by Wesley Chu
A door cracked open and Luna-Roona poked her head out. She scowled. “You’re so loud you woke up Yappie.” Yappie trotted into the hallway as if he owned the building and began to let Ella have it. The little dog tried to charge her but Luna-Roona scooped him up before he got very far.
“I’m…” began Ella, and then she stopped. No, she was not going to apologize to Luna- Roona for waking up her dumb asshole dog. She exhaled, kept her head up and face straight, and walked past Luna-Roona and Yappie as the old woman and her dog yapped away.
Ella didn’t let herself relax until she was in her apartment and the door closed behind her. She poked her head out to the fire escape and checked for anything suspicious. Once she was sure everything was quiet, she reached under her bed and pulled out her go bag.
She couldn’t delay any longer. It was time to leave Tokyo.
Ella only needed to add clothing, her laptop and other meager electronics, her weapons, her stash of valuables, and whatever cash she had left and then she was ready to leave. It wasn’t much, but it would last her a few months, at least long enough for her to start over again.
By the time she was done, the bag was bulging and stood half her height. Ella slung it over her back and tightened the straps to her body. The weight almost tipped her onto her backside. She shifted it side to side and back and forth until it settled in a comfortable resting position on her back and hips. Ella pressed a button on her left shoulder and the bag slipped off in one smooth motion. Good.
She picked it back up by the straps and stared at its bulkiness. Her entire life was in this bag. She was leaving Tokyo with less than what she came with, and it made her feel as if she had failed. As much as Ella agreed with Io and tried her best to trust the Quasing, she hated the idea of leaving.
She had no choice, however. After what had happened today, she was ready to disappear from history. Argentina was not her favorite destination – not even in her top ten – but at the very least it was far away from everyone, and hopefully peaceful and safe.
I have been trying to find that for us for years. I am glad we are finally on the same page. Trust me, it is for the best.
Ella practiced reaching for her dagger and had a difficult time squeezing her hand between the bag and her back. Growling, she adjusted the holster so the handle stuck out a bit.
Once she was ready to go, Ella gave her home of the past half-year one last look. The place was a dump, but it was her dump. She moved the dresser away from the door one last time, and left her apartment for good.
Ella walked to the end of the hallway and proceeded down the front stairs. With luck, she would make it to Narita within the hour, and be up in the air by tonight. She had just reached the landing to the last flight of stairs leading down to the first floor when she noticed a group just outside the front exterior door clustered around the intercom. They were all foreigners and some of them were quite large and muscular, and looked like they meant business.
They do not belong in the building. Go through the alley.
Ella backed away and raced across the length of the second floor toward the rear stairwell. She had just made it to the stairs when she heard a sharp crack.
Someone just broke the back door lock.
Ella panicked. She retreated up the stairs to her floor and sprinted down her hallway. She stood in the middle, unsure what to do.
Go down the fire escape from your apartment. Hurry.
Ella patted her pants. “I can’t. I left the keys in the apartment. I didn’t think I needed them.”
Well that is just great!
She spun in a circle, frantic for some place to hide. She caught Luna-Roona peeking out from her doorway and bolted for her only chance. The old woman tried to slam the door and nearly succeeded in slicing off three of Ella’s fingers. Ella bit her tongue and pushed her way inside.
“What are you doing? Get out of here!” yelled Luna-Roona. “Help, help, I’m being robbed.” She began to beat Ella with her throw pillow. Yappy danced around her feet working himself into a tizzy with high-pitched ear-shattering barks. The tiny dog had an amazing set of pipes on him.
Ella ran to the window, hoping the stomping on the stairs would be enough to drown out the shouting and yelping. She yanked it up, and nothing happened. She tried again, the panic creeping up in her gut.
Take a deep breath. Try to break it. Take that sculpture…
Ella wasn’t listening. She took a few steps back and made a run at the glass. She heard a crunch, but it wasn’t the window. Both her shoulder where she hit the window and her hip where she hit the floor throbbed.
From the ground, she tried to plead with Luna-Roona to be quiet, but the old woman continued to hack away at her with the pillow. Getting to her feet, Ella tried intimidation. She muttered an apology to all three hundred and thirty million Hindu gods and pulled out her dagger, sticking it near the woman’s face. She really hoped to not have to use it on the old woman, or worse, the dog.
Ella was planning on threatening Luna-Roona to get her to shut up, but the only words coming out of her lips were, “I’m very sorry about this, but be quiet or I’ll–”
Her apologetic tone ruined the effect. If Luna-Roona was intimidated by the blade, she didn’t show it. In fact she looked straight at the knife and beat Ella harder. “You disrespectful, horrible girl with your street walking and your drugs…” The old woman raised her voice even louder and smacked Ella with the pillow even harder.
Shut her up. By the blade if you have to.
Ella resisted stabbing an old lady, regardless of how mean she and her dog were. The barking and yelling continued. The stairs did not echo loud enough to block this out.
We are in trouble.
“How much trouble?”
We are screwed.
Ella looked for any place to hide. She tried the closet; it was overflowing with clothing and suitcases. She tried the cupboard; bags and bags of rice. She even tried the refrigerator. That was overflowing with kimchi and curry.
