Page 75 of Ruthless Touch

We burst through the department store entrance as more bullets target us.

The Jeokpa are right on our heels, their heavy footsteps pounding against the polished floors. We weave between perfume displays and leap over makeup counters in a desperate scramble. Expensive cosmetics fly in every direction as the soldiers fire more shots.

The sales ladies cower in tears, glass bottles of foundation exploding.

“Split up!” I shout to Elise, veering left while she goes right.

It’s a risky move, but it’ll force our pursuers to choose who to follow.

The guy who comes after me is determined and agile. He closes the gap as he chases me down to the jewelry section, his weapon trained on me.

I dive behind a counter displaying diamond necklaces just as he pulls the trigger. Instead of the expected bang, there’s only a hollow click.

Click. Click. Click.

He squeezes the trigger several times trying to figure out what’s gone wrong.

Then panic flashes across his face as he realizes he’s out of ammunition.

I surge upward from behind the counter and drive my fist into his jaw with enough force to rattle his teeth.

He staggers backward, dazed but still on his feet, so I wrap my arms around his thick neck and twist until the satisfying crack of vertebrae separating.

He drops to the ground, rendered immobile.

I’m back on the move, weaving through the rest of the department store while sales associates scream for the police.

When I reach the exit that leads back onto the street, Elise is waiting for me. Fresh blood is splattered across her once clean uniform shirt like abstract art.

I raise an eyebrow. “Looks like you had fun.”

“The guy was asking for it. Let’s go!”

We spill out onto the street where Seoul’s neon-lit nightlife shines bright even as the night grows late. I point out the taxi parked against the curb up ahead. The driver seems to be on break, probably having a smoke or grabbing a bite to eat.

“There,” I say, nodding toward the vehicle. “That’s our ride out of here. If the driver turns up, we can take his key.”

“No need,” Elise says, dashing ahead. She crosses over onto the driver side and then uses the butt of her pistol—the same one she’d almost used to kill Appa—to smash open the window.

Other pedestrians on the street freeze, taking notice of the carjacking happening before their eyes.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask. “We’re supposed to be discreet, remember?”

“This is discreet! Give me thirty seconds. I’ll have this car hotwired and ready to go.”

Elise keeps true to her word.

As I stand guard over the taxi, she slips into the driver’s seat and proceeds to hotwire the car with impressive skill.

It’d turn me on if we were not running for our lives and being hunted by the Cheongryong.

“C’mon!” she calls as the engine bumbles to life. “Get in!”

I wrench open the passenger door at the same time the driver finally returns and starts running toward us with his fist in the air. He shrinks into the background once Elise guns it and the taxi surges forward into traffic.

A couple times we pass an SUV going the opposite way, and though it’s hard to tell from the tinted windows, if I had to guess, I’d say it’s more Jeokpa’s searching for us.

“I should’ve known you could do that,” I say from the passenger seat.