Part 3

It was still almost a week before the final bids were due to be tallied and I was beginning to feel a little stir-crazy. Going out for anything other than major natural disasters or direct hits on my bedroom by cobalt-clad thermonuclear devices, was, of course, verboten. Mei and Wei, as delightful as they were, could not fill every waking minute of my time, even though they did their best. I was in the best physical shape of my life. I could hit anything within fifty feet, shooting with either hand from any position or while in motion. I knew more about evasion than I'd ever dreamed there was to know. I was getting so familiar with my bodyguards' techniques and had spent so much time with them that I almost felt as though I had joined in their little shared mind thing, and when I wasn't busy training or fucking my brains out, I stayed busy with e-work from the office.

For a while, my Admin had tried to courier stuff over, but after one of couriers tried to take me hostage, the treatment given the others by Mei and Wei had blacklisted my house with every courier service in town.

I was answering emails, trying to pretend I still had useful work to do, when Wei interrupted me.

"There is something you must see, Steve." she didn't elaborate or wait for a response.

Our knowledge and trust of each other had grown so much that I didn't question her. The sisters weren't given to bothering me when I was working except for something really important, even though we all knew the work I was doing was imminently interruptable.

We found Mei in the room we had set up as a security control center, staring at the display on one of the computers. When we entered, she nodded toward the screen and clicked her trackball.

"This is taken from the security cameras at the San Francisco airport. The recording is only a couple of hours old." Mei said by way of introduction. I didn't ask how she had gotten video from the airport security cameras. My girls had already proven to be quite resourceful in a number of different disciplines.

"This is a diplomatic party that just arrived from the People's Republic" she froze the image as a hard-faced young Chinese man strode in front of the camera. "That is Mr. Hsu. He is not a diplomat, nor will he be a bidder for your product. He is the head of security and espionage for the Chinese government."

Using the cursor, she circled the heads of two petite women whose eyes, even in the still image, seemed to be looking everywhere. "These are his bodyguards: Jun and Sun."

(She pronounced the names 'June' and 'Soon'.)

Wei picked up the narrative with, "They are our counterparts."

Still not seeing the connection, I waited. So the guy's bodyguards were peas from the same pod as mine, so what?

Wei continued, "Three months ago, a Japanese official who had just returned from China with certain items in his possession, was killed in his home, surrounded by the best security the Japanese could mount, including electronic detection and countermeasures as well as more than dozen top martial artists and weapons experts."

Mei took it from there. "Survivors reported that the attackers were two small Chinese women who exhibited extraodinary strength and speed."

Wei: "Mr. Hsu was in Japan at the time."

I finally got it. "He used his bodyguards as assassins?!"

They did the little private look thing, but the smile was missing.

Then I got the rest of it. "He's here to 'acquire' my product for China, and will probably use Jun and Sun to get to me!"

I felt a sickness in the pit of my stomach. I had trained too long with these two not to realize the implications. Jun/Sun were about evenly matched with Mei/Wei. It would take only a small advantage, which they could supply by hiring other talent, to give them enough of an edge to get me before Mei and Wei could prevent it.

They could afford to pay for extra help, we couldn't. Even if we somehow came up with the money, we couldn't trust anyone we hired not to turn on us.

We could, of course, go mobile and try to keep moving, hoping we could stay ahead of them, but that would only delay the inevitable. We had to show up for the announcement of the winning bid and to turn the plans over to their new owner.

"What do you plan to do?" I asked.

They shrugged, and Mei answered, "The best we can. We will begin installing additional countermeasures and booby traps now, but if even one reasonably competent person besides Jun and Sun gets through our defenses we lose any 'home court' advantage we may otherwise have and the advantage shifts to their side."

I've been in business in this country for many years, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that there's more than one way to approach a problem. Hell, the product that was about to make us rich had been my idea. Bob had done an excellent job of bringing it to fruition, but the idea was mine. I think that indicates I'm a pretty smart guy, and I wasn't about to just lay down and wait for these two little Chinese girls to come kill me.

The girls were mystified when a huge smile crept across my face.

"Jun and Sun," I asked, "they're programmed the same way as you?"

They nodded in unison.

"How does this Mr. Hsu treat them?" It wasn't critical information, but every little bit helps.

They exchanged glances then shrugged. "He abhors them. He thinks people like us are an abomination, but he's not one to waste a useful tool. It has no bearing on the problem though. They will remain loyal to him and do as he commands."

I smiled again and started sketching out my plan. They asked a few questions, then we got Bob on the phone and asked if he'd please make a visit. By the time we hung up, Mei and Wei were smiling too. Wei went to fetch Bob, while Mei and I worked on the parts of the plan within our grasp.

Bob, the electronics and computer whiz behind our soon-to-be multi-billionaire status, grinned from ear to ear when we outlined what we wanted him to do. He got to work in my little shop - where all this had started a few years ago, and soon emerged with what I'd asked for, and a few little goodies for Mei and Wei to add to their bag of tricks.

Mei took Bob back to his hidey-hole, making sure no one followed. Wei got busy on the grounds and I made some last minute preparations. Timing was important. The girls couldn't begin their part of the operation until Sun/Jun attacked, but neither of my bodyguards believed the enemy had any reason to delay. The attack would come tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow night at the latest.

