He retracted his hand. Wyatt pulled back and again tried to aim with her pistol. Shin pushed the pain out of his mind and grabbed the weapon from his own lap. His forearm was in mid-swing, bringing the weapon around to shoot the crazed woman, when the truck slammed to a stop. The air bag, which had not deployed in all the collisions with the patrol cars earlier, finally exploded in his face. His weapon arm was pinned between the bag and his own chest
Shin fired his pistol into the bag. It deflated like a burst balloon. Lonnie had banged against the glove box again. Cross-eyed and in a swirl of dizziness, she frantically tried to find the pistol that had fallen from her grip in the crash.
The North Korean lieutenant worked to free his pistol hand from the binding air bag. He wanted to be rid of the woman. The gun in the deflated bag and would not let him bring it around toward her. The pain in his hand and arm convinced him to give up and get out of the truck instead.
Shin climbed out and quickly surveyed his surroundings. The truck had smashed through the wood-framed house. He stood in the living room of the two-story structure.
A figure moved down a flight of stairs to his left. The shadow cast by the headlights revealed a man with a rifle in his hands. Shin spun toward the moving shape, pointed his pistol, and fired three shots. The figure slammed back against the wall and tumbled face forward. The rifle clattered to the bottom of the staircase.
Shin heard a moan in the truck. Eyes wild with rage he turned, raised the pistol and fired three more times into the cab. The body of the woman trooper convulsed violently. Her face grimaced; eyes squeezed shut, lips burst open in a rush of air. All three bullets smashed her chest. She struggled to breath.
Shin squeezed his eyes to focus through his own pain. He raised the pistol, wavering and unsteady. He pulled the trigger again. A spatter of blood shot across the passenger-side door.
Wyatt lay still. Her chest stopped rising and falling. Her face relaxed its tense expression and her muscles slackened their hold on her bones. She drooped in a languid heap on the floorboards of the F250. Blood oozed across her face and dripped from a lock of loose hair above her ear.
A high-pitched scream erupted from the bottom of the stairs. The shrill noise was so loud and severe that it made the ieutenant’s ears rattle and his heart leap inside his chest. Shin turned and pointed his pistol to the source of the sound, but saw no one. He stepped out of the light of the truck and moved toward the staircase. In the doorway at the bottom of the stairs stood the source of the noise that threatened to pierce his eardrums.
A girl, maybe twelve years old, stood in front of her father. She wore a white flannel nightgown that reached to her ankles. Her hair was tied in long pigtails that reached to the middle of her back. She stared at the bloody heap of her father's contorted body, face-down at the bottom of the stairs. Shin stared in confusion.
“Drop the weapon! Drop it now!” A loud male voice demanded from behind him.
In an instant reaction, Shin spun and grabbed the pre-teen with his left hand and held her tightly against himself as he turned to the source of the voice.
“Back off, cop!” he demanded. “I will kill the girl!”
“Let her go, you son of bitch!” came the growling reply.
“Go to hell!” Shin lifted the terrified little girl higher. He held her up as a shield and fired three rounds at the voice. He could not see the man in the darkness, but heard the sound of his boots as he jumped aside.
Shin ran toward the front door of the house, carrying the terrified little girl. He kicked the wooden door open, smashing its bolt and catch through the wooden frame. The North Korean ran to the patrol car that was still running in the driveway. A shot zipped past his head that caused him to duck, more out of surprise than fear.
“I said, drop your weapons or I will kill you!” shouted the man from the house.
Shin turned. “Don’t make me kill the girl!”
He made out the form of the man silhouetted on the porch in the glow of the truck’s headlights that still shone from inside the house. He turned, girl raised high to protect himself, and fired at the figure in front of him.
Two shots exploded in the darkness then the slide stayed open. He had emptied his pistol. There was one spare magazine in his coat pocket. He started to reach for it, but realized that he could not load the spare magazine without releasing the hostage.
“Drop the girl!” shouted the deep, strong voice. “Enough is enough! There’s no need to die here tonight.”
Shin mentally ran through his options. The mission would not be able to proceed—at least, not without drastic measures.
He reached into his chest pocket. With a flick of his finger and thumb, he opened the plastic case, reached in, and pulled out one of the vials. He pressed it against the girl’s forehead.
“If you take one step toward me,” his voice came out in a low, rumbling growl, “I will smash this against the girl’s head and we will all die the most agonizing death you can imagine!”
The girl started her high-pitched, nearly supersonic screaming anew.
Chapter 46
Farmhouse
Sunshine Cutoff
20 December
06:18 Hours
Marcus stood like a statue on the porch of the wrecked house. Terror contorted the little girl’s face. The eerie
