by Gary Jonas
Nori shrugged. “Tell them it’s surveillance on Crimson Moon Imports.”
“Crimson Moon?”
“Hey, I didn’t name it. Blame Shinobi’s boss.”
“What’s his name?”
“Her name.”
Amanda nodded her approval. “Cool.”
Nori gave her a funny look.
“What?” she said. “It’s nice to hear that women are climbing the supervillain corporate ladder. That’s a tough glass ceiling to break.”
“All right,” I said. “Go get that permit. If you need money, Nori will give you a credit card.”
“I will?”
I stared at him.
He nodded. “I will.” He pulled a billfold from his pocket, yanked out a MasterCard and handed it to her. “No shopping sprees.”
“Aww,” Amanda said. “You’re such a spoilsport.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” I said.
“Sounds good,” Amanda said.
When we were outside next to Cecil, her beat up Honda, I said, “I expect things to go south at some point.”
“They always do,” Amanda said.
I took out my gun, checked the load.
“Silver bullets?” Amanda asked.
“A simple precaution.” I held the Colt out to her.
“I hate guns,” she said, shaking her head.
“I hate werewolves. Take the damn gun, Amanda. If this goes the way I expect, I won’t be able to take it in with me.”
“But Nori will opt for a direct attack.”
“I’ll lead him to a plan that might work. Bring the gun with you when you come.”
She hesitated, but took it. “The things I do for you.”
I smiled at her and returned to the house.
“Everything all right?” Nori asked when I closed the door.
“Peachy keen. Where were we?”
“Strategizing.”
We discussed where we’d keep Wakumi if we were in charge. The building was fourteen floors with a height of 177 feet and change. We knew how many rooms there were. We could tell you the number of parking spaces there. What we could not say was where they’d have Wakumi or how many ninja would be there to protect her. Or kill her if anyone got close.
That was the part that worried me, so it was time to lead him toward my idea.
“Every plan you’ve concocted involves us fighting through all these ninja,” I said. “There’s a reason most movies and TV shows avoid this, and it has nothing to do the budget. There’s simply no way to get through all those men before one of them drives a sword through Wakumi’s heart.”
“There’s no way to sneak in, so a direct assault gives us at least a minor chance.”
“This isn’t a Jason Statham movie. They’ll kill her before we get close. We need to do the obvious thing,” I said.
“No. You are not taking Ichiro to them,” Nori said.
“It’s the only way to get close enough to Wakumi to save her. It has the added bonus of keeping your men alive.”
“My men are warriors prepared to lay down their lives if necessary.”
“I know all samurai walk into battle as if they’re already dead. My point is that they don’t have to die.”
“It would be better if we all died in a frontal attack than to let Ichiro fall into their hands. He can’t hold off the change.”
“I know that, too.” I pointed at Ichiro. “Can you tell me how it feels when the moon is coming up and the change is coming on?”
He hesitated. “Even now I can feel it calling to me,” he said.
“You look calm.”
“The moon does not rise until 7:22,” he said. “I can maintain my composure until then.”
“Shinobi knows the time of the moonrise, too.”
“Of course,” Nori said.
“So let me ask a different question.” I grinned at Ichiro. “You’re working so hard to maintain your calm and remain human, but you’ll lose that ability when the moon rises.”
“I do not hear a question,” Ichiro said.
“You’re always fighting to keep things under control, but what would happen if you give in to the rage?”
“I do not understand,” he said.
“Can you bring on the change before the moon rises?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nori eventually gave in, so I made the call, and Shinobi expected me to bring Ichiro to the seventh floor of the Crimson Moon office building. He chose the seventh floor in case the samurai wanted to attack. If we were on the fourteenth floor, they could come in from the rooftop. If we were on the ground floor, they could come in through the front door. On the seventh floor, anyone who wanted to attack would have to fight their way up or down to the middle of the building.
Ichiro and I walked into the building at 6:00 sharp. We had an hour and twenty-two minutes until the moon would wolf him out. A cluster of ninja stood at the entrance.
Two stepped forward to frisk us for weapons. On the positive side, they gave me a female. She was so thorough she might have considered this to be our third date. She didn’t find any weapons.
Ichiro flinched a bit as the man frisking him ran his hands over Ichiro’s crotch. They were efficient, but we had only two weapons with us. I was one. Ichiro was the other.
Our molesters nodded to a camera hanging over the door and a red light on the side of the lens turned green.
One of the ninja opened the front door.
We walked through the group and entered the building. I was a little surprised they let me through. If I were them, I’d have brought Wakumi down. They had to be planning something.
“What if they attack?” Ichiro whispered.
“Then they die,” I said.
“We’re unarmed.”
I grinned. “Like that matters.”
The ninja overheard, of course, but with those masks, I couldn’t see their expressions. A few eyes widened, and a few suggested more amusement.
“I don’t like this,” Ichiro said.
He’d already said that a hundred times so I ignored it.
We walked to the elevator. I saw ninja stationed at the door to the stairs, and there were ninja guarding the elevator, too.
