by Alex Archer
He circled her and Annja moved with him. The room was tight but somewhat maneuverable as long as she didn’t lift her sword high overhead. She had to watch her footing, though. More and more bodies littered the room and she could easily fall or trip on any of them. The blood on the floor also made things slippery.
The second swordsman kept her between himself and Ken.
Annja frowned. He knows how to use the environment to his advantage. He doesn’t want to risk getting between me and Ken.
Smart.
She started moving the other way, trying to position him between her and Ken. But he changed his posture and stance with the sword. If she tried to continue to do so, he’d be able to cut her badly and possibly kill her.
Another grunt sounded behind her. Ken must have polished off his third attacker.
Annja could see something in the eyes of her attacker. He was furious that Annja had killed his partner, but he must have also seen that he was now alone. And it would soon be two against one. Not two amateurs, he would have realized, but two very competent fighters.
He sliced up at Annja from the lower right, trying desperately to cut her from the waist to her head.
Annja leaped back and let her own sword arc down and up, redirecting his cut. She knew in a second she would clear his blade and be able to cut horizontally across his chest, ending this battle for good.
But as she did so, he leaped back and away, suddenly bringing his own sword high overhead.
Annja ducked and rolled as the blade cut through the air a hair’s width from her head. She came to a stop ten feet away, nearly bumping into one of the corpses on the floor.
The swordsman sliced at her again, and she barely had space to bring the blade up and block the cut. The sharp clang of steel echoed in the room.
“Annja!”
Ken’s voice reminded her she wasn’t alone.
It must have also reminded her attacker, who suddenly backed away. For another long second he stood silhouetted in the gaping hole of the wall and then in a flash, he was gone.
Annja stepped forward, ready to pursue, but felt Ken’s hand on her shoulder.
“No.”
She looked at him. “Why not? We’ve got to get him.”
“That may be exactly what he wants. He may be waiting out there for you to come through that hole and go after him. He’ll cut you down easily then.”
“So, what now?”
“We wait.”
“For what?”
“Morning.”
Annja slumped to the floor, leaning on the heavy sword blade. Ken squatted next to her. “You did amazingly well.”
“Thanks.”
He stared at the sword. “I must confess I knew you had some secrets, but this is not what I was expecting.”
Annja smirked. “Don’t ask, okay? It’s too long a story to get into, and I’m not even sure how to tell it.”
He smiled. “Fair enough. Later though, okay?”
“Maybe.”
Ken stood and walked to one of the corpses. He rolled him over and started searching him.
“You hoping to find something?”
Ken nodded. “Yes. I’d like to know who they were.”
“Aren’t they ninja?”
Ken frowned. “These were no ninja. They had no skills in ninjitsu. Just bad imitators dressed in cheap clothing and using crummy weapons.” He pointed. “You see that shuriken?”
Annja looked at the throwing star that had embedded itself in the door frame. “What about it?”
“You see how many points it has? That’s what they sell in Hong Kong flea markets. That’s not a legitimate Japanese shuriken.” He stood. “No identification on this one.”
He checked the other bodies but found nothing.
“Well, it seems they were smart enough to know not to have any identifying features on them in case things went wrong,” Annja said.
Ken nodded. “Just makes this all the stranger.”
“You did say that we were bound to attract the attention of other interested parties. And that some of those parties might not want us to find the vajra.”
“Yes. I did.”
“Surely this proves your theory out.”
Ken sighed and sat down on a clean spot on the floor. “I just wish it didn’t. We’ve already got enough troubles as it is on this jaunt.”
Annja could hear anxious noises coming from elsewhere in the ryokan. She stood. “More attackers?”
Ken shook his head. “No, I imagine that will be our friendly innkeeper. And boy is he going to shit when he sees this.”
“Good to know I’ll be helping improve America’s image overseas,” Annja said.
Ken pointed. “Well, you might want to get rid of that thing before he sees it. At least then we can claim self-defense.”
Annja nodded, closed her eyes and the sword vanished. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Ken shake his head. “Wow.”
The innkeeper appeared at what used to be their door.
24
“Who told you to attack them?”
Nezuma paused as he listened to the voice on the telephone. After a moment, he cleared his throat. “Of course I know you don’t report to me. But I thought we had an understanding—”
The voice on the other end of the phone cut him off again. Nezuma closed his eyes and listened to the venom coming at him, vowing that he would very soon see this particular mission finished to his devious liking.
“Fine. Good day.”
He clicked the phone off and turned to look at Shuko, who sat quietly eating some fruit on the tatami mats. “I swear they are the biggest fools on the planet.”
Shuko said nothing but only looked up at him expectantly. Nezuma frowned. “They attacked Kennichi and the woman last night in their ryokan.”
“Why?”
“I have no idea except that his young guns wanted vengeance for what Kennichi did to them back in Tokyo. It was a silly move and probably drew a great deal of unwanted attention to us. It also put them more on guard than they have been so far.”
