The Claws stayed close to us, forming a tighter circle around Hiroko and me.
What sort of trap is this, Father? And what are you hoping to get or learn?
The three Scales slowed their pace and checked the walls, the floor, and the ceiling.
“Reo.” I looked at him. “Be ready to give the Scales at the kill box the signal. My gut says we’ll need that distraction.”
Reo pressed his mic and spoke into it. “Is everyone in position?”
That Scale responded on the other side, “Yes, sir. All are pointing their guns at the Fox’s men.”
“Good. Wait for the command.”
“Yes, sir.”
We watched the three Scales ahead of us continue forward.
And when, they got within five feet of the door, the world exploded.
Fuck!
The blast was deafening. Fire erupted from the floor, the walls, the ceiling. And even though so far from us, the force threw us backward.
I hit the ground hard.
My ears rang.
My vision blurred.
Smoke filled the hallway.
I pushed myself up on my hands and looked toward where the three Scales had been.
The hallway was gone.
A crater gaped in the floor where the stone had been, edges blackened and jagged. Flames licked up the walls. Smoke rolled across the ceiling in thick dark waves.
And the three Scales. . .
There were no bodies.
Just pieces.
A hand—still gripping a gun—lay against the far wall, severed clean above the wrist. A boot sat upright near the crater's edge, and I could tell from the weight of it that the foot was still inside. Fragments of bone were embedded in the stone walls like shrapnel, pale white against the black scorch marks.
Blood was everywhere. Not pooled—sprayed. Across the ceiling. Across the walls. Across the floor in a wide, dark arc that reached almost to where we'd been standing.
Three men.
Gone.
With not even enough left to carry home.
“Goddamn it. He put a mine down there.” I felt Hiro's hand on my shoulder as he got his footing.
“Must have been a pressure mine embedded under the carpet.” Hiro looked at me. “Are you okay, Kenji?”
“Yes.”
