Dreamlands (30 page)

“No,” I said softly.

She smiled, and I was struck by how cold and McGannish she was at that moment. I stopped thinking of her as a nice girl and started seeing her as someone who could be as hardass as that Tamazusa could be. “I fear that the rest of the day will be most unpleasant for you.”

“What… what are you talking about?” Samuels squeaked.

“My family has come to rescue me,” Fuse said.

St. John frowned. “I thought that the Japanese didn’t believe in taking prisoners and stuff like that, with the way that our guys were treated in World War II.”

She shrugged. “That is after my time. Tokugawa Iyesu had twisted
bushido
into what he believed it to be, and he was a very angry man. My sons will go through the hells to take me back to the Dreamlands, to say nothing of what Yatsufusa will do.” I tried not to shiver. We had guns and all that shit, so a bunch of guys swinging swords weren’t something to worry about. I went over to the wall and checked the phone at the elevator. There wasn’t even a dial tone. “Shit.”

Samuels was quicker on the uptake than St. John was. He ripped out his cell phone and started to frantically press buttons before he announced, “No signal. I always get a signal since I tweaked some stuff in it.”

“Dude, nothing to worry about,” St. John said. “Go to my office and be mellow until the power gets back on.” FELICITAS IVEY

220

“Your office is on what floor?” I asked.

“A.”

“And what emergency protocols just kicked in?” I asked. “Where did the blast doors close down?”

St. John thought for a second and got this panicked look in his eyes. “Isolation. Shit! Shit!
Shit
!”

“We’re doomed,” Samuels moaned. “Fucking D level all over again. They just cleaned this place out.” It didn’t help that the armory was on A level and the boss didn’t believe in caches on the individual levels. I wasn’t armed, and I didn’t know if I could get anyone out of this alive. This was a repeat of what had happened a couple of weeks ago. I wondered if the big boys were going to put the place under quarantine this time, because it was becoming a pain in the ass to have this happen all the time. I was pretty sure we were cut off from outside world. I just had to get these people up a couple of levels and hope that someone managed to get the blast doors open. It wasn’t going to be easy, because it was like herding cats with these people on a good day to get them to do shit. This wasn’t a good day.

Fuse smiled at the two of them, and I shrugged. “Your kids gonna bring Hákarl with them?”

She looked shocked and shook her head. “They hunt them for the disgusting things that they are.”

I opened my mouth to say something when something flashed out of the corner of my eye, stepping out of the shadows. It was butt ugly, with a dead white face, horns, and fangs. There was a sword in its hands, and it slashed at Samuels. He screamed and went down like a sack of wet cement. The thing bowed to Fuse and melted back into the shadows.

St. John stooped down to check on Samuels while Fuse just stared off into space. She seemed to be in some sort of shock.

221

DREAMLANDS

“He’s hurt pretty bad,” St. John said. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding and then hope that we get help soon.” There was another scream from a different part of the floor, and we started moving toward it, with Samuels slung between the two of us.

I didn’t know how many people were on this floor, but I knew that there was safety in numbers. It took us a couple of minutes before I got them into one of the meeting rooms, and during that time, that thing hurt a couple of more of the lab boys. I didn’t like the fact that there were shadows in this place, but we seemed to have lost the monster. I couldn’t lose the feeling that he had herded us into this position.

I had three injured out of ten. All of them badly slashed, and I was worried that we were going to lose one before the power kicked in again. We got them bandaged and comfortable, but the one that was awake was a hurting puppy and going into shock. The other two were already unconscious, and I felt naked because none of us had a weapon.

I wasn’t going to let them scavenge in the labs to build a bomb or something where that thing could get them when they were isolated.

I had them settled down and in some sort of controlled panic after a few minutes. That taken care of, I approached Fuse to get some answers. Then I was going to decide if we were going to make a run up to another level. I knew that going down was going to be a bad thing.

“What was that fucking thing?” I demanded, and I hoped it wasn’t one of her kids.

