The Dragon’s Mark (18 page)

She brought the sword closer to her face so that she could get a look at the
mei
near the hilt. Yee had been right; it was identical to the one on the sword used by the Dragon, if you added in the missing crosspiece on the H-like character.

She walked over to her companion, accepted the scabbard from his hands and moved to slide the sword back inside. As she did, she felt a sharp pain in her finger and looked down to find she had nicked herself on the edge of the blade. A drop of blood welled up as she stuck her finger in her mouth.

“The curse of Muramasa strikes again,” Yee said, with a little something in his voice that said he was more than familiar with the bloodthirsty nature of that particular weapon.

Talking around the finger in her mouth, Annja got back to her cover story. “So, how do I tell if my client’s sword is really the Juuchi Yosamu?”

“The first thing I would do is check the
hamon.
If they are identical, front and back, you will have your first bit of proof. Then see if the owner will let you examine the
mei
under magnification or after it has been polished and cleaned. That might help bring out the missing crossbar to confirm it.

“I have to say this, however. If it is the Yosamu, your client is going to be hard-pressed to sell it for what it is worth. That weapon would be considered by many to be a cultural treasure of the Japanese and I, for one, would want to see it returned to its rightful government. It should not be in the hands of a private individual.”

Annja was in total agreement with him. Relieving the Dragon of the sword was her highest priority.

“I couldn’t agree with you more, Dr. Yee,” she said.

That night, Annja dreamed of the Dragon.

She was being hunted through the woods by the scaled beast from which the assassin had derived his nickname and it would only be a matter of moments before the creature found her.

Annja ran frantically through the thick underbrush while behind her the beast closed in. She could hear its breathing, could smell its sulphurous stench, and knew that it was gaining ground faster, that she wouldn’t be able to outrun it.

She ran on until the trail she was following opened up into a canyon in the midst of the woods, a canyon with only one way out.

She was trapped!

A shriek filled the sky around her and sent her heart hammering into overdrive. Slowly Annja turned to face the beast…

She woke up.

It was just a dream, she told herself as her heart beat frantically and she fought to catch her breath.

She was about to roll over and take a sip of water from the glass on her bed stand when she realized that she wasn’t alone.

There was someone in the room with her!

She lay still on the bed, doing what she could to keep her breathing steady, and looked around through eyes that were barely open.

There was a shadowy form off to her right, slowly crossing the room and moving closer to her bed.

Wait, Annja said to herself.

The intruder didn’t make a sound, crossing the floor like a ghost in the night. He stood at the very foot of the bed, looking down at her. Annja could feel the other’s gaze, could see eyes gleaming in the morning half-light. Whoever it was, he was dressed to disguise his appearance, in dark clothing and a hooded mask.

Just as the Dragon and his men had worn back in Paris.

Wait…

As Annja lay there, doing all she could to make it seem as if she were still asleep, the intruder slowly brought a hand out from behind his back, revealing the long gleaming blade in it. Slowly the weapon was raised over the intruder’s head, ready for the strike.

Now!

As the intruder’s sword came whistling down toward where she lay in the bed, Annja threw herself to the side, summoning her own sword as she went.

The intruder’s blade slashed through the mattress of her bed, but Annja wasn’t there any more. She was on her knees beside the bed and was already in motion, her sword swinging toward the other in a well-executed counterattack.

The intruder reacted with lightning-sharp reflexes, dancing backward out of reach of her weapon.

The move, however, gave Annja the space she needed to get to her feet and brace herself for the next attack.

No sooner had she gotten into a defensive stance than the intruder rushed forward. They exchanged several blows, their swords ringing in the early-morning quiet.

Annja lunged, hoping to slip her sword past the other’s guard, but the intruder was too quick for her, jumping on top of the bed and then trying to use the extra foot or so in height he had gained by doing so to his advantage. A vicious overhead stroke nearly took Annja’s arm off at the shoulder; she saved herself only by throwing her body backward out of the way and then was forced to scramble to defend against a blistering rain of blows.

She knew the apartment’s layout instinctively, something the intruder did not, and so she gained a moment’s respite when she managed to put the length of her sofa between them.

That’s when the intruder spoke.

“Give it to me and I’ll let you live.”

