"What is meant to be will always find its way." – Western Proverb
Hangzhou, China – October 9th, – 10:00 AM
A ball of lead grows in Hailee’s stomach, but it isn’t from the jerking start-stop of the taxi. She immediately calls Anna. Her heart races when the robotic voice says, “The number you are trying to reach is unavailable."
Hailee can see the entrance of the airport in the distance, a long line of cars stands between her and the door. She urges the driver to pull over and she runs.
Her breath comes in gasps as she scans the crowd, her eyes desperately searching for Anna’s red hair. There is no sign of her sister.
Inside, Hailee scours the terminal, then the women’s room, calling Anna’s name frantically. Each time there is no answer, her heart sinks deeper.
A security guard in his fifties jogs over to her. “Ma’am, what is the problem?” he asks in careful English.
Hailee explains between breaths, “My sister is missing!”
The guard sighs. He has dealt with the situation many times before. “Have you tried calling her?”
Hailee explains that her sister's phone is not accepting calls. “Have there been any medical emergencies? Has she been taken to the hospital?” she asks.
He assures Hailee that no one has been taken for treatment in the last few hours. “We will call her to customer service. Please try to remain calm.”
Hailee paces as the announcement echoes through the speakers. Fifteen minutes tick by. Another announcement is made, and then another. Hailee snaps, “Can we check the security footage?”
The guard takes down Anna’s flight information and snaps a picture of Anna from Hailee’s phone. Hailee waits anxiously for the security guard to return. When he comes back, his attitude is less sympathetic.
“A maintenance worker saw her leave with two Caucasian guys. They found needles in the restroom trash. She’ll probably call when she sobers up.”
Hailee recoils from the surge of disbelief and anger at his words. “My sister doesn’t do drugs!” she protests.
“People hide their worst sides from their family,” the guard says flatly.
“You don’t understand—”
The guard cuts her off. “She left the airport; there’s nothing more we can do.”
***
Anna pounds against the doors of a cargo container, her knuckles bleeding against the cool metal. Her vision blurs from unshed tears. Her futile efforts drain her of energy. She slides to the floor, her head buried in her knees.
Her heart throbs against her chest like a tight fist squeezing the air from her lungs. Anna takes deep breaths to calm herself.
Her eyes adjust to the dim light, a shadow of a phoenix looms above her. Her eyes follow the shape of its body to down to a cute young woman putting on a shadow puppet show. Her audience is two other victims who give Anna the impression of a bedraggled princess and a disheveled fairy. She is not alone.
Further back, another captive channels her anxiety into doing sit-ups. Sweat drips down her stunning face. As for her last cellmate, Anna wouldn’t have seen her if the light hadn’t shifted revealing her in the shadows. The teen is fragile like a porcelain doll, the type that will break at the slightest touch.
Anna’s eyes search the dark until she spots the cleaning girl from the airport lying in the corner. Anna scoots over to her side. She takes the delicate wrist in her hand and checks her pulse- it is slow. The girl’s breathing is shallow and labored. Anna places her hand against her forehead. It is hot to the touch and beaded with sweat.
Anna lifts the girl's head gently onto her lap and strokes her hair back from her face. “We’ll be okay,” she whispers, though she isn’t sure who she is trying to comfort the girl or herself.
***
The rookie cop at the front desk’s dismissive attitude pushes Hailee’s gentle nature to its limit.
“We can’t do anything for twenty-four hours,” he says, going back to the game on his phone.
“By then it could be too late,” Hailee insists through gritted teeth.
The cop rolls his eyes. “The rules don’t change because you’re an American. If you have a problem, go to your embassy.”
“I already did. They said to talk to you!” Hailee’s voice raises in exasperation. Her anxiety makes her switch back and forth between Mandarin and English.
“Come back in twenty-four hours,” he repeats.
Knowing she is hitting a brick wall, Hailee calls Principal Rose Song, her boss—strict, but the first person there when you need something.
“Do you have any connections at the Public Security Bureau?” Hailee asks.
“What’s wrong?” Principal Song says with concern.
Hailee explains the situation, and Principal Song listens, only interrupting with relevant questions. “One of the girls in your class, Man Li Na, her dad is a detective. I’ll look up her emergency contact information and send it to you.”
