Sero closed the door and turned to see the huge man staring at Muto, a look of disgust on his face.
Muto half-smiled. “Welcome…Horst, is it?”
“Dieter,” the blond man growled.
“My apologies. You favor the man who was here last time with Chang,” Muto explained.
“Enough small talk,” Dieter snarled, cutting him off. “Do you have the information we paid you for, or have you spent all of your time and our money chasing tail?”
Muto bristled at the tone, unused to being talked to with such disrespect by anyone, especially in his seat of power.
“What I choose to do or not do is not your concern,” Muto snapped as he pushed his coat back, revealing the pistol hidden underneath. “You’re a guest in my house. I suggest that you remember that.”
Dieter sneered at him, then turned to Sero. “You are his second in command?”
Sero looked between the enraged Muto and the too-calm man speaking to him. He nodded slightly, acknowledging the question.
“Good.”
Dieter turned back to Muto and smiled, a smile that did not come close to reaching his eyes. “Maybe you will be more effective than this…ass.”
Although Sero was watching, when it was over, he still didn’t believe his eyes. Muto’s face flushed with rage as he snatched the pistol from his belt. Before he could bring it to bear, Dieter’s form blurred. Sero heard what sounded like a ripe melon bursting after being dropped on the ground and saw Muto slam back into the couch.
When the scene settled, Dieter was across the room from where he had been, standing in front of Muto’s seated form.
Dieter turned, and Sero stared in horror at the sight before him. The wall behind the couch was spattered to the ceiling with blood and brain matter. Dieter’s right hand was covered in the same, and Muto’s head looked like it had been hit by a train.
Dieter dispassionately watched Sero over the top of his gore-covered hand for several seconds. “Do you believe you can be more effective than this piece of scheisse? Or should I send for your second and start over?
“I-I’m… You…” Sero stammered as his mind struggled to grasp the scene. “You killed him,” he finally croaked.
Dieter allowed his eyes to briefly flash yellow. “Ja. We do not deal with feckless fools who can’t provide the services we pay for. Are you a fool, Sero?”
Sero paled when he saw this, realizing the man in front of him was not entirely human. “N-n-no.”
“Good. Now, tell me where you are with locating the people we paid you to find.”
Sero swallowed hard, his eyes involuntarily focusing on Muto’s broken body. “We have not located their base, but the woman has been seen multiple times around a site under construction in the city.”
“So, you’re telling me that the oh-so-powerful Yakuza can’t follow a mere woman from a location she has been at frequently to their base?” Menace leaked from his tone.
Sero’s heart rate increased and he started to breathe hard as the man’s tone caused him to have to fight the urge to run. “We, uh, my men have tried to follow her several times. She disappears like a spirit each time.”
“Bah. Spirits. Superstitious fools. I come here expecting news and get tales about spirits.”
“Sir, uh, Dieter, I have men watching the site around the clock.” He paused for a minute as a low rumbling growl came from the man. “Uh, I have a plan to locate them,” he rushed on.
“I hope your plans are better than that fool’s,” Dieter snarled while pointing at Muto’s slumped corpse. “If not, I hope your second has a better one.”
Sero lifted his hands in a submissive gesture. “Just wait here a moment. Would you like something to eat? Drink? A girl, perhaps?”
Dieter shook his head. “What I would like is for you to do your fucking job and find that base.”
Sero bowed as he backed out of the room, his bladder threatening to let go at any minute.
“Get someone in here to clean this mess up. He’s starting to stink,” Dieter yelled as Sero closed the door.
“Diago, Yasou, get down to the construction site and find one of those girls. Take her to the house that Madame Yono runs,” Sero called to two hard-looking men sitting by the door.
“Madame Yono?” Diago questioned. “That’s the freak house, isn’t it?”
“Yes. We don’t have time to waste. Show her what’s in store for her if she doesn’t tell us where the base is located. Send word as soon as you have one of them.”
“What the hell is going on?” Yasou wanted to know.
Sero kept looking toward the office door, expecting Dieter to come out and start killing everyone. “The people from China want results now. Muto’s dead, and we’re all next if we don’t give him what he wants.”
He leaned over to Diago and whispered, “Take Hon out and tell him to load a silver magazine into his gun.”
Diago’s eyes rounded with surprise, and his head jerked as he looked toward the office. “Silver?” he whispered.
Sero nodded once as he stepped back and yelled. “I don’t care that it’s your mother’s birthday. Follow your orders!”
Sero turned and rushed back to the office, stopping briefly to compose himself before he went through the door. As he started to enter, he remembered Dieter’s shouted words as he left.
“Hino, Sogo, get a tarp and come to the office. Have one of the girls bring cleaning supplies. Move!” he yelled as both men looked at him as though he’d gone crazy.
They looked at each other and jumped up to do as he had ordered, not wanting to deal with whatever had the usually calm and unflappable Sero in such an agitated state.
Sero went back to the door and drew several deep breaths before he entered. “I sent two of my best men to deal with this problem. I should hear back from them soon.”
“Why are you just now putting your best on it? ” Dieter snarled. “You should have done that from the start.” His patience, already short, was wearing even thinner.
