My mind screamed one thought over and over.
The Butcher gave him mines and bombs too.
The smoke was still rolling when I turned to Reo.
His face was cut. Blood ran from a gash above his eyebrow where debris had caught him. He was already on his feet, one hand pressed to his earpiece, the other gripping his gun.
I gritted my teeth. "Trigger the kill box."
Reo pressed his mic. "Kill them all. Now."
The response came back immediately, clipped and ready. "Copy. Executing."
Far off in those glass-walled rooms bathed in red light, the Fox's commanders were about to die mid-stroke. Every branded man who'd been too busy fucking to think about war was about to learn that the war had come anyway.
Good. You almost got me, Father. But best believe I’ve damn sure got you.
I pictured it—glass shattering in every corridor, Scales pouring through with knives and suppressed rounds, commanders caught naked and tangled, reaching for guns they'd never touch.
Some would die on top of the women they'd been inside.
Some would die on the floor, scrambling for pants they'd never pull up.
None of them would make it to a radio.
You scored, but I’m scoring too, you son of a bitch.
Every dead commander was a piece my father couldn't move anymore. And I damned sure wanted him running out of pieces.
Still, that explosion just announced us. Every advantage we had—the silence, the surprise, the invisibility—was gone.
Burned up in the same blast that took my Scales.
The Fox now knew his trap had been sprung. He knew we were here, knew we were alive, knew we were coming.
Which meant his next move was already in motion.
His other guards would be mobilizing and every man with a fox brand in this underground maze was about to get a radio call telling them to stop fucking and start killing.
“We’re done here.” I headed off in the other direction. “We have to get the fuck out of Yoshiwara.”
Chapter thirty-eight
The Wet Room
Kenji
Hiroko was shaking, but still had a steady voice. “I know another way out.”
“Show us.” Rage blazed through me.
Thank God, Hiroko had stopped us. Hiro and I might have died.
And it would have been one of the Butcher’s mines.
It was one thing for Jean-Pierre to set up the call with my father to lead me to a trap. That would be fair game since I was monitoring him against our world’s rules.
But to provide the weapons to kill my brother and me, that was different.
