Black Lotus (39 page)

"My lord, don't you see that she's playing on your sympathy, just as she's always done?" Junketsu-in said. "How can you still be so blind to her evil ways?" She leaned anxiously toward Anraku. "Please don't take her back. She'll destroy us all --- if she hasn't already."

"I'm afraid the abbess is right," Dr. Miwa said timidly, sucking breath through his teeth.

Reiko watched Anraku draw Haru close, and anger glint in his eye. "Do not accuse me of blindness or gullibility," he said. "I see and understand all that mortal fools such as you cannot." Miwa and Junketsu-in cringed from his wrath; Haru sat below the platform, snuggling against his knees. "Haru has played the role for which she was destined. She performed the blood sacrifice necessary to set the cosmic forces in motion. She occasioned the persecution that generated spiritual energy within the Black Lotus. And now she has ushered in the third sign heralding our day of glory: The siege of the temple."

Reiko marveled at how the high priest had interpreted events to fit his prophecies. Indeed, he seemed to believe his own insane logic. His faith in it, plus the force of his personality, had turned his followers' desire for spiritual fulfillment into a desire to kill and die for him.

Regarding Haru fondly, Anraku caressed her hair. "My child, you are indeed an instrument of fortune. Because of you, the triumph of the Black Lotus is at hand."

And he viewed mortal crimes as steps toward spiritual enlightenment. The magnitude of his madness and his perversion of Buddhism astounded Reiko.

Haru preened like a child praised for good behavior and directed a triumphant gaze toward Junketsu-in. "You always hated me because I'm more important to him than you are. Now I'm going to tell you exactly what I think of you. You're a mean, jealous, stupid whore." As Junketsu-in sputtered indignantly, Haru laughed, then turned to Dr. Miwa. "And you're a dirty, disgusting lecher."

Dr. Miwa glowered; Haru's contemptuous stare encompassed him and the abbess. "You tried to get rid of me, but it didn't work," Haru taunted. "You'll both be sorry you said bad things about me." Then, while Anraku beheld his followers with lofty amusement, she glared at Kumashiro. "And you'll be sorry you tried to scare me into confessing."

Reiko was appalled by Haru's selfish spite. The girl had committed murder and arson, and people were dying by the score, yet all she seemed to care about was regaining Anraku's esteem and taking revenge on her enemies. Reiko felt fresh shame over befriending Haru.

"I must contradict your opinion of how well things have turned out," Kumashiro said to Anraku. "I've been aboveground and seen what's happening. Our people are being slaughtered. There won't be enough of them left to conquer Edo, let alone the rest of Japan. Our mission is doomed."

"It wouldn't be, if you'd trained the nuns and priests into a better army." Junketsu vented on Kumashiro the animosity she dared not express toward Haru now that the girl had Anraku's favor. "You've only yourself to blame for our defeat."

"Peasants are no match for samurai," Kumashiro said defensively. "I taught them as well as anyone could."

"The poison I concocted is very potent," Dr. Miwa said in a voice timid yet prideful. "If even a few of the couriers reach the city, the result will be most gratifying."

Junketsu-in gave a disdainful laugh. "A few doses of your stinking goo will accomplish too little to matter. If you'd perfected the poison gas, it would have spread on the wind. But Shinagawa proved that you're a miserable failure."

Dr. Miwa muttered. Kumashiro walked over to Junketsu-in, his fists clenched. "What right have you to berate us?" he demanded. "You, who are a weak, ignorant female, and good for nothing. Hold your tongue, or I'll cut it out of your head."

The antagonists either still trusted Anraku and didn't blame him for the havoc he'd wrought, or were afraid to criticize him, Reiko thought.

"My lord." Kumashiro addressed Anraku in respectful entreaty. "The soldiers will soon come looking for us. We must leave at once."

Panic shot through Reiko. If they left, what would she do?

"We will stay," Anraku said, his expression obstinate. Haru rested her head on his knee, blissfully oblivious to the argument. "My army shall triumph. We shall achieve enlightenment here, on this night, as my vision has foretold. I'll not let the enemy drive me away."

Yet Junketsu-in's face displayed fear and shock. She said, "They might be coming even now. They'll kill us all. I want to go."

"You wish to desert me at the advent of my new world?" Impervious to reason, Anraku frowned. "Is this how you repay me for the wealth and privilege I've lavished upon you? With cowardice and disloyalty?" He flung out a hand, waving Junketsu-in away. "Then by all means, go. But if you do, our paths shall never again converge."