The voice was thick and gruff, but obviously disguised as well, and didn’t tell her anything about her opponent.

She didn’t know what the intruder wanted. Nor was she naive enough to believe the offer. If she were to lower her guard for even a moment she’d be run through without hesitation. And then he would be free to do whatever he had come here to do.

Fat chance, buddy.

They circled the room, keeping the furniture between them for the moment, each of them preparing for another onslaught. As they did so, the light from the rising sun shot through the window and illuminated the sword held in the intruder’s hand. Annja’s gaze was immediately drawn to the etching on the blade, just above the hilt.

The etching of a dragon, rampant.

Her eyes widened in shocked recognition and her gaze shifted from the intruder’s sword to his face. He wore a mask, but familiar eyes stared back at her from out of its depths.

She was facing the Dragon for a second time!

The Dragon must have seen the recognition in her eyes, for he suddenly rushed forward, intensifying his efforts to catch her in an error and slip a thrust past her guard.

But she was ready for him this time, and it was actually Annja who drew first blood. She feinted to the left, drawing his thrust, and then spun about, her sword slashing out and drawing a furrow down the length of his thigh.

The scent of fresh blood hit the air.

The Dragon faltered, perhaps surprised at having been so marked, and Annja used that moment to put a little more space between them. She was ready and waiting for the next onslaught when he did a surprising thing.

The Dragon abruptly turned and rushed across the loft, headed for the front door.

By the time Annja had managed to recover from her surprise, the other had made it halfway across the apartment.

Oh, no, you don’t, Annja thought. You’re not getting away that easily.

Annja rushed after the intruder. As she did, she switched the position of the sword in her hands, until she was holding the blade like a spear.

When the intruder was forced to slow down for a second to negotiate the door, which had been closed again behind him, Annja wound up and let fly.

The sword whistled through the air across the remaining space of the apartment.

The intruder managed to get the door partially open and was trying to slip through it just as the sword slammed point first into its surface.

It had been a good throw, and if the door hadn’t come open right at that second, the sword might have buried itself in the intruder’s back. As it was it managed to grab a piece of his sleeve, pinning his arm against the door.

As Annja charged forward, the intruder looked back in her direction, and for the first time she got a good look at the intruder’s face.

Even covered by a hood and mask that left only the eyes free, Annja recognized the face she was staring at. She’d been staring at her drawing of that face for days. She’d been seeing it in her dreams. She had absolutely no doubt that she was gazing at the face of the Dragon.

After all she’d been through trying to find him, she couldn’t let him get away!

The Dragon pulled on his sleeve, trying to free himself, but the sword had driven itself deep into the wood and there was no way he was going to be able to pull himself free.

Annja was closing in fast, thinking she just might reach the door before anything else could happen, when the Dragon raised his sword and brought it down sharply on edge of his sleeve where it was nailed to the door.

As Annja reached for him, he used his now-rescued limb to fling the door open, directly into her path. When she skidded to a stop to keep from colliding with the door, the Dragon slipped through into the hallway beyond.

Rather than spending precious seconds to yank the sword free, Annja simply willed it back into the otherwhere, freeing it from the door.

She followed the intruder into the hallway.

She turned left outside her apartment, assuming her uninvited guest would head for the ground floor, and as a result she lost a few precious seconds before she realized that he had gone the other way, toward the staircase leading to the roof instead.

Annja skidded to a halt and turned around, heading back in the other direction. She could hear footsteps on the stairs, just above her head. By the time she reached the steps, a crash echoed from above. Annja knew that sound; the door to the roof had just been thrown open.

She took the steps two at a time and as she reached the landing above she summoned her sword again.

The door to the rooftop was directly in front of her. She grabbed the handle, said a quick prayer to lady luck, and, yanking the door open, threw herself forward in a somersault onto the rooftop.

The Dragon was standing on the small structure that covered the stairwell door to the roof and would have cut Annja’s head from her shoulders had she gone through the door upright.

Rolling to her feet, Annja realized that she was standing on the rooftop in her pajamas with nothing on her feet while waving a large sword around in the air.

If any of her neighbors caught sight of her…

The Dragon wasn’t waiting around, however. As dawn’s red light burst over the horizon, he was silhouetted there for the briefest of moments and then he jumped off and raced across the rooftop, intent on making the leap to the next building.

