Of Cinder and Bone

by Kyoko M

  The girl broke from his grip and hit the tunnel floor on all fours, trembling, quaking in place. Jack’s mouth went dry as her limbs stretched and bent inward like a dog’s hindquarters. She stared at him, her soft doe’s eyes turning a furious gold, peering out from her dark hair. Her spine crackled and popped as wickedly sharp spines shot forth from it. A long scaly tail unfurled from beneath the remaining shreds of her nightgown. A fanged muzzle pushed out from her face, its snout smoking with twin trails of vapor.

  Seconds later, a gun-metal-grey dragon the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex glared down at Jack and then roared so hard that it shook the stalactites from the ceiling.

  Jack fled.

  The flashlight bounced crazily off the walls as he raced down the tunnel, turning sharply as he heard the scrape of the dragon’s claws as it gave chase. Orange light glowed behind him and he ducked as it spat a gout of fire, missing him by mere inches. It singed the hairs on his head and cooked the leather on his jacket until it cracked. He broke into a full sprint, gaining several feet, but then ran into a fork in the tunnel. Right or left. Death or escape.

  Jack ran into the left tunnel and around the bend only to be met with another empty corridor. He swore and threw himself against the wall, one hand over his mouth to mask the sound of his panting. He held perfectly still and strained to hear where the dragon had gone.

  Thud. Thud. Thud.

  Thud-schtick! Thud-schtick! Thud-schtick!

  A low rolling growl filled the tunnels. Then, mercifully, it faded a moment later.

  Jack swallowed hard and told himself he had to check if it was clear or he’d be a sitting duck. He edged himself over to the tunnel and glanced into it.

  Darkness.

  Then he heard the girl’s voice whisper.

  “Found you.”

  The fire ate him whole.

  Jack came out of the nightmare like a man swimming up to the surface of the ocean, gasping hard and sitting bolt upright on the futon. His bicep screamed with pain at the abrupt motion and he cried out, clutching the wound as it burned and sent fire-ant stings coursing down his right arm.

  “Jack, it’s alright,” Kamala said, resting a hand on his chest. “You were dreaming. Take it easy.”

  He ran a shaky hand through his mussed hair, a hollow laugh in his throat. “Well, that was an unpleasant side effect of the painkillers.”

  Kamala brushed his hair back and felt his forehead. “You’re a little feverish. Sit tight.”

  She went into the kitchen and returned with a tall glass of ice water and a granola bar. Jack gulped the water down greedily and then tore into the bar, eating it in two bites.

  “You lost a lot of blood, so you won’t be at one hundred percent for a while,” Kamala said, handing him a napkin. “You’ll need a sling for your arm, at least for the time being.”

  Jack shook his head and wiped his mouth. “It’s fine.”

  “What did you see?”

  “Huh?”

  “In the dream,” she said softly. “What did you see?”

  He avoided her gaze. “Where’s Fujioka?”

  Kamala pressed her lips together in a thin line and then sighed. “She texted me a few minutes ago. She’s on her way in and she cracked the code on Nakamura’s phone. Hopefully, we’ll find Okegawa’s number as well as an address.”

  “Great. In the meantime, I’ve got to see a man about a horse.”

  Kamala lifted an eyebrow.

  He winced. “Right. Idioms. I need to use the bathroom.”

  He stood on his own, wobbled a bit, and then walked a crooked line to the restroom. Once he was done, he briefly took stock of himself in the mirror. His skin was wan and sickly, the color of toilet paper, except for the small cut that had turned a mottled red over his cheekbone. His eyes looked hooded from his general state of exhaustion, and he could see purplish bruising sticking out from beneath the bandage on his arm. All in all, he appeared and felt like a thousand miles of bad road.

  And yet she stuck by him anyway.

  Jack splashed cold water on his face a few times and hovered over the sink, glaring at himself. “Coward. Just tell her. For God’s sake, it’s not like it’s the end of the world. Even if she says no, she won’t just abandon you. Man up, you dumb shit.”

  He wiped his face with a towel, mopped up the sweat that had beaded on his chest and abs while he slept, and took a deep breath. He turned and opened the door to the bedroom.

  “Kam, we need to talk.”

  “Oh, good,” Fujioka said. “You’re still alive.”

  Jack sighed inwardly and closed the bathroom door. “Don’t throw a parade or anything.”

  “I’ll resist the urge.” She brandished Nakamura’s phone. “I was just telling Dr. Anjali that I’ve got an address. We’ve lost several hours while you were hurt, but I made sure Aisaka and her goons didn’t follow us. For the moment, you’re safe.”

  “Great. When can we get moving?”

  The women exchanged a glance. Jack frowned. “What gives?”

  “Jack,” Kamala said with a long-suffering tone. “You have a hole in your arm.”

  “So?”