Hailee thanks her profusely as she hangs up the phone. Moments later, the phone dings with a text.
***
Detective Man Zhu Bai finishes the last line on his report and is ready to go home after working a double when the call comes in.
“Is this Detective Man Zhu Bai?” The voice on the other end of the phone is soft and melodic, despite the anxiety and accent.
“Yes.”
“I’m Lina’s teacher Hailee Westcott.”
Man Zhu Bai’s eyes snap to the photo on his desk of his daughter. At ten, she still holds the innocence and the roundness of her baby face. His shoulders stiffen with concern.
“Is she okay?”
“She is perfectly fine. Sorry to worry you, but I need help and don’t know who else to call.”
The competent police officer replaces the tense parent.
“Where are you? What is the situation?” He picks up his coat from the chair.
***
Before Hailee finishes explaining the situation she feels a hand on her shoulder. She jumps at the surprise contact and then turns to find a handsome man holding a cell phone to his ear.
“Sorry to startle you”. His deep voice resonates through the air and the phone.
***
Man Zhu Bai reviews the footage in the airport security office. On the screen, Anna is led out of the airport by Jock and Skater Boy stumbling like she is drunk or high.
The security guard folds his arms. “See, she must have shot up in the bathroom and called her friends to get her. Left her luggage and everything.”
“What is she doing in the VIP area?” Man Zhu Bai asks.
The security guard shrugs.
“Can you show me the restroom where you found the needles?”
Inside the ladies' room, Man Zhu Bai inspects the counter and floor, but it has been wiped clean.
He walks through the “Employee’s Only” door. A cleaning woman in for fifties mumbles about extra work and unreliable kids while she cleans graffiti from the wall.
“Auntie, are you the only person on duty today?” Man Zhu Bai asks politely.
“Humph, the young woman who is supposed to be on shift took off without telling anyone. The boss got a text saying she quit. No work ethic.”
“Did she have a habit of leaving work?”
The cleaning auntie's lips twist in consideration, “No, she is always on time and did a good job. Most of the time I need to go back in and fix things, but she kept her areas tidy. Makes it more disappointing.”
“Her name?” Man Zhu Bai reminds her.
“Cao Niu Ju.” The auntie replies looking down at Man Zhu Bai’s shoes.
“Hope you don’t track any dirt in there. I just cleaned. What a mess.”
Man Zhu Bai's instincts perk, “What kind of mess?”
The cleaning auntie explains, “My guess is someone tripped and hit their head on the counter. There was blood there and on the floor.” She complains. “Whoever it was tried to clean it up, but instead they swished it around and made a bigger mess.”
Man Zhu Bai hands her his card, “Thank you, you’ve been very helpful.”
The woman turns back to scrubbing the graffiti. Man Zhu Bai touches the paint. It is mostly dry, but still sticky and has a strong chemical smell.
There is no particular pattern or symbolism only random scribbles going down the hall. The security camera’s faces are blacked out.
Man Zhu Bai goes back to the security office.
“Pull up everything from the time Anna Westcott gets off the plane until she leaves.”
***
Anna silently counts the beats of the unconscious cleaning girl's pulse, her eyes trained on the door. Barely a breath can be heard in the container. It is as if they were all quiet enough and could focus hard enough the door would open by the combined strength of their wills.
The sudden jolt of the cleaning girl's body breaks the silence; a reverberating clang of metal echoes through the container. The girl’s eyes blink rapidly as the seizure takes over her body. Anna removes her hoodie and rolls it in a ball under the girl's head.
Cries erupt around her and a few of the girls hurry over to help
“Stay back! Give her room!” Anna barks, her voice cutting through the chaos as she shields the girl with her arms.
The girl’s body writhes, and her eyes roll back. Anna loosens the girl's top, rolls her onto her side, and waits with bated breath. The fit subsides as abruptly as it had begun, but so does her pulse.
“No, no, no!” Anna gasps, rolling the girl back. She positions her hands over the girl’s chest and begins compressions, her voice firm yet pleading. “Come on, sweetie. Fight! Don’t give up on me now.”
The others watch, their terror giving way to a solemn silence. One girl mutters a prayer.
