The Lost Scroll of Fudo Shin (10 page)

Vanessa paused.  “You fight only when you have to, Jimmy."

Jimmy frowned and kept after her.  They moved quickly down the planked walkway, their footsteps echoing painfully loud back the way they’d come.  Jimmy kept looking back and expecting to see the dreaded image of the sniper looming large behind him.

Vanessa stopped short.  Jimmy almost bumped into her.  

“What’s the problem?”

“Dead end.”

He looked and saw nothing but ocean below them.  In front, the whole area suddenly gave way to the Pacific.  The walkway simply ended without any sort of gate to keep someone from falling in.

“Interesting.  Now what?  We swim?”

“We wait.”

Jimmy frowned.  “Uh, I hate to be the bearer of bad news and all but that guy’s back there somewhere and I don’t think he’s going to be all that forgiving when he gets here, you know?”

Vanessa nodded.  “That’s exactly what I’m counting on, Jimmy.”

He gripped his hanbo a little bit tighter.  “All right then, that’s more like it.  Let’s get this guy taken care of and then we can be on our way, right?”

The sharp pitch of a police siren filled the night.  Jimmy let out his breath in a rush.  “Thank god, the cops.”

Vanessa smiled.  “Very timely they are, too.”

And then out of the shadows stepped the sniper, his sinister rifle already aimed at the both of them.  He was cloaked in dark clothes with a facemask obscuring his features, which seemed odd.  Jimmy figured the darkness must have been playing tricks on his eyes.

Vanessa shook her head.  “You cut that one close.”

“Had to be sure of a few things.”  He gestured with the rifle.  “Probably a good idea to throw down the knife.”

Vanessa dropped the blade and it clattered against the walkway.  The sniper continued.  “There are gasoline containers behind you there.  Please open them and pour the gas on to the walkway.”

The sniper's voice sounded weird to Jimmy and he glanced at Vanessa.  “What’s he talking about?”

“Just do it, Jimmy.”  Vanessa winked at him.  “It’s going to be all right.  I promise you.”

Jimmy glared at the sniper.  “Why don’t you just shoot us and get it over with?”

“Because shooting you isn’t what I’m here to do.”

Vanessa splashed the planking with gasoline and its pungent stench filled the air.  “This place will go up pretty quick I should think.”

The sniper nodded and struck a single match.  “It definitely will.”  And with that, he tossed the flame onto the planking.  Jimmy could only watch in horror as the whole walkway exploded into a fireball.

Chapter Ten

The flames licked their way through the gasoline and wood, snapping dry pieces and blazing through them with a roar .  Jimmy backed into Vanessa, worry etched into his face.  “Now what do we do?”

Vanessa seemed strangely calm.  “In a moment, I’m going to ask you to do something and I need you to trust me, all right?”

“What are we going to do?”

Vanessa leaned closer to make sure Jimmy could hear her over the roar of the fire.  “Just do what I say and it will be all right.”

Beyond the walls of flames, Jimmy could still see the sniper watching them with impassive eyes.  Jimmy frowned.  There was something familiar about those eyes.

Jimmy looked over his shoulder.  The ocean swirled below them, filled with dark seething currents that would no doubt sweep them out to sea.

He knew the police must have started their search and any moment would bring them down to the hidden walkway.  Smoke filled the air and he coughed now, aware that they needed to get lower.  But where could they go?  The only place left was the ocean.

“Jimmy.”

Vanessa’s voice filled his ears.  He turned.  “Yeah?”

“You hear that?”

Jimmy strained his ears and thought he could make out a sound now.  An engine?  Here?  But what?

And then Vanessa was suddenly falling back through the air toward the ocean below.  “Jump Jimmy!  Jump now!”

He felt like he’d been punched in the gut, but Jimmy trusted Vanessa and left the smoke and fire behind, toppling through the air down toward the ocean far below, his hands still wrapped around his hanbo.

As he fell, he saw the figure of the sniper suddenly shoot through the flames looking like he was trying to grab Jimmy.  But he was too late.  Jimmy grinned.  They’d escaped!  Now there was just the ocean to contend with.

Well, that and the prospect of sharks.

A moment later, Jimmy landed.  But instead of splashing into the salty brine, he landed on a pile of cushions.  And surrounding the pile of cushions was a sleek motorboat.

Vanessa hauled him off the cushions.  “Come on, get yourself strapped in.  We have to be quick about this.”

