‘No.’
‘Yes, Mr Saintclair. Unfortunately, he found it difficult to perfect the preservation technique and these are – How should we describe them? – the survivors of his haul. Each of them his own creation. Each of them beheaded by this sword, all but one.’
‘The Bougainville head.’
‘Of course. You would like to reveal your client’s name now?’
‘I don’t think so.’
She shrugged. ‘It does not matter. I’m sure we could elicit an answer by causing your companion more pain. There are certain refinements my grandfather perfected … But we are not barbarians. All that is required is to remove the stain on his memory.’ She rapped out an order in Japanese and Magda Ross squealed behind the tape. He turned to find her eyes wide and her head shaking. He only understood why when the thin guard left the room and returned a few moments later.
When Jamie saw what he was carrying the blood in his veins turned to ice water and his legs threatened to give way beneath him.
‘No, I—’
The sword point at his throat silenced him. ‘You must think of it as an honour, Mr Saintclair, a form of immortality. I am sure we will do you justice. We are much more practised now.’ The edge of the blade switched to his neck so he could feel the blood in his carotid artery pulsing against it. ‘And of course, it is virtually painless. Much preferable to dying by inches of cancer in your hospital bed.’
The thin guard spread the roll of plastic sheet he’d brought across the carpet at Jamie’s feet.
‘Kneel.’
‘I’d prefer to die on my feet, if that’s all right with you.’
‘Kneel or I will have them cause your friend pain.’
‘You’re going to kill her anyway.’
‘Yes, indeed. But I promise you she will not suffer. Kneel.’
Jamie shot a last desperate glance at Magda. Christ, he should be fighting for his life; putting his fist through the bloody woman’s face and tearing at the guards with his teeth. But for all his mind screamed at him to act, his body wouldn’t obey. He felt completely numb as he complied. This must have been what it was like for the men and women who queued obediently at the gates of Auschwitz waiting to die: a feeling of utter helplessness and inevitability. Nishimura issued another order. One of Magda’s captors left her to take Jamie’s arm while the thin guard took the other. The touch of their hands at last prompted some resistance, but it was too late. The more he struggled, the tighter they gripped.
‘Bow your head.’ Her voice had turned almost seductive. ‘It will be over in a moment.’
He froze as he felt the edge of the blade on the nape of his neck. His mind turned to his own grandfather, Matthew, the Anglican missionary who’d turned out to have fought in the SAS during the Second World War. The image of the old man gave him new strength. Matthew wouldn’t give in and allow himself to be butchered like this. Matthew would have fought to his last breath. ‘By the way,’ he turned his head to look up into his executioner’s face, ‘I don’t think your grandfather was a hero. I think he was a coward and a murderer who slaughtered innocent civilians for his own pleasure. Even your own government has disowned criminals like him, who encouraged the type of bestiality the Japanese Army perpetrated at Nanking. If there’s a Buddhist hell that’s where he is now, and that’s where you’re going.’
‘It is a testament to your own fear,’ Nishimura smiled, ‘that you think to provoke me into prolonging your life, even if it costs you a great deal of pain. I’m afraid that will not work, Mr Saintclair.’
The guard on Jamie’s left forced his chin round so he was staring at the plastic sheet, the one designed to protect the expensive carpet from his spurting blood. In the same moment he felt them angle their bodies away from him, loosening their grip just a fraction. The movement gave him the chance to rotate the object clutched convulsively in his left hand.
XXXIII
Jamie closed his eyes, counting down the seconds and knowing he would only get one chance. He could feel Madam Nishimura’s presence looming over him, the sword lifting, the dark eyes picking the precise point of impact between two vertebrae. The guard holding his right arm edged an inch further away to avoid being splashed by the inevitable flood of gore. Magda’s muffled scream told him the sword was ready to fall.
