Young Samurai_ The Way of the Sword - Chris Bradford [91]
The rain hadn’t slackened at all.
Only the noise it made. As if there was a sound shadow behind him.
His finely tuned senses blared out a warning. His mouth went dry, his breath caught in his throat. Ever so slowly, he turned his head and stared once more into the dead-end darkness.
There was nothing there.
Then the darkness seemed to rise and Jack found himself face-to-face with the featureless hood of a ninja… eye-to-eye with the formidable Dragon Eye.
44
INTERROGATION
A silent scream erupted inside his head, ordering his body to move.
RUN! RUN! RUN! shrieked Jack’s mind.
But it was already too late.
As Jack turned to face his foe, Dragon Eye had struck with the swiftness of a scorpion. His fingers, like barbs, had pinpointed nerve centres on Jack’s body, paralysing him in five quick successive stabs. Jack was rendered defenceless and completely immobile.
‘What… have… you done to me?’ stuttered Jack, hyperventilating as a burning sensation spread through his body and down his arms and legs.
‘Be quiet or I’ll paralyse your mouth too,’ ordered the ninja in a harsh whisper.
Dragon Eye bunched his fingers into the shape of a snakehead and pressed the tips against the skin above Jack’s heart.
‘One final strike to your heart will kill you.’ He dropped the words into Jack’s ear with sadistic pleasure while allowing his fingers to linger over their intended target. ‘The samurai know and fear this as the Death Touch.’
Jack closed his eyes, half mumbling the Lord’s Prayer as Dragon Eye drew back his hand to strike.
‘But it can be a far more subtle technique than mere death,’ continued Dragon Eye who, instead of killing him, sought out a pressure point beneath Jack’s collarbone with his thumb. ‘It can also be used to inflict intolerable pain.’
Jack’s eyes flew open and he shrieked into the night as the ninja applied pressure with the tip of his thumb. The agony was so intense, Jack felt as if a swarm of wasps had been released inside his chest. He almost passed out, but then Dragon Eye stopped and the pain receded until it was no more than a tingling sensation, like stinging nettles under his skin.
Dragon Eye studied him a moment, watching the pain fade from his victim’s eyes. Jack swore that behind that black hood his nemesis was smiling at his suffering.
‘Where’s the rutter?’ hissed Dragon Eye.
‘It’s been stolen,’ wheezed Jack, dizzy from the aftershock of the torture.
‘That was a decoy! Don’t dice with your own death.’
The ninja took hold of Jack’s right arm this time and pressed into the middle of his bicep. An unbelievable pressure immediately built up in Jack’s right hand, his fingernails became sharp splinters under his skin and he thought his fingers were about to pop. A wave of nausea hit him. But once again Dragon Eye stopped at the threshold of his consciousness.
‘I’ve tortured people before. I can make you suffer beyond anything imaginable – and yet never kill you.’
He took Jack’s lolling head in one hand and stared at him with his one eye. Jack couldn’t see a single shred of mercy in the ninja’s soul.
‘It’s in Nijo Castle, isn’t it?’ said Dragon Eye dispassionately.
Jack’s eyes flared in alarm. How could he have known that? Had one of his friends betrayed him?
‘No need to answer, gaijin. Your eyes tell me all I need to know. But where exactly?’
Gripping Jack’s head tighter, Dragon Eye placed one finger just below Jack’s eye and another on his jawline. The ninja drew closer, his malevolent green eye raking over Jack’s face.
‘You are going to tell me,’ he said with ominous finality.
An instant later, Jack thought a molten iron spike had been driven through his eye and out of the back of his skull. The pain was greater than a thousand fires burning, too great for him to even emit a scream. The torture sapped all strength out of him and only a low moan escaped his lips.
Then the pain was gone.
‘That is nothing compared to the days of unthinkable agony you will suffer if I let you live. Can you feel that burning sensation in your body?’
Jack nodded weakly,