The way of the gun was a code that had bound everybody to the Masaru Crime Syndicate. Kari had lived by such for years and had since found herself gone astray. Turning her back on her old crew and then the family that had taken her in had been taxing. Her sense of morality and honor began to blur. After seeing Brian take his own life, she had to wonder what would convince him to do it.

He had lived by the code as well, and one thing they all could agree on was that death was better than dishonor. Failure was something that had brought fear into them all. Failing to kill Isamu all of those years ago may have stopped this. For all she knew, she would have still carried on and let the pile of bodies behind continue to grow higher.

Maybe I would have been struck down sooner, she thought to herself. Brian’s corpse was another image she was going to have to take time to try and remove from her thoughts. The pain in her right arm had started to subside with the drive.

“Where are we going?” she asked Andrew as they continued down the road.

“I have a safehouse up the road, we’re gonna patch you up,” Andrew replied. He glanced over to her to see her still clenching onto the wound. “Is it deep?”

“I think it just grazed me.”

“Can you move it?”

“Yeah,” she said after waving her arm to him. There was another sharp pain that had shot through her that made her wince again. “I thought you got a new vehicle?”

“You know me, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

“Andrew, you have bullet holes in this thing.”

“Duct tape,” he cut her off and pointed his thumb to the rear-view window. The glass had since been removed and covered with a combination of saran wrap and duct tape. It looked tacky, but she only rolled her eyes and let out a quick chuckle. “They aren’t going to mess with us. If we didn’t have this car, I think Joutoro would have just crushed us earlier.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

The vehicle continued to speed down the road. Large pieces of tape had been placed over the bullet holes in the back while the bumper had still hung off the back—just a few inches away from the asphalt. Eventually the two had made it to a small safe house near the outskirts of town.,

It was a small house, much like the one Kari had bought on the farm years earlier. Andrew pulled the vehicle behind the back of the shack before finally killing the engine and leading her inside. The inside had barely managed to fit a table and a small bed. The linoleum floor had been scuffed while the one and only counter by the sink had been covered with old newspapers and dishes.

“Do you live like this?” She asked.

“No way, this is the safe house, not my house,” he replied with a soft laugh. “Get that jacket off and let me take a look at that arm.”

Kari tossed the empty handbag onto the table started to try and peel off her jacket. She let out another hiss upon pulling the cloth from the fresh wound. It had felt like tearing off a scab as the blood had already fused the two together. While Andrew began to try and apply some alcohol to the wound, Kari held onto Andrew’s phone and began to cycle through the multiple menus.

The picture folder had been empty. He never did seem like the type to want to take pictures or leave anything around. She started to go through his contacts, but instead of getting a long list, she had been greeted with a text prompt that said “0 contacts”. Andrew started to wrap up the wound, only distracting her as she started to pull her arm away him.

“Come on, don’t be a baby,” Andrew quickly said after grabbing onto her arm again. “You could definitely use a new change of clothes, that’s for sure.”

“I don’t think your clothes would fit on me.” She replied.

“I didn’t say you could wear mine,” he started to tie a small knot in the gauze just over the wound. After fastening it down, he turned to look at the phone. “Any leads?”

“Looks blank,” she muttered while examining the cloth around her shoulder. “No texts or contacts. No pictures either, I just checked.”

“Check the call log.”

Kari started to scroll towards the call list and started to feel hopeless after seeing no received or missed calls. She scrolled over to the outgoing calls and could only detect four—all of which had been placed in the last few hours.

“It’s like he bought this thing just for this job.” She said again.

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” he said while walking around the table and towards the cabinet. After opening the door, he retrieved two shot glasses from the top shelf and then started to rinse them off in the sink. “He was always the careful type. After you left, he kind of disappeared. Whatever he was doing in between that time is beyond me.”

“I need a smoke,” Kari said after letting out a sigh and rubbing her head. “You got one?”

“You know smoking kills, right?”

Kari slapped the back of her hand down on the table and started to wave her fingers in anticipation. Andrew made his way over towards a mini fridge on the other end of the counter and pulled a small bottle of whiskey from it. He placed it and the glasses between them before finally pulling his squished cigarette pack out of his breast pocket.

He slid her a cigarette and then asked, “Drink?”

“Yeah, I’ll take one. I need something.” She replied.

“So we don’t have any leads, no idea where the boss is,” he started to trail off as he poured the two shot glasses. The two took their shots in unison, both letting out a quick grunt before slapping the glasses back down. “We may not have jobs in the morning. Only silver lining is we have all this money.”

“What do you suggest?”

“I dunno,” he started to pour another glass. “We do have all this money, but I don’t really think we’ll get far; at least not in Paradiso.”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“No,” Kari interrupted him. She reached for his lighter and quickly lit up her cigarette. After getting a quick puff, she continued, “We have to find him. We’ve gone too far now, and I am not going to turn my back on him until I make damn sure he’s back safe.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry. I’m getting a little nervous about this entire setup. There’s just no way that Brian and Joutoro both just appeared out of the blue. My concern now is whether or not Isamu is even alive.”

“Do you think Kurisu might be a part of this?”

Andrew jerked his head back towards her in bewilderment. He quickly nodded before picking up his glass to take another shot.

“It’s possible,” he replied. “I’m just wondering who paid them to come after us. The old boss isn’t even in the picture anymore.”