Now! He pressed the button on the little canister of pepper spray he’d retrieved from the hood compartment of the expensive jacket, praying that his aim was true. A distinctive smell made his nostrils prickle and he felt the faintest touch of vapour on his cheek. The guard screamed as the stream of fiery liquid turned his face into an inferno. Jamie jerked down hard on the arm that held his, throwing himself left to bring the man into the line of the arcing blade. A sharp slapping sound and the scream changed in pitch to a long shriek of mortal agony. Jamie opened his eyes to see a jumble of blood-spattered plastic as his momentum continued to take him left. As he’d intended, his shoulder rammed into the remaining captor’s ribs as the man clawed for the pistol beneath his jacket.
The plan, if there’d been one, had been to disable him with the pepper spray, but it was already too late for that and he sensed Madam Nishimura manoeuvring for a killing blow. Almost of its own volition his right hand wrestled with his captor’s as the guard tried to get the gun from its underarm holster. A sharp crack seemed to paralyse the Chinese for a moment and he fell away with a soft mewing sound, leaving Jamie in sole control of the gun. He wrenched it from the holster and fired a second round that left a smouldering hole in the guard’s jacket and passed close enough to freeze Madam Nishimura in position with the sword ready to bring down on him. Struggling to hold it steady, he moved the barrel until the muzzle was pointing at the centre of her chest. The sound of a struggle told him Magda must be doing what she could to occupy the remaining guard, but he didn’t dare look.
‘Tell him to let her go and drop his gun,’ he rasped. ‘I’d sooner shoot you than not and the chances are that if he puts a bullet in me I’ll fire anyway.’
Nishimura hesitated, glaring her hatred through narrowed eyes, before snarling the order to the guard. The man must have objected, because she had to repeat it twice. Jamie almost collapsed with relief as he heard the sound of a gun hitting the floor. The adrenalin pulsed through him and he had to relax the pressure of his trigger finger in case he shot Madam Nishimura by accident. Not that he’d mourn her passing, but he had plans for her. He bent to pick up the pepper spray and slipped it in his pocket. ‘Good. Now tell him to very slowly move with his back to the wall round into my field of vision. And you can put the sword down. Nice and gently, if you please.’
Nishimura complied, her volcanic gaze never leaving his. Magda moved into view and used the sword blade to slice through the ties binding her wrists. When she was done she tore the tape from her mouth, glaring at the other woman and looking for all the world like an avenging Amazon in designer jeans. ‘If you have any sense you’ll shoot that bitch now.’ Her voice shook with emotion. ‘She was going to cut your bloody head off.’
‘It’s tempting.’ He managed an awkward grin. ‘But I don’t think I will. It could make things more difficult later and she might come in handy.’
She looked down at him and her expression changed to concern. ‘Are you hurt?’
For the first time he noticed the blood spattered across his new jacket from shoulder to waist. ‘No, it’s all his.’ He pointed at the guard who lay twitching like a beached fish in a widening pool of gore. The sword had taken him diagonally across the back from shoulder to ribs, slicing his spinal cord. It didn’t seem likely he’d ever walk again if he lived at all, but that was his problem. The other guard wouldn’t be running a marathon any time soon either, not with what looked like a bullet through the pelvis.
Jamie removed the first guard’s pistol from its holster and took mobile phones from the inside pockets of both. He dropped the phones to the floor and crushed them under his heel. He nodded to the unwounded guard, and the m
an complied with the wordless suggestion, throwing his mobile to Magda, who gave it the same treatment. She snapped a command in Japanese and he threw a second object, which she put in her pocket. As an afterthought she went to the phone on Madam Nishimura’s desk and ripped the cord from the wall.
‘Why don’t you suggest to our friend there that he looks after his chums, and then get the head?’
Magda passed on the order and the guard glanced at Madam Nishimura for approval. He received a curt nod and grunted before going to crouch beside his comrades, muttering to himself as he tried to staunch their wounds.
Meanwhile, Magda picked up the rucksack and approached the line of niches. She hesitated in front of the Bougainville head. For a moment he thought she was experiencing the same feeling of dread he’d suffered earlier, but when she eventually reached up it was to cradle the blond-haired head to the right.
‘Not that one.’
