Amazon Slaughter and Curse of the Ninja Piers Anthony

by Piers Anthony

  Finally Sone wins through to Regent Hojo's court, but the court magician is too busy to investigate his problem. The Mongols are making ready to attack again, already sailing for Japan with a huge armada and 165,000 warriors—and Kublai Khan's magician has somehow chained the demon Typhun so that he cannot save Japan this time. It will take a phenomenal effort of sorcery to loose the demon in time, and of course the Mongol magician is constantly making countermoves to prevent that. "Talk with Oichi," the magician snaps, dismissing Sone.

  Oichi turns out to be the daughter of one of the Emperor's wives. In the course of having his way with her—a perilous procedure, because of the alert palace guards—Sone learns that she is acquainted with much palace gossip. Her mother's closest friend, another wife of the Emperor, once told a strange story of how she had gone to visit her home-kingdom in Mongolia, for she was a princess in her own right. She had been attacked by thieves, her retinue slain, and she had barely escaped herself. But local villagers would not help her, because she was Mongol and did not speak their language. The nearby Samurai spotted her, half dead, and carried her to his estate where she received help. But there was a price on that help, and she had neither the power nor the inclination to decline, as her host was a most impressive man. She remained to bear his child, then had to hurry back to the Emperor's palace with a made-up story of her marvelous visit home. If Hojo had ever learned the truth, he would have slaughtered that bold Samurai warrior, and the princess, and the bastard baby, and all the household and maybe the nearby village too, bringing fire and shame upon the entire region. So the secret had to be kept—but before she died in a mysterious knife accident the princess confessed all to her friend. That was only a few weeks ago, and Oichi had overheard it, and now told Sone because he very much resembles that dead princess.

  Sone is not slow to grasp the import; that princess was surely his mother, and now he knows his own lineage. And she died at the same time and in a similar manner to Togo—as if the same magician had struck. This is a strong hint where he should search next. So he gets off Oichi and proceeds to Mongolia, having more adventures on the way. He is in a hurry now that the trail is hot, so enlists the aid of some mermen who haul him rapidly across the sea. But he yields to the temptation to add a mermaid to his wife-redeeming tally, and the situation gets ugly. He is lucky to win through to the mainland with no more than some wounds and some waterlogging.

  When he reaches the Mongol kingdom—a land vassal to Kublai Khan—he learns that this minor court had an extremely powerful magician who served Kublai in war. This magician had a strikingly beautiful and talented daughter—but both vanished not long ago. They may have gone to the old Mongol capital of Karakorum to aid in some top-secret magic related to the war effort against Japan...

  Sone conjectures that that magician, Mifune, had been so busy serving Kublai Khan over the years, contributing to the Khan's enormous success, that only recently had he thought to check into the princess' situation and learned through his arts of her adultery. Outraged, Mifune must have set out to kill all the guilty parties. Naturally he would have kept the matter quiet, so as not to bring shame upon his kingdom and perhaps incur the wrath of Kublai Khan. That would explain the deaths of Toga and the princess. But why hadn't Mifune killed Sone too? Because the magician's specialty was enchanting weapons—and Sone had forsworn the use of weapons! Still, Mifune could have sent a demon to do the mischief for him. Sone realizes that this is what happened; the hell-tiger had come and killed his son, before Sone searched it out and killed it in turn.

  So it all fits—yet mysteries remain. Where did Miho come from, and why was she transformed? Why the hundred-seduction mandate? That was hardly doing the job of getting Sone killed! It was necessary to run down Mifune and get the truth from him—before killing him to avenge Togo and the princess. Maybe he could make Mifune explain Miho's transformation, or even undo it, if he was more powerful than whoever had done that to her.

  There is no problem about traveling across China and Mongolia; the Mongols have so pacified the entire continent that there is no violence or robbery apart from that practiced by the conquerors themselves. Unfortunately, the Mongols do protect their women, especially against handsome wandering Japanese! Soon Sone is in trouble again, and the Mongol pursuit is grim indeed.

