by Kate Sander
He nodded and ran down the dark concrete hallway, children in tow.
They would never see each other again.
Charlie turned away from their retreating shadows. She had a job to do. And hopefully she died doing it. She searched the fallen guards again. One started to stir and she elbowed him hard in the jaw. He fell back to the ground, unconscious, but her hand went numb again. She sighed and tried to ignore it. She took the other guard’s baton. She contemplated taking his assault rifle but decided against it. If a shot rang out in the compound all the guards would come running. She wanted that, eventually, but she needed to distance herself from the kids first. She hoped that whatever the “disturbance” was, it was a long ways away from the kids as well. She stole his key card and she went down the hallway, the opposite way as Isaac, towards the room where Kelly died.
She had a rudimentary plan. She hated rudimentary plans. That was a Senka move. She felt a familiar pain in her chest when she thought about her dead partner. She hadn’t thought of Senka in over a year. She’d been given a challenge and, after accepting it, all memories of Tomo and Senka had gone into a lock box in her mind. A lock box she didn’t open.
But all of this change, all of this action, seeing Carter’s son, had dredged up the key from the sludge of her mind and unlocked the door. Memories, thoughts, feelings that hadn’t been dealt with flooded out into her mind. She didn’t know for sure if Senka was actually dead. That’s just what Alejandra had told her when she arrived at the compound. They had been lying to her about everything else, she hoped that they were lying about that too. She hoped Senka and Carter had finally gotten together and retired.
She slammed the door of her mental trap before the one person, her love, her everything, managed to escape. She couldn’t think about her spouse right now, not when she was ready and willing to die. She absent-mindedly rubbed the empty ring finger on her left hand.
A door appeared on the left. She opened it with the key card and looked inside.
Broom closet. Damn.
She worked her way through rooms in the hallway. She found another janitor’s closet, a bathroom and a small coffee room for guards.
No guards in sight.
Nothing of value.
Something was wrong here. She could feel it in her bones.
She reached another nondescript door and opened it with reckless abandon. She was getting tired of hunting for someone in this compound. She hadn’t heard a sound in the compound since she ran away from the kids. Right now she didn’t have a plan and that made her excessively uncomfortable. She needed enemies so she could make a plan.
Inside she found a beautiful office, red with gold highlights. It was smaller than the office that she was taken to where Kelly was killed, but it was more intimate and cozy. It had a beautiful oak desk and paintings on the walls.
Her eyes were immediately drawn to a display box behind the empty oak desk.
Those idiots had kept it here, in the same building as her.
They should have destroyed it.
She tilted her head back and laughed, a wicked smile coming to her face. She walked around the desk and looked at the glass box containing her katana. It was crafted especially for her by the master swordsmith Yoshindo Yoshihara. She had named it Makaze. Makaze was staring at her, beautiful. She had an untraditional black leather-wrapped hilt, a black scabbard and silver highlights. Makaze wasn’t flashy. But she was so, so dangerous.
Makaze hadn’t tasted blood in a long time. “I promise you that will change,” she whispered to her sword.
She smashed the display box with the baton she had stolen then tossed it away. She didn’t need it. She wasn’t trying to be quiet. She wanted to draw a crowd. Glass fell around her feet.
Her hand hovered over the mounted sword for only a second. She slowly wrapped her fingers around the hilt and lifted the beautifully balanced blade from its prison.
She turned back to the desk and noticed a photo of Alejandra, arms wrapped around a young boy of perhaps five or six. In a fluid motion she unsheathed the fury of Makaze and cut the picture in half. It sliced it like butter, right across the middle. The picture stayed together for a moment, mother and son together. Then it fell apart and shattered.
Tomo lifted her head back and laughed again.
Kogo Tomo Hachiman, the Empress of Anzen, bloodthirsty defender of her people, was back.
And she was pissed off.
