Using the plethora of fancy shirts and jewelry available to her from the surrounding pirate crew, Eve was able to throw together a rather spectacular pair of outfits for her and Siren to wear. Once their costumes were on, Eve stuffed Siren’s top so that she appeared to be pregnant. Her idea was that after she cleared the room with a distraction, Siren would then be able to hide the turtle shell without raising suspicion.
It was a simple plan, with the hardest part being Siren and Eve sneaking into the party. Eve’s understanding of social conditioning was that anyone with enough confidence could get into any venue, and she had that in spades. She had once even snuck into a gala at the White House by simply walking in with a group of other attendees. She was ultimately discovered and escorted off the property, but not without first getting the phone number of the president’s bachelor son.
Captain C’s crew had the same roles in Eve’s plan as they did with the first plan. Over the course of the following twenty minutes, the pirates spread out around the perimeter of the valley, concealing themselves up above the ridge and tree line. They were stationed in pairs every few hundred feet, with each pair holding a walkie in case Siren and Eve needed an emergency evacuation. Although they were armed with machine guns and swords, attacking other people was something they were wholly unfamiliar with. All they had done in their short careers as pirates was sink a few autonomous shipping vessels and drink equally as many barrels of rum. Pirating was an entirely different experience when actual human lives were on the line, yet the crew obeyed their captain without contest and took their positions.
As Eve was preparing to leave, she spotted Yasuke fuming from his tied up position on the chair. She walked over and excused the two henchmen watching him. When they were out of earshot, she squatted down to his level. Yasuke looked over to her and the anger drained from his face. He perked up and even cocked a half-hearted smile.
“I know you don’t want to be stuck here any more than I do,” Eve whispered, “and believe me when I say I know how bad it feels being dragged somewhere without any control. I hope you know we’re doing this to protect ourselves and not to try and have sex with you, like those assholes from my high school tried to do to me.”
Yasuke looked at her questioningly.
“Don’t worry, I said tried. After I got famous I tracked them all down and live-streamed myself kicking their asses. Time changes us, doesn’t it? After people started listening to me and doing what I told them to, I thought that I was strong. I’m starting to think that isn’t what real strength is. I feel like I’m going through another change now with these old dudes.”
Eve looked fondly at Deimos helping Siren adjust her faux pregnant belly. He kissed it and Siren laughed gleefully.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this,” Eve continued. “Maybe it’s because I saw so many people die the other day and my brain is all scrambled. It’s probably that. I might be a bit traumatized. Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is hang tight. I’ll finish this quickly and then you can go back to living your life. Try not to be a bitch about it.”
Eve leaned in and kissed Yasuke tenderly on the cheek. Even in the dark she could see Yasuke blush a bright red.
Yasuke tried to maintain his cool, but ended up sputtering out an entirely uncool, “T-thanks.”
Eve suddenly socked Yasuke in the gut and he coughed out a dribble of spit.
“Tell anyone what I said and I’ll kill you,” Eve whispered.
Yasuke looked up at her questioningly with tears in his eyes. She laughed sweetly and waved goodbye to him before heading down the ridge.
Deimos walked down with Siren and Eve to the base of the ridge. They stopped near the one-lane road that led to the museum. Now that they were in better lighting, Deimos was stunned with the outfits Eve was able to throw together in such short notice. Not that Deimos had any sense of fashion, but he felt that the girls could have blended in at any cocktail party he’d ever attended. He found himself continually impressed with Eve’s natural talents and wondered what path she would have taken had she not become famous at such a young age.
Eve pulled out a flask that Captain C had lent her and took a swig. She swished it around in her mouth before spitting it out and passed it to Siren.
“It will help us get past security if they think we’re drunk,” Eve stated.
“Aren’t I supposed to be pregnant?”
“So what?”
“We might have to have a chat about that later,” Siren said, grabbing the flask.
She took a swig herself but immediately spat it out.
“Jesus! That tastes like jet fuel!” she coughed.
“I think it was,” Eve replied nonchalantly.
Siren gave Deimos one final kiss goodbye before Eve grabbed her by the hand and pulled her toward the museum. Deimos watched them walk away for only a moment before running back up the ridge to his vantage point alongside Captain C. He was up the hill in under a minute and crouched down beside Captain C between two large trees.
Deimos reached over and grabbed Captain C’s spyglass and peered through. Siren and Eve had rounded the bend and were now in eyesight of the museum. Eve was holding onto Siren as she laughed and stumbled like a drunk freshman. They were quickly spotted by one of the guards who immediately jogged toward them.
The guard shouted at them in Japanese. Eve smiled and waved to him coyly.
“Oh thank goodness!” Eve exasperated once the guard was close enough. “Our Uber dropped us off about a mile back. I thought we’d never find you guys.”
The guard looked at them, confused. He mumbled something into his walkie and a few moments later two more guards jogged up. Eve eyed the guards, sizing them up. Having picked her target, she stumbled forward onto the smaller one and grabbed his chest.
“Oops, sorry about that. My friend and I got a little drunk on our way here.”