  “So, you can’t be running around Tokyo until you’ve healed.”

  “What? You want to just leave me here?”

  Kamala placed a hand on her hip. “Yes. Why? Do you have a problem with that?”

  “What if you need my help?”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s what cell phones were invented for, Jack.”

  He clenched his teeth for a second. “Not what I meant.”

  “I know what you meant. Fujioka-san and I can handle this on our own. You need to rest until you’re strong enough to be fully mobile. Otherwise, you’ll be a danger to yourself as well as us.”

  “We’re supposed to watch each other’s backs. You really expect me to just sit on my ass while you’re out there with those dick-holes chasing after you?”

  “They’re chasing you, not me.” She strode over to him and poked him in the chest, which made him wince and sway dangerously for a second. “Do we have to have another conversation about you not ordering me around? Because I thought I made myself clear the last time.”

  Jack took a deep breath and counted to five. “I’m not trying to pick a fight, Kam. I’m just… concerned. As your friend.”

  “Don’t be. I can take care of myself, and Fujioka-san is more than enough to keep me safe. Stay here. Rest.” She paused and then smiled a little. “Then you can go back to being my dragon, alright?”

  “Fine. Just…just be careful, okay?”

  “Of course. Eat something and keep drinking water. Check on Faye and see if the FBI made any headway with our case. We should be back within the hour.” She gave him a peck on the cheek and then pointed a finger at him, her expression severe.

  “And wear the damn sling for your arm.”

  “Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on,” he grumbled, shuffling over to the desk where the extensive First Aid kit lay open. He sat down with a groan and reached for it, then sent a petulant stare in her direction. “You don’t have to watch me put it on! I’m gonna do it.”

  “Men are such babies,” Fujioka said. “I don’t know how we deal with them.”

  They left the apartment in the wake of Jack grumbling under his breath about doctors and difficult women.

  CHAPTER TEN

  PSYCHOTHERAPY

  “I don’t like this.”

  “No one likes it. But it’s about fifty percent of what I do for a living, so you learn to live with it.”

  “Not this,” Kamala said, gesturing towards the binoculars in Fujioka’s hands. “I don’t like that we found him this way. It isn’t sitting right with me.”

  “You have good instincts, then,” Fujioka replied without looking away from the binoculars. She did, however, bring a bottle of water up to her a mouth to sip before con
tinuing. “If Okegawa is as big a deal as they’ve made him out to be, it’s unlikely that this is his real address. It’s probably that of an associate or a girlfriend or one of his shatei. You don’t get to be shateigashira by making rookie mistakes.”

  “So, why did we still come here?”

  “Because humans are creatures of habit. He was here when he sent out the orders to pick up the dragon. He spoke directly to Nakamura when he could have just passed the order through his men. He doesn’t want a lot of them to know about his operation so no one can tattle on him. He might be using this place to lie low as well, since by now, the FBI might have made some progress in getting the local authorities to be on the lookout for him.”

  “Do you intend to surrender the information we’ve found to them?”

  “After I’ve done what I was hired to do, yes. I have no problem with the police. They’ve done a hell of a job ridding the streets of both major yakuza clans. It’s admirable.”

  “What about Nakamura? I’m sure he warned them that we recovered his phone.”

  “That’s possible, but he’s young. He might be afraid that reporting such a failure to Okegawa would result in disciplinary action. Failing to bring Jack in would be taken quite seriously on its own, but possibly leading us to Okegawa would mean serious peril. He might have kept his mouth shut. Self-preservation is one hell of a motivator.”

  “I see.” Kamala wiped her mouth with a napkin and set her small empty container of food aside before settling in next to Fujioka with her own pair of binoculars. The morning air was crisp, but not biting. Summertime in Tokyo often meant the temperature was in the high seventies, so the morning wasn’t cold even at their current elevation.

  The apartment complex that had been registered to Okegawa’s cell phone number was nestled in a nearby district of Tokyo: Shibuya. He had a suite on the top floor, so Fujioka paid off a few people to give them roof access to a neighboring apartment, beyond his line of sight should he go near the windows. She kept an eye on the unit itself while Kamala watched the people down below to see if Okegawa walked in. It had been about half an hour since they arrived and the streets were sparse with people as it was not long after sunrise, but traffic was beginning to pick up steadily.

  “While we’ve got some time to ourselves,” Fujioka said several minutes later. “Why did you stop practicing medicine and join Jack’s project?”

  Kamala glanced at her, surprised.

  Fujioka smiled. “I research all potential clients, Dr. Anjali. I’m thorough. It reduces the chance of being double-crossed or getting shot because I didn’t have all the information.”

  “Oh.” Kamala focused on the street in front of the apartment again. “It was too easy.”

  Fujioka made a scoffing sound. “Being a doctor was too easy?”

