“You can hold onto that one.” Vampire says. “I don’t really have much need for ‘em. I—”
Before she can finish, Heaven and the others come in from the reserve. In front, Dr. Chandra and Cloud wave at me while Heaven brings up the rear, chatting with my brother Kyo, blissfully unaware of the world around him, as if the two are old friends.
A wave of irk rises up in me at the sight. Heaven is the last person I’d expect Kyo to associate with, let alone get along with. Heaven is so mature, serious, and put-together. And Kyo is…well he’s Kyo! I wave to Cloud and Chandra, then fold my arms tight, wishing it was cold enough right now to justify the shaking. Don’t be childish. He can date whoever he wants. But as I watch them come in, I can’t but feel like a fish distracted by a shiny hook while a net sneaks up under it from the depths of the sea.
“What’s with that face, bish?” Vampire asks.
I tear my gaze away and shake my head. “It’s nothing.” Before she can ask anymore questions, I slide past her and head back into the garage to get my stuff.
Inside, Pan lazes on the couch, eyes fixed on the TV, a rolled joint seeping a trail of smoke in her hands. A referee’s whistle and cheers hum in the background. A sports announcer drones. “And it looks like the Black Ravens might get a spot in the Quiver Bowl after all.” Without looking at me, she asks, “How’s the weapon feel? Need any adjustments?”
“No.” The word comes out harsher than I mean to. Swallowing and gathering my composure, I say, “You both did a really good job.” Pan doesn’t seem to hear this. I kneel down and tuck the original regalia back into my bag. The TV bursts into a flurry of cheers again, pricking my curiosity. I twist my neck to look at the TV.
Men and women in feathered headdresses and leather armor notch bows from the backs of humongous birds. A spidery thin man tails after a glowing woman closing in on the ring at the end of the field. He draws his bows, shoots a glowing arrow at her. Her bird freezes in mid-air. The crowd bursts into more cheers.
I stare, transfixed. Is that real? I’ve never seen anything like that on TV. Or birds that huge for that matter. “What sport are you watching?”
This time Pan doesn’t skip a beat. “Quiverback. This is the pre-season games.” She brings the joint close to her mouth. “You from around here?”
“From Aokai.” I swing my bag around to my back. “Not too far.”
Pan takes a long puff, then breathes smoke. “They don’t show Quiverback on regular TV. It’s only on magic channels. Don’t ask me how to rig it though. It’s beyond me.”
The garage door swings open. Heaven pokes her head in the door. “Hey, Jun we’re getting ready to go.”
I get up. “I’ll meet you at the car in a minute.”
Heaven’s green eyes briefly flit to Pan, who is back to having her full attention on the game. When Heaven leaves, Pan says, “If have any questions about your watch, Vamp slipped our call ping in your contact menu. Give us a ring.”
“I will.” I head for the door.
The minute I step outside, Kyo snatches me up in another one of his deadly bear-hugs. But with the image of him and Heaven burned into my mind, I can barely bring myself to hug back.
When I get back in the car, Cloud and Chandra chatter in Pua Velu. Cloud stops to hand me a bag of glowing jerky. “I save for you, moalu. Since no hunt with us.”
My chest warms at the gesture and with the embarrassment that refilling on chi completely flew over my head. I take it with a “thank you”.
Cloud’s expression holds for a minute as if he didn’t register what I said, but then Heaven utters something in Pua Velu and Cloud beams at me with a cheery, “Welcome to you.”
I can’t read Heaven’s face from the backseat, but she’s noticeably more cheerful than when we first came, and a lot more than when I’ve last seen her.
My innards swirl like spinning top. I look away, out the window, half-annoyed and half-ashamed: annoyed at the possibility that there could be something between my boss and my brother that I didn’t know about, ashamed that I’m reading into this more than I should. For all I know, he could’ve just met her today. They could just mesh well. Something friendly.
