Sign of the Dragon (Tatsu Yamada Book 1) by Niall Teasdale (e reader TXT) 📕

‘Seems like it, though…’

‘Though?’

‘Seems to me that that’s an excuse. He wasn’t being that effective. Kill a few more gangsters and things would’ve probably heated up enough without killing an old Chinese guy. I think she just wanted to kill him.’

Tatsu wondered what Izanami’s probabilities would say about the matter. ‘Pan’s death might be more effective, but I don’t think you’re wrong.’

‘You still on that stakeout?’

Sitting in her apartment, taking care of paperwork for the upcoming riot situation, Tatsu could not really say that. ‘Not right now, but I’ll be back on it tonight.’

‘But not tomorrow night, right? We got through the projections and the plan Chiba HQ sent out. Tokyo is deploying riot squads along the border from tomorrow. I assume you’re on standby from tomorrow.’

‘Those are my orders. If Vasilev isn’t hit tonight, I’ll probably miss the chance at grabbing our killer.’

‘Good luck then.’

‘Thanks. I may need it.’

5th September.

Tatsu realised it had begun when she spotted the same man walking past a camera for the third time. She double-checked, running the three clips beside each other to be sure she was not simply seeing some vor patrolling a corridor. The vids were identical, and she could not see the man in previous shots. The camera had been looped. Expertly looped, though not with sufficient care to avoid having someone appear in the feed multiple times.

Cursing under her breath, Tatsu turned from her watch position and started for the roof access door. The killer was probably already in Vasilev’s building and there was no time to lose.

~~~

Needle-like projectiles stitched a line over a man’s torso, and he fell, crumpling onto the hardwearing carpet of the corridor without saying a word. The robot which had shot him swept forward and over him, moving into a position where it could cover the elevator and one of the two stairwells leading to that floor.

Following behind that machine were two more similar ones, each held in the air by shielded rotors. They were blocky machines, roughly rectangular aside from the attached fans. Each mounted a weapon, the muzzle of which protruded from the front of the blocky hull. These two flanked another figure, humanoid and female in shape, about a hundred and eighty centimetres in height and clad in the latest lightweight combat armour including a helmet which obscured her features. Whether human or gynoid, she walked with purpose, a katana slung at her left hip.

She stopped in front of a door, the door to Vasilev’s apartment, and turned. ‘Secure the exit route,’ she said – a female voice to go with the female figure, speaking Japanese. The two robots flew off the way they had come, and the assassin turned to the door.

The door opened without any contact and a voice could be heard from within, speaking Russian. ‘You will not get me, bitch! I know you’re there. Tonight, you’re mine!’ Vasilev was waiting.

There was a flicker across the surface of the armour and the figure vanished from normal sight. There was no point in keeping him waiting.

~~~

Tatsu ran up the final flight of stairs leading to Vasilev’s floor and paused at the door. This was the residents’ stairwell, designed to be used by those who preferred not to take the elevator – and Tatsu doubted there were many of them – and therefore just as well decorated as the rest of the building. The door was, however, designed to operate effectively in emergencies; it slid open sideways where it would not obstruct passage off the corridor or hit someone already in the stairwell as it opened. That was less than optimal for Tatsu.

Standing to one side of the door, Tatsu triggered the opening mechanism and then angled her pistol around the doorframe. The sighting camera gave her a view down the corridor to Vasilev’s apartment. It also showed her the hovering robot which was now aiming its muzzle at the door. Tatsu fired before it could. Three rocket-propelled slugs hit the flying machine and it dropped out of the air, its fans spinning down as it died.

One down. Tatsu stepped out of cover and started down the corridor. As she did so, a humanoid figure stepped out of Vasilev’s apartment, flicking blood from a long, curved sword. The helmeted head turned, saw Tatsu, and then the figure vanished. Or it would have to someone with normal vision; Tatsu’s eyes could still see the shape, primarily in the ultraviolet range. She lifted her pistol and fired. Three rounds hit their target and the figure flinched, but none of the projectiles penetrated the armour; Tatsu saw them falling to the carpet. The figure put a hand to her ribs where one of the slugs had hit, then she turned and ran down the corridor toward the emergency stairwell at the other end.

And Tatsu was going to have to check on Vasilev. She could see one of his bodyguards, likely dead, lying beside the door, but Vasilev would be inside and there was a slim chance he was alive. There was no way to call for assistance because there was a radio jammer operating which covered at least this floor. Still, it had to be done. Instead of chasing the killer, Tatsu ducked inside the apartment and looked around.

At least she did not have to go further than that. The air was full of the stink of blood and cordite. Vasilev had put up a fight. His right hand and forearm were lying on the carpet about a metre from his body, still clutching an illegal calibre of revolver. His body had a long wound across the chest and his lower legs were folded under as though he had dropped to his knees after that cut and then fallen backward. That had probably been after his