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)
"Careful, Little Dragon. I have more options than you.”
“Do you?”
“Why just bomb the hotel when I could also bomb the island? Then, I walk into the Coalition with both bodies in my arms."
Tension gathered at my shoulders.
“You could.” I let the threat hang for one full breath, and then I played the card he could never argue with. "But, no white man will ever rule a country in Asia, Kazimir. You know that. That's why we're all still alive."
A long, slow exhale came on the line. It was the sound of him pulling on a cigar. He exhaled and I imagined a large plume of gray smoke leaving his nostrils and distorting his face. "Hmmm."
The silence that followed was different from the silences before it.
The Lion was reconsidering, and that was much better than his roar.
Okay. It’s time.
I let out a dramatic exhale. "I'll give up my fee."
"Then I'll bomb the hotel."
“So this is a deal?”
“It is. Do you want your father dead? Or. . .do you simply want him scared enough to get on the plane with Akiro?”
I kept my face straight and my shoulders stiff, but that question. . .it told me that the Mosquito had been giving the Lion a feed of my war room.
One day, I will swat out that annoying bug.
“I want the Fox so terrified that he comes to the island.”
“That I can do, Dragon. I’ll bomb his safehouses too."
I blinked.
“Be careful of innocent deaths—”
“There are no innocents in war.”
I sneered. “I only want my father’s people targeted, no civilian casualties—”
“That can’t be helped, my friend. Bombs only know how to explode, not to differentiate. But I’ll add a few rocket launchers to be more precise—”
"Kazimir."
"Yes, Dragon."
"If you kill more civilians than soldiers tonight, our next conversation will not be on a phone."
A pause came.
Then, the Lion laughed once. "I do enjoy our conversations, Kenji. The bombs will go off in two minutes. By the way, tell your Tiger I said hello."
The line clicked dead.
Tell your Tiger. . .
Chills ran up my spine.
How much more does he know about Nyomi? No. . .don’t think about that now or you’ll be going to war with him tonight.
I held the phone against my ear for a beat longer than I needed to.
Two minutes. That’s all it will take him to hit the hotel.
I lowered the phone, realizing a new terrifying fact.
Two minutes means the bombs were already placed there before I called. The Lion already has the rocket launchers ready in Tokyo too. Where else has the Lion put bombs?
I stared at the map on the table.
Tomorrow I'll worry about that. Tonight, my only focus can be war.
I set the phone down on the briefing table.
I didn’t make a deal with the Lion. I made a deal with the devil. Tonight, Kazimir would not only bring fear to my father, but he would terrify Tokyo too. And I’d given him the permission.
I closed my eyes.
Please don’t let him kill too many innocent people.
Chapter three
Devastation
Kenji
Sighing, I opened my eyes.
Reo had been watching me the whole time. He saw it land on my face. "The Lion will deliver?"
"He will. The only question is how much." I went over to the other table, picked up my mask, and looked at it.
The Wanyūdō mask bore the face of a demon judge sent to drag sinners toward hell.
Charred black wood covered the surface while thin gold fractures split across the cheeks like trapped fire. The mouth stretched wide in a skeletal grin filled with iron-colored teeth. Deep ember-red eyes watched from beneath heavy carved brows.
Japanese legends claimed Wanyūdō once walked the earth as a cruel samurai who delighted in suffering. After death, hell refused to let him rest. His soul fused with a burning ox-cart wheel and he became one of the jailers of the damned.
Now, he rolled through the streets at night collecting sinners for punishment. Mothers in Kyoto warned their children never to be outside after dark when they heard wheels scraping across stone.
But for me, the mask represented punishment.
Final judgment.
The moment mercy ended.
And that was the only thing my brother and father deserved.
I looked up at Reo. “The craftsmen did good with the masks.”
“I agree, especially in such short time.” He came over and picked up his.
Tsuchigumo.
The ancient spider demon who lured warriors into hidden webs beneath the mountains and fed on them slowly. Legends described him as patient, intelligent, and impossible to escape once he marked his prey.
Black wood shaped the face into narrow predatory angles while thin gold webbing spread across the forehead and cheeks in jagged fractures. The eyes slanted sharp and half-lidded beneath heavy carved brows. Small ivory fangs rested at the corners of the mouth.
Reo checked his watch. “We need to get everyone in position.”
“Any word from Tokyo?”
“Akiro's men are loading, but they haven't all taken off yet.”