Of Cinder and Bone

by Kyoko M

  “It’s doubtful they’ll be able to get anyone out here before either of the yakuza clan closes in on us,” Kamala replied. “Our best bet for now is to run. If we survive, we can sort everything else out.”

  “Everyone ready?” Jack asked.

  They nodded. Jack paused. “Should we all put our hands in the center like the Mighty Ducks?”

  Fujioka rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me shoot you.”

  “Yeah, that would make you a pretty terrible bodyguard. Current gunshot wound notwithstanding. By the way, does that get subtracted out of my invoice?”

  “Jack.”

  “Right. Let’s go kick some yakuza ass.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  LIGHT ‘EM UP

  By the time they reached the double doors leading into the south wing, the fire alarm blared angrily overhead and white lights flashed every few seconds around each corner. Fujioka flattened herself against the wall, the assault rifle tucked tightly to her shoulder, its barrel pointed at the ceiling as she eased over to the small window. A moment later, she held up three fingers. The others nodded and got into position: Yagami gripping one of the Molotov cocktails, Jack and Kamala holding their weapons at the ready with Pete between them at the end of the hallway.

  Fujioka held her breath for a moment and then kicked the right door open.

  Immediately, she sank onto her knees and opened fire on the three men closing in. Two of them cried out and hit the floor. The third knelt and returned fire, forcing her to take cover as the door swunginward. Bullets bit into the metal, punching silver divots into the thick steel. Fujioka glanced at Yagami and pointed to the vials in the container. Yagami motioned for Jack to toss him the lighter and then lit the wick, watching for Fujioka’s signal.

  As soon as the gunshots paused, Fujioka pointed to him. He shoved the left door open and hurled the Molotov at the man. The bottle burst as it hit him in the midsection and he went up in flames, howling in panic. He threw himself to the ground and rolled back and forth, giving them just enough time to retaliate. Fujioka shot him dead and held up her fist for them to hang back, checking to see if anyone came running after hearing the firefight. No one did, so she motioned for them to move forward. She stooped and dug an earpiece from one of the deceased and put it in as she went.

  Behind them, Pete dug her claws into the linoleum, her head whipping side to side as she tried to shake the blindfold loose. Kamala laid one hand on her neck and shushed her with a soothing tone. The dragon shook out her wings and hissed, but stepped forward as Jack tugged at the leash around her neck.

  The hallway was long and had four doors: two labs and two supply closets, all with the same key pads and palm-print readers. Fujioka stayed to the right with her eye in the scope of the M16, her feet nearly silent as she crept forward to the corner. The hallway split with a sign pointing to the underground parking garage, maintenance area, and control room; the other pointing to the restrooms and break room.

  Fujioka motioned that she would scout ahead, around the corner, while Yagami should stay put to make sure no one approached from the other end of the hall. He nodded and knelt, readying an acid flask just in case. Jack kept Pete near the double doors while Kamala served as the lookout, ensuring no one crept up on them from behind.

  Heavy footsteps. Just one set. Yagami tensed and licked sweat from his upper lip, staying perfectly still with his back to the wall. Closer. He held on tight to the neck of the flask, his breath light and shallow.

  A tall, thin man walked around the corner, the barrel of a .9mm Sig Sauer floating past Yagami’s head just before he reared up and threw the flask. The thug shrieked as the glass burst and the acid splashed over his face, blinding him. He clawed at the burns and shot blindly at Yagami, who threw himself flat on the floor. The gun barked four or five times as the man flailed wildly, screaming in agony. A second later, the front of his forehead exploded in a cloud of red mist and he fell forward, dead.

  Behind him, Fujioka stood to full height and checked the corpse to be sure she’d gotten a clean headshot before glancing at the shaking, prone form of Yagami. “Daijobu ka?”

  Yagami pushed up on all fours, his arms trembling, eyes wide as he stared dumbly at the dead man only inches away. “I just melted a man’s face off. No, I’m not alright.”

  “You’ll live. We’ve got trouble up ahead.”

  “What’s it look like?” Jack asked.

  “These four were scouts,” she said, tapping at the ear piece. “There’s a cluster of them waiting for us in the old maintenance tunnel. They’re hoping to overwhelm us.”

  “Okegawa’s men or the Inagawa?” Jack asked.

  Fujioka lifted an eyebrow. “Like it matters at this point.”

  “It might,” Yagami said, pushing to his feet. “Kazu’s men know they can’t just kill us all. They need at least one of us alive to get the rest of the information about the dragon.”

  “What about Minako-san?” Jack asked.

  “She’s clear. Watsuki texted me a couple minutes ago that she’s safely off the premises.”

  “Lucky her,” Jack snorted. “How the hell are we supposed to know Okegawa’s men from the Inagawa’s?”

  Yagami shrugged. “See who shoots at you first.”

  “Hardy-har.”

