Ice Blue - Anne Stuart [78]
“The forces of darkness?” she echoed, wishing she could be amused at his melodrama. “I’m not going anywhere. And I don’t for one moment believe that my sister is dead. I’d know it. I’d feel it.”
Instead she felt the gun poking into her ribs. “You will come with me, Miss Hawthorne, and stop arguing.”
She glanced around her. The terminal was still marginally empty—no sign of security guards in this security-laden age. Just a few aimless travelers, clearly way too early for their flights.
“This way,” he said, prodding her with the gun, and she had no choice but to precede him farther into the terminal, heading down a cement ramp marked Authorized Personnel Only. Maybe he was going to take her to the Shirosama, but more likely he was going to put a bullet in her head and leave her in the dark passageway. It was too late to scream, which Taka had told her to do. Too late to run.
“Stop right there,” the man said when they reached the bottom of the ramp. They were in a narrow, dimly lit corridor of closed doors.
Summer leaned against the wall, knowing what was coming. At least Jilly was safe—she was absolutely certain of that despite the man’s sinister words. And Taka was safe as well, on his way to Japan with the urn and the kimono, and he might never hear what happened to her. Part of her wanted him to remember, to feel a least a trace of guilt or regret. But he wasn’t the kind of man to feel guilt, and besides, he’d done his best for her. Her luck had just finally run out.
She looked at the bald man fearlessly. In the darkened ramp beyond him she thought she could see another silhouette. The goons probably worked in pairs.
“Is the Shirosama trundling his fat butt down here to meet me?” she drawled.
A spasm of pure rage crossed the man’s pale face. “How dare you defame the master?”
“The master’s not going to show his creepy self, is he? You were never planning to take me to him, you’re just going to kill me. So why don’t you get it over with?” She managed to sound bored.
“I’m supposed to kill you if you don’t cooperate.” He was clutching the gun tightly in his fleshy hands. The gun was bigger than she’d first thought—large enough to blow a good-size hole in her.
“But you and I both know it doesn’t really matter, right? You’ve got the excuse to kill me, and you’re going to do it. You’ll just tell his sliminess that I tried to escape.”
“You’ll be going to a purer place.” The gun was trembling slightly as he spoke. “You should bless the Shirosama for his mercy.”
“Killing me is merciful?” she scoffed. The shadow behind him moved, but she kept her eyes focused on Taka’s handpicked maintenance man.
“You’ll be removed from sin and worldly cares, moving to a higher plane of consciousness.”
“I like this plane of consciousness, thank you,” she said. Who was looming behind him? Was it rescue, or a more certain defeat? Was she going to die? Death seemed likely, all without ever seeing Taka again. Which was just as well. If she saw him she’d probably make a fool of herself, because he was all she could think of, even when her life was about to end. She could only hope that Lianne would feel damn guilty about her death.
“You deserve to die,” the man said. “For your lack of respect, if nothing else.”
“Don’t you think you ought to check with the Shirosama before you do this? I gather he doesn’t like to have his orders crossed.” Whatever she’d seen on the ramp behind the man was gone; nothing was moving at all. No rescue, no deus ex machina. No Taka.
It was up to her, and if she tried to rush him, he’d just shoot her.
“I’ll take my chances,” the man said, raising the gun and pointing it in the middle of her forehead. A third eye, she thought, feeling a little giddy. Maybe she’d find enlightenment, after all.
19
She heard the popping, the slick, familiar sound of a silenced gun going off, a sound she’d heard so many times on TV and in the