“Armored police!” he shouted. “Good guys, I think. Either way, the shit just hit the fan, Vi.”
Rolling to her feet, Violet saw that Roman was kneeling just inside the door, sending volley after volley back towards the newcomers. It was a lost cause, however. Violet knew the gear the Japanese version of the American SWAT team used. Roman’s simple handgun rounds wouldn’t make a dent in their full-body shields and Kevlar armor.
“We gotta get out of here!” he yelled, slamming the door closed, locking it. “That’s not gonna hold them forever.”
Violet didn’t look at him, staring down Ms. Cho. “All those years, you used us.”
Both women drew a pistol, Ms. Cho grabbing Violet’s felled weapon and Violet drawing another from her dual shoulder holsters.
Neither shot the other, though. The women were at a standoff.
“Vi…” Roman’s hand squeezed her shoulder. “We’re both dead if we stay here. I seriously doubt they’re gonna ask us to come out nicely after the mess we caused downstairs.”
“On the security cameras, no less,” Ms. Cho added. “Plus, we have some influence over members of the local police force, as I am sure you are aware.”
And with that, Ms. Cho threw her knife at Roman, burying the tip of the blade in his shoulder. He shouted and fell back into Violet, taking them both to the ground. The real Madame of Tokyo took off running, towards another part of the large penthouse suite, disappearing from sight. Not knowing if there was another way out, Violet took the time to check on Roman and pull the blade free, applying pressure to the wound.
“Argh… Fuckin’ bitch got me good.”
Violet smiled a little. “Easy, tiger, you’ll live.”
“Rio…”
Violet looked for the voice and found Kyoko leaning up against the nearby sofa. Standing, she helped Roman to his feet and saw that she was lying in a pool of blood. Kyoko was pale, drifting in and out of consciousness. Her eyes already looked glassy and her eyelids heavy.
She was dying.
Feeling nothing more for the cold-blooded woman, Violet turned but was stopped.
“I…I’m sorry.”
Violet turned. “You’re a monster.”
Kyoko nodded as her eyes rolled back. She shook away the flooding unconsciousness that came with so much blood loss and refocused her attention on Violet. “But…I never stopped…thinking of you.” She breathed in heavily and cringed. “I’m proud of…you…Rio. I’m proud that…you didn’t…end up like…” She couldn’t finish. Instead, she just patted her chest.
Didn’t end up like ‘me.’
“It doesn’t change what you’ve done.”
“Why?” Roman asked. It was the simplest and, at the moment, most important, question.
“For love,” Kyoko sputtered, blood draining down her chin. “You’ve done the same…Rio.”
Violet’s shoulders dropped. Kyoko was right. She had been deprived of true love for so long that she allowed herself to be turned into a killer to obtain it. It was only now that Violet understood that she’d been played like a fiddle when she was younger, adopting the malicious ways of Ms. Cho.
“It was because of you and her!” Violet shouted, pointing towards the way Ms. Cho had run. “I trusted you both!”
“I…trusted her…too. It was…too late for me when…when I realized what she’d done. I became unraveled…she used that to seize complete control…over me.” Kyoko’s eyes dropped away from Violet’s, pouring tears. “I’ve done…so many awful things, Rio. All I ever wanted…was for you to forgive m—”
Tears, likewise, ran down Violet’s cheeks. Kyoko was gone, her eyes open and locked onto hers in death. She came here to kill the woman but in the end mourned for her, being the same as Kyoko in the end. Violet was broken and manipulated into something she wasn’t.
A killer.
Twenty years of her life had been devoted to the memories of her time by Kyoko’s side. The one thing she could take away from this that wasn’t utterly horrifying was the positive, good-natured influence she had brought to the Dragons over the years. Instead of being simple mercenaries, like some groups, they had developed a common goal amongst themselves.
One that tried to do some good.
Regardless of Ms. Cho’s true intentions, we did a good thing.
Like Roman had said to her earlier, they still helped a lot of people. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of girls would’ve been sold off into slavery if it wasn’t for them.
The door shook.
“Dammit,” Roman said, holding his bleeding shoulder, “company has arrived.”
Taking off in the same direction Ms. Cho had gone, Violet pulled Roman along behind her. They entered the master bedroom and shut the French doors, locking them. While Violet searched for where her keeper had gone, Roman did what he could to barricade the doors.
Dressers were moved, so was the heavy bench at the foot of the bed. Roman tried to slide a nightstand over too but fell from exhaustion and the fiery pain in his shoulder. Violet ran for him but was shoved away. He was covered in sweat, bleeding heavily still.
“Roman…” Her hand went to his face, but he snagged it and shook his head.
“Get out of here, Vi… Please… Find Ms. Cho and end her.”
Violet bit her lip. She didn’t want to lose Roman.
“What about you?”
He shrugged and smiled. “I’ve charmed my way out of worse situations.” He winked, handing her his guns. “I’ll manage. It’ll help if these aren’t on me, though.” He shrugged out of his jacket and handed her the holster next, as well as his two combat knives.
Violet matched smiles with him, then kissed him hard. She stood and moved to the closet. The French doors shuddered, struck hard from the other side. Violet flinched and tripped, falling hard on the carpeted floor.
