Sehun was almost panicking.  Jongin had promised to get to the port to pick them up, and the fashion-criminal hat that he’d said he’d wear was on the ground while Jongin himself had vanished.  He’d clearly been there, and judging by the people making beelines towards them, something awful must have happened.

The trouble was that Sangchu’s men were between him and safety.  He had no decent weapons and he was injured; there were too many of them and there was no way that he could fight, let alone protect Weiyi.  Cursing under his breath, he backed up, pulling Weiyi back with him.  It looked like their best option for the moment would be to see if they could hide somewhere on the ferry, or see if they could borrow a lifeboat and get out to sea again and to find somewhere else to land.  He wasn’t totally sure how the ferry’s captain would respond to a request of that kind, but it was worth a try.

“Where’s Jongin?” Weiyi asked him in Mandarin as Sehun steered her around a family that was getting off.

“I don’t know,” Sehun mumbled, “but I think we have to assume the worst.”

Three of the men – Sehun thought he could count about twenty of them – were now on the ramp and attempting to go against the flow of the crowd like they were.  It was going to be more of an uphill battle for the thugs because they had further to go, and Sehun and Weiyi were only a metre or two from the doors now, the stream beginning to thin around them as the last passengers came out.

And then one of them suddenly keeled over and collapsed.  There was enough of a crowd for the other thugs not to notice immediately, but one of the passengers let out a shriek of alarm as the man all but fell onto her, and she shoved him hastily away.  Immediate confusion followed, some of the nearest passengers panicking and others calling for help or trying to tend to the man.  Almost like a magnet among iron filings, it drew most of the disembarking passengers to the area as they tried to his to get a glimpse of what was happening, which left a clearer park for the other thugs trying to get through.

The remaining two on the ramp didn’t even get three yards further up it before they too were downed in quick succession, one clapping a hand over his neck and the other pitching forward onto his knees and then his face.  A sharp mid-air flash under the floodlights caught Sehun’s attention just as he was about to shove Weiyi back inside, and then a fourth thug near the base of the ramp collapsed too.  A fifth swiftly followed suit, and that was when it hit Sehun that he knew exactly where Jongin was, and he seized Weiyi’s wrist again.

“Can you run?” he asked.  “We need to get to the building.”

Weiyi trusted him without a word, giving him a small nod.

They ran.  The slope gave them momentum, and most of the passengers had either begun to head for the building themselves or were busy on the phone to emergency services or checking the vitals of the collapsed thugs.  The thugs themselves were also beginning to panic at the invisible sniper that was picking them off, and only one of them took a half-hearted swipe to grab at Weiyi once they were on the concrete.  He was quickly felled with what looked like a tiny dart to his neck, but Sehun didn’t bother to stop and inspect.  His arm was needlessly and extremely painful, and he just wanted to get inside before he felt like he was going throw up or pass out from the pain.

The one issue about heading for the safety of the building was that most of the thugs were also fleeing there as indoors would be the best cover from the sniper, and once they were in the foyer, they were able to turn their attention back to the reason they were there.  Three made it in before Weiyi and Sehun with another three close behind, and there were also other passengers lining up for coffee or tickets for onward travel to navigate.  Sehun was forced to let go of Weiyi in order to duck an incoming swing to his head.  As he twisted to launch a kick in counter attack, he yelled to Weiyi to head for the stairs on the other side of the massive hallway they were in and to keep climbing.  She looked terrified for a moment, and as Sehun threw up an arm to block kick aimed at his side, he saw that she had no intentions of going without him.

“Go!” he shouted.  “I’ll catch up, Weiyi, just go!”

A fist connected with his cheek and he was went staggering, shocked cries arising on all sides from the other passengers as four of the men closed in on him.  He noticed the other two chasing after Weiyi as she ran.  Trying to ignore the hot throbbing that had started on his right cheek, Sehun paused for a moment or two to take stock of his situation, and concluded it wasn’t good.  He turned, glancing quickly from side to side, but he was surrounded, and all four of his enemies looked considerably bigger and in considerably better condition than he was.  There was no way he’d win a straight fight unless it was one on one, and even that was questionable.  Breathing heavily, he started forward, taking a swing at one of them and then feinted, swinging around and ducking to avoid any grasping arms, and legged it in the direction of the stairs.  He couldn’t see Weiyi or the others that had followed her ahead and only hoped that she’d been quick enough to get up to the first floor and away from them.

Utter confusion had broken out among the other passengers and he could hear one or two of them on the phone to the police as he approached the stairs, but all that was forgotten as a figure in black suddenly descended into view at a run, taking the stairs two at a time, before planting a hand on the banister and vaulting clean over Sehun’s head.  There was a thwack and a thud, and Sehun couldn’t help glancing over his shoulder to see what had happened.

He skidded to a halt.  The new arrival