“I wasn’t running this.” Sero shrugged as he nodded at Muto. “He was.”
“You’d better hope that you get results.” Dieter glared at Muto’s body. “I told you to clean this up. I am staying at the inn down the street. Contact me when you have some results. I suggest you do not fail.”
Dieter stalked out, knocking Hino into the wall as he stood outside, poised to knock. “Get the hell out of my way,” he snarled as he pushed past him and stormed out into the street.
These idiots can’t do anything right, Dieter mused as he walked down the sidewalk toward the inn. He neither noticed nor cared how people shied away and gave him a wide berth as he passed. I told Father to let me handle it, but he is so scared of this so-called Dark One that he can’t think straight.
Chapter Thirty-Two
TQB Base, Tokyo, Japan
“Yuko, Eve, are you ready to go?” Akio called over their chips.
“Hai,” Yuko replied.
Eve responded seconds later. “On my way. I was putting the finishing touches on something in my workroom.”
The elevator opened a short time later, and Eve emerged, carrying a short carbine. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Akio tilted his head. “What do you have there, Eve?”
Eve held the weapon out to him as she explained, “It’s from a schematic that Jean left for me. She was working on a shoulder-fired weapon that uses the same ammunition packs as your Jean Dukes Specials. This one is heavily modified for me. It can be turned up to eleven.” She grinned. “Although I wouldn’t recommend that someone without a reinforced titanium skeleton try to fire it on that setting. It packs quite a wallop.”
“Hmmm. Eleven, huh?” Akio handed the weapon back to her. “If all goes as planned, you won’t have the opportunity to use it this time. You will have to be satisfied with delivering the pucks.”
Yuko arrived in time to hear this and laughed. “We’re dealing with Forsaken, Weres, and Nosferatu—what could possi
bly go wrong?”
Eve nodded and smiled. “My thoughts, exactly.”
Akio shook his head at the two and got into the elevator. When they arrived on the surface, he wasted no time exiting into the dark inner courtyard and boarding the waiting Pod. “Let’s go before it gets light. We don’t want to attract any more attention to this location than we have to.”
Yuko joined him in the Pod as Eve climbed into the sleek and deadly Black Eagle beside it.
“I saw your message about a more secure location with a hangar. I have made some inquiries and hope to have an alternate location soon,” Eve told Akio before the Pod closed.
“That is excellent, Eve. I hope you are successful. I like this place, but it is more exposed than I think is safe. Plus, if we were attacked here, there are too many innocents in the area for us to really cut loose with our defenses,” Akio answered over the comm as both craft shot into the early morning sky.
Northern China, Prison Complex
Akio knelt beside a large boulder and looked down into the valley at the drab building. “Looks like they’re all tucked in for the day.”
Eve stood just below the top of the ridge, consulting a tablet held in her hand. “There are two Forsaken on each level. The two on the lower level are each at the doors that lead outside. The two on the second level are together at the stairs closest to the living quarters. There is a door there that goes through the barracks, but it’s barred from the other side. They appear to be playing cards instead of keeping a proper watch,” she reported.
“What of the others?” Yuko inquired.
“I count ten lounging around in the rec room on the first floor of the offices and living quarters,” she replied. “Number fifteen is not here. He is the one Heinz was talking about giving the serum to the other day. Miko was the name.”
“At least the Weres haven’t arrived yet,” Akio commented as he slipped over the top of the ridge to join Yuko and Eve. “I was concerned that they would be here on guard duty by now and we would have to deal with them. This will make it easier to surprise the Forsaken inside.”
Eve slid her tablet into a compartment that opened in her chest. “How do you want to do this, Akio?”
He thought for a moment. “Yuko and I will go in through the doors on the first floor and neutralize the guards there. You fly overwatch in the Black Eagle and take out any who try to escape, or watch them burn if they aren’t daywalkers. Position yourself where you can see both sides of the living area. Anything that comes out of there is fair game.”
He sketched a crude diagram of the complex in the dust. “Yuko, we will take the Pod down. I will drop you here.” He indicated the door on the end farthest from the living quarters. “I will take the other door. When I give the signal, take out the guard by your door and meet me upstairs. We will silence those two and then move on to the ones in the other section.”
They worked their way silently down the ridge to the waiting craft. Eve climbed into the Black Eagle and waited until the Pod lifted to deliver Akio and Yuko.
As the Pod dropped to the first door, Yuko stepped out, her red Jean Dukes armor standing out against the drab gray of the building. The Pod lifted again. As it passed over the other door, Akio stepped out and landed on bent knees in front of it.
“Go!” he called to Yuko as he slammed the heavy steel door with his armored boot. The guard was leaning against the door when Akio kicked it, and his body flew across the short hallway to slam face-first into the unyielding steel bars of the cell block with a loud crash. Before he had recovered, Akio’s katana flashed down and severed his bloody head.
