Chapter 7 Counterattack from a Desperate Situation

Emily's POV

I yanked out my earbuds and hurried toward the elevator, dialing Douglas's encrypted line.

"Quick, I'm at the hospital," I said in a low voice, speaking rapidly. "There's a killer here. I'm in bad shape physically, I need backup."

"Already?" Douglas's voice immediately turned serious. "The second batch of killers under 'Mole' have arrived?"

"Yes. How long until your people can get here?"

"Ten minutes at the earliest. Find somewhere safe to hide, and whatever you do, don't expose yourself."

"No!" I refused. "Elizabeth is still in the emergency room. If I hide, they'll just target her instead."

"Lily, snap out of it! She's not your real mother!" Douglas growled into the phone. "I know you're an orphan and desperately crave maternal love, but your life comes first! You..."

"Shut up."

I cut him off coldly. "Ten minutes, right? I'll try to hold out."

"Shit!" Douglas cursed under his breath. "Fine, I'll have the nearest people rush over as fast as possible. Remember, you owe me for this. Don't die—if you die, I'm taking a huge loss."

I smiled bitterly. "Don't worry, death can't touch me. Satan himself wouldn't dare take me."

Hanging up, I ducked into a storage room around the corner of the hallway. Lucky me—there was a dark-colored janitor's uniform hanging inside. I quickly pulled it on over my clothes. This would effectively reduce my chances of being spotted in the hospital's dim lighting—assuming, of course, they weren't wearing thermal imaging equipment.

I crept silently along the stairwell toward the floor where the emergency room was located.

The moment I pushed open the fire door, a faint but distinct smell of gunpowder mixed with blood drifted into my nostrils on the cold hallway breeze.

"Damn, someone's here!"

A low shout suddenly came from a room at the end of the corridor.

Without hesitation, I raised my hand and flung a poisoned dart toward the shadowy doorframe.

A muffled cry of pain followed.

I raised an eyebrow. Looked like my luck was holding tonight.

Taking advantage of the confusion inside as the killers panicked over their fallen comrade, I grabbed a metal medical tray I'd pocketed when changing into the janitor's uniform and hurled it at the hallway window, shattering the glass.

The sharp sound of breaking glass exploded through the quiet hospital. As the people inside instinctively drew their guns toward the window, I slid out low like a hunting leopard and flicked another dart with my other hand, embedding it precisely in the throat of the second killer rushing out the door.

Just as I was about to get up and finish the job, slow, rhythmic applause echoed from the dark stairwell behind me.

"Beautiful moves." A deep male voice praised. "That clean, efficient killing technique reminds me of someone—someone who should have died in international waters eight years ago."

Before he finished speaking, I felt a bone-chilling coldness at the back of my neck. It was the deadly pressure that only comes from a specially-made military knife pressed against skin.

Every muscle in my body tensed instantly.

How was this possible... When did he sneak up behind me? I hadn't detected even the slightest breath or footstep!

"Hey there, beautiful lady." The man behind me sounded relaxed. "Because of you, we missed our best chance to assassinate Bruce at the villa, which is really a shame. But no worries—after I snap your neck, I'll go send him to hell too."

Facing the blade pressed against my carotid artery, I showed no panic whatsoever. Instead, I replied coolly, "Haven't you heard the saying?"

"What?" The man's tone carried a hint of mockery.

"Monologuing gets you killed."

The instant those words left my lips, I jerked my head aside to avoid the blade while twisting my right wrist. The tiny mechanism hidden in my replica memorial bracelet activated instantly, sending an extremely fine poisoned needle whistling toward his throat!

I had absolute confidence this strike would land. While he'd been talking, I'd used the resonance of his voice and breathing pattern to precisely calculate his height and position. This needle only needed to scratch his neck to cause neural paralysis within three seconds.

However, what happened next made my pupils contract sharply.

The man seemed to anticipate it, his body twisting backward at an impossibly contorted angle. The needle grazed past his nose and embedded itself in the wall behind him.