The short guard blushed and spoke in clear English, “Hello, miss. Where is your escort?”
Eve leaned in close to the now trembling man.
“As I was telling your cute friend here, our ride got lost and dropped us off a ways back. Would you be a dear and help us to the door? We’ve had quite a bit to drink on our walk.”
The man looked over to Siren as if he had just realized she was there. His eyes drifted down to her protruding stomach.
“Should she be drinking?”
“You’re gonna tell a pregnant lady what she should and shouldn’t do? C’mon, I thought this was a party. Let’s go!”
Eve dragged the guard by his belt toward the museum. He looked to his coworkers for help but they only snickered in response.
“M-miss, please,” the guard stammered. “All female guests were to arrive with an escort. Who invited you?”
Eve stopped walking and muttered to herself, “What kind of backward-ass rule is that?”
They were only fifty feet from the entrance. She stared inside at the glow of the party, wracking her brain for a plausible made up name. Unfortunately, everything she could come up with was in English, and even if she could come up with a name it would be extremely unlikely to match anyone at the party.
As Eve stood motionless, she caught a young man’s eye in the party. He stared at her through the large museum window in what appeared to be disbelief. Eve smiled and waved at him excitedly.
“There he is!” she exclaimed. “Sorry, I meet so many people. It’s hard to remember new names.”
The guard looked up skeptically but was surprised to see the young man throw his drink down and run out of the museum toward them. He approached Eve with a wide, open mouth grin and looked her up and down as if his eyes needed to scan every inch of her for him to believe what he was seeing.
“Eve?” the man finally muttered.
Eve looked at the man in shock but quickly recovered.
“Yeah! S
o glad you finally found me!”
The man brushed the guards away.
“What are you idiots doing? Don’t you know who this is?”
The guards stepped back muttering in Japanese, “Sorry, sir.”
“Come in! Come in!” the young man exclaimed.
He ushered Eve away from the guards, completely ignoring Siren’s presence. Eve looked back at Siren and motioned for her to follow. Siren smiled meekly to the guards before following them into the warm glow of the museum. The man leading them shouted something angrily to the men in red suits, who then scrambled to set off fireworks as they entered.
“I am so sorry for how you have been treated. Please do not let these idiots ruin your good time.” The young man smacked his face and turned to face Eve. He bowed deeply. “I realize I never introduced myself to you. I am Kiyoshi Aiko, but please call me Aiko.”
As Aiko bowed, Eve hurriedly ushered Siren away.
She mouthed, “I got this. Get the turtle.”
Siren nodded and slipped away, trusting Eve would be able to cause a distraction at their agreed-upon time. When Aiko looked back up, Siren was gone. Not that he had ever noticed she was there in the first place. His attention was focused exclusively on Eve.
Eve forced a fake laugh.
“Wow, I didn’t know I had any fans in Japan. And so good looking, too,” she slurred expertly.
Eve’s tactic to gain the trust of any man had always been to compliment them. She realized at a very young age that men on a whole were not complimented as much as women and therefore clung to any tiny bit of praise they could receive. It would be tragic if it weren’t such a useful tool to get whatever she wanted.
Aiko’s knees nearly crumpled beneath him as his eyes glazed over in lust.
“I-I am your number one fan! Please, you must have a drink with me and my friends.”
Aiko grabbed Eve’s hand and pulled her into the thick of the party toward the dance floor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stationed on the ridge directly behind the museum, two bored pirates watched Eve and Siren from their position. The pirate assigned to watching Eve tossed down his binoculars once she was out of his line of sight.
“Ugh, I can’t believe we all have to sit here in the cold while these villains get to have all the fun,” the pirate complained.
“Right? Why are we even here?” the other pirate responded. “Shouldn’t we be taking on Crymson Tech instead of going after some gold turtle shell? My cousin is a lawyer and she said we had a real case against them before we started blowing up their ships.”
“Well, that’s not the way Captain C does things.”
“How about that accent he’s been doing ever since those other villains got here?”
“Right? What’s with that? Is he trying to impress them or something? He sounds like a pirate from a kid’s cartoon.”
The two pirates laughed, then suddenly their throats were simultaneously cut. Blood rushed from their gaping wounds and spilled onto the ground in front of them. Their heads splashed down into the quickly forming pool.
The Twins stood above the now dead pirates, wiping the blood from their spiked hands. Their skin slowly changed from a hard, bark-like texture back to its normal cream color with black stripes.
“So they’re in the building,” Aria said.
“That makes this a lot more interesting,” Sasha replied.
“It’s not too late to back out,” Aria reasoned.
Sasha sneered, “What? Are you afraid?”
“No way! I thought you might want an excuse to leave before I totally show you up.”
“Alright then, how about we change the stakes of the game? Whoever gets the most kills without being spotted, wins.”
“You’re on!”
The Twins shook hands before stealthily making their way down the ridge toward the museum.
◊ ◊ ◊
Deimos anxiously watched the party from his vantage point alongside Captain C. Siren had been out of sight for several minutes, but that was expected as this part of the plan required Siren to wait by the golden shell for Eve’s distraction. The only problem was Deimos had been watching Eve take shots for the last five minutes with what looked like a young group of Japanese businessmen.