She landed with a hollow bong.
Drawing one of her swords, she pried away the carpet in the back corner and easily pulled it away. A makeshift hatch greeted her, and she quickly threw it open and climbed in. It was tight, real tight, but no doubt led to safety. Before she disappeared below, she took one final look at the still grinning Roman Shepard.
The last thing she saw was him give her a wink, and then cover his head as the French doors blew apart in an explosion of splintering wood.
29
An Hour Later
Roman sat, illuminated by a single light bulb within one of several interview rooms inside the Tokyo police department’s local office. His arrest went smoothly too, what with having no weapons to speak of and bleeding heavily.
After getting patched up, he now sat cuffed to the table, awaiting the lead investigator to show his face. Roman planned to release some damning information on a few of their detectives during the chat as well. Mako’s phone held a few numbers that they would find very interesting.
As well as my real identity.
The jig was up. Roman blurted out who he worked for as he was thrown into the back of a squad car. At the very least, it would delay his incarceration long enough to gain the interview he knew he’d get. They would need to check his credentials to make sure he wasn’t sending them on a wild goose chase.
He glanced at the phone sitting before him and smiled.
The computer back at his apartment had been wirelessly downloading the call history, pinning numbers to faces as it did. Roman was no fool. He knew how the game was played. If he wanted out, he needed to give the people here something to go on besides who he worked for. Government agents went rogue all of the time. He needed to convince the people here that he wasn’t someone who would play sides for personal gains.
Even though I kinda did.
But in the end, Roman was still doing his job.
A little off key maybe. Like his singing.
The door opened and in came a short, stocky man. His nervous energy made Roman laugh out loud.
“Handcuffed to a table and, yet, he laughs,” the officer said.
Roman calmed. “Sorry, but ain’t you the ones that are supposed to be intimidatin’ me? So far, I kinda feel like the boss hog around here. Kinda pathetic on your part, Jackie.”
Jackie wasn’t happy with Roman’s behavior but nor did he react physically. There were two other men in the room with the detective, both standing behind Roman, out of his line of sight. That wasn’t including the people behind the reflective glass either.
“My name is not Jackie, Mr. Shepard. My name is Akeno Ona, and I’m the man who will decide your fate here and now.”
Roman’s eyebrows raised a hair.
“What?” Akeno asked, noticing his reaction.
“Akeno Ona, you say?”
“Yes,” he replied, looking over at his men, “why does my name please you.”
Roman nodded at his phone. “Do me a favor and open that up and click on a file that says, “Poop Chute.” The guards behind Roman snickered at the name.
“Why should I do anything for you?” Akeno asked, crossing his arms.
Roman winked. “Trust me, pal, it’s for your own good that you do. There’s some information in there that you’ll want to see.” He looked over his shoulder and then back to the detective. “Plus, like the term, poop chute, I think some y’all are assholes for not doin’ your jobs. Not you, I mean. Other cops in your department.”
Akeno stood still for a few more seconds but looked visibly shaken by Roman’s comments. He picked up the phone and was surprised to find it already unlocked. Roman watched Akeno as he clicked on the Notes app, and selected the correct file, opening it and the program that had been running in the background since he left his apartment with Violet.
Roman visualized what Akeno would be seeing. The hacker-type program would activate and send the file to every device on the local WiFi network—which meant that dozens of police officers would receive the email. That email highlighted the list of people that were in Mako’s phone, including anyone on his group’s payroll.
Including, Akeno Ona.
Roman stayed silent as three phones dinged around him. Akeno pulled his cell from his pocket as did the two guards by the door. Roman glanced at the mirrored glass, seeing their shocked looks as they read the information contained within the email. The people behind the glass would no doubt be doing the same.
“I need to apologize for something, Mr. Ona—two things really.”
“And what’s that?”
Roman smiled. “You openin’ that phone wasn’t for your own good. It was for mine.”
“And the other thing you’re sorry for?”
Roman saw the man sweating hard. “The phone isn’t mine… It belongs to a friend of yours, Makkino Wu.” Roman sat back and relaxed. “Seems that the two of you have a long and awful history together.” He laughed. “And everyone here now knows it.”
Akeno dove across the table, hands outstretched, aimed at Roman’s throat. Thankfully, the cops behind Roman tackled the enraged detective to the ground, immediately restraining him. Akeno didn’t exactly help himself, slinging death threats as he was himself cuffed.
Roman cracked his neck and looked into the mirror. “Now how ’bout one y’all come in here and uncuff me. We’ve got some business to discuss.”
* * *
With the evidence against Mako, Akeno, Kyoko, and the still AWOL, Ms. Cho, Roman’s case against the human trafficking ring was pretty damn solid. Add to that the number of exposed cops, all sixteen of them, most who worked closely with Akeno, and the evidence kept piling up as the days went by.
It had been a week since he and Violet had gone after the group’s Madame, Kyoko Hirata, only to find out that it was actually Ms. Cho who was the head of the syndicate.
