Liu and John got out of the
elevator on the wrong floor. Liu wasn’t sure why she had done that. After all
the preparation that had gone into getting him here, why was she letting John
escape? Hand in hand they walked down the richly carpeted halls past oriental
vases seated upon hardwood tables and door after numbered door. She kept them
walking until another elevator opened in front of them. Out stepped a short,
red faced man in a uniform to match.
“Sir, Mam,
You are on the wrong floor.”
John’s forehead crinkled, “How do
you know…” His voice cut off as Liu swung her the heavy purple bag into the
hotel employee’s face. Cartilage crackled and blood ran down his nose as he
stood there dazed, until his legs collapsed underneath him.
Liu
tried to pull John down the hallway but her ankle twisted and one of her heels snapped
off. She cursed the man who invented high heels and kicked them off her feet
and towed the still stunned John down the hallway. There was window at the end
of the hall, open to allow the hot July air to escape, it was the only way Liu
knew how to leave the building without alerting more of Thayer’s minions. John
pulled her to a halt before they reached it.
“Liu,
why did you hit that guy?!” John pulled his hand from hers and balled them into
fists.
“John,
honey, we need to get out of here.” Liu pulled at him trying to get him to
follow her to the window. The down arrow above the elevator lit up and the
doors closed. His eyes met hers, she hoped that those brilliant green orbs
could see her desperation. As always he came through for her.
“Okay.”
He grabbed her hand and they ran to the window. They pushed a table with a vase
on it out of the way.
“Careful,
those look expensive.”
Liu glared back at him.
“Okay,
okay not the time.”
She looked out the window, rising
skyscrapers blocked the setting sun and a hoard of yellow taxi’s crowded the
street. They were five stories up, much too high to jump when all there was to
catch you was hard concrete. She scanned the ledge to the left and the right,
on the corner of the building was a fire escape leading to an alley. That would
work perfectly.
She
lifted the skirt to her dress and threw one leg out the window, John grabbed
her before she got the rest of the way out.
“Why
can’t we take the stairs?”
“There
are more of them in the lobby.” Liu pulled out of his grasp and out the rest of
the way onto the ledge. Only two feet wide, it would be difficult for John. She
stood up and carefully picked her way towards the fire escape.
“Curse
it Liu! You are going to get yourself killed.” She looked back to see John’s
heading poking out the window looking at her.
She
called back, “I’m fine, you need to hurry up.
John
pulled his head back into the building. Liu heard him say something.
“Whoa,
officers I’m unarmed.” A gun shot sounded followed quickly by a crash and a several
more shots. John scrambled out onto the ledge behind her.
“Nice
to see you John.”
His
eyes were wide, “They shot the vase.”
She
turned back forward and smiled.
They
reached the fire escape at the same time as two police officers stuck their
heads out of the window. Luckily the ladder itself was around the corner so
they couldn’t be shot at anymore. They began to descend the ladder.
“So,
why did those cops shoot at me?” John seemed to have calmed down a bit.
“They
were probably working for Thayer.” Liu chewed on her cheek, she didn’t like
where this was going to lead.
“Who is
Thayer?”
“The
guy trying to kill you, and me now I would guess.” Liu knew what he was going
to say next.
“Why?”
“John
this really isn’t the place.” She reached the bottom of the ladder.
He
climbed of after her. “Then where is?” He looked at her tapping his foot on the
ground.
“I don’t
know.” The she got an idea. “Wait, Mogol’s we’ll be safe there, for a while at
least.”
“Who is
Mogol?!”
“He
lives only a few blocks away, let’s go.” Liu ran down the alley. A few minutes
she heard John fall in behind her, she kept her pace quick enough that he
wouldn’t be able to talk.
They heard a crack from above. She looked up to see that a wall had been torn
from the side of a building, right where the room she was supposed to take John
was. Where Thayer was. A shill screeched pierced through the air, followed by
the rest of the wall breaking off the building and falling out onto the ground.
Thayer
was furious. Her betrayal must have set him off and now he was destroying
everything in sight. Liu looked at John, his jaw hung open and he was
trembling. Why had she saved him? Why had she betrayed a partnership that had
lasted for over a decade?