  “No. The work was challenging and I liked it, but…” She licked her lips. “My family is full of doctors. From my great-grandfather on down. It’s expected of us to just fall in line. I knew what my life would be like if I stayed on that path. I admire my parents and I love them dearly, but I don’t want their life. There were no surprises for either of them. Not even me. I was planned and executed to the letter. Everything I had done and would do was already itemized on a list somewhere. So, I decided to do something else that was equally meaningful.”

  “But why a research project? Your reputation is stunning. You could have gone into several different fields.”

  “I’ve always had a soft spot for the environment. It’s part of why I’m a vegetarian. I was searching for a way to give back in a way that meant something. That’s when I stumbled across what Jack was working on. Dragons are one of the only species on the planet that suffered extinction solely from human interference. They were systematically destroyed with extreme prejudice, and most of it was based on flimsy reasons. They claimed that dragons snatched children from farms and villages in the dead of night. The ones large enough to do that wouldn’t be anywhere near civilization because of the environments they thrive in. It’s an old wives’ tale, like Baba Yaga. It isn’t like in certain parts of India where they’ve had tigers abducting people, or those two lions that were hunting people in Kenya in the late 1800’s. Dragons were nothing but sport to generations before us. Some of them were a danger and a nuisance, but not all of them. There was no reason to wipe them all out and be unapologetic about it. I chose Jack’s project to right that wrong. To show the world that just because something is unusual or possibly dangerous, doesn’t mean it has no place.”

  “Interesting. It sort of makes sense why you and Jack get along so well.”

  Kamala scowled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I’d rather not say.”

  “You brought it up, Fujioka-san. Is there something you want to tell me?”

  Her mouth twitched, as if she were trying not to frown. “I shouldn’t meddle.”

  “Too late. Out with it or I’ll pester you indefinitely. I’m very good at it.”

  “Look, it’s nothing dire. It just bothers me that he hasn’t been completely honest with you about why he began this project.”

  “Forgive me, but I find that hard to believe. Jack tells me everything.”

  Fujioka made a serious effort not to wince at her words. “No man tells a woman he cares for everything. It’s not in their nature, and certainly not in Jack’s.”

  “He’s different.”

  “True. He is different from most men, but he still holds back because he’s afraid.”

  “Afraid of what?”

  Fujioka sighed. “He’s told you about his father, right?”

  “Somewhat. I know that he went through an extremely rough period in his middle and high school years. He was bullied by some kids and then his father overreacted in trying to teach him how to fight. I don’t know if any charges were ever filed, but based on Jack’s reaction, there was some physical and emotional abuse involved. I also think his mother never knew what happened. She strikes me as the type who would have instantly divorced her husband for laying hands on their child that way.”

  “Well, that’s not the whole story. Jack stopped getting bullied around junior year of high school and began struggling with the psychological effects. He started picking fights instead of just defending himself.”

  Kamala’s breath caught in her throat. “Oh no. Are you saying he became the bully?”

  “Not exactly. He was so used to the adrenaline that his temper got out of control. He had all that power and technique, but nothing to direct it at, and so it got worse. He tried enrolling in martial arts classes, but it didn’t work. He was just angry and aggressive all the time, largely because he couldn’t stand up to his father. Then, he just suddenly stopped talking to anyone and graduated from high school and hopped on a plane to MIT.”

  Kamala shook her head. “No wonder he didn’t tell me.” She paused, frowning. “How exactly did you find out? He said you only exchanged emails. Why would he open up to you if you were only with him for a week?”

  “It was an eventful week.”

  Kamala drummed her fingers on the ledge of the rooftop, chewing her lower lip. After a while, she sighed. “Alright, it’s none of my business, but it’s killing me. How did you find out all of this about him? He’s so guarded sometimes.”

  Fujioka raised an eyebrow. “You should know better, Dr. Anjali. Men are most vulnerable when they’re intimate with someone. Even if it’s brief, there’s still a connection there.”

  “Well, as you said, we’ve got some time to ourselves. Tell me more about that week.”

  Fujioka shot a quick look at her. “Are you certain? I’m not very good at censoring myself.”

  Kamala shifted to sit more comfortably. Her mind flashed on the kiss she and Jack shared on the bridge. It was just a distraction, but it wasn’t altogether a bad memory. “I’ll cope with it somehow.”

  ~*~

 
The hotel door had scarcely closed when Fujioka shoved Jack up against it and kissed him, lifting on her tiptoes to reach his mouth. He made a little alarmed noise that she thought was adorable, but melted right into the kiss without hesitation. She wasted no time in ripping off his trench coat and suit jacket, going to work on the buttons of his dress shirt. She jerked the tail of the shirt out of his pants and started to undo the belt, smirking up at him.

  “Waiting for an invitation, handsome?” she asked between kisses.