She heard the guards run down the hallway. Finally a battle. She walked to the middle of the room calmly. She kept Makaze unsheathed held out beside her. Makaze needed to draw blood before she was sheathed again. She stood motionless in the center of the room, waiting. The Empress of Death waited for them to come to her.
Three men burst through the door. They didn’t have their guns raised, only batons out. They must still be on orders not to kill. She smiled at them. The amount of stupidity in the compound was absurd. They hesitated, batons at the ready.
“Jergen, Kurt,” she said, nodding to the two familiar faces. She recognized the third man, but didn’t know his name.
“Come quietly. We don’t want to hurt you,” Jergen said, German accent thick.
“Oh, my dear,” she said with a wicked smile. “Don’t you worry. You won’t.”
It was unfair, how easy it was. With swift movements, she kept her promise to Makaze. She didn’t need to be as fast as Senka. Her movements were precise and deadly. Blood sprayed. The three men fell dead at her feet, throats cut. Makaze dripped blood onto the carpet from the tip. She wiped the blood from her eyes with the back of her hand.
She kept Makaze unsheathed.
She lightly stepped over the dead men and returned to the dim hallway. She continued moving lightly through the hallway but avoided running. She came to a T-junction, one she recognized from her trip to Freudman’s office. She was getting closer to her goal.
Her only option was to fight until they killed her. She was happy that she would die feeling like Tomo.
She stopped in the middle of the T-junction and stayed there. She heard a low rumble down each of the three hallways.
Footsteps.
Lots of them.
Tomo didn’t need to wait long. She positioned her back against the wall, facing the way she had just come. Guards came from all hallways, three across, guns raised. The hallway in front of her was led by Luc, her old lab assistant. Everyone here was some sort of ex-special agent from somewhere.
They stopped around six feet from her, nine in all, guns raised and pointed at her head.
“Nice of you to come for me personally,” she said to Luc.
“Come quietly,” Luc answered.
“No.”
“Then you will die in this hallway. Our new orders are to kill you by any means necessary if you don’t comply.”
Tomo stayed still. She heard an odd sound coming from the hallway to her left. It was a soft padding of feet, unlike any she had heard in this compound before.
“Should have destroyed the sword,” Tomo said.
“Put it down and kneel,” Luc said.
“You should probably just put a bullet in my head. I kneel to no one.”
Tomo heard the muffled sound of a bullet being fired through a silencer. A man to her left slumped forward and fell flat on his face. She tried to supress the surprise. She heard two more silenced shots and the two other guards to her left fell forward. Luc finally caught on and yelled, “We’re under attack! Defensive positions!” Another shot and the florescent light to her left exploded in a shower of sparks. The hallway to her left was smothered in complete darkness.
“Leo, go!” a woman yelled to her left.
Tomo was distracted and looked down the hallway, trying to make a figure out in the black. The slight distraction was enough time to allow Luc to rush behind her and hold his gun to her temple, using her as a shield.
“If you move I’ll blow your fucking brains out,” he whispered in her ear.
She wouldn’t move. Burnin
g curiosity fired through her, giving her something to live for.
Bullets started flying around her. The remaining men were shooting at a ghost just out of vision in the darkness of a hallway.
Two more fell beside her, shot in the head.
A man fell in a scream. A giant furry animal was hanging off his neck. The two others turned to fire at the animal and they both fell with bullets lodged in their heads.
“Call him off!” Luc yelled to the black hallway, the only one left alive. “Or I shoot her in the head.” He was ducking behind her pressing his gun to the side of her head.
“Leo, come!” a voice, oh so familiar, yelled from the black. It couldn’t be her. She must have misheard.
The giant furry creature, whom Tomo soon saw was a German Shepard, released the man he had mauled and ran back into the black hallway, blood dripping from his mouth.
“Show yourself!” Luc yelled from behind Tomo. She could feel the cool barrel pushing hard into the left side of her head. Her pulse was racing. She knew the voice. Acting on instinct, she suddenly moved her head to the right and a shot rang out. Tomo jumped and closed her eyes hard.
