Page 7 of Last Violent Call
With another tip of his hat, the postman turned back to his giant bag of letters.
“What do you think?” Juliette whispered when they were some distance away. “Is this enough to get Yulun that worked up on the phone?”
Roma shook his head. “Something worse must have happened.”
A few men causing trouble was nothing to scoff at, but it certainly wasn’t overly dire, either. The residents in this township seemed to have decided to keep their heads down and wait out the days until the men got fed up with making trouble. This whole country had been under warlord rule for years before the current government took over. People were used to closing their doors tightly when men were strong-arming their way through the streets.
As they approached number 280, Juliette pressed on the sheath at her leg to make sure her weapons were secure. It wasn’t that she expected to find danger, but it would always do well to be prepared.
“Number 280,” Roma said aloud. They stopped, observing the house.
It looked like every other building down the pathway, two stories high and painted modestly in brown. Though Juliette had intended to knock on the front door as soon as she stepped close, she had scarcelylifted her hand before there was a loudthudfrom inside.
She and Roma veered back.
“Yulun?” Roma called. He slapped his palm flat against the door, making sure his knock carried loudly. “Are you in there?”
Yulun didn’t answer. There was only more strange rustling.
“I don’t want to be overly alarmist,” Juliette said, her pulse picking up, “but it sounds like there’s a struggle going on inside.”
She tried the front handle. It wouldn’t budge. The door looked too sturdy to kick down. While Roma kept knocking, Juliette hurried over to the window, cupping her hands to the glass so she could peer inside. As was the case with most rural residences, the house had low ceilings, so despite the two floors, it still hovered at a modest height before the roof tiles started to curve up. Its structure was narrow, though. The first floor was a living space, so the second floor had to be a bedroom. There was little room for anything else.
“Roma,” she said. With a wince of effort, Juliette pushed the heavy window glass up. “Give me a boost, would you?”
At times like these, she really missed her American dresses. She might have been able to pull herself through if her qipao fabric didn’t press so tightly around her hips. Fortunately, Roma was quick to grab her waist and lift her to the ledge, letting her swivel on the window and pull her legs in before hopping into the house.
The back door was wide open. Juliette scanned the living room, then immediately shot her gaze up the stairs, where she heard the barest grunt of movement.
Roma climbed in through the small window frame too, landing on the wooden floorboards firmly.
“Cover me.”
Roma shifted instantly, surveying the back door while Juliette charged up the stairs. “Be careful.”
Juliette’s response was to draw a weapon. She took the stairs two ata time, teeth gritted hard and heart pounding against her ribs. At once, she rounded the top of the stairs to find Yulun lying motionless at the foot of a bed and a girl pinned to the floor a few paces away, struggling against a tall man with a cloth in his hand.
“Hey!” Juliette shouted.
The girl’s head jerked left, seeking the sound with a frantic, heaving gasp.
“Help!” she screamed in Russian. “Please!”
The man lurched forward, intending to clamp the cloth around her mouth. Just before he could make contact, however, he craned back to avoid the girl’s flailing arms, exposing his neck.
Juliette knew how to take an opening. Without missing a beat, she threw her knife, landing it dead center in the man’s throat.
4
“Oh my—”
Roma skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs, coming up behind Juliette and taking in the scene. He squeezed her shoulder first, hovering for a beat until she touched the back of his hand lightly in assurance, before rushing to Yulun’s side.
The boy’s chest moved with his shallow inhale-exhale.Thank God.Not dead, only knocked out. Roma tapped Yulun’s face, but the boy gave no response. There was a rather intense red bruise freshly marked on his temple. Roma winced. He had been knocked in the head like that one too many times and, from unfortunate personal experience, he knew how terrible it was to wake up afterward. It would be no good to rush him.
Juliette went to help the girl, her shoes clacking on the floor in her hurry. Roma glanced over just as she was nudging aside the dead man with her heel. She extended a hand down.
“Are there any more of them nearby?”
