Jack glanced from Fry to the still-silent Snow, who was staring out the window, then back to Fry again. “Right.”
“Is there a problem?”
“Dunno. The woman who threw a chair at me and Dr. Anjali has barely said a word since all of this started, and we’re about to march into a haunted forest to hunt a dragon with her. What the hell do you think?”
Fry spread his hands. “If you have something to say, now’s the time.”
“The woman’s past is more checkered than a picnic blanket. Her background alone should disqualify her from being in the field with us, her heritage notwithstanding. How do you expect either of us to work with her, let alone trust her not to let the dragon snack on us at the earliest opportunity?”
“Aside from the fact that if she did, I’d lock her ass up until Doomsday?”
“Yeah.”
Fry sat back in his seat. “Ms. Snow, if you would.”
She didn’t speak immediately. Her eyes wandered from person to person in the crowded streets of the city, taking in details at her leisure. When she did finally speak, it was a quiet, measured voice without the same condescension that they’d heard earlier.
“It was early November, when the snow fell by the pound until it was knee-deep. Just a handful of men were brave enough to accompany him, maybe five or six of them. They’d seen Baba Yaga’s talons rip men to shreds in seconds, her jaws going through bone like butter, her fire like the sun came to nest down on earth. He’d sent a sentry out to observe her resting hours. You see, they’d learned that it was suicide to approach her during the hibernation period because it was an illusion. They thought they could kill her while she slept, but the dragon didn’t sleep in hibernation. Only part of her brain shut down, and the instinctual side was still awake and deadly as ever, so they decided that the best way was to lure her out into the snow. They’d learned that she would kill anything within the threshold of her cave, but if they stayed on the outskirts, she’d chase them to the edge of her territory. They made a commotion outside of the cave and then retreated to just inside the border of her territory. The dragon’s fire melted the snow, but it couldn’t catch anything on fire. She moved slower and couldn’t lift herself on the air as easily without warm currents. Their swords and arrows couldn’t penetrate her flesh, so they were forced to think of something else instead. Two of the men tethered her to the trees so she couldn’t fly away. One died when her tail snapped his spine. She obliterated another with her fire. Captain Demeter told the others to stay back and faced her down himself, doing the only thing he could think of to stop her. He grabbed the rope, twisted it around her neck, and he squeezed.”
Juniper Snow turned her head slowly until her wintry gaze found the scientists across from her. “They fought. She died during the third hour.”
She leaned forward enough to rest her arms on her long legs. “Dragons aren’t animals. They don’t think like animals, they don’t act like animals, they don’t die like animals. They’re monsters. They’re the things that creep in the night and snatch away your breath before you think to take it. God damned them for a reason until you two in your arrogance decided that His Word wasn’t good enough. That’s all fine and dandy. You’ll see for yourself that the gates of Hell aren’t underground. They’re in that forest with the souls of the dead waiting for us. I don’t care what you think of me. My family’s legacy is on the line. That beast will ne’er harm another person while I’m still breathing. Don’t get in my way.”
“Yep,” Jack said. “Our fears are totally availed.”
It was a long, lonely drive to the area of Aokigahara, which didn’t have a direct route from the railway station like most cities surrounding Tokyo. For a bit, Jack and Kamala had the distraction of seeing the unforgettable Mount Fuji along the drive, but as they approached any small enjoyment of nature’s beauty disappeared. The road was small and encased in trees on either side, giving it a claustrophobic atmosphere.
As promised, they had to get clearance to pass through the police barricade at the entrance and all climbed out to gather by a large police van where the equipment guy was waiting for them. He was late forties, short, and chubby with a slightly greying goatee and sharp brown eyes made for noticing details. He wore a brown sport coat, a checkered shirt, and khakis, and the way he had been checking his watch before the group walked up led them to believe he’d been waiting quite a while for them.
“Bout time,” he snapped. “What, did ya walk here?”