I withdraw into my phone, flicking my thumb up through my text message list for Genji’s name. And only then, with a hard heated flush to the face, do I finally feel some shred of guilt about my own relationship with Regi. I’m not even contacting Genji for anything suspicious, but even still… What does it say about me if the first person I think to contact for anything is the man I cheated with? With a heavy breath, I tap the ‘write’ icon and text: Can I ask a favor?
His reply is instant. Anything for you.
My heartbeat thickens in my chest. I can almost hear Genji speak the words himself. I need to get back into the old house for something. Don’t want to ask Ken to pull anymore strings.
He texts. Consider it done. Just tell me when you want to go.
I pause. When would be a good time to go? Tomorrow, I’m free, but I don’t want to use my free day for that. But driving up to Taitai and back would kill me. I bite my lip. So much for trying to have a relaxing weekend. I type. Is tomorrow possible?
A few minutes pass. His response: You’ll kill a man with your demands someday. But I’ll do it.
Thanks. You’re the best.
His response? :^)
I’m not sure to interpret it as smugness or joy. I leave my phone alone and let him have his moment for once.
Heaven drops me off at the driveway. The lights are on in the kitchen, and dishes clatter from inside. Jin and Regi’s shadows move inside.
Cleaning? I step around Regi’s car and head up to the door.
“Welcome home Jun Mei Akiyama!”
King bum-rushes me and scrabbles to lick at my arms. Orange puppy shampoo wafts from his fur. And he’s not alone. The whole house smells like it had a deep lemony scrub down. Blocky stripes of light and dark beige stretch over the carpet: the tell-tale stripes of a vacuum pushed and pulled over the threads.
Jin comes from the kitchen with King’s leash in hand.
I rub King’s back absently. “What’s going on?”
“Cleaning up.” Jin kneels to clip the leash to King’s collar. “Going to take King for a walk.” He’s out the door before I can ask why.
Okay. I enter the kitchen to find Regi putting dishes into the cabinets. “What’s going on?”
He glances at me over his shoulder. In a quiet voice he says, “Thought you might want to be in a clean house when you come home.” His tone isn’t accusing, but it’s not friendly. I can’t read him. The disconnect feels like a phone gone dead.
My muscles tighten. I don’t feel like I’m standing at home at all. I feel like I’m standing on the assassin’s austere floor, of PoleControl where you only force your lips to stretch to be polite to all the other killers on the floor who only know how to do the same. Ache pumps through my chest, feebly as if pain itself is a dying animal gasping its last breaths on the road.
Then it stills.
“Thanks.”
That word make him pause, as if he hadn’t been expecting it at all.
I turn to leave.
“Wait.”
I look at him over my shoulder.
He clears his throat. “We need to have a serious talk.”
My phone goes off in my pocket. I glance at it in consideration.
Regi sighs. “Jun, can’t the phone call wait?”
“Depends on who it is.” I slide my phone out and peer at the name.
Tamotsu.
I frown. That’s a call that definitely can’t wait. “I have to take it. It’s from Showguns.”
“I thought you were done with them.”
“Regi, shush. That doesn’t mean I can or should ignore their phone calls.” I push the speak button and raise the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Jun. Where is she?”
“Where is who?”
“Mai. Did you see her?”
Palpitations flare through my chest. “I was with her earlier. I don’t know where she is now. Did something happen?”
Tamotsu doesn’t reply right away. Regi and I don’t move an inch. The whole house seems to still in anticipation of his response.
“She told me that if she didn’t come back by five, then I should drive down to the Honne. I figured that since she went to see you that you might know something about that.”
I sift through my mind for everything Mai said at Bo’s Reservation. There was nothing about the Honne. Genji mentioned it once the night we stayed at the Nirvana. “Mai didn’t say anything about it herself. I just know that it’s a jazz club she used to go to.”
“Was she acting funny in any way?”
“Funny like—”
“Anything out of the ordinary, Jun.”
It’s hard to define what’s out of the ordinary these days. “She was looking at her watch a lot. She was in a hurry, but besides that, she didn’t do anything strange.”
There’s a brief pause. “Did she have her gun? Did she mention your mother at all?”