Shuko took another bite of her fruit and kept staring at Nezuma. “So now they know.”
“They’ve known for sure that they have people watching them. But a full scale attack in the middle of the night borders on insane.” Nezuma sat next to her and took her hand. “Shuko.”
She looked at him. “Master.”
He shook his head. “I did not want to do what I had to do last night. I hope you understand that.”
“I understand.”
He rested his head on her shoulder. “We are so close right now to finally gaining what we’ve been after—”
“What you’ve been after.”
He looked at her. “This isn’t just about me. It’s about what the dorje can do for both of us.”
She shook her head. “I’ve never cared about that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I only care about what it can do for you, master. What it means to you—the value and glory you see in its recovery—means more to me than the item itself.”
Nezuma bowed his head. “But it will give us the life we’ve always dreamed of.”
Shuko shook her head. “But don’t you see? I already have the life I’ve always dreamed of. You gave that to me years ago when you plucked me out of that slum. And every day since then I’ve thanked the gods for your appearance in my life.”
Nezuma placed his finger under her chin and lifted it to meet his gaze. “You know I share your feelings.”
“Do you?”
“How can you question me?”
Shuko took her hand and pulled at the neck of her kimono. The dark black-and-blue welts on her skin showed like an angry yoke around her neck, mottling the skin toward her collarbones.
“This,” she said quietly, “is not what two people in love do to each other.”
Nezuma covered her neck back up. “You know I have a violent temper.”
“Yes. I kno
w.”
“And you know that I sometimes do things I don’t mean.”
“But I have never experienced any misdirected hatred from you. At least, not until last night.”
Nezuma nodded. “Would you prefer to leave?”
Shuko looked at him. “Would you let me?”
He leaned back. “You think I would kill you?”
She said nothing.
Nezuma sighed. “I suppose you do after last night.”
“Yes.”
“You have every right to.” He took a bite of the apple on the plate. “But my life would mean nothing without you in it.”
“Do you really mean that? Truly?”
Nezuma swallowed. “Yes.”
A small smile formed at the corners of her mouth. “Thank you.”
Nezuma kissed her on the lips. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”
She hugged him tightly, pressing her sobs into the folds of his robe. She shuddered and convulsed as he held on to her. When she was done, Nezuma could feel the wetness of her tears on his shoulder.
“You feel better now?”
She nodded, still with her face in his shoulder. He smoothed her hair back, running his fingers through the dark tresses as she sniffed and attempted to compose herself.
“My little beauty,” he said softly.
She sighed and kissed him then, pleading with her lips, slowly and long. Nezuma kissed her back, laying her back on the tatami mats, taking his time to be gentle and soft with her.
As he nuzzled her, he thought about the timetable they would need to adhere to in order to pursue Kennichi and Annja Creed. At least they knew where to find them—that was if they stayed around long enough.
Shuko whimpered as he kissed her. Sex would take precious time away from them.
He frowned. But it was apparently necessary in order to reassure Shuko that he did truly love her. After all, he needed her badly by his side during the coming battles he felt sure would take place.
And afterward…
He smiled as Shuko’s body tightened and then relaxed under his kisses.
Afterward, he could always dispose of her at his leisure.
“IT LOOKS DIFFERENT in the daylight.”
They stood outside of Jiro’s place, down the dank alleyway that just a few hours previously had been a home to wayward drunks and the smell of urine. Now, in the brightness of day, it looked like a run-down place, but the sense of danger was removed.
Ken pointed at the door. “It’s been opened.”
Annja followed his gaze. She could see the pry-bar marks by the hinges. “It looks like someone took it off and then put it back on when they were done with it.”
Ken nodded. “Exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“Someone doesn’t want anyone thinking there’s something wrong inside.” Ken moved closer to the door and pressed his ear against the steel and rust. After a moment, he stepped back. “We need to get in there.”
“What for? Who knows how old these marks are? Knowing your friend, he’s probably out somewhere or asleep. In either case, maybe we shouldn’t bother him.”
Ken shook his head. “I need to know if someone was asking about us. What if there’s another party interested in us that we didn’t know about before?”
“Ken, we’re supposed to be in the mountains right now. Not down here looking for your pal.”
“And if we don’t know who is looking for us, we could walk into a trap,” Ken said.
Annja pointed at the door. “Well, just how do you think you’re going to get in there?”
Ken removed a small packet of something from his coat. “Stand back.”
“What is that? Another special gift from Jiro?”
Ken looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“You could have told me about the gun.”
Ken shrugged. “Didn’t seem important at the time. Jiro always tosses in extras like that if he thinks I might need it. It wasn’t something I asked for especially.”
“But you knew he put it in the bag.”
“I suspected.”
Annja frowned. He certainly seemed perfectly comfortable reaching for it last night before the attack broke loose. “If you say so.”
