An uneasy feeling inched its way through her body, starting at where Saki's hand lay on her hip, and spreading up her torso and down her thigh. With each step that Nikka took, her feet clicking on the floor as she walked, his footsteps as silent as the night, the uneasiness spread. It was not fear, she noted, but just a general sort of unquiet. He had always been difficult to read, all the good ninjas she had ever met were, and surmised that was part of what made them masters at it. But she was very good at what she did, too, and that included reading people. He was too comfortable, she figured out as they walked in silence, but his normal cockiness was not there. It was the same sort of emotion he gave off when they were alone, when he could be himself, when he was being just plain, old, Oroku Saki and not the ninja, not the business tycoon, not the sensei, not this Master Shredder. She found it unsettling, in the outfit he was wearing, only his eyes showing through his helmet and mask, this feeling that should make her feel welcomed.
He had bought her a gift, she knew, because she was going to be delayed at getting home, and he was trying to allay her anger before she got too angry. The tactic was not out of the ordinary for him, he was a generous gift giver, he liked to provide people with things. He liked to take care of his people, it was one of the things she greatly admired about him. He not only wanted to take care of his own, but he did so with a ruthlessness that was appropriate for a man of his station. She could honestly say that she was pleased to be part of what he considered his own, in fact, she had felt more at home, no, more herself, in the past few days here, in this strange building, than she had in a long, long time.
He lead her through to the floor where their rooms were located, but veered her down a different passageway. "Where are we going?" she asked, looking up at him as they walked.
He did not answer, but stopped at a door and opened it.
She heard a squeal that she recognized in the back of her brain, but her consciousness couldn't bring to whom it belonged to the surface. It felt like a discordant music note sounded. Saki walked into the room, and when she followed, she stopped in the doorway, her mouth falling open and her bright blue eyes going wide.
The squeal had come from Greta. And from the look of the scene in front of her, it had been one of delight. An Asian woman, wearing a plain blue blouse and black pants, was holding Greta up above her head, and swinging her around in a circle. Aston was swinging a bokken about making clashing noises as if he were hitting someone or something with it. The room was a private nursery, complete with an art area, reading nook, a table for activities, even a large glass terrarium filled with tiny, colorful birds.
"Mommy!" Ashton cried, interrupting one of his swings when he saw her. Her came running up to her, burying his face in her stomach, and wrapping his arms about her, the wooden sword still in his hands.
"Ash," she said, put her own arms about him. She must still be in Saki's bed, dreaming.
"Look what Master Shredder got me for my pre-birthday present!" The little boy backed up, holding up the bokken
Master Shredder? She must be dreaming, there is no way that her children would be alright with a Master Shredder. They would be terrified by a man wearing a science fiction rendition of a samurai costume.
"A bokken," she said, the surprise clear in her voice.
"I'm going to learn how to use it!" Ashton announced, swinging it again, and bouncing to the side.
"Are you now?" she asked.
He didn't answer her, but began his crashing noises again as he fought off imaginary foes.
The woman holding Greta came over, a warm smile on her face. She was classically Japanese, with pale skin, a flared nose, and a pleasant, oval face. Her black, straight hair was long, and she was wearing it loose. "Hello, my Lady," she said with a slight bow.
"Who are you? Where is the children's nanny?" Nikka asked, and she knew her voice was breathier than she would like it to be.
"Mommy!" Greta reached over for her mother, and Nikka absently took the girl in her arms. Her eyes never left the woman who had relinquished her. "Dwess!" Greta pulled out the skirt of the little pink dress she was wearing.
"Yes, honey," Nikka said, "You have a new dress," though her eyes were still on the woman.
"I am the children's nanny, my Lady," said the woman.
She looked up at Saki, whose eyes seemed passive, as if he were watching a conversation of two strangers exchanging pleasantries. "Where's the nanny I hired?" She snapped her head back to the woman.
"She was relieved of her post with a generous severance package," said the woman.
"What?" Nikka growled. She felt Greta cringe in her arms, and she relaxed her body posture, and smiled down at her daughter. "Are you having a good time, honey?" she asked.
