"Van Lustbader, Eric - Jake Maroc 02 Shan(eng)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Lustbader Eric)

Dizzy, grinning, the man hit her again; he laughed. He was enjoying this. Perhaps he was still as hard as he had ever been.
Bliss abandoned the carotid meridian and smote the underside of his rib cage with the heel of her hand. She heard the sickening snap as the two lowest ribs shattered.
Jake, having heard Bliss's cries, slammed around the left turning, racing down the near-deserted corridor of shadows. His peripheral vision brought him the movement of the struggle and he leapt into the opium den.
He grabbed the man with the slicked-back hair and jerked him backward. Bliss, so focused that she was still unaware that he had come into the room, saw her opening and jammed her hand into her assailant's abdomen. As Jake had taught her to do she used her rigid fingers to puncture skin, muscles, organs, all in one blurred motion of such power that it was unstoppable.
"No!" Jake cried, as he saw her begin the lethal blow, but he was too late. She had been fighting for her life, and had become an organism too busy with the business of surviving to be concerned with outside stimuli.
The assassin spit blood and bile as he died. Reaching down, Jake scooped Bliss up off the floor and put the side of his face against hers. He kissed her on the lips. "Bliss. Are you all right?"
"Jake." Her head against his chest.
"Brave one," he said softly, and took her out of there.

Bliss sat in their apartment, a neat Scotch in her hand. Jake Maroc was in her eyes. He was stretched out at her side, his long legs crossed at the ankles.
"I messed it up," she said softly.
"He was going to kill you," Jake said. "You did what you had to do. You had no choice. Not too many people would have been able to survive that, let alone succeed. Concentrate on that."
"But if I'd just disabled him we would have been able to question him." The whiskey was against her opened lips. "Maybe we would've even found out who the spy is."
"He was a professional, Bliss. Chances are we would have gotten nothing from him. I'm just glad we're both okay."
The Repulse Bay crescent was not far away but they were too high up to hear the crying of the gulls. A huge black kite sat in the treetop outside the window, the early morning sunlight turning its feathers iridescent.
"Another dead end," she said, and swallowed half her Scotch. She had taken a long, hot bath, and then she and Jake had made love. That was what she had wanted the most.
"My father," Jake said, staring at the kite. "He must be up for hours already."
Bliss watched from her long almond eyes. After a long time she stirred, as if making up her mind. "Jake, you don't understand. I am part of the yuhn-hyun, the inner circle. I am part of you. If I can't be of help . . ."
Jake turned his head and smiled. He reached out, took her hand in his. "What would I do without you, Bliss. Joss that my contact was killed; joss that his murderer was, too. If I hadn't wanted you with me I'd have made damn sure that you stayed behind."
He frowned. "I need you with me. I don't know what I'd do otherwise, in the middle of the night." He was talking about the long ordeal he had so recently been through. For the entire nine months since he had returned to Hong Kong from Washington, where he had wiled Henry Wunderman, Jake had been able to sleep only an hour or two a night. Near midnight he would pass out as if drugged, and Bliss, in the middle of reading, would quickly turn out the lights and slide down next to him.
Between one and two his animal cry of terror would start her awake. He could never remember the nightmare that had gripped him, but Bliss was certain that his guilt at having killed his surrogate father was the source.
Bliss reached out now, her long cocoa-colored fingers twining about his slender waist. They traced the network of long, flat muscles. Out of the corner of her eye she watched the worry lines etch themselves across his face. 'The hospital," she said.
Jake smiled absently. I remember. What a shock to see you again after all that time."
"We were childhood sweethearts, in the streets of Hong Kong."
"Is that what we were?" He pulled himself close to her.
"I always thought so."
"That's because you were precocious." The palm of his hand slid along her cheek. "To me you were my best friend."
Bliss laughed. "You see what I mean? What other boy would think of a girl as his best friend."
"I guess you're right," Jake said. "I must have been in love." Watching as Bliss's eyes closed. To his caress or his words? He was not certain it mattered. "Or crazy!"
Her eyes flew open and now it was his turn to laugh.
"I'm glad you're not angry with me," she said.
"Why should I be angry?" he said, sliding out of bed.
"Because when I came back into your life a year ago, it was as an agent of your father . . . because I was forbidden to tell you about certain things, the inner circle included, before a specific time."
Jake's extraordinary copper-colored eyes were hooded, as dark now in their centers as lead. "You were chosen by my father to lead me back to my family. Because of you, I found my half-brother, Nichiren. I found my real father, Shi Zilin. Because of you I am part of the yuhn-hyun, the inner circle of people who will control all of Asia someday."
"You are much more than that, my darling," Bliss said. "You are Zhuan. Your father is preparing you to be the new leader. Don't you see, you are becoming the most powerful and influential man in the entire Eastern Hemisphere."
Jake looked away, and Bliss thought, What is wrong? He went barefoot into the bathroom. He did not bother to close the door. Bliss heard him urinating, then the tap water going. She drew her knees up to her chin and watched his shadow blocking the bathroom light. It fell upon the tiles in sharp angles.
When he came out of the shower, he looked into her beautiful face and seemed to see right through to the core of her. "No one else in the world could have done what you did," he said. "You fought at my side against spies and assassins. Like tonight. The extreme danger never fazed you."
"My father trained me well," Bliss said. But her mind was far away. She was thinking of how Jake had changed since Zilin had arrived in Hong Kong. He had become at once more in command and more secretive. She wondered whether the one was part of the other, and found herself fervently hoping that was not true.
Jake was very close to her. She felt the force of him. It was like being bathed by the noonday sun.
"The struggle is just beginning." His voice was very quiet. "It's on a larger scale than any of us could have dreamed. Before it's over, Bliss, we'll all need every ounce of strength we possess."
His words fell like hammer blows. Bliss felt her heart beating fast. "What's happening, Jake? What aren't you telling me?"
He smiled suddenly, and kissed her hard on the lips. "Nothing," he said, and kissed her again. "Speaking of your father," Jake said, "I'll need to see Three Oaths Tsun this afternoon."
"Do you wish to see the inner circle's other tai pan, or just my father?"
What was it, she wondered; what was darkening Jake's thoughts? She could feel it. Was it the specters of the dead he had so recently buried? For just an instant, she had a premonition; a remarkable sword of light pierced her consciousness. There was something more. Something that even he might not be aware of. She felt a chill of fear run through her. If Jake was out of phase with his environment or with himself, the consequences could be disastrous. He needed all his concentration in order to formulate his own strategy within the inner circle-and to try to discern the strategies of his enemies. If his qi was not in harmony, his decision-making prowess would be in serious jeopardy.
No. I want to see Three Oaths Tsun alone," Jake said. "Will you set it up for three o'clock?"
Bliss nodded. "Of course." She thought of Three Oaths Tsun as her father because he had brought her up. Bliss had never known her real father, and remembered her mother only as a distant blur, like a badly out-of-focus photograph.
"And don't forget the emergency meeting Andrew Sawyer has called for noon," Bliss said. "That was the soonest all the tai pan could be rounded up." Jake nodded.
"Do you know what that's all about?" she asked anxiously. "Andrew sounded quite upset when he called."
Jake said, "Andrew's always upset about one thing or another."
She opened her mouth to tell Jake that she wanted to help him more, but he had turned away; she sensed that he was gone from her just as surely as if he had already walked out the door. His mind, no doubt, was already on this morning's meeting with his father, the great Jian, Shi Zilin.