Retribution

by Charles Tillman

  Koda’s eyes went round with shock as the reality of what Yuko’s and Eve’s plans would entail in time alone, not to mention cost, sank in. “I was, uh, I mean, Horst and I, uh…we want to keep it simple and affordable.”

  Ono’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, no, you won’t. This will be the first wedding on Kume for some time. You owe it to the people here. This could go a long way to heal the scars that remain.”

  “That’s a grand idea. We can make it a celebration for the entire population. Everyone’s invited,” Suzu chimed in.

  Koda’s eyes darted around the room, looking for a way out when Yuko burst out laughing. Eve and the Yagis joined in.

  “What? What are you laughing at?” Koda demanded.

  Asai walked up and put an arm around her waist. “Your face, silly. You should have seen it.”

  “But the cost of such a spectacle! I can’t afford it,” Koda sputtered.

  Eve stepped up to her and looked into her eyes. “Koda, if you want the biggest wedding Kume has ever seen, Auntie Eve has you covered. I happen to be the wealthiest AI in the solar system.”

  “I’ll take a share of that,” Yuko offered.

  “As will I,” Akio added.

  The panic slowly went out of Koda’s eyes, and tears followed as she reached out to Eve. “I-I don’t know what to say. It’s too much. I can’t accept.”

  “You have worked tirelessly to ensure the Palace is a profitable business. Celebrating your wedding is the least we can do,” Yuko stated with finality.

  “Plus, the big lug over there is my business partner. Saves me from having to buy him a present,” Eve snarked.

  “But-but I…”

  “Say thank you and accept. I don’t understand why all you youngsters can’t accept things when they’re offered.” Adachi waved his champagne flute toward Akio.

  Akio leaned in and whispered, “You do know I’m the oldest person here? If you all added your ages together, I would still be older.”

  “I know, but don’t slow my roll.” Adachi winked as he gulped from his glass.

  Akio chuckled and leaned back in his chair, his heart warmed by this group of people who had become his family.

  Kenjii watched in relaxed silence as he sipped the blood from his cup and enjoyed the company of friends.

  Uegusuku Castle, Kume Island, Okinawa, Japan

  “This is where you gutted that yatsu?” Kenjii fingered a deep gash in the wood surrounding an open doorway.

  “Hai,” Akio answered.

  Kenjii continued to stare, not seeing the damaged wood but looking at scenes in his mind.

  “And that mazāfakkā, Ogawa?” he spat.

  “Above, at the gate leading into the courtyard.”

  Kenjii nodded, his eyes closed as he processed the information. After the party to celebrate the Sunset House opening ended, he had persuaded Akio to show him where the two who had hurt him so badly died.

  Akio watched in silence as a range of emotions crossed Kenjii’s face.

  Kenjii drew a deep breath and released it slowly before he opened his eyes. “Thank you. Seeing this makes their deaths real. All the years I watched them, lived with them, and they were the ones who tore us apart. I hope they’re both burning in whatever hell they believe in.”

  “I can’t speak to that, only that Isamu’s death wasn’t fast or easy, and your name was the last he heard before he died. Ogawa’s was quick, but he was always Isamu’s lapdog.”

  “It reeks of death here,” Kenjii observed.

  “This area is where Isamu held the people he took from the island. The locals removed the cages and destroyed them the week after Yuko and I freed them.”

  He pointed at the floor and indicated the cut-off metal bolts that secured the cages.

  “The smell is from the room through there. Yuko destroyed the Nosferatu that Isamu used to terrorize the islanders.”

  “Ogawa’s work,” Kenjii spat. “He would make those for their sick games. Isamu enjoyed watching them tear their victims apart when he and Ogawa finished their fun. Heinz told me once that they especially liked to use family members.”

  Akio grimaced. “They were sick individuals, even for Forsaken.”

  “Hai. At least you’ve insured they won’t harm anyone else. Let’s go home. I needed to see it, but I don’t wish to stay here any longer.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Serenity Temple, Dabie Mountains, China

  “What do you mean, the slaves are missing?” Peng Kun screamed, his eyes bulging as his face turned red.

  The prostrate acolyte’s body shook as Kun stalked around the room.

  Kun’s face twisted in rage and spittle shot from his mouth as he cursed the vampires, ancestors, and gods in a steady stream of invective.

  “When did this happen?”

  “Sometime within the past three days. The scout who reported it passed through four days ago, and everything was in order.”

  Kun looked down at the shaking man with disgust. He smelled the fear coming from his body as sweat dripped on the stone floor. So weak, all of them. Cowards who should still be feeding from their mother’s tit.

  “Get out! You disgust me,” Kun yelled as his foot connected with the hapless acolyte’s ribs.

  The man frantically crawled out the door to the relative safety of the hall. Nowhere in the temple was safe when Kun was on one of his frequent tirades.

  Kun snatched the satellite phone from the pocket of his robe. It took him two tries to press the correct button due to his hands shaking in barely contained rage.

  “Cui, where are you?”

  “Master? I’m on the ship headed for Japan,” Cui answered, confusion evident in his tone.

