame. From her seat smack dab in the middle of the café area, Kira had a clear view of everyone in the vicinity. That meant they in turn had a clear view of her, she reasoned, which no doubt had been why Dylan and Kyle had selected that spot for her meeting with Jeremy. In fact, they had spent a full hour sitting at that very table in order to assure that no one else would be occupying it when Kira arrived. She resisted the urge to try to see where they went after they gave up the table to her by shifting her gaze to the untouched coffee cup in front of her. She didn’t need to see them to know that she was being closely watched. She could practically feel Ethan’s eyes boring into her from wherever it was that he was lurking. Despite how annoyed she was by him bulldozing his way into this sting and taking over, she had to admit that she took more than a little comfort from the knowledge that he was watching her like a hawk. Settling back in her chair, she felt the thin wire of the listening device taped to her body dig into her back, reminding her of the careful way that Ethan had smoothed it against her skin when he’d placed it there with fingers that were surprisingly gentle given how furious he was with her at the time. Kira inwardly shook off that memory. Too much was riding on this to allow herself to be distracted by thoughts of Ethan, so instead she focused her mind on his firmly delivered instructions. He had told her what to say to Jeremy and what not to say, insisted that under no circumstances was she to leave her seat at the table and had given her an emergency codeword to use to signal him and the rest of the guys to move in if she felt that the situation was about to go sideways. The direness with which he had delivered, or rather barked, his instructions had seemed a bit excessive at the time but as she sat alone at the table waiting for Jeremy to arrive, she felt a sudden, nagging fear begin to claw at her gut.

Ethan had the exact same feeling in his gut as he looked down on Kira from the narrow walkway that gracefully coiled it’s way around the second story of The Atrium. Leaning against the wrought iron rail in front of him, his hands tightened into white-knuckled fists as he fought the urge to storm down the nearby stairway, grab Kira and drag her away from this whole setup, kicking and screaming if need be. He was a split second away from doing just that when he spotted Jeremy strutting his way through the sliding glass doors at the far end of The Atrium which connected The Gau Lung Building to the bustling downtown street outside. In his loud purple suit, he stuck out in the crowd of somberly dressed business men and women like a peacock at a funeral.

“It’s showtime,” a staticy voice whispered into his ear through the tiny listening device planted there, causing Ethan to grind his teeth, the mere sound of Donovan’s voice infuriating him. Shoving aside his anger, he focused his attention on the scene unfolding below as Jeremy approached the table where Kira was seated.

“So, what’s this all about?” he heard Jeremy ask as he joined Kira at the table, his voice coming in loud and clear through the tiny microphone that Ethan had planted on Kira.

“I already told you,” Kira replied, forcing her voice to sound calmer than she felt as she slid a manila envelope across the table toward Jeremy. “I have come into possession of some information that I think you will find very interesting.”

With arms folded defensively in front of him, Jeremy eyed the envelope warily for several seconds before opening it and removing its contents. Kira held her breath as he read the copy of the forged letter from Yi, praying that the handiwork of Donovan's forger held up to the intense scrutiny with which Jeremy was giving it. After several long, nerve-racking moments, Jeremy finally spoke.

“Where did you get this?” he asked, watching Kira with the same intensity with which he had read the letter.

“The original was delivered to me yesterday by an attorney your father had on retainer. Apparently, Yi had given him orders to personally deliver it to me in the event of his untimely demise.”

“This proves nothing,” Jeremy sniffed as he carelessly tossed the letter onto the table.

“It’s not my job to prove anything, that task is for the Hong Kong Police who, no doubt would find the information contained in Yi’s letter very helpful in conducting their investigation into his murder. I’m sure the bit about you being The Dragon Head of The Yellow Tiger Triad would be very interesting to them as well. And then there’s the matter of certain shipments being brought in on The Wayfarer…” Kira allowed her voice to trail off tauntingly as she watched the smugness drain from Jeremy’s face.

“If you think that the Hong Kong police would be so interested in this letter why aren’t you showing it to them instead of me?”