“For such experts at being invisible, they’re mighty conspicuous,” I said.
Six ninja stood inside the elevator car. We stepped aboard and I turned my back on them, half hoping they’d try something, but knowing they had their orders. One of them pushed the button for the seventh floor.
They wouldn’t kill Ichiro. They needed him.
They might try to kill me, though. As such, I kept myself on high alert, though outwardly I projected calm. As we rode the elevator to the seventh floor, I worked out sixteen different ways to kill all the ninja in the car with us using my hands, their weapons, and the control panel on the side. I glanced up at the access hatch in the roof. Make that seventeen ways.
As the ninja were behind me, I casually used my thumbnail to slice open the palm of my left hand so I could extract the iPhone camera. The cut healed as I peeled the plastic wrap from the camera.
Two ninja escorted us out of the elevator and down a hallway lined with more of the pajama-clad potential corpses. We entered a meeting room.
Shinobi sat at the far end of a long table. The walls were lined with ninja. Wakumi was not among the crowd. The little camera fluttered in my hand. I uncurled my fingers to release the camera to Amanda’s magical control. It flew away down the hallway as I stepped into the room with Shinobi. The door closed behind us.
“I’m delighted to see you again, Ms. Chan. And thank you for bringing Mr. Himura. You’ve made my day.”
“Where is Wakumi?” I asked.
“Somewhere safe.”
“If you expect me to let you keep Ichiro here, I’ll need proof of life.”
“If I expect you to let me keep him?”
“Nothing wrong with your hearing,” I said.
“You stand alone, unar
med, surrounded by enemies, and still you threaten me?”
“You’re labeling yourselves enemies?” I asked. “That’s not very smart.”
“There are twenty men well-versed in the art of killing in this room right now.”
I smiled. “Fifteen seconds.”
“I’m sorry?”
“The time it would take for me to kill all of them if they’re as well-trained as you say.”
“You don’t have a sword.”
I nodded to the ninja on my left. “No, but he does.”
To his credit, the ninja didn’t move.
“So you’d take his sword away and kill everyone?” Shinobi asked.
I shrugged.
“I must admit that I’d like to see that.”
“Give me proof of life on Wakumi or you will see it.”
Some of the ninja tensed.
I relaxed.
I always fight better when I’m relaxed.
Shinobi smiled. “Allow me to get my phone,” he said and reached into his suit coat. He pulled out his cell, entered the password, and placed a quick call. He slid the phone across the table.
“Show her,” he said.
I picked it up. A ninja stared at me from the screen. He moved his phone so the Facetime image showed that he stood in a room with medical equipment. Wakumi was in a bed with IV units and monitors. On one side, a ninja stood, sword in hand.
“Move in closer to her,” I said.
He extended his arm to show a closer view of Wakumi. Her chest rose and fell.
I slid the phone back to Shinobi. “Is she in the building?”
Shinobi tried to catch the phone, but it fell off the table. He bent to retrieve it and took a little longer to sit up than I would have expected. But when he spoke, his voice sounded normal. I would not have taken him for clumsy, so something was wrong.
“She’s on another floor where I can protect her. We’re doing what we can for her, but I suspect she still needs the care from a professional medical team. My men are great at taking lives, but not so talented when it comes to saving them.”
“We all have that in common,” I said, looking around at the ninja. None of them moved toward me. They all stood still, eyes on me.
I blinked a few times. Ichiro turned toward me, looking groggy.
“Have we reached an accord?” Shinobi asked.
Ichiro dropped to his knees.
The room spun around me. I took a deeper breath.
Ichiro fell face-first on the floor.
I felt woozy.
Shinobi bent again, but this time when he came up, he had an oxygen mask. He took a deep breath, lowered the mask. “I’m sorry we had to do it this way, but it’s best for everyone. Good night, Ms. Chan, in five…”
I don’t know what kind of gas he used. I grabbed for the ninja on my left, but he easily avoided me.
“…four … three…”
“You cheated,” I said and dropped to my knees.
“…two … one … and—”
I joined Ichiro in the land of dreams.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ropes bound me to a wooden chair. The ninja had done a good job wrapping the ropes around me again and again to keep my arms at my sides. My legs were also wrapped many times. The ninja also had the bright idea of tying the ropes around the table as well to make sure I couldn’t just tip over or rise up and slam myself against a wall.
Two ninja sat cross-legged on the table, swords across their laps as they gazed at me.
I looked around. We were the only ones in the meeting room.
“Your boss isn’t here?” I asked.
The ninja on the right shook his head.
“Did they cut out your tongues?”
Another head shake.
“May I speak with your boss?”
Three for three.
I glanced at the other ninja. “Are you permitted to speak?”
Right ninja nodded, but left ninja didn’t move a muscle. Neither spoke a word.
“Ninja aren’t supposed to be seen or heard,” I said. “I guess you got half of it. Might as well go for the complete fail. Say something.”
“Be quiet,” the ninja on the right said.
