Rising Tiger by Trevor Scott Page B

set of doors. Bullets struck the door frame and another smashed the glass on the open door.
    Once outside into a mezzanine area between the hotel and the casino, Jake rushed forward. He got to the hotel elevators and lucked out, sliding right into one and punching the door close button.
    As the doors closed another bullet hit the inside of the elevator and one more struck the door as it closed.
    He punched three buttons—the fifteenth floor, the thirtieth floor, and the fifty-fourth floor. On the way up, he found his phone and tried to call Alexandra. She didn’t answer.
    “Damn it, Alexandra. Answer your phone.”
    At the fifteenth floor the doors opened and he quickly hit the close button again.
    He tried Alexandra’s phone again. Nothing.
    When he got to the fifty-fourth floor, he rushed out and ran down the corridor. As he ran he tried Alexandra one more time, but she still didn’t pick up.
    He found the staircase and shoved through it. Then he climbed up to the fifty-fifth floor and hurried out toward his room. He had his card out and then second-guessed his actions for a micro-second. If they had tracked his Canadian passport, they might already know his room number. They could have already been to his room and killed Alexandra. Now he sprinted to his room and, out of breath, slid his key card into the slot. When the green light went off, he hurried in and found Alexandra.
    She was on the floor at the back side of the bed, her Glock aimed right at Jake.
    “My God, you’re all right. Come on. We have to leave. Somehow they found us.”
    She got up from the floor. “How?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe my Canadian passport. I went to the casino and they required me to swipe it.”
    “Well, we never unpacked.” She swung her bag over her shoulder, keeping her gun free and ready to shoot. “I’m ready.”
    Jake shoved his laptop into his backpack and then slung it onto his shoulders. It was getting lighter each day, since he had gotten rid of some clothes along the way. He too kept his gun in his hand at the ready.
    Now they had to find a way out of the hotel. The Asian woman and her two friends could simply hang out at the bottom of the elevators and wait them out.
    Once they were in the corridor, Alexandra whispered, “How do we get out of here?”
    “Two choices,” Jake said. “The stairs or the elevators.” Jake stood for a moment and considered the best path. “How about operation chaos?”
    “Crap. Not again.”
    Jake smiled as he led her toward the stairwells. Just before entering the exit door, Jake pulled the fire alarm. That would do two things. The elevators should stop and automatically return to the ground level. And then everyone in the hotel would be forced to evacuate on the stairs.
    The two of them hurried to the staircase and headed down. They both had to hide their guns again. She put her Glock in her purse, and Jake shoved his into the sleeve at the small of his back, which was a problem with the backpack over it. The farther they got down the stairs, the more people that joined them. Jake guessed that the bad guys would have either been stuck in the elevator and shoved down to the ground level, or were also making their way down the stairs. Of course they would also have to consider the whole thing a ruse, with Jake and Alexandra staying in their room and waiting out the storm of activity. That only worked if the Asian woman didn’t already know his room.
    As they finally got out into the main lobby, the place was a major disaster, with people clustered everywhere and being forced out into the front of the building.
    But Jake didn’t see the Asian woman or either of her two friends. They must have been stuck somewhere in the crowd.
    Outside now and into the sweltering heat, Alexandra said, “Now what?”
    Jake took her hand and led her to the front of the row of taxis. They got in and Jake told the driver to go to the airport. As they got closer to Changi International Airport, Jake