Ken unfolded a gray clayish substance from the packet and placed a small amount around each of the hinges. From another pocket he withdrew small cylindrical objects that Annja recognized as detonators.
Ken plugged them into each packet and then looked at Annja. “We should probably move away.”
“You don’t have to ask twice. I’ve seen this stuff blow before,” Annja said.
They ducked around the corner and waited. In thirty seconds, there was a loud firecracker sound and when they looked back, bits of smoke wafted from the doorway.
“That wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be,” Annja said.
“Jiro gets good-quality stuff. Not your typical loud-bang explosive. It helps with avoiding unnecessary interest.”
They examined the door. All the hinges had been blown off, but the door stayed where it was.
“Must be extremely heavy,” Ken said. He reached into his coat and fished out a folding knife that he inserted in the gaps between the door and the frame. He exerted some pressure and the slab of the door started to come away from the jamb.
“Look out.”
Annja moved and the door fell forward, clanging louder than the explosive in the alley. Ken glanced inside and all around the jamb.
“No booby traps.”
“Did you really expect some?”
He shrugged. “You can never tell. And I always think it’s better to be safe than sorry, as the old saying goes.”
They stepped into the corridor and headed for the elevator at the end of the hallway. When they reached it, Ken repeated his examination and only after two full minutes did he proclaim it safe to ride.
They stepped in and closed the grate. The elevator groaned its way up to Jiro’s loft. They could hear music playing, but at a much lower volume than it had been last night.
“Maybe he’s asleep,” Annja said.
“Impossible,” Ken said. “When we took the door off, he would have been down here with guns blazing. He’s got the place wired for alarms and intrusion sensors.”
“Doesn’t seem like they stopped the people who might have gotten in here last night.”
“No,” Ken said. “It sure doesn’t.”
The elevator stopped and Annja pulled back the grate. Ken took point as they moved closer to the doorway. Annja could see the stacks of crates and boxes pretty much as they had been last night when Jiro had been scouring and rummaging through them.
Ken stopped. “Maybe you should wait here.”
“What for?”
“It might not be…safe inside.”
Annja frowned. “Ken, we had a battle last night where I killed several men. Do you really think that I’m going to stay out here like some sheltered dove while you go in there and face any possible dangers alone?”
He smiled. “I suppose not.”
“Good. Now let’s get on with this. The sooner we do, the sooner we can get going to find that vajra of yours.”
Ken nodded. They stepped over one crate and then another. The deeper they got into the loft area, the more apparent it became that there had been a shoot-out.
Ken knelt and brushed his fingers across a part of a crate where the wood had been splintered. “Ricochet.”
He stood. “I don’t think this is going to turn out well.”
“At least he appears to have tried to fight them off,” Annja said quietly.
Ken sighed. “For all the good it did him.”
“We might be wrong. He might be okay.”
They turned a corner and saw the dark pools of blood. Annja knelt and used a scrap of wood to poke the liquid. It was thick and sticky. She looked up at Ken.
“It’s a couple of hours old. Already congealed,” she said.
He
nodded and poked his head around another corner.
Annja heard him gasp.
“Ken?”
He ducked back around and faced her. “He’s not okay.”
Annja brushed past him and looked. Jiro was seated in a chair in a large tub that had been filled with water. A car battery sat nearby with leads running up to alligator clips that had been attached to Jiro at extremely intimate parts of his body.
Jiro’s lifeless eyes stared at her.
Annja blinked and looked away.
Ken’s hand was firm on her shoulder. “He didn’t give us up easily.”
“Who would do this?”
Ken shook his head. “I don’t know. But when I find out, I’ll kill them. If not for the vajra, then for Jiro.”
25
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
Ken nodded, bowing his head for a moment. “He was a good kid. A little on the dodgy side, but he sure didn’t deserve this.”
“No one does,” Annja said. “And we’ll make sure whoever did this doesn’t get to do it to anyone else.”
“It’s my fight,” Ken said. “It’s not right for me to ask you to come along any further.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Annja said.
Ken shook his head. “Between last night and this, no, I can’t ask it of you. You’ve been great so far, but this is getting out of control. These people will apparently stop at nothing to get the vajra.”
“If you think I’m backing out now—”
“Maybe Taka was right. Maybe the vajra shouldn’t be disturbed at all. Maybe it should just be left alone where no one else can find it,” Ken said.
“You really think it’s safe anymore?” Annja asked. “After all of this, these people are closer to it than ever before simply by virtue of tagging along on our coattails.”
“What are you saying?”
“That you can’t simply disengage from the hunt now. Because you started it, you’ve got to see it through to the end. Or else the wrong people will be able to find it. And I don’t think you want that happening.”
Ken nodded. “You’re right, of course.”
“Yes. I am.”
He smiled. “Thanks for being so modest.”
Annja touched his arm. “Enough of this. We need to get going or there’s a chance—”