"What a dangerous woman indeed." The man straightened up, and in the corridor's weak cold light, I finally got a clear look at his fierce gray-green eyes. He licked the corner of his mouth. "Lily, your reputation is well-deserved."

Every hair on my body stood on end as I slowly assumed a defensive close-combat stance.

"Now this... I like!" The man casually tossed aside a pistol with a silencer attached, gripping his military knife in a reverse hold. "Since you didn't bring a gun tonight, let's settle this with cold steel. In knife fighting, I've never lost."

I slowly drew my tactical knife from behind my waist and sneered. "Really? What a coincidence—I've never lost either."

I didn't bother with any chivalrous nonsense, immediately flinging another dart. Taking advantage of the half-second he spent dodging, I didn't retreat but advanced, gripping my knife tightly and stabbing toward his heart.

Actually, my physical condition couldn't support this kind of combat at all, but Elizabeth was still in the emergency room downstairs. If I gave in, she would certainly die.

So I had to kill this assassin for her to survive.

Our blades clashed, sparks flying. In the blink of an eye, we'd already exchanged three moves, but my heart was sinking with each passing second.

After just three rounds, my hands were already numb from the impact, each parry feeling like I was holding up with bone alone. His strength was far greater than I'd imagined—my instincts told me that even at full strength, the best outcome would be mutual destruction. And right now, I definitely couldn't hold out until Douglas's people arrived.

My breathing grew heavier and heavier. I couldn't drag this out any longer.

My gaze hardened, a flash of ruthless determination in my eyes. When the man swung his knife at my ribs again, instead of blocking like before, I deliberately threw myself onto his blade!

The cold blade pierced through my left shoulder without resistance. But at the same time, because of the suddenly shortened distance, my knife plunged deep into the area below his right collarbone!

I'd actually aimed for his throat, but his reflexes were too fast—he'd dodged in a fraction of a second.

Trading injury for injury, life for life! I forced down the excruciating pain of my shattered shoulder bone, my movements never pausing. As I leaned back to create distance, I threw my last two poisoned darts.

One dart bounced off his bulletproof vest, but the other sliced across the back of his knife hand.

Having done all this, I'd completely exhausted my last bit of strength. I collapsed limply onto the cold floor, blood from my left shoulder quickly staining the janitor's uniform red.

I gasped for breath, watching the man clutch his hand as his face changed dramatically. I forced a cold smile. "The darts were coated with high-purity VX nerve agent. You have half an hour to find the antiserum and save yourself."

"In ten minutes, you'll start experiencing localized muscle tremors. In twenty minutes, your limbs will be paralyzed. In half an hour, you'll die from respiratory failure." I stared hard into his eyes. "If you insist on killing me or going after Elizabeth now, you'll completely miss your chance to save yourself. Choose."

A flash of shock and rage finally appeared in the man's gray-green eyes. He glared at me viciously, but ultimately clutched his wound, turned, and stumbled into the stairwell, fleeing in panic.

Watching his retreating figure, my nerves, stretched to their absolute limit, finally snapped. I slumped powerlessly against the wall and let out a slight sigh of relief.

Though it was a mess, at least I'd protected Elizabeth.

However, just as my consciousness began to fade and my eyelids grew too heavy to keep open, the elevator doors at the end of the hallway suddenly opened.

I forced myself to maintain the last shred of clarity and looked—a stranger in black combat gear, carrying a submachine gun with a silencer, was walking quickly toward the emergency room.

Damn it! Mole had a backup plan—he'd arranged a third killer!

My heart seized with terror. I tried desperately to prop myself up to stop him, but the searing pain from my wound and my weakened body meant I couldn't even move a finger.

Despair and panic engulfed me like icy seawater.

With trembling hands, I fumbled for my blood-covered phone and pressed a familiar speed dial key from muscle memory.

The moment the call connected, I used the last remnants of my strength: "Bruce... get back to the hospital now! Someone's trying to kill Elizabeth... go save her... please..."

Before I could finish, the phone slipped from my fingers and clattered onto the blood-soaked floor. I fell completely into endless darkness.