Jimmy found his way to a forward seat and sat down next to a grim-looking man with a graying beard and black cap on his head.  He didn’t even glance at Jimmy, but kept the boat idling next to the walkway.

Why were they waiting?  If the sniper saw them down here, he’d shoot them for sure-

Another person landed in the boat.  Horrified, Jimmy turned and saw that it was the sniper.  He expected Vanessa to start fighting with him, but instead, she merely helped stow the rifle.

Instantly, the driver threw the throttle forward and the engines roared, firing the boat away from the walkway and out toward the open sea, away from the flames and smoke.

Vanessa watched Jimmy and smiled.  “Thanks for trusting me.  You did well.  Very well.”

The sniper removed his facemask and grinned at Jimmy.  “Nice to see you again, Jimmy.”

"Holy..."  Jimmy's voice trailed off.  He was again staring at the raven-haired girl who'd met him back at the airport.  And she looked even more beautiful than he remembered.

She leaned forward and held out her hand.  “Name’s Merlin, nice to meet you.”

Jimmy frowned.  “Like the magician.  Cute.”  He shook her hand and found it warm and soft, but he could sense her strength.

Merlin leaned back.  “I see you've changed a bit from the scared kid I saw at the airport.”

"Jimmy's had a hard time making it this far," said Vanessa.

Merlin sniffed.  "Haven't we all...well, at least he didn't freak out when I jumped on-board."

Vanessa smiled.  “He’s reasoning it out, I’d expect.”  She looked at Jimmy.  “Aren’t you?”

Jimmy paused.  “Merlin makes us disappear.”  He pointed back the way they’d come.  “Make it look as though we perished in that fire after being hunted by a gunman.”

Vanessa said nothing but nodded for him to continue.  Jimmy looked back at Merlin.  “You were waiting for us.”

Merlin inclined her head.  “Of course.”

“And you did a number on the car, disabling it.  We’d have no choice but to flee.”  He looked back at Vanessa.  “Through buildings which you seemed to know remarkably well.”

“Bright lad,” said Vanessa.  “Anything else?”

“Presumably, the cops will track us through the dusty interiors, find their way down to the hidden walkway, which is now,” he paused and looked at the plumes of black smoke staining the night, “an inferno.”

“And?”

“And they will logically assume that we either died in the fire or fell into the ocean and were promptly swept out to sea.  The Coast Guard will most likely mount a search for us, but will find nothing.  That’s not entirely unusual.  And the story will hopefully give our enemies pause.”

Vanessa clapped her hands.  “Bravo, Jimmy.  Right on all counts.”

Jimmy frowned.  “Yeah, well you could have told me what was going on.”

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that.  I needed you to think that Merlin was going to kill us.”

“Why?”

Vanessa patted his leg.  “Because a lack of fear would have registered in your tracks.”

“Huh?”

Merlin held up her hand to Vanessa and smiled.  “Why don’t you let me explain it to him, okay?”

“Be my guest.”

Merlin turned to Jimmy.  “See, when you leave tracks, a person skilled at reading them – like me for example – can tell what state of mind you’re in.  Stress and worry show up in tracks.  You put your weight differently when you step.  Your toes and heels leave different marks than if you were just out for a calm stroll.  V here had to make sure you were convinced your lives were in danger so the tracks would look legitimate.  Because you can bet our enemies will examine them closely trying to see if we’re pulling a trick.”

Jimmy nodded.  “So you had to make it look like you were really hunting us.”

Merlin leaned back.  “Yep.”

Jimmy turned and jabbed his hanbo right at Merlin's face, stopping an inch shy of her face.  Jimmy leaned back in his chair and pointed at his cheek.  “You almost shot me.”

Merlin's eyes registered shock, but she quickly smiled and held up her hands.  “I’m really sorry about that.  Ricochets happen.  But I promise you that round didn’t come anywhere close to you.”

“Yeah, well obviously it didn’t have to.”

Vanessa smiled.  “Better watch yourself, Merlin.  I can’t say I blame him for being upset.”

Merlin nodded.  “Yeah, I guess I’d be pretty pissed off, too.”  She looked at Jimmy.  “Look, I’m really sorry.”

“Forget it.”  Jimmy shrugged.  "So, how'd you get mixed up in this?  I mean, you look Japanese, but you sound like you grew up in the States."