“Because showing it to you is a far more lucrative proposition.”

A shadow of a smile flickered over Jeremy’s lips. “You want money?”

“Doesn’t everyone?” Kira replied, returning Jeremy’s shadowed smile.

“So you’re not the paragon of virtue that my father thought you were,” Jeremy observed as he leaned casually back in his chair and openly reassessed Kira. “Quite an unfortunate miscalculation on his part.”

“Based on that letter, one of many,” Kira noted. “Not the least of which was turning his back on you one dark and stormy night, isn't that right Jeremy?”

He leaned across the table conspiratorially. “Are you asking me if I killed my own father?”

Kira resisted the urge to recoil in the face of the pure malice she saw swirling beneath the opaque depths of Jeremy's eyes like a school of sharks swimming in dark waters. “Yes, I am.”

Jeremy reached across the table and ran a finger lightly down Kira's cheek, sending a chill down her spine. Snaking his hand around the back of her neck he drew her close enough to him to whisper into her ear.

“Yes, I killed him,” Jeremy said, the soft lilting tone of his voice adding an eerie quality to his already chilling confession. “And now I’m afraid I’m going to have to kill you.”

Yanking Kira to her feet by her hair, he already had the barrel of the large, black gun to her forehead before she even had a chance to utter the emergency codeword that Ethan had given her. Not that she needed to. Ethan had given the order to move in the second he'd heard Jeremy make his unexpected confession. With his heart racing double-time and his Glock firmly in his hand, he raced down the stairway leading to the ground level of The Atrium, cutting his way through a group of bystanders frantically fleeing the lower level in response to Jeremy’s violent actions.

“Let her go!” Ethan yelled to be heard above the din of pure panic that now filled The Atrium, pointing his gun towards Jeremy as he sprinted across the wide expanse of ground separating him from Kira. Through his peripheral vision he saw Donovan, Dylan and Kyle doing the same.

Wrapping one arm around Kira’s throat, Jeremy flashed Ethan a sinister smile as he began dragging her kicking and screaming towards the sliding glass doors leading out to the street. Through the scattering crowd between them, Ethan’s eyes locked with Kira’s and his heart wrenched at the look of abject terror he saw in them. At that precise moment a loud roar ripped through The Atrium like a speeding train, causing the ground to rumble. Turning his head towards the source of the noise, Ethan blinked in disbelief at what he saw as a dozen or so motorcycles sped through the sliding glass doors. The insignia on the backs of the leather jackets of the dark helmeted drivers immediately identified them as Yellow Tiger Triad members. The sound of rapid gunfire accompanied the arrival of the triad members as they shot countless rounds of bullets into the air, splintering the glass skylight above and sending shards of glass raining down. Before he had a chance to react, one of the motorcycles zipped towards Ethan, causing him to dive beneath a nearby table as a stream of bullets whizzed over his head. Turning the table over onto its side, Ethan crouched behind the make-shift shield and returned fire on the cyclist as complete chaos broke out all around him. Knowing that the table he was currently hiding behind wouldn’t last long against the barrage of bullets from the high powered assault weapon being fired at him, Ethan scanned his immediate area for a more secure position. Spotting a crawl space beneath a nearby stairway, he stretched his body flat against the ground and barrel-rolled towards the shelter provided by the small barrier of slate colored concrete, a trail of rapidly fired bullets exploding violently against the ground in his wake, mere inches from his head, before he slammed into the base of the stairway with a grunt. Quickly climbing to one knee, he had once again raised his gun to return fire when he noticed the once deafening roar of the motorcycles beginning to fade like a violent tidal wave receding back into the sea just as suddenly as it had arrived. Scrambling from his hiding place, he raced into the middle of The Atrium just in time to see the last of the motorcycles speed out of the building, leaving behind mayhem and destruction in their wake. Doing a full three hundred and sixty degree turn, Ethan desperately scanned the chaotic scene around him, allowing his eyes to confirm what his gut had already told him.

Kira and Jeremy were gone.