The Way Of The Dragon (35 page)

‘I was just about to do
your
job,’ he said disdainfully, lowering the gun. ‘But now you’re here, you can finish what I paid you to do.’

Dragon Eye slipped from the shadows.

Jack felt an icy slither of fear run down his spine. He was trapped between his two worst enemies. Knowing the pain Dragon Eye could inflict upon him, he now wished Father Bobadillo
had
shot him.

‘So the
rutter
has been decoded. Entirely?’ enquired the ninja.

‘Of course! I wouldn’t have ordered you to kill the boy otherwise.’

Father Bobadillo rolled his eyes in exasperation.

‘Good,’ replied Dragon Eye.

Ignoring Jack, the ninja approached Father Bobadillo.

‘Then I’ll take the
rutter
,’ he stated, holding out his hand.

‘What?’ exclaimed Father Bobadillo, his manner now indignant. ‘Are you out of your mind?’

The ninja gave a single shake of his head. ‘
Daimyo
Kamakura has need of it.’

‘But you stole it for
me
,’ snarled Father Bobadillo.

‘Now I’m stealing it back,’ replied Dragon Eye.

Jack glared at the priest. The man must have been lying about his father. The
real
thief was Father Bobadillo.

‘You can’t. It’s mine. I paid you for it,’ he protested. Then, pointing an accusative finger at Dokugan Ryu, he growled, ‘I also paid you to kill the boy.’

Jack could see Father Bobadillo was trying to regain control of the situation by diverting the ninja’s attention from the
rutter
back to him.

‘His time will come,’ replied Dragon Eye, giving Jack a cursory glance. ‘But not before yours.’

The ninja took a step towards the priest. Jack couldn’t believe it. The assassin had turned on his paymaster.

‘Stop,’ exclaimed Father Bobadillo, his eyes widening in terror. ‘I’ll give you whatever you want. Money, jewels, guns…’

The priest threw his shoulder bag on the table, its contents scattering across the surface. Glittering gemstones and silver coins cascaded to the floor.

Dragon Eye shook his head in disgust, unmoved by the priest’s pleas.

‘
Daimyo
Kamakura is offering
far
more than you, a pitiful excuse for a priest, could ever give me.’

‘Whatever it is, I’ll double it, treble it,’ said Father Bobadillo in desperation.

‘Highly unlikely, considering you’re on the losing side,’ sneered Dragon Eye. ‘He’s promising me Yamagata Castle and a return to power.’

Jack’s mind flashed back to the old woman’s story in the temple.

‘So you
are
Hattori Tatsuo?’ he breathed.

Dragon Eye’s head snapped round, his single green eye boring into Jack.

‘You
really
should be a ninja!’ he hissed. ‘I need a spy like you.’

‘But… but Masamoto-sama chopped your head off!’ stuttered Jack, staring at Dokugan Ryu in disbelief.

‘Yes, he did,’ laughed Dragon Eye cruelly. ‘At least, he thought he did. That murdering samurai actually killed my shadow.’

‘Your shadow?’ said Jack, utterly bemused.

‘A
kagemusha
. A Shadow Warrior,’ explained Dragon Eye, humouring him. ‘I came across a man who looked identical to me. Apart from having two eyes, of course. But I soon remedied that. He was more than willing to become my shadow in return for sparing the lives of his family. So you see, your almighty Masamoto actually killed an innocent man.’

Jack was astounded at the ninja’s cunning and cold-blooded nature.

‘Clever, but ultimately futile,’ sneered Father Bobadillo, now aiming the gun at Dragon Eye.

As he fired, the ninja instinctively leapt aside.

The bullet cracked into the wooden panel behind.

Dragon Eye charged at Father Bobadillo, striking him with the tips of his fingers in rapid succession. The priest’s face froze into an expression of total panic, his eyes rolling in their sockets. He was completely paralysed.

‘Samurai might not be able to avoid bullets, but ninja can,’ whispered Dragon Eye into his victim’s ear.

Father Bobadillo was now juddering slightly, a wet choking sound issuing from his lips. His breath rattled in his chest and his skin burst out in red patches.

‘You no doubt recognize these symptoms,
gaijin
.’

Dim Mak
. Jack wouldn’t wish the Death Touch on anyone, even his worst enemy. In a previous encounter with Dragon Eye, Jack had personally experienced its crushing agony. The burning sensation that grew like a forest fire in the veins. The feeling of the heart trying to punch its way through flesh and bone. The tight constricting suffocation as the lungs began to fail. The pressure building and building until eventually the victim’s heart burst within his chest.

