Ride The Beast by Don Pendleton

Author:Don Pendleton [Pendleton, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9 Manila

Hop Sung lit a cigarette, drew deeply on it and exhaled smoke through his nostrils. He was bored, the long night dragging on interminably. It reminded him that whorehouse duty, for the bouncers, was a tedious assignment. Working in the strip bars, you could always watch the dancers to amuse yourself, but in a whorehouse it was usual to keep the muscle out of sight in a separate ground-floor room, where he would sit and wait for an alert that one of the establishment’s male clients was creating a disturbance.

Such events were rare, but they allowed Sung to break up the monotony with flying fists, a swift kick in the ass for some pathetic idiot who couldn’t manage to control himself. Sung liked it better when the idiots were round-eyes, flabby tourists or some fresh-faced sailor from a U.s. Navy ship parked in Manila Bay. It was a pleasure, using muscle on the white men when he had a chance.

But not tonight.

His shift was almost over. He would be relieved soon, free to leave, another evening wasted watching television and drinking beer.

Still, it was better than a real job, sweating in the sun for wages that would barely keep a mouse alive. Sung knew he should be thankful, but he still longed for some action.

The sudden rapping on his door surprised him, made him jump. He frowned and scrambled to his feet. Since when did they start knocking when they needed him?

Sung opened up the door… and froze.

A white man stood before him, tall and dark, well-dressed. The automatic pistol in his hand was aimed at Sung’s face, the muzzle looking twice its normal size up close. The Triad hardman considered reaching for his weapon, then imagined what would happen if the round-eye’s gun went off six inches from his skull. He had a mental flash of brains spilled on the floor and knew it wasn’t worth the risk.

The man spoke to him in English. “Let me see the gun.” It crossed Sung’s mind to make believe he didn’t speak the language, try to stall for time, but what would that achieve? He might provoke the stranger into violent action, sacrifice himself, and all for what? Some whores?

Sung pulled back the left side of his jacket, made no effort to obstruct the white man as he reached out with his free hand and removed Sung’s pistol.

“You need to get this place cleared out,” the stranger said. “Three minutes, one way or another, and it’s going up in smoke.” Sung blinked, not fully understanding the demand at first, but then he glanced beyond the stranger, saw a canvas satchel in the hall behind him propped against the wall. Explosives? An incendiary? He didn’t know or care, and nodded comprehension, moving only when his captor stepped aside to let him pass.

There was a fire alarm a few steps from the door of Sung’s waiting room. The stranger had to have seen it but he had chosen not to pull the lever, stopping first to confront the bouncer.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.