Devil's Due (Destroyermen #12)(92)

Three shots popped in the darkness, the muzzle flashes blinding. For an instant, Sandra though she’d done it herself without realizing it, but her hand was still behind her. To her amazement, Hisashi Kurokawa himself strode through the knot of men, leading Maggiore Rizzo and a squad of musket-armed Grik. “How dare you!” he shrieked, his purple face and bulging eyes reflecting the light of the distant fires. “If I wanted them dead, I would have killed them myself. Release that man at once.”

Hesitantly, almost rebelliously, his sailors dropped Gunny Horn to the ground. The last couple of blows had been telling and he only groaned. Kurokawa turned to the man with the staff and shot him in the chest. With a little cry that turned to a bubbling moan, he collapsed in the sand. Kurokawa leveled his Nambu pistol at the others. “Now throw this ungrateful traitor in the moat, before I feed you all to my guards. I may do it, anyway. Such treachery!” Without the slightest hesitation, the Japanese sailors snatched up the body and did as they were told. Maggiore Rizzo, the highest-ranking League representative left on Zanzibar, stepped to stand by Kurokawa. With the water seething and splashing around another body, the sailors waited, eyes lowered. Kurokawa holstered his pistol. “Let them through,” he shouted at his Grik. “I will decide what to do with them later. Half of you will remain here tonight, to make sure nothing like this happens again. The rest will escort Maggiore Rizzo and me back to my quarters.” The Japanese sailors bolted, and with a harsh command from their captain, NCO—whatever—ten Grik, uniformed just like their guards had been, arrayed themselves at the far end of the land bridge. Sandra stooped beside Horn and began examining him. She wished she had a light, but feeling his head, at least it wasn’t bashed in.

“You may tend him in a moment,” Kurokawa said. “Follow me.” He turned to walk where they’d all stood watching the raid on the harbor. Rizzo followed him. “Help him,” Sandra whispered to Diania, and stood, hitching up what was left of her trousers, feeling the weight of the Colt. She almost drew it out at last. Now would be a perfect time to kill Kurokawa, and Rizzo as well. She and her friends would surely die, but at least the snake before her would be dead at last. Maybe in a minute, she decided. I’ll see what he has to say. And I don’t know enough about Rizzo to decide if killing him’s a good idea or not. When she joined the two men, their faces now easier to see, she thought Kurokawa looked unusually controlled. Rizzo, on the other hand, his fingers absently stroking the large, dark mustache on his face, seemed to be pleading with his eyes. For what? Forgiveness?

“So,” Kurokawa said at last, “another debt you owe me. That is the second time I have saved one of your people, not to mention you, from perhaps worse than death.” He smirked.

“Why did you kill that man?” she blurted. “One of your own?”

“To protect you, as I said.” He shrugged. “And as an example. Events such as the one tonight, an unexpected attack where we felt most secure, tend to encourage . . . impulsive behavior. Now, perhaps, I won’t have to kill the others.”

“But even one . . . You can’t have many of your old crew left, and with so many probably engaged in manufacturing, training, flying some of your planes, commanding ships . . .”

“I have more than enough that I can kill any who disobey me,” Kurokawa said flatly.

Maggiore Rizzo glanced at him, incredulous, then looked pleadingly back at Sandra. “Signora Reddy,” he said, “I fully understand if you do not wish to share certain particulars regarding your, ah, martial dispute with General of the Sea Kurokawa. And I believe you may have even told him all you knew at the time of your interview. But the happy coincidence that brought us here in time to intervene in this unpleasant business occurred at my request,” he continued urgently, waving at the bay. “I must appeal to you as a representative of a power not at war with your Alliance. Signora, please. After tonight, what do you believe your marito, Capitano Reddy, will do?”

She turned to Rizzo. “After what Savoie did, under League control, and then after giving her to him”—she nodded at Kurokawa—“how can you still imagine we aren’t at war?”

“I imagine—and pray for—a great deal, Signora,” Rizzo said quietly.

Sandra nodded, but looked at Kurokawa. “Very well. In that case, I remain morally certain that Matt will kill you all—and everyone on this island.”

“Like this?” Kurokawa demanded scornfully. “From the air? Our aircraft will be ready next time.”

“In the dark?”

Kurokawa made no reply to that. “But he has begun his attack,” he countered. “You said he wouldn’t bother with us—with me—until he is ready.”

“Maybe he is. I haven’t had any information since my companions and I were taken hostage. If I knew what’s been going on, I might advise you better.”

“Do you take me for a fool?” Kurokawa demanded.

No, Sandra thought. A madman, yes. Not a fool. “I told you he wouldn’t let my presence here influence him, and tonight I was proven right,” she said instead.

“How so?” Rizzo asked.

“Because we were as much at risk as anyone else on the ground. Bombs fell very close. If they were dropped a few seconds earlier or later, we might’ve been killed. That would . . . hurt my husband, but he’d accept it.” She appeared to consider, and she was, but she was trying to think of something to say that would be obvious to them, yet appear as if she truly was revealing her inner thoughts. “With the means to do so now, he’ll keep bombing you. Maybe only now and then; maybe every night. But even that won’t mean he’s coming for me. It just means he wants you dead. If he can do it like this, that’s fine. But how many more nights like this can you take? It looks like you lost all your carriers, so if you want air cover, you’re stuck to the vicinity of Zanzibar. That may be good enough for him in the short term.” Then she remembered Savoie, just sitting there all this time, and spoke before she had a chance to think about it. “Wait! You’re afraid he’s coming soon! Before, you were going to use me as bait, to lure him into a one-sided duel with Savoie. You wanted him to come. But not now. Why?” She answered her own question. “You’re not ready, are you? Tonight’s raid did a lot of damage, but you’ve still got a fleet of cruisers, Grik BBs, and Savoie . . . But you don’t have Savoie, do you? You can’t crew her! You’ve been so busy trying to pick your duel, you forgot to load your pistol!”