On Akio’s signal, Yuko pushed open her door. The sunlight streaming in caught the Forsaken as he looked toward the disturbance at the other end of the cells. He hissed in pain and jumped forward away from the light. The last thing he saw was a blade that reflected the sunlight into his eyes, held by a woman with a face full of wrath like some kind of vengeful goddess. Before the pain of his burning eyes registered, his head was bouncing against the cells.
The hunger-crazed Nosferatu went wild as the combination of sunlight and the smell of blood broke the limited control being exerted by the two Forsaken upstairs. The shrieks of pain made by the ones caught in the sunlight almost drowned out the snarls and growls of the ones pressing against the bars to reach the bodies on the floor.
Akio darted up the stairs and smashed into one of the card players as he jumped to his feet. The other snatched a heavy machete from his belt and started toward him. Akio’s lips turned up in a hint of a smile as Yuko’s blade erupted through the front of the machete wielder’s face. A quick downward slice of his blade stopped the other before he stood fully erect from where he had landed.
“That was uneventful,” Yuko deadpanned.
“Hai, that’s always the best kind of fight to have,” Akio replied.
Angry shouts from the Forsaken in the barracks for the guards to quiet the Nosferatu came from below. Yuko stepped across to the steel door that led into the living area and cocked her head. “Do you want to do the honors, or should I?”
Akio’s reply was to take three running steps and slam his armored shoulder into the door. The heavy door held, but the cinder block wall could not withstand the force of the blow. The door frame burst out of the wall in a shower of concrete and dust.
Akio bowed with a flourish toward the opening he had made. “After you.”
Yuko nodded and pulled her Jean Dukes from the holsters on her side, glancing at the settings she paused for a beat and thumbed them both from five to six. Her face set with grim determination, she stalked through the swirling dust toward the startled yells of the Forsaken a level below.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The Palace, Tokyo, Japan
“Gah! I didn’t know interviewing people could be so tiring,” Koda lamented.
“We found some good people yesterday and more today, Koda. I believe the grand opening will be a success,” Asai told her.
“I know, but the applicants all sounded alike by the end of the day. ‘This one time at band camp, I…’ how are you supposed to find the best people when your brain is numb? If I must listen to one more story about a school project, I think I will scream.”
“What are you going on about? What’s this ‘band camp’ you’re talking about?” Asai looked confused.
Koda giggled. “Oh, it’s something from an old movie I watched the other day. There was this character that started everything with that line. It was funny then, but after today I will never think of it the same way again.”
“You know you’re weird, right?” Asai chuckled.
Koda stuck her tongue out and crossed her eyes, causing Asai to burst out laughing.
Asai caught her breath and wiped her eyes. “We’re done for the day. That was the last one. Now that we have them all picked, we need to meet with Yuko for the final interviews.”
“Final interviews? What else is there to ask? That’s just what I don’t need, more interviews.” Koda complained.
“That’s right!” Asai exclaimed. “You were off with the guys who are putting on the laser show opening night when Yuko told me about that. Something about a last check that she has asked Akio to do before the final hiring decisions are made.
“We’ve both been so busy trying to get everything done that it slipped my mind. She said it has something to do with security and insisted that it be done.”
“Security?” Koda furrowed her brow. “I thought we had Takumi to handle that.”
Asai shrugged. “Takumi handles physical security and everything else related to running the facility. This is something Yuko called operational security. I asked her what that was, and she said it has to do with making sure everyone we hire is honest. She told me that there are some companies that send in spies to steal other companies’ secrets. Akio has some means of finding these people.”
Koda looked skeptical as she answered. “Uh, okay. I won’t question Yuko’s judgme
nt, but I really don’t want to do any more interviews.”
“If I understood Yuko, all we have to do is ask them a few simple questions, and Akio will do the rest. It is her business, so if that’s what she wants, then that’s what we do. That’s all I know about it.” Asai’s tone let Koda know that she was done with this conversation and the interviews were going to happen.
“Maybe I can be busy doing something, anything else that day?” Koda whined.
“We will have to see.” Asai got a calculating look in her eyes. “What’s it worth to you?”
“What do you want?” Koda asked. “I’ll do almost anything to avoid having to do any more interviews.”
Asai rubbed her hands together. “You go to the market for me for, let’s say the next four weeks, and I will handle it.”
“Go to the market? That’s all?”
“Market, and any takeout we get,” Asai added quickly.
“Two weeks,” Koda countered.
Asai smirked. “Interviews start day after tomorrow at nine.”
Koda gasped. “Wait a minute. I thought we were negotiating.”
“Okay. Six weeks, then.”
“You suck!”
“Four weeks, and be thankful I didn’t add laundry to it,” Asai finally relented.
“Deal, but you still suck.” Koda shot back before Asai followed through with the laundry.
“Goody! You can start today. It’s time for lunch, and I want a bacon and egg burger from Happiness.”
“That’s three kilometers away! Surely you don’t want me to have to walk that far after working so hard today. Plus, it would be cold and yucky when I got back,” Koda whined.
“You’re such a drama queen, Koda. I should make you go to that one just for that. You’re in luck, though. They just opened one on the next block this week. It’s a few doors down from that sushi place you like.”
Koda laughed. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? Even though I would walk three kilometers for one of those burgers.”
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