They don't care where they kick
Just as long as they hurt you
There are thieves in the temple tonight
Love, if you're there come save me
from all this cold despair
I can hang when you're around,
but I'll surely die if you're not there...
--Prince, Thieves In the Temple
"I swore I would only tell one person what happened to that money. And I will keep
my word."
"No you won't," Kawabata says calmly. "No one does. And after all, Malcolm, we all know what your word is worth? You who gave your solemn oath to give your life to our master Shredder?" He takes the electrodes out of the drawer, starts sorting out the cords. "And where the hell were you when those freaks killed him?"
"Where were you, Ryutaro? Your life must have come first, or you wouldn't be here."
Kawabata tapes the first electrode to Byron's temple. "He didn't take me along that night. I was there the second time...that was enough." He pulls up his tunic, revealing a long,
ragged scar along his chest. "They left me for dead. When I finally recovered, the New
York Foot had been shattered beyond recognition." He tapes electrodes as he talks, his
voice bitter. "Most of the elites swore revenge on Oroku Saki's killer and thought of
nothing else. And it destroyed them. I...had other plans. I sat back and watched the city
bleed. When the smoke finally cleared, I made myself known to the winners." His
mouth twists into a cruel smile. "They did a good job preparing you...usually they leave
so much hair..."
Byron closes his eyes, tries to ignore the electrodes, where they're
getting placed, calculated to cause the most pain...
"I don't suppose you want to tell me
what you've been doing."
"I don't suppose I do," Byron says quietly.
"All I want to know is where the money is," Kawabata says.
"I can't tell you that."
"Malcolm, I don't want to hurt you."
"I told you," he says coldly. "Malcolm's dead."
"Yes," Kawabata tells him. "It's probably just as well."
Raph's still the best tracker of the three of them, and they get it down to a warehouse
in one of the nastier corners of Secaucus. Raph counts the sentries he can see and
whistles. "They go to all this trouble just for one guy?"
"Evidently so," Don says, reaches for his lighter for the fiftieth time, pulls it out of his
belt and slaps it in Raph's hand. "Here, take this. So I don't forget and give us away..."
It's a beautiful lighter, silverplate by Raph's guess, got some kanji engraved on it that
looks familiar. Don follows his gaze and says, "It's the kanji for my name, least as close
as kanji gets to Donatello...Byron got it for me for Christmas..."
"I suppose it lights underwater--"
"Nah...windproof, though...adjustable flame-- got that little window so you can see when
it's lit--"
"Yeah, yeah, I get the idea." Raph shakes his head, grinning. "True love..." He notices
something and his grin disappears. "Shit."
"What?" Mike says.
"That sentry, there...look. He's Foot, he's gotta be..."
"Yeah," Don says. "I thought so too."
"I thought we had a truce."
"They're after Byron," Don tells him. "We have nothin' to do with it, as far as I
know."
"Why--"
"He was Foot," Mike said, and watches it sink in.
"Oh."
"Saki skimmed a lot of money off the top and somehow Byron knows where some of it
is...right?"
"That's my guess," Don says. "Otherwise they would've killed him. They don't take
kindly to people leaving the organization."
"So how close was he to Shredder?"
There's a pause. One of those too-long uncomfortable pauses that answers the question
without really giving any answers at all. Don keeps his eyes on the screen.
"There's somebody else here, too. They're on the phone lines..."
"Got any idea where they are?"
"Right around here, I'd bet," Don says.
"Think they're after the same thing?"
"Could be. He had a daughter."
"She's not Maureen's second cousin or anything?"
Mike grins and Don's scowl deepens.
"I'll scout around and see if we can get a handle on them," Raph says, and
disappears.
"Told ya we should've told him sooner," Mike says carefully to Don.
"Fuck it," Don tells the monitor. "Too late now, anyway."
"I can't do this any longer..." Maureen gets up. "Wanna go to dinner?"
April says, "Maureen, it's safer if we all stay together..."
"April, I'm goin' crazy."
"I know, the waiting's hard, but...you're a target, we're all targets..."
"Well, I'm gonna be a moving one. Angela and I are going to dinner..."
April tries to think of something to say; Maureen still hasn't really gotten the gravity of
what her husband is, everything that's happened; April didn't herself, until her
home was burning down around her ears, but she can't figure out the right way to tell Maureen that. So she lets her go. Don said they'd figured it was just Byron they were
after anyway, right?
Things should be fine, right?
Three hours and he breaks: Kawabata admits to himself that Malcolm had been
stronger than he'd estimated. He hadn't figured it'd take more than twenty minutes or so.
He gives Malcolm a few minutes to recover from the latest shocks, turns on the
microcassette recorder, hits the record button.
