Free Web NovelChapter 180: HIS SECURITY HAS COMPROMISED
He read the message twice, but the words refused to rearrange themselves into anything smaller or less dangerous. They sat on the screen exactly as they had the first time.
He called Jae because there was nothing else to work with except test it against a voice he trusted. The call connected on the first ring.
"Liuxian," Jae said. The sound of traffic moved behind him, steady and indifferent.
"Jae, that is not possible," Liuxian said. He kept his voice low and even because if he said it flatly enough it might become true. "My security is the best in the country. If anything had happened, I would have known."
"Are you stupid?" Jae said. "Are you saying I am lying? Liuxian, be real with yourself. People get replaced all at time. How did I find this out before you if your security is so good?"
Liuxian did not answer. He looked at the bedroom door instead. It stood open a finger’s width, and the hallway light fell across the floor in a thin gold line that stopped at the edge of the blanket.
"You think that nothing has happened means you are safe," Jae said, and the cop fell out of his voice until only the friend was left, tired and sharp and done with pretending. "One of them was photographed outside your spouse’s office garage yesterday. Another was on your street at 2 AM for three nights in a row. Doormen do not stop men with false IDs and patience, Liuxian. You have been careless."
Liuxian ended the call without another word because there was nothing left to say that would not sound like denial. The click was final in the quiet house.
He set the phone down and the spiral started, slow and then all at once. He had the best security team in the country. There were guards stationed at the gates and at every access point in the house. There were always eyes on Guiying from the moment he left the house until the moment he returned. That was the entire point of the system Liuxian had built.
So how had he missed it? How had he failed to notice men watching the gates and circling his street while his team reported nothing? Had his security betrayed him, or had he only believed in them because believing was easier than admitting a gap?
He left his room, crossed the hall, and pushed open the door to Guiying’s room. Guiying was asleep on his side with one hand curled near his face. He looked unburdened and unaware that the illusion of safety around him had just shattered.
Liuxian had no answer for any of the questions tearing through his head.
Liuxian pulled the door to Guiying’s room shut behind him, gently, until the latch caught without a sound.
He stood in the corridor for a moment and listened to the silence of the house. Then he went to his room.
The suit came off first. He laid it over the chair without folding it, which he never did, and that small disorder sat in the room like a signal he could not ignore. He changed into dark trousers, a black shirt, and shoes that made no sound on the floor. He crossed to the safe in the wall behind the wardrobe, pressed his thumb to the pad, and the door swung open.
The Glock 19 sat where it always sat. He checked it by habit, the motion practiced and automatic, then slid it into the holster at his hip and pulled his jacket over it.
He picked up his second phone and his keys, and walked downstairs.
The rack by the door held the car keys in order. He reached for the key to the Cayenne, the dark one, the one that did not announce itself, and closed his fingers around it.
"Where are you heading to at this hour, Master?"
Wang Chengli stood at the foot of the stairs, dressed and unhurried, as though he had been awake the entire time.
"I’ll be back before daybreak," Liuxian said. "I’m tightening the security around the house tonight. Don’t worry."
Wang Chengli nodded once. He crossed to the door and opened it without being asked.
"Stay safe, Master." His voice was even but the words underneath it were not. "Please don’t do anything that puts you in harm’s way. You are not alone now. There is someone you must return home to."
Liuxian stepped through the door without answering because there was nothing to say to that which would not sound like a promise he could not yet make.
The night air was cold and still. He crossed the driveway to the Cayenne, got in, and pulled out through the gates.
The street was quiet. The city held its 3 AM stillness.
He was three houses down when he saw it: the window in the unit adjacent to his house, with the light still on behind the glass.
His jaw tightened.
Jae was right. He had been standing inside a wall he believed was solid while someone watched from the other side of it for days.
He had been reckless.
He picked up the second phone and dialed.
It rang twice.
"Sir." The voice that answered was deep and unhurried. It carried the confidence of a man who had not yet been told he had reason not to be.
That confidence settled in Liuxian’s chest like something that needed to be removed.
"Luo Sheng," he said, his voice even. "Gather the team. All of them. Meet me at the Dongba site in forty minutes."
There was a brief pause. "Sir, at this hour—"
"Forty minutes," Liuxian said, and ended the call.
The Cayenne moved through the empty streets, steady and quiet, its headlights cutting clean through the dark. Behind it, the city held its breath and waited.
The Dongba site sat at the end of a road that did not appear on any public map, behind a gate that looked abandoned and was not.
Liuxian parked and cut the engine.
A single light burned above the side entrance.
Four cars were already there.
He got out.
Eight men stood inside.
Luo Sheng at the front, arms loose at his sides.
"Sir."
"Sit," Liuxian said. "All of you."
