Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen) (Emily Kane Adventures) (27 page)

“The Chinese are using a van in the
parking lot. They saw your matches. I imagine they’re hoping to grab you in the
middle of the night.”

“Show me,” Emily replied.

They walked out a side entrance and
peered carefully around a corner where Connie pointed to the white van. “That’s
where they’ll gather to plan their attack,” she said. “There’s been some
activity on the roof over there. I think it’s one of their men. I don’t think
they mean to shoot you. He’s probably there to cover their departure.”

“Can he see us now?”

“Not from this side of the hotel.”
Connie guessed the rest of the strike team would gather at the van around
midnight and try to grab Emily once the hotel quieted down, an hour or two
later.

“We’re gonna have to take care of
the guy on the roof before I deal with the rest of them. I’ll meet you there,”
Emily said, motioning to the building where the sniper was positioned, “just
after twelve.”

“Did you bring dark clothes?” For
an instant it sounded like the sort of thing a mother would say to her
daughter. Emily smiled at Connie and then went back in to the hotel.

When she got up to their rooms the
guys were still in full celebration mode. Billy had managed to video Emily’s
matches and was playing them back through the TV. They had already watched them
all a couple of times. She picked up the phone and called room service. Wayne
was obviously gonna be hungry again soon, and they all needed something to go
with the festive mood.

“I couldn’t believe it when you
kicked that guy upside the head,” Wendy gushed. “I mean, he literally flew
across the ring.”

“Whoa, yes, that was amazing,”
Billy agreed. “It was like you launched yourself at him. I’ve never seen you do
anything like that before.”

“Yeah, I got a little carried away
with that one,” Emily said, putting the phone down. “I hit him too hard. I was
really kinda worried he was hurt in a serious way.”

“What did he say to you when you
went over to him,” Wayne asked.

“You know, he didn’t really say
anything. He just smiled up at me. I think he was a little groggy.”

“What about that jerk who hit you?
What did he have to say?

“Oh,… him. Yeah, that was unfortunate.”
Emily paused, rubbing her cheek, and Billy played the video of the first point.

“That was so cool when you stepped
inside his last punch,” Danny said. “I mean, you just unleashed all these
strikes, and there was nothing he could do. He was like helpless.”

“That was like the last thing he
was expecting,” Wayne snorted.

“Yeah, and he deserved everything
he got,” Wendy clamored. “I was glad you really unloaded on that guy.”

“You know, he acted like a jerk,”
Emily said over her shoulder as she went into the other room to change. “But in
the end, I think he wasn’t so bad. I mean, you gotta give everyone a chance.”

She put away her new kung fu
uniform and put on black jeans, a black t-shirt and shoes, and went back out
just as the room service arrived. Of course, Wayne was thrilled. Emily had read
his stomach precisely. A large tray of scrambled eggs, French toast, bacon,
sausage, fruit, bagels, juices, beckoned from the center of the room. Everyone
crowded around and piled up plates, without asking any questions, even Wendy
who seemed to be as hungry as anyone. While her friends were occupied, she drew
Sensei aside and told him her plans. He was, naturally, dismayed.

“There has to be a better way,
Chi-chan!”

“There isn’t.”

“We can notify the authorities. Let
them handle it.”

“We don’t know which authorities to
trust here, Sensei. But even if we did, that would just delay the inevitable.
This
is the moment to confront them,”
she said decisively.

Sensei’s shoulders visibly slumped
as he let out a long sigh. He knew he was not going to be able to change her
mind.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Keep these guys here. Don’t let
them go out. Don’t let anyone in.”

She motioned to Wendy, and led her
into the other room.

“I’ve got to go take care of
something in a few minutes. I don’t want the others to follow me. You’ve gotta
help Sensei keep them up here. Can you do that for me?” Wendy’s face turned
pale and her upper lip quivered.

“Emily, what’s going on? What are
you going to do,” she asked tremulously, tears forming in her eyes. She was a
little unsteady on her feet. Emily helped her sit down in an armchair. “Can’t
you just stay up here with us?” She didn’t know what the danger was, but she
felt it as vividly as if it were looming over them both right then. A cold,
dark hand was closing around her throat.

