Of Cinder and Bone

by Kyoko M

  The men grunted in agreement and he flicked a hand to dismiss them. He watched as they spread out, guns up, safeties off, and then eyed the barn Fujioka had escaped from. He knew she couldn’t have gone very far, not without someone seeing her, and not with a fresh gunshot wound in her arm, even if it had been bandaged. What would be the most tactical for an ex Special Forces officer? They’d practically torn the place apart with no sign of her. His gut said she was hiding right beneath their noses, waiting for backup to arrive, or for someone to make a fatal mistake.

  He returned to the barn since it was where they’d found the body of one of his men. He knelt by her chair and examined her restraints, then slowly followed the ever-so-faint marks in the dirt leading to the door. She’d killed him there, for sure, and then moved the corpse. He glanced at the metal siding of the barn and something caught his peripheral. He stepped closer to one of the windows and grasped a couple of long brown hairs caught in the frame. His gaze snapped to the roof, and he grinned rakishly before withdrawing his Beretta and climbing one-handed to the top of the barn.

  He hefted himself over the ledge and took aim.

  At absolutely nothing.

  “Chikusho,” Okegawa muttered, holstering the gun again. He did a brief sweep and found small droplets of blood confirming that she’d been there at some point, and then swept his gaze around the farm. Tactically speaking, she could make her last stand in the silo, but it was a good forty yards away. How had she managed to get there without being seen?

  He climbed down and skulked through the dirt again until he spotted booted footprints, around the same size as hers, heading around the pig pen. She’d used it for cover after his men had passed by, most likely, and then probably bolted for the silo after they were done checking it.

  Okegawa went into the external side door and peered all the way up the ladder. The rusted metal interior was empty, and shadows cast across it as the sun had started it’s descent on the horizon. If she was up there, she had the advantage. Once he reached the roof hatch, she could blow him to kingdom come and back again. There was no way he could sneak up on her.

  Good thing he had a Hail Mary prepared.

  So… he climbed.

  He had reached the final rung just below the hatch when Fujioka’s iron-clad voice spoke from the rooftop of the silo. “That’s far enough, boy.”

  Okegawa clucked his tongue. “I’m not that much younger than you, Fujioka-san. It’s bad manners to give me such a moniker.”

  “Hands up through the hole… boy.”

  He secured his knees on the ladder and stuck his arms up through the hatch.

  “Good. Now crawl up slowly. If you even twitch, I’ll blow a hole through your arm.”

  Okegawa obeyed. As he ascended into the daylight again, he caught sight of Fujioka kneeling from ten feet away, her arms poised with the pistol she’d stolen from one of his men, gauntleted in her fist. He knew she had to be in great pain, but her aim was as steady as a rock.

  “Take your gun and remove the magazine. Keep the barrel pointed at your chest while you unload it. If you attempt to yell down to your kyodai, I’ll blow your head off.”

  Okegawa snorted. “Usually, when a woman mentions blowing this many times, I get excited.”

  Still, he did exactly as she said, even jacking the chamber to remove the bullet in the barrel, and held both parts of the gun in his open palms.

  “Set them down and kick them across to me.” He did. “Good boy. Now, sit cross-legged with your hands in front of you.”

  “Yes ma’am,” he sighed, flopping down on his butt in the hot sun. “How long have you been up here?”

  “How long ago did you contact Jack?”

  Okegawa just smiled.

  Fujioka glared. “I’m in no mood for games, boy. How long?”

  “Really, Fujioka-san, this is unnecessary. We both know how this is going to end. Why continue the charade?”

  She fired the gun. The bullet punched a hole in the roof a mere inch from his left foot. Okegawa didn’t flinch, but the smile disappeared.

  “How. Long. Ago.”

  “Five, ten minutes.”

  “And you’re going to tell your men to intercept them and kill Jack.”

  “Hai.”

  “Where did you send Dr. Yagami?”

  “Away.”

  She studied him for a brief, silent moment. “He went willingly. Figures. Once a coward, always a coward, even after what you did to Watsuki.”

  “It was unavoidable. Watsuki had a one-track mind. There was no scenario where he would have cooperated. He’d have caused more harm than good trying to save Yagi-kun.”

  “Keep telling yourself that, you sniveling brat,” she snarled. “He didn’t have to die. You could have knocked him out and left him for the authorities to find. He didn’t have enough information to tell the cops where you took us. It was all you. You are nothing more than an emotionally stunted child playing dress up as a gangster. You’ve gotten away with it for so long that now you think you’re invincible. Untouchable. That’s fine. Because I’m going to teach you a lesson your oyabun should have taught you long ago.”

  She leaned forward slightly, her voice a deadly hiss. “Never… ever… make it personal.”

  “How could I not, Fujioka-san? At every turn in this entire debacle, you’ve made my life harder. I’m sure you don’t believe me, but as much as I would love to wring that lovely neck of yours, I have come to respect you quite a lot. You are a challenging woman. I don’t meet very many of them in my line of work.”

