Chapter Three:
“Our Manila Sector spotted her at
the airport along with a very attractive young woman who we can’t as yet
identify,” he said looking up from his notes.
“Inez certainly has done her usual
through job. Where are they headed to?”
the man behind the desk asked to the other with a wave of his hand.
“Tokyo, I’ve made arrangements to
have them shadowed.”
“Shadowed, is that all?” the man
behind the desk answered in a stern tone to see how his young assistant would
react.
“Because you did not request
anything else,” the young man answered.
“Yes I didn’t, but that’s only half
an answer. If you’re going to advance
within D.O.O.M. and more specifically, within my department, I need you to
think a problem through to its conclusion, just as I do. A quick resolution to an issue is not always
the best solution,” he said.
“The two may be rendezvousing with
one or more other C.O.I.L. agents and given their depleted ranks this may be a
chance to deal them a fatal blow, one from which they’ll never recover, rather
than just terminating the one woman,” he stated in his best analyst’s voice.
“Excellent! I can see your dossier didn’t lie,” his boss
sarcastically flattered. “Maintain the
surveillance, but at a comfortable distance until we know more about which
agent’, if any, Mrs. Hawthorne is meeting and what their mission objectives may
be. Once you’ve taken care of that I
want a list of what agents of ours are available."
“I already have the second part of
that request sir,” he said handing over a Cd.
“Complete dossiers on the available agents and their skills,” he
answered proudly.
“You are learning,” his boss said
and meant it this time.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“We’re being followed,” Mrs.
Hawthorne quietly said to Alice as they moved along a crowded street in old
Tokyo.
“Yes, have been since the
airport. I’m afraid I’ve underestimated
the resourcefulness of your enemies Mrs. Hawthorne!” Alice responded.
“I’ll drop back and take care of
this pesky shadow!” Mrs. Hawthorne offered beginning to move only to be stopped
by Alice’s hand on hers.
“Don’t waste your energy so easily
Mrs. Hawthorne when it can be done so much easier and naturally,” Alice turned
and said to her as a knowing smile crossed her lips.
Alice directed them to a small
stand, one of many lining the street.
Alice began to converse in fast and as far as Mrs. Hawthorne could tell,
fluid Japanese with the vendor, who was a little taken aback at first by his
potential customers easy with his language.
Mrs. Hawthorne kept her eye on their company as Alice and the young man
moved closer together supposedly over an item she held in her hand and wished
to purchase. He nodded to her and
disappeared for just a moment, then was back with a further nod and smile.
Mrs. Hawthorne watched the sea of
people that jammed the main street slowly part as three young men moved towards
the women’s two watchers.
“That should take care of our
company. Come Mrs. Hawthorne, Claire is
not far away,” Alice answered casually.
“What did you do?” the spy answered
as she backed up the street watching the scene unfold before her.
The shadow upon recognizing the
danger took several steps backward before turning and breaking into an all out
sprint as the crowd jeered and screamed filling in the street again after a few
seconds and covering all trace of the chases outcome from the two women.
“Did you notice the tattoo’s on the
arms of that young man I was taking to Mrs. Hawthorne?” Alice asked as she
looped her arm about the spy’s and picked up the pace.
“Yakuza!” Mrs. Hawthorne answered as
it dawned on her.
“Exactly! He only had a few and they were small,
obviously he’s new, very small time and eager to prove himself. I merely told him that the man following us
was from a rival clan and he and his friends did the house cleaning for us!”
Alice exclaimed as they turned into an even smaller more crowded street full of
tumble down shops and noodle houses that came right up and sometimes onto the
street.
“But why did he believe you, what do
you know of the Japanese Mafia?” the spy asked.
“Maybe someday I’ll tell you, but at
the present we don’t have time,” Alice said as her words almost trailed off to
nothing and she came to a dead stop.
