Part 22 (2/2)

Charlie turned to face her captor, her gaze dropping from Lisa's face to the gun still pointed at her.

Chapter 31.

”Where's David?” Penny cried, trying to push her way past the large men. Chad, who had arrived with Cam after the FBI took over with the victims, grabbed her by her shoulders, holding her carefully in place.

Lin turned and said, ”Through here,” pointing to the door the nurse had come from.

Luke, attempting a semblance of control, barked into his radio for Bart's group to meet them. Turning, he pinned Chad with a stare and, with a nod toward Penny, ordered, ”Protect her.” Receiving a head jerk in acknowledgment, he turned and headed through the doorway.

The hall revealed nothing but a pair of swinging double doors to the side and another door at the end. Cam and Blaise met them, coming through the entrance. Positioning on either side of the double door, weapons drawn, Luke gave the signal for the Saints to move in.

Rounding the entry, Luke saw a man wearing a surgical mask bending over a body lying on the operating table, a scalpel in his hand. The man and the two a.s.sistants looked up, their eyes wide as the masks sucked in with their gasps.

”Stop!” Luke shouted, his eyes dropping to the young man lying on the table. Dirty blond hair. Pale white face. Eyes closed.

The surgeon halted, his hands in the air, the scalpel still grasped in his gloved fingers.

”Nooooooo!” screamed Penny, as she tried to lunge forward, seeing David on the table. Chad managed to snag her around the waist, but she squirmed and fought his hold. Finally, he managed to wrap her in his huge embrace and turn her from the table.

Blaise rushed to the patient and immediately a.s.sessed David's condition. He was sedated but the surgery had not begun.

”Where's Charlie?” Luke shouted.

The eyes peering at him over the masks gave no evidence of understanding his question.

”The girl? Charlotte Trivett?” Luke yelled, knowing his cool composure was slipping but unable to keep the fright from his voice.

”I don't know,” Jian said, tossing down the scalpel, allowing it to clatter to the floor. ”I thought she was left in the next room, but if she's not there, then I have no idea where she took her.”

Cam came from the adjoining room, his breath coming out in harsh pants. ”Nothing in there but a male corpse...one you butchered,” he bit out, his eyes dropping to the ice chest containers by the door, ready for pick up. ”Jesus, man...you're a doctor!”

Face set in stone, Jian grimaced for a moment before turning, pulling the mask from his face. ”You have no idea what it's like. They have my sons in their sights. As long as I do their bidding, my sons enjoy their university life in China and will be set up for life. If I don't...”

”Who's in charge of this operation? Of the trafficking?” Lin asked, bypa.s.sing a scowling Nick as he stepped up behind her.

”That can wait till later,” Luke bit out. ”We need to find Charlie.” Stepping over to Jian, he ordered, ”And I mean right f.u.c.kin' now!”

”She was to be my next...patient,” he answered, ”but if she's not in the next room, then Lisa must have taken her somewhere else.”

”Lisa?”

”Lisa w.a.n.g,” Jian replied.

Luke whirled around, about to speak when he heard Jude in his earpiece. Stunned, he pierced the others with his stare as he repeated, ”Jude's traced Charlie to the Chinese Emba.s.sy, two blocks over.”

”f.u.c.k!” both Lin and Nick shouted at the same time, swinging their glares back to Jian.

He nodded slowly, and said, ”The Chinese Emba.s.sy is connected to this clinic.”

”I've seen Yeng Chow with Dr. Cheung,” Lin offered. ”I've been working to find a connection.”

”I've got to get hold of my superiors,” Nick stated, his voice hard with frustration. ”I can't go in guns blazing to an emba.s.sy.”

Stepping around him, Luke said, ”But we can.”

Nick grabbed his arm, but Luke jerked loose, pinning the agent with his stare. ”You do what you've gotta do, man.” He nodded toward Jian and said, ”Take care of him, but do not get in my way. Emba.s.sy immunity means nothing to me. I'll go to h.e.l.l and back to get Charlie.”

With the full power of the Saints readily at his back, Luke ran out of the room, following the directions Jude shouted in his ear.

Within two minutes, Luke had found the back entrance to the Chinese emba.s.sy, but hesitated at the door. Listening carefully to the instructions from the van outside, he looked back to the men behind him. ”Jude's disabling their alarms now,” he reported. Thirty seconds later, he threw open the door, moving forward.

As the Saints slipped into an empty, carpeted hallway of the emba.s.sy, they moved silently forward. Rounding a corner, Luke came face to face with a guard making his rounds. Before the guard was able to draw his weapon, Luke kicked his arm, sending the gun skidding noiselessly to the other side of the hall. Whirling around, with a kick, he took the man's legs out from under him, Bart securing the guard's hands behind his back as Cam taped his mouth.

Luke, hearing a slight noise behind him, twisted quickly and sliced his arm in a downward motion, knocking the gun from the next guard coming around the corner. Bart and Cam subdued him as well.

”d.a.m.n, man,” Bart said, with a smirk. ”You keep going and we'll have a pile of guards on the floor.”

Continuing down the dark hall, Luke spied a sliver of light coming from underneath the door marked for Amba.s.sador Secretary Yeng Chow. Bingo...just who Lin w.a.n.g suspected.

With a nod to the left and right at the Saints on either side, he tried the doork.n.o.b, only to find it locked. Stepping back, Cam picked the lock, his skills of breaking and entering working once more.

Rus.h.i.+ng in, they found the secretary standing behind his desk, reaching for a weapon. His eyes narrowed at the contingency of men entering his office, his face twisting, before being replaced by a calm air of superiority.

”Gentlemen, I have no idea who you are, but you are on dangerous ground here.”

Luke stepped up to the ma.s.sive wooden desk, his eyes glinting in the low light of the room. ”You have no immunity from me. And I don't follow your rules. But you will tell me what I want to know.”

Yeng blinked at the hard, demanding voice of the man in front of him. He licked his lips nervously, before surmising, ”You are looking for the girl.” Seeing the flash in Luke's eyes, he continued, ”You may have her...and the woman who brought her here. Neither is of any use to me.”

Hearing Jude's voice giving him further directions to where Charlie was, Luke smiled long and slow. Turning quickly he barked, ”Watch him,” to Bart, while running out the door, followed by the others.

Charlie lifted her gaze from the gun pointing at her to the woman holding her hostage. I've got one chance. ”That's all it takes, Charlie,” Marc had said in their practices. ”Use your brains and look for your one chance. Then fight as dirty as you can.” s.h.i.+fting her focus over Lisa's right shoulder, she curved her lips in a slight smile, her eyes lighting.

Lisa quickly twisted her head to see what Charlie was smiling at, when a sharp pain hit her arm. ”Augggh!” she screamed, turning back around.

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