A moment later the black Pod shot into the air to hide amongst the clouds as two men appeared on the roof of the tall building. Looking over the side, Michael pointed. “Is it that one?” he asked. Akio followed his finger.
Pulling up his tablet, Akio used the zoom feature. “That building with the blue lights?” Akio asked.
“Yes.”
“No.” Akio shook his head. “It is the older-looking building to the side.”
“Of course it is.” Michael nodded once and the two of them disappeared into his Myst.
—
Orochi nodded as Aoi walked by him. He was standing in the sacred area inside their true base of operations.
The building next to them was a plant. While he had excellent contacts inside the police force, you never trusted any party whose purpose put them at odds with your own. At some point you would be enemies.
It was just a given.
He had tried to get hold of Raiden twice before his contact alerted him to a very suspect fire at one of Raiden’s businesses. Orochi sighed.
Raiden wasn’t the only one who had the ability to uncover secrets. He had probably gone to ground at that building at the instigation of his partner. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Diplomat—or others—was smarter.
Which left him with his own challenge. Should he withdraw his people, or just himself?
Cut off the root, the vine would die. Cut off the vine, the root can grow again. He nodded sharply to himself.
As the root, he needed to stay safe. Decision made, he stepped toward his office. He was walking down the underground hallway when the lights dimmed and the red safety lights turned on.
Something had tripped his security next door.
His lips pressed together as he reached his office. He grabbed his wakizashi, the shorter of his swords, which was designed for inside work, and also pocketed a few extra tricks as he readied himself in case the attackers were to successfully repulse his first response and figure out how to make it into this enclave.
There was no running from a fight. While not the most tactically sound business choice, there was no way he would fail his teams by running like a coward.
He held his sword by the sheath and walked toward the security room to watch what happened next.
—
“Yessss.” Michael stood in the middle of a large practice area, slowly rotating to scan for enemies as Akio, only five feet away, watched the hallways. “I do believe we have kicked over an anthill.” Reaching under his jacket, Michael pulled out a short sword. “This might be a little fun.”
Do you have a connection to the leader?
There was a lag before Michael answered, Got him. He isn’t going to run from the fight. Interesting, they aren’t in this building.
Hai! Akio looked around. As far as he could tell they would come through the four entrances into the large room. However, he’d rather be safe than either dead or painfully mending while Michael laughed at him with a big fat, “I told you so.”
Not that he expected Michael to say that, in so many words.
“Eve is going to be pissed she got the address wrong,” Akio whispered. “She prides herself on accuracy.”
“Pride comes before the fall,” Michael answered. “I should know, I coined the phrase.” He chuckled. “It wasn’t about me originally, even though I just proved it.” He finished as they heard the rushing footsteps whispering through the hallways and they got themselves into position.
Akio limbered up. “I count eighty-eight.” He sighed. “Somebody must have been expecting us.”
“Probably a reaction to Raiden’s death,” Michael answered as the entrances vomited fighters. Soon they had four groups of just over twenty men each. “I’ll take the first fifty. You can have the rest.”
Akio grunted. “I’ll leave you twenty, because I am respectful,” he told him with a genuine smile on his face.
Akio chuckled as Michael spoke to those around them. “You sexist bastards! I know you have women in your party. Why aren’t you letting them play too? Scared they will prove they are the better sex?”
Michael received no verbal response, but a few of the men focused on him. “That is not playing with honor!” Akio told him. “You are sucking them toward you.”
“The only rule in this game is that you must use only sword or fists unless they use guns,” Michael told him.
“Hai!” Akio agreed, “And no using Etheric magic.”
Michael sniffed. “I don’t do magic.” He headed toward the nearest group of fighters as Akio went in the other direction.
CHAPTER TEN
Haru’s eyes narrowed when the man in the black hat asked about the women. Truthfully, they did have women in their ranks, but they were rather rare. Two were not good enough to join them for this fight, and two were not at the base at the moment. The last was superior to all of them, and was guarding Orochi-sama.
Still, he hoped his was the sword which would pierce this arrogant gaijin ass.
His group opened up to allow them plenty of room to swing their swords, but not so far apart that they couldn’t protect one another.
Then the two men attacked.
The Japanese warrior went to the far side of the dojo and the gaijin came to his group.
Perfect!
That was, until the dying started.
Haru led off, circling to his left. The man in black was in the middle of his brothers and there was nothing but screaming, both as various men attacked and in pain as hands were cut off, throats sliced, and bodies violently kicked upward to hit walls two body-heights above them.
This man was not human.
Pressing his lips together, he ran toward the attacker in a crouch and struck upward with his sword. He gaped in shock as his sword sliced through the space where the man had been. He looked behind him, and while the attacker wasn’t exactly in the same spot, Haru’s sword should have hit him.
A voice spoke in his mind. Nice try! You can come again if you want a second pass.
