Barry Eisler - Killing Rain aka One Last Kill

We reached the southeast corner of Kowloon Park and went inside. The park, set on a sprawling knoll above the streets below, was dark and, at this hour, reasonably deserted. We walked past the skeletal aviary and the silhouetted Chinese-style gardens to the Sculpture Walk, where we sat on the steps of a small amphitheater beside one of the Walk’s silent statues. I took out the prepaid cell phone, turned it on, and called Dox on the throwaway he was carrying.

He picked up immediately. “Hey, partner, I hope that’s you.”

I couldn’t help smiling at the sound of his voice. “It’s me. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m here at the bug-out point. Where are you?”

“Kowloon.”

“Pardon me for asking, but isn’t that the wrong direction?”

“Unfortunately. Delilah and I chased Al-Jib onto the Star Ferry.”

“How’d that turn out?”

“With Al-Jib dead.”

“Well, that’s a happy outcome. Another victory for the good guys, and a blow to the forces of evil. What about Delilah?”

“She’s fine. She’s right here with me.”

“Ah-ha, so that’s why you hightailed it to Kowloon. You sure we have time for that sort of thing right now?”

“I’m sure we don’t. What happened with Hilger and Gil?”

“If you’re talking about the guy who was shooting at Hilger, he’s dead.”

“How do you know?”

“Hilger shot him, and when Delilah went to help, old Ali just about fucking flew over them and headed down the stairs. After that, Gil was doing a damn fine job of returning Hilger’s fire upside down and on his back from the stairs, but eventually Hilger put another round in him and then imitated Ali’s levitation trick. He paused just long enough to turn and shoot the sumbitch point-blank in the head.”

“Goddamn, I wish we’d managed to get you a gun.”

“Yeah, I would have liked to shoot him, and the opportunity was there. I did manage to sling a chair at him from the landing as he made his getaway, at least. It knocked him down, but he kept going after that.”

“You and the chairs,” I said. “You ought to market it. ‘ Chair-fung-do.’ ”

He laughed. “Yeah, the odd piece of furniture can come in handy from time to time, I’ve discovered. Anyway, I couldn’t get to Hilger in time after he was down, seeing as he was armed and dangerous and I was only dangerous. These jobs can be awkward without a proper rifle at hand. I don’t know how you do it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Hilger’s known in the club. Hell, he had reservations there tonight. The police are going to pick him up for sure. And then we’ll see if we were right about him running his own operation.”

“Think the powers that be will disown him?”

I paused and considered. “I’m getting the feeling he has… enemies. People who might like to see that happen, yeah.”

“What gives you that feeling?”

“I’m not sure. I want to check something out, and then I’ll let you know.”

“All right. Finish your quickie, and let’s meet at the airport. The old City of Life just doesn’t feel as welcoming now as it did this morning.”

“Give me an hour.”

“Sure, take as much time as you need. I don’t see any reason to hurry. It’s not like half the Hong Kong police force would be looking for someone of your description or anything like that.”

“All right,” I said, “I see your point.” I told him where he could retrieve the bug-out kit I’d put in place. He said he would grab it and be on the way.

I clicked off and looked at Delilah.

“Gil’s dead,” I said. “Dox saw Hilger shoot him in the head, point-blank.”

She nodded, her jaw set, then said, “What else?”

I briefed her on the rest of what Dox had told me.

“I’m going to meet him at the airport now,” I said. “You coming?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. I don’t have my passport.”

I didn’t say anything. I was still pissed that she had called Gil. I was trying to let it go.

“Anyway,” she said, “I need to brief my people on what just happened here. There are going to be a lot of questions.”

“You going to be able to weather it?”

“I’m not sure. Al-Jib dead will certainly help. That is a major victory, major. If he’d gotten away, I don’t know what would have happened.”

She was talking unusually fast. I noticed that her hands were trembling.

“You okay?” I asked, looking at her.

She nodded. I saw her eyes were filling up.

“You never…” I started to say. I paused, then went on. “That was your first time, wasn’t it.”

She nodded again and her tears spilled over. She started to shake.

My anger dissipated. I put my arm around her and pulled her close. “You did the right thing,” I said. “Just like they trained you. You’ll be okay.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should be happy, I should be exulting that he’s dead. I mean, I was exulting, right after. But now…”

I kissed the top of her head. “Your mind knows what’s what. It’ll just take a little while for your gut to catch up. You’ll see.”

She wiped her face and looked at me. “I was so afraid he was going to get away. I wanted you to shoot him. When he had that gun to my head, I thought I was going to die and all I cared about was that you shoot him first, so I would know.”

I nodded. “When you’re certain you’re going to die, and you don’t, it stays with you for a long time after. Sometime I’ll have to tell you about what happened to me outside of Kwai Chung last year.”

“You never did tell me that whole story.”

“Well, are you going to give me the chance?”

She laughed a little and touched my cheek. “Let’s meet somewhere. I don’t want it to end like this. I want… I want that to look forward to.”

I shrugged. “I’ve got your number. And we’ve got the bulletin board.”

She smiled. “We’ll always have the bulletin board.”

I laughed. “Well, it’s not Paris, but we’ll figure something out.”

Her hand slipped around to the back of my neck and caressed me there, absently, gently. It felt good.

“Thank you for trusting me,” she said. “I wanted to say that to you in Phuket, but I didn’t. I wanted to tell you… how much it means to me.”

How someone could smell so good after chasing a terrorist a quarter mile, almost dying in his grasp, and then killing him, was a mystery I knew I would always savor.

“Sounds like trusting you in Phuket wasn’t the brightest move I’ve ever made,” I said.

She looked at me, her eyes fierce. “Yes, it was. And as for calling Gil tonight…”

I shook my head. “I understand why you did it.”

“I had to. I told him it was Al-Jib, not you, that you were helping us. But he didn’t believe me about you. And when I saw him take a shot at you…”

I realized I was touching her leg. I started to say, “I know, I heard you,” but she pulled me in and kissed me.

I stopped talking. The kiss went from zero to sixty in about two nanoseconds. Where we were sitting, it was very dark.

What the hell, it wasn’t like Dox had never kept me waiting.

I TOOK THE Airport Express train from Kowloon station and called Dox when I arrived. He was already there. We met on the departures level, in front of United Airlines. He was still in his suit, an attaché in each hand.

He grinned as I walked up to him. “I think this one’s yours,” he said, handing it to me. “Saw it next to a dumpster in front of the Bank of China building as I exited the premises. Unless you meant to throw it away…”

“No, I was just blowing the ballast to chase after Al-Jib. I’m glad to have it back. Traveling without luggage can be conspicuous.”