Alice scanned the street turning in a circle her eyes
closed, her brow furrowed in concentration before she snapped to attention and
led Mrs. Hawthorne into a ramshackle store that looked like every other
ramshackle store on the street. This
one however seemed to deal in every kind of herb and spice that could be
imagined. Regular dust and the remnants
of spice dust swam in the air, twinkling in the light, as the two moved to the
back of the store a cloud being raised in their wake and settling on the tops
and sides of the glass jars lining the shelves from floor to ceiling. Mrs. Hawthorne said nothing in the short time
she’d been in Alice’s company; she’d learned to expect surprises. Alice stopped in front of a door frame with a
piece of tattered cloth tack across it, delicately she pulled the garment back
and bowed remaining so as a very old woman eyed her and Mrs. Hawthorne with
shrewd clear eyes.
“The store is behind you, there is nothing here for
you to buy, please leave!” she said in a soft but stern voice.
“We do not seek to buy goods Senpai Sama, we wish to
enter the temple to heal our friend Baxter san,” Alice answered in perfect
Japanese.
The old woman’s eyes narrowed a little as she glanced
from Alice to Mrs. Hawthorne before faster than Mrs. Hawthorne could have
imagined she wielded a sword, magnificent in its construction and beauty,
securing it tight against Alice’s neck!
“Do not move Mrs. Hawthorne or do anything whatever
happens,” Alice warned her.
The glimmering blade pushed against the vampire’s chin
and pulled her face up to meet the gaze of the questioner.
“You bring nothing my eyes can see to accomplish this
task!” she answered quickly before the sword flashed across the beautiful neck
of Alice and disappeared just as suddenly as it had previously appeared. Lady
Alice Hamilton straightened herself and bowed to the elderly woman
“Eyes however, can be deceived, but the heart never
can Kyuuketsaki! Enter and be welcome in
my temple,” she said as first Alice and then Mrs. Hawthorne received her touch
of welcome to the tops of their heads.
A strangler
hidden in another part of the ancient shop observed via her secret camera she’d
planted earlier and monitor built into her makeup compact all that had gone on!
They two slipped pass the Senpai and along a narrow
red painted hallway before making a sharp right turn and coming to the top of a
massive spiral staircase that descended into blackness save for a single point
of light at the bottom that distinguished nothing except itself. Alice took the first step before Mrs.
Hawthorne placed her hand over the woman’s and spoke in a most exasperated
tone.
“What the hell just happened back there and what is a
Kyuuketsaki!”
“A test of our intentions. The sword cutting my throat a test of your
loyalty to me and a test for me of my true intentions,” Alice answered as she
turned to face her partner’s confused face.
“Had I been lying my reaction would have been to panic
and pull away or to fight, but since I did neither and you followed my wishes
it proved I was true to my words as I was prepared to die for them,” Alice
explained.
“But the sword was drawn across your throat and
nothing!” Mrs. Hawthorne stammered.
“Again a test, the final test, to confirm the
first. Would I die for my words and
would my companion be willing to watch and do nothing knowing I would lose my
life, but retain my honour and hers as well, even to the point of death. That above all else would prove our
sincerity. She drew the sword across my
throat, but not against it to see and sense yours and my reaction to our words
and thus our cause. Oh, and Kyuuketsaki
means vampire in Japanese or more correctly vampire princess. How she knew what I am I don’t know,” Alice
ended.
“I’m glad we passed,” Mrs. Hawthorne smiled.
“Glad or surprised?” Alice said to her then let the
conversation drop as they started down the turning staircase leaving her
partner to puzzle over the statement.
They made the
rest of the way in silence until both stood at the bottom of the staircase in
an octagonal room before a set of imposing hand hammered metal doors that were
swung open before them. Two young teenage girls wearing loose back pants and
long sleeved tops complete with a green sash tied around their waists greeted
them with a deep bow. They motioned the
two women inside with a graceful sweep of their arms and Alice and Mrs.
Hawthorne entered.
The room was about the size of a school gymnasium, but
with a much lower ceiling, maybe only 10 feet tall. The floor was coloured a raven blackness
except for the centre of the space where a large red coloured snake had been
inlaid, the diagram expanding out upon itself in an ever widening circle of
coils. Moveable paper walls occupied the
side and front of the room as the women advanced along with geometrically
carved partitions that helped break up the menagerie of white tiled paper
walls. Alice and Mrs. Hawthorne made
their way forward until they stood in the centre of the snake.
“Any idea where we are?” Mrs. Hawthorne said.