“What the hell is Eve doing?” Deimos whispered, exasperated. “She needs to get everyone away from Siren. All she’s doing is getting drunk.”
Captain C didn’t respond. He simply raised his eyebrows at Deimos as if to say, “Well, you brought her.”
When Deimos looked back through the spyglass, Eve was being pulled on stage by one of the men she had been drinking with. The man grabbed a microphone and motioned for the DJ to cut the music.
“Shut up!” Deimos said, waving his hand at Captain C, who was already silent. “Something’s happening!”
The music cut out and the man spoke into the microphone. His voice emanated from the speakers and echoed around the valley. He sounded spirited, ecstatic even. Deimos hurriedly turned to Yasuke who was still tied up behind him.
“What is he saying?” Deimos asked.
Yasuke stared back angrily at Deimos.
“Oh come on,” Deimos pleaded. “You want to help Eve, don’t you?”
Yasuke rolled his eyes and listened for a moment, then replied, “He is saying how happy he is about a surprise musical guest. He wants everyone to come listen to the best music America has to offer.”
Suddenly Yasuke stopped translating. He was listening intently to what the man was saying next, growing angrier by the second.
“What is it?” Deimos asked. “Is Bon Jovi down there?”
“Pretty sure he was talkin’ ‘bout Eve,” Captain C stated.
“Quiet! I’m listening!” Yasuke hissed.
After a final shout from the man holding the microphone, a chanting of voices wafted over the ridge. It was a rhyming, singsong mantra that was incomprehensible to Deimos and the surrounding pirates. Yasuke was the only one who understood the taunting hatred in the words that echoed throughout the valley.
“Kasai is the fire that burns the world! Surrender or don’t, Kasai still spreads!”
The attendees of the party shouted their chant louder and louder. Yasuke flexed and struggled in his restraints. His eyes glazed over with anger and he gritted his teeth.
“Untie me,” Yasuke seethed. “Untie me now!”
“Whoa there, lassie. What’s with the sudden vigor?” Captain C asked.
Yasuke struggled for a moment longer before relenting. He growled and stared angrily at Captain C.
“That is the Kasai Gang,” he forced out, “a mob of heartless criminals who have been tormenting my village for decades. They are-” Yasuke choked back hot tears. “They are celebrating the death of my grandfather.”
Captain C scratched his beard nervously and turned to Deimos.
“That complicates things a bit,” he mumbled.
“You don’t understand,” Yasuke growled. “Your friends are in danger. We are all in danger! You need to let me go!”
Deimos looked down pointedly to the party. He gripped the spyglass tightly.
“Siren would want us to trust her. She has been in tighter spots. She can handle this.”
“You idiot!” Yasuke shouted. “You don’t know these men like I do.”
Deimos turned back to Yasuke and smiled.
“And you don’t know my wife.”
◊ ◊ ◊
Siren stood in the center of a small exhibition room watching the last two guests rush out toward the lobby. She had heard something announced over the speakers that got everyone’s attention, but she couldn’t understand it. Then after some loud chanting, the music kicked back on and Siren heard Eve singing through the speakers. This was the distraction she was waiting for.
&n
bsp; With the room now empty, Siren made her way toward the golden turtle shell’s display. To her surprise, it was indeed an actual turtle shell with one half of it coated in gold. It looked exactly as Captain C described. This was likely some poor ancient creature that wandered too close to an undersea volcanic eruption and was unpropitiously fused with molten gold.
As Siren stepped toward the shell, a voice spoke from behind her, “It is beautiful, is it not?”
Siren jumped, turning to face a well-dressed Japanese man with silver streaks in his otherwise jet-black hair.
“Sorry, I did not mean to startle you,” the man said. “You are the woman that came with the American singer my son has been obsessing over, are you not?”
Siren said nothing. She stepped back from the golden shell and nodded.
“Do you mind if I join you?” the man asked. “I am not as big a fan of this music as my son is.”
Siren nodded politely and the man approached her. Through the doorway behind him, two burly men in suits entered. Siren immediately pegged them as henchmen. They may not have been henchmen in the traditional sense, but the way they followed the well-dressed man screamed ‘hired goon’ behavior.
The two goons quickly scanned the room before standing guard outside the door. Once they had exited, the well-dressed man approached Siren and extended his hand.
“My name is Kiyoshi Daizo.”
Siren shook his hand.
“Holly Gennaro. Pleasure to meet you.”
Daizo smiled warmly back at her.
“I saw you and your friend arrive and couldn’t help but notice you were not accompanied by your husband.”
Siren panicked, wondering if this man had already blown her cover. She then saw that Daizo was staring at her fake pregnant stomach.
“Ah, yes. He wanted to join us but had to work late,” Siren swiftly replied.
Daizo nodded. His eyes wandered to the golden turtle shell, deep in thought.
“I understand. There are many events I missed in my family’s lives due to work. I suppose that is the burden men must carry in order to provide.”
Villain (Book 1): Villain 1 Page 22