  Nevertheless Sone wins through to Karakorum—only to discover that Mifune has removed to Kublai's summer capital of Xanadu (actually Shangtuho). Sone finally does locate Mifune in one of the special palace retreats the Khan has set up, and finds the magician quite ready to talk to him. Thus the full explanation:

  When Mifune spotted that long-ago shame of the princess, he did indeed set out to rectify the matter privately. But he was very busy chaining the demon Typhun and countering the Japanese magician's efforts to free that demon, so could only spare a limited amount of energy for this private project. When Sone's no-weapons oath saved him, Mifune sent the hell-tiger. But Mifune's daughter Miho, a distressingly self-willed girl, learned what he was doing and decided it was unfair to punish the innocent child of the illicit union. (Sone—innocent? They both have a laugh over that.) So she flew to Japan to warn him, beating the demon by several days. But Mifune in turn discovered what she was up to, and laid a spell on her so that she couldn't betray any of his secrets to any outside party. Thus she couldn't warn Sone that the tiger was coming for his blood, that it had to taste before being freed. But Miho found Sone such an attractive specimen that she refused to give him up, so got him to marry her.

  That was significant, for it made Sone Mifune's son-in-law. Mifune, honorable to a fault (by his own admission), could not murder his own relatives. So he was forced to tell his erring daughter how to balk the demon: by providing it with the blood of Sone's blood line, or his son. A technicality the demon was too stupid to fathom, so it was satisfied.

  But then Sone had gone after the demon himself. That didn't bother Mifune unduly; if Sone got himself killed on his own initiative, well and good! The problem was solved. Then Sone killed the demon, and the problem was unsolved. Mifune, still preoccupied with the ticklish Typhun situation, decided that he could not accomplish anything useful in regard to Sone before breaking up that marriage. To force a divorce from Miho, so as to get Sone unrelated and therefore killable, Mifune transformed her and set the terms of alleviation. If Sone didn't balk at her ugliness, Miho would balk at his infidelity. A beautiful plan—except that it didn't work.

  Sone, knowing the facts, can now kill Mifune. But there is a hitch: he, too, is honorable in his fashion, and he can't kill a relative either. He realizes he is balked, and must leave his father unavenged. But then half-brother Kato catches up, and Sone manages between dodges of the sword to explain some of the situation to him. Kato eagerly heads off to slay the magician. Both die in the ensuing struggle. This takes place on August 15, 1281. The moment Mifune dies, the storm demon Typhun is released, and Typhun proceeds to destroy the Mongol fleet, saving Japan after all. Thus Sone, through no special intent of his own, is his country's benefactor.

  Miho, too, is freed of the enchantment, though Sone has not yet (quite) completed the roster of 100 women. She is prepared to be tolerant about her father's demise, since she will inherit his wealth and power, and transports herself to Xanadu to reassure Sone. About to embrace her, Sone, who is not after all so smart about certain things, confessed that the spell on her wasn't really so bad. He rather enjoyed working it off with all those lovely girls, and is a bit sorry he didn't get to go the full hundred.

  Miho blacks both his eyes and bites a chunk out of his ear before he gets her down and wrestles her into a turbulent lovemaking. It is a very satisfying reunion.

  AUTHORS' NOTE—Novels can be marketed on the basis of a straight summary, as this one was. To bad it didn't sell.

  BIOGRAPHY

  OF A TERRORIST

  (Chapter 2, "Three Misses," appeared as an article in the magazine THE DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, May 1976.)

  AUTHORS' NOT
E: This presentation was written in 1976, so is dated by a quarter century. But though the details have changed in 25 years, the essence hasn't.

  INTRODUCTION

  There is a rising tide of terrorism around the world. We see it in Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia—everywhere. The Irish violence has made headlines for years, and so have the Arab-Israeli exchanges between outright wars. There is the Basque separatist movement in Spain, and the "Death Squads" are practically an institution in Brazil. U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT estimates that 1,000 people have been killed in the world by acts of terrorism in the past ten years. Terrorism is big business.

