Land of the Gods

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

They stepped up into the helicopter and quickly took their seats. They all seemed to know where to go so she guessed they usually sat in the same places. The Texan smacked his shovel hand down in the seat next to her and smiled. “You can sit here!”

She struggled to understand his accent but she knew what he meant so she sat down beside him and returned his smile. Buckled her seatbelt. Above them the engine was already spooling up and the co-pilot was closing the door. They jerked upward and started lifting off the helipad.

Below her to the right she saw one of the new JAL A350s lining up ready for take-off. Seconds later they were screeching up into the Tokyo skyscape, ripping through a bank of pink clouds and banking hard into the sunset. She stared out of the window in amazement as the tiny aircraft seemed to tip almost on its side as it made the sharp turn to the left.

She had grown up in a good neighborhood, and both her parents had earned very good money. She had traveled a great deal, particularly to countries rich in historical artefacts and relics as her father dragged her around his excavations.

But she had never flown in a helicopter before.

She was determined not to show her excitement to the foreigners. She kept a calm, neutral face and pretended for all the world this was just like any old day in the life of Hiro Adachi.

Below, the neon streets she knew so well were soon behind her and when she turned back to face the cabin, she saw the rest of the team were paying no mind to the take-off. Instead they were busily engaged in the business of retrieving her father’s mysterious ring.

Lexi turned to her. “Hiro, how long does it take to get from here to Izumi Tower?”

“I’m not sure, I have never flown by helicopter before. Maybe fifteen minutes.”

Scarlet looked at her watch. “Good, we have a quarter of an hour.”

Again, she thought about what they were saying. They were talking about attacking the heart of Makiko Jojima’s Yakuza empire, and they were talking about it casually. She wondered if any of them truly knew what taking on a woman like that would mean. This was the head of a criminal empire that consumed massive police resources every day of the year and it still operated with virtual impunity wherever it wanted.

She didn’t know anything about the people she was sitting with right now, but she knew enough about the Yakuza that even if they were successful in their mission to retrieve the ring, it would not end there. In stealing something from Makiko Jojima they would be giving her giri, or the obligation to pay them back for their deeds. It would never stop until that debt was repaid, and the only currency a person in her position would accept was blood and flesh.

As they crossed the city, Hiroko was amazed by just how vast metropolitan Tokyo really was. Bigger than New York, Miami, Washington DC, Chicago, Las Vegas and many other US cities put together, it was a monster of concrete and glass stretching to every horizon and offering endless possibilities wherever she looked.

She had been born here. Raised here. She went to elementary school in Hiroo and then they moved to Azabu where she completed her junior high and high school years. She had gone out on the town with her friends and attended university here, gaining her degree in marine exploration. She knew Tokyo like the back of her hand and yet she had never flown over her hometown in a helicopter before. Flying so low and so fast, it lifted the curtain on what an enormous metropolis it truly was.

Without drawing attention to herself, she glanced quickly at the foreigners sitting with her in the back of the chopper. Their leader was cool and distant. Tough, tall and with raven black hair, she seemed distracted. She turned and poked the younger man in the ribs and flicked his ear. The young man pretended to be annoyed but seemed to enjoy the attention nonetheless.

The Chinese woman was harder to read. She seemed quieter than the rest and spent much of the journey with her eyes closed. For some reason, the fingernails on her left hand were artificial — some sort of prosthetic replacement. They looked metallic and she had never seen anything like it before in her life. Some sort of accident, no doubt. Or torture, maybe. She shuddered to think.

The last of them was the squarest, chunkiest man she had ever seen. He reminded her of a Hollywood movie star with his toned body, chiselled jaw and sparkling, serious eyes. Upturned cowboy hat on the seat beside him with his shades inside it. A tough, determined face, and yet hiding behind the façade of merciless steel he had cultivated was another kind of man, a man with a good sense of humor.

“Right, we’re here,” Scarlet said. “This is the building you’re talking about, yes?”

Hiroko nodded. “Jojima is on the top floor.”

“Of course she is,” Lexi said. “They always are.”

The chopper lost altitude and lined up with a helipad on the roof of a skyscraper two blocks to the south. “All right, let’s get on with it,” Scarlet said. “We land, take the lift down to the ground floor and then walk the two blocks to the Izumi Tower. Then we ask nicely and get the ring.”

Hiroko raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t going to be that easy, was it?

They stepped out the elevator and hit the streets of Tokyo, surrounded with flashing neon signs and commercial advertisements. In a way, Lexi felt lost here, just as she felt lost everywhere. Since the murder of her parents by the Zodiacs, the only family she had left were her friends in the ECHO team, but was that enough?

She still had feelings for Hawke, and she knew Alex did, but now he was engaged to Lea. They would be married soon. Another happy couple, and she guessed kids would be next. Scarlet seemed happy enough with Jack Camacho. Reaper’s on-again-off-again relationship with his wife in Provence was funny to hear about, but they still saw each other even after all these years and they had their twins to think about.

Ryan was destroyed after Maria’s murder but he had come back stronger and now he had started to talk about women again. He would be next. All of them happy except her.

She recollected the memory back on the Duncan of Lea’s engagement ring twinkling on her finger like a little star. Looking down at her own hand she saw nothing but the hideous, ugly prosthetic fingernails shining dully in the neon night. She had never felt so low, and it was at this moment that her betrayal of Joe Hawke reared its grotesque head and pushed her other thoughts far away.

It was a long time ago, but he would never forgive her if he found out.

Maybe it would be better for everyone if the sniper’s next bullet had my name on it.

Beside her, Ryan ran a hand over the tattoo on his upper arm.

Машa.

Masha. That was what he called Maria.

When he thought about her now it hurt much less. Time had passed. It had healed the terrible wound caused by her murder. Now he could remember the good times and laugh along with the memories. Only now could he consider moving on, and he knew it was time to do it, too. Nothing forced. Just opening his heart to future possibilities and seeing what happened, letting fate take the tiller and steer him where it wanted.

There was someone else out there for him, he knew it in his heart. He was young and wanted to live again but he was a different man now. Killing Dirk Kruger in Miami Beach had finished his long apprenticeship to becoming a warrior like his friends. Punching the South African arms dealer out of the airship and watching him fall to his death in shark-infested waters had been the last rite of passage. No one could doubt his will or capability now, and whoever he found to be with would have to accept this new man.

Lexi saw him rubbing the tattoo. “All good?”

He gave a sturdy nod. “Yes. All good.”

“She was an amazing woman, Ryan.”

“I know.”

“But you will find someone else.”

“I know that, too.”

“We’ve been through a lot together, this team.”

He huffed out a quiet, weary laugh. “You could say that.”

“And you’ve changed more than any of us. I’m proud of you.”

He turned. “Wow… I’m… Thanks.”

They walked faster to catch with the others, but before either could say a word, Hiroko’s young voice broke the tense silence. “We’re here.”