Just incapacitate her and the stupid dog, and then wait out whoever it is.
The thought of clubbing or choking out an old lady was even more discomforting. While Ella was distracted, Luna-Roona went for the door. Ella rushed toward her, but it was too late. The door opened.
Ella played the only card she had left; she begged. She sheathed her knife and dropped to her knees, her hands clutched close together. She mouthed silently. “Please.”
The old lady was about to flee the room when she looked down and stopped. Their eyes locked. Ella mouthed her plea again. The hateful woman opened the door anyway and stuck her head out. Ella was resigned to her fate. She heard a woman’s voice on the other side. Her name was mentioned.
If the old woman opens the door, get ready to bolt out and run straight for the staircase.
“Do you think I can make it?”
Not a chance. It is too late. I told you to knock the old lady out when you had the opportunity.
“Well that’s really helpful.”
To Ella’s shock, Luna-Roona didn’t give her away. She gave the woman on the other side some curt, insulting answers, and then slammed the door. She turned to Ella and pointed at the laundry hamper. “Hide, just in case.”
Ella didn’t hesitate. She slid her go bag under Luna-Roona’s bed and jumped inside the hamper. A moment later, the mound of dirty clothing was tossed back on top of her. The smell of soiled undergarments and body odor and old people immediately clogged Ella’s nostrils. As far as hiding places went, this wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t great by any stretch, but nothing compared to some of the garbage heaps she had had to use in Crate Town.
Ella focused on a bead of light shining through the wicker basket. When she was at the Academy, there was a class on torture. They had spent a whole week on controlled breathing. At the time, like most of the classes, she thought it was stupid. Everyone knew how to breathe, right? Now she appreciated the lesson.
She forced her body to relax, sucking in air on a five-count through her nostrils and then letting it seep out quietly through clenched teeth.
One of Ella’s hands found the other and squeezed in a futile effort to calm her shaking. She lost track of her breathing and made the mistake of holding her breath, which made everything even worse. Ella’s entire body clenched. Her vision blurred and her lungs burned. She fought the urge to kick out and pop her head out of the hamper for air.
Focus on my voice. Close your eyes and push everything out. You are calm and peaceful in your safe place. There is–
“Shut the hell up, Alien! Saying that just makes me want to scratch your eyes out.”
The door never opened again, but shouting erupted in the hallway. The walls shook. Screams – from both men and women – soon followed. The noise continued for a few minutes and then fell into a lull. A window shattered. More yells, this time a voice tinged with panic. Then silence. The quiet seemed to last forever, and felt nearly as nerve-wracking as the noise.
Finally the door opened and shut again. Luna-Roona spoke. “You can come out now.”
Ella tipped over the hamper and fell out, gasping. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the water-stained ceiling, blinking away the spots in her eyes. Then she noticed that Luna-Roona had a skylight, and she was momentarily very jealous.
The old lady appeared a moment later with a butcher knife in hand. “Have you killed anyone, girl?”
Ella shook her head. She was pretty sure she hadn’t, at least not in the past year or so.
The butcher knife disappeared. “That’s good enough for me, otherwise I’d open the door right now and throw you to those wolves. That’s a big racket for just one girl. What did you do?”
Ella shook her head. “Nothing. There’s some bad people after me because of who I am.”
That wasn’t a total lie.
“And who might you be, Victoria? Princess of the Nile?”
The amusement in Luna-Roona’s voice almost made Ella want to tell the truth. “Actually,” she replied, “Egypt may have been a monarchy when you were young but–”
She can still throw you out.
That was true. Ella swallowed her retort and sat up. “Why did you help me?”
“I lost a son to gangsters,” grunted Luna-Roona. Her voice fell. “It happened almost like this, except at the time they said they just wanted to ask him a few questions. Hasim said things were going to be fine. I didn’t want any trouble, so I let him go with them. I never saw my boy again.” She wiped her eyes. “Come girl, you’re obviously going on a long journey. Do you want to take a couple gulab jamuns with you?”
Ella got to her feet and offered a very traditional Indian bow. “Thank you, Luna. That would be lovely.”
Luna-Roona squinted. “What did you call me?”
“Er, Roona?”
“My name is Zoya. I lived next door to you for so long. You know my dog’s name, but not mine? You know what? Forget the treats. Get out of my house.”
Ella barely had time to grab her go bag. She found herself standing in the hallway, or what was left of it. There were holes in the drywall. Someone had broken a floorboard. The door to her apartment was hanging off its hinges.
“There goes my security deposit,” she grumbled, sticking her head into her apartment. She gasped at the destruction inside. All of her furniture was broken and turned over. The window was shattered. Blood was everywhere. “What happened?”
Nothing good. I recommend we get as far away from here as possible. You should have left days ago.
Io was right. She should have run at the first signs of trouble. Her apartment was now a crime scene. Not only were the yakuza, Genjix and Prophus after her, the police would be as well. Ella fled. She bounded down the back stairwell and peeked out the door on the ground level. The alley was deserted. Whoever was here earlier appeared to have left.
