...Listen carefully to the sound
of your loneliness
like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
What you had...
And what you lost
--Fleetwood Mac, Dreams
"Look, the worms were a mistake in the first place...look at the prototypes, what a mess. This is clean. This is simple. It'll take longer, I grant, but..."
"How much did the woman cost?"
"Enough. She's worth it, though, once we get the heroin out of her system she'll be ideal.
We got her early, no diseases, no abortions..."
"So now we have, what, four of them?"
He nods, strokes the cat absentmindedly.
"Do you really think this is going to work?"
"We guided his rebirth last time. Don't you think we can do it now?"
"There were more of us then. We were closer to him..."
"We have rebuilt our ranks in the past eight years."
"But he is just a legend to them..."
"Don't you realize how much power a legend can have? Often it is more powerful than
the man himself could ever be..."
The cat lifts its head a little, and he starts scratching under its chin.
"DON'T let the cat out. Do you understand?"
"Sure...whatever..."
"How long will it take you?"
"You've done all the prepatory work; there's not too much left for me to do. We can
make our first attempt in a few days..."
"We have a window between seven days and seventy-seven...but the proper rituals must
be observed. You will get everything ready, and we will begin..."
"All right."
"Seven days from tonight, you will make the first attempt."
"That's fine. More than enough time..."
Mike says, "We're thinking maybe they could go down to the farmhouse for a while,
there's a lot of colleges down that way..."
"Oh, you guys are just full of brilliant ideas. Sleeping with Foot clan members, taking
Shredder's daughter under your wing--"
"Raph--"
"Look," Don snaps. "We made the decisions 'cause we were the only ones to make 'em,
while you were runnin' around pissing off the goddamn border patrol and the Mexican
government and who knows who the hell else..."
"Look," Mike says, making a halfhearted stab at changing the subject, "Leo says..."
"Leo's last girlfriend put half-a-million dollars on his head, which just shows whatta great
judge of character he is..."
"Yeah, and yours tried to start a new career as a ceiling decoration--" Don ducks as the
sai comes at him. It wedges into the chair behind him instead.
"Don't ever--" Raph grabs Don's arm, pulls him up to his face--Mike takes Raph
by the shoulders, pulls him back, slams him into to the wall. "Raph," he says flatly.
"Out."
"What?"
"Out. Now."
"Mike--"
"I ain't putting up with it. What if the kids had been in here? What the hell am I gonna
say to Maureen?"
"I--"
"Just leave, okay? We can argue about this later."
Raph jerks the sai out of the chair, turns, slams the door behind him.
"..." Don says.
"Oh, like you--"
"I'm sorry, Mike, it's just--"
"Forget it."
Don leans his forehead on his wrists, closes his eyes.
"I know you're angry, we're both angry, but, Don, it's been years--"
"I know," Don tells the table.
Angela appears in the doorway. "Daddy?"
"Honey?"
"What was that noise?"
"Ah...your uncle Raph just dropped something, that's all...what you guys doin' in there?
You've been awful quiet..."
Angela looks guilty. "Nothin'."
"Maybe I oughta just check--"
Maureen frowns. "What was that noise?"
"Probably better if we don't find out..."
Mike walks back into the kitchen, finally free to grin. "I'll tell ya, Don, it's hell havin'
to explain to your daughter why she and her cousin can't let Barbie and Ken play
Superman from the top of the grandfather clock..."
Don hasn't changed position since he left. "Look, do you think Maureen would run out--
"
"You gonna be nice if we get you yer nicotine?"
Don snorts. "Worth a try..."
"All right," he says. "I can have her..."
"Has Raph said anything about fighting with Leo that night?"
"That night? Oh...no...no, he hasn't."
"I was talking to Leo yesterday..."
"Are they ready?"
"Yes. They will guide his spirit...we have the shifts arranged. They will chant until we
are sure his spirit has moved on to the next rebirth."
"Then we should begin."
"Yes, Sensei."
"Give me my sword."
The cat meows.
"Yes," Nakamora tells the animal. "It is time."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Mmm," she says, rolls over to face him. "Again?"
He kisses her in reply, his hands brushing over the satin covering her breasts, the thin edges of the buttons pressing into his fingers as he undoes them. Her hands start at his
thighs, caressing, pressing into his skin--
"One thing..." she whispers, as his mouth moves down to her neck.
"Hmm?"
The sai seems to materialize in her hands, the blade biting into his flesh--
Leo wakes up with a start. He likes the dreams where he kills her better, though they disturb him more when he's fully awake and actually starts thinking about them.
No sound from the other room; hopefully he didn't wake Kireime. Mgume. Anna. He's never gonna get used to this alias shit...he looks over at the clock. Four a.m. He'll get up and get some breakfast started...later.
He closes his eyes, allowing himself the luxury of remembering her, giving into his own weakness...
Anna looks down at the feast spread on the table. "You had the nightmares
again?"
Leo nods. "Hey, I get more done this way..."
She smiles at him, stabs a waffle with her fork.
"Are you coming with me?"
She shakes her head. "You need some time with your brothers, and I don't think I'd be
that much help...and they don't really trust me yet..."
"Anna, I'm sorry, I--"
"I can't blame them," she says. "If we'd known when we met, do you think we ever could
have trusted each other?"
"I know," he says sadly. "I just wish..."
"It's all right, Leo. We can't change the past."
He smiles, bitterly. "You can say that again."
"How's she doing?"