“You are in my home Mrs. Hawthorne and Lady Alice
Hamilton and it is wonderful to see you!”
The two women swung round in unison and took in the
image that had been the voice. A
beautiful, tall, slender woman dressed in a skintight black unitard save for
the red snake design woven into the material.
The scarlet snake began with just the fraction of a tail showing on the
woman’s left ankle then coiled up around her extensive willowy leg. Around her waist before it darted up her
chest and over one of her shapely breast then her shoulder before emerging up
her other breast the head coming to rest on her other shoulder.
“Kiko Matsumora,” she offered by way
of her introduction that seemed to go unnoticed by the two.
“How do you know our names?” Alice asked.
“Claire told me before she,” Kiko let the sentence die
as she brought a hand to her eye and both women suspected the worst, especially
Alice as she had not had another dream of Claire since the night she’d left
Italy a fact she’d kept from telling her travelling companion.
Both women knew the question that must be asked after
such a statement, but neither could force the breath up from their tight chests
to ask it, this for Alice was a weakness she despised an all too familiar
reminder that she underneath it all was still as feeble, weak and vulnerable as
everyone else.
“You need to see for yourself, come this way,” Kiko
choked as she led them to a paper door, opened it and moved down a hallway
toward a large oak door with the two close on her heals.
“She’s in here,” Kiko said softly as she opened the
door just a crack and the three slipped inside.
The three stepped into a completely round room lit
only by a series of very dimly lit candles that outlined the still body they
surrounded in the middle of the room.
They moved silently toward Claire who seemed unaware of their presence
or unable to acknowledge it.
“I’ve done my best with her everyday but I’m afraid
the Four Petal Orchid has damaged her beyond my capacity to heal her. It was a miracle, but maybe not so much,
knowing Claire, as I’m sure we all do, that she was able to escape it, but by
then the damage was done, her muscles continue unabated to daily twist
tighter! She lost the ability to speak a
day ago and today she can no longer open her eyes, I have no idea if she can even
hear us!” Kiko said.
“Every day her Chi weakens as the candles display by
their flickering energy, one by one they will extinguish then my sister will
die. She begged me to kill her a week ago when she was still feeling the pain
of her cording muscles; she was in agony for countless hours! It took four of us to hold her still while I
massaged her muscles with some small hope it would reduce her suffering. She’d scream and cry in so much torment
asking me why I was letting this continue when I promised her I would honour
her request to die!” the Kunoichi said as her tears flowed.
“The next morning I resolved to end my sister’s life
and mine. We had just finished calming her;
I dismissed my assistants and opened the vial of alabaster massage oil, Claire’s
favorite, mixed with the poison. I
gently stroked her cheeks and soothed her brow and told her that I would honour
her request when she began a long rambling tale about a woman who was visiting
her in her dreams, searching for her and coming to find her and bringing
help. I let her talk, while I slowly and
tenderly enveloped her body in mine, once she was secured I reached for the
poison. It was then that she mentioned
you Lady Alice, not by name but by what you are and she spoke it in perfect
Japanese, a language Claire is bad in at the best of times. She asked me to wait, she would bare the
pain, which she did for the next few days, but then she slipped into the coma
and I haven’t been able to pull her out of it, but now that you’re both here,”
Kiko brightened slightly.
“I’m afraid I can’t revive her either, not with
anything I know! I can slow the process
and buy us the time we need to acquire the cure,” Alice said as she stepped
into the circle of candles and knelt beside Claire.
“I’m here darling,” she said like a mother to her
child as she stroked her hair and temple.
“I’ve brought help, Mrs. Hawthorne is here with me and
others are coming. I promise you it
won’t end like this Claire, soon all the pain will be forgotten and you’ll be
fine again. I love you Claire, hang on
to that, fight a while longer for me!” Alice whispered as the palms of her
hands rammed one on top of the other onto the spy’s chest directly above her
heart.
Claire’s chest heaved up violently and crash to the
floor and then she was still, very still for the longest time before just the
tiniest bob of her chest crested and fell.
Alice kissed Claire’s cheek, softly and lovingly, then rose and stepped
outside the circle. The flames still
flickered but now they burned a little brighter.