The sensors that Mei and Wei used for their impromptu security system could be quietly disabled if one could hack the encryption on the controller's signals, and Jun and Sun were at least as good at that as my girls. What nobody could control was the fact that each sensor, when sent the shutdown signal, would broadcast a confirmation code which had to be answered by each controller. That was automatic, and normally, our controllers would acknowledge without alerting us, on the assumption that an authorized controller had shut the sensors down. With Bob's help, our controllers were reprogrammed to alarm when they received that shutdown confirmation. Our controllers would acknowledge, but we'd know when the sensors started going down. Another part of Bob's devious little setup was that some of the sensors, on receiving the acknowledgement, would explode rather vehemently.

The sensors dying would be a tipoff, both that the attack had begun and that the attackers were who we expected. I made my way to my little 'panic room' in the basement, setting booby traps as I went, and waited.

It was about four thirty a.m. when the first sensor was shut off. Much to my surprise, the controller's sudden beeping awoke me from a rather sound sleep. Dimly, I could hear the electronic countermeasures lighting up. The dull thuds of explosions and the muted rattling of machine guns filtered through the concrete walls as distant, but distinct sounds. My gardener was going to throw a fit if I ever got him back on the grounds. I couldn't begin to imagine what the Homeowners association was going to say about this. I had checked though, there was nothing in my CC&Rs about defending oneself against assassination attempts! One by one the sensors died, and slowly, the external countermeasures began to cut out.

I was crossing my fingers that Mei and Wei had gotten away undetected when the first booby trap went off upstairs. It wasn't much louder than the outside stuff, but reverberated more. After that, every few minutes another one would trip.

I realized I was sweating, and tried to calm myself. It was about fifteen minutes after the attack began that I dimly heard the sirens, and shortly, the bullhorns. Only a few minutes later, as gunfire erupted upstairs, I heard scrabbling at the door to my cubby hole. I waited as calmly as I could, and a moment later, one black clad figure burst swiftly through the doorway, followed closely by another. I sat, hands raised, briefcase strapped to my body, still cuffed to my wrist.

"Jun and Sun, I presume." I said, with a calmness I did not feel, "May I know which of you is Jun, and which is Sun, so that I may address you properly?"

They shot each other a glance reminiscent of the ones Mei and Wei exchanged, but didn't smile at the end.

The one with a stylized flower tattooed on her neck said, "I am Jun."

"I am Sun." This one wore a Solar symbol.

Strange: Flower - June. Was that really an English symbolic reference to her name? Sun too - hers was a solar symbol. Why English? Well, this wasn't the time to deal with it.

"I am Steve Hastings." I said, hands motionless above my head, "What you were sent for is in this case, but if you remove the case from my presence, open it, or kill me, its contents will be a fine, powdery ash in seconds."

Their finely tuned senses detected nothing to indicate a lie, so they didn't bother arguing with me. In fact, Bob had made sure that it wasn't a lie. I HAD to stay alive and with the case to carry out the rest of my plan.

"Where are your bodyguards?" Jun asked, looking around for more traps.

"They are waiting for us." I replied, "Shall we go?"

"Where?" Sun asked, suspiciously.

"To your master, Mr. Hsu." I replied, "Isn't that where you were instructed to take this?"

I indicated the briefcase with my head, still not daring to move my hands. They showed no weapons, but I was too familiar with Mei and Wei's capabilities to take chances.

"No, just open the case and hand us the contents." Sun said.

I smiled. "I can't do that. Only Mei and Wei, together, can open the case without destroying the contents."

Again, I wasn't lying and they didn't waste time arguing.

Jun indicated for me to move forward, and Sun moved out ahead.

"Uh, Sun?" she stopped, but didn't look in my direction.

"If I promise not to attempt to escape, or attack either of you, may I lower my arms?"

There was no reply for a second, then Jun said, "Put your hands at your sides, but keep them in view."

They headed for the stairs. The gunfire had almost died, but the occasional shot could still be heard.

Sun stopped and turned. "Where is your escape route?"

I smiled. Of course they would have known that Mei and Wei would have rabbit hole for me.

I showed them the hidden door at the back of the cellar. I didn't have to tell them to watch out for booby traps.

"Disable the countermeasures in this tunnel." Jun demanded.

"I cannot." I told them, truthfully. Bob had removed that capability from my controller. "Only Mei and Wei can turn them off and they are not here."

Jun and Sun, of course, were capable of disabling the traps one at a time, but, as we had counted on, it took them some time to do it, even with me pointing them out. We took almost twenty minutes to get to the storm drain. When we finally emerged from the drain into the creekbed, Jun spoke briefly into her sleeve. A few minutes later, a black SUV pulled up on the road above. The girls left the driver, an angry young hispanic looking fellow, to fend for himself and took off with Sun driving, me in the passenger seat, and Jun behind me, where I couldn't see her. No matter, I had no intention of trying anything.

"What did you mean when you said Mei and Wei are waiting for us?" Jun asked from behind me.

"Just what I said." I replied.

"Where are they waiting?" this from Sun.

"With Mr. Hsu, of course." I said, trying not to sound too smug.

Sun shot her sister a look of alarm, then a mask fell over her face.

"It does not matter." Jun said, "Mr. Hsu will die before he will order us to release you."

"Okay." was my only reply.

They didn't like it, but didn't say any more as we made our way up 280. I could see the tension on Sun's face as she struggled to keep the SUV at the same speed as the traffic around us, instead of speeding up and weaving in and out like she wanted to. We finally took the 19th Avenue exit and eventually stopped behind a huge residence in Pacific Heights.