She smiled, thoughtful. “I can guess.”

I waited for her to explain more, but she wouldn’t. “Who the fuck was that?”

“I think that was Samojirou-sama.”

I stared, remembering the smooth snake oil salesman that was Tamazusa’s councilor. He didn’t look like that. Hell, he was a borderline pretty boy almost. “You’re shittin’ me.” She frowned, trying to figure out what I was saying. “Samojirou Aboshi is an
oni,
a demon. He rejected his humanity at his death.” FELICITAS IVEY

222

“You don’t look like that here,” I pointed out. Which was a good thing, or she would have been cut up like a cow, fast. She still looked cute and innocent, young enough to be my daughter. I had a hard time believing that her grown up kids were coming to kick our asses, even if we deserved it.

“I died, sacrificing myself for my children and the future. My sons had been heroes, so we still look as we did in life.” I thought about it for a moment, glaring at anyone who got too close to us. “So Tamazusa looks like that now?”

“Tamazusa-sama looks as she did at her death,” Fuse said. “She died―”

“An innocent,” I finished for her. I paused. “You get a chance, tell her thanks for Heiseg.”

Fuse frowned. “I do not understand.”

“She will,” I said.

I was about to say more when the door was kicked in. The lab boys all screamed, and two of the nastiest-looking fighters I have ever seen walked in. They weren’t tall, but they had a look in their eyes that was cold and empty, like some of the lifers I had seen in max lockup.

The screams had died down to whimpers, and everyone who could scrambled to get out of their way. I shoved Fuse behind me and wished I had some sort of gun.

“Get your hands off of her!” one of them shouted.

Fuse peeked out from behind me. “Genpachi! Sousuke! Have you no manners?”

“Unhand our mother,” the second one shouted. I couldn’t tell which was which. The taller of the two grabbed my arm and froze, staring at me in horror. “You!”

“Genpachi, I am unharmed. Where are the rest of your brothers?

Your father?”

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DREAMLANDS

I figured out that Genpachi was the one holding me while Sousuke was the one talking. Their English was rough and heavily accented, but understandable.

“Father, Dousetsu, and Shino are two floors above us,” Sousuke said. “Tamazusa-sama and Daikaku are keeping the Gate open and controlling their technology from the lowest level here. Their guns and other weapons shouldn’t work. Konbungo and Shinbee are exploring the floor above us.”

“You!” Genpachi repeated. “You are an avatar!” I shrugged. “So your mom says.”

St. John drifted closer to us, which I thought showed a lot of balls and stupidity at the same time. Sousuke glared, and he froze in place.

“That’s your mom?” St. John blurted.

Both of the samurai focused on him, and Fuse shook her head.

“Escort me down to your brother Daikaku and Tamazusa-sama, and then you will look for your brother Keno’s avatar. He is not staying here!”

“You ain’t takin’ him with you!” I snarled.

“And you took such good care of him,” she reminded me sharply.

“This is about Keno?” St. John asked. “That kid’s been a pain for a while.”

Genpachi backhanded him, and the rest of the people in the room screamed. It didn’t help that Samojirou did that freaky shadow thing again and wounded another one of the lab boys. I thought he was just as pissed at us about Keno as Fuse was, but she was being a bit more restrained about killing us.

“Fuck!” I screamed in frustration. “You get that asshole off my ass, and I’ll take your mom wherever the fuck she wants to go. While most of these people have been assholes to Keno, they don’t deserve this shit.”

FELICITAS IVEY

224

“That would be up to Samojirou-sama to decide.” Sousuke grinned. “He is insulted by your treatment of his consort.”

“I knew that the kid was a fag,” someone muttered.

Sousuke and Genpachi glared at them. Fuse walked up to whoever had said it and slapped him. I wasn’t surprised to see that she cold-cocked the guy. I shrugged and grinned at the rest of the room.