I laughed. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Nothing.
“Can you tell me what time it is?”
Head shake on the right.
“I have to pee.”
“Go ahead.”
“Well, at least we’re making progress,” I said.
Stares of apathy.
“What kind of gas did Shinobi use?”
Shrug.
“Can you tell me why none of you had any trouble with it?”
Ninja on the right pulled out a small metal apparatus similar to a regulator on a SCUBA tank. It reminded me of the Triton respirator, only smaller.
“I gotta get me one of those.”
He shrugged and slid it across the table toward me. It came to rest a few inches from the edge.
I tried to bend toward it, but couldn’t reach.
“Can you at least let me try it?”
The ninja exchanged looks.
“Oh, come on,” I said. “I’m tied here unable to move. Odds are your boss is going to kill me once he gets the werewolf blood from Ichiro. What can it hurt? Let me at least see what it’s like to breathe through one of those things. I promise not to bite.”
Head shake.
“Really? What possible harm could it do?”
The door opened behind me. I twisted my neck to see Shinobi.
“Any problems?” he asked.
“No, sir,” said the ninja on the right.
“I have a microphone in here,” he said. “You were about to let her try the mouthpiece. If you’d placed it in her mouth, she’d have used it to kill you. Isn’t that right, Ms. Chan?”
“Can’t blame a girl for trying,” I said.
Shinobi pulled up a chair and sat down to my right. “I don’t blame you at all,” he said.
“Why haven’t you killed me?”
“I don’t want to kill you, Ms. Chan. I have you bound to avoid any unnecessary violence, but my honest hope is that we will all get out of here alive.”
“I trust you have Ichiro where you want him,” I said.
“He’ll be changing in about twenty minutes. He awoke a little before you, and he’s been trying to build enough rage to shift to wolf form ahead of the moonrise.”
“He wasn’t building rage,” I said. “Merely letting it out.”
“Either way, I don’t know what difference that would make for him. Regardless, if Nori were here, he’d be chopping off Ichiro’s head about now. Oh, I neglected to tell you I found this following me down the hall.” He tossed the iPhone camera on the table. It was crunched. “At first I thought it was an insect, but it made no sound. I swatted it to the floor and stomped on it.”
“I’m excited for you.”
“You seem to think I’m a bad guy.”
“Let’s see, kidnapping, threatening to murder people including little girls. I wonder where I got that impression.”
“I didn’t kidnap her,” he said.
“I was there.”
“My fiercest competitor has an army of werewolves at his disposal. It’s my job to even the odds.”
“I hear Walmart is hiring.”
“This is a matter of family honor.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right.”
“Crimson Moon is run by my mother.”
“So?”
“Crimson Sun is run by my father.”
“I’ve never heard of Crimson Sun.”
Shinobi sighed. “I realize you’re just a warrior, but are you truly this stupid? Nori is my brother.”
“Not sure how this helps your case. It means you kidnapped your sister.”
“I’m keeping her safe. She was never in any danger. The men I have in her room are there to protect her, not to harm her. The end result of this remains the
same in all but one way. If Ichiro remains with me, he gets to live. If he goes to Nori, he dies.”
“So you’re a good guy who just happens to kidnap his own sister, but it’s for her own good.”
“I didn’t kidnap her. Look, our companies are technically one. My father and his best friend separated Crimson Sky Enterprises into two companies when they got the werewolf gene from Russia.”
“Your sister was involved in that?”
He looked confused. “What? Of course not.”
“I thought the werewolf curse was from experiments in Okinawa.”
More confusion. “Is that what Nori told you? And you believed him?”
“In his favor, he didn’t tie me up.”
“One of the many reasons Japan asked to end Russia’s suspension from G8 was because of the werewolf gene. The project was funded by all the member nations, of course, but what the other nations didn’t realize is that Russia had perfected it. The business with Crimea that got them suspended from G8 was unrelated, and our company, as Crimson Sky at the time, was heavily involved in Project Rumble Seat. The main research facility was in Nazarovo, a town in Russia. All of this doesn’t matter.”
“I don’t follow politics,” I said. “I don’t care if you want werewolves to help bring about the New World Order. The only thing I care about here is saving Wakumi and protecting Cho. I’d be happy to kill the rest of you so I don’t have to figure out who’s lying. Both sides sound like bullshit to me.”
“The only part that should matter to you is that if I can get the werewolf gene, Ichiro, Wakumi, and Cho will get to live together safely.”
“And you’re only now telling me this?”
“I wasn’t at liberty to tell you anything. My parents keep so many secrets from one another, and it has always been that way. My mother didn’t want me to tell you anything.”
“I think you’re full of shit,” I said. “I think you were under orders to kill Wakumi if you couldn’t get Ichiro, just as Nori was under orders to kill Ichiro if it looked like they were going to lose him to you. The ninja you have with Wakumi are there to kill her should things go south for you. Right?”
He looked at the floor, considered his options, and finally nodded. “Yes.”
“So why lie to me?”