The little girl nodded, her white curls bouncing.
She kissed her loudly on her cheek, and Greta giggled. She then put her down, and pushed her slightly to urge her away. "Go play," she instructed, feeling rather silly telling her to do so in this unfamiliar room. "Look at the pretty birds."
The girl ran off, needing no encouragement, apparently.
Nikka kept the smile she'd given Greta plastered on her face, and looked from the woman to Saki and back again. "What is going on?" she asked, each word getting equal emphasis.
"My Lady," the woman reached out to put a reassuring hand on Nikka's arm.
Nikka batted it away, hard, and the smile disappeared, replaced by an angry scowl. "I am not 'my Lady'," she hissed. She turned to Saki, her visage no different, "Who are you that you think you can go dismissing my nanny, whether or not she gets a generous severance package." She spit out the last three words.
"Mistress," said the woman, the same calm look on her face, "it wasn't safe for her or the children to be your house any longer."
That cut through her building rage, a tendril of the unease from before wiggling back in her chest. She whipped her head back to Saki, who cocked his own to the side and squinted his eyes. "Do you honestly think you would come to me, tell me your children had been approached by strangers asking about me, and I not do anything?"
"What do you mean?" She turned back to the woman, her voice was deadly.
"Your house is being watched," the woman said, her voice self assured. "Every room in your house, excluding the bathrooms, has a camera in it. The bathrooms are bugged. All of your cars are bugged. We found a tiny bugging device on your harp's carrying case." The woman paused for effect, and it worked.
Despite her years of schooling her feelings, the angry look slowly faded, fear began to take hold of Nikka. How was a listening device on her harp's carrying case? How could she not have noticed that? Every room in her house was bugged?
"Your house is also under 24 hour surveillance by various people portraying themselves in all kinds of guises," the woman went on. "It was obvious that your residence is no longer a safe place for your family to be."
Nikka felt like someone was trying to use The Art on her, this had to be some sort of deception. She shook her head, and looked up at Saki again. "No," she whispered. How long had her house been under surveillance? Weeks? Months? People were watching her every move? Every move of her children? Her husband?
"Someone is very invested in knowing what you are up to," Saki said to her.
"Because of you!" she cried, fear lacing her words. She derided herself, she had more self control than this. Fear was not something that would overtake her.
"And I am taking care of it," he said, his deep voice a deadly calm.
The words took whatever had been in her mind out, leaving it blank and raw. She didn't want it to be true, she didn't want him to be taking care of it, because she wanted to be angry at him. Her children were here without her knowledge, her life was being watched without her awareness, her world was being turned upside down without her permission. She wanted to rail at him that her life was her life, that he had no business doing something so presumptuous, that what he did was wrong.
But he hadn't and so she couldn't.
He had caused a problem, and he was solving the problem. He was keeping her children safe and comfortable, well cared for. He was keeping her safe and comfortable, well cared for. Because it happened to be here in the headquarters of The Foot Clan and not in a penthouse did not make any less so. When her train of thought was finished, she felt a great wash of relief, beginning at the back of her neck and enveloping her like a cloak. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"Oh, Mommy!" Ashton was back at her side, grabbing her hand and pulling her. "Come see our bedrooms!"
Nikka allowed herself to be lead to the door at the far end of the room, which opened up into a small hallway with three doors. Ashton dragged her to the far right door, and opened it. As soon as the door was open, he let go of her hand, and ran into the room, his sword held high.
The bedroom showed Saki's love of motorcycles, for the theme was based heavily on the motor vehicle. Even the bed, which was a work of art in and of itself, had a motorcycle handlebars and front wheel for the footboard, a bed where the seat would be, and two large back wheels mounted against the wall. Each one had a metal dish on top of it, to make them bedside tables. The clock on the wall was a used, thick tire, and the bedcovers were black with red and orange flames, and at the far end of the room was a small motorbike set on rocks to use as a riding toy.
Ashton was jumping on the bed, flailing his bokken "This isn't my birthday gift, either, Mommy!" he cried.
"Ashton, don't jump on the bed," she said in a faraway voice.