The phone slips from my hand. Everything starts to piece together and…
Oh gods, Mai no!
I pick up the phone with a shaky hand. “She did.”
“Figured. Listen, Jun. I’m ordering an emergency blackout raid on the Honne. Any Hounds we can get on short notice would be helpful. But I’m not making you come down there.”
“I’m going,” I say without a second thought. “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
5-5 'Ah'
Blackout is Showguns code for disable all security towers in the area.
Raid is code for kill if necessary.
The only other blackout raid that had ever been called in Showguns history is the one on Ken’s grandfather.
I’m not sure if it’s ironic coincidence or fate’s cruelty that Mai is at the center of both.
“Jun will you please explain to me what’s going on?”
I swing my leg over the side of the Panda before looking at Regi through the visor go my motorcycle helmet. “I need to go look for Mai and make sure she’s okay. Showguns business.”
Regi’s hands ball into fists. “So even after everything, you’re going right back to them?”
My own hands clench the handlebars. “Look, Regi. I gave up my whole career. I tried doing things your way, and it just doesn’t work. Whether you like it or not, I’m a Showgun. That’s what I need to be tonight to bring Mai home safe. And that’s what I’m going to be when I get home.”
If I get home. Knowing Mai, the only reason she’d suddenly go to the Honne with a gun must be because the dragons are there. And if Genji’s warnings have any merit, a fight could and would get messy.
Regi’s staring at me with that same unreadable expression from in the kitchen. His hands go lax. “Do what you have to do. Don’t get yourself hurt out there.”
I twist the key in the ignition. My Panda roars and rumbles underneath me, a sensation I’d enjoy more if circumstances were different. I leave Sakura Blvd behind in a cloud of motorcycle exhaust.
Wind whips at my clothes. Cars whip by me like old memories slipping away. And the Tower of Dao blinks its eye from Yang to Yin power, turning all the luminescent lane dividers from blue to green.
I twist the small bar beneath the left handlebar to switch my motorcycle’s power from Yang to Yin, and put my blinkers on to move over to the exit ramp that leads to Yamamura. My heart pounds harder and harder. I feel like I should’ve called Genji before leaving. I wonder if he’ll be at the nightclub tonight. Genji hasn’t ended his employment yet. I don’t think Tamotsu would purposely have left Genji uninformed, but if the other Showguns catch him with them, there’s no guarantee they won’t shoot at him.
Bright bulbs flash the name Honne from atop a red building along a seaside road. The curb in front of it teems with cars.
No sooner than when I park, Tamotsu calls me again. “Hello?”
Tamotsu’s voice isn’t the one that replies. “Ms. Akiyama?” It’s Nami, another member of the Silent Seven.
“Speaking. Did something happen?”
“Tamotsu went in with the Escorts and Geishas not long ago. He wanted me to stay outside to give special instructions to all Hounds that were coming. So when you get here, come around to the alley. Is that understood?”
“Yes. Has Mai been found yet?”
“No. But there hasn’t been any signs of a casualty either,” Nami says. “Hopefully we find her before any thing messy happens. But it’s big club.”
So do I. “What about Genji? Was he told?”
“We tried to call him. He didn’t pick up.”
An icy drop slips down my back. All I can say is, “I’ll be there in a second.”
“Very well.” She hangs up.
I quickly try to call Genji’s number, but he doesn’t pick up. Shit. Please don’t let him be inside. I hurry down the sidewalk, ignoring the looks of well-dressed men and women jostling around me. I stop at the corner right in front of the alley, looking back to make sure I’m not being followed or watched, then I disappear into the alleyway.
The darkness blinds me temporarily before my Hound Vision adjusts. A smoky saxophone croons through the walls, accompanied by steady drums and a lilting piano. They make me wish I was inside instead of out here with the sickly sweet stench of old bakery sweets, old bananas, and cigarette smoke. Faint colored specks dot the distance and the building walls and trash cans sharpen into view.
As the dots get closer, they take human shape and I hear a male voice, “I don’t get what the hell all this is about.”