She turned to stare at him. ‘This is what I came for.’ The words were spoken with a mixture of defiance and pride and he realized belatedly that he’d seriously underestimated Magda Ross. With something close to reverence she placed the head in the bag, only then adding its Bougainville counterpart.
‘Don’t …’ Jamie twitched his pistol to where Madam Nishimura was edging her way towards the door. He strode to where the Japanese woman stood and took her by the shoulder, putting the gun to her head. The guard looked up from helping his comrades and tensed as if he were about to spring to her defence.
‘Tell him that if I see his fat face outside this room in the next half an hour I’ll shoot you.’
‘Very well.’ She turned her head to stare into his eyes and her expression was almost amused. ‘You do realize all of this has been for nothing. Nothing at all. You will never get out of Tokyo alive.’
‘I suppose I could increase our chances by pulling the trigger,’ he suggested.
‘I don’t think a man like you would do that, Mr Saintclair. You are too much the English gentleman.’
‘Try me,’ he said, screwed the barrel a little deeper for emphasis and pushed her towards the doorway. ‘It’s not every day someone tries to chop off my head.’
He nodded to Magda to follow. ‘We’ll talk about this later,’ he assured her. ‘First we have to get out of here. We can’t use one of those electric buggies, but Tokyo Rose here must have some other transport handy.’
Magda reached into her pocket and pulled out the car key the guard had thrown her. ‘A big Toyota SUV. It’s parked out front.’
‘Can you handle it?’
‘I think so. What happens when we get to the gate?’
‘We’ll worry about that when we get there.’
Keeping Madam Nishimura in front of him, Jamie made his way cautiously to the stairs. He wasn’t too worried about a reaction to the gunshots, the first report had been muffled by the muzzle’s proximity to the victim, and in any case he doubted if the occasional bang was anything unusual in this house.
‘How many guards?’ he demanded.
‘Another five, but you need not concern yourself while you have me. They have instructions never to place my life in danger. Your real problems will start when you discard me, Mr Saintclair, as you must do at some point. Japan is an island nation and you must leave by air or sea. Whichever method you choose we will be waiting for you. By the time I have finished with you, you will be begging for the edge of my grandfather’s sword.’
Two more guards waited by the entrance, the big men in dark suits and white shirts he’d seen earlier in the electric buggy. They raised their guns the moment they realized what was happening, but at a snapped order from their leader they laid the weapons on the ground, contenting themselves with glares of frustrated, smoke-eyed hatred.
‘Good lads.’ Jamie returned their gaze. ‘Let’s keep it that way.’
The SUV was parked a few feet to the right of the guard house. Magda pointed the key and pressed a button and the door locks clicked open accompanied by a blaze of light as the headlamps automatically illuminated. ‘You get in first and start the engine,’ Jamie told her. ‘Put the rucksack on the front seat.’
Keeping the gun barrel against Madam Nishimura’s neck he waited until Magda was in the car before he went to the near-side rear door and used his free hand to open it, backing into the angle between door and seat.
‘All right,’ he said to the Japanese, ‘this is what we do. Turn round to face me.’ Madam Nishimura did as she was ordered and Jamie took the gun from her neck and put it to her forehead. ‘Now, I’m going to back into the car and you will follow me. If you try anything I’ll kill you.’
Their eyes were less than two feet from each other and he saw the moment of revelation, quickly followed by a moment of decision.
‘I really don’t think you will do that, Mr Saintclair. I am calling your bluff.’ She edged backwards with an almost ethereal mocking smile. For a split-second he was undecided, then he realized he really didn’t have any option. His finger tightened on the trigger and he felt the kick of the recoil as he threw himself backward into the car. The last thing he saw was the look of disbelief on the pale face. ‘Drive,’ he roared.
Magda risked a glance in the mirror as she floored the accelerator. All she could see was a group of men in dark suits clustered around a body lying in the road. ‘I thought you said you weren’t going to shoot her?’
