Bounding past the boiling pot of fish, Quinn shouldered his way through the door to find his target, full Elvis pompadour hanging low across his brow from his exertions with the thrashing old woman in front of him. Li Huang had thrown a boney hand to her neck, but the thin garrote wire had already bitten deeply into the exposed flesh. Blood spilled from the terrifying wound as if from a fountain. The front of her tan cotton blouse glistened dark red.
The killer looked up with a start. He bared white teeth and tossed his head to get the hair out of his eyes. He gave a sudden yank on the garrote, severing one of the woman’s fingers and giving the deadly wire more access to the vital arteries and windpipe. The finger landed with a sickening thump on the floor next to her trembling leg, its manicured nail clicking against the wood.
Quinn swung his motorcycle helmet like a war club, connecting with evil Elvis’s forehead. The man staggered backward, releasing his grip on the garrote so it slipped off Li Huang’s neck. He sprawled against the low wooden bed with the weapon, glinting with fresh blood, dangling in one hand. Quinn dragged the injured woman toward the door. She slumped against the wall, clutching her neck with both hands in a vain attempt to stem the flow of blood.
Elvis bounced back from the bed, regaining his feet in an instant. Pressing forward, he flicked the wooden handle of the garrote at Quinn like a whip. He pushed the fallen lock of black hair out of his face and stood breathing for a long moment, lip twitching into a half sneer. A heartbeat later, he sprang, rushing forward and causing Quinn to regret not shooting him as soon as he’d entered the room.
Both men tumbled backward, out the flimsy door and into the narrow confines of the hall. They crashed into the chicken-wire wall in a writhing heap, pulling the wire away and exposing dusty, distorted glass of one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The soup man abandoned his hot plate and scuttled into the dark recesses of the corridor.
Quinn used his opponent’s momentum against him, grabbing a fistful of cloth at both shoulders and hauling him face-first into the glowing red coils of the hot plate. He yowled in pain as the element seared his cheeks, branding him with concentric circles. The pungent odor of scorched flesh and singed hair filled the hall as he rolled away, reversing directions quickly to come after Quinn again. As they crashed together, he stomped on Quinn’s injured foot as if he sensed the weakness.
Riding on waves of nauseating pain, Quinn was barely able to keep from vomiting. Somehow, his hand caught the warm wood of a garrote handle. He flailed with the other, connecting with the opposite handle that the dark Elvis still clutched in his fist. Locked in a clench around the deadly garrote, they stood face-to-face, gasping, close enough Quinn could smell the soapy scent of the oil in his hair.
Quinn cursed himself again for not shooting the man in the first place. He felt himself fading. Exposure to extreme altitude, cold, torture, and lack of sleep piled on in a relentless scrum of crushing fatigue.
Dark Elvis sensed the lapse of strength and reacted with instant fury. He shoved forward with powerful legs, driving Quinn backward toward the hazy light of the fire escape window.
Fighting dizziness, Quinn leaned in for a split second, remembering his jujitsu instructor’s credo: When pushed, pull. He wanted to be certain his opponent was fully committed. Without warning, he gave way, pedaling backward to bring the evil Elvis with him. Quinn’s fists shot in and upward, crossing in front of the surprised man’s throat before looping the taut wire up and over his head of slicked hair.
Quinn let his right leg collapse under his butt as he used his opponent’s momentum to drag him along. Rolling backward on his shoulders, he planted his left foot in the other man’s gut, throwing him in a forward somersault over Quinn’s head.
Glass shattered, raining down on the combatants as the force of the dark man’s momentum propelled his body through the chicken wire and out the window.
Quinn gripped the ends of the garrote, feeling the sudden heavy tug as his opponent’s weight slammed against the wire. The handles suddenly grew light in Quinn’s hands. He rolled to his side, fearing the wire had broken and expecting to continue the fight.
Instead, Dark Elvis’s head landed in the dim hallway with a sickening thud, black eyes squinting, fallen pompadour sulking across a furrowed brow. His body lay in a heap outside the broken window on the rusted fire escape grating.
Pounding footsteps brought Thibodaux bounding up the stairs, pistol extended and ready in his beefy hand. He slid to a stop, staring in slack-jawed disgust.
Quinn pushed himself up on one knee, blinking and wincing in pain from his throbbing foot. “Where’s Badeeb? You didn’t kill him, did you? We’re supposed to see what he knows.”
The Cajun sighed. “Sucker swallowed a little magic coward pill before I could even unass my bike. NYPD is sacking up the body.” He tipped his gun barrel toward the severed head. “Anyhow, you got no room to chastise me. I guess the King’s not gonna do much talking either.” He did a passable Elvis impersonation, complete with quivering upper lip. “Thank you, thank you very much.”
“No, he’s not talking.” Quinn struggled to his feet, using the wall for support. “But maybe someone else will.
A red smear followed on the wooden floor behind Li Huang where she had dragged herself to the edge of her bed. Dark, arterial blood seeped between the gaps of bony fingers clenched at her neck, ebbing and flowing in time with the weakening beat of her heart. Her lips had gone a chalky blue.
Quinn knelt beside her. “We have an ambulance en route.” He took a piece of QuikClot gauze from the black Cordura wound kit in his pocket and applied it to her neck. Even as he worked, he knew the injury was too great to save her.
“My husband… responsible… for this,” she croaked. The glistening gray white sheath of her windpipe was visible through the sagging wound, moving when she spoke. “… faithful… to that… dog… fifteen years…”
“And yet he wanted you dead,” Quinn said, slowly shaking his head. This woman had surely been a party to the deaths of untold numbers of innocents. It was difficult for him to muster much sympathy. “Why?”
“… hate him,” she gasped.
“I believe I can save you,” Quinn lied. “But you have to tell me what you know.”
“Too late…” Her voice came in ragged whispers, like the worn-out remnants of a sobbing cry.
“Your husband ordered you murdered,” Quinn said, keeping firm pressure on the old woman’s wound. “Are you going to protect him after that?”
“It is a girl,” Li Huang whispered, lapsing into Mandarin. “She will kill them all.”
Quinn shot a glance at Thibodaux, nodding. “We took the girl into custody,” he said, following the woman into her native language. “Before she could get in her airplane.”
“Not Tara…” The old woman shook her head. The move was slight, but enough to start the wound bleeding again in earnest. “Tara was… insurance…”
Her eyes fluttered, dimming.
Quinn held her chin with his free hand. “What is her name?” he asked, still in Chinese. “This other girl? Where is she?”
“Vice president’s wife… new assistant… they will kill your president…” The old woman tried to swallow. “Could… I have… water?” Dried saliva flaked white at the corners of slack lips.
“They?” Quinn asked, his face just inches from the dying woman.
“There… is a man… He… he…” She coughed, drawing a series of rattling breaths. “What time is it?”
Thibodaux looked at his watch. “Just after five,” he said.
A wan smile crossed Li Huang’s sallow face. “It does not matter anymore.” She shook her head for the last time. “You are too late-”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
Quinn laid the old Chinese woman’s lifeless body on her rude wooden bed. Shaking off the hollow pit of abject fatigue, he reached in the pocket of the Transit jacket for his phone and glanced up at Thibodaux as he punched in the number for Palmer.
