False Horizon - Alex Archer [86]
Hsu Xiao leaped onto the stone wall and waited for Annja to circle. Then she jumped from the wall to the ground, rolled and came up under Annja’s blade as she attempted to cut down. Hsu Xiao raked her claws across Annja’s midsection.
Annja felt like a razor had just passed over her belly and she let out a gasping breath. Hsu Xiao rolled away again, just out of range. Annja put one hand against her stomach and it came away wet, red and sticky.
She’s going to slice me apart, Annja thought. She dropped back and waited for Hsu Xiao to come at her again. But Hsu Xiao only smiled. There was no way she was going to be fooled that easily.
Annja circled the assassin slowly. Vanya had backed away—content, it seemed, to let her prodigy take care of business. Annja felt herself growing annoyed with Vanya all the more because of it.
Annja’s foot rolled over one of the throwing spikes and she knelt down to grab it. At that moment Hsu Xiao unleashed another volley and one of the spikes embedded itself in the top of Annja’s left foot.
Annja grunted. She reached down and yanked it free. A line of blood spilled from the hand-forged iron spike and splattered the ground. She threw the spike back at Hsu Xiao, who just reached out and plucked the spike from the air with hardly any effort. Annja was amazed and frustrated. She’s playing with me. Treating me like I’m only a nuisance.
Annja waved her on. “Come on. Let’s do this.”
Hsu Xiao danced closer and Annja studied her footwork. It seemed like a combination of a drunken style of Kung fu that Annja had once seen combined with a rare version known as Dragon. Her drunken style seemed to be the setup and then Hsu Xiao used the Dragon techniques to close the deal.
Annja knew that Dragon was a truly formidable system. If Hsu Xiao knew Dragon and knew it well, then Annja was definitely going to have her work cut out for her.
Hsu Xiao smiled and her teeth showed for the first time. “I am enjoying myself, Annja Creed. Are you?”
“Having a great time, thanks. How’s that cut on your leg?”
“It is nothing of consequence. But you seem a great deal more troubled by the three injuries you are suffering from.”
“Hardly worth my time,” Annja said.
“She will destroy you, Annja Creed,” Vanya said. “But it doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Oh? What’s my alternative? Give up and die, anyway? No, thanks. I’ll go down fighting if I go down at all,” Annja said.
Vanya called off Hsu Xiao and the Chinese assassin backed away, always obedient to her mistress.
“Put your sword down, Annja.”
Annja frowned. “No way.”
Vanya stepped closer. “It doesn’t have to be the end. Perhaps there is another alternative I didn’t consider until just a moment ago.”
“And what’s that?”
“Join us.”
Annja heard the words and broke into a grin. Her shoulder throbbed and the injury to her foot ached. Her stomach didn’t feel much better. “Join you? For what? So we can all rule China together?”
“If you wish, yes.”
“I’ve already got a country to call my own,” Annja said. “And I don’t feel the need to take over another nation.”
“I’m giving you the opportunity to be a part of something amazing here. Use your sword for us and what we wish to accomplish.”
Annja shook her head. “More delusions of grandeur. There’s no way your plan is going to work, Vanya.”
“It will work. And you’ll see that if you join us. I promise to make you a very wealthy woman. Imagine that. Why, you could even afford to get the very best medical care for your friend Mike.”
Annja frowned. “Mike’s condition is inoperable. The doctors said they couldn’t operate for fear of Mike dying.”
“Western doctors claim that,” Vanya said. “You would be amazed at the advances that we’ve made in China. A lot can happen when you don’t have to answer to a huge government bureaucracy.”
“Yeah, what kind of advances?”
“The ability to slow the growth of cancer cells.