swords were raised above their heads. A loud noise startled them both-it was an alarm.
“There’s been a breach,” yelled one of the white-coats.
“What?” said Marx.
Fox, although his hands were still tied, threw himself into Parris to knock them both down the stairs. As he hit the bottom of the stairs, a surge of pain shot through his dislocated arm and through his ribs, but that was the least of his concerns. All he wanted to know was if the ninjas were after them. When he looked back, they were all staring at the entrance to the Op-Center. The executioners were no different, and they both lowered their swords simultaneously. Then they ran down the stairs, past Fox and Parris, to join the other ninjas.
Parris stayed on the ground as she looked over at Fox. “You had this planned all along? Were you ever going to tell me?”
“I had to improvise.” Fox looked back at her. “I’m just glad that it worked out. The cavalry’s picked up the signal from your phone. Oh yeah, there’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Stay low. This is going to get ugly.”
Parris’s eyes widened in panic as she looked past Fox. “Look out!”
Fox turned his head the other way and caught a glimpse of Marx aiming her Beretta at both of them. In a spontaneous reflex, Fox pushed hard with his legs to throw himself on top of Parris. But he was too late-the shot had already been fired. Fox didn’t feel anything hit him, and it horrified him. Parris was already on her back, her eyes shut.
“Oh, my God! Parris. Parris!” No, this can’t be happening.
Parris blinked repeatedly before they opened, and she coughed a few times. He stared down into her eyes, his face only inches away from hers.
“I’m all right. I’m not hit,” she muttered.
A huge tension unleashed itself all over his body and he rolled off of Parris. It then occurred to him-Dr. Marx was still armed. When he turned around to look at her, she struggled to maintain her balance. Her legs then buckled under her, and she collapsed to the ground. To Fox’s disbelief, he saw Tanaka on one knee, half conscious, struggling to maintain his own balance when the Sig dropped from his hand. Then he too collapsed.
Parris crawled over and untied Fox’s hands. The first gas canisters fell around them and burst into smoke. Fox again threw himself on top of Parris. Screams erupted from everywhere, but most frantically from the corner where the cultists were. Gunfire soon followed. Fox cried out desperately to the cultists to get on the floor and to lie still. How many of them heard him he didn’t know.
Parris crawled over and held onto Fox tightly, burying her head into his chest.
Chapter 37
“What are you thinking of now?” Fox turned to Parris, as they sat beside each other in the doorway of one of the four Japanese army helicopters parked beside the Hexagon helicopters.
“Huh?”
“You seem deep in thought.”
“I am…I mean…I was. So much has happened.”
“True, but at least you still have all your functional body parts.” Fox motioned with his chin, towards his right arm in its sling. He had been given another shirt, that he left unbuttoned, leaving his bandage-wrapped torso exposed.
Parris looked at his bandages, the sling, and his single crutch. She reached up to his head and brushed down a few strands of his hair to cover the bruise on his forehead. “There. That’s better.”
Just then, three corpses were wheeled by on stretchers. Fox watched the three military emergency medical technicians as they went by. One of them looked directly at him and nodded, and Fox did the same. It was only after he passed, that Fox had the odd feeling that he had seen him someplace before.
“I’m going to miss Levickis’s sarcasm,” said Parris.
“He didn’t die for nothing. It’s hard for me, too. Dobbs was a great guy once you got used to him, and who would’ve thought that Walsh would turn? The things money can do to a person.”
“People don’t necessarily change…we just get to know them better. Take you, for instance.”
“What? You didn’t think I was a nice guy before you got to know me?”
“Well-”
“Mr. Fox, Dr. Parris,” a man from the Japanese army interrupted them. “I’m Captain Isao Sugisaka of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force. It’s an honor to meet both of you.”
“Same here,” they replied simultaneously.
“I almost gave up hope that you’d arrive on time,” said Parris.
“I apologize,” Sugisaka replied. “We were a bit delayed. Tanaka wasn’t the only one in the Boeisho that Marx got to. That slowed down our response time, after Tanaka contacted us with this location. We also received intel from your people who gave us the exact location of your cell phone.”
Fox looked around him. “Speaking of Hashimoto, I didn’t see him among the captured.”
“He was one of several who resisted. You probably didn’t see because of the smoke, but he was armed. My men had no choice but to shoot him.” As Sugisaka said this, several more stretchers with black bags were wheeled by. “Fortunately, all of the cult members, and Tanaka, were among the survivors, but none of the ninjas made it. They fought honorably to the very last man.”
“How’s Tanaka?” Fox asked.
“I’m quite alive,” came a reply.
All three of them looked over and saw Tanaka being rolled out on a stretcher. Tanaka raised his left hand slightly as they came in front of the helicopter, and the EMTs stopped rolling him.
Fox grabbed his crutch and slid out of the helicopter. He limped over and stood beside Tanaka. “It’s good to have you back.”
“No.” Tanaka shook his head briefly. “ Thank you for bringing me back, or else we wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
Fox smiled. “True, and no more sake either.”
Tanaka smiled and was carried away. Captain Sugisaka went with him to one of the Air Self-Defense medical helicopters.
Parris got out of the helicopter and walked up to Fox. “So, how did you bring Tanaka back?”
Fox smirked. “The ringtone on your cell. Tanaka was at a Tchaikovsky recital when he got news that his daughter had died. I was hoping to run into him first, so I searched through the ringtones of your phone and set it up to play Tchaikovsky. After he made me walk ahead of him at gunpoint, I reminded him that he had forgotten the Beretta in my ankle holster. What he didn’t expect was for me to hand him your cell phone instead, and I made it ring. Of course, it still took some talk to break him, just as it did you.”
“He must have been clarified recently,” said Parris. “Or else you would’ve had more trouble bringing him back.”
Fox reached into his pants pocket and handed Parris her cell phone. “Here you go. Still in one piece.”
“Thanks.” She took her phone and dropped it in her pants pocket, since she no longer had her belt clip. “Oh yeah, thanks for shielding me back there.”
“Huh?”
“You don’t remember? Marx was about to shoot at us and you threw yourself on top of me.”
“Oh yeah, that. You scared me for a second when you didn’t move. I thought I lost you.”
“Of course I didn’t move right away-you knocked the wind out of me.”
“Sorry about that. It was a reflex.”
“A reflex, eh.” Parris smiled as she focused on Fox’s eyes. “By the way, back at the tea house. The noteworthy composer you spoke of, was it you by any chance?”
Fox looked away for a moment and then looked back at her. “Perhaps.”
“I see.” Parris nodded. “And what motivated this mystery person to compose piano music?”