Merlin nodded.  "I did.  I lived in Japan for the first five years of my life and then came over here.  I'm fluent in Japanese, but I worked hard to get rid of any trace of an accent."

"Looks like you succeeded," said Jimmy.  He turned and stared out to sea.  Around them, the lights of the harbor twinkled reds and yellows.  He could make out huge ships docked around the channels.  The harbor seemed alive even at this hour, but no one took notice of the speeding motorboat zipping across the waves.

“Won’t the Coast Guard get here soon?” asked Jimmy.  “We’ll need to disappear or this whole trick will be for nothing.”

Vanessa pointed ahead of them.  “We intend to.  That’s where we’re heading.”

Jimmy followed her finger and saw a hulking freighter sitting high in the water.  “That?”

“It’s the Kage Maru, out of Tokyo.  She’s finished unloading her containers and will be bound for Japan in the next twenty minutes.”  She winked at Jimmy.  “And we will be on her.”

“This is how we’re getting out of the country?”

“Yes.”

Jimmy looked at the ship and marveled at its immense size.  He’d seen freighters many times before on television and in the movies, but nothing could compare to actually seeing one up close and from a smaller boat.  The freighter dwarfed them.  He could make out the long flat deck and then the main superstructure that sat above the deck where the wheelhouse would be.  It looked massive.  And buzzing about the decks and superstructure, Jimmy could see several crewmen moving to and fro.  

The driver wheeled their motorboat around and cut the throttle to half speed.  Navigating closer to the ship, Jimmy saw the wake behind the boat start to wane as they slowed.  And now as they grew closer, he could just make out a set of stairs leading down from the deck toward the waterline.

Vanessa pointed.  “We’ll get up that way.”

Jimmy felt the motorboat start to nudge forward again as the driver eased them closer.  Vanessa put a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder.  “Not to worry.  Old Ben here is one of the best pilots around this place.  And even better, he’s an old friend.  We’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Jimmy.  But Ben only smiled and kept his eyes straight ahead.

Jimmy glanced at Vanessa.  “Is he okay?”

“He can’t talk,” said Vanessa.  “Ben was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.  They tried to make him tell his secrets, but he refused.  So they cut his tongue out as a way of ensuring he’d never speak again.”

“God-“

Vanessa nodded.  “He’s a good man, and he’s helping us, which makes him all the better.  He’ll never tell our foes what we’ve been up to.”

Ben pulled the motorboat close to the stairs leading down from the deck and Vanessa waved at one of the deckhands who threw a rope down.  She caught it and then used it to pull them closer to the freighter.

“We can’t linger here,” said Vanessa.  “It’s critical we get on-board as quickly as possible.”

As if to underscore that point, the freighter suddenly let loose a deep thrum from somewhere in its belly as the engines started to come to life.  Vanessa led the way and she and Jimmy stepped onto the stairs.  Jimmy sped up the steps with Vanessa behind him.

They stepped on to the deck and looked back down, but Merlin had already untied the rope to Ben’s boat and they were reversing away from the freighter.  “Isn’t Merlin coming with us?”

Vanessa shook her head.  “I’m afraid not.  She needs to stay here and look after some other business of ours.  But not to worry, I’m sure you’ll see her again.  She’s quite fond of you, I can tell.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I'm serious.  She respects the fact you let her know she bunged up and came too close with her shot.”

Jimmy watched a breeze blow Merlin's hair about her shoulders and caught the twinkle in her eye as she waved at him.  “Another time, then,” he said quietly.

Ben’s boat disappeared back into the harbor, rounding the stern of the freighter and then vanishing into the inky darkness.  From overhead, he heard the steady beat of chopper blades.

“Coast Guard,” said Vanessa.  “It’s time we went below decks.  Not that they necessarily know what they’re looking for, but it would be better if we weren’t seen on deck.”

Jimmy nodded and let himself be led over to the main door into the superstructure.  So this was going to be his home for the next couple of weeks?  It seemed almost too bizarre to believe.  

But after everything else that he’d been through in the last two days, he supposed it wasn’t quite that unusual.

“We’ll be coming back here, won’t we?”

Vanessa nodded.  “Absolutely.  But first, we’ve got a long journey ahead of us.  And a lot of challenges as well.”

Jimmy looked one last time, saw the city lights far off in the distance, and then turning back stepped into his new world.