“Keno’s got friends now, so I’d keep my fuckin’ mouth shut.” Samojirou popped into the room again, and the screaming started up even though he didn’t try to kill anyone this time. He stalked up to me, and I felt my stomach turn over. There wasn’t shit I could do if he wanted to kill me. He stopped in front of me, glaring. “Where is he?” His voice was a guttural growl.

“I don’t fuckin’ know,” I said in total honesty.

Samojirou snarled and faded back into the shadows.

Sousuke looked at me and said, “You are coming with us.” I nodded, knowing that pissing these people off was a bad idea.

Besides, it might stop that fucker Samojirou from killing any more of the eggheads.

225

DREAMLANDS

KENO

WOLF and I were taken to one of the interrogation rooms on B. I shivered when I realized what it was. I looked up at Wolf and wondered if they were going to send him away again and beat me up. I was wearing a pair of scrubs and a loose robe, so I was warm, but I couldn’t forget Fairinox saying that I just needed my hands and my brains to hack for these people. He had been so ready to kill me or worse. But McGann was in charge of this interrogation, or at least she was asking the questions. She wasn’t hitting me or letting anyone else hit me, so I cooperated with her. Collins and Fairinox had been here, but Wolf had glared at them until they had left.

“How much did you tell them about here?” I looked at Wolf and hesitated. I really hadn’t told them about here, but I had talked about my life here with Samojirou and Tamazusa.

I had explained how guns worked and had warned them when Murphy and the rest of them showed up. I had told them that Wolf spoke Nipponese too.

“Keno, he can’t hurt you anymore,” Wolf said. I didn’t know which “he” Wolf was talking about. Murphy? Fairinox? Or Samojirou, FELICITAS IVEY

226

because Wolf didn’t like the fact that he was nice to me and that I trusted him?

McGann decided a different approach would work better. “Keno, how long were you with Lady Tamazusa and Lord Samojirou?” I thought about that; it seemed like a safe question to answer. “A few months.”

“And what was your life like with them?” McGann asked.

“I liked it,” I said bluntly.

“Why?” she asked, a strange look on her face.

“I wasn’t afraid,” I said. “And I had enough to eat.” Wolf made this odd noise, and McGann looked a little sick. I was about to add to that when the lights went off and alarms started blaring.

There was a loud crash, and I remembered that sound from before. It was the sound of the blast doors closing; the sound that woke me up on the night Heiseg had hurt me.

“We have a breach,” Wolf shouted. After looking at McGann, he rushed out of the room.

“Keno, don’t be worried,” McGann said.

I huddled further into the chair, wondering what was going on. I started quivering when I remembered the last time this happened.

“Tell me what your life was like with them,” McGann coaxed.

I started talking just to get my mind off of what was happening.

“I’d get up in the morning, and I’d work out with Tamazusa-sama’s samurai for a couple hours, katana practice or archery or swimming, depending on who I was with that day. They were nice to me, teased me a bit about Samojirou-sama, but nice.”

“Why did they tease you about Samojirou?” 227

DREAMLANDS

“Because Tamazusa-sama gave me to him as a present the night that she took me from here,” I said. Wolf had walked back into the room as I spoke and made that odd noise again.

“That woman did what?” Wolf exclaimed, like he’d never heard me say it before.

I looked up, but before I could say anything, McGann asked,

“What’s happening?”

“We seemed to be cut off from A level, but not the ones below it,” Wolf said. “The power is off. We can’t get to the upper levels, and I have no idea who’s trapped down here with us.”

“Weapons?” McGann demanded.

Wolf shook his head. “Nothing, except….” McGann nodded. “Last resort. I’d like to go up, but probably getting everyone down to the atrium on C is a good choice. Murphy’s on C in the quarters, and I know that Collins and Fairinox were heading down to that level before this happened.” Wolf said something in German that had McGann frowning. I thought it was something bad, from the look on her face.

“Move out,” she ordered, and I scrambled off the chair and onto my feet. Wolf looked at the two of us.