Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 92392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Reo tapped the center of the island. "Most of the open ground is gone."
I leaned in.
Across the painted forests and roads, small wooden blocks had been placed in clusters— trucks parked at angles, towering stacks of metal sheets, brick walls hauled up within the hour and stacked three stories high.
Reo pointed at them. “Our men have spent this hour turning every clearing, every flat field, and every wide road into a wall of obstacles.”
I traced one of the clusters with my finger. "How tall?"
"Some metal stacks are at three stories. Bricks at two. The trucks are parked nose to tail across the runways and the wider roads. All have lights on them so the height and width can be seen from the sky by Akiro’s pilots." Reo gestured down the length of the map. "Nothing with wings is landing in the middle of this island tonight."
“Perfect.” I followed his hand across the map.
The East Coast was blocked. The West Coast too. The interior fields where Akiro's pilots would expect open ground were also blocked.
“Only two stretches of the island had been left clean for Akiro’s pilots.” He picked up a red plane from the side and placed it on one part of the map and then the other. “The North landing zone and the South landing zone.”
"We decide where their planes go.”
"Akiro's pilots will circle the island once, maybe twice, and realize they have two choices. North or South. Anywhere else and they crash into a brick tower or a stack of steel which will destroy their planes for us."
I studied the two cleared zones.
Both sat far enough from the mansion to give Akiro's men the illusion that they had picked a smart drop point. Both had natural cover at the tree line—heavy forest, ridges, and places a man could believe he could regroup.
Both were lies.
I tilted my head. "And the Scales?"
Reo pointed at the North zone first. Tiny black marks dotted the trees around the cleared field. “We have dozens of them here, ringed in tight.”
Next, he moved his finger to the South zone. “The southern tree line is packed with armed Scales already in position.”
Akiro's men would step off those planes thinking they had found the only safe ground on the island. They would form up, move toward the tree line, and the moment the first boot crossed the grass, the Scales would open up from every angle.
I nodded. “A kill box.”
“Two of them.”
Two kill boxes. Hundreds of men who would die on grass they thought was safe. I had ordered worse. Tonight, it still sat heavy in my chest and I prayed that most of the dead would be from the other side.
"What if the first landing pilots warn the others?”
“Radio jamming is set." Reo's hand rested flat on the map. "By the time Akiro understands what we have done, he will have lost more men in the first ten minutes than he expected to lose in the first hour."
Suddenly, my Tiger entered my mind and I gripped the table’s edge.
Tora. . .not now.
Her face pushed into my thoughts uninvited. I gritted my teeth and shoved it down. There was no space for her in this war room tonight.
I had to stay centered.
I let my eyes move slowly across the map—the brick towers, metal stacks, and funneled landing zones. “This is good, but good won’t be enough to end this tonight.”
“What are you thinking?”
"If Akiro arrives with his head clear and the Fox safely at the hotel, even if we kill Akiro and all his men. . .the war continues.” I stood straight. “My father will just find a new champion to do his bidding."
"We need to get your father here, but how?"
"We have to kill his certainty for safety."
Reo went still.
I looked back at the phone. “We may have to do things that we don’t want to.”
Reo frowned, knowing where I was going. “I’m not sure that is the sacrifice we need. It is a massive one.”
“Tonight will be all about sacrifices if we plan to win.”
“Still, you’re talking about giving away Asia to an egotistical beast. What’s the point of winning Japan if the Lion is the dictator?”
“I won’t give him Asia, but. . .I will give him the illusion of it.”
“Kenji—”
“He can help us get inside my father’s head.” I tapped the painted mansion at the center of the map. "A broken mind collapses faster than a broken army. The greatest commanders in history did not win because they had the most men. They won because by the time the enemy arrived, half the battle had already happened inside their trembling minds."
Reo leaned forward against the table.
"The Mongols took entire cities without ever drawing a sword. The cities surrendered because terror traveled faster than horses." I let my finger trace the painted coastline. "The samurai wore oni-like masks not because the masks killed men but because the masks made the enemy believe they were fighting something larger than human. And even. . .the Vikings cultivated a reputation so brutal and so unpredictable that men shook before the longships even touched shore."