Chapter 30: Last Mission (II)
"Well, well what do we have here?"
They all froze. They were out at the open and no guards were pointing their guns at them but the only voice had made their hair stood on their skin.
Boris and an old man Hilary didn't know were standing in front of the resort with armed men behind them. Before anyone of them could react, Johnny Mac Gregor and his troops had cornered them from the beach.
"Ah, how I am happy for this little family reunion," Boris smiled as he said this, eyeing Hilary and Kai.
So he knew, the through flashed through Hilary's mind.
"Voltaire, what do you think of your grand children?" Boris turned to the man next to him. "They've quite grown, haven't they?"
The man, unlike Boris wasn't smiling. In fact he was looking at them with disgust.
So this is the famous Voltaire?
"Don't look at me like that, children," Boris' voice suddenly interrupted her mind. "I assure you that we have good intentions. We, Voltaire, Mac Gregor and I are proposing you to join us."
Someone gasped. Hilary turned and saw Lee Chow, trying to shoot Boris with the gun in his hand but one of Boris' guard shot him in the arm.
"Now, that won't be necessary if you would all behave like grown-ups and come over to our side," Boris continued as if nothing had happened. "What about you, Miss Hiwatari? Would you like to join us?"
Boris suddenly stared at her with expected eyes. Prima beside her was shaking with fury and her brother Kai was avoiding her gaze. Yes, she was alone on this one. She, Hilary would have to show Boris that all his plans were going to crumble. After taking a deep breath she said, "Fuck you, Balkov!"
There were cheers and all of a sudden, a sound like millions of helicopters landing filed the air. Hilary looked at the beach and saw more than twenty helicopters surrounding them and Boris. Suddenly one of the doors opened and a rope was thrown down. Out came…
"Enrique's here to save you, babes!"
The familiar face of her ex-boyfriend rose like an unexpected joy in Hilary's heart. Suddenly the door of another helicopter flung open and they could see Master Tornatore followed by a stubby old man, the current President, Mr. Dickenson.
"Your game's over, Balkov. We have here the force of the FBI."
"Since when you're playing the hero, Tornatore?" Boris yelled back, but Hilary could sense fear in his voice.
Already Johnny and his troops were retreating. Men came down from the helicopter and surrounded them, preventing their escape.
"Boris, what is th-?" Voltaire began but Boris hushed him.
When Hilary thought that at last all will be over, and so many of the ninjas there, Boris suddenly grabbed Mariah who was crying over her wounded brother and pointed a dagger at her throat.
"No one moves or the girl dies!" he shouted.
The FBI immediately held their guns and Dickenson blanched.
"Now, quietly-."
Before Boris could finish something black and red jumped up from the trees and knocked the dagger out of his hand. Boris looked at the newcomer: Tala, who was now sending him a punch that caused him to hit the floor. Mariah fell down to the ground beside her brother. Tala walked over to her but suddenly there was a shot.
"NO!"
Tala too fell. Mariah burst into tears; she scrambled to her knees and took his head in her arms. However when the first gunshot was launched, like in many battles many followed and Hilary soon found herself fighting for her life. She felt someone came up with his back against her. She turned and was glad to see Kai. Suddenly, Salima and Garland came out of the forest too and seeing the fight, joined in.
Amidst all the killing, Mariah nursed Tala's head, her tears washing away his blood.
"You- you c-can't die, T- Tala," she wept. "I- I have a… a confe-ssion to make! I…"
"M- me too," Tala whispered.
"Tala? Speak to me!"
But it was too late, he was dead.
Ray who was fighting nearby in order to protect Mariah saw the entire scene and he understood that he was no longer in Mariah's heart. This knowledge however didn't make him stop shooting. Fine if she didn't love him but he knew that he would rather die than let her be killed. Lee had gotten up and seeing his sitter kneeling over his former enemy didn't know what to do. But it wasn't the time of thinking but a time of action. So he went over to her and he and Ray fought off everyone trying to get at the girl.
On the other side Prima was fighting as best as she could. She tried not to think about what she had just discovered and concentrate on the fight. Though she couldn't help glancing over at Kai. Suddenly, Boris' men knocked the gun out of her hand without her noticing. She was preparing to get the blow when suddenly she heard laughter. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the men lying dead and Enrique was offering her a gun.
"Better not just sit there, darling," he smiled.
Prima ignored him and resumed the fighting. But it was a losing battle as far as Boris was concern. Prima searched for the latter and saw that he was running towards a jet parked behind the resort. Voltaire was nowhere to be seen even though Mac Gregor was being tackled by Tyson and Max. Trust the two to be able to catch him. She saw that Kai was fighting nearby though even though Hilary had disappeared from his side.
"Kai! Boris!" she yelled, before turning back to the fight.
Hilary had heard Prima's yell and turned to look for her brother. Indeed he was sprinting towards the jet where Boris was mounting.
Kai, instead of shooting Boris, shot the jet's wheels and the thing crumbled. He did a somersault and caught Boris by his throat.
"Now, now, you are not going to kill your master?" Boris asked calmly as Kai pointed a gun at him.
Kai stared into those hateful eyes and remembered all the treatments he got when he was under the man's command.
"You've turned me into a dog but I do still have some feelings left," he hissed, pressing the gun on Boris' head.
"Yes, and that is hatred," the man answered for him.
"No, pity. And I'm feeling it for you now!" he yelled and let Boris go. "You shall suffer in prison," he said as he began to walk away, knowing that Boris couldn't escape.
"Oh, no, my dear boy."
There was a shot and he heard someone calling his name. But all went black.
Kai came to himself again and found himself on Hilary's lap but he was too weak to move. He could hear a deafening kind of noise like when you're somewhere high.
"Where am I?" he murmured.
Then everything came back to him, the fight, his sister, Boris…
"It's okay, Kai," Hilary said. "Everything's over now."
Boris Balkov was sent to jail for all of his life for attempting to put in danger the States. Voltaire had completely disappeared