Luc fell dead behind her, bullet hole bleeding from the center of his forehead.
The woman strode into the light, dog by her side. She walked with a familiar cocky sway to her hips. She wore black cargo pants with a black shirt. She reloaded her sidearm and placed it back in her holster, piercing eyes never leaving Tomo’s face. Tomo saw her whisper something, seemingly to no one.
Tomo was shocked. And by the look on Senka’s face, she just as surprised. They stared at each other for ages. Both risen from the dead. It felt like an eternity.
Tomo was brought back to the last time she had seen her old partner’s face. She was being dragged backward into the old truck in the middle of the jungle. Senka was on her knees in the dirt, eyes big as she watched Tomo being dragged away. Senka had been surrounded by armed men, guns raised. Tomo had been tossed in the back of the truck and that had been it.
They had told her that Senka was dead.
They stared at each other, eyes wide, mouths open. The dog stood beside Senka, tail wagging happily.
Finally, Senka smiled wide, ecstasy apparent all over her face. “You’re getting slow in your old age!” she said loudly.
Tomo burst into tears.
30
Senka
October 31, 2023, 04:28
Location: Dorfen, Germany.
Senka and Leo jogged quietly through the hallway. The only sounds were the light padding of Leo’s feet and the buzzing of the fluorescent lights overhead. It was too quiet and Senka was on edge.
All the doors they encountered were unlocked. They appeared locked, with the red light glowing. But when any pressure was applied the lock unlatched and the door opened.
“I like your new trick,” Senka said to Carter.
“Not me,” he muttered back. “I can’t access any of the security other than the cameras. It’s weird, Sen. It’s like they know all of my tricks and have firewalls pre-made to block them. Doing the best I can.”
“I know you are,” she said. She was in a maze of hallways. She decided to stay to the right. It all looked the same. The doors she opened were different rooms, mostly guard rooms, living quarters and offices. There was nothing that stood out. And there was no one around. Not a soul.
“Carter,” she said carefully, “I think they might have known I was coming.”
Silence.
“I have no idea how they would have. It was classified, like everything the ZTF runs.” Carter said lowly. He was keeping his voice down.
“I know. But this is too easy,” Senka said.
“Yah I hear you,” Carter said. “But I refuse to believe there’s a traitor in the ZTF.” He was keeping his voice low in case someone was listening.
Senka shrugged, “Any chance you can inform Amanda without raising suspicion?”
“There’s another explanation,” Carter said fiercely. “There has to be. And Amanda is in her office sleeping. I’m going to leave her there considering your mission was recon only.”
Senka was going to argue when Leo let out a low growl. Senka stopped moving as she heard it too. There was an L in the hallway to the left and around the corner she could hear voices down the hall. She couldn’t make out what they were saying but she could hear them. They were muffled and sounded like an angry discussion between a man and a woman. She ran to the corner and peeked her head around. She could see the backs of three armed men running down the hall. They were dressed much like she was, with cargo pants and black sweaters. It was hard to see what they were running at, the florescent light in the hall didn’t offer much help.
The men stopped and raised their guns. There were words and she could hear a woman reply.
She and Leo jogged softly down the hall. Senka raised her sidearm and quickly aimed and fired three shots in a row. All head shots, as always, and the men dropped like dominoes, guns clattering uselessly to the concrete floor. She fired at the florescent light and it exploded in a flurry of sparks. The hallway around her was plunged into total darkness. Only a woman with long red hair and six men, fully armed, were visible down the hallway. One was hiding behind the woman, holding a gun to her head.
“Leo, go!” she barked and without hesitation Leo took off towards the lone field light left in the hallway. Senka stood against the wall as a barrage of bullets were fired towards her. They weren’t even close. She fired two more shots and two men dropped. Leo went for the throat of the third man. The other two guards started to raise their guns in the direction of her beloved German Shepard and she fired two more shots without thinking. Perfect head shots, and the men were dead before they hit the ground.