The woman walked over to him, and gently picked up off of the bed, and put him on the floor. "No jumping on the bed," she said.
"My woom, Mommy!" Greta cried, opening another door in Ashton's bedroom.
It lead to what was obviously an adults bedroom, and Nikka looked around confused. Was this her new bedroom? "This is not Greta's bedroom, Mistress," said the woman. "This one is mine."
"Yours?" Nikka felt the confusion grow.
"So that I am close to the children," she said, continuing to walk to another door in the bedroom. Opening it, Greta ran in it. "This is Greta's bedroom."
The little girl's bedroom was like something out of a fairytale. Done in a princess theme, with a castle for a bed, on the outside of which had stairs to a small platform on the top, and then a slide on the other side. The mattress was on the inside on the bottom, like a secret space in the castle itself, separated from the rest of the bedroom by a gauzy curtain. There was a mural of the Japanese countryside along one of the walls, and on a hill in the distance was painted a tiny samurai.
Greta, unlike her brother, did not go jump on the bed, but ran to a little table with a tea set. She grabbed up several of the cups, and then ran back to the adults, and began handing one to each of them. Nikka felt a flush of pride as Saki took on of the small cups in his fingers, and while he did not pretend to drink tea from it, as the woman and Nikka did, he did hold it out to receive its pretend tea from Greta's teapot.
"Everything is taken care of, Mistress," said the woman. "And I can take care of anything else that you feel needs to be done."
"Who are you?" Nikka asked, annoyance laced with her voice. While the fear had evaporated, and relief had kissed her brow, the confusion was still biting at her mind, as it was earlier, where a puzzle was missing pieces.
"My name is Aya, Mistress," the woman smiled and gave a little bow. "I will help take care of the children so that you can attend to your work and your music."
Nikka looked at Saki again, who stood like a statue, his eyes impassive underneath his helmet. "My work and my music," Nikka repeated, as if tasting the words on her tongue. Something was missing, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. Her phone gave a beep, to indicate an incoming text message. She looked at the screen and chuckled. "Look Saki," she smiled, pleasure wending its way through her. She held the screen up to him, as if showing him a treasure. "Mr. Hammond says that it was a pleasure to have lunch with us the other day. His wife is not into classical music, but if I am free next week, he would like to take me to a performance."
The Shredder gave no indication that he even heard her.
She brought the phone back to her own arm level and looked at the screen. "It is a shame," NIkka went on, her voice wistful, "that he had such a little company, and you were at the end of your negotiations when I met him."
"He retained a generous amount of his company because of you," Saki said. "I imagine that his lunch was pleasurable."
"You know, we never got eat lunch there," Nikka said, handing her tea cup back to Greta. Aya took the cup from Shredder, and went with the little girl to the table. "You will have to take me properly, sometime."
"Hammond may want to take you," he replied, turning toward the exit door of Greta's room.
"I don't want Hammond to take me," she said thoughtfully. "I want you to." Then, what had been missing suddenly flashed in her brain like a neon sign. "David!" she gasped.
"David could take you," he said dismissively.
"What about David!?" she cried.
She could see confusion in his eyes, "What about David?"
She looked back at the room, where the children were playing, "Mommy will be back in a little bit," she called.
Both children looked up, smiled at her brightly, and said, "Ok!"
She walked toward of the second exit of Greta's room, tugging at Saki's hand slightly to get him to follow her. They emerged in the hall, and with wide, frightened eyes, she said, "David is in danger too!"
"He is in Montreal," Saki said, walking away from her down the hallway. "He is no danger."
"If people could do all of that to my house, why can't they do something to David in Montreal?" she all but snapped, clittering up behind him.
"Then tell him to come to New York," he waved his hand, as if the conversation were a fly bothering him. "We can have bodyguards put on him."
As they continued to walk, she dialed his number. Holding the phone to her ear, she chanted, "Pick up, pick up, pick up."
"Hello, dahling!" said his familiar, dorky voice on the other end of the phone.
She let out a slow breath, "Davey," she said without a salutation, "I need you to listen to me."