‘Circumstances change.’ Jamie hauled the door shut as they bounced across a grass verge and on to the exit road. ‘Actually, I didn’t, but she must have thought I had. I figured that the sound of the shot would cause a bit of confusion and give us an edge.’ He looked out of the back window to where the guards had run back to pick up their weapons. ‘But it looks as if that edge is about to run out.’ They heard the faint stutter of automatic weapons and something spanged off the rear window leaving a starred chip about an inch across, then they rounded the corner by the lake and were out of sight of the house. ‘Bullet-proof glass. That’s handy.’ He squirmed his way between the backrests and moved into the passenger seat. ‘It’ll take them a couple of minutes to come after us …’
‘Jamie, I should explain …’
‘I don’t think this is quite the time, love. I’m sure you had your reasons, but it isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference unless we can get out of here.’ He reached inside his jacket and checked the other pistol, grunting with satisfaction when he saw it had a full magazine. ‘Hey,’ he grabbed the door handle as she threw the big car into a corner, ‘take it easy. There’s no point in outrunning them if we hit a bloody tree.’
She glared at him, but lifted her foot off the accelerator a fraction.
‘Are you complaining about my driving?’
‘Wouldn’t think of it,’ he grinned; ‘merely proffering an opinion. After all that it would be awfully silly to be killed in a car crash.’
‘I haven’t thanked you for saving my life. I thought—’
‘No thanks required.’ Jamie glanced in the wing mirror for any sign of pursuit, but they were still on their own. ‘My neck was on the line too,’ he felt the sword edge on against his flesh and shivered, ‘quite literally, come to think of it. If you hadn’t kept that third bloke occupied while I was sparring with the Dragon Lady and her chums it might have been different. It would hardly have been worth the bother if he’d put a bullet in my back.’
‘No, I meant I always knew you would.’ She sensed his surprise and shrugged. ‘You give the impression that you get into these things by accident, but you always have something up your sleeve. I knew you’d get us out of there …’
‘Bugger.’
‘Should I slow down?’
‘No. Put your foot down. I think this time it’s neck or nothing.’ A hundred metres ahead someone had toppled the electric golf buggy to block the road and Jamie could see at least three men behind it. Hurriedly he buckled his seat belt and winced as he saw the intermittent blink of machine-gun muzzles. A heartbeat later, bul
lets hammered into the bonnet and stitched the ground ahead of them. ‘They’re going for the tyres. Go right. Aim for the back of the bloody thing.’
Magda screamed as another burst of fire smashed into the car. ‘Right?’
‘Trust me. But hit it full on.’
The temptation was to try to get round the obstacle, but Magda gritted her teeth and put her foot to the floor. She aimed for a point just in front of the rear tyres where one of the gunmen crouched behind the chassis.
‘Hang on.’ The big car seemed to bounce as it hit and the engine surged, but the effect on the buggy and the men behind it was devastating. The entire rear of the fragile machine disintegrated and something whirled to smash off the bonnet of the Toyota and disappear into the trees. The rest of the buggy was smashed aside taking the other two men with it and they were through.
‘Oh my God.’ Jamie looked at Magda, wondering if he’d need to take over the wheel, but she was grinning. ‘I thought we were going to die. How did you know we’d get through?’
‘I didn’t. The engine in those things is either at the front or the back. I took a gamble it was the front. If I’d got it wrong we’d probably be halfway up a tree.’
‘You—’
‘But I didn’t get it wrong.’ He cocked his head and listened for a moment. ‘The engine doesn’t sound too healthy, but we can’t be far from the gate.’
The security gate appeared as they rounded the next corner and Magda gunned the engine, prepared to ram her way through the barrier.
‘I wouldn’t advise it,’ Jamie counselled, ‘not unless you want to be the filling in a metal sandwich. That gate is designed to stop things a lot heavier than us.’ She slowed and he leaned across to push a button on the dashboard. ‘I suspect it normally opens automatically, but the Dragon Lady’s henchmen must have disabled the mechanism. Pull up across the roadway and as close to it as you can get.’
The Samurai Inheritance Page 23