Fry rolled his eyes. “Briefing took a while. Calm your tits and show us what you’ve got.”
The man scowled, flicking his gaze briefly over them. “I’m Dr. Friedman. I’ll give you an overview of the equipment, so keep your questions until I’m done with my spiel. And don’t touch anything until I say so, got it?”
“This is what I love about this job,” Jack said to Kamala. “You meet the nicest people.”
Dr. Friedman harrumphed and popped open a cardboard box nearly as big around as he was. He drew out what looked like two silver fire extinguishers strapped together and attached to an exterminator’s gun. “These are your packs. We’re reluctant to call them cold guns, but essentially, that’s what they are. The liquid inside comes out pressurized through these nozzles, which have been pre-set for the temperature at which you’ll be able to subdue the dragon. If for some reason you need to increase the volume of the liquid, the knob on the right side of the canister will do that. However, keep in mind that it should be your last ditch effort. We were on short notice, so each pack contains about four gallons of the compound. If you run out, then you run away. It took us a while to get the ingredients right, so we don’t have any spare packs and it’ll be hours before we can get any more of them made, let alone driven up here. Naturally, always keep the nozzle pointed away from you and your team members at all times. This stuff will freeze you to the ground if you’re not careful, and you don’t want to be a Lean Cuisine for Baba Yaga.”
He set the pack down and opened the other box sitting next to it that was slightly smaller. This time, he withdrew what looked like black coveralls made of Kevlar. “To that end, we also called in a few favors and got these suits sent here for you. You might not recognize them since they’re military issue only. These suits are the ultimate in environmental protection. It can withstand up to 1,400 degrees Celsius and -40 degrees Celsius. The suit is lined with a special chemical synthesized from studying the blubber of whales and aquatic dragons, so should you accidentally be sprayed with the compound from the cold guns, you’ll have a fighting chance not to freeze to death. As far as Baba Yaga’s fire, you can withstand a blast of up to about thirty seconds before the suit cooks and you along with it. Don’t get cocky. Stay out of sight and out of direct contact with her fire.”
He turned the suit around and showed them what looked like a hoodie on the back. “You’ll be traveling in daylight, so you won’t need to pull the hood down until you’ve sighted the dragon. There are protective goggles and a breathing mask built in with a limited amount of oxygen in case the dragon sets the forest on fire. You’ll have about thirty minutes’ worth of clean air, no more, so use it at your discretion as well.”
Dr. Friedman held up the right sleeve of the suit, which had a small, flexible touch pad screen on it. “That brings us to the good and the bad news. The good news is these suits have GPS trackers built in. The bad news is that Aokigahara is essentially sitting on top of an enormous magnetic field that screws up almost all technology, even something as simple as a compass. If something horrible happens, you’re going to have two choices. If you know that you’re near the path, follow it and eventually you’ll come back to civilization. If you aren’t anywhere near the path, stay put and the search team will find you sooner or later.”
He brandished the thick belt at the center of the suit that had a few square pouches. “Your suit has a pack of flares attached for an emergency if you get lost. Get to the highest point you can see and shoot one off once every hour. Don�
�t panic and waste them or it’ll be a very long time before someone sees you again. The pack also has a few emergency rations of dried food and a flask of water, but hopefully it should never come to that point. You’ve also got glow-in-the-dark chalk for going through the caverns, a high-powered long-lasting flashlight, some backup batteries, and some First-Aid items for minor injuries. The right radio frequency is already set in the suit’s built-in circuitry, so don’t mess with it unless it starts to malfunction. You won’t be able to communicate with us once you’re out there, but you should still be able to speak to each other just fine.”
Dr. Friedman dropped the suit back onto the bed of the truck and fixed each one of them in turn with a frosty stare. “The very last thing I’m going to tell you is a bit hard to swallow, but you need to take it to heart. This is not a normal forest. I spent a while with the guides that work here while you were on the way and they’ve told me that you need to understand what you’re walking into. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in the supernatural. As a man of science, yeah, it seems easy to just laugh it off, but Aokigahara has qualities that can’t be quantified. This forest wants you dead.”