‘Unlike you, I doubt he’ll survive,’ said Dragon Eye, lifting up Father Bobadillo’s lolling head by the hair.

The priest’s eyes were now bulbous and streaked dark red.

Jack heard a distant pop like a stone being thrown into a pond. A moment later, blood spewed out of the Jesuit’s mouth.

Father Bobadillo crumpled to the floor like a rag doll.

Sickened by his enemy’s gruesome death, Jack forced himself to act, before he became the ninja’s next victim. Snatching the
rutter
from the table, he sprinted out of the study into the prayer room.

To his right was the closed
shoji
, while to his left the door beside the altar was open.

With Dragon Eye hot on his heels, he fled through the open door.

Entering a deserted corridor, Jack realized he’d discovered Father Bobadillo’s private access to his lordship Satoshi. The floor was laid with fine
tatami
mats and the walls richly decorated. This section was also isolated from the rest of the keep, with only a flight of stairs leading upwards.

Dashing up the staircase, Jack could hear the soft pad of the ninja’s footsteps closing in on him.

Cannonshot shrieked through the air and fireballs whizzed by, almost scorching Jack’s skin as he stood upon the balcony overlooking all of Osaka. On any other day the view from the top tower would have been magnificent, reaching far beyond the city, over the Tenno-ji Plain to the sparkling ocean itself.

But on this night, all Jack could see was devastation and destruction. Fires raged throughout the castle compounds. Bodies littered the burning ramparts. The enemy swarmed over broken battlements, firing cannon and arquebuses at the stronghold of the keep. Below, the Red Devils had smashed their way through the last gateway into the inner courtyard. They were now engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat, as Satoshi’s troops made their final stand.

By contrast, the private meeting chamber on the
donjon
‘s eighth floor was a haven of peace. The room, lit by elegant free-standing oil lamps, was exquisitely decorated in gold leaf and framed by dark wooden beams. A mural of samurai lords adorned the walls, showing them hunting, meditating and enjoying tea beneath leafy green trees, all scenes recalling a more harmonious episode in Japanese life.

When Jack had reached Satoshi’s personal chamber on the seventh floor, he’d discovered the ruler-in-waiting and all his retainers dead. There had been no sign of a struggle, but the
tatami
was soaked through with their blood and beside each of them lay a
wakizashi
. Realizing his forces faced defeat, Satoshi had taken the only honourable course of action available to a vanquished samurai lord. He’d committed
seppuku
. Bound by duty, his retainers had followed him into death, ritually disembowelling themselves with their own swords.

‘Your time has come,’ said Dragon Eye, appearing in the chamber behind Jack. ‘Hand over the
rutter
.’

‘No!’ said Jack, defiantly slipping the logbook into his pack.

‘I don’t intend to disappoint
daimyo
Kamakura. Give it to me now!’

‘If you
really
are Tatsuo,’ challenged Jack, ‘why are you helping
daimyo
Kamakura? He betrayed you at Nakasendo.’

‘It’s a decision he regrets,’ replied Dragon Eye gravely. ‘But he’s made amends by waging war for me.’

‘For
you
?’ exclaimed Jack in astonishment.

Dragon Eye gave a self-satisfied nod.

‘But this war’s about expelling Christians and foreigners from Japan.’

‘For
daimyo
Kamakura it is,’ replied Dragon Eye. ‘For me, it is about revenge.’

‘Against whom?’

‘Masamoto,’ said the ninja, spitting the name with venom.

‘You must be mad!’ said Jack, stunned by the revelation. ‘You’ve dragged Japan into civil war for a
personal
vendetta?’

‘
THAT
SAMURAI
KILLED
MY SON!’ shouted Dragon Eye, his icy calm demeanour breaking for the first time.

‘And you murdered
his
son, Tenno!’ shot back Jack.

‘An eye for an eye,’ replied the ninja, regaining his composure. ‘But that’s not nearly enough. His lord, his family, his beloved school, his entire samurai way of life must be destroyed. I won’t kill
him
, though. Masamoto must suffer the torment I’ve had to endure all these years. He’ll spend the rest of his life grieving for all that he’s lost. And I will
finally
have my revenge.’

