The man’s deadpan expression did not change, but now he raised his AK-47 and pointed it at Daekwon’s chest.
‘Give me your phones, all of you,’ he said icily. ‘Give me your phones now, and then run … and then never think of this day again, and count yourselves lucky to be alive’
‘The tiger!’ Chloe shrieked, breaking this deadlock of wills.
The man peered up – his vision still punctuated by the sights of the AK-47, which pointed everywhere his eyes looked – and he saw one of the soldiers on leaning over the edge of the roof and taking aim at the tiger’s body. Without hesitation the newcomer squeezed the trigger, unleashing a flurry of bullets, one of which clipped the soldier’s head, jerking his body with a grisly snap back onto the roof.
‘Shit!’ the man roared, his composure finally cracking. ‘There’s no time! You fools don’t know what you’ve just got yourselves into! Damn it, damn it all! Can any of you drive?!’
‘I c-, can,’ Chloe stammered.
‘Get in the van!’ the man bellowed, ‘all of you!’ He grabbed Chloe’s wrist and yanked her in the direction of the van. ‘You, in the driver’s seat! You’re driving!’
‘Wh-, what?!’ she half-whimpered, half-shrieked.
‘Drive or we’re all dead!’ he roared. ‘And you,’ he continued, turning to Daekwon, his thunderous voice brokering no room for disagreement, ‘help me with the tiger!’
More soldiers popped their heads and rifles over the edge of the roof, but the instant they did the man unleashed another peppering of automatic AK-47 fire, spraying the walls below their faces with high-velocity lead. As the troops scrambled back the man popped one ammo clip out of the rifle and slapped another into place, and then released the firearm, which was secured via a shoulder strap, and dashed over to the tiger, grabbing Daekwon by his collar and dragging him along with him. Paola, hysterical, and Jun, strangely calm, the Yin to her Yang, scrambled into the van, uncertain of just what it was they were getting themselves into, but realising that they had little choice but to do this.
As the man and Daekwon reached the tiger, the man snapped his AK-47 back up to his shoulder and unleashed another volley of bullets as the enemy soldiers again tried to peek over the top of the roof. When they sprang back, he dropped his rifle back by his side.
‘Take his hindquarters!’ the man roared. ‘I’ll carry him this side!’
Daekwon, completely caught up in the surreality and madness, simply nodded and did what he was told, slipping his arms under the unconscious tiger’s rear legs. The instant they got their hands under the beast a hand grenade, flung from the rooftop, bounced at their feet. Daekwon froze up with panic, his eyes bulging from their sockets, but the man, calm and collected, simply booted the grenade away from them.
‘Pick him up, pick him—’ the man growled, his command cut off by a deafening boom as the grenade exploded a few dozen yards away.
Adrenalin was ripping through Daekwon’s veins in supercharged surges now, and he had no difficulty picking his end of the tiger up. He and the man scuttled as fast as they could over to the back of the van, with the tiger’s body slung between the pair of them. Two more grenades were flung from the rooftop, but they bounced out of range and exploded harmlessly, although the blasts made Daekwon jump with fright, and left a shrill, piercing whine ringing in his ears.
The man, on the other hand, was utterly cool despite the explosions. He was also bearing the bulk of the tiger’s weight, and seemed to be immensely strong, something that Daekwon was grateful for, as the beast weighed two-hundred-and-sixty kilograms.
‘Get him in, get him in!’ the man urged when they reached the back of the van.
As Daekwon scrambled to help the man to load the unconscious creature into the vehicle, a hailstorm of automatic M-16 fire erupted from the rooftop. Bullets riddled the roof of the van, and the teens screamed out in a chorus of terror, but the man remained undaunted.
‘It’s bulletproof!’ he shouted as he swung the tiger into the back. ‘You’re safe, it’s bulletproof!’ He then unleashed a volley of counter-fire from his AK-47.
As soon as the tiger was in the van, the man grabbed Daekwon’s collar and a fistful of his shirt and hurled him into the back of the van before climbing in himself, with bullets peppering the vehicle and kicking up puffs of dust as they slammed into the ground.
‘Go, go, step on it, hurry damn you!’ the man yelled at Chloe.
‘Wh-, wh-, where?!’ Chloe shrieked from the front, her violently trembling hands barely able to grip the steering wheel, while bullets rattled the vehicle with their incessant hammering.
‘Straight, straight!’ he bellowed. ‘Then left out of the alley! Go!’
Chloe needed no further encouragement; she screamed wordlessly and stomped on the accelerator pedal. The tyres squealed in protest for a second before grabbing the asphalt and launching the vehicle forward, and the surge of acceleration had the van fishtailing for a few seconds before Chloe established control. She blasted out of the alley and hooked a violent left turn that had the van’s tyres screeching and the rear end lurching.
‘Where to now, where do I go?!’ she screamed.
‘Shift over, damn it!’ the man growled while he scrambled up to the front and climbed into the passenger seat. ‘I’ll take over! Keep your foot on the gas, they’ll be coming after us!’
‘How do we—’ she began, but he simply grabbed a handful of the back of her jacket, picked her up as if she was but a toddler, and then hauled her over to the right and slid under her, snatching the steering wheel as the speeding vehicle swerved out of control for a terrifying second.
‘Now sit still and shut up! All of you!’ the man shouted as he took over driving. ‘You young fools have no idea what