“You can do it, don’t give up” Anna pleads giving all her strength to her patient.
Finally, the girl inhales a faint gasp that sounds louder than any shout. Anna sits back, her body trembling with relief. “Thank God,” she whispers, wiping her face with a shaky hand before carefully cradling the girl’s head back in her lap.
As Anna wipes the drool from the girl’s pale lips with the edge of her shirt, another captive kneels beside her—the young woman who had been making shadow puppets. She places a comforting arm around Anna.
Anna leans into the support, she remembers how her mom would comfort her when she was a scared child. She caresses the unconscious girl’s forehead and sings in a whisper.
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me”.
If she wasn’t so tired, she would have been more surprised when other voices joined in. The language is different, but the meaning is the same.
Like moths drawn to the warmth of the moment, the girls gather around all except one, the fragile doll lost in the shadows afraid of hope.
***
Man Zhu Bai slumps into the driver’s seat of his car. He knows the worst part of his duties is awaiting him at the station.
He runs a hand through his thick black hair and pounds the steering wheel, “damn it”.
***
Hailee stops pacing when she sees Detective Man enter the station. “Did you find her?” she asks, her voice tight with dread, though she already knows the answer.
Instead of responding, he gestures for her to follow him. He leads her through the station to his office, pulling out a chair and waiting until she sits. Then he crouches so they’re eye to eye. “We’ll do everything we can to find your sister,” he says, his voice steady with confidence.
Hailee swallows hard, choking back tears. “What happened?” she asks, her voice unnervingly calm.
Man Zhu Bai pulls a thumb drive from his pocket and plugs it into the computer. He brings up security footage from the airport and plays it. The screen shows Anna rushing to Ryan’s aid in the terminal. He freezes the frame, zooming in on a security guard pulling Anna away. Behind the guard, a young man looms in the background—Skater Boy.
“Do you recognize him?” Man Zhu Bai asks, studying Hailee’s face carefully.
“No,” she says, her brows knitting together in confusion. “What is going on?”
He zooms in again, this time on another man—The Jock. “What about this guy?”
“No,” Hailee repeats, her voice rising slightly. “Tell me—what do these guys have to do with Anna?”
Man Zhu Bai exhales, then shuts off the video. “I’ve reviewed all the footage. These men were stalking an airport employee, a member of the cleaning staff. She’s missing too. There’s footage of your sister leaving the airport through an employee exit with these men, but shortly after, the cameras were sabotaged.”
Hailee’s face tightens as the implications settle in. Fear churns inside her, threatening to take over, but she forces it down, composing herself.
She pieces it together in her mind, but she needs to hear it said aloud to fully grasp the gravity of the situation.
“Where is my sister?”
***
In the container, Anna focuses on keeping the cleaning girl as comfortable as possible. There’s no point in trying to escape, and conversation isn’t an option, but she has learned their names.
Anna has seen all sorts of reactions to trauma in the hospital, and the five girls in the container are perfect examples.
The puppet girl, Chai Lai Luan, is the eternal optimist. She believes a miracle will happen at any moment. Right now, she’s practicing the CPR technique Anna showed her on a rolled-up sweater.
The girl doing sit-ups is Huan Rong, the realist. She knows things are bad, and there’s nothing to do but wait for the inevitable.
The Princess lives in a state of disbelief, convinced this nightmare will end any second, while the Fairy is a crier. She spends most of her time clinging to anyone nearby and using them as a tissue.
The saddest of them all is the Doll. She’s given up completely. It’s hard for Anna to look at her without being dragged into dark thoughts.
Anna knows she has to stay strong. At twenty-five, she’s the oldest here, though she guesses the others are somewhere between eighteen and twenty. They’re all uniquely beautiful, which makes it easy to guess what’s in store for them.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Maybe, if they worked together—
Her thoughts are interrupted by an argument breaking out between Chai Lai Luan and Huan Rong.
Anna watches as the two get in each other’s faces. She doesn’t understand what Huan Rong says, but it’s bad enough for Chai Lai Luan to whack her across the face. In the next instant, hair is being pulled out and nails are scratching.
“Knock it off!” Anna shouts, stepping between them. A bigger problem soon steals her attention. That familiar sound of vibrating metal begins again.
