The Lost Scroll of Fudo Shin (27 page)

“It’s relatively safe.  I don’t think Tak will sell us out unless he has to.  But it’s always a good idea to never let your guard down.  I haven’t been here in years and things could have changed.”

Jimmy nodded, but kept his eyes roaming around the restaurant.  So much so, that a few times he missed his mouth when he was driving a forkful of food into it.  

Vanessa smiled.  “Stay relaxed.  Otherwise you’ll just draw attention to us.  And sitting where we are, that’s not a good idea.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t you notice that Tak seated us in the furthest, deepest part of the restaurant?  We’re about as far away from the font door as it’s possible to get in here.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Just his way of exerting control over the situation.  He’s letting me know that he’s in charge without having to be rude and say it bluntly.”

“Gee, what a guy.”

Vanessa smiled and went back to eating.  “This is the nature of dealing with people like him in our line of work.”

Jimmy shrugged.  “Well, he might think he’s smart, but he’s not above making mistakes.”

“Is that so?”

Jimmy grinned.  “Sure.  He might have positioned us far away from the front door but he gave us another option.”

Vanessa set her fork down and looked at Jimmy.  “And what option would that be, pray tell.”

Jimmy thumbed toward the doors Tak had disappeared through.  “I’m assuming that’s the kitchen back there?”

“It is.”

“And won’t a kitchen have a door so they can receive supplies through it?”  He grinned.  “We can just go through that if we need to.”

Vanessa smiled.  “I knew there was something I liked about you, mate.”

“Just one thing?”

Vanessa laughed.  “Finish your food.  We need to figure out or next step.”

“The temple.”

“Right.”

“We could ask Tak.”

Vanessa nodded.  “Yes we could.  But do we really want him knowing what we’re looking for?”

“Uh…probably not.”

“Exactly.”  Vanessa winked at him and they continued eating long enough for Jimmy to suddenly notice the entrance of a group of men into Take’s restaurant.

“Vanessa.”

She caught the tone in his voice and looked up immediately.  “Good thing you thought about the kitchen.”

“Yeah, they don’t look all that hungry.”

She smirked.  “Well, not for Tak's cooking anyway.”

Chapter Thirty

“How many do you make?”

Jimmy took another glance and saw the three that had seated themselves at the bar and the two that remained closer to the front door.  Beyond that, he couldn’t make out anything else in the gloom.

“Maybe five.”

Vanessa nodded.  “Agreed.  I don’t much like those odds.”

Jimmy took a sip of his drink and felt his heart beating faster.  “You think it would be better if maybe we ducked out the back while no one’s looking?”

Vanessa frowned.  “I’d love a word with that traitorous scumbag Tak before we leave.  He probably called them while we were waiting for the food.”

“No time right now,” said Jimmy.  “We can always come back later and settle up with Tak.”

Vanessa sighed.  “You’re right.  But those guys aren’t going to just let us sashay out of here.  We’ll need a diversion.”

Jimmy stared at the crowded bar.  It was filled with a motley crew of regulars and grizzled mountaineers, all drinking heavily.  It was a fair bet that a lot of them would be unsteady on their feet and also easily annoyed.  But how to get them to the point where they’d pick a fight with someone else?

“What are you thinking, Jimmy?”

But Jimmy had already fished the pencil out of his parka.  The tip was still in good shape, but blunt enough not to do any real damage.  Vanessa watched him carefully.

“Jimmy?”

“Hang on a sec.”

The distance to the closest target was about twelve feet.  If he threw it just right, the tip would stick into the side of the guy’s neck beneath his ear before it bounced away.  If he did it right, the guy would turn and look at the guy next to him as the guilty party.

He hoped.

“I don’t know about this,” said Vanessa.

But Jimmy was already rearing back in his seat.  He threw the pencil end over end, whipping it across the restaurant.  In the dim light, the pencil was invisible.

And when it struck, the result was almost instantaneous.  With a roar, the guy he’d hit wheeled around on the fellow sitting next to him.  With a grunt he shoved the guy while rubbing the underside of his ear.

This proceeded to cause a line of disturbances that ran down the bar.  People started shoving each other.  And then a beer glass was toppled and several bottles broken as people squared off to fight.  