Fry snorted, but Dr. Friedman continued. “It doesn’t care how it accomplishes that goal. With or without the dragon, do not forget that this isn’t a game of hide-and-seek. There are things out there who want to lure you deeper into the forest to turn you into one of them. Don’t listen to the forest. Keep your head on straight and follow my instructions. If you don’t, then take a good look around, because this is the last of civilization that you’ll ever see. Understood?”
Each of them nodded. “Good. Questions?”
Jack raised a hand. “Where can I change my pants?”
* * *
To save on time, the team took turns changing into their suits inside the back of the police van, as its windows were tinted. Fry and Snow had gone in one by one, but Jack and Kamala changed clothes together for obvious reasons.
“I’m starting to consider a change in career paths,” Jack said, shrugging out of his button-up shirt and folding it neatly to rest next to his dress shoes.
“Just now?” Kamala mused, wiggling out of her slacks. “I’ve already put in an application at Columbia to be a professor.”
“Damn, Kam. Left me high and dry, huh?”
“You snooze, you lose.” She glanced out the back of the van’s windows and lowered her voice. “Did you get through to Fujioka?”
“No,” Jack sighed. “I think everything’s screwy with that magnetic field interference. I think we’re just going to have to be paranoid and assume that the dragon’s owners did infiltrate the forest and stay on alert.”
“It’ll be harder this time. We don’t have a good way to defend ourselves, and I have little faith that Agent Fry is concerned with our well-being.”
“You said it. He should be way more off-balance bringing Snow along and yet it feels like he doesn’t even mind. She’s nuttier than squirrel shit if you ask me.”
“Colorful,” Kamala said, stepping into her suit. She paused. “Are you staring at my butt?”
“Nope,” Jack said cheerfully.
“Liar.”
“I take offense to that, madam.”
She shook her head and started pulling the suit up her legs. “Incorrigible. Here we are, about to walk into a haunted forest to hunt the world’s deadliest dragon, and you’re still checking me out.”
“Hey, it just means my priorities are in order,” he said, tugging the heavy material up one leg. “I mean, this could be the last time I see you in your underwear. I have to treasure memories like this in case they’re my last.”
The two of them finished dressing, adjusting the suits to their body types with the straps on each side, and then laced up the matching heavy combat boots. Jack finished first and took a deep breath. “Do you actually want to talk before we go?”
“Not sure,” Kamala said softly. “It might destabilize me. If I pretend like this isn’t terrifying, then maybe I’ll get through it in one piece. A lot of doctors have this quiet little cave that we go into before we have to work on a patient whose situation is life or death. I’m at the mouth of my cave, but I haven’t gone in just yet.”
She finally glanced up to meet his worried gaze. “So if there is anything that I need to know, now would be the time to say it.”
Jack swallowed hard. The words climbed up his throat and felt like razor blades shredding it from the inside. Say it, his brain urged. Just tell her the truth now. She’ll be hurt, but it’s better than waiting and lying. She’ll never forgive you if you keep waiting.
“I…” He shut his eyes and shook his head a bit. “I, uh…shit, this is killing me.”
He felt her small, warm hands on his and glanced up to see her kneeling in front of him, smiling sadly. “I know. It’s okay.”
Jack froze. “You do?”
“You’re worried about the baby. So am I. I’m sick to my stomach with worry, actually. I asked myself many times if I should turn back, but I don’t think I could live with myself if you got hurt because I wasn’t here to watch your back. You and I are the only ones out there that can be trusted to do the right thing when the time comes. We know the score with Fry and Snow. We owe it to the people who died in the Tokyo attack to right this wrong, but I promise you that I will do everything I can to keep our little one safe.”