Jack realized Sensei Yamada had been right that time in the Zen garden two years ago when he’d told him that revenge was self-defeating. It had eaten away at the ninja until there was nothing left – but hate.

‘Now give me the
rutter
,’ demanded Dragon Eye.

‘Never!’ said Jack, reaching for his swords.

He’d decided to take a stand. There would be no more running. No more hiding. It was indeed his time. Jack was ready to face his nemesis, once and for all.

‘I’ve no quarrel with you,
gaijin
,’ said the ninja, all of a sudden changing tack. ‘In fact, I’ve come to admire you. So I’ll give you one last chance. Hand over the
rutter
and I’ll let you live.’

In spite of the proposal, Dragon Eye still unsheathed a fearsome
ninjatō
from the
saya
upon his back.

Kuro Kumo
.

Black Cloud. The last and greatest sword to be forged by Kunitome. The steel shimmered in the reflected light of the castle’s fires, the
hamon
on its blade swirling like a thunderstorm of clouds.

‘My final offer,’ he growled. ‘Join me. I’ll teach you the Way of the Ninja.’

‘I’d never become a ninja!’ retorted Jack, almost laughing out loud at the idea. ‘Masamoto’s no murderer.
You
are.
You
killed my father.
You
will always be my enemy.’

‘So be it,’ said Dragon Eye.

With lightning speed, Black Cloud cut through the air.

Drawing both his swords, Jack rushed to stop Dragon Eye slicing him from head to toe. He cross-blocked the
ninjatō
between the blades of his
wakizashi
and
katana
. In the flickering light, the name etched into the steel of his swords glinted in direct challenge to Black Cloud.

Shizu.

Dragon Eye snarled his frustration and kicked Jack in the chest. Jack went flying backwards, crashing against the rail of the balcony. Below him, the war raged on as Dragon Eye advanced on him, wheeling the
ninjatō
in a lethal arc towards his neck.

Jack blocked the attack with his
katana
, letting the force of the blow whip his own blade round in a counterstrike at Dragon Eye’s head. The assassin ducked, dropping into a spinning leg sweep. He caught Jack’s ankle and sent him crashing to the floor. Dragon Eye jumped into the air. Jack rolled out of the way as the ninja drove the shaft of his sword down at Jack’s chest. Black Cloud pierced the decking as if the wood were no thicker than paper.

Flipping to his feet, Jack went on the attack. He cut across with his
wakizashi
, at the same time slicing down with his
katana
. Dragon Eye backflipped out of danger. But he was forced to retreat under Jack’s unrelenting onslaught. Feverishly blocking the blur of blades, he was driven across the chamber. Jack almost had him backed into a corner when the ninja kicked over a lamp, sending flaming oil across the floor. The
tatami
caught alight in an instant and flames began to lick the walls, blistering the painted mural.

‘Masamoto has taught you well,’ sneered Dragon Eye, circling away from Jack and the spreading fire. ‘But the Two Heavens will only prolong your inevitable death.’

The ninja thrust forward, almost impaling Jack through the heart. Jack deflected the strike at the last moment and countered with his
wakizashi
, catching Dragon Eye across the chest and slicing through the ninja’s clothing. A line of blood appeared. Though the cut wasn’t deep, Dragon Eye glanced down in surprise that he’d been wounded at all.

Jack, taking advantage of the ninja’s lapse in concentration, sliced upwards with his
katana
. Dragon Eye’s reactions were razor sharp, and he leant away from the lethal blade, bending like a reed in the wind.

But he wasn’t quite fast enough.

The
kissaki
of Jack’s sword cut through the hood of the ninja’s
shinobi shozoku
.

Until that moment Dragon Eye had always been a faceless one-eyed nightmare to Jack. Now the assassin stood before him, exposed.

Hattori Tatsuo might have been a handsome man, for he possessed a strong jawline and well-defined cheekbones, worthy of admiration at any lordly court in Japan. His face, though, was a terrible sight to behold. Ravaged by the smallpox of his youth, the skin was horrifically scarred with lesions as if the flesh had rotted away. And, where his poxed eye had once been, was now a ragged black hole.

Dragon Eye glared at Jack with his remaining green eye.

‘To look upon my face is to look upon death itself,’ he snarled. ‘Die, young samurai!’

Attacking Jack with insane ferocity, he slashed with Black Cloud, seeking to decapitate him. Jack brought his
katana
across to block the strike.