"Malcolm. Are you ready to talk?"
The dark eyes are expressionless. He blinks.
"Where's the money, Malcolm?"
"I don't know..."
Kawabata's hand moves to the switch.
"Wait-- wait...I don't. Really. He gave me a key, that was all. To a safety deposit box.
He said that...something...the path to the money led in that direction...you know how he
was, he never said things straight..." He coughs, violently, shudders.
Kawabata waits. It's always best to be patient at times like this.
"I...can't remember what he said for sure...he just told me to give her the key..."
"Which bank?"
"...not yours to have..."
"Which bank?"
"This is better, don't you think, honey?"
Angela nods at her mother.
Maureen's trying desperately to act calm, gripping her glass of water like it's the only
thing holding her to sanity.
C'mon, Maureen. Grow up. You knew he was ninja when you married
him...
But I didn't know being ninja meant...
What did you think it meant?
But...my daughter could end up...
Yes. She could. You hadn't figured that out before now?
What the hell have I gotten us into?
Inside an abandoned building across from the warehouse; Don squats down away
from the window, lights up yet another cigarette. Raph frowns. "Thought you'd cut
down."
"I had," Don snaps. "Remind me, the next time the guy I'm living with gets snatched by
the Foot, I'll handle it a lot better, okay?"
"Guys," Mike says, just the hint of a threat in his voice, "can it."
"They're sending somebody else out," Raph says.
Don says, "Yeah...they're after the key, the other kid shoulda gotten back by now. Viper.
What a stupid-ass thing to call yourself..."
By the time they tapped in, the torture was almost over. Almost. And Kawabata had
promised to keep Byron alive until he could confirm the story...but the waiting game was
never their strong point, and Don keeps getting worse. And Mike knows he's almost out
of cigarettes.
Don blows the smoke out his nostrils. "What happened to that kid, anyway?"
Hansu crosses the parking lot. This is the first time he's been given a real
assignment, to find Viper and the key, and the adrenaline is pounding in his veins. He
hops into one of the cars, starts the ignition--
Something moves--
"Peekaboo," a woman's voice says, and Hansu almost chokes on the chain at his
throat.
"Surprised?"
He tries to scream and the chain tightens.
"Move him to the passenger seat," a man's voice says. "That way you can drive."
Hansu puts up a struggle, but it's weak, and he's soon sitting beside the woman, a short
Asian girl in a Foot costume that doesn't fit her very well.
She pulls the car out of the space, hits the gas. The car jerks forward. She looks down,
curses, releases the emergency brake, accelerates again. "So where are we going?" she
asks.
Hansu doesn't say anything.
"You know, it's hard to drive when you won't navigate."
"I'd die before giving away my clan."
"Funny," the man says, tossing something into Hansu's lap, "that's what he
said."
Hansu looks down into Viper's dead eyes and starts screaming.
Mike can't think of much he'd rather not do than be here, doing what he's about to be
doing. He keeps thinking of Maureen and Angela, back at home, waiting for him,
worrying. Raph isn't helping.
"I mean," Raph's saying now, "if ya wanted to set up a trap, you couldn't do much better
than this."
"I trust him, Raph, I told you. And even if it is a trap...we've been in traps before."
"Yeah." But there were four of us then. And you guys were in better
shape...
"We gotta keep our eyes open," Mike says, "but we've always had to do that." He pulls
out one of his nunchaku for the thirtieth time, inspects it again, puts it back into his belt.
Suddenly he looks up at Raph and grins. "And if you were giving me this crap about
Maureen, I woulda beaten the crap outa you by now."
"You wish--"
"I'm in better shape than you think I am, Raph, we haven't sparred yet--"
"You better be right, Mike," Raph says, looking at the warehouse door.
Hansu returns, with a different ninja, not Viper-- a female. She's carrying a box
under one arm.
"Where's Viper?"
Dead," the female ninja said, in a voice Kawabata doesn't recognize. "He was a better
ninja than his companion here; all I had to do was show him what happened to
his friend, and he cracked like an eggshell."
Kawabata realizes her free arm's holding Hansu. He draws his katana. "What kind of
fool--"
"A fool returning home," she says, and lets go of Hansu, draws her cowl back from her
face. "Do you remember me?"
Don, listening through his headphones, hears Kawabata gasp. "Oroku Mgume."
"Come off your knees, Kawabata," she says generously, takes the box and hoists it up.
"And you'll be pleased to know we did find what you were looking for."
"I asked for a key," Kawabata says, frowning.
"Yes," she says wryly. "I know."
She puts the box up on the second examining table, not too far away from the
unconscious Malcolm. She tips the box over. Keys start spilling out.