A vampire. Haru gripped his sword tightly, already running back toward the creature. Knowledge known is knowledge used. And knowledge was—
The wakizashi erupted from the back of Haru’s head as Michael jumped over the slash the now-dead fighter had launched at him. As he yanked it out Haru’s body dropped to the floor, and Michael’s macabre dance of death continued.
“Sixteen!” he yelled.
—
Akio chose to wade into the mass of fighters. He blocked the first two slashes that came at him and flicked his sword to the right, slicing a neck open as his left hand batted a sword to the side. He grabbed that fighter’s clothes and pulled, sliding the surprised man around to place him right where the two others on his right were attacking.
He let go of his pincushion, the two fighters saying nothing as their teammate dropped to the floor.
He noted that Michael had already put five on the ground and, setting his lips, he upped his speed. He batted two swords aside and his horizontal slice took two more heads as he kicked behind him, driving back several who were trying to flank him.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that none of those who had been knocked off-balance by his kick had hurt each other.
Pity, that.
He was up to four and moved his body slightly to the left, the sword that had been aimed at him harmlessly stabbing air where his chest had been a moment before.
A sharp slice downward and the arm bearing the sword was severed, the sword now falling with the hand still attached. A second later Akio cut his head off. Those who lost limbs rarely maintained situational awareness.
Five.
He twisted to his right and stabbed, pulling the fighter he impaled toward him and grabbing his sword with his other hand. “I have need of this,” Akio told him as he yanked his sword back out of the fighter’s chest. “And you don’t.”
Six.
Now his dance of death was vastly improved.
Tw
o slices, and he was up to eight. A block, a parry, and two more cuts made it ten.
Michael’s voice reverberated off the walls. “Sixteen!”
Akio’s lips pressed together and those around him who could see his eyes hesitated for a moment.
Which was enough for Akio to quickly take down four more.
—
Michael glanced at Akio as he blocked two thrusts on landing from a rather theatrical jump.
He had just downed four guards in the space of an eyeblink.
Dammit, he shouldn’t have been playing around. He turned toward the nearest fighter, his eyes flashing red. “I’ll be taking that!” He blocked the first thrust, then grabbed the hand with the sword and cut it off, backhanding the fighter in the face. As the man screamed blood sprayed from his arm, causing the two at his side to wipe their eyes.
Michael dispatched them both quickly as he worked to get the hand unclenched from the sword. Now bearing two swords, he upped his speed once more.
He and Akio worked counterclockwise, running through the fighters like a pair of mobile Cuisinart blenders.
“Eighteen,” Akio shouted.
“Twenty-one!” Michael replied.
Back and forth the two went, not offering or asking or giving quarter as the battle raged. Swords clashed blade-on-blade as one group tried desperately to kill the two, but the results were obvious and soon enough the truth became reality when the last kill slid off the end of Akio’s sword.
He turned to Michael. “Forty-one.”
Michael was leaning against the wall. “I was waiting for you to catch up,” he told him. Pushing off the wall, he pointed toward the corridor. “We have more that way.”
Akio cleaned his personal blade on a nearby body. “After you,” he replied as he followed Michael into the northernmost hallway.
Thirty seconds later the two of them faced an old brick wall.
Michael was frowning as he listened to the thoughts of those in the building on the other side. “Guns! They are bringing guns to a swordfight.”
“Hai.” Akio sighed. “I am ashamed of their actions,” he said as he sheathed his sword and tossed the other away. Reaching back, he grabbed a pistol and pulled it out. “On the other hand, it will be less sticky this way.”
“True,” Michael agreed. He had already sheathed his sword and pulled his Jean Dukes. “Swords can be rather messy.” He and Akio looked at each other, both of them smiling. “Ready?”
Akio nodded. “Hai!”
Michael disappeared first, with Akio disappearing in his Myst a blink of an eye later.
Abandoned Airfield, One Hundred Fifty Miles North-Northwest of Chengdu
“Well, hell,” Eve said, using a bit of her brainpower to continue her effort toward sounding human. “It seems that you were right,” she finished, pointing to a screen on her tablet. “The Pod’s systems have detected tangos inbound from the northeast.”
Yuko bit her lip, thinking of her options as she considered the force coming for them. “They won’t want to bomb us and risk destroying the technology.”
“Mark and Jacqueline?” Eve asked as Sabine walked over to listen to the conversation.
“Leave them out of this,” said Yuko, her tone crystalizing her decision. “Get me a connection to Akio.”
“Ohhh.” Eve touched the screen.
“This is Akio,” his deep voice answered. The three of them heard an explosion in the background, followed by a scream, then silence. “I am sorry about that.”
Yuko ignored the noise. “Is this an appropriate time to talk?”
“Certainly,” he replied. “Michael, would you be so kind as to take out those three over there? I need a moment with Yuko.” There was more screaming in the background, then the battle sounds faded a bit.
Yuko leaned forward. “Is Michael going to be OK?”
Akio chuckled. “These are not the best fighters. They use guns.”
“That is what makes them not the best fighters?” Sabine asked from the background. When Eve and Yuko turned to look at her, she blushed and mouthed “Sorry.”