  America is safer than most parts of the world, but it is hardly immune. From 1975 terrorism has been ravaging southern Florida, with rape, killing and destruction of property proceeding with seeming impunity. Recently a train carrying deadly chlorine and propane was derailed by sabotage. The Patty Hearst case was an example of another kind of terrorism, and so were the airline hijackings. Our political history was changed when President Kennedy was assassinated by a lone terrorist (though there may have been a Cuban connection there), and changed again when President Nixon engaged in the more subtle terrorism eventually exposed by the Watergate investigation.

  In fact, there are so many examples that individual cases are hardly news. Terrorism is endemic. It costs us far more than lives and property. It gnaws at one of the basic freedoms we believe in: freedom from fear. The terrorist is not out for money or sexual gratification or notoriety; his interest is in frightening the average man into giving the terrorist power.

  Why isn't it stopped? It isn't that no one cares. It isn't that the police don't try. Terrorism is an insidiously difficult thing to control. Any person can take a gun and shoot at the symbol of his ire. He can take gasoline and a soft-drink bottle and fashion a devastating bomb. Or he can simply make a telephone call to the police, tipping them off about the massive bomb supposedly hidden in a major airport, and chuckle in the comfort of his home while havoc ensues. He has done almost as much damage to the system as a real bomber could have, without real cost or risk to himself.

  Terrorism: it takes many forms. Its practitioners range from do-it-yourselfers to complete professionals. No one is safe from it. The only way to begin to alleviate its menace is to understand it. Blindly oppressive measures will not do the job. What motivates a terrorist? How does he operate? Who helps him? What would deter him?

  Only one type of person knows the answers. That person is the terrorist himself. He is not necessarily a criminal, or even a violent man; he may be a fun-loving family man with a strong moral code and an unshakable belief in the rightness of his cause. In fact, he may be right, by the verdict of history, and the regime he opposes may be wrong. The selfish or casual destroyer is a criminal; the dedicated destroyer is a different and superior type, far more dangerous because of the resources, intelligence, and motivation he brings to his craft. A criminal is basically an amateur; a terrorist is basically a professional. He has committed his life to his cause. Idealism, not mere money, causes him to act.

  The successful terrorist of today may be the respected statesman of tomorrow. The Irgun terrorists who fought the British rulers of Palestine entered the government of the new state when the British departed; their last chief of operations became a member of the Israeli cabinet. The Arab PLA terrorists who oppose Israel are now treated with honor by the UN. Former terrorists now govern the nation of Cuba. Oh, yes—the rewards of victory are great! But these are long shots. For the average terrorist, the practical outlook is bleak. He knows he is likely to wind up in prison, or dead. Why does he choose to subject himself to the roulette that this profession is?

  Here is the story of a genuine terrorist. Roberto Fuentes, former terrorist, has worked with Piers Anthony, writer, on five successful novels of martial arts and several shorter pieces. The vast reservoir of experience on which Mr. Fuentes drew for the realistic detail of those books came from his other life—a life that entailed privation, fear, torture, imprisonment, nightmare, execution and sex for the former judo champion of Cuba.

  His story illustrates another facet of the trade. The terrorist may be an intellectual, at first reluctant to act despite the wrongs he sees about him. His conviction that he is right and that someone has to act draws him into a life he never anticipated or wanted. He comes to the difficult conclusion that there is no recourse remaining except violence; the orderly process of justice has broken down. And so, with mixed emotions, he does act, hating the necessity.

  Then, once he has tasted the water of violence, he becomes addicted to it. He develops a perverse fascination for this life outside the law, the sheer challenge of it. He is like nice Dr. Jekyll turning into evil Mr. Hyde, trying to swear off but always doing it again because of the fundamental human need he has tapped. His original ends are distorted as he indulges in greater violence for smaller reason. Sometimes, even, the means become the end. He is now committed to the sheer excitement of the forbidden life, the elite camaraderie he discovers there. His cause may be lost—but he continues, finding another cause, unable to give up this very special existence. The life he had before, as a staid law-abiding citizen, has entirely lost its flavor. Innocent Dr. Jekyll has been absorbed by the stronger personality he unwittingly loosed.