  “I know you’re on the fucking ship, you idiot! Why am I cursed with such incompetence? When will you be in Japan?”

  Cui pulled the phone from his ear, shaking his head from the pain Kun’s tirade caused his sensitive hearing. “Master, we will arrive within twelve hours. Is something wrong?”

  “Wrong! You ask if something is wrong when that damned vampire is attacking our operations with impunity? Yes, there is something wrong, you incompetent ass!”

  Cui remained silent. He heard Kun mumbling over the connection but could only understand every third or fourth word. He had dealt with Kun in his insane rages enough to know the master would get to the point when it passed, and interrupting him made it last longer.

  “The Lu’an farm was raided. All Clan members present are dead, and the human chattel fled.” Kun’s voice had changed from the incoherent ravings and invective to a cold and dull tone, one that Cui knew well. It was the same tone he’d used when he ordered Shek’s death.

  “When you rally with Li, get all the information he has gathered about this Akio and anyone close to him, no matter what the relationship. Servant, friend, the woman who cleans his damned toilet. All of them are dead. Do you understand? I want anyone he is associated with killed. Then you are to destroy his precious base and all the TQB toys he has there. Do not stop until this is complete. Fail, and your life and any with you are forfeit.”

  Kun cut the connection before Cui could reply. He pulled the device from his ear and stared at it. He was still in that position several minutes later when Pan found him.

  “What’s the matter, Cui?”

  He shook his head and pulled his mind back to the present. “Kun.”

  “What now?” Pan’s face twisted in disgust.

  “The vampire attacked the Lu’an farm. Kun has ordered us to kill anyone associated with him in Japan. To include, I quote, ‘The woman who cleans his damned toilet,’ unquote.”

  Pan shook his head. “Put his panties in a wad, did it?”

  “To put it mildly.”

  “We have fifty of our best warriors. It should be a simple matter to kill a few people. Are we still planning to hit his base during the day?”

  “As far as I know. Li will have more information.”

  “We might accompl
ish everything Kun wants in one blow.” Pan motioned to three devices fastened to the deck amidships. They looked like corrugated culverts, except for the lethal missile tips that protruded from each launch tube.

  Hybrid Vessel Lylia, Miura, Japan

  “Li, my friend. It’s good to see you,” Cui called as he walked down Lylia’s gangplank onto the wooden dock Li and his men had patched while they waited for him to arrive.

  “Cui, you made better time than expected. Was your journey good?”

  “Other than listening to more than half of the warriors bitching as they leaned over the rail, making offerings to the fish.” Cui laughed.

  “If they were anywhere near as bad as Wu, I sympathize.” Li chuckled.

  “Hey! If the gods intended me to be in the ocean, they would have given me fins and scales,” Wu retorted.

  “Have you heard from Kun today?” Cui asked.

  “No. Last I talked to him was two days ago. He was going on about the traitors who refused to send more warriors. I gathered from the conversation that some deserted in the past few weeks.”

  “I heard that, too. I knew killing Shek would be a problem. With Kun killing and injuring several of the students since this started, many fear him.”

  “He isn’t making smart decisions. He has allowed emotion to override sound tactics in this.”

  “Since you brought it up, I received new instructions today.” Cui sighed.

  “What now?”

  “The vampire attacked the farm at Lu’an. All the humans fled, and he killed the guards. Kun has ordered us to kill anyone we can find who is associated with Akio.”

  Li thought for a moment before he answered. “There are two women who work in that arcade they have. His people rescued one from the Yakuza, and I’ve heard the other is related to her. They leave the place and should be easy to take.”

  “Do we want to send warriors into the city? The weapons crew leader says some of his team need to see the target building, but we need the other warriors to secure this area.”

  “As long as Kun leads the Clan, I think it best that we appear to be following his orders. We can spare two teams to deal with them. Fifty or forty-two—as long as we don’t have to contend with the vampire, those numbers are sufficient for any wandering humans who stumble upon us here.”

  “Agreed.” Cui nodded. “Will you provide a leader from your team for each group? It will be best to have someone familiar with the area along.”

  “Yes. We have a place near the arcade. I’ll have Shao and Wu accompany whoever you send.”

  “That’s settled then. What about the vampire’s base?”

  “It’s in an office building. We located a directory, and there are only two companies listed there. I didn’t check any further. I didn’t want to risk alerting them.”

  “Let’s get the weapons chief and see what information he needs. It better be worth it, given how long I sat in that damned fishing village waiting for him and Kun’s precious weapon to arrive,” Cui spat.

  “What was the holdup? What is this mystery weapon?”

  “The holdup was one of the idiots Kun sent on the first team. They went to a cache Kun had secured when he was still in the People’s Army. Some explosives had become unstable, and one of the team set off an explosion that collapsed half the mountain on top of him.

  “It took several weeks to dig out the missiles Kun wanted, then another to find fuel that was still useable. Transporting them took another week.”

  “Missiles? What type of missiles, and is he sure they work? I thought the virus fucked all the guidance systems.”

  “That was the problem with the fuel. These damn things are so old that most of the fuel was no good. They don’t use the systems the virus corrupted for guidance. I don’t understand them, but the crew chief assures me they will work.”