“I’ve adjusted her heart to beat much slower, one beat
every 5 minutes, to slow the advance of death,” Alice said as she wiped a tear
from her eye feeling a sensation she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
“How long have we got?” Kiko asked.
“A month, perhaps five weeks at the outside, not much
time to accomplish all we have to do,” Alice answered with a heavy heart.
“Whatever it is I’m in!” Kiko said emphatically as she
moved to the door taking Alice in her wake.
“Mrs. Hawthorne,” Kiko called out to the spy who
hadn’t moved.
“I’ll be along a few minutes,” she answered, the
others not needing any further interpretation of the statement.
She waited for the door to close before stepping into
the circle and knelling next to Claire.
“In spite of the way we first met I always though of
you as the child I never had. I think
you knew that, but now I see I can’t play that roll, it’s reserved for someone
else. You filled a void in my life after
my husband was murdered by D.O.O.M. and now I can feel that void creeping back
in and its not your fault its mine. You
have a mother in Alice and a sister in Kiko and I’m not sure where I fit into
the picture and again that’s my problem.
I never felt so alone in my life, so alone in a room, as when Alice was
next to you a moment ago and I couldn’t share that moment. For a flash of a second I hated her and Kiko,
for no reason other than they existed and I had to share you. Then I realized why, because I never share
with anybody else, including you! I love
you Claire, anything and everything I can do I will,” Mrs. Hawthorne said as
she bent forward, kissed the spy’s cheek and whispered in her ear.
She entered the
main hall only to see, much her to delight, that their ranks had grown by one.
“Things are coming together quickly, thanks to your
efforts, Mrs. Hawthorne!” Alice said.
“Ah so this is the mysterious Mrs. Hawthorne, up until
now only a vision in my mind through the reports and stories told to me by
others! If I may be allowed to say Mrs. Hawthorne,
they neither did you justice in terms of beauty or grace! It is wonderful to finally get a chance to me
you although I wish the circumstances where greatly different!”
Mrs. Hawthorne looked the very young, but elegantly
dressed and accessorised young woman over, she looked older by three or four
years than she was, mostly due to her wardrobe choices that gave her that
confident air men found so attractive.
Her stylish manner coupled with her young hard body told Mrs. Hawthorne
she, despite her young age would make a deadly adversary. Paige Worthington stepped forward and
delicately placed a kiss on the cheek of Mrs. Hawthorne as she introduced
herself.
“It is a pleasure you meet you was well Paige. Were you able to contact, discreetly of course,
any other C.O.I.L. agents,” Mrs. Hawthorne said after she’d returned the kiss
and warm greeting.
“I’m afraid C.O.I.L. and I aren’t seeing quite eye to
eye at the moment on how I should conduct their business! And to think it only took one assignment for
it to happen!” Paige said with a laugh.
“The short answer to your question is maybe, but I’m persona non grata
at the moment, bit of a leper!”
“You mean this will be only your second mission, what
are you 23 or 24 at most?” Mrs. Hawthorne said looking sideways at Kiko who
returned just as concerned a look.
“Twenty-one actually and yes this will be my second
solo mission!” Paige said a hint of annoyance in her voice that warned she’d
strayed into dangerous waters with that question.
The glint in Paige’s eyes and the tone of her response
told Mrs. Hawthorne all she needed to know and she let the subject drop. Paige was here, she’d beat the odds and
survived her first mission and she was defiant, the quality Mrs. Hawthorne
liked best. Kiko seized the moment and
directed her guests down yet another hall before opening a sliding door and
motioning them in. The room contained a
low table, much like a large coffee table only lower to the floor and mats. The women each took a place around the table
and grabbed a cushion for themselves that had been scattered about the
room. Kiko pulled a small silk rope and
a few minutes later amidst pockets of conversation the door slide open once
more and a tea set was deposited on the table.
“I think its time,” was all Alice said and the room
fell silent as she opened the top the hollow cylinder she’d been carrying and
not let go of since she and Mrs. Hawthorne had left Manila.
|
|
Kiko collected the cups
and moved the set off to a vacant corner as Alice unrolled the map across the
table.
“Each corner of the cross contains one the twelve
Judas Stones that we need to collect to heal Claire,” Alice said as the others
gazed at the map.