  “We might have a window of opportunity,” Kamala said, still poised at the double doors behind them. “Someone’s coming down the hallway. What will the two groups do if they meet each other instead of us?”

  Fujioka paused. “Odds are they have orders to take each other out. If we can corral them into the same place, that’ll reduce their numbers.” She glanced at Yagami. “Do you know anything about the power grid in this place?”

  “Not really, but I know where the control room is.”

  “New plan. Shut off the lights in the maintenance tunnel. If we lure them in there and then cut the lights, we might be able to slip away in the confusion. Give me your phone.”

  He tossed it to her. She hit a few keys and then gave it back. “I’ll text you when we’re ready. Get moving as fast as you can. If you don’t meet us outside the tunnel in ten minutes, we’re going without you. Got it?”

  “Understood.” Yagami disappeared around the corner.

  “How close are they, Dr. Anjali?” Fujioka asked.

  “End of the hallway.”

  “How many?”

  “Eight.”

  She cursed under her breath. “We don’t have enough cover to take them on here. We’re going to have to split up. Go through this hallway and turn right. At the end of the hall is a gated elevator that goes down to the sub-level. Wait until I give the signal and send the elevator down, but don’t get on it. The men from behind will think you’ve gone down and they’ll get on the next one. Once they bump into the rival gang, they’ll start shooting up the joint and we’ll slip out once the carnage is over.”

  “Wait, where are we supposed to hide while we’re duping the gangs?”

  “There’s a boiler room near the elevator. One of you will stay with the dragon while the other one operates the lift. I warn you, it’s unfortunately a tight fit.”

  Jack eyed her. “How tight?”

  “Let’s just say you’ll get to know each other very well.”

  Jack sighed. “This just keeps getting better and better. What about you?”

  Fujioka grinned. “Don’t worry about me, big boy. This is the fun part. Get moving. I’ll find you after I’m done picking off some of the riff-raff.”

  Jack nodded and handed Pete’s lead to Kamala, who ushered the dragon towards the hallway. He came to Fujioka’s side and peered down into her face severely.

  “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone, alright?”

  “Impossible,” she said in a haughty tone. “You’re taking all the stupid with you.”

  Jack smirked. “You silver-tongued devil, you.” />
  He kissed her cheek and squeezed her shoulder before going after Kamala.

  Following Fujioka’s directions led him to a long hallway with only two doors before the lift at the very end. Kamala and Pete stood in front of the one on the right, and the door was open. He immediately noticed she had a look on her face, the kind she got when they were about to be utterly and royally screwed. Once he came up behind her, he knew why.

  The boiler room could have easily passed for a broom closet. The boiler itself was tucked in the far left corner. while it was clean and appeared to be well maintained, the building’s designer clearly hadn’t intended for more than one person at a time to be in the vicinity. Long, narrow concrete walls lined it. He guessed it was less than four feet wide and only about twelve feet long.

  “Well,” Jack said matter-of-factly. “This sucks.”

  “Understatement of the century,” Kamala muttered, absently stroking her hand down the front of Pete’s scaly chest. “Pete’s not going to like this. It puts us in a huge bind if we need to leave quickly.”

  “Yeah,” he sighed, scrubbing his face and feeling stubble poke at his palm. “We’re going to have to back her into it. Guess it’s a good thing she’s blindfolded.”

  Kamala took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I sort of wish I was too.”

  “Not a fan of tight spaces?”

  She clenched her jaw. “Not particularly. Here, help me turn her around.”

  Kamala took the lead and pulled the dragon forward one step at a time, until her long tail brushed the doorway. Jack placed his hand on Pete’s head and helped lower it to fit, muttering encouraging words. The dragon snorted and sniffed the rust-tainted air as she began backing into the room, her massive wings scraping along its walls. Her breathing picked up and her tongue flicked out as she tried to regain her bearings, letting out a low hiss as her spiny tail brushed the wall behind her.

  Kamala eased her way in next and Jack brought up the rear, closing the windowless door behind them. “Got a pretty good look at the lift,” Jack said. “Shouldn’t be too hard to operate. We’ll keep the door cracked right when Fujioka gives us the signal. If it doesn’t work, I’ll lure them away and you take Pete down to the tunnel.”

  Kamala frowned. “Why you?”

  “I thought we established the fact that I’m the expendable one.”

  “I didn’t spend all that time trying to rescue you just to let you get yourself killed now. If things fall apart, we will face them together.”

  He glanced nervously at the door. “Better one of us than neither, if you ask me.”

  She caught his chin and turned his face towards her, peering up at him. He swallowed and held still, his brow wrinkling in confusion. “What?”

  “Something is different,” she said firmly. “You’ve never had a death wish before. What aren’t you telling me, Jack?”

  “Nothing’s different, Kam. We don’t have a choice.”

  “Yes, we do. We’re in this together. Or at least we were before they kidnapped you.”