  “I don’t think I want to be on the ship when he fires them.” Li grimaced.

  “Me either, but I don’t have a choice.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  TQB Base, Tokyo, Japan

  “I’ve meant to ask, how does all of this still work? I thought the WWDE destroyed these.” Kenjii pointed at the monitors in the command center.

  “I have access to a network of satellites that TQB put in place before they went through the gate. They built them using technology that wasn’t available on Earth then and won’t be available again until my Queen returns,” Akio explained.

  “The images are so clear! It looks like I can reach out and touch those flowers growing beside the field,” Kenjii exclaimed.

  “The optics are twenty-first-century Earth military grade. It’s the power sources that give me the flexibility I need. It’s the unique Etheric power source that allows me to move them to a different orbit without worrying about fuel consumption.”

  “This is how you found me?”

  “No, I discovered you were alive when you came out of the rubble at the Acheng site. Eve left some drones that link to the satellite network to monitor the location.”

  Kenjii nodded as Akio continued to show him how to operate the systems he used to monitor the UnknownWorld around the globe.

  “Abel, pull up the latest intel on that possible Forsaken site in Scotland.”

  The scene changed from the Chinese farm site where they’d freed the humans to an aerial view of an intact city that hadn't suffered destruction like so many others around the world. Once again, the scene changed as the image zoomed in on a sizeable house in a tiny village a few kilometers outside the city. It was unremarkable, except that every structure close by was a burned-out hulk.

  “This is the village of Bilston. The city nearby is Edinburgh,” Abel informed them. “This location came to my attention a few months ago when the surrounding houses all caught fire at the same time.”

  “What’s strange about that? I’ve seen many places burn since the WWDE,” Kenjii remarked.

  “True, a fire inside a town isn’t unusual since fire is the primary heating and cooking method. What was odd about this, or should I say these fires, was that all of them were burning at the same time. It was like they all caught fire within minutes of each other.”

  “I see.”

  “I flagged the location for further study. Over the past months, there has been significant activity around it. There is a wall surrounding it now, and many people are living inside it.”

  “Survivors gather into sizeable groups for protection now. I still see nothing odd,” Kenjii mused.

  “What about this?” Abel zoomed in tight on a figure standing in the enclosure. It wore thick, concealing clothing from head to toe, including a covering over its face with dark, bulky goggles over the eyes.

  Kenjii nodded his head. “Those clothes look like the type I wear when I have to go out into the sun.”

  The figure walked across the open space, and the people shied away as it approached them. It stopped in front of a cowering blonde woman who looked to be in her early twenties.

  Kenjii watched as the figure reached down, grasped the woman’s arm, pulled her to her feet, then dragged her toward the house. The woman resisted until her captor brought its free hand to her throat and lifted her higher.

  She weakly struggled until her body went limp, and the figure dropped it to the ground. The hooded figure continued toward the house while pulling her unresisting body by the arm it still held.

  None of the people in the compound moved to help her. Most turned away and refused to watch.

  “Banpaia,” Kenjii stated.

  “Hai.” Akio grimaced. “That is the primary reason Bethany Anne left me here when she went to the stars. She has no mercy for Forsaken who abuse humans.”

  “What will you do?”

  “Explain to him the error of his actions.”

  “Do you believe that will make him change his ways?”

  Akio shrugged. “I have found that Forsaken normally stop abusing humans when the head is no longer attached to the body.”
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  Kenjii’s eyes widened at his response. “You have done this before?”

  “More times than I care to remember. Abel, how old is this footage?”

  “It came in while you were explaining the system to Kenjii.”

  “What time is it there now?”

  “Seven fifty-two in the morning.”

  “Thank you, Abel. Kenjii, I need to see to this matter. You’re welcome to stay here and have Abel show you more if you’d like.”

  “I would like that,” Kenjii agreed. “Will you be able to take him? What if there are more of them?”

  “Then he won’t die alone.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”

  “I will be there before ten. The sun would be an issue for you. I can deal with whatever Forsaken are there. Upgrades, remember?”

  “Hai.”

  Akio reached over and took his hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back before it’s light here. We can go for a walk when I return.”

  Kenjii squeezed his hand. “I’ll hold you to that. Be sure you come back to me whole. I may want to stay in tonight.” His smile held more than a hint of promise.

  “I’ll be certain to return unscathed.” Akio squeezed his hand once more, then stood and walked to the door. “Please bring a Black Eagle to the courtyard, Abel. I want to ensure I’m back before it’s light,” he called as he walked out.

  “How many places have you found suspected Sacred Clan activity in China?” Kenjii asked as he looked at the different displays Abel had open.

  “I am actively monitoring twenty-three locations. I have routed satellites to pass over eighty-six more once every twenty-four hours, where I suspect activity but have no factual data to verify it.”

  “Can you show me the twenty-three active sites?”

  The monitor switched from the scene that showed the Forsaken taking the woman to a village on a riverbank.

  “This area has a seventy-nine-point-two-five percent chance of being a Clan site. Note the malnourished state of the people working the fishing boats and those in the fields.”

  “Hai.”