She brushed the hair out of his eyes, stroking the side of his face. “And I know you will do all you can to protect us as well. I know you aren’t a man of faith and that’s okay. I have enough faith for the both of us to know that we’ll come out of this alright. I also know that it’s been very stressful for you because we’ve only been together a month and there are bigger conversations we haven’t had yet, and not just about the baby. Marriage and home-life and what will become of our careers in the future. Everything’s gone completely crazy in a short amount of time and I appreciate that you’ve been doing your best to handle it all. I couldn’t do this without you. I can’t do this without you. I don’t want to. And so you must promise me that you’ll make it out of this forest alive. Promise me that we’ll see what kind of future is out there together.”
Jack stared into her fathomless honey-brown eyes and felt something crumble inside of him. He couldn’t bear to meet her gaze, so he shut his own and nodded. “I promise.”
“Thank you, Jack.” She pulled him into a soft, tender kiss. Jack cursed himself a thousand times and hoped his soul would burn brightly in Hell someday.
“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered, gently stroking her cheekbone with his thumb.
She smiled again. “Liar.”
6
BODHISATTVA
“Listen up,” Fry said as he finished securing the .50 caliber Desert Eagle to his left side. “We have eight hours ‘til sunset. Every second counts, and that’s why I’m not gonna waste a lot of them reminding you to follow orders. I’ll take point. I want Dr. Jackson manning the dragon tracker and Dr. Anjali monitoring infrared frequencies. Snow will take the rear. When we get close to the dragon, we’re going to do recon until we have her surrounded. Once that happens, I’ll draw her attention and you take her down. We pop flares so that the helicopter comes in with the lift to transport her to the holding facility. If something happens to me, you are to return to the path and evacuate the forest so that the authorities can take over. This isn’t the time for heroics. Don’t split up. Stay together, stay alive. If you do get separated, use the radio and your flares until we find you again. If you disobey me at any point, game over. Charles Manson will see daylight before you do, get me?”
Jack gave him a faux-salute. “Aye, aye, Cap’n.”
Fry made sure both women nodded as well and then pointed towards the wide dirt path that began just under the wooden sign proclaiming the forest’s name in kanji. “This forest is an area of over fourteen miles. That’s a lot of ground to cover, so move quickly and step lightly so that we don’t give
away our position early. More than likely, the dragon is underground in one of the ice caverns, so as soon as we come up on them, we go silent.”
The field officer paused and allowed a miniscule smirk to cross his thin lips. “As a wise man once said…let’s get this moveable feast underway.”
Fry turned and started up the path. Jack gave Kamala one last reassuring smile and fell in step to his right, tapping the dragon tracker awake. It beeped a few times and then its black background asked for the sample. Jack took the carefully wrapped slide with Baba Yaga’s dried blood sample on it out of his pocket and scanned it. The tracker switched to a calibration screen, which would take a few minutes, giving Jack enough time to take in his surroundings.
The dirt path was about eight feet across and started at a slight incline. The trees of Aokigahara weren’t particularly scary. Jack had seen his share of unnerving woods in horror movies—those without leaves and seemingly without life—but from just a glance, these ones didn’t seem all that harrowing. There was a wealth of greenery, from plants to flowers to thick patches of moss overlaying their trunks and fallen limbs. Most were tall enough to blot out most of the sky, with dense leaves that muffled the wind. Every step crunched unnaturally loud like strolling through waist-high Frosted Flakes. He could hear his own breathing as if he was in a diving chamber, and the sensation made the surroundings all the more surreal.
Kamala felt a chill spill down her spine as soon as the forest entrance vanished from sight as they began their hike towards the first ice cave. She inhaled and exhaled in a calming pattern, using the same meditation and mantra that she did for her morning prayers, and managed to get the irrational fear to subside. All that was left was her paranoia thanks to the heir of one of the world’s most famous dragon slayers. She kept Snow in her peripheral vision as she walked, trying to see through the woman’s expressionless face.
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