“Wendy, you’ve gotta help me with
this. Sensei can’t do it by himself. He’s gonna need your help.” Wendy sobbed
as she stared at Emily. “You know me. I can take care of myself. But I can’t
keep them safe at the same time. You’ve gotta do this for me.”

Wendy nodded and tried to collect
herself before going back out to the other room. She went into the bathroom and
splashed some water on her face. Emily put on a close fitting synthetic vest
and a black hoodie. She was now dressed entirely in black from head to toe. She
pulled her hair back into a short ponytail and glanced over at Wendy, who gave
her a shaky smile. Emily slipped out into the hall and walked quietly to the
elevators.

Connie crept up to the roof of the
hotel’s unfinished business suites building, expecting to have to subdue the
Chinese sniper. But Emily was already there and the sniper lay in a confused
heap off to one side. Connie could surmise that she had hit him on the side of
the head with a fierce roundhouse kick, since she had personal experience of
the efficacy of Emily’s foot. She took out some cord she had prepared for the
purpose and bound his hands and feet while he was still unconscious. She hefted
his rifle, examined the clip, peered through the scope and said “This’ll do
nicely.” Then she settled in by the railing and rested the barrel on the pad he
had prepared.

“Whatever you do, don’t shoot any
of them to protect me. Just keep ‘em from going in the hotel. And absolutely
don’t kill any of them, even this guy here.” Connie nodded reluctantly. It
would be so much easier just to take them out one by one from here. She was
trained to do just that.

She looked through the scope at the
van for a moment, then panned around the parking lot. It was a good position.
It commanded the entire area between the van and the hotel. She looked up to
say something to Emily, something about how she shouldn’t underestimate how
dangerous these guys were. But she was already gone. She quickly looked through
the scope again, sweeping the area on the near side of the van until she
spotted her. Dressed all in black she was hard to notice in that landscape. She
was a shadow.

Connie watched as Emily walked
slowly but deliberately to the van. She noticed her gait perhaps for the first
time, like a tomboy’s, with a slight saunter, even a little swagger. She paused
to admire the strength that seemed to emanate from Emily’s body. Then the van
came into the field of view of the rifle scope and Connie felt a wave of panic
wash over her. What was she going to do? Had they seen her already? Was it too
late for Emily to run away? She was tempted to rake the side of the van with
bullets, kill them all. Her finger throbbed on the trigger, but she remembered
Emily’s words and held off. Then she was next to the van, and suddenly thumped
her fist on the side panel. Connie could hear the hollow sound all the way up
there.

The side door slid open and two
guys tumbled out, and then two more! Before she knew it, six guys were surrounding
Emily. Some of them were big, much bigger than her. Two of them wore gray
suits, obviously government issue. The rest were dressed like a grunge band,
apparently in an effort to blend in with the locals. But they were too old to
make it work. They just looked even more dangerous. Connie watched as they
looked Emily up and down. She seemed strangely calm. She looked at each one,
but didn’t make any move.

The largest one, one of the suits
took a quick step forward and wrapped her up in both arms from behind, lifting
her feet off the ground. And she didn’t even resist! She just seemed to let him
do it. Connie had his head in the crosshairs. Her finger danced on the trigger.
Every fiber of her being wanted to make his head explode with the bullet. But
Emily’s voice still echoed in her ears: “Don’t shoot any of them to protect
me.” The words seemed to make no sense to her at that moment, but she struggled
to honor them, to honor Emily.

She watched helplessly as the
others closed in, one of them holding what seemed to be a syringe. Why wasn’t
she resisting? She should fight back! Connie knew what Emily was capable of.
Why wasn’t she doing anything?! Was she sacrificing herself just to protect her
friends? Was she just gonna let them take her away? She desperately wanted to
squeeze the trigger.