“Call him off!” the man holding a gun to the woman yelled. “Or I shoot her in the head!”
“Leo, come!” she yelled. Leo immediately peeled off the dead man and ran back towards her. She gave him a few pats on the head for doing a good job and lined up the shot. The man was hiding behind the woman but he was almost exposed. She just needed another inch.
The woman looked familiar, but Senka couldn’t place her. She was obviously against these assholes, making her worth saving. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Senka thought to herself, focusing her breathing and lining up the sight of her gun. At least for now. Carter stayed silent, watching through the tiny camera on her chest.
“Show yourself!” the man yelled. He was getting desperate. His dead comrades would be starting to bury into his psyche.
Senka smiled as she watched the man sweat. She was enjoying this. Just an inch, she thought to herself, then I can kill that fucker. The woman suddenly jerked to the right and Senka pulled the trigger. Perfect head shot. The man dropped like a stone.
She reloaded her gun and strode towards the woman. She must be in a Special Forces somewhere to know to move to clear the shot.
Senka saw her in better light and her heart dropped.
“Holy fucking shit. It’s Tomo,” she said lowly to Carter.
“What the hell you talking about?” Carter asked.
Senka’s heart was beating so hard in her ears she could barely hear him. She should have known Tomo couldn’t be killed that easily. A whole year and these assholes had her all along.
She immediately was brought back to the last time she had seen Tomo alive. In that wretched jungle. Senka was on her knees in the dirt, surrounded by gunmen. Tomo was being dragged viciously backwards towards the truck. Tomo was looking at her desperately, eyes pleading with her to do something. But Senka had no opening to move. They had tossed her roughly in the back of the truck and driven away. Taking Senka’s partner, best friend, and heart with them.
Senka snapped back into the present and strode towards Tomo. It took everything in her power not to run. She saw Tomo recognize her and the shock that crossed her face.
“You’re right!” Carter yelled in her ear. So loud she almost jumped. “Tomo’s al
ive!” he yelled. “Someone tell Amanda! Tomo is alive!” she could hear other voices through the earpiece. There must be other handlers working this late as well.
She stopped and stared at her old partner. She looked terrible. She had on ripped jeans and a tattered blue sweater. Her hair was beautiful and long, contrasting her sunken eyes. Senka could never figure out how Tomo always kept her hair perfect. Tomo’s sword was by her side, bloodied. Senka was surprised she still had it and knew it was a story for the bar later. Senka could see the gold chain Tomo never took off peeking out of the neckline of her sweater. Her skin was pale, like she hadn’t seen the sun in years.
Senka didn’t know what to say. She felt as though a piece of her soul had been missing. Now it was back, staring at her. Senka smiled broadly.
“You’re getting slow in your old age!” she said loudly. She heard her voice crack a little and was surprisingly nervous.
She was shocked when Tomo burst into tears.
Senka rushed forward and drew Tomo into a bear hug. They weren’t huggers. They tended to tease and laugh over things. Black humor was how they dealt. But Senka needed to touch her. Needed to know that she wasn’t just a figment of her broken mind. She needed to know that Tomo was tangible. Was a real thing. And when she wrapped her in her arms and Tomo buried her head in her shoulder, she knew she was real.
They stood there for an eternity. Finally, Leo started licking Senka’s hand and she gently released her friend. Tomo sniffled and wiped her eyes.
“Well that’s embarrassing,” Tomo said tensely.
“No, what’s embarrassing is that you let yourself be surrounded by nine guys,” Senka said with a laugh. Tomo punched her in the shoulder, hard enough that Senka took a step back. They both knew that Senka let her land the punch. “Ow!” Senka said. “Guess you haven’t lost it all.”
Tomo shot her an appreciative smile.
“Tell her I say hi!” Carter said in her ear excitedly.
Senka laughed. “Carter says hi.”
Tomo smiled and looked Senka in the face, “Hi back, Carter.”