Anna rushes to the seizing girl just as the convulsions stop. She immediately mounts and resumes CPR.
Amid the chaos, Anna doesn’t notice the sound of chains being removed from the doors or the flood of light pouring into the container.
The girls scatter into the shadows, pressing themselves against the walls as several thugs come in, swinging bats to crush any thoughts of escape.
Anna focuses entirely on her patient until she feels rough arms wrap around her waist.
“Get your hands off me!” she screams, struggling against his grip.
“I won’t lose her!” Anna shrieks, kicking and fighting against the inevitable. It takes two men to drag her away.
As the doors slam shut behind her, Chai Lai Luan rushes forward and takes Anna’s place beside the dying girl.
***
At the station, Hailee sits curled up in a ball in one of the chairs. She hugs her knees to her chest, but no tears fall from her red-rimmed eyes.
The cool touch of plastic against her hand draws her attention.
A water bottle is held out to her by a strong hand. Her gaze follows the line of a white, long-sleeved arm to meet Man Zhu Bai’s sympathetic eyes.
“We’ve contacted your embassy.” He states. “You’re listed as your sister’s emergency contact, but we can call your parents--”
“Don’t!” Hailee quickly unfolds herself. “I don’t want them to wait again, helpless to do anything.”
Hailee’s fists clench as she fights against the urge to release her frustrated tears. She takes a deep breath forcing her emotions down.
“You can cry,” Man Zhu Bai says, watching her pull herself together.
Hailee waves off his suggestion, unable to speak.
“There is no one here you need to be strong for,” Man Zhu Bai places his hand on her shoulder.
Hailee’s resolve collapses and all her sobs swell up unable to be contained any longer.
When the last tear dries, Hailee wipes her face with the sleeve of her sweater and steels herself. Her resolve hardens as determination replaces despair.
While Detective Man and the officers canvas the streets, interrogating known associates and questioning informants, Hailee turns to social media. Her fingers fly over her phone’s keyboard as she crafts posts, sharing pictures and descriptions of her sister. She pleads for any information, any leads, hoping the digital world will reach where the physical search cannot.
Unwilling to sit and do nothing, she hits the streets herself, showing a photo to everyone she sees, hoping for a miracle.
***
At the family mansion, Ryan tosses his suit jacket on his king-sized bed. The room is elegantly appointed with a blend of traditional and modern décor. Dark wood floors and furniture are offset by soft gray and blue linens and rugs. He opens the walk-in closet to find a change of clothes for the evening.
The phone ringing interrupts his decision between the black or the navy blazer. “The ship cleared customs and I made sure the cargo was unloaded. Everything is back on track.” He says hanging the navy blazer back in place and pairing the black one with a fresh shirt. “I’ll be there soon. I have another call coming in.”
Ryan accepts the incoming call. His fingers freeze on the top button of his shirt. “What do you mean she disappeared?” he growls into the phone. “She’s a human not luggage how can you lose her?”
His jaw tightens, anger crackling in his voice.
“I’ll be there to get her belongings,” he snaps. “You’d better hope I find her—because if I don’t, the only VIP lounge you’ll manage will be in hell.”
Ending the call, Ryan immediately re-dials the previous number as he strides through the house.
“Change of plans,” he says, his voice sharp. “You’ll have to handle it for me.”
He steps into the garage and grabs the keys to a sleek sports car. The engine roars to life, echoing in the enclosed space. Ryan floors the accelerator, the tires screeching as the car tears down the road.
An hour later in the dimly lit airport garage, Ryan places Anna’s luggage into his trunk. Sliding into the driver’s seat, he grabs her purse and sets it on the passenger side. His hands move swiftly as he rifles through its contents, extracting her passport.
Flipping it open, he skims through the pages. Only one stamp. His eyes pause on the page with her photo and details, taking in her information.
With a quick motion, he snaps a picture of the passport page with his phone. He attaches the image to a text and types out a curt message—Find Her.
***
Not far from the city in a villa decorated in the tacky styling of the nouveau riche, a party for the wealthy and depraved is in full swing. The men are dressed to the nines showing off their wealth while the women are barely dressed. Alcohol flows and an assortment of pills and powders are available to suit any addiction.