“Judas Stones?” Kiko questioned.
“When the crowd stoned Jesus of Nazareth during his
crucifixion he blessed them and asked that they be forgiven for what they were
doing. Twelve stones, one for each
disciple, had hit him and fallen at his feet before the crowd stopped. Legend says the centurion who was in charge
of his death gathered up the stones and kept them. Upon his march back into Jerusalem he came
across the hanging body of Judas Iscariot and supposing him to be a martyr,
like Jesus, he retrieved a blood stained stone at Judas’s feet and placed it
with the others in his bag.”
“He kept them with him inside his tunic as he went
from war to war in the Roman Army, until one day he was mortally wounded in
battle. He lurched and fell over
clutching his chest and the bag containing the stones. His soldiers rushed to his side and pulled
him from the field of conflict to safety under a large tree, there they tore
open his tunic to see if they could somehow save him. All had seen the blood spurt from the wound,
but when his hand fell away no blemish could be found, he was healed. The soldiers under his command demanded to
know what sorcery had saved him and how they could obtain it as well. He related all and showed them the stones as
he opened the bag and spread them out in his hand for all to see and
touch. One by one they touched them all,
including the thirteenth stone, the blood one and all began to conspire against
the one to take his magic for himself.
The murdered him in his sleep and divided the stones amongst each other,
each wanting the red one feeling it held extra significance. The one who got it fled into the night and
the others were unable to find him. Over
time the stones moved with the soldiers, who one by one sold them for gold as
religious relics as Christianity became more popular and they fell from
knowledge, but not from all. The Knights
Templar recovered all the stones, but they were lost again when the Knights
themselves were betrayed and murdered by King Philip of France. He seized their vast treasures and sold it
all to pay his debts and the stones moved again. As you can see from the map they have settled
in a most recognizable pattern!” Alice said while the rest just stared open
mouthed at the tale they’d heard.
“Twelve corners, twelve stones, but what of number thirteen,” Paige said.
“The Judas Stone,
once we start to collect the others, it will be drawn to them. I will warn you right now, never touch that
stone without gloves or let it touch any part of your exposed body! If that happens your heart and mind will be
poisoned with malice and hatred towards all!” Alice cautioned.
“Excuse my ignorance,
but why will it seek out the other stones?” Kiko asked.
“Destroy what cannot
have for self,” came the answer followed by the sound of steel on steel as a
guard rushed to the opened entrance, her sword drawn over her head ready to
strike! The glint of light and steel, a
momentary flash and the blade came hurtling down with terrible force right on
the top of its targeted head!
A dull thud resounded
around the room as all witnessed a blur of flesh fly into view and capture the
hilt of the sword in between a pair of shapely thin crossed ankles in white
stiletto heels by a young blonde woman executing a handstand. The woman twisted her ankles, thrust forward,
sprung off her hands and onto her feet as the guard rolled with her trapped arm
and ended up on the hall floor on her back the sword was wretched free with
just the merest twist of the blonde’s legs and kicked away.
“What did I tell you
and how the hell do you move so fast in the outfit!” she yelled.
“Who the hell are you
and what is she doing in my temple?” Kiko said advancing as Paige beamed a
relieved smile.
“Alex Chase and she’s
with me!” the C.O.I.L. agent said as she reached her hands behind her back and
hooked them into Aki’s kimono sash, pulling her close against her back.
“She’s a Poison
Geisha!” Kiko spat the words out like a bad taste.
“Hai! Senpai-sama,
but no longer member of them,” Aki said with a reverent bow to Kiko.
“Your heart will
always be Poison Geisha,” Kiko retorted.
“Your kind never change!”
“That might just as
easily be said of you Kiko Matsumora, Senpai of the Scarlet Snake Temple! How long were you Mrs. Yin’s assassin before
the very woman you now care for believed you were something different that what
you showed the world?” Alex charged.
“Aki deserves the same chance.”
Kiko eyed the two
women; Alex still had the Geisha firmly by the sash, her fingers white from
squeezing. The Kunoichi knew Alex was
right about Claire, but surpressing a lifetime of training about her choice of
friend was proving a most difficult matter for her to resolve. She looked to the others but she knew that it
was for her alone to decide. She chose
to let the two convince her.
