Russell Brooks - Pandora's Succession

Parris crawled over and held onto Fox tightly, burying her head into his chest.

“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?”

“I’d say that it was composed for a friend…” Fox smirked, “…a friend who eventually became his partner.”

Parris crossed her arms and smiled.

Fox’s attention shifted to the last set of body bags being loaded onto one of the Hexagon helicopters-one that appeared to have suffered the least amount of damage. Several army personnel from the Air Self-Defense Force were present, but he still couldn’t figure out why that one individual stuck out. He knew that he had seen him somewhere.

The side door closed and the Sikorsky’s rotator blades started. With the aid of his crutch, Fox limped a bit closer to the helicopter as others scurried the opposite way to save themselves from the dust cloud that would begin shortly. He stopped when he was close enough to see the pilot and his co-pilot. There he was, the same man he had recognized earlier-and his co-pilot looked familiar, too.

As the dust cloud grew under the spinning propellers, Fox shielded his eyes with his good arm, but still remained fixated on the helicopter as it rose in the air, hovered overhead, and lifted away. Fox kept watch on it just as he saw it disappear over the hills. Then it came to him, and the more Fox thought about it, the more stupid he felt.

“Damn it!” Fox yelled. He couldn’t run, but managed to move very quickly by leaping forward on his crutch. “Sugisaka…Parris, someone answer me!”

Parris was the first to cross his path and ran up to him. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything! How could I be so stupid? I knew I recognized them and I still let them slip right past me.”

“What do you mean? Let who slip past you?” Parris grabbed his left arm, and a worried look grew on her face.

“The data you stole had pictures of all the Clarified individuals. Two of the EMTs that passed us with stretchers, were among them.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m pretty damn sure.”

Just then, Sugisaka ran up to them. “You wanted to see me, Fox?”

Fox turned to him. “The last Hexagon helicopter that took off-you need to alert Air Self-Defense to scramble some jets to intercept it.”

Sugisaka’s eyes suddenly widened as though he were surprised. “Scramble jets? But-”

“I’ll explain later. Just do it!”

Sugisaka got on his satellite phone, hit a few buttons, and barked out orders in Japanese. Fox limped away, paused, and threw the crutch on the ground.

Parris caught up to him. “Fox, what do you think happened?”

“She slipped right past us. I can’t believe it.”

“She? Who? Do you mean Dr. Marx? Fox, Tanaka shot her. We both saw that.”

“All we saw was her falling to the ground. Her wound might not have been fatal, she could’ve survived.”