False Horizon - Alex Archer [69]
Annja frowned. “Well, there’s got to be a release somewhere. Just hang on.”
“Garin was trying to reach me when I was put inside. Find my phone and maybe you can guide him here.”
Annja shook her head. “I have no idea how I’d even do that, Tuk. I’m not sure where we are anymore. If I even knew at all.”
“We’ve got to be somewhere close to the mountain we stayed in. They couldn’t take us too far, could they?”
“There’s no telling how strong that gas was they used on us. We could be in Brazil now and not know it.”
Tuk sighed. “You’re right.”
“I’m going to keep searching, but you just—”
Annja felt her legs kicked out from under her. She crashed to the ground and nearly snapped her head against the stone floor.
“Annja?”
She rolled, ignoring Tuk’s voice, and concentrating on the Chinese soldier who had a quicker recovery time than she’d given him credit for.
As she rolled she saw the pistol in his hand and immediately lashed out her leg, knocking the firearm out of his grasp. It skittered away across the stones. He watched it for a second, determined it was too far away to go after and then glanced back at Annja with a grin on his face.
“So, the mighty Annja Creed makes her appearance at last.”
Annja groaned. “I’ve been here all day. It’s not my fault you’re late to the game.”
He whipped out a knife and the blade caught the flickering torchlight. “It will be my pleasure to kill you,” he said.
Annja blinked and had her sword out in the next instant.
The soldier’s eyes went wide with awe. “So, it is true.”
“What is?”
“The sword. The mystical sword we’ve heard rumors of.”
Annja slashed at him. How had they heard of the sword? As far as Annja knew she’d managed to keep its existence secret from all but a few individuals over the years. And now this Chinese soldier was telling her that he knew of it?
“What have you heard?”
The soldier ducked and came back at Annja with a stabbing shot aimed at her heart. Annja deflected the blow and the soldier caught her with another quick kick that scraped Annja’s shin and sent pain echoing through her body.
“You’ve been in too many battles for your enemies not to notice the sword’s existence, Annja. And not all of your enemies died as you thought. It’s funny what people tell you when you help them live for vengeance.”
“Vengeance?”
The soldier cut back at her. “How do you control the sword? Where does it come from?”
“If you don’t know, why should I tell you?”
He smiled. “Because I’m not going to kill you, Annja. I’m going to disable you and then torture you until you tell me every last secret of that blade.”
“You think so?” Annja cut down at him again but he managed to vault out of the way. Whoever the solider was, he’d been extremely well trained in hand-to-hand combat.
“I know so. You can hold out for a little while, but eventually you will cry and weep with joy when you tell me what I want to know. When I’m done with you, you will give me the sword.”
Annja smiled. “I’ll give you the sword right now.”
The soldier stopped. “You will?”
Annja plunged the blade directly at him so fast, the soldier had no time to react and the blade stabbed through his fatigues and directly into his heart. Blood spurted out, coating the floor. The air was thick with the smell of copper and death.
Annja yanked her blade back out and let the soldier slide down to the floor, his eyes already wide-open and unfocused as he died.
“You should be careful what you wish for,” she said.
26
Annja turned back to the window. “Sorry about that, Tuk.”
“What happened? I can’t see a thing in this place but I heard you fighting.”
“We were momentarily interrupted.” Annja cast a quick glance at the dead solider and the rapidly expanding pool of blood spreading out from his corpse. “I don’t think it will happen again.”
“You killed him?”
“I had no choice.”
Tuk stayed silent for a moment. “Well, now you most certainly have to figure out how to free me. If you’ve killed one of their people—whoever they are—then they will hold me responsible for his death.”
Annja shook her head. “How could