"Pretty good," Leo tells Byron. "She really likes it down there, and UMass accepted her,
so..."
"That's great."
"Yeah, I figure I'll come back up when she starts school..."
"Where you gonna go?"
Leo shrugs his shoulders. "I'll think of something."
"What are you gonna do with yourself?"
He laughs. "I'll think of something..."
"Don said you were thinking about taking some courses online..."
"Yeah," Leo says dubiously. "I don't know."
"Why not?"
"Byron, I'm twenty-five years old, I should--"
"You should what?"
"I should have figured this out a long time ago..."
Byron laughs. "I'm in shit then, I'm thirty and I still haven't figured it out...you wanna
know what I think?"
"You're gonna tell me whether I ask you or not, right?"
"You pick up fast. What I think is you gotta figure out what you want."
"I just said that."
"Yeah...but you've always been takin' care of Anna, or lookin' after your brothers...you
ever thought about what Leonardo wants to do?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"Leonardo hasn't got a clue."
Lisa's gained something like twenty pounds since they brought her in; she now looks
merely thin. She approaches Tokugawa with her normal caution.
"Dr. Tokugawa?"
"Yes, Lisa?"
"Look, I really appreciate your doing this, and I understand the need for isolation and all,
but do you think I could write my brother?"
"Your brother?"
"Yeah. He's here in the city..."
"I'm not sure...why don't you begin the letter, and I'll consult with Dr. Nakamora? We
can always use it for your therapy if we can't send it..."
"Thank you, Doctor..."
"Quite all right, Lisa."
Don consults the notes. "All right. We got five psychotics, all transferred to low or
minimum-security facilities, all disappear from said facilities within five months of
transfer--"
"Different facilites?"
"Yeah," he tells Leo. "Different facilities, different disorders."
"Only two things in common," Byron says, rubbing his hand over the stubble on his scalp,
"the shooting rampage and the fact that their initial problems don't match their later
actions..."
"Three," Don corrects. "None of 'em survived the shootings..."
"So what?"
"Ya got me, Raph. Byron thought it might be some kind of terrorist organization,
training psychos, but they're not exactly being turned into efficient killing machines.
Baxter's the only one who really..."
"Yeah, but they could be using 'em as examples."
Mike asks, "Examples of what?"
Byron turns to him. "Okay, I'm the Grand High Dragon of Pricks for the American Way,
right? I'm upset about the gov'mint and how it's lettin' them inbred Negroes inta my beau-
ti-ful lily-white neighborhood...now Americans are psychopaths, but not many of 'em are
self-sacrificing psychopaths. Even Tim McVeigh hauled his ass outa Oklahoma City
after that went down...but you got a lot better chance of the bomb doin' maximum
damage if it's a suicide bombing. So what if somebody's got a psychopath you can hire to
do the suicide bombing for you?"
"So they'd slap the vest of dynamite on Baxter, say..."
"Exactly."
"I'll admit," Don says skeptically, "it is original..."
"What took you so long? The girls were gettin' hungry..."
"Hear about the bomb?"
"What?"
"The bomb. Went off at a Citibank branch earlier this morning..."
"You're kidding," April says, walks into the living room and switches the TV on.
"Again," the newscaster says, "an explosive device of some sort has gone off at the
Citibank office on the corner of..."
"Geez..."
"They were talking about it at the store," Casey says, putting the milk down on the
kitchen table. "Guess it took out everybody checkin' their safety deposit boxes..."
"Unbelievable...safety deposit boxes?"
"It's like the bomb was in one of the boxes or something..."
"Wow."
Shadow asks, "Why would anyone do that?"
"I have no idea, honey," April says.
"Whazza safety deposit box?"
"It's something people use when they want to keep things safe..."
Raven frowns at her father. "Why would somebody wanna blow one up?"
Casey just shakes his head.
"Don," Byron calls out to the fire escape. "C'mere."
Don leans his head in the window. "What?"
"Listen," he says, nodding at the radio.
Estimates of the size of the bomb vary widely, but officials note the explosion didn't
damage anything outside the safety deposit area...
"Kawabata's boys finally found their key, huh?"
"Sure looks that way..."
Don stubs out the cigarette, climbs back in the apartment. "Really nice out there..."
"Yeah. Looks it."
Byron frowns, looks up at Don. "You know, they told me he was dead, and I told 'em he
was too damn mean to die...didn't really surprise me when he showed up...told me I was
the only one he could trust with her money. He told me the box was a trap...never said
what the trap was, though..."
"I keep gettin' deja vu...I know I've seen that, somewhere..."
Byron frowns. "I don't know, I'm just glad that it's done, she's got the money, she can
figure out what she wants to do with it..."
"Twin Peaks."
"What?"
"They did it on Twin Peaks, I remember...April and Leo and I would watch it
some when the rest of 'em were watchin' wrestling..." His fingers brush the back of Byron's neck, rest on his shoulder.
"I don't know...maybe being dead played fucked with his originality..." He leans his head
toward Don's belt.
"Byron?"
Byron's smile widens, and he turns his face to Don's. "Your cigarette pack just told me
you were gonna be late to work if you didn't get moving."
"The Camels aren't like the log," Don says, doing his best Log Lady impression, a pale
imitation but still recognizable. "The Camels lie..."
"Good news, 'Doctor Nakamora.'"
"Yes, Tokugawa"
"We have a successful conception in subject C."
He smiles. "I thought as much...I could sense it last night. He has moved on..."
"And we should be doing the same."
"Exactly."