Annja gave chase.

The rough surface of the rooftop cut into her feet, but she was so close to catching the Dragon and getting some answers that she wasn’t about to stop. She released her sword, knowing she could call it again. She needed the extra speed she could gain by sending it away.

The edge of the roof loomed ahead of the Dragon.

“W
HAT THE HELL
?”

Dave bolted upright in his chair, frantically rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He had the watch, but apparently he’d dozed off a little because one moment he was watching the darkened windows of Annja Creed’s apartment and the next thing he knew there was a sword battle going on inside.

“Hey, guys! We’ve got a situation in here!”

A moment later the door to the bedroom that served as their observation post burst open and Marco rushed inside, Jessi right on his heels.

“What have we got?” Marco asked.

Dave simply pointed.

The two of them, Annja and whoever the guy in the black mask was, were racing around the bedroom, and not in a good way. It was still pretty dark, the sun just starting to peek over the horizon, but because of their position they had a pretty good view inside the apartment and could see them hacking and slashing away at each other.

Suddenly the intruder made a break for the door and they all watched in near awe as Annja reversed the sword she was using and hurled it, spearlike across the room to pin her opponent in place.

“Son of a… Did you see that?” Dave gasped.

Marco was already headed out the door, rallying the troops as he went. “Code Red!” he yelled. “Code Red.”

They’d worked out a system for all their problems when they had first come together as a team. Code Red was the highest warning level they had, reserved for when a principal was in deep trouble.

Marco stuck his head back in the door to the room where Dave was. “Keep watch,” he said sternly. “Don’t turn this into a fiasco.”

Dave waved him away. “Yeah, yeah, get going!”

As Marco rallied the troops, Dave kept watch. Like Annja had done only moments before, he thought the intruder would go down instead of up.

“They’re on the roof!” Dave yelled when he realized what was happening. Marco and the others charged out the door. Dave couldn’t run, not with a lame leg from a previous operation, so he always got left behind. But this time he didn’t mind, because out of all of them, he was the one with the front-row seat.

He sat back and watched the battle unfold on the rooftop.

Despite the danger to their principal, one thing kept running through his mind.

Damn, does she look good in pajamas!

A
S THE
D
RAGON SPED
toward the edge of the roof, Annja realized his intent. The next building was close enough to reach with a decent leap and it looked as if that was exactly what he intended to try.

If she could catch him when he came down…

Annja reached deep and found a bit more speed, ignoring the added pain she felt as her feet cut deeper into the gravel covering the rooftop.

Worry about your feet later, she told herself.

When the Dragon jumped, Annja was only a step behind.

She slammed into him in midleap and rode his body down onto the adjacent rooftop. The impact knocked her clear, but she was up again in a heartbeat, already moving in with hands and feet at the ready.

The Dragon stood and Annja waded in, throwing a jab, uppercut, jab combination, but the Dragon blocked all three. He lashed out with a side kick, designed to cave in a rib or two, but Annja skipped away and his foot hit only empty air.

They circled each other, hands weaving back and forth, both a distraction and a means to stay loose, ready to respond no matter what the strike.

This time it was the Dragon who attacked first, coming in hard and fast with a wave of punches followed by a high kick to the head. Annja blocked the punches and then dropped to the ground, swinging her legs around in a scything motion, trying to cut the Dragon’s feet out from under him. Anticipating the move, the Dragon leaped over backward in a somersault that put him a few feet away from her.

Again they closed, trading blow after blow. Annja blocked most of what came at her, though a few strikes did manage to get through. She took one to the ribs and then caught a glancing blow off the side of the head that momentarily stunned her.

She shook it off, but the damage was done. That blow had given the Dragon a few precious seconds to break away and start the run for the next rooftop.

Doggedly, Annja went in pursuit.

M
ARCO AND THE REST
of the surveillance team spilled out onto the street, headed for Annja’s building. They kept looking upward, waiting for one of the combatants to make a wrong move and end up splattered on the sidewalk after a four-story fall.

Back in the observation room, Dave continued to give them the play-by-play over the radio.

T
HE
D
RAGON REACHED THE
edge of the roof and jumped. He did it without hesitation, without a second thought, and so Annja followed suit.