The Inazuma blade slashed right through the handcuff chain, never touching flesh.
Han skidded along the platform and smashed into the guardrail. It rang like a tuning fork but he didn’t hit it hard enough to hurt him. Impossibly, he even had the presence of mind to draw his pistol. He pointed it feebly in Joko Daishi’s direction, but it was a long shot, left-handed, and his whole body was trembling. He fired and missed.
But at least he was still alive, and well enough that he wasn’t going to pass out. He gave Mariko a weak nod, and she turned and charged Joko Daishi. He jumped down onto the train tracks and limped into the tunnel.
Thoughts of Shoji-san entered Mariko’s mind. She sometimes spoke of the forces of destiny roaring in her ears. Mariko felt something like that now. Her whole body was tingling—adrenaline, not destiny, her rational mind insisted. She had refused Furukawa’s pistol, rejected his invitation, insisted she’d never kill Joko Daishi, and now here she was, chasing Shoji’s son with a lethal weapon in hand. Furukawa had even said she’d kill him with Glorious Victory Unsought.
But what else was she supposed to do? Just toss her sensei’s sword on the ground? The country’s most dangerous criminal was at large. She knew where he was. She had no other weapon and he’d proven he was the superior fighter. He could kill her at will. Glorious Victory Unsought was her only defense.
But if he could kill her at will, why hadn’t he? Was it faith in destiny? The first thing he’d ever said to her was that he had seen the hour of his death, and that he would die by the sword. But Mariko didn’t buy that. It was just the hallucination of a sick mind. Besides, if he really believed in it, he could have stood his ground instead of running. He could have spread his arms wide and asked her to kill him. So what was his game? Was he just toying with her? Or did he mean to kill the kidnapped children, and only then let Mariko cut his throat?
It didn’t matter. Mariko couldn’t let him go. She jumped down onto the tracks and followed him into the darkness.
52
I see him wearing the mask. You have the sword in hand. He can see it coming. Do you understand, Mariko? He has seen his death coming. He sees it as a bright light, as bright as the sun. You’ll try to ambush him. You’ll fail.
Those were Shoji-san’s words. Mariko remembered them with unusual clarity. She also remembered the question she wanted to ask next, the one she stopped herself from asking because she was afraid of the answer: Am I going to die?
She figured she understood the vision well enough. That mask allowed Joko Daishi to see Glorious Victory, even in total darkness. It glowed for him—glowed like sunlight, she supposed. Mariko was counting on it. She wasn’t likely to find him down here. The farther she got from the platform, the darker it got, and once she rounded the first curve she could see almost nothing. But the mask instilled an obsession for the sword. If Mariko could just get close to him, maybe the mask would draw him out.
It was cold in the tunnel. A distant rumble forewarned her of a coming train. It seemed far away, but even so, the sound terrified her. The reptilian part of her brain instantly demanded that she look for shelter. There was a narrow walkway on one side of the tunnel, a concrete ledge little wider than the length of Mariko’s shoe. It would be of some use in getting passengers out of a stalled train, as they could keep a steadying hand on the train itself. Balancing on it while a train rushed by was a terrifying prospect. Still, Mariko had no choice. She climbed up onto the ledge, then pressed her back to the wall and hoped the wind from the train wouldn’t knock her loose.
The train never came. It was going the opposite direction, on another track. “Do not worry,” an eerie voice called from farther up the tunnel. “It will not be a train that claims my life. I do not think it will take yours either.”
“Come on out,” Mariko shouted. “We know about your church at the airport. Those kids are already safe.” She hoped to hell it was true. “There’s no way out for you. My partner already called for backup.”