Then a female’s, “Mai wouldn’t do this for no reason, so shut your yap.”
“Hmph,” The first male voice. “Easy for you to say. Mai isn’t here to explain her reasoning,”
“Well if you ask me…” A nasally female voice cuts in. “Mai should’ve just picked Akiyama and been done with it. What’s the point of holding onto the title now?”
“Akiyama retired, dumbass,” the lighter feminine voice says, matter-of-factly.
“Akiyama can hear you,” I snap at the trio loitering against the wall. Their heads snap in my direction. There’s seven in total. The other three guys only stand around with their arms folded. I recognize the face of Mimi, the famous 220-cracking Hound, who leans on a wall much further away. I’d bet my Panda that the ones mouthing off about Mai are barely out of their trainee diapers.
At my appearance, Mimi peels herself from the wall and approaches me. Her black curls bounces against her shoulders and long face. “Get comfortable, Akiyama. Nami is making phone calls right now.”
“Do you know how many more Hounds are showing up?” I ask.
“This might be it. I’ve been calling other Hounds too, but most daimyos don’t want to stick their necks out unless it means getting Mai’s position.”
A hot boiling tide sweeps under my skin. Selfish pricks! She’s been serving since they were at the Red Dragon Academy and that is all they care about? The anger ebbs with a sharp pang. All too clearly I remember Genji’s words from the train.
“It’s called Show-guns for a reason, isn’t it?”
I clench my teeth and swallow slowly. No use getting mad at that now. I knew from the moment I stepped into Red Academy that we were all trained not to care about those who died. I knew that you weren’t supposed to trust any assassin that isn’t your mentor. I knew that I would rarely speak to another assassin beyond stiff formalities. But I didn’t know that some people took it to mean to never care for anything beyond their own ambitions.
Nami strides in from a long narrow corridor further down with her hands on her hips. “This is all of you?” She makes a sour frown that reflects my exact feelings. “Well, come here, all of you. Mai hasn’t been found on the first or the second floor so far. But the guys inside are saying that there’s a strange bunch on the ground floor that they think are armed, but the IT at
base can’t pick up a signal on them.”
My heart thumps in my throat. It is them.
Nami’s gaze flits over everyone. “There’s a back entrance that we can use to get to the hall that they’re in. But they’re all locked with chi-guards. The Escorts and Geishas are going to turn off all the power in a little bit. That should give you all the advantage to get in. Get past the chi guards and find Mai. In case none of you are familiar with Mai in the dark, her thermal readings will be white.” She looks to me. “Jun, you go with Mimi go ahead through the back entrance first.”
Mimi and I exchange a glance before slipping past her. When we’re long out of earshot, Mimi reaches inside her brown jacket and hands me a pistol. “Here. Cover me while I crack the chi-guard.”
I almost open my mouth to tell her that I already have a weapon, but I think better of it and take the pistol with a nod. The hallways in the Honne probably aren’t wide enough to be swinging a gunblade. Not that I should be swinging one in a club full of dragons that probably have guns.
Without words, we edge up against the walls as we near the corner. Pistol in hand, I peer around the corner.
A homeless man drags his lame foot under the flickering alley lights; he curses to no one in particular and slips between another pair of buildings.
I nod to Mimi. “All clear.”
Like a cat, she slinks to the back entrance, taps a few buttons on the side key panel. The blue cube-like puzzle appears in front of her.
I keep my finger on the pistol trigger, and my gaze on our surroundings for any sign of movement. Out of nowhere, Mimi hisses, “Fuck it’s a 220.”
I stifle my chuckle and give her a side-glance. “Well, you’re the fastest 220 cracker, aren’t you?”
Mimi scowls. “Doesn’t mean that I like the 220.” She shakes her head and her nimble fingers get to work rubik’s cubing her way past the sequence.
The speed of her work sends surge of nervousness rolling through my stomach. It’s hard to think that after ten years of confusion and hiding, I’m going to see my mother’s killers tonight. Mai would probably be horrified that I’m even here. I take a sharp inhale.
Vicissitude Yang Side Page 47