  “You think compliments are going to save you?”

  “No. It’s the truth. Nothing more. That’s why I regret the position you and I have found ourselves in right now. We have only a few minutes before the police arrive and complicate our situation with tiresome rhetoric about hostage situations and peaceful resolution. I know how that ends. I’m not going to prison and I’m not going to let you kill me.”

  She barked out a laugh. “Oh, is that right?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Okegawa stuck one finger inside his boot and withdrew a grenade.

  Fujioka went utterly still.

  “Here is what we will do,” he said quietly. “You will throw away the weapon and come with me. We will leave this place. Once Jackson is dead and I have disappeared, you will be released. You may spend the rest of your life trying to find me and kill me… or you can die right here with me on this rooftop.”

  “You’re bluffing,” she growled. “You’re a vain errand boy. You don’t have the balls to kill yourself. Not for a dragon, and not even to avoid prison.”

  “Are you certain, Fujioka-san? One hundred percent certain? Because you should be before you take such a gamble.”

  “What do you think I have left to live for, boy? What makes you think I won’t pull this trigger and send us both to the other world?”

  Okegawa offered her a faint smile. “I told you once that you are made of steel, but that isn’t every part of you. I know that some small corner of the woman before me wants to make it out of this alive, if only to see Jackson and ojō-sama again. You may have lost your dreams, but they haven’t. They cling to them, blindly, foolishly, hopelessly, the way you did once. Why else have you put yourself at such risk to protect them?”

  She couldn’t answer that, and it was a bitter taste on her tongue.

  “So, what is your decision, Fujioka-san?”

  ~*~

  A couple of miles away from the farm, the police cars escorting Jack split off and stayed behind to block off the road and set up a perimeter for the hostage situation. As always, Jack took it extremely well.

  “When’s Admiral Ackbar when you need him?” he grumbled under his breath. “What the hell was I thinking? Should have gotten on the damn plane with Kamala and Pete.” He glanced out the window sourly at the landscape. “Y’hear that, Japa
n? Kiss my lily white American ass!”

  The link in his ear beeped and the negotiator spoke. “Did you say something, Dr. Jackson?”

  “Oh, nothing. I’m just regretting my life choices and cursing your homeland because I don’t know how to emotionally cope with my imminent demise.”

  “…I see.”

  Jack sighed to himself and kept driving. “Nobody gets me.”

  The eighteen-wheeler climbed around a steep, winding curve in the road. Jack stomped on the brakes as it reached the top of the hill. The trailer groaned in protest of the upward angle, so he shifted into Park and spoke into his wire.

  “Uh. Base?”

  “What is it, Dr. Jackson? Incoming?”

  Jack gulped. “Incoming is a bit of an understatement. What’s, uh, what’s Plan B?”

  “Plan B? Why do we need a Plan B?”

  “Because they’ve got an RPG.”

  Silence.

  Then, “EVERYONE OUT OF THE TRUCK NOW!”

  Jack threw open the truck’s passenger door and leapt into the street, rolling completely off of it and into a ditch as the yakuza fired a grenade right at the front of the truck. He heard the screech of the trailer’s doors opening and boots pounding the pavement, and then the entire world erupted into fire. He clamped his hands down over his face and neck as burning metal and glass scattered in all directions on the road above him and rained down the ditch. White noise screamed in his ears. He stayed put for several paralyzing seconds and then coughed smoke out of his lungs, groaning in the back of his throat from the pain of his abrupt exit.

  “God, I’m so gonna get tinnitus,” Jack mumbled drunkenly as he poked his head out from the ditch to see the resulting chaos. The truck was completely blown open like someone cracked an egg in half, and the trailer had two-thirds of the top missing. Flames licked up and down the remains of the vehicle, curling the metal back like a morbid black flower. There was too much smoke to see if any of the SWAT team was still inside the trailer, but he hoped they’d all gotten out.

  Three yakuza were perched at the apex of the hill with a car parked sideways, blocking the road that led up to the farm. They were high-fiving each other and getting ready to load another shot like giddy teenagers playing Grand Theft Auto V. Jack seethed and crawled to one side of the ditch. Ears ringing, he found one unconscious SWAT guy and muttered an apology as he unholstered the man’s weapon before scrambling back towards his spot.

  He took a second peek to find the three yakuza walking towards the truck to see who was left alive. Jack shook his head hard, trying to knock the twinkling stars and fuzzy spots out of his vision, and waited for the right opportunity.

  The men exchanged scathing words with each other after checking the back of the truck. Jack could tell there were at least a couple of survivors. The man holding the grenade launcher sneered and backed away to take another shot and finish them off.

  Jack smiled.

  And aimed at the man’s right foot.

  Just as the man pulled down on the trigger, Jack shot him.