"No," Junketsu-in cried, "I don't mean to desert you." She lurched toward Anraku, as if to throw herself into his arms, but Haru already occupied them. "I want you to come with me."

A loud boom from aboveground shuddered the tunnel. Reiko gasped. Crouching, she covered her head with her arms as dirt trickled through the rafters and startled exclamations arose from Anraku's chamber. She heard Dr. Miwa cry, "They're setting off the bombs," and Junketsu-in's panicky voice: "The temple will come down and crush us!"

The idea terrified Reiko, yet the thought of Sano up there in the explosions terrified her even more. A burning smell drifted through the tunnel --- the temple must be on fire. Reiko fought the urge to run to Sano. Looking through the window, she saw Junketsu-in, Miwa, Kumashiro, and the priests huddling near Anraku as if craving shelter from him.

Another blast rocked the hanging lanterns. As Reiko braced herself against the lurch of the ground under her feet, Anraku said suavely, "Perhaps it would be best to pursue destiny elsewhere."

So he still had some sense of self-preservation, Reiko thought, quailing at the calamity that his flight posed for her. If Haru went with him, Reiko must follow.

"I've ordered provisions packed for a journey," Kumashiro said. "There's enough money for us to live on indefinitely. Your followers in the provinces will shelter us. We'll hide until the hunt for us dies down, then take on different names and recruit new followers. You and I will revive the Black Lotus and found another temple."

Reiko saw shock freeze the countenances of the abbess and doctor as they absorbed Kumashiro's meaning. Haru, still seated close to Anraku, looked around, confused. Junketsu-in demanded of Kumashiro, "You think you're going to take him away with you and leave the rest of us here? Well, I won't stand for that. Where he goes, I go."

Dr. Miwa said with a nervous smile, "Honorable High Priest, surely you'll need me to help you start over."

As Anraku surveyed the group, cunning gleamed in his eye. "We'll all go," he said. Reiko supposed that he needed devoted attendants to help him survive, and thrived on the discord among them. He rose and stepped off his platform, raising Haru to her feet.

"Not her," Kumashiro said.

Haru's brow puckered; Anraku hesitated. Junketsu-in chimed in eagerly, "She can't keep secrets. If she travels with us, she'll tell the wrong people who we are. The
bakufu
will find us. We'll never be safe with her around."

"She's an escaped criminal," Dr. Miwa said. "The police will hunt us even harder, to get her. We must abandon her to improve our chances of survival."

If they did abandon Haru, then Reiko would be spared the trouble of pursuing them. Reiko held her breath, hoping she could capture Haru after Anraku and his officials departed, then warn Sano before they got too far.

Haru stared at her enemies, aghast. She clutched Anraku's arm. "But I want to go with you. You won't leave me?"

"The fewer who go, the easier to hide," Kumashiro said.

Anraku shook off Haru and stepped away from her.

"No!" Haru screamed. Dropping to her knees, she hugged Anraku's legs and babbled, "Nothing can separate us. My path is the path that unites all others --- you said so, don't you remember? The future of the Black Lotus depends on me. We were meant to be together, forever. You must take me with you."

Watching, Reiko exhaled, silently imploring Anraku to leave Haru and take the others away. Anraku focused a speculative, searching gaze on Haru. He said to the priests, "Bring our prisoner."

His order, which seemed to have no bearing on the circumstances, baffled Reiko.

"Not her, too," Junketsu-in protested.

A pair of the priests vanished through a doorway behind the curtains at the back of the room. They reemerged carrying a limp, horizontal figure clad in a gray robe. The arms dangled; long hair trailed on the floor. The head lolled toward Reiko.

It was Midori, Reiko realized in shock.

Midori's eyes were closed, her lips slack. Unconscious, she didn't stir when the priests laid her on the floor near Anraku's platform. She lay motionless except for the slow rise and fall of her bosom as she breathed. The sect must have drugged her with sleeping potion, Reiko supposed. Even as she experienced the joy of finding her friend, fear knifed through her. What did Anraku mean to do with Midori?

Junketsu-in said vehemently to Anraku, "She's a spy. You can't bring her along."

"I've enough potion to keep her unconscious for a long time," Dr. Miwa said, ogling Midori's body.

Now Reiko realized with dreadful certainty that she must follow the fugitives. She couldn't leave Midori to them, and there would be no time to fetch Sano. Yet new hope awakened inside her, fragile and vibrant as butterfly wings. At least she'd located Midori. Might she somehow rescue her friend?