“I’m listening,” as
all Kiko said.
Alex needed no
further prompting; she understood the deeper meaning of the question.
“Aki and I were
adversaries, but something more which I couldn’t place and Aki didn’t want to
when we first encountered each other. I
shoved it from my mind reconciling it to her exotic looks as a Geisha and my
reaction to it. When we faced each other
again and I had her trapped and at my mercy it was there again, this time
stronger than ever and once more I brushed it aside. I struck my killing blow, the blade of my fan
ready to slice open her throat and as it approached her exposed flesh I felt a
force push it away so it skimmed by her.
I tried again, the same result; the blade wouldn’t go near her! I closed the fan and tentatively brought it
under her chin until it touched her, at this point Aki opened her eyes and I
knew instantly as did she!” Alex ended.
“What, that you had a
strong sexual attraction to each other?” Kiko pushed.
“Iie, Kiko sama,” Aki
said as she gently loosened Alex’s hand from her sash and stepped out from
behind her. “We not intimate with each
other in physical way, but other way words can’t say. There force between us when we close make us
feel like one, share other thoughts, we become more than what already are, I
Alex, Alex me and together we something cannot understand, but know we are
hitotsu tamashii, one soul.”
“That still doesn’t
explain your sudden conversion from hired mercenary to our side of the fence!”
Kiko pressed her still not completely convinced she believed the whole
thing.
“Alex change that
when she release me from her trap and ask trust her, from then see new way to
think through her soul,” Aki answered softly.
It wasn’t the story
that convinced Kiko it was the Geisha’s personal reference to Alex, without the
san on the end of it whenever she mentioned her name. Kiko knew from that reference alone that the
two shared a very deep bond, she could she it in Alex’s eyes, hear it in Aki’s
words and she swore, almost feel it between them. She still didn’t completely trust the Geisha
and it showed.
“Look, I don’t know
you, or you, or you!” Alex she as she looked from Kiko to Mrs. Hawthorne to
Alice. “Hell even Aki’s met Claire,
which is more than I can say, but Paige knows me pretty well so if you need a
character reference on me ask her! But
while you’re at it you may want to ask how we were able to pass the Ginsu test
upstairs, especially Aki!” Alex snapped as she turned to Aki and spoke.
“I knew I just should
have reported to C.O.I.L. and taken you with me, now when I do I’m really in
for it, especially from Charlotte,” Alex spoke in an exasperated tone her arms
flapping at her side.
“You mean C.O.I.L.
hasn’t heard from you since the assignment?” Paige spoke out.
“No. They got the information, but I guest they
think I’m dead. Aki and I leaked a rumor
about my death at her hands to throw them off the trail. Poison Geisha’s never leave a body around to
be recovered so it played into our hands.
Aki went back to her Senpai Uoko while I went into hiding, she got her
next assignment, smuggled word to me of the details and I arranged a mock death
for her in a car accident. Not the best
or most original of plans but it seems to have worked and given that the car is
under several hundred feet of water at the bottom of a steep gorge. I don’t think the Poison Geisha Clan will
soon be finding any reason to suspect anything but an unfortunate
accident. We’ve been in hiding ever
since getting to know and understand each other and this strange force we seem
to share. Got your e-mail though Paige
as you can see,” she said before turning back to Kiko.
“And just so you know
it was Aki’s idea to come here, but I can see that was a waste of time. I am in so much trouble with C.O.I.L. I don’t
want to think about what could happen?”
“Join the club,”
Paige answered. “I gave Sharon hard time
at my debriefing, lied to her about how I would behave in the future, had
illicit e-mail conversations with Mrs. Hawthorne and took off for here without
C.O.I.L.’s consent or knowledge. They
have no idea where I am, although I suspect once the action starts, they’ll
have a pretty good idea about the both of us Alex. Besides I choose to look on the glass is half
full side of things, they need us more than they’re willing to admit, why else
would they have activated us before our training was fully completed. To my mind that gives us a Platinum Visa card
of mistakes and misdemeanors to spend and I say lets go shopping!”