Kang Jia Zan sits in a chair on the fringes, where he can observe, but doesn’t need to engage. His sharp eyes watch his host Wu Bambang snort a line of coke, his vapid eyes light up with manic energy. Wu pulls one of the whores near him onto his lap. He lifts a glass of whiskey to her lips and then pours it down her throat causing her to choke.
Before she can recover, Wu Bambang smashes the thick glass into her face. Blood and liquor stream down her nose. He shoves her to the floor.
Kang Jia Zan’s quells his instinct to help. He doesn’t enjoy these scenes, but this is the world he is in. All he needs to do is make the deal. He looks around at the drunks laughing and jeering, a bunch of second-generation thugs who can’t wipe their asses without daddy’s say so.
The woman looks around the room at the men. Kang thinks he sees a bright flash of defiance in her eyes, but it is hidden by her long straight dark hair as she picks herself up off the floor. She lowers her eyes and slinks out of the room.
He sips his drink slowly savoring the burn. He glances across from him at the only man in the room who could pose a genuine threat; Li Jing Sheng. He is an enigma, he recently appeared beside Wu Bambang acting as his right hand, but there was no way a loser like Wu could command loyalty from a man like that.
Even though Li is in the room, he appears to be in his own world. An invisible barrier separates him from the rest of the party. Like a tiger resting after a kill, he is not interested in the easy prey playing around him.
Kang watches as Li folds a piece of paper with meticulous precision. Each crease sharpens the design, his long, thin fingers moving like a swordsman honing his blade.
He knows that Li’s relaxed posture is a façade. The man’s face is delicate, but his lean body is honed and ready to uncoil into action at any moment. He looks up to meet Kang’s stare. His dead eyes are what Kang found most unsettling.
Kang is confident in his abilities in a fight. He has killed and brushed up against death more than once but it is better to avoid an opponent like Li when given the option. Then again, it is rare to find such an interesting challenge.
Kang and Li’s attention is diverted toward Wu Bambang as he clinks his glass.
“Even though it is my birthday” Wu announces, “I have decided to share my present with everyone.”
Screams coming from down the hall get louder and louder. One of Wu’s lackeys comes into the room with a woman over his shoulder. Her red hair matches the fire in her eyes.
***
In a bar so shady that Man Zhu Bai could arrest every patron for the illegal dealings he’s witnessed in the past fifteen minutes, he hits up a snitch for information. Like everything else he’s tried tonight, it’s a dead end. No one knows anything—or no one’s willing to talk.
Man Zhu Bai tosses some cash on the bar and steps out of the noisy hellhole. He isn’t prepared to give up, but he is running low on options. He hopes the other officers are having better luck.
He doesn’t want to face the disappointment in the blue eyes waiting for him at the station. The way she tries to keep it together is harder to witness than the tears. He’d been told she was out pounding the pavement along with the patrolmen.
The problem is, there are no leads. He’s already spoken to the cleaning girl’s father. Cao Niu Ju had been living in a shared apartment in Hangzhou, working three part-time jobs to help support her disabled dad. The man had received no ransom note—only a text from an unknown number, claiming her phone was broken and telling him not to worry if he didn’t hear from her.
The criminals are buying time, covering their tracks. The crime is meticulously planned, and if it wasn’t for Anna’s interference and Hailee’s persistence, they might not have even known this type of operation was happening in their city.
A part of him wants to deny what all the evidence points to. Human trafficking is a scourge his comrades in the south contend with, but Hangzhou? Hangzhou is supposed to be a safe city. He’s dedicated his life to keeping it that way.
He wishes he was wrong, but he knows down to the fiber of his bones that he isn’t. If he believed in God he would pray, but he can only keep searching. However, time is not on his side. Every minute the odds of finding Anna and Cao Niu Ju alive dwindles.
His phone buzzes with a message that could only be called a miracle.
***
“Did a skunk crawl up your ass to die? Put me down you limp dicked monkey twat!!” Anna curses.
The thug drops her unceremoniously in front of a table with a bunch of men in gaudy suits that scream money and taste that scream otherwise.
Anna squirms against the zip-ties binding her wrists behind her back and biting into skin. The greasy thug stands behind her holding her in place. She looks around the room, but there doesn’t seem to be any help, a bunch of thugs, drunks and strangely a guy idly folding paper in the corner.