“What happened to him?” she inquired. When she was part of the Masaru Crime Syndicate, there was one person who had overseen most of the operations. He was elderly and had helped keep them safe from the authorities as they carried out their multiple crimes.

“He passed away shortly after you left,” Andrew said. He had lit his own cigarette and grabbed a hold of the already dirty ashtray on the edge of the table to slide it between them. “There was a power vacuum, and his granddaughter ended up taking over.”

“Who?” Kari took another drag.

“Kurisu.”

“Kurisu,” she let out a quick cough and stabbed her cigarette into the ashtray. “She was the boss’s granddaughter?”

“I thought you knew that. She went crazy after you left, and once her gramps passed, she really switched gears.”

“Do you think she has something to do with this?”

“I don’t know,” Andrew shook his head. He continued to suck on the butt of his cigarette to help collect his thoughts. “It’s possible.”

“Have you spoken to her lately?”

“No, she started running some club downtown and I didn’t bother. To be honest, I never really liked her. She had a lot to prove.”

“Yeah, you got the right,” Kari muttered. The many fights her and Kurisu had in the old days only reminded her of how petty she was. After thinking it over, she started to put two and two together and had started to think of all the things she could have gained from Isamu disappearing. She spoke again, “It has to be her. If there is anybody on this planet who would want to get back at me, it would be her.”

“You’re starting to get into conspiracy territory here,” he stamped out his cigarette and ran his fingers through his messy blonde hair. After a few moments, his eyes perked up just before he continued, “Wait, where’s that phone?”

“We already checked it.”

“No,” he cut her off and quickly slammed his fist down on the table. “The phone we found at Isamu’s house, where is it?”

Kari’s mouth shot open as she tried to mentally retrace her steps. She then reached across the table towards the handbag and reached into the side pocket to retrieve the flip phone. After opening it up, she had noticed a handful of missed phone calls from restricted numbers in the logs.

“These calls are all restricted, I don’t know how to track those,” She muttered before moving over to the contacts. A chill had run down her spine as she scrolled through and noticed one had been listed. “There’s one contact.”

“What does it say?”

“Call,” she turned the phone towards him and handed it off. “I don’t know why we didn’t check this before.”

“Call it.” He said as he handed the phone over to her.

Kari clicked on the number and pressed the device against her ear. There was a dial tone that started to drone on. After a few seconds, there was soft voice that greeted her.

“Is it done?” the woman on the other end replied. Kari felt rage starting to bring her blood to a boil as she heard the voice.

“Kurisu.” Kari said firmly. Andrew’s eyes shot open again after hearing the name. He waved his hand towards her, gesturing for her to put it on speaker phone.

“Where’s Brian?” Kurisu’s voice asked through the static.

“I knew it was you. Where’s Isamu?”

“Did you lose him?”

“Don’t push me,” Kari raised her voice and stood from the table. “I’ve been through a lot tonight, and I’ve got bills to pay. Where is he?”

Andrew signaled to her to keep going before he started to walk across the house and towards a small foot locker by the door.

“He’s with me,” Kurisu’s voice buzzed again. “If you want him back, I want that money. I know you have it.”

“No games, I’m getting sick of this.” Kari replied.

“I’m not in the business of playing games. Why not come and meet me?”

“Where?”

“Red Light District,” Kurisu had taken a moment before she continued. “Is Andrew with you too? I know I’m on speaker and I can hear him. He better start talking.”

“Yeah, I’m here.” Andrew called out to them.

“Excellent,” Kurisu replied. “I knew you two were working together. I haven’t heard from Joutoro yet, so I take it you got to him too?”

“Yeah,” Kari whispered back. She took another deep breath and tilted her head back in disappointment thinking of the encounter. “I killed him.”

“Shame,” Kurisu sighed before letting out another soft chuckle. “Was it worth breaking your oath?”

“It was,” she leaned back in towards the phone. She was tired of trying to run from the shame. “I’m on a roll tonight, so if you want, let’s hurry up and get this over with.”

“Atta girl,” Kurisu snickered at the response. “It’s a little after two. My club, four am. Maybe we can settle this before sunrise?”

“Perfect.”

“Come alone, and don’t be late.”

The phone had gone silent, but this time Kari had thrown it to the ground. The device had snapped in two against the floor.

“Damn it, why’d you do that?” Andrew shouted over to her.

“I’m sorry,” Kari snapped back. “I knew it was her, I was right!”

“Yeah, I know. So what do you want to do now?”

She started to walk over to him to see the contents of the foot locker. After glancing inside at the small weapon stockpile inside, she leaned over and began to shuffle through.

“I’m going over there. I need you to cover me,” she declared while she continued cycling through. “I know she’s going for a trap, but we need to be ready.”

“I have an idea,” Andrew cut her off and stepped away from the footlocker. Across the other end of the small room was a small safe resting beneath a large comforter. He pulled it off of the metallic box and began to punch in the combination on its keypad. “I was saving this for a rainy day.”

He had retrieved a small metal cylinder from inside that had been covered with wires. On the top, there was a small black cartridge with red LED light protruding from it.

“Is that what I think it is?” she quickly spoke.

“This is something I got on an old job,” he said after presenting her the device with a small remote. “C4 explosive, remote detonator. Wanna try the bait and switch again?”