Tak came running out of the kitchen, surveyed the scene and started shouting for everyone to calm down.  But an angry assortment of bar patrons formed two walls of simmering anger.  They started to shove each other and then the punches started to fly.

“Time to leave now,” said Vanessa quietly.  She eased off her seat and Jimmy followed.

They pushed through the doors to the kitchen revealing a different cacophony of noise and mayhem.  Cooks shouted orders to sous chefs and line cooks.  Pots and pan clattered, knives clanged as they chopped and sliced.

Vanessa led them past the cook line, attracting a verbal artillery barrage from the head chef.  Vanessa bowed her head and kept them moving until at last they were just about to exit the rear kitchen door.

“Vanessa!”

Jimmy whirled in time to see Tak standing back at the doorway, hands on his hips, anger all over his face.  Behind him, Jimmy could just make out the shadows of the men who had come into the restaurant.

“Time to go, Jimmy!”

But as Vanessa led them out of the kitchen, Tak started running forward and three men came running behind him.  They’d catch them in no time unless Jimmy did something.

One of the kitchen helpers was wheeling a cart full of prepared vegetables and meats.  Jimmy grabbed it away and sent it rattling down the aisle at full speed toward Tak and the men.

Tak saw it and managed to leap aside, but two of the men following weren’t so lucky.  They collided with the heavy metal cart and went down.

The third jumped over the counter and managed to grab a knife from one of the chefs.  As he leaped for Jimmy, he turned the knife over so it was aiming directly at Jimmy’s heart.

Jimmy flipped his hanbo up and at the wrist holding the knife.  It made impact and if it hadn’t been for all the other noise in the restaurant, he felt sure he would have heard the bones snap in the wrist.

The man landed and instantly clutched his useless hand.  Jimmy backhanded the hanbo up into his face, cracking the heavy stick right across the man’s throat.  He went down and Jimmy turned to flee into the shadowy alley outside of the restaurant.

Vanessa grabbed him as he ran past her.  She’d been waiting in a nook he hadn’t spotted.  “Get your head down and stay quiet.”

Jimmy ducked, trying to get his breathing back under control.  He glanced at Vanessa who seemed unfazed by the battle at the restaurant.  She smiled at him.  “You all done playing around with those guys?”

“Just trying to give us some breathing room.”

She nodded.  “Well, we’ve got bigger problems right now.”

“We do?”

She pointed.  “Look.”

Jimmy saw the front of the restaurant.  Five more men were positioned all around it.  They’d effectively bottled up the entire place.

“How come they haven’t sent anyone down here yet?”  

Vanessa shrugged.  “Maybe waiting for the guys inside to flush us out.”

“Well, that’s what they’re going to do if we stay here.”

Vanessa glanced up.  The brick wall next to them was roughly twelve feet high.  “We could go over this, but there’s a chance we’ll draw their attention.”

Jimmy frowned.  “I don’t think we have much of a choice.  Time’s running out.”

She eyed him.  “You go first.  I’ll give you ten fingers.”

“Right.”

He stepped into Vanessa’s hand and she shoved him skyward.  Jimmy kept his body pressed flat against the wall until he could just reach his fingers over the lip of the wall and then he pulled himself up and over, bearing in mind the need to keep his silhouette close to the wall as much as possible.

He reached one hand back down and Vanessa grabbed it with both of her hands.  “Fall back over the other side and you’ll bring me over with you.”

Jimmy leaned his body weight back and felt gravity reaching for him.  He toppled back and then felt Vanessa coming with him.  She reached the top of the wall and then swung herself over.

Jimmy landed in a parallel alley and then Vanessa dropped down next to him.  “We can’t stay here.  Let’s get cracking.”

The Thamel nightlife still bustled as they exited the alley.  From the other side of the wall, Jimmy heard the muffled shouts.  “Looks like they just discovered we’re not where they expected us to be.”

Vanessa grabbed his hand.  “We’ve got to move!”

They ducked down past the pushcarts and the vendors hawking their wares.  A moped went buzzing past them, blaring its horn.  Vanessa wheeled and Jimmy got momentarily dizzy.

He heard the gunshot erupt over the din of the chaotic nightlife scene.  He ducked instinctively but knew that by the time he heard the shot, the bullet was already well past him.

