The van shrieked under violent braking. Trying to avoid the tumbling motorcycle, the driver swerved directly into the oncoming lane and nearly crashed head-on into a bus. The vehicles scraped past each other with a piercing screech, tearing off one of the van’s side mirrors. Passengers on the bus screamed.
The violent swerving nearly threw Xia Liu Yi from the roof as well. His long legs slid down across the rear window. Inside the van, the killers had been knocked into one another. In the confusion, He Chu San rubbed his face against the side of the vehicle until he managed to dislodge the cloth gag. He looked up and immediately saw Boss Xia’s narrow waist and long legs hanging outside. One killer beside He Chu San struggled upright and raised his gun toward Xia Liu Yi. He Chu San gave a muffled roar and threw himself against the man, knocking his aim aside. The bullet missed and blew a hole through the rear window.
Xia Liu Yi kicked both legs and hauled himself back onto the roof. A burst of bullets followed his movement outside, ricocheting noisily through the tunnel. Some buried themselves in the tunnel wall. Others actually bounced back and tore through the van again. One killer who had been swinging his fist at He Chu San suddenly collapsed with a scream. He Chu San struggled to shove Kevin’s body farther away and curled both himself and Kevin into the corner beside the door.
“Don’t fire inside the tunnel!!” the driver shouted over his shoulder. At the same time, he spun the steering wheel sharply, weaving around oncoming vehicles and sending the van into wild S-shaped swerves through the tunnel. Xia Liu Yi’s body slammed against the roof with repeated thud-thud sounds. One moment his legs were flung down the left side of the van, the next they swung over the right. Inside, the killers and He Chu San all stared wide-eyed at the roof and windows. Their heads turned left in unison, then right, then left again.
He Chu San was so tense his heart nearly jumped from his chest. After whipping his head around with the killers several times, he suddenly saw Xia Liu Yi’s body flash past the opposite window and apparently fly straight off the vehicle. “MMMPH—!!” A devastated howl tore from He Chu San. One killer beside the window instinctively opened it and leaned out to look, only for Xia Liu Yi, who was still hiding on the roof, to kick him in the neck. CRACK! The man’s neck broke instantly. Xia Liu Yi kicked the corpse back into the van. Hooking one long leg against the side of the vehicle, he slid through the window like a black dragon.
He Chu San had been seconds away from crying in terror. Now Xia Liu Yi suddenly dropped into the van as if he had fallen from heaven, helmet still on his head and wearing nothing but a black tank top above the waist. The thing He Chu San had seen flying away had only been Xia Liu Yi’s jacket. He Chu San immediately began making delighted “mmph, mmph!” noises. In the middle of the chaos, Xia Liu Yi spared him one glance but had no time even to greet him. He ripped off his helmet and smashed it straight into the nearest killer’s face, then drove his shoulder into the man and rammed him backward, knocking several others into the rear seats and stacking them into a ridiculous two-tier pile of bodies.
The seven or eight killers were no amateurs either. They immediately surrounded Xia Liu Yi and attacked with their fists. The van had already been packed with people. Now the fight looked like an entire basket of lobsters thrashing over one another. Even the killer in the passenger seat unfastened his seat belt and joined the melee, only to be kicked straight back by Xia Liu Yi and crash into the driver. The driver’s hands were knocked sideways on the steering wheel. The van nearly hit the tunnel wall, jerked away at the last second, then almost struck an oncoming sedan. The vehicle fishtailed wildly.
Everyone inside flew around like clothes inside a washing machine—first flung together to the left, then all flung to the right. They were practically being beaten into laundry, yet somehow still struggled to keep fighting. One killer swung a fist at Xia Liu Yi. It grazed his face and struck the window instead. Xia Liu Yi immediately grabbed the man’s head and smashed it against the glass. The window broke, leaving the killer’s head wedged through it. Xia Liu Yi threw another punch toward a killer coming from the opposite side, but the van swerved and Xia Liu Yi, fist and all, went flying instead—landing ass-first directly on the killer’s face.
While the brawl raged on one side, He Chu San shrank into the corner and desperately rubbed the cloth away from his mouth. Once it was gone, he tried a bone-shrinking trick, straining to maneuver his cuffed hands from behind his back, under his legs, and around to the front. Unfortunately, his waist simply was not flexible enough. After several failed attempts, he gave up.
Instead, he leaned over and used his teeth to pull the gag from Kevin’s face. Kevin’s complexion was gray-white and his breathing extremely faint. He Chu San looked him over frantically. Kevin had not only suffered a head injury in the crash; a large shard of glass was embedded in his shoulder and back, and blood had already soaked the floor beneath him.
Suddenly, light fell across Kevin’s blood-covered face. He Chu San looked up in alarm. The van had exited the tunnel. The driver pulled out a gun and twisted around toward Xia Liu Yi.