Her eyes make contact with another figure on the edge of the room. He is different from the others, solid and cold as an ice. A shiver travels down her spine. She looks away.
The man in front of her is short and ugly but seems to be the leader of the pack of hyenas laughing at her distress. He approaches her with a napkin soaked in liquor.
She tries to jerk her head back, but the thug tightens his grip on her hair, forcing her still. Anna hisses in pain as the alcohol seeps into the cuts on her face.
Anna lashes out and aims a kick at Wu’s gut, but he is faster than she gave him credit for. Her defiance earns her a slap in the face. Her ears ring, and her arms wrench painfully as the thug behind her keeps her upright.
Wu says something, sparking a fresh wave of cheers. The man who has been lounging disinterestedly in a chair places down a crumpled paper bird. A new level of fear takes over as he stalks closer.
Anna feels like a sleeping beast has awoken and she is in his line of sight. She has discovered a newfound empathy for the princesses staked out in front of the dragons. Even though she knows it’s useless every instinct screams for her to run. She tries to break free, but the thug's hold on her is too strong.
The man’s hand lifts and she closes her eyes, she is afraid to move or breathe, as if she can make herself disappear. She feels a tug on the back of her head and a tingling along the back of her neck. She cracks an eye open to find the man holding her hair elastic.
He mechanically smooths down her hair. Anna trembles, goosebumps have her hair standing on end. The man bends down and lowers himself to one knee. Anna doesn’t know where she got the guts, but she takes the chance to kick at his head. He grabs her foot like it is nothing. One by one, he pulls off her sneakers, dropping them to the floor.
Left with only her pants and shirt, Anna utilizes the only weapon she has left, she shrieks. Wu and his friends cover their ears, and laughter dies at the onslaught. The only two unaffected are the beast at her feet and Iceberg, as Anna mentally dubbed him, scrolling on his phone unaffected.
Wu shouts over the piercing noise. The beast draws a knife from his boot as he stands. He touches the blade to his lips.
Anna’s throat locks. Tears and snot drip down her face. She forces her screams down.
The beast lowers the knife to her stomach and slices the bottom of her T-shirt. He uses the rag to wipe her eyes and nose then discards it on the table covered with drugs.
He stands to the side so the audience can get the best view of Anna. He draws the knife up to Anna’s neck. The sharp edge catches and glides down making a slit in her shirt. Anna’s skin is exposed inch by inch. He suddenly stops, and the room goes silent.
A mess of surgical scars is carved over her heart. The jagged ugly web is a stark contrast to her pale delicate skin.
Crash, the table is overturned. Glass shatters, pills and pipes scatter across the floor. Wu shouts in anger before storming off.
The beast and the other guests follow him to continue the party in another room, but the hired thugs and Iceberg remain. Anna feels like a slab of meat surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves.
***
The tension in the room could be cut by a knife. Everyone is waiting to see who will make the first move. Anna is frozen in place without any means of escape.
Suddenly, her world is upended as she is thrown to the floor. The thug holding her pins her down, his weight crushing the air from her lungs. She struggles against him, but even if she could break free, the other men have formed a circle around her, shouting and cheering like schoolboys at a playground fight.
Anna lashes out in pure survival mode. The stink of sweat, the shouts of strange voices blending into incomprehensible noise, and the crushing weight all blur together. Her heart pounds so loud in her ears, that she fears it might burst.
The sound of shattering glass cuts through the chaos, and the pressure on her chest eases as the man shifts. For a brief moment, she can breathe again. Relief surges through her, but it’s short-lived. She feels his meaty fingers digging into her waistband. Desperation takes over, and Anna twists and kicks with all her might.
Another man stumbles into the thug pinning her. It should have been Anna’s chance to escape, but instead, the thug’s head collides with hers. More weight crushes down on her, forcing the wind from her lungs. Stars explode in her vision, but she can’t tell if it’s from the pain in her skull or the lack of oxygen.
The men scramble to untangle themselves. Adrenaline and instinct push Anna to act. She manages to free one foot and kicks the thug in the chest, sending him toppling backward.
