Satori

“Get it,” Nicholai said. “I will relate the whole story, and Voroshenin will be yours.”

Breathe and store your ki. Breathe and store your ki.

Kang got the tape recorder and Nicholai passed on to him the whole story that his mother had told him about what happened in Petrograd thirty years ago.

74

“HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?” Haverford asked.

“Thirty-one minutes.”

The “traffic” scenario was out. Either Hel had taken off or he was under adverse control.

Give the scramble order, he thought.

Sauve qui peut – every man for himself.

But if you pull the extraction team and Hel is alive…

75

COLONEL YU GOT UP from his chair, left his office, and walked down the hallway.

The general was at his desk. He heard the door open, looked up from his work and quietly said, “Yes?”

“I’m afraid it’s time, sir.”

“For?”

“Southern Wind.”

He explained the situation. When he had finished, General Liu said, “Make some tea, please.”

“General, I really think that -”

“Make tea,” Liu repeated softly. “And steep it three times.”

76

NICHOLAI FINISHED his speech.

Kang said, “So that is why you wish to kill Voroshenin.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“No,” Kang said. “I hated my mother.”

“I’m sorry.”

Kang shrugged.

“But certainly the Americans didn’t sponsor you to come on a matter of personal revenge,” Kang said. “Why did they send you?”

“To kill Voroshenin,” Nicholai answered.

“Why?”

Nicholai told him all of it – the whole plot to drive a wedge between Beijing and Moscow.

Because it didn’t matter now.

All he needed now was for Kang to make the anticipated move. There was a chance that he wouldn’t, but Nicholai discounted it. A man’s nature is his nature – Kang had revealed his – and he would act according to that nature.

Kang did. “You have told me everything now?”

“Everything.”

“Very well,” Kang said. He picked up the wire. “It is time to resume the opera.”

Breathe and store your ki. Breathe and store your ki. Nicholai allowed fear to seep into his throat as he said, “But why? I told you everything!”

“Exactly.”

“But there is no point now!”

“The point is,” Kang said as he squatted in front of Nicholai, “that I will enjoy it.”

Stones in place.

Nicholai forced all the energy into his legs, felt it course through the veins and muscles as Kang reached up to unbuckle his belt and pull down his trousers.

Store and-

– release.

The energy exploded from Nicholai’s feet and through his legs as he surged upward with all the ki he had stored in his body. The chair shattered from its bolts. Kang sprawled back, then got to his feet. Nicholai spun twice to develop momentum and then whirled into him and struck him with the legs of the chair, sending Kang spinning toward the wall. Then Nicholai threw himself into Kang, smashed him into the wall, and heard the air come out of Kang’s lungs.

Nicholai backed off and did it again, then again, then pinned the shocked and rattled Kang against the wall and pressed all his weight against the smaller man, trapping his hands.

Kang still clutched the wire, and Nicholai counted on his next move.

Desperate, Kang pressed the point of the wire to Nicholai’s throat.

Nicholai let it come, felt it bite into his throat, felt the blood start to come and saw Kang smile in triumph.

Then he craned his neck down, grabbed the wire with his teeth, jerked his neck back, and yanked the wire from Kang’s grasp.

Kang’s eyes went wide with surprise.

Nicholai stretched his neck as far back as it would go, then jammed it forward.

The wire went into Kang’s eye. He screamed in agony, wriggled against Nicholai, trying to escape.

Nicholai held the wire just there for a moment… then said, “For Chen.”

He pushed and sent the point through Kang’s eye and into his brain.

Kang stiffened.

Groaned.

And died.

Nicholai let his body crumple to the floor. Then he lowered himself down and started on the buckles of the leather strap with his teeth. It took five long minutes to free one wrist, then he unbuckled his other hand. He took a few deep breaths, gathered his energy, got up, and then took the tape out of the machine and put it in his pocket.

Looking at his watch, he saw that there was still time to go kill Voroshenin.

77

THE THREE AGENTS were tormenting Chen in the outer room.

One looked up in surprise as Nicholai came through the door, the more so as Nicholai killed him with a kick to the head. The second went to pull his gun but was dispatched with an elbow to the throat. The third tried to escape, but Nicholai grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed his head into the door, crushing his skull against the heavy wood.

All of this took no more than five seconds, and then Nicholai knelt over Chen, who lay quivering on the cold concrete floor.

“Did you kill him?” Chen asked, his voice rattling.