"Lady Midori still has an important purpose to serve," Anraku said, unperturbed.

"You're going to take her and not me?" Haru shrilled in panic. She clutched Anraku tighter. "But you can't!"

"If we have to carry her, she'll slow us down," Kumashiro pointed out.

Another bomb exploded. Junketsu-in screamed; everyone ducked. There was a rumbling sound like a flood of rocks: a tunnel had collapsed nearby.

"Let's go now, before it's too late," Junketsu-in pleaded. "We can just leave Lady Midori here with Haru."

As Reiko's heart leapt at the possibility, Midori slept on, oblivious. A strange smile shimmered on Anraku's lips.

"A new vision has just revealed to me the final purpose for which Lady Midori is destined." He stared down at Haru. "Do you truly wish my forgiveness?"

"Yes," she gasped, lifting a hopeful face to him, "more than anything in the world."

"You wish to prove your loyalty to me?" • "Oh, yes." Haru was wheezing, pathetic in her eagerness.

"You would do anything to earn the privilege of accompanying me?"

"Anything!" Haru cried, as Reiko tried to figure out where the conversation was leading.

The high priest's smile broadened. "Then kill Lady Midori."

Horror reverberated inside Reiko like the toll of a shattered bell. Through her panic she saw Junketsu-in's and Miwa's faces go blank with surprise at Anraku's order. Kumashiro frowned, as though disappointed to be deprived of kilhng Midori himself, or perhaps doubtful that Haru could accomplish the task. Haru slowly unclasped her arms from Anraku and sat back on her heels. Reiko read trepidation in the furrowed lines of the girl's profile.

Then Haru nodded, murmuring, "If you wish, Anraku-san."

She stood and walked toward Midori. Reiko, aghast to see her friend's life placed in the hands of a murderer who cared about nothing except appeasing Anraku, felt a shout of protest rise in her:
Haru, no
!

Anraku mounted his platform. "Give her your sword," he said to Kumashiro.

Reiko watched in shock as the priest drew his long sword and offered it to Haru. She clumsily grasped the hilt in both hands. Raising the blade over her head, she positioned herself a few paces from Midori's neck. She drew a deep breath and gradually lowered the blade, looking sideways at Anraku.

He nodded and smiled encouragingly. Kumashiro and Dr. Miwa watched the moving blade, while Junketsu-in turned away and clapped a hand over her mouth. A nightmarish state of paralysis gripped Reiko, numbing her thoughts and muscles. She couldn't move; she could only watch. Haru's wheezes and the clattering in the tunnels marked the slow passage of time. Midori's eyelids fluttered. The blade hovered low over her throat. Haru winced. Her knuckles tightened convulsively on the sword.

The undeniable knowledge that Midori's death was imminent jarred Reiko out of her paralysis. "Stop!" she shouted.

Pushing the door open, she burst into the room.

36

Go with fearless heart,

Begrudge neither limb nor life,

But with a single mind concentrate

On the pursuit of ultimate enlightenment.

----FROM THE BLACK LOTUS SUTRA

Startled faces turned toward Reiko. Haru jerked the sword away from Midori. During a brief silence, Reiko saw herself through everyone else's eyes --- a lone, scared young woman brandishing a dagger.

Then the stillness shattered. Abbess Junketsu-in exclaimed, "It's Lady Reiko, the
sōsakan-sama'
s wife!" Kumashiro and the other priests advanced on Reiko.

"Stay away from me," she commanded with shaky bravado. "I'm taking Lady Midori out of here." She turned to Haru, who gawked at her. "You're coming with us."

Her words sounded foolhardy to herself. Anraku ordered calmly, "Subdue her."

The priests surrounded Reiko. She stabbed at them, and a tumultuous chase ensued. Reiko whirled and darted, slashing bloody cuts on the arms grabbing at her. The injured men cursed. Kumashiro seized her around the waist, clamped a hand around her right wrist, and wrenched. Pain skewered through her hand, and she cried out in pain, dropping the dagger. Kumashiro's steely arms encircled her, pinning
her
arms against her sides. He turned her to face Anraku.

"How rude of you to trespass in my private domain, Lady Reiko," the high priest said with a sardonic smile.

"You'd better let me go, and Midori, too," Reiko said, breathless and terrified. "My husband and his troops have invaded the underground. They'll be here any moment."