Renewed energy surges through her as she scrambles to her feet, her eyes locking onto the closest door. With tunnel vision, she sprints toward it. But freedom is snatched away when her foot catches on a body lying on the floor. Pain jolts through her arm as she crashes onto her side, unable to break the fall with her hands still tied behind her back.
A sharp pain follows as the thug hauls her up by her arms and shoves her face-first into the ground. He flips her over, his weight settling on her again. The sickly stench of his breath and the curses he spits in her ear make her stomach churn.
Dizzy and in pain, Anna refuses to accept her fate. She hasn’t survived this long for it to end like this. Fighting may be useless, but she won’t go down easy.
Anna closes her eyes, summoning whatever strength she has left. A scream of pain tears through the room, and suddenly, the weight on top of her disappears. A heavy silence falls.
She opens her eyes to find a shadow looming over her. Her heart sinks when she realizes who her new captor is—Iceberg.
The door, only a few feet away, feels miles out of reach. Anna tries to stand, but her legs won’t hold her. Before she can attempt another move, the man scoops her up and slings her over his shoulder.
From her vantage point, Anna sees the room for what it is—a battlefield littered with bodies. Her hoarse screams echo through the air as she’s carried out of the room.
***
Hailee paces outside of the meeting room at the public security bureau, her nerves taunt with dread and anticipation. Through the glass, she watches Detective Man Zhu Bai distributing firearms. A rookie cop's hand trembles as he grips his gun.
The door opens, and officers file out one by one, they give a nod of acknowledgment as they pass by. Hailee meets Man Zhu Bai’s gaze when he steps into the hallway but doesn’t know what to say. She forces a tight lip smile. He squeezes her shoulder gently in reassurance before he and his team disappear down the corridor, leaving her to wait alone.
***
Anna finds herself in a secluded room that looks like it was once a library, but there aren’t any books on the shelves, instead, it holds liquor bottles. A red velvet chaise lounge and matching chairs dominate the space. The room once dedicated to intellectual pursuits was renovated into a brothel.
The blood gathered in her head rushes back down when Iceberg drops her onto the chaise. She tries to rise, but his hand clamps down on her shoulder, forcing her back down. He takes a knife out of his boot. Anna decides it is better to sit still.
To Anna’s surprise, he slices one of the couch’s matching pillows into shreds.
“It’s ugly, but isn’t that a little overkill,” Anna mutters, her nervousness bringing forth her sarcasm.
The man turns his cold gaze on her, and Anna snaps her mouth shut. He brings his arms around her and pulls her into his chest. Anna’s teeth are ready to bite down when a stinging pain radiates through her wrists.
Anna pushes away from him, her hands free of their bindings. She shakes out the pins and needles. Before she can process what is happening he takes a strip of fabric and wraps it around her raw and bloody wrists. Instead of her hands together behind her, they are now in front with individual cuffs linked in the middle by the fabric ends in his hands.
The man uses one hand to pull the soft chain forcing her hands up and moving her like he is her puppet master. His other hand wraps around the back of her head as she is pushed down into the sofa. Once again Anna finds herself trapped under a strange man's body.
The man turns his head and barks out indistinguishable words and Anna seizes the opportunity, she bites down on his ear. He jerks up.
Tears sting Anna’s eyes and she can see several red hairs wrapped around his fingers.
“Duìbuqǐ” the man grumbles. He sits back up and finishes securing the fabric on her wrists, then flips her over his shoulder again.
Her hands are no longer trapped together, but her fists are useless against him. She pounds on his back, but it's like hitting a stone wall. He loosens his grasp on her and for a second Anna drops head first toward the floor before he locks in his grip.
Anna changes tactics and pinches his side. This time he reacts with a quick sting on her backside. More indignant than hurt, Anna fumes. Her parents had never even spanked her, even if she deserved it.
When they reach the door, shouts and running sounds can be heard on the other side. Anna pushes against his back to lift herself enough to see blue lights whirling through a window.
If she can escape this brute she will be saved. Anna is set on her feet and the man grabs her chin and directs her face to the windows.
“Táo chū chuāng wài” he commands in a firm voice. Anna’s mouth drops open when he leaves, closing the door and securing her inside. She doesn’t know what he is thinking, but she knows what her plan is.