Ella’s confidence grew. She might actually get away from all these people looking for her. All she had to do now was get to the airport and she’d be free to start her new life, hopefully some place where no one would ever find her again.
A small part of her wished she could have said goodbye to the rest of the Burglar Alarms. She was going to miss them more than she cared to admit. They were a good group of people. Perhaps she could send them a postcard…
No, Ella. No, you will not. In fact, you can never contact them again. Promise me.
“Fine,” she sighed. Io was right. That was probably what got Nabin on her trail to begin with. Damn that guy. Damn birthday cards.
Io had been violently against her dating Nabin back at the Academy, often citing how important it was for Ella not to have any baggage to tie her down. She hadn’t quite understood at the time but she did now. She had lived alone most of her life. Only in the past few years had she tried another approach and joined a community. She moved to another country and joined the Prophus. She found someone to love and tried to belong to something larger than herself. When that didn’t work out, she tried again here with a smaller group. It almost worked, but almost was never good enough. Now Ella realized. People weighed a person down and held them back. Friends and lovers were baggage. Io had been right all along. The best way to survive in the world was by yourself.
I am glad you finally see it this way.
Well, if she was going to start a new life again, she might as well start with a clean slate. This time, she wasn’t going to make the same mistakes, and she was going to listen to Io’s advice.
You do not know how much I appreciate that.
No sooner had Ella pushed the door open and taken a step outside something flew over her head and her vision darkened. Rough arms wrapped around her body from behind, and she felt the world turn sideways. She tried to scream and kick her legs, but more hands grabbed at her, preventing her from shaking loose. The world jumbled and rocked as she was carried toward the rumbling of a waiting vehicle.
Her captors grunted something she couldn’t quite make out, and then Ella was flying. She landed hard a moment later on the ribbed metal bed in the back of a van, knocking the wind out of her. She rolled onto her back and tried to sit up, and then someone cuffed her on the side of the head and everything stopped.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Doing Things Correctly
Nabin was loving and patient, but at the same time unbending. This was Ella’s first love, the first time she thought of someone before herself. It made her a better person, but also a more vulnerable one.
Couple that with the sometimes weeks they had to spend apart from each other, and their relationship was doomed to fail.
There were only two things in the world that absolutely infuriated Shura: cilantro and incompetence. Nothing set off her murderous streak like the taste of soap and the sight of ineptitude. Although she had never killed anyone over cilantro, she certainly had over incompetence. The sad display of the yakuza in action had made her want to commit mass murder.
Tanaka Nishiki, the leader of the Aizukotetsu-kai, had reported that one of his underbosses, Hito Kinata, had information regarding the whereabouts of Io’s vessel. The man claimed that his son had personally interacted with the girl. Tanaka had assigned Hito and his gang to assist Shura in the capture. This had all made perfect sense until Shura saw Hito and his group of clowns in action. The number of fingers he was missing on his hand should have been enough of a sign to not hold any faith in that man whatsoever.
As much as Shura had wanted to run point herself, the yakuza had insisted that she stay out of sight. This district was a popular tourist area and Shura had the small problem of being wanted by the Japanese government on terrorism charges. Her picture was plastered all over the city, so keeping away from the action seemed like a prudent move. The local yakuza could talk down the police, but if they caught her at the scene of the crime, nothing would save anyone. Shura was relegated to watching the events unfold behind tinted windows
in a black car down the street from the bar.
The trap had started out well enough. The bar owner apparently had some sort of relationship with the girl, and called her in for a meeting. A few of the girl’s friends were added as bait. Everything was going according to plan until they dragged the girl to the van to spirit her away to the underboss’s warehouse. That was when everything fell apart. Shura’s view of the alleyway was partially obstructed, so she didn’t get a clear view of what happened next. No sooner had they tossed Ella into the waiting vehicle, a tall Caucasian woman charged in. There was a brief scuffle, but it appeared that the woman single-handedly took down half a dozen yakuza. Then the woman’s friends appeared and things got ugly.
It looked like all of the Village People descended upon the yakuza. A dark stout one took down two in that many seconds; an old man who looked like he belonged in a retirement home fought in a way that belied his age; two blond Vikings who looked like they had jumped straight out of history; and a light-skinned Hispanic fought as if he were dancing.
They are moving and fighting like a well-trained military unit, but they each fight very distinctly.
A quick image of a Viking man, the older woman, and the Indian flashed in her head. Those three fight in a military fighting system. A flash of the Hispanic. Combination judo and capoeira attacks. Another flash of the old man. I could be mistaken, but I believe that is tai chi.
“Can’t be another Genjix unit. Unless there was an Adonis involved, none would dare cross my operation, and none of them fight remotely well enough to pass for an Adonis.” Shura added. “None of them are attractive enough either.”
The yakuza were losing. Shura moved to open the door.
No. The brawl has already attracted a sizeable crowd. Your picture is on the screen just to your left.
Shura looked up at a not-very-flattering image of her scrolling across a ticker. That particular picture of her was taken right after she had crossed the finish line of the Altai Ultra Marathon in Sibera. She scowled; damn that Rurik. That was petty. He was going to pay dearly.