“Before we do I think
you all should know that D.O.O.M. and possibly others are onto this little expedition!”
Alex said as she turned to Kiko who drew a Palm Pilot from the sleeve of her
kimono and began reading dates, times and descriptions of each of them.
“Where did this come
from?” Kiko asked softly holding out her hand as Aki passed it to her.
“Took from agent last
night after kill him. Regret not know
how much information he pass on if any, he not divulge!” Aki answered.
“You never told us
what the thirteenth stone has to do with the healing process Alice?” Mrs.
Hawthorne said reading to room that all suspicion had finally been set aside.
Kiko motioned Alex
and Aki into the room and when all were seated Alice answered.
“It completes the
circle and the biblical prophecy, Not one that you gave me did I lose. When surrounded by the others it will become
as they, a healing force, because its will cannot overcome the will of the
others together. There are only six of
us and twelve pieces, plus the thirteenth and we only have a month maybe five
weeks to collect them all!” Alice said as she scanned the assembled faces.
“I’ve made up a list
of the location of each stone,” she continued drawing a piece of paper from her
purse and placing in on a corner of the map for all to see.
1. Taipei - Taiwan
7. Gat - Libya
2. Davao - Mindanao
8. Lagos - Nigeria
3. Addis Ababa - Ethiopia
9. Istanbul - Turkey
4. Medina – Saudi Arabia 10.
Sukhum – Republic of Georgia
5. Majunga - Madagascar 11.Havana
- Cuba
6. Santa Maria on Lake Bangwedu - Zambia 12. Panama City – Panama
“When we divide up
the locations I’ll brief each of one the specific location and details of each
stone,” Alice offered.
“Tell me if you
already knew the locations of these stones why don’t you have them already?”
Kiko asked.
“All who have tried
have failed! The locations are known to
those who care to look, but that’s only half the puzzle and the easiest part,
the other half has proved the undoing of all!” Alice stated flatly.
The woman all looked
at each other and then back to Alice. It
was not a room of timid hearts; none of them would be in the profession they
were if that was the case.
“I take Taipei and
Davao,” Aki said first surprising the others, but not Alex.
“I choose Addis Ababa
and Medina,” Alex chimed just as Aki’s had faded.
“Gat and Lagos,” Mrs.
Hawthorne said.
“Panama City and
Havana will suit me fine,” Paige answered.
“Istanbul and
Sukhum,” Kiko voiced.
“That leaves Majunga
and Santa Maria to me,” Alice said finishing the list.
The meeting broke
into a series of small private conversations after that and continued on during
the meal that appeared a short while later.
After supper Kiko escorted her guests to their respective sleeping
quarters but deliberately saved Mrs. Hawthorne’s and Alice’s to the end so she
could speak with them alone.
“I speak for myself
only, but I’m more than uneasy about those three. There all so very young and inexperienced,
between them they have a grand total of 3 missions, one each. I don’t like their chances, hell I don’t like
mine, but at least I have more experience to draw upon. Let me contact C.O.I.L. and see if they can
help us,” Kiko pleaded.
Alice looked at Mrs.
Hawthorne telling in an instant that she didn’t exactly disagree with what was
being suggested.
“We haven’t the time
to wait and hope. They know what they’re
getting into with this mission, what they were getting into when they chose
their profession. Everyone has to die
sometime Kiko, why not die for something you believe in rather than something you’re
ordered to do? Besides, I think those
three and we three are more remarkable than either you or I or they can
imagine,” Alice responded.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Alice spent the next morning
briefing each woman on her two objectives and by early afternoon they were all
ready to leave.
“Feel strange in this Alex,” Aki
said.
“Time to move on and besides hiding
your body beneath that kimono was a crime.
You look stunning in your new clothes,” Alex answered before planting a
tender kiss on the Geisha’s cheek and enveloping her in a hug.
“Be careful please!” Alex added
feeling Aki’s squeezed response for her to do the same.
Mrs. Hawthorne was the last to show
she found her place within the circle of women and smiled nervously before
swallowing several times.
“I have something I need to share
with all of you before we go our separate ways,” she choked out. “I want you to know that Mrs. Hawthorne won’t
be part of this assignment, but Sylvia Hawthorne will!”
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