Will nodded fiercely, and Jin turned back to Mark.
“Keep them safe.”
Mark nodded firmly, and Jin spun on his heel and walked out the living room door without a second thought.
--<(0)>--
Twelve hours later, Jin marched straight through the doors of Mordechai’s antiques shop.
Mordechai’s assistant, Alexis, looked up from her desk to see who had come in.
“Good morning, sir,” she said. “Can I help you?”
Jin looked over at her, not bothering to put on his mask of happy politeness.
“Where’s Mordechai?” he asked roughly.
“Mr. Krueger is on vacation at the moment, and he’s left me…”
Whatever Mordechai had left her, Jin never heard. The minute she started speaking, Jin walked up to her and with his good arm, grabbed her and shoved her up against the wall.
“Listen, bitch,” he spat, his voice a vicious hiss. “I have neither the time, patience, or desire to put up with these ridiculous games. I know you know who Mordechai Krueger really is. Therefore, I also know that you know who I really am. So, either you tell me where he’s gone, or I’ll pull these heavily manicured fingernails of yours out, one by one, and very slowly.”
--<(0)>--
Four hours later, Jin Sakai was sitting on a plane to Maui with Mordechai’s address scrawled on a piece of paper that sat atop tickets for a same day flight back to New York.
--<(0)>--
Some number of hours later (he’d lost track due to frustration), Jin stepped off the plane rubbing his temples in an effort to suppress the nearly overwhelming desire to choke the life out of the four crybaby toddlers who had been sitting behind him. In all his travels as an assassin, he’d had some pretty nasty flying experiences. Nevertheless, being crammed like a sardine between two people heavy enough to be sumo wrestlers, with each smelling like they’d spent the night in the sewer, and having to listen to the crybaby quartet for the entire flight definitely placed in the top five.
So it was with a massive effort that Jin forced himself to walk calmly toward the car rental shop rather than indulge in the spree of mass murder that he dearly wished to inflict upon his fellow fliers.
--<(0)>--
Some time later, Jin was driving up to a cluster of condominiums in Kapalua. Jin eased the blue 1968 Mustang he’d rented into a nearby parking space and glanced at the piece of paper Mordechai’s address had been scrawled on. Turning the car off and pocketing the sheet of paper, Jin stepped out and walked toward one of the condos. As he approached, he realized how brilliant a place this was to hide. It was such an obvious choice that Dorigan would have completely overlooked it, expecting Mordechai to choose something far more secluded and remote on the US mainland.
He never would have expected Mordechai to hide in relatively plain sight.
Jin reached the door of Mordechai’s condo and knocked three times.
Sounds of laughter came from behind the door, and it swung open to reveal Mordechai’s wife, Alexandra, standing in the doorway wearing a lavender bathrobe. When she looked up and saw who was actually at the door, she jumped backward with a horrified gasp.
“You,” she breathed. “No, no…”
“Relax, Ms. Krueger, I’m not here for you. I need to speak with Mordechai.”
“Who needs to speak with me?”
Jin and Alexandra looked up to see Mordechai walk toward them wearing nothing but a light blue bath towel wrapped around his waist. When he saw Jin, every muscle in his body tightened in preparation for a fight.
After all, Jin had a nasty habit of bringing one with him wherever he went.
“Jin,” he said simply.
“Not now, Mordechai,” Jin said, slouching slightly. “I’m not in the mood. I’ve had a terrible flight, and I’m here only because I have absolutely no other choice.”
“Oh?” Mordechai asked curiously, relaxing his body.
“Yeah,” Jin replied, heaving a heavy sigh. “I need your help.”
“With what?” Alexandra fired off.
“My arm won’t heal for another three weeks,” Jin explained, showing them his splint. “And Dorigan is going to complete Project Hellbound in less than one.”
Mordechai took in the news without a change of expression, and Alexandra looked frantically from her husband to Jin.
“He held off attacking you longer than you expected, didn’t he?” Mordechai asked.
“A lot longer,” Jin replied.
“What do you need?” Mordechai asked.
Jin opened his mouth to speak, but Alexandra cut across him.
“You’re not seriously thinking of helping him, are you?” she asked, incredulous. “After he tried to kill you?”
“He’s also the one who helped us escape,” Mordechai countered evenly. “If it hadn’t been for him, all three of us, you, me, and Jonah, we’d all be dead. We owe him our lives.”
“But…” Alexandra tried to protest.
“I know you’re scared, Alex, and I am too, but this is something that I have to do.”
“Why, Mordechai?” Alex asked desperately. “Why do you have to do this?”
At this, Mordechai sighed.
“Alexandra,” he said, lowering his gaze. “I wake up every morning terrified that it will be our last. That today will be the day that Dorigan finds us. That all the work I’ve done to protect you and Jonah will be for nothing. I can’t let that happen, Alex. I won’t let Dorigan kill you and Jonah. Not if there is anything I can do about it. I’m sorry it’s come to this, Alex, but the fact of the matter is it has. I won’t let my mistakes, my choices, be the death of you and our son.”
