Page 6 of Dragon 7

For one second, his face was bare. The Dragon was gone. The hardness was gone. Whatever he had become over the years had slipped off his face and what was left was the brother who had carried me on his back when I was five.

The brother who had decided that he would always love and protect me.

Kenji leaned his head to the side. “Are you okay?”

“Of course.”

“Good.”

I paused. “And you?”

“I’ve got a call to make.”

“Hard one?”

“Yes.”

“To our Tiger.”

“I already called my Tiger.”

“Then, who will you call now?”

The Dragon mask came back, and he looked down at the phone again. “A monster.”

“A big one?”

“Yes.”

“Good. We need all the monsters we can get tonight.” I left the war room and stepped onto its rarely used balcony.

Cool air brushed over my skin, grounding me. The full moon hung high above the trees, silver-white and patient. Beyond the terrace railing, the island still moved.

A truck rumbled past on the gravel road below with men in the back loading magazines. A voice shouted in Japanese about ammunition counts. A child cried in a corridor far below. A woman screamed something that broke off mid-syllable.

A radio crackled.

Boots pounded.

A whistle blew somewhere down the south path.

But all this noise was still better than the smiling ghosts haunting me inside.

I walked to the far end of the balcony, where the moonlight could not reach. Then, I put my back against the cold stone of the mansion wall, raised my shaking hands to my new locket, and pulled it out from beneath my bulletproof vest.

How did Nyomi know I needed this?

I trembled.

My Tiger. . .

The locket pressed warm against my hand.

A boom rolled across the trees. The terrace railing rattled. Somewhere on the south path, a man yelled, and another man yelled back.

I slid down the wall until I crouched, and for several minutes. . .I stared at the locket.

The chain slid through my fingers. The gold oval rested against my palm. The Great Wave off Kanagawa was exquisitely painted across the front in foam and curling currents.