"I didn't miss Ashton's birthday, did I?" he said. Annoyance bloomed and she felt a frustrated look come over her face. She could hear people in the background, he was in a public place.
"No, you didn't, it's tomorrow-" she began.
"Oh, good, I didn't think I'd missed it," he interrupted.
"Davey, you need to come back," she blurted. "It is important that you come back."
"I can't come back home now," he replied, indignant. "The conference isn't over."
"It is dangerous for you to be there, Davey," she said in a rush, beginning to ascend the stairs, a half a step behind The Shredder.
"Dangerous?" he asked. "Why on Earth would it be dangerous? I'm in Canada. It's one of the safest places on the planet."
"Have you noticed if there are people in suits watching you?" As soon as it came out of her mouth, she knew it sounded ridiculous. Saki even looked down at her, a look of surprised disgust on his face. Of course there were people in suits watching him and David Eustace wouldn't notice if any of them looked suspicious.
"Excuse me, dahling?" he asked.
Her shoes seemed to click especially loudly to her ears as they walked down the hall to the throne room. She was the only one making any noise at all, the ninjas that guarding the door stood like statues, as always. "There are a lot of things you don't know, David," she said, her voice becoming clipped. "You need to come to New York City."
"New York City?" he asked. "Are you still there?"
"Yes," she answered. She knew her voice was becoming irked sounding, and she took a deep breath to steady herself. She wanted to be honest with him, she didn't want to put on airs, she didn't want to be just the musician who was visiting her friend. "The children are here, too."
"Why in world are the children there?" his voice started to sound annoyed.
Rage burgeoned in her chest and shot down to her fists. Just as the doors to the throne room were opened, she growled, "Because they are in danger, you mooncalf!" The other end of the line was silent. Nikka took a deep breath, and felt all of her emotions fade out of her, down through her legs, leaving her through her feet to be absorbed by the water that was now below her. "Davey," her voice was calm, it projected an assurance and sweetness that emanated through the entire throne room. "You miss us, don't you?"
"Oh God, Nikki, yes!" the man on the other end breathed passionately.
"You miss the kids," she did ask it.
"Oh yes, dahling. I miss all of you."
"You miss me," she continued.
"You have no idea how much I miss you," he whispered.
"Then come to me at New York City, Davey," she said, her voice slightly pleading.
"Of course I'll come to you," he spoke it as if he was speaking a secret.
"There will be a plane ticket waiting for you at the airport, first class," she said, looking at Saki as if for confirmation. He sat down on his throne and said nothing. "I will have you picked up at the airport, and we can stay in Saki's apartment."
"He won't mind the children?" David asked uncertainly. "Are you sure?"
"Davey, the man is a single father," she looked at the phone as if the person on the other end was unbelievable. She felt emotion coming back into body. "He has already been with the children. He's fine with them."
"Alright, dahling," he said.
"Leave now," she said. "As soon as you hang up with me, do you understand?"
"I will leave now," he assured her. "I love you," his voice was wistful.
"I love you, too," she replied, and then hung up. She put her full attention on Saki, "Please tell me you have an apartment here."
He sighed, as if he were badly done to, "No," he said. "What need do I have for an apartment?"
She looked frightened for a moment, drawing her lips in, and then turned to one of the ninjas in the room. "I need an apartment," she said firmly. "One that looks like Oroku Saki would live in it." The ninja didn't move.
Very deliberately, Saki got up from his throne, ignoring Nikka wholly, so that for a moment, she thought she might have to do something drastic. The ninja was ignoring her command, and Saki seemed to be ignoring her. He walked up the ninja, standing still, his net-masked eyes seeming to face straight ahead. Then, in a flash, the ninja was thrown across the room. Unable to recover from the throw, the ninja hit the floor and slid along the glass until he hit the stepped wall on the opposite side. "You will obey the Lady," his deep voice was menacing, and the sound of it filled her security. "Go!"
The ninja got up, and all but ran to the door.
The Shredder went back to his throne, and sat down gracefully. She walked up to him, and touched her hand to his gloved one. "Thank you, Saki," she said softly, her eyes shining with gratitude.
"You're welcome," he replied.