False Horizon - Alex Archer [93]
Tsing frowned. “I assume there’s no way to stop it?”
Vanya laughed. “Perhaps if you were to go down into the treatment facility and pull every last body from it, it might help ease the tension.”
“You know as well as I do that we cannot enter that facility without the proper equipment,” Tsing shouted.
Mike cleared his throat. “Then it might be a good time to tie up your loose ends and get the hell out of Dodge. I certainly don’t want to hang around here any longer than absolutely necessary.”
Tsing walked over to Burton. He whispered something in his ear and Burton nodded.
The air exploded with two shots that tore into Vanya’s chest. The 7.62 mm rounds ripped her open and she dropped to the ground. Blood pumped out onto the stone floor and Tsing regarded her as if she had been a mere nuisance to him.
“She should have endured far greater pain and misery before I released her to death.” He pointed at Hsu Xiao. “You will suffer for her crimes back in Beijing, I assure you.”
“There is nothing they can do to me that would be worse than the horror of having your seed inside of me,” she said.
Tsing laughed. “No, you see, that’s where you’re wrong. There is a great deal they can do to you that will make you wonder how much better it would be to reside in hell. The men in Beijing are masters of what they do. And they exist for the suffering of people like you who would see our state undermined for the petty purposes of personal grandeur.”
Hsu Xiao fell silent.
Annja looked at Burton and Kurtz. They hadn’t moved or said anything since Tsing’s last order.
Annja spoke up. “So, I guess now would be a good time to leave?”
Tsing shook his head. “I’m afraid not. The last thing I can afford is to have you or anyone else left alive who can tell the world what has happened here.”
“The world’s going to find out, anyway, when this place blows up,” she said.
Tsing shrugged. “They might think they know, but there will be no proof to find. All of the contractors involved in the construction of this facility have already been killed and their remains scattered. There are no notes of the construction that took place. In short, there’s really nothing around that would ever tie the Chinese government to the horrible human tragedy about to befall this place.”
“Someone will find out.”
Tsing shook his head. “I doubt that very much.”
“So, you’re going to kill us?”
Tsing smiled. “Well, what would you do in my place, Annja? Let you all live and go free? Come on now, you’re not that naive and neither is your friend Mike. Even Tuk there knows that he can’t walk away from this one.”
Tsing smiled once more and then turned to Kurtz. “Shoot them.”
35
But even as Kurtz and Burton both moved to carry out the order, Annja and Hsu Xiao moved at the exact same time. Hsu Xiao unleashed a volley of throwing spikes and Annja had her sword in hand in an instant, cutting down at Kurtz’s exposed arm.
Hsu Xiao’s spikes bit into Burton’s neck, jutting out of his larynx at odd angles. Burton’s weapon swung up, wildly spraying rounds across the pavilion. Hsu Xiao had to dive and roll to avoid being struck by any of them.
Annja’s blade sliced Kurtz’s arm and his trigger hand fell slack, blood spouting and spraying the surrounding area. Kurtz screamed and tried to swing back to punch at Annja, but she sank down and then stabbed right up into Kurtz’s exposed midsection. Her blade sliced Kurtz’s heart in two.
Kurtz grabbed at Annja’s blade and then fell back and off it as Annja got to her feet.
Across the way, Burton clawed at the spikes in his neck, gurgling on the blood that filled his lungs. His fingers scraped at the spikes and then he slumped over and fell, ramming the weapons deeper into his neck.
It happened so quickly that Tsing barely had time to comprehend it. In seconds he’d gone from a position of power to suddenly being drastically outnumbered.
Annja meanwhile had a more immediate threat. Hsu Xiao had gotten off the ground and now stalked her.
“It doesn’t have to end this way,” Annja said.
Hsu Xiao smiled. “I exist to deal out