The men moved on her with blinding speed, but it wasn’t fast enough. Instead of backing away like they expected, she charged at the lead man, the blade reappearing in her hand and sinking to the hilt in his side. She spun, catching the second man in the head with an elbow as Smith threw himself out of the bed. He had the vague sensation of the IVs ripping out of his hand as he went for Ueno, but when his feet hit the floor, his legs wouldn’t support him. He collapsed at the man’s feet, pain and nausea washing over him as he tried desperately to get up and help Randi.

The man who’d caught the elbow was shaken but didn’t go down. He managed to block the knife from getting him in the throat but the gash it put in his forearm looked to be six inches long and down to the bone. She feinted high on the only uninjured man left but she was off balance and he knew it. A foot sweep took her down hard onto the wood floor and the man with the wounded forearm managed to drop a knee on her arm, splattering her with blood and trapping the knife.

And then it was over. Each man probably outweighed her by fifty pounds and both were now on top of her. In a standing fight, Randi’s uncanny speed and accuracy made her a force to be reckoned with. On the ground, though, her size was an insurmountable disadvantage.

Smith managed to get to all fours but his head was spinning so badly he could no longer determine which way was up. Ueno used a foot to shove him onto his side and then stared down at him. The Japanese man’s mouth was moving, but Smith had to concentrate to decipher his words.

“The doctor assured me that your injuries were too serious for you to even get out of bed without help, but Randi’s friends tend to be very resilient. In light of that, I had him add a little something to your IV.”

Ueno adjusted the dead guard leaking all over his expensive teak floor and then walked over to Randi and kicked her hard in the side. “He was one of my best.”

She thrashed wildly against the men holding her, prompting Ueno to take a cautious step backward.

“Not good enough, you son of a bitch! And these two won’t be either!”

He let out a long, frustrated breath. “I spent millions on my security. I was guaranteed that it would be impossible to smuggle a weapon past my entry hall. And now this.”