Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 154368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 617(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 617(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Her bottom lip quivered. “Next corner, and there should be tons of guards. Ones that belong to the Council and guards that belong to the VIPs staying in the section. That’s normal protocol.”
“Then, we’ll be ready to kill them all.”
We turned the last corner, and the hallway opened up to black stoned walls and silence.
“Wait.” Hiroko grabbed my arm.
I held up my hand. “Stop.”
Everyone paused.
She was breathing hard, and I saw her looking around with confusion on her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
She shook her head. "No guards. Not one. Usually there would be people here. Servants heading to VIP suites. The lights should be brighter in here too. The VIP section has the most activity.”
“Do you think there was a change like with the orgy room?”
“No. These hallways and apartments are top notch, chandeliers, marble floors, the Council spent millions upon millions in this section alone. They wouldn’t waste their money like that.”
Reo stepped up next to her. "Could the Fox be there and just have cleared the area for security? Making sure there aren't many people around?"
“No.” I shook my head. “He would need hospital staff. We should have at least seen a nurse. And trust my father would have over twenty guards around him.”
“Still. . .” Hiro eyed the space. “With that phone call which was clearly a performance, he wanted us here. I can feel it. But why? What sort of trap is this?”
Hiroko pointed toward the heavy ornate door at the end of the hallway. "That leads to the main VIP suite—one that your father has used many times before his injury. There should be men on either side of this hallway. Guards. His personal security."
She stepped back and pointed at the dark walls. “And these are VIP sex rooms right here with glass walls. To be in one of them for an hour is over $50,000 per customer. The Council would not let them sit empty."
I looked at the empty darkness. “You’re right. Something is wrong.”
Hiro looked at the door at the end of the hallway, and then he looked at me.
I saw it in his eyes. The same suspicion I was feeling. "I'm following Hiroko's instincts."
“I agree.” Reo turned to three Scales. "Go down and check it out."
They nodded and rushed forward immediately with their weapons raised.
The Claws stayed close to us, forming a tighter circle around Hiroko and me.
What sort of trap is this, Father? And what are you hoping to get or learn?
The three Scales slowed their pace and checked the walls, the floor, and the ceiling.
“Reo.” I looked at him. “Be ready to give the Scales at the kill box the signal. My gut says we’ll need that distraction.”
Reo pressed his mic and spoke into it. “Is everyone in position?”
That Scale responded on the other side, “Yes, sir. All are pointing their guns at the Fox’s men.”
“Good. Wait for the command.”
“Yes, sir.”
We watched the three Scales ahead of us continue forward.
And when, they got within five feet of the door, the world exploded.
Fuck!
The blast was deafening. Fire erupted from the floor, the walls, the ceiling. And even though so far from us, the force threw us backward.
I hit the ground hard.
My ears rang.
My vision blurred.
Smoke filled the hallway.
I pushed myself up on my hands and looked toward where the three Scales had been.
The hallway was gone.
A crater gaped in the floor where the stone had been, edges blackened and jagged. Flames licked up the walls. Smoke rolled across the ceiling in thick dark waves.
And the three Scales. . .
There were no bodies.
Just pieces.
A hand—still gripping a gun—lay against the far wall, severed clean above the wrist. A boot sat upright near the crater's edge, and I could tell from the weight of it that the foot was still inside. Fragments of bone were embedded in the stone walls like shrapnel, pale white against the black scorch marks.
Blood was everywhere. Not pooled—sprayed. Across the ceiling. Across the walls. Across the floor in a wide, dark arc that reached almost to where we'd been standing.
Three men.
Gone.
With not even enough left to carry home.
“Goddamn it. He put a mine down there.” I felt Hiro's hand on my shoulder as he got his footing.
“Must have been a pressure mine embedded under the carpet.” Hiro looked at me. “Are you okay, Kenji?”
“Yes.”
My mind screamed one thought over and over.
The Butcher gave him mines and bombs too.
The smoke was still rolling when I turned to Reo.
His face was cut. Blood ran from a gash above his eyebrow where debris had caught him. He was already on his feet, one hand pressed to his earpiece, the other gripping his gun.
I gritted my teeth. "Trigger the kill box."
Reo pressed his mic. "Kill them all. Now."
The response came back immediately, clipped and ready. "Copy. Executing."
Far off in those glass-walled rooms bathed in red light, the Fox's commanders were about to die mid-stroke. Every branded man who'd been too busy fucking to think about war was about to learn that the war had come anyway.