Don hears the metallic chinking and smiles.
"Surely these aren't all--"
"You told me to bring back every key we could find," Hansu says.
"A box of keys on the floor," she says, "keys worked into the sculptures-- one was
nothing but keys-- house keys, car keys, keys to safety deposit boxes, keys to locks..."
"I get the idea," Kawabata says dryly. "He always thought he had a sense of humor."
"Look," Mgume says, "maybe we can make a deal."
"What kind of deal?"
"I don't want the money," she says, "not really. You know it's mine...he'll tell me which
key it is. You can have it."
"And in return?"
"I get him...unharm-- well. You won't harm him any further."
Kawabata smiles. "I don't think you're exactly his type, Mgume--"
"He took care of me," Mgume says sharply. "Perhaps you don't realize..."
Kawabata says, "You have just made a very foolish mistake." He draws his katana.
"You don't--"
"He broke once," he says confidently. "He'll break again."
"Go," Don says into the mic, "go, now-- grab her if you can..." He hits return on
his keyboard. The power will go off in two seconds-- now.
Don rests his fingers on the keyboard, waiting.
One scream; Hansu, Don had figured he wouldn't last long.
"Got the girl," Mike's voice whispers, "just gonna push the gurney out the same way we
came in, all right?"
"Right," Don says, starts closing off the doors around them, keeping the route clear.
Angela looks at her mother, smiling wryly at her pasta. "Funny," she tells Angela, "I
remember when I got better food eating out than I had at home..."
There's a man at the front of the restaurant, arguing with one of the waiters. He looks
angry.
"Angela, honey?"
Someone else has come out from the kitchen, now, maybe the manager? He says
something to the angry man, who reaches into his coat--
"Mom--"
"What?"
Angela grabs her mother's arm, pulls her to the ground as the first shot rings out.
One of them had told her not to struggle and she'd be safe. She doesn't really believe
this, but she has no other options; they smashed the speaker to her walkie-talkie and her
hands are tied. Two figures in black, burly, fairly short; that's all she can tell in the
darkness. The thinner one's holding her against the gurney. He asks, "You got him
off?"
"Almost," his companion says. "One binding left...damn it...there."
"Think you can carry him?"
"I'm gonna have to."
"You can take her--"
"Byron, Byron, it's me, Mike--"
A groan from the figure on the gurney. "I'm gonna carry you, okay?"
The lights flicker and come to life; black fingers cover her eyes. "Shit--"
"C'mon, Byron, we gotta go, don't fight me--"
"Hurts..."
"Yeah, I know. Let's get outa here."
"Can walk..."
"Yeah, but not fast enough--"
"Halt!" a voice cries.
A brief struggle; then a single, final crack.
She hears someone dropping to the floor.
"Told ya I've gotten better," a voice she recognizes as Mike's says. "You want the next
one?"
Just find the backup generators, Don tells himself, cut them out. You can
worry about the rest of it later. He's letting his anger take over, and he can't afford to.
His fingers move over the keyboard, almost silent, while he finds the system that controls
the generators, shuts it down.There.
And now all he needs to do is open the main gate again...
Angela's played it a thousand times. Hide and seek.
She could beat her mom every time now. She'd even beaten her dad once or twice.
It's a lot more fun when the guy you're hiding from doesn't have a gun, when you don't
have to worry about anyone finding your mom, too...the screaming, the screaming is
terrible. The shots aren't so bad; it's the screaming...
Angela closes her eyes and pretends she's somewhere else, back at home, waiting to hear
her father's footsteps...
Don inspects the walkie-talkie. "It's still broadcasting her position."
"That's all right," Raph tells him. "Let them come looking for her."
"Wish you'd let her go," Byron says weakly, leaning against Don.
"Look," Raph says, "maybe we'd trust her, but we can't afford to trust her friends."
"He's more of a warrior than you'll ever be," the girl spits.
"Just one, then," Don says. "Which of you killed Kawabata, anyway?"
Mike says, "We didn't--"
"He ran out the door and we figured she and Byron were more important. Why?"
"He's dead, that's why."
Raph and Mike ask, "What?"
Don nods. "Unless they know we're listening in, even then I don't know why they'd say
it..." His fingers move a couple switches. "Here, we can all listen..."
Just as he does it, a scream comes across the intercom.
Byron asks, "What about..."
Raph asks Mgume, "Your friend, whatever the hell he is, would he go in after you?"
"I..." She shakes her head. "I told him not to...but..."
Mike says, "Well? What are we gonna do about it?"
Don looks down at the keyboard, over at Byron, who's still wincing every time he
changes position. "Not gonna hurt anything to give him a hand from here..."
--END CHAPTER THREE--