Anraku received her lie with cool amusement, then said to Haru, "So no one saw you enter the underground?"

She shrank from the accusation in his voice. "They didn't. I swear."

"Then how did Lady Reiko find us?" Anraku said.

"… I don't know."

"Obviously, you showed her the way," Junketsu-in said spitefully. "You brought her here to attack us."

"But I didn't mean to," Haru protested. "I never thought she would come after me, honest."

Reiko jerked and grunted, trying in vain to break free of Kumashiro. She'd delayed Midori's death, but now they were both captives of the Black Lotus.

"The
sōsakan-sama
will come looking for his wife," Kumashiro said to Anraku. "We have to get out before he finds his way down here. .What do you want me to do with her?"

Anraku raised a hand, counseling patience. "It seems you have betrayed me yet again, Haru," he said. "Therefore, the task I assigned you is no longer sufficient to demonstrate your loyalty." He said to Kumashiro, "Place Lady Reiko by our other prisoner."

Kumashiro propelled Reiko across the room. She resisted, but he shoved her into place, facing Haru. The other sect members grouped together along the wall behind the girl.

"Another act of disloyalty requires an additional test," Anraku told Haru. "To secure the privilege of staying with me, you must now kill both Lady Midori and Lady Reiko."

As her heart pumped wildly and her lungs heaved, Reiko realized that she and Midori would die together, by the hand of the girl Reiko had tried to save.

Anraku said to Haru, "You may dispose of Lady Reiko first."

Through dizzying faintness, Reiko saw Haru looking everywhere except at her. The girl raised the sword, and Kumashiro walked Reiko forward until her throat met the tip of the blade. The cold prick of steel interrupted her breath. She experienced a strong urge to vomit and a terrible despair. Her thoughts flew to her son.

Images of Masahiro's lively face filled her mind. Memory recalled the sound of his laughter, the feeling of holding his warm little body. Reiko also remembered herself and Sano and Masahiro happy together at home. With a fierce intensity, she longed for her husband and son. Love of them strengthened her will to survive. The desire to save Midori and see Sano and Masahiro again revived her courage and her wits. She must forestall death and hope for a miracle.

Sano, Hirata, and four detectives ran through the Black Lotus precinct, skirting buildings and trees. While they fought off priests, Sano looked for Reiko, to no avail. The smoke stung Sano's eyes; he ached from strikes to his armor. Another explosion flared. And Sano knew with a sudden, sobering certainty what had happened to Reiko and Haru.

"They've gone underground!" he shouted to Hirata, who was battling three priests.

Reasoning that the buildings must contain entrances to the tunnels, Sano raced up the steps of the main hall. The door was open, the cavernous interior unoccupied. Incense and lamps burned on a raised altar before a mural of a black lotus flower. As Sano halted inside and scanned the room, his men joined him. He saw that the altar's base was fronted by carved panels. The center one hung open on hinges. Darkness yawned behind it.

"Over there," Sano said, hurrying to the portal that the Black Lotus hordes had apparently neglected to close after emerging from the tunnels.

He and his men ducked beneath the altar and dropped into the earthy-smelling space under the building. Walking crouched beneath the floor joists, they found a hole in the ground. Sano saw a ladder reaching down the shaft to a lighted pit, heard tortured wails and a mechanical pulsation.

"Be careful," he said. "There's someone down there."

"Midori." Hirata's voice exuded fear and the hope that she was within reach. "I'll go down first."

He sheathed his sword and hurtled down the ladder. Sano and the detectives followed. When they reached the bottom and paused to rearm themselves, Hirata was already racing down a tunnel. An overpowering stench hit Sano as he sped after Hirata. A din of voices crying, "Help!

Let us out!" erupted. Down the tunnel, Hirata skidded to a stopp and exclaimed, "Merciful gods!"

Catching up, Sano saw doors, bolted with thick iron beams, lining the tunnel. From inside the chambers, skeletal hands reached outward through tiny barred windows in the doors. This was the Black Lotus's secret prison.

"Midori! I've come to get you!" Hirata yanked the bolt away from one cell and threw open the door.

Cheers arose. Out of the cell stumbled some twenty emaciated young men dressed in dirty rags. Their faces were gaunt, their hair shaggy. Sano and the detectives opened other cells, releasing hundreds more men and women in similar condition, who'd apparently run afoul of the Black Lotus. Hirata pushed through the crowd, calling, "Midori!"