  Jack winced. Kamala narrowed her eyes. “What happened when they took you from Fujioka’s apartment?”

  He shrugged and edged himself to the door, cracking it open and checking the hallway through a thin shaft of light. “Just your standard ‘do what we tell you and we won’t harm your friends’ threat.”

  Kamala stilled. “You gave yourself up?”

  “Again, didn’t have much of a choice. He was going to shoot Fujioka.”

  “You traded yourself for us.”

  “It seemed reasonable at the time.”

  “You had no idea if they would execute you and you still let them take you?”

  He looked at her then, his own brown eyes hard. “What would you have done differently, Kamala? Would you have let them shoot me? Would you have let them shoot Fujioka?”

  “I…” She shut her eyes for a moment. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t have done the same, but you’re not acting like yourself, Jack. There is some kind of disconnect between us.”

  He didn’t say anything. Kamala stroked Pete’s long snout for a bit, playing over the last several minutes in her mind carefully. “Yagami said something to you, didn’t he? Something that made you think we won’t both make it out of this.”

  Jack rubbed his sinuses. “Kam, please. Not now.”

  “Yes, now,” she snapped. “You owe me that much. I won’t have you throwing yourself on a grenade for me. You’re my best friend, Jack. I can’t do this—any of this—without you.”

  “Yes, you can,” he whispered.

  She fell silent for a few paralyzing seconds. “What did you say?”

  “You’re stronger than me, Kam,” he said, staring at the floor. “A hell of a lot stronger, in fact. If something happened to you, I’d… I don’t think I’d ever recover from it. But you’ve been taught to deal with tragedy, with the unexpected, with high-pressure situations, without crumbling. It would hurt, but you’d carry on. Me?” He chuckled bitterly. “I’d probably go on a revenge-oriented killing spree until the cops sniped me from a building somewhere.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  Jack shook his head. “I tried to kill Okegawa when I saw him earlier. Only broke his nose before they separated us, but I was about a second away from strangling him. Didn’t care about the consequences either. I just went blank. Who knows how much more trouble I’ll get into at this rate.”

  “And you think I’m some kind of virtuous holy figure instead?” Kamala demanded. “You think I’ve never done anything crazy or reckless or dangerous before?”

  “Of course not. I just…” He swallowed past the lump in his throat and licked his dry lips before continuing. “…think maybe we should rethink this partnership.”

  Kamala stared at him. “Are you trying to break up with me after I just saved your life?”

  Jack thought about it. “…if I say yes, are you going to shoot me?”

  “Quite possibly, yes.”

  “Well then, no, I’m not.”

  She pressed her palm to her forehead, her fingers curling into her dark hair. “I swear, you are the most aggravating man I’ve ever bloody met.”

  “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

  “I don’t know why or how you’ve come to the conclusion that I can get along fine without you, but you’re mental if you think that’s the case. Yes, you are irrational and hot-headed. Yes, I might be able to still function if I lost you, but that doesn’t mean I will ever get over it. I risked everything to find you, Jack.” She crossed the room and touched his cheek, lowering her voice. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Because you’re worth all the headaches in the world to me.”

  He sighed softly and rested his forehead against hers. “I don’t deserve that.”

  “Too bad,” she said, smiling faintly. “You can’t get rid of me so easily.” She kissed his forehead. He savored the brief warmth of that small point of contact, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time he got to feel it.

  “Kam, I—”

  A loud buzzing filled the room. She pulled back and withdrew her cell phone from her pocket, her mouth forming a grim line. “It’s Fujioka. They’re coming.”

  Jack rose to full height, took a deep steadying breath, and slipped out of the boiler room.

  The gangly scientist licked his dry lips and thumbed back the hammer on the pistol, just in case, and crept down the open end of the hallway. He stopped and shut his eyes, concentrating on the sound of footfalls. Gradually, he heard the faint squeaks of the yakuza’s sneakers on the linoleum and darted back to the lift. He yanked the large gate down and secured it, then smashed the down button. A sharp hiss escaped the elevator and he dashed back into the boiler room as it began to lower itself to the sub-level.

  He and Kamala held their guns up, breathing lightly as they could hear the yakuza on the other side of the door. Shadow
s danced beneath the door. Male voices, excited with the prospect of violence, jabbered back and forth. They were arguing whether the elevator could be stopped or if they had to wait for it to reach the bottom floor.

  Then the handle to the boiler room door jiggled.

  Jack swallowed hard, keeping absolutely still. Beside them, Pete’s head lowered and her nostrils flared. She flicked her tongue out once, twice, and crept forward, her jaws creaking open to let a low angry hiss slither out. Kamala intercepted the dragon before she could get any closer to the door, stroking the reptile’s snout and whispering to her.

  The door handle jiggled harder, and Jack overheard one of them asking what room this was. He took a slow breath and aimed the barrel of the pistol at what he estimated to be eye level, cold sweat slipping down the nape of his neck as he waited.