  The man screamed in pain and the barrel of the grenade launcher pitched down in the direction of his foot.

  And blew all three yakuza into sky-high meaty chunks.

  Jack coughed more smoke out of his lungs and dragged the unconscious SWAT guy out of the ditch before flopping down next to him in the street to catch his breath. After he could breathe evenly again, he hobbled over to the back of the truck to find three of the officers badly hurt, but still alive. He helped them out one by one and fortunately, the other two officers had been thrown clear of the blast down the nearby hill, and they caught up to him a moment later.

  “Can you still reach base?” Jack asked, gesturing with his busted ear piece. One of them nodded. “Give them a sit-rep and keep an eye on these guys. I’m going after Fujioka.”

  The other SWAT officer grabbed his arm. “You can’t go up there. We need to wait for backup.”

  “They just tried to kill us. There’s no negotiation anymore. That means Fujioka’s as good as dead if we don’t help her.”

  “We don’t have the manpower.”

  “Then we’ll have to be enough.”

  “You’re a civilian on foreign soil, Dr. Jackson. We can’t let you go up there with us to fight.”

  Jack stuck a pinky in his still-ringing ear. “Wait. Maybe I can’t hear through the concussion, but did you just say ‘let me go up there’ after I literally saved your life just now?”

  The officer scowled deeply. Jack glared. “You’re going to have to arrest me, then. I’m not sitting on my ass and waiting for backup.”

  “That’s precisely what you’re going to do. Stay with the wounded until the patrol cars at the barricade get here. We’ll go after Fujioka-san. Base said they’ve got a chopper on the way. ETA less than ten minutes. They’ll get you and Fujioka-san to safety afterward.” He shoved a finger into Jack’s bulletproofed chest. “Do not leave this spot. If you do, I will make sure you’re brought up on charges. You did your job, Dr. Jackson. Let us do ours.”

  Jack gritted his teeth as he felt his temper curling around him like boiling mist. He wanted to argue, but everything the officer had said was completely true. He shut his eyes for a moment and attacked the problem logically. He had no skillset to rescue Fujioka other than an insanely low sense of self-preservation, amateur sharpshooting, and a mad-on for Okegawa. He’d do nothing but get in their way.

  “Fine,” he growled. “But I’m keeping the gun.”

  The officer grunted in consent. “Keep an eye on the wounded, but stay out of sight. We don’t know if there are any more of them in the area. Understand?”

  “Got it. Now go save my friend.”

  The officer nodded curtly and then signaled his partner. The two started up the hill, guns raised, covering each other. Jack watched them go and suppressed the irrational rage-beast currently pounding its paws on its chest and demanding that he follow them. Instead, he checked on the condition of the remaining men and then carefully lined them up along the other side of the hill, safely out of sight and beyond the burning truck. Not long afterward, the officers who were blocking the lower part of the road drove up with an ambulance and started helping the wounded officers.

  Fortunately, one of them allowed him to sit in one of the patrol cars to monitor the ongoing raid over the radio. So far, the officers managed to approach the grounds with no one in sight, as if the place had already been abandoned. Jack’s gut tightened into a painful knot as he listened to the brief interspersed words from the SWAT members.

  Shots echoed sharply through the receiver. Jack flinched, holding his breath until he heard the SWAT officer speak when it went quiet.

  “Three suspects down in the front yard. No blockade. I see smoke in the distance… the top half of the silo is on fire. It’s damaged, like maybe there was an explosion. We’re approaching the main area of the grounds.”

  “Any sign of the captive?” The negotiator asked over the radio.

  “None yet. We’ll do a sweep building by building. What’s the ETA on the chopper?”

  “Five minutes and closing. Ambulance is on standby for the wounded.”

  Jack started pacing beside the car, listening to the faint footsteps and rustling of cloth as the men infiltrated the facility. A few minutes later, the officer’s voice cut in again. “It appears as if the remainder of the suspects fled the grounds. We’re approaching the silo.”

  Silence. Jack shut his eyes and prayed for the first time in years.

  “We’ve got a body here.”

  He held his breath. “Male. There was definitely some kind of explosion. He’s got severe burns, shrapnel wounds, possible fall damage, and his arm’s blown off at the elbow. Holy shit. He’s… still alive! Kisuke-san, give him some First Aid while I check inside.”

  A wrenching sound, like a metal door creaking open. Coughing. “The roo
f’s gone, but the internal integrity of the silo is still intact. Don’t think there’s anyone inside, but…”

  Heavy breathing. Footsteps on ladder rungs. Soft cursing. “Someone’s down there in the grain.”

  Jack ran his hands through his messy hair and steepled them over his lips, his breath light and fast, his head pounding between the pain from the concussion and the horrible wait for confirmation.

  More rustling, then a slight hissing sound, as if he’d landed in the remains of the grain. “It’s Fujioka. She’s… god, she’s in pretty bad shape. Send the ambulance up.”