Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Goddamn it!
Hiro frowned. “I just saw him yesterday and gave him a pack of pink and blue lollipops for the baby.”
I pursed my lips.
The back of Sora’s suit was wet with blood. His holsters were empty. Whoever had killed him had taken his gun first and his life second.
I tensed. “A Scale did this.”
“Who would do that?”
“One of Kiko’s guards.”
“You think she got in their heads?”
“She was one of my best Eyes. Of course she did.” Guilt hit me. I should have planned for that possibility.
Sorry, Tora, I’m getting those babies out and then I’m killing this bitch.
I began to head off.
Hiro grabbed my arm. “Wait.”
He crouched beside Sora one last time and bowed his head. “Your duty ended with honor. Your ancestors will recognize you.”
He touched two fingers to Sora’s forehead before rising again. “And I will make certain the person who sent you to death does not walk long behind you.”
He rose.
We headed off.
The rest of the lobby was a slaughterhouse.
A guard I did not know was slumped against the far wall with a scalpel in his thigh and his hands open in his lap like a man giving up on a card hand he had already lost.
Two of my Scales were down—Hideo, motionless, half his face missing; and Akane with his throat sliced open.
Screams came from the west, even though Reo and my men had rushed to the east.
I looked at Hiro. “That way.”
“Let’s kill them.” Hiro tossed me the gun and kept the knife. “Do we kill Kiko?”
“And hurt the twins? No.”
“Kenji—”
“I know. We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry, brother. Kiko won’t be breathing for too long.”
We went down the hall and stopped at the sight in front of us.
No.
A pregnant lab tech was dead on her side near the records cart.
Her bloodied belly rose under the torn scrub top. A knife had been stuck in the soft round curve.
I shivered.
Nao. Sora’s wife.
Her one good arm was still flung forward across the tile as though she had been crawling toward the reception desk when she had finally stopped crawling. The other arm hung wrong at the shoulder, twisted under her in a way that no living body would have allowed.
A long red snail-trail stretched behind her across the floor.
She had made it almost halfway to the desk.
Almost.
A pressure rose behind my ribs that I did not have time to name.
I turned to Hiro. “Let’s go.”
Hiro didn’t move. He just stood there with his lips parted and his face crumbling.
“Come on.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, but. . .I knew that a small part of my brother still remained right there next to Nao.
We left the lobby and turned the corner.
Three Scales stood at the far end of the hall with guns out and pointed our way.
What the fuck? Are they crazy?
They didn’t shoot just yet, which told me they weren’t that crazy. They knew who the fuck stood in front of them and that Hiro and I were not that easy to kill.
A rolling hospital bed sat halfway down the corridor between us and the wall of armed Scales.
An old man lay on his back across the mattress with an IV line still taped to his arm and a hospital gown half-twisted across his chest. His mouth was open and his eyes too. A red bloom soaked the front of the gown where a single round had punched through him at close range.
The wheels of the bed were unlocked. The whole thing had been rolled into the hallway and abandoned mid-evacuation.
One of the traitorous Scales barked out, “The Dragon’s here!”
Then five more entered from another corner. I thought that would be it, but apparently Kiko had been busy on the island, entering my weaker Scales’ heads.
The count climbed past anything that made sense in a single corridor of a single clinic on a single night.
Ten.
Twelve.
Sixteen traitors.
And I knew that because of that. . .sixteen widows would burn in the morning turning to ash while sixteen pairs of parents melted alongside them.
“We mean no harm.” The Scale with the rifle lowered it a few inches. “We come with respect.”
Another spoke, “Kiko just wants to talk to the Dragon alone. That is it.”
One in the back nodded. “And she believes this DNA testing will cause the Dragon’s heirs harm.”
A Scale on the right placed his hand on his chest. “We did what we had to in order to serve and protect the Dragon’s heirs.”
I leaned my head to the side.
Hiro whispered, “I’ll get the hospital bed and turn it over to shield us.”
“I’ll cover you.”
We stepped forward and I raised my gun.
The first one raised his rifle and his hand shook. “She only wants to talk to you. No one should die.”
A few of the men behind him stirred.
“Go.” I shot him in the throat before the muzzle came level.