“Don’t run away? Yeah, right.” Anna dashes to the windows.
Outside the party goers are running to vehicles and into neighbor’s yards. Anna sees one woman trip and a man haul her up into a van.
She unlatches the top, but the windows have been painted shut. She tries them all but is only able to jimmy one of them up about nine inches.
“I can squeeze through,” she mutters, turning her head sideways to fit through the narrow opening.
***
Kang Jia Zan waits in the hall where he can observe the action happening in the foyer. The local cops have shown up. He hopes that they don’t ruin everything. He needs to finish the business his spicy American girl interrupted.
He watches Wu and a few of his cronies open the door for the police. He is disturbed by the fact that he doesn’t see Li with them. If they are smart they will keep their mouths shut.
It wasn’t meant to be. Wu with his intoxicated ego fueled by the presence of his buddies opens his big mouth. “Good evening officer, what can I help you with? A donation?”
Kang had to give the cop credit he maintained his cool professionalism.
“I’m searching for--” Man Zhu Bai starts to speak, but is interrupted when window glass shatters and blood pours out from Wu Bambang’s chest.
Man Zhu Bai and everyone in the room dives to the ground. A bullet lodges itself in the wall above his head. He grabs his radio.
“Send in backup.”
Kang sees his opportunity has officially gone to hell. He dives into the foray with no hope of salvaging the mess.
***
Anna hears bullets flying and gives up on trying to get through the window. There isn’t a chance she is fitting though. She wiggles herself back into the room.
A thought pops into her head, it’s cliché but if she had money to burn she knows exactly what she would do with a library. Anna checks along the shelves and low and behold she finds an exposed button where it normally would be covered by books.
She presses it and the shelves open to the next room. She slips through. The room is empty and the door is unlocked allowing her to slip into the hall.
She slides along the wall toward the gunfire.
When she nears the foyer she can see bleeding bodies on the floor. There are a few police officers in the room, but most are outside shooting in through windows and the open door, while the Iceberg is trapped behind an overturned table with two other thugs on the ground beside him.
A cop shouts, “Bié kāiqiāng”
The police cease firing and Iceberg comes out with his hands behind his head. A young officer races in with handcuffs. Anna waits till she sees Iceberg’s hands go behind his back then she bolts into the room.
Her nursing instincts take over. She checks the pulse on the body closest to her, one of the thugs, no telltale thump of life. With efficiency, she moves on to the next, a wounded officer.
She finds the wound on his hip quickly. It’s just a flesh wound, she checks his pupils and brushes off his clinging hand as she moves on to the next patient.
She performs triage on each body she comes across as she makes her way through the room. For the most part, they are either dead or barely grazed, till she reaches Wu. He is barely alive, no longer her captor he is simply a patient.
Hyper-focused she doesn’t realize someone is behind her clearing glass and debris, so she can work safely. She can only see the wound in front of her.
“Bullet went through his chest, collapsed lung. Get two pieces of plastic, bandage tape!” she doesn’t look up as she orders the police standing in front of her.
The officers look at her confused, but Man Zhu Bai is already there with a first aid kit. He places it in front of the woman who looks very much like her sister back at the station. However, instead of an aura of delicate strength and grace, she is a fireball of efficiency. Neither of them are the damsels in distress one would expect in such situations.
Anna seals the entry wound on three sides, and tapes down the plastic. Then she waves an officer over to apply pressure and repeats the process on the exit point. She finishes as the paramedics arrive.
In a daze, she watches the EMTs load the wounded onto stretchers, while the man behind her stands over her protectively. She starts to sway.
Man Zhu Bai squats down in front of her, “Anna Westcott?”
The events of the day flash through her mind from the airport, to the cargo container, and the present; it seems to blend into a long nightmare. Anna’s heart pounds and she feels the strength seep out of her limps. The shouts and faces in front of her blur into the distance.
“Ryan. The girls.” She whispers. She tries to stand but collapses. A pair of masculine hands catch her before she hits the ground.
The ambulance roars through the night. Blurry movements, lights, and sirens mix as Anna floats in and out of consciousness. A distorted voice talks to her. She tries to move her hand, but it is held in place. The only thing she can recognize is the sound of a low voice singing “a-b-c-d…”