False Horizon - Alex Archer [68]
Guge strode away from the Chinese soldier, leaving him behind. He seemed to be intently watching something through a pane of glass. But what? And where had Guge gone?
Annja decided she couldn’t worry about him right now. She needed to see what the soldier was looking at. Perhaps it would clear up this mess.
But how was she going to get close enough to do it?
She could just run him through with the sword, of course. But, despite her apprehension at the appearance of the Chinese military here, so far they hadn’t done anything to warrant murder.
Annja might even be the one breaking the law if she was on sovereign Chinese territory. She could just imagine the scope of the international incident if she attacked the solider for doing nothing other than peering through some glass.
Still, she needed—wanted—to look and see what he was watching. She regarded the soldier. He was armed with a pistol on his right side, but otherwise, there didn’t seem to be another weapon about. Annja figured him for an officer. They were the ones who normally wore sidearms.
Annja returned her sword to the otherwhere and then flexed her muscles. She would sneak up and take him down with a choke hold. She’d been practicing some of them at the traditional jujitsu school that had recently opened in Manhattan. But this form of jujitsu wasn’t like the mixed martial arts silliness. This was authentic jujitsu from Japan, with holds and chokes designed to immediately incapacitate or kill an opponent.
Annja stole down the corridor toward the solider. She prayed he wouldn’t turn around and see her.
She drew closer.
And then she immediately leaped up and onto his back, wrapping her left arm around his windpipe and using her right arm to tighten the hold. She positioned her head down at the base of his skull.
The soldier’s instant reaction was to snap his head back, trying to head butt Annja in the face to make her release him. When that didn’t work, his right hand scrambled for his pistol.
But Annja twisted him off his feet and brought him down to the ground. She could feel his strength waning already as he convulsed once, twice and then went still.
Annja kept the hold on for a few seconds longer and then released him. She checked his pulse and breathing. Both of them seemed fine. The soldier would recover in a few minutes.
But it didn’t give Annja much time.
She rose and looked through the glass.
“Tuk?”
He sat there on the stone floor in almost complete darkness. What the hell was Tuk doing in there?
Annja searched, trying to see if there was a button she could punch so she could speak to Tuk. She found one and keyed it. “Tuk? Can you hear me?”
She saw him scramble to his feet. “Annja? Is that you?”
“Yeah, what the hell is going on around here? Why are you in this…whatever it is?”
“I asked Guge how to cross over and then he pointed me to this doorway. My phone started to ring and then he pushed me through here. I don’t know what’s going on!”
Annja looked around but saw no way to free him. “I can’t see how this cell works. Is there a door in there?”
“None that I can see. Annja, what is this all about?”
“I’m not sure. But I’ll get some answers. Do you know this place is deserted out here? I saw your father speaking Chinese to a soldier.”
“They want to know where Mike is. And who Garin is. I didn’t tell them anything.”
“Not much to tell,” Annja said with a grunt. “I don’t know where Mike is and trying to explain who Garin is would take a very long time.”
She kept looking for a release button or panel or something that would free Tuk but she saw nothing. What kind of place was this?
She looked back inside. Tuk was right up against the Plexiglas and he looked scared. “Annja, I don’t think that’s my real father.”
“I’m starting to think that, too.”
“I can’t see you, by the way. This glass is one-way.”
“All right. I’m trying to get you out, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to trip the door release.”
“If there even is a door,” Tuk said. “I can’t see anything in here to tell you where it might be. The four walls appear completely