Akio ignored the byplay. “I believe we have about five more to dispatch.” There was a slight pause. “Four more. So how can we help you?”
Yuko spoke up. “There are at least two hundred coming here to attack the base. Mark and Jacqueline are not here, just me, Eve, and Sabine. I’m wondering if you have the time to join us so we don’t have to patch holes in the building.”
“Who is it?” Akio asked.
“Chinese,” Eve responded. “I’ve finally found their working frequency.”
“Michael has two left, so we can be out of this building in sixty seconds. Make sure you tell the police to come clean up,” he continued. “I’ve seen plenty of evidence these are the ones who killed the Emperor, so there shouldn’t be a backlash about leaving no one alive.”
“I guess it’s too late to save one?” Eve asked, sending a message to the police contact on behalf of Yuko.
“It’s Michael,” Akio replied, as if that answered everything.
Eve sent additional messages “The Pod will be there in thirty seconds. It will deposit you in the west to allow you to come up behind them.” She looked at Yuko, who put up seven fingers. “You will have seven minutes to kill them before we have to mount a defense.”
There was a short pause before Akio answered, “Understood. Akio out.” He cut the connection.
A significant distance away, two men started arguing about body counts as they moved to the roof.
If anyone had been left in the building they would have heard one man respond, “No, you told me to go ahead—that you had a call—so those kills count. I’ll forgive you two, but not the others…”
Their discussion muted as they went through the door to the roof. In the distance, police sirens could be heard heading toward that area of town.
Abandoned Airfield, One Hundred Fifty Miles North-Northwest of Chengdu
The two hundred men moved silently through the underbrush, taking their time and checking their devices to see if they had been caught.
So far no one seemed to be doing anything odd inside the building. There were no strange noises or lights.
They had maybe ten minutes to go before they would be in place to charge the building, using their advantage of surprise to overcome those inside. Until they had eyes on the target they couldn’t fire their weapons.
If anything was damaged someone in the team would be blamed, and at best demoted. At worst, if the damage was caused by negligence, court-martialed.
And then stuck in prison or killed. It depended on one’s connections.
Chang grimaced as he thought about this. There were a couple in his platoon who would get off scot-free if they were the offending parties.
It was good to have family in high places.
He glanced at his screen and then had to glance again.
His team had lost five connections since the last time he had looked. He paused, holding his fist in the air to halt those around him as he worked to understand the problem, and his command rippled out silently until everyone had stopped moving.
His eyebrows narrowed in thought, then his eyes widened in concern. He didn’t bother to be quiet this time. “Turn around!” he called. “Ambush!”
He did as he told them to do, turning and lifting his rifle to his shoulder. Many around him did the same. “Support!” he commanded as they went back the way they had come.
The second time he had looked his platoon had dropped by another fifteen connections.
His team was being decimated.
—
Yuko put her feet up as she sat in a chair sipping tea.
Sabine looked at her from her chair a few feet away. “You aren’t worried?”
“No,” Yuko admitted, taking another small sip. “They have started their attack. No one will get through,” she said, nodding toward the door.
“There were a lot of dots on the screen,” S
abine pressed. “You don’t think I should go out and make sure none get this far?”
Yuko shook her head. “Oh, definitely not. That would be a waste of your time.”
“She is right,” Eve admitted, turning away from her computer screen. She lifted a tablet and touched it twice before handing it to Sabine. “Feel free to watch the dots disappear if you would like. Already they are down over thirty percent.”
Sabine watched the dots steadily decrease, and suddenly those that were closest to the hangar moved away.
Heading to their deaths.
Yuko continued sipping her tea, the occasional scream and or rifle shot piercing her thoughts. “Eve?” When she looked up, her friend was staring at her. “We are going to have to do something about the Chinese government. They have—” She turned her head to the side as the door started squeaking open.
“One hundred ten,” Akio said definitively. “If you allow for the two back in Tokyo, Michael-san, we are even.”
Michael closed the door as if it weighed nothing. “We are even, then. I will grant you those two easily.” The two men turned to see the three ladies staring at them. They looked down, taking note of all the leaves, grass, blood, and gore on their bodies. Yuko was holding a cup of tea in one hand and a plate in the other. She nodded to her right and smiled. “The showers, gentlemen, are that way.”
Both men stood a bit straighter and headed off to the ladies’ right, mischievous smiles on their face.
“Do you think they have been up to something?” Sabine asked, watching the two men head into a hallway,
“I’ve no idea, but with men it’s always safer to assume they were,” Yuko admitted.
—
Michael and Akio came out about ten minutes later. Michael didn’t have his coat or his shirt on, just some pants he had found in the back. Akio came out in a robe.
“Because,” Michael said, finishing a comment he had been making to Akio, “the robes are made for shorter humans. I refuse to wear a robe that looks like a child’s jacket.”
“I prefer the term ‘properly sized,’” Akio replied, his clipped Japanese accent precise.
“You mean to say I am brutishly large?” Michael asked, slipping into a proper English accent.
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