But then something did happen. She
wasn’t quite sure what it was or how exactly it started. It looked like Emily
wriggled slightly in the arms of the man holding her from behind. It seemed so
harmless, so insignificant a movement. He leaned forward to adjust his grip on
her. As soon as her feet touched the ground she must have gotten control of his
arm somehow. He seemed to tense up as if in extreme pain, and then suddenly
swung around into the man with the syringe. Connie couldn’t quite tell how it
had happened. The two men lay dazed in a heap as Emily grabbed the syringe and
stuck it in one of them. An instant later she seemed almost to fly through the
air at two others, kicking one on the side of the head from an impossible angle
as she evaded the kick of the other. She landed behind him and before he could
turn to face her she had kicked out his right knee and then spun into a wheel
kick to his head. What Connie saw was a black whirl, a little too fast to track
from that distance.

Four men lay in a heap in the
twinkling of an eye. The two others looked anxiously at each other, as if to
work up their courage. One of them produced a knife. That was it! She’d seen
enough. Connie placed the crosshairs on his head, and was ready to fire when
she saw Emily looking directly at her in the scope. She relaxed her finger. Did
Emily know what she was about to do? Had she really been looking
at
her? Just then the door on the far
side of the van slid open and someone got out. The two men froze, apparently
waiting for this last man to appear. A moment later he was in sight, waving
them off. He snapped his fingers and uttered a sharp command. His men picked
themselves up and limped away to a safe distance. He was somewhat older than
the others, perhaps in his mid-forties. He said nothing to Emily as he looked
her up and down for a long moment. She sized him up too. Connie recognized him
from the incident in Taiwan. He was the one who orchestrated the ambush of
Meacham’s teams there. She couldn’t help but think of him as a cold, implacable
enemy. She situated his head squarely in the crosshairs of the rifle scope.

Then suddenly, he surged forward
with a left front kick followed by a lightning fast series of kicks and
punches. He moved too fast for Connie to keep in her sights. She couldn’t shoot
him if she tried, not without endangering Emily. All she could do was watch as
Emily blocked and parried all of his attacks, finally controlling his right
wrist long enough to allow her to land a palm heel strike to his jaw just below
his ear. He stepped back, clearly surprised that she had been able to hit him
at all. He spun into a high wheel kick followed by a right back fist and a
sneaky left hand reverse punch. But Emily leaned away from the kick and the
back fist, and stepped inside his left hand to land her own reverse punch to
the center of his chest. She hit him hard, harder than she had hit anyone in
the entire tournament. The force of the blow drove him a few steps back. He
gasped for breath as he looked at her in amazement.

He attacked one last time with much
greater ferocity, a seemingly endless rain of strikes and kicks. Emily was able
to defend it all, though it seemed to Connie that she was pushed nearly to the
limit of her abilities. He may have been the most formidable opponent she had
ever faced. But with each block, she forced him to commit his hands and feet
more and more completely, until finally the two of them were locked together,
standing face to face. He looked into her eyes and she into his. From the
rooftop, Connie found herself straining to see whatever it was they saw. But
she couldn’t do it. It was infuriating and tantalizing for her. But through it
all, Emily seemed completely serene. She didn’t appear angry or even offended
by this man who was attacking her in a parking lot in the middle of the night.
If Connie could have inspected her face more closely, she would have said she
seemed to have no mood at all as she stared at him. He recognized this too.
Finally, he smiled and gently pushed her away.
 

Connie saw she was of no further
use to Emily on the roof. She cut the cords binding the Chinese sniper, packed
up his rifle and went down to the parking lot. As she walked over to the hotel
entrance carrying the rifle case over her shoulder she could see that they were
talking. But she couldn’t hear what they were saying. As she watched from this
new vantage she could see that Emily was no longer serene.

 
“
Sifu
, you are not
the girl we are looking for,” he said in heavily accented English. Emily looked
puzzled. He continued in Japanese: “You are not the one, Sensei. My men do not
understand
Nihon-go
.”

“I don’t believe you,” she replied
testily, also in Japanese. “I
am
Yuki
Kagami’s daughter. Who else
can
you
be looking for?”