Alexandra sniffed and raised her hand to cover her mouth. Her eyes watered as she turned on her heel and walked into the kitchen. Mordechai sighed heavily as he watched her, and then turned back to Jin.
“Just let me get dressed,” he said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Jin nodded, and Mordechai walked back to the master bedroom. As the door closed, another door creaked slowly open, and five-year-old Jonah Krueger walked out of his room and up to Jin.
“Excuse me, mister,” he said politely, “Are you taking my daddy away?”
The pure innocence that permeated Jonah’s voice tore at Jin’s heart. The sad truth of the matter was that he was, and Jin knew that there was a very high chance that Mordechai would not live through what Jin would need him to do.
“Mister,” Jonah asked again, “Are you?”
Again, Jonah’s innocent voice tugged violently at Jin’s heartstrings, and Jin had a fleeting impulse to backhand the little brat into next week. Yet he squelched that desire immediately, for it was not the boy that was truly irritating him. It was the whole situation. It was the horrible injustice of it all. If Leah and Will hadn’t been in the picture, Jin would have just asked Mark to do it. He was more than capable, and his chances of survival were significantly higher than Mordechai’s. That, however, was merely due to the fact that Jin had trained Mark personally. But Leah and Will were in the picture, and Mark was the person best suited to guard them.
“Mister?” Jonah asked again.
Jin looked down at Jonah and smiled as best he could.
“Only for a little while,” Jin said, hoping with all his heart that his words would not become a lie.
Still looking sad, Jonah turned and walked toward the kitchen to join his mother. As he left, Mordechai returned, garbed in blue jeans and a simple gray T-shirt.
“You ready?” Jin asked.
“Almost,” Mordechai replied, and he too joined Alexandra in the kitchen.
He found her fixing Jonah his dinner, and he placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned to face him, and he saw that her eyes were red and puffy. A tear trickled down her cheek, and Mordechai wiped it away before taking her hand in his and pressing something into it. Alex looked at her hand, and then at her husband. Mordechai nodded at her hand and she opened it.
Sitting
in her palm was a solid black ring that had been made in the shape of a dragon, and set in its eye was a small, yet perfectly cut emerald.
“This ring was given to me when I became one of the heads of the Black Dragon Clan,” Mordechai explained. “Now I don’t know how long this business with Jin will take, but rest assured, I’ll come back for that ring.”
Alexandra choked back a sob and threw her arms around Mordechai, who hugged her back.
From his position at the door, Jin could only see half of what was going on, but he could fill in the blanks. That knowledge, coupled with the knowledge of Mordechai’s odds, tore at Jin’s heart once again, and his hatred of Dorigan flared back into its full, roiling intensity. That man seemed to specialize in destroying families.
I swear to you, Dorigan, Jin hissed savagely in his own mind. I will make you pay for this. I will!
Mordechai and Alexandra released each other, and Mordechai kneeled down to face his son.
“You take care of your mother, okay, Jonah?” he said.
Jonah nodded.
“Promise?” Mordechai pressed.
“I promise,” Jonah replied.
“Good, that’s my boy.”
At that, Mordechai pulled his son into a tight hug. Jonah returned it, and when Mordechai released him and stood up, he made a point of mussing up his son’s short blond hair.
“I’ll be home soon,” he said.
And then, without looking back, he walked back to Jin and out the door.
Jin held back a moment, and gave Alexandra and Jonah the most apologetic look he could muster before turning around and closing the door.
Chronicles of the Apocalypse
--<(0)>--
Part 1: Revenge, Everything is Nothing
Chapter 16: Preparation
As the Boeing 747 soared over the Pacific Ocean later that evening, Jin and Mordechai sat in the middle of the aircraft, ignoring both the in-flight movie and their fellow passengers. They both sat in silence. Mordechai knew that Jin didn’t like to discuss anything until he was sure of what to say, and Mordechai himself never did much of anything without someone else making the first move.
The only exception to that rule had been Alexandra.
But as thoughts of her began to drift into Mordechai’s mind, he stomped on them. This was the time to be an assassin, not a family man. He therefore needed both his mind and heart to stay cool, if not outright cold.
So it was that Mordechai lay back in his seat, calmly waiting for Jin to make the first move. A tap on the shoulder returned him to the world, and he sat back up to face Jin.
“I take it you have a plan, then?” Mordechai asked evenly.
“Several,” Jin replied. “All of which are dependent on the amount of resources you still have at your disposal.”
“More than you’d think,” Mordechai said. “I made sure to spread the word to all of my men when I left that they needed to do the same. Since I don’t pose nearly the kind of threat to the B.D.C. that you do, Dorigan hasn’t bothered to try and track them all down.”
“Good to know. Now, about how many men is that?”
“Fifty.”
“Personally trained?”
“Naturally.”
Jin nodded in approval. It was customary in the Black Dragon Clan for each Black Dragon to personally train the men under their command in the basics of stealth, combat, and espionage. It was then up to the individual to hone their abilities. The only one who had broken with this tradition was Dorigan.
“So then,” Mordechai continued. “What’s the plan with fifty men?”
“We go straight for the heart. Attack the mansion.”
Mordechai took this in without a change of expression, and while his voice did not waver, his words acutely conveyed his concern.