Prisoners stampeded toward the exit. Sano and Hirata inspected the cells. They found a few remaining prisoners, too weak to move, but no Midori.

"She's not here," Hirata said, stricken by disappointment.

"Stay calm. We'll find her," Sano said, although he, too, had hoped to find Midori among the prisoners and was worried about why she wasn't there. "Midori is alive," he said, hoping he was right. "We'll save her, and Reiko too."

He felt panic erode his own self-control, but his words calmed Hirata, who nodded and assumed a stony composure. They and the detectives hurried deeper into the tunnels. Entering a three-way junction, Sano heard fierce yells. He and his party froze, trapped, as priests waving swords charged toward them from all directions.

"Haru-san," Reiko compelled herself to say through her terror, "look at me."

Emitting a frightened mewl, Haru stared at the sword in her hands. Then her gaze slowly rose, drawn by Reiko's desire to reestablish a connection between them.

"You don't really want to kill me, do you?" Reiko said, feigning calmness while Kumashiro held her tight and the sword's sharp touch contracted her throat muscles.

Haru said with defiant bravado, "I have no choice."

Reiko's heart sank. Haru's choice was between their friendship and Anraku, and Reiko knew how the odds lay. "We all have choices," Reiko said, improvising fast. "I chose to take your side when no one else did. I chose to help you against my husband's wishes. Don't you owe me a favor?"

Haru's mouth worked; uncertainty clouded her eyes. But as Reiko dared to hope, Kumashiro said to Anraku, "Time is short. If Haru won't kill Lady Reiko, I can."

Reiko sensed his blood lust in the hot pressure of his flesh against hers. Suddenly the clattering noise stopped. Quiet settled upon the underground; everyone looked around in surprise.

"The slaves have deserted the air bellows," Kumashiro said. "Soon we won't be able to breathe down here. Let me dispose of the prisoners so we can go."

"No. It is Haru's duty," Anraku said firmly.

A new resolve set Haru's jaw. Anraku fixed a tantalizing stare on Reiko. She saw that this had become a contest between them. He cared less about making a timely escape than about controlling his followers, because his desire for power over them outweighed all other concerns. But Reiko was competing for her life.

"Haru-san, he doesn't deserve your loyalty," she said. "After the fire, did he try to protect you? No --- he let you shift for yourself. When you were in jail, did he comfort you?" Reiko shook her head regretfully. "He never came near you. Did he try to clear your name and save you from execution? On the contrary: He left you to the law."

"I don't care about the past," Haru said belligerently. "All that matters is that Anraku-san and I are together again."

But Reiko could tell that Haru did mind his desertion. "He and his followers did everything possible to incriminate you," Reiko said. "Dr. Miwa and Abbess Junketsu-in revealed your bad reputation. Kumashiro tried to force you to confess. The orphans placed you at the scene of the crime. Black Lotus priests attacked you in jail."

"That was their own doing," Haru faltered.

Anraku radiated a confidence that scorned Reiko's plan to break his hold on Haru.

"But Anraku knows everything, doesn't he?" Reiko said.

Haru hesitated, then nodded.

"And everyone in the Black Lotus serves and obeys him?"

"… Yes." Haru's expression turned wary.

"Then he not only knew how your enemies tried to destroy you," Reiko said, "he must have ordered them to do it."

,i
"No!" Glaring at Reiko, Haru said, "He wouldn't."

Yet she withdrew the sword and stole an uneasy glance at Anraku. Displeasure darkened his aspect.

"Oh, yes, he would." Reiko listened for sounds indicating that Sano's troops had invaded the tunnels, but heard none. Since the bellows had stopped, the atmosphere had become stale; the suffocating smoke from the lamps increased her sense of urgency. Midori stirred, yawning: she would soon awake. Reiko tried to believe that rescue was near. "I'll tell you why."

"You're just trying to mix me up." Haru took an aggressive step toward Reiko. Fresh terror pumped through Reiko's blood as she strained away from the blade and Kumashiro immobilized her. Haru appealed to Anraku: "I don't have to listen to her, do I?"

"No, indeed," Anraku said. "Just kill her, and she'll speak no more."

"He wanted to make sure you were blamed for Commander Oyama's death." Reiko swallowed desperation. "But he also wanted you blamed for the crimes you didn't commit." She saw Haru's forehead contract in bewilderment, and hurried on, "Remember Nurse Chie and the little boy. You really didn't kill them, did you?"