  Actually, this is just a theory about one type of terrorist. There are many motivations. The people involved are a highly mixed bag. Many of them hardly comprehend their own drives. But Roberto Fuentes fits this description. He is a member of MENSA, the high IQ society, and he cares about human rights while also loving the decadent good life. A study of his descent into terrorism should provide an insight into the complex nature of this beast.

  This biography has been fictionalized to a certain extent, necessarily. Names have been changed to protect the identities of friends who might still be subject to reprisals. The details of certain events have been modified similarly; in some cases the accurate details would void any pretense of anonymity for the participants. Some material remains confidential for military reasons. The United States government has on occasion sued persons who reveal certain types of information too specifically. Therefore this biography must be considered about 25% fiction, with a number of deliberately planted errors. But the essence, and particularly the spirit, are correct. This is the only way it can be done; as will be evident, terrorism is not a gentle employment. Many of Mr. Fuentes' friends are dead, and more are dying violently as time passes; he does not wish to add himself to that total. He is already under sentence of death by the Castro government of Cuba, for one of the exploits covered in this book.

  To deal with an enemy, one must first know him. The essence of terrorism is similar wherever it occurs. Though the origins and original incentives of terrorists are diverse, once they are committed they are brothers under the skin. Roberto Fuentes was a Cuban terrorist, but he operated in much the same fashion as a Communist or fascist or splinter-group terrorist would in the United States. In fact, he was trained in the U.S.A. A bullet or a bomb knows no language but its own; it will do its job wherever it is directed.

  Roberto Fuentes' progress into terrorism began with idealism. The background political situation is documented in some detail here, to show that it was no casual whim that moved him into such a life.

  On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. The seven year dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista had collapsed abruptly, and the revolutionists were victorious. It was a time of great expectations. At last the people of Cuba had thrown off oppression and taken the reins of government into their own hands, much as the people of America had done in 1776. There would be a new age of democracy and individual liberty in the island nation; Fidel had promised! The bearded charismatic leader stood for everything that was decent in government, and the people believed in him passionately.

  The Constitution of 1940, a model for good government, was going to be restored, and its precepts fully applied for the first time. No more political
prisoners, no more unjust confinements. The death penalty was to be abolished. There would be justice for all. The wealth of the nation would be shared among the people. There would be a full and just Agrarian Reform, in which the idle land would be turned over to the working peasants. There would be complete personal freedom. Everyone would get a good education. There would be free elections within six months, just as soon as Fidel got things organized.

  The Constitution? Once he was in power, Castro decided Cuba didn't need it after all.

  Political prisoners? Their heyday came in Castro's regime, with hundreds of thousands of people locked away in old fortresses.

  Executions? Well, first there were a few necessary trials of war criminals—that is, those who had opposed Fidel by force of arms. These trials were very efficient, and there was no foolishness about the verdicts; they quickly justified the execution of the defendants. Sometimes the sentence of death was posted even before the trial was complete. In fact it became a blood bath, with people dying in virtual assembly-line precision—more than three thousand within six months as the result of trials. Somehow these "temporary" executions stretched out over the years, and never did stop. For a number of offenses, such as "crimes against the security of the state," which was a marvelous catch-all, the death penalty became mandatory.

  But this was only the formal aspect. Informally it was worse. As early as January 3, 1959, two days after Castro's victory, eighty members of the Batista armed forces together with a number of civilians were simply machine-gunned to death in Sto. de Cuba. Justice for all? Castro had promised the armed forces of the prior administration that only those guilty of war crimes would be punished. Otherwise these troops might not have surrendered, and the war would not have been over. But consider the case of the 43 airmen. Most Batista airmen escaped the country—easy enough to do, since they had the planes—and so the few on trial included transport pilots and mechanics who had not seen actual combat. The prosecutor could not find evidence against then, since they had committed no war crimes, so they were acquitted.