He Chu San threw himself forward and knocked Xia Liu Yi down. The bullet tore through He Chu San’s shoulder, spraying blood across Xia Liu Yi’s face. “A’San!” Xia Liu Yi cried.
“Take Kevin and go! He’s dying!” He Chu San gasped into his ear.
A stream of bullets followed. Xia Liu Yi wrapped both arms around He Chu San and rolled across the floor. Seeing all the guns turning toward him, he shoved He Chu San beneath a seat, then rolled behind the killer whose head was still wedged through the broken window. Bang! Bang! Bullets tore repeatedly into the killer’s body, making it jerk violently. Xia Liu Yi drew his own gun and tried to return fire, but a stray bullet struck the barrel and knocked the weapon from his hand. It clattered onto the floor. He looked up. He Chu San had already been dragged from beneath the seat, and a gun muzzle was pressed threateningly against his throat.
“They won’t kill me! GO!!” He Chu San shouted.
Xia Liu Yi yanked open the van door, seized Kevin by the legs, and threw himself out of the moving vehicle with him.
…
Inside the meeting room at Police Headquarters, senior officials from every department had already arrived. Only Deputy Commissioner Xie Ying Jie was missing. The blond, blue-eyed “Number One” sat down at the head of the table and looked curiously at the empty seat. “Where John go?” he asked in clumsy Cantonese. The others exchanged puzzled looks. Xie Ying Jie was famous for his discipline and punctuality. He was never late for meetings.
As they spoke, the meeting-room door opened. Xie Ying Jie entered briskly, perfectly dressed, and nodded apologetically toward “Number One.” “Sorry, sir! I was giving a lecture at Lung Kong University. A few students stayed behind to ask questions, so I was delayed.”
“No problem. Sit.” “Number One” smiled pleasantly. “What happened to your foot?”
Xie Ying Jie was walking with a slight limp. He gave a rueful smile. “Stepped badly on a stone along the mountain path and twisted it.”
“Even our serious, careful John has careless moments?” “Number One” joked. “I remember a Chinese saying—people stumble and horses lose their footing. John, this time you lost your hoof!”
“Yes. I’m old now! Even an old horse stumbles!” Xie Ying Jie laughed.
The entire room broke into laughter, and several people offered Xie Ying Jie sympathetic words. The meeting began in that cheerful atmosphere.
…
Xia Liu Yi woke violently from a blood-soaked dream and shot upright. “A’SAN!!”
Everything before his eyes was an eerie white. He struggled hard and heard a metallic clank. One wrist and one ankle had been handcuffed to the railings of a hospital bed. An IV needle was still inserted in the back of his hand. He immediately reached to pull it out. The officer guarding him sprang up and restrained him. “Hey! Calm down!”
“Let go of me! I have to save someone!”
“Did you smash your head stupid when you fell? Do you even remember who you are? Xia Liu Yi! Boss Xia!” the officer shouted, holding him firmly down.
Xia Liu Yi looked around and discovered that he was in a hospital room. The last thing he remembered was rolling across the ground with Kevin in his arms and smashing his head hard against a roadside barrier. He grabbed the officer by the collar and shouted, “Where’s that van?!”
“I was about to ask you!” The officer lost his temper too and shoved him back onto the mattress. “Two vehicles smashed through the toll barrier one after another and charged into the tunnel. Was this some triad gang fight?! Who’s the other injured man?!”
“Kevin? Where is he?” Xia Liu Yi immediately tried to rise again. “I need to see him!”
The officer shoved him down again. “He’s in a deep coma and still in the emergency room! Hey—was he someone you kidnapped?”
“It wasn’t me! It was Xie Ying Jie! The two vehicles that exploded beside the factory were his doing. His men kidnapped me—kidnapped my friend and Kevin! There were a lot of ICAC investigators too. His men killed them all!”
The officer stared at him as though he were listening to an absurd comedy routine. “Are you doing stand-up comedy or something? What ICAC investigators? Those two exploding vehicles were connected to you too? Was that another triad fight? And who’s this Xie Ying-whatever—some new gang boss?”
Elio’s Notes: “Stand-up comedy” here translates the Hong Kong Cantonese term 栋笃笑, which became popular around 1990. The officer is essentially asking whether Xia Liu Yi is performing a ridiculous comedy routine because his story sounds unbelievable.
“He’s the Deputy Commis—” Xia Liu Yi stopped halfway through. Suddenly, he understood. The whole thing really did sound like a stand-up routine—a triad boss’s lover teaming up with the ICAC to arrest a Deputy Commissioner of Police. What could possibly sound more absurd? No one would believe a word he said. They would only assume he had lost his mind.
He lay back on the bed and forced himself to appear perfectly calm. “I want to see a lawyer.”
The officer sneered. “Knew that line was coming.”
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