Roman was ordered to stand down and let the local agencies handle the official investigation into the group, more importantly, the dirty cops that let it happen. It was an angle he honestly didn’t think of attacking. They wanted to cut the head of the snake but could have just as easily burned it down from within by exposing those involved. Having Mako’s phone made it all possible.
And it wasn’t just the police officers that were involved.
Some pretty sick people within the financial world had partaken in Mako’s business, serious players at that. Several Fortune 500’s fell flat on their faces as did the investment group that owned the Shangri-La Hotel. It’s how Kyoko had gotten the lavish room in the first place. There had been some pretty shady deals going on at the resort for some time now.
So, Roman did as he was told and watched from afar, raising a glass to each and every monster that was arrested. It was like a reality TV show on the news channels. Every day, a new person would be implicated and arrested. He didn’t know if it was his protocol that was doing all the work or if people were snitching on each other for shortened sentences.
Regardless, Tokyo was getting a major facelift, and he had Violet to thank for it. Roman’s bosses back in Langley praised him for his efforts and even offered to bring him home. He, of course, declined the invite to move back to the states, instead planning his much-needed vacation. But what he was really doing, was arranging his retirement. His letter of resignation recommended that Willy take command his unit. It wasn’t a lot to ask since she was his number two, to begin with. She was his natural replacement.
She was out of the hospital and staying at his place until he left. Her leg was heavily bandaged, and her jaw wired shut. Luckily for her, the wires were coming out next week. The injury could’ve been far worse than it was. She would have to drink her meals through a straw for another week, but at least she was on the mend.
Roman made sure to add Willy to all the reports and see that she got an equal share of the credit. Plus, it helped when he was being debriefed. He told them that he had some help from a female agent and the security feeds, as grainy as some of them were, showed him fighting side-by-side with a woman. Her face wasn’t easily seen. The few that did show Violet’s face were altered by some tech-savvy friends of his or lost.
Willy explained through her own emails that she had adorned a black wig, complete with dyed ends. She also said that she didn’t follow Roman up to the penthouse and, instead, stayed with the car.
If the masquerading Willy did enter the suite with Roman, why wasn’t she there to be arrested too?
And they bought it. Roman laughed at that.
Violet’s involvement was hearsay at best which was exactly what he had promised. Technically, he made that promise to the head of the trafficking group but, that fact that he had kept the promise was more important than who he made it to.
The Beautiful Dragons were legends in these parts. He didn’t have the heart to tear that down. The public believed in what they did, even if it was just folklore. As far as the true believers knew, the clan of all-female assassins was still out there doing what they did best.
Killing in the name of good.
Roman had no idea how many people were closet supporters of the group. Openly supporting a family of murderers wasn’t something ordinary people did. But after the numerous reports came out about a purple-haired beauty out on a rampage throughout Tokyo, people from all walks of life came out in support.
They came out in droves when it was later announced that she helped take down a group of despicable slave traders. Some even said they were sleeping better at night knowing that the Beautiful Dragons were out there.
Crime in the city dropped, almost overnight. The death of Madame and Mako had a profound impact on the other crime families. Not only was the Gilded Blade dead and buried but the other, smaller organizations were on fire too. Everyone thought they saw the colorful assassins on streets of Tokyo. Fear was a fabulous weapon—even against evil.
The Yakuza, the most infamous gang in all of Japan, was also in a state of flux. Infighting had torn down a couple of branches. They were said to be blaming one another for things, becoming overly paranoid in the blink of an eye.
But that’s something else altogether, he thou
ght, packing his bag.
Before he headed to Tahiti, Roman needed to tie up a few loose ends with some contacts around the globe. Favors were about to be called in. He didn’t want to, but he promised himself that he would take care of business before enjoying his pleasure.
Roman planned to stick to the surrounding area, all the while looking for the former Violet Dragon, Rio. He had heard nothing from her since she disappeared beneath the floor of the penthouse. It was a fitting escape route too, right out of the House of Dragons blueprint. He had no idea where it led, nor did he care. All he knew was that Violet was gone and hopefully safe.
Knowing her real name was good and all, but Roman would forever remember her as Violet. He never met the little girl that proceeded the assassin. That girl was gone.
Maybe I’ll meet her someday, though.
It was unfortunate, but he gave himself a fifty-fifty chance of ever seeing her again. If he had been in her shoes, he wouldn’t be hanging around either. He would’ve disappeared just like she did. He couldn’t imagine the wealth Violet had accumulated over the years. She must’ve had secret bank accounts all over the globe, just waiting to be withdrawn.
He had enough to survive on for a while if he wanted to do the whole world travel thing for a couple of months. But if he really did want to jump back into the fray, he had a friend that needed help with some pretty awful people in Russia. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to become a gun for hire or not, but Roman did want to help people that couldn’t help themselves.
Like the Beautiful Dragons.
First, he needed to take care of some things. Then, he’d dig into his pleasure. After that, he’d decide on his future.
I hope she’s around.
30
She calmly boarded the train and looked for her target. Not seeing her, Violet decided to play the part of a tourist and take a look around. At the very least, she had the night to do what she came here to do. Thankfully, her contact within the China National Railway had confirmed that the person she sought was, indeed, on board.
Beautiful Dragons: A Thriller Page 19