They’d missed.

That time.

“Looks like they’re not taking chances this time,” said Vanessa.  She huddled near the wheel of one of the pushcarts.  “We’ve got to find that temple.  It’s the only place that will help us now.”

“Any ideas?”

“None.”

“Well, let’s go that way.”

Vanessa eyed him.  “What makes you say that?”

Jimmy smirked.  “Because all the bad guys are behind us.  This is the only way we can go without running into them.”

“You lead,” said Vanessa.  “I’ll follow.  If we get separated, don’t stop for me.  Just get to safety.”

Jimmy frowned.  “I’m not leaving you.”

Vanessa shoved him forward.  “Keep your head down, Jimmy.  And I’m not asking you to do what I said.  I’m telling you.  I’m not the important one here.  You are.”

Jimmy shook his head.  She was being crazy.  But he kept his head down and wove his way through the legs of tourists and peddlers.  An intersection beckoned ahead and he knew he had a choice.

Left or right?

He closed his eyes hoping to hear Goro’s voice telling him which way to go.

But Goro wasn’t anywhere around him now.

Jimmy frowned.  

And chose left.

Another gunshot rang out, splintering bits of masonry off the wall closest to Jimmy’s head.  He ducked his head and winced as a piece of concrete lanced his cheek scoring a line of blood down his face.

Where was the temple?

Jimmy zigzagged his way down the street, trying to put as many obstacles between them and their pursuers as possible.

He heard another gunshot now.

They were closing in.

From behind him, he heard Vanessa’s voice.  “We can’t keep this up, they’re going to triangulate our position and get us both.”

Jimmy looked back at her, but then Vanessa wheeled away to the left suddenly.  He caught the expression on her face.  For the first time since he’d known her, he saw a sliver of fear cutting across her usually calm demeanor.

She glanced at him.  “Go that way, Jimmy.  I’ll catch up.  Promise.”

Jimmy started to shake his head.  But Vanessa cut him of.  “Do as I say!  Go, Jimmy, go!”

He turned back and sprinted down the street now.  He didn’t care any longer about staying low.  Speed was his best option.

More car horns blared as he ran.  He dashed across the street and almost got nailed by a rickshaw.  He whirled and then threw himself into the closest throng of people.

He didn’t risk a look back now.  Vanessa was experienced enough to look after herself.

He hoped.

It was the first time he’d been separated from her.  Fear wound its way up through his entire core.  He took a series of deep breaths and settled himself down, ducking in for a brief respite in a small indentation in a wall.

The temple.  He had to find it.

Goro had told them they’d know it by sight, which meant that it would presumably have the same symbol on its walls somewhere.  All Jimmy had to do was search the city and find it.

Easy.

He frowned.

And amid the craziness of the bustling nightlife, he felt the danger coming next.  He glanced around and saw the two men striding straight at him from across the street.  One of them had a pistol down by his side.  The other was holding a wicked looking curved knife that looked more like a machete.

Time to go.

Jimmy ran down the nearest alley.

Behind him, he could hear the running footsteps of his pursuers.  Off the street, they no longer cared if anyone saw them tearing after a boy of fourteen.  Another bullet splanged off the wall close by Jimmy.  Brick fragments blew off into the air and Jimmy felt another cut on his cheek.

He reached the end of the alley and turned right.

And then ran straight for twelve feet.

Before the alley ended.

Dead end.

He turned back but then froze.

The two men stood thirty feet away.  They’d stopped running.

But they were still heading right for Jimmy.

Chapter Thirty-One

There was nowhere to go.  

Jimmy felt the wall pushing into his back, his hand scrabbled over the bricks but found nothing he could use.  He had his hanbo and that was it.

So he was surprised when the alley exploded into a bright flash of white smoke and a thunderous boom and then he found a rope dangled in front of his face.  A harsh whisper in his ear said, “Grab the rope and be quick about it.”

Jimmy felt for the rope and the instant he gripped it, he felt himself lifted skyward.  He crested the wall and then vanished over the other side.

Instantly, a black hood was yanked over his eyes and he felt himself bundled up and tossed into the back of a rickshaw.  There was plenty of hurried movement and whispered muttering.  Then he felt the rickshaw jerk as it started forward.