“That’s…a bit bold, don’t you think?”
“Which means that Dorigan will not be expecting it at all. Neither will his men.”
Mordechai seemed unconvinced.
“Look,” Jin continued. “Let’s talk about this when we get to Pine Lake, we’ll have more freedom then.”
--<(0)>--
A number of hours later, Jin and Mordechai had snuck onto Mark’s roof. As they dropped through Mark’s skylight and into his bedroom, they heard sounds of laughter coming from the room below.
It’s good to know they’re still safe, Jin thought with a sigh of relief.
Creeping over to the trapdoor that led to Mark’s living room, Jin delivered a series of knocks to let Mark know he’d returned safely and without being followed. He waited for a handful of moments before hearing Mark deliver one loud knock to the other side of the door. Nodding to Mordechai, Jin opened the trapdoor and walked down the stairs.
“Well,” Mark said as Jin entered the living room. “I take it that everything went smoothly?”
“As smoothly as could have been expected,” Jin said as Mordechai descended the ladder.
When Mordechai entered the room in full, Mark turned to him and lowered himself to one knee.
“Master Krueger,” he said, head bowed.
Mordechai was struck by Mark’s formality, but nevertheless placed his hand on the back of Mark’s head, indicating acceptance.
“You spend so much time at the top,” Mordechai said to Jin, “you forget that there’s a bottom.”
Jin shrugged as Mark resumed his feet.
“I try not to think about the way things were,” he said simply.
“Fair enough,” Mordechai replied. “So, who are they?”
He gestured over to Leah and Will, who were sitting on the couch, watching the exchange between the three men.
“This is Leah Lawson and her son, William,” Jin explained, before telling Mordechai the short version of how they had been drawn into things.
“My condolences,” Mordechai said to them at the conclusion of Jin’s tale, bowing low.
Leah answered the bow with a respectful nod.
“Well then,” Jin said. “I suggest we all head upstairs and discuss our plans.”
Mark and Mordechai nodded and climbed up the ladder. Rather than follow them, however, Jin walked over to Leah and Will.
“Listen,” he said to them as he knelt by the side of the couch. “You two might not see much of me over the next few days, but I want you both to know that I’ll get you out of this. You won’t be stuck here for much longer.”
At that, and without waiting for a reply, Jin stood up and walked back up to Mark’s bedroom. Still, as Leah turned her attention back to the TV, Will kept his gaze locked on the trapdoor to Mark’s room. He could feel something growing in his heart, a kind of warm but strong attachment to Jin. When Will consciously realized this, he also realized its cause.
Jin had kept his promise.
Thank you, Jin, Will thought, Thank you so much.
--<(0)>--
Over the next three days, Jin, Mark, and Mordechai each worked tirelessly on their individual tasks. Jin spent his time scoping out Dorigan’s mansion. He left before sunrise, returned after sunset, and shared what he’d discovered about the guards posted on the ground with Mark and Mordechai.
Meanwhile, Mordechai spent his time tracking down each of the fifty men who had been under his command. Though they’d all given him their contact information when they’d gone underground, fifty people was still a substantial number of individuals to contact. Mordechai had started with those farthest away from Maine (who would therefore have the longer travel times), and then moved to the ones closer. He told them all only the basics of the plan, namely the when and where, and assured them that they would receive full details on the day of assignment.
Mark had by far the riskiest, yet most important, duty. As the only one of the three who had not been branded a traitor, it had fallen on him to get as much information regarding Dorigan’s progress as he could. His success in this venture had surprised all of them but had also produced an unforeseen complication.
“There is no
way Dorigan is not going to know I had a hand in this,” Mark said on the third night. “He’s shared too much with me. He’ll know that you got the information from me.”
Looking unusually grim, Jin had offered a simple solution.
“There’s no avoiding it then,” he said. “When Mordechai attacks, you’ll have to be there.”
“What?” Mordechai exclaimed.
“There’s nothing else that can be done,” Jin said. “If Mark is to maintain the illusion of innocence, he will have to be there to fight for Dorigan.”
Mark’s expression hardened, but he nodded nonetheless. He knew Jin was right.
“There’s no other way,” he said. “And I can’t protect Leah and Will if I’m dead.”
Mordechai looked as though he was about to protest, but Jin shot him a stern glare, and he knew the issue had been settled.
“So it’s decided then,” Jin said. “The attack begins tomorrow night at midnight.”
Chronicles of the Apocalypse
--<(0)>--
Part 1: Revenge, Everything is Nothing
Chapter 17: Execution
The air was cold and still, as if it was a reflection of Mordechai’s mind. Jin wasn’t there, his arm would have been too much a handicap, and he needed to be alive. However much Mordechai set Dorigan back, only Jin had the ability to kill him. The underbrush shivered behind him, and Mordechai’s hand found his dagger.
A man clad in all black entered Mordechai’s field of vision, and he noticed that the man had a silver emblem of a wolf’s head stitched on the left breast of his shirt. Mordechai relaxed and released his dagger.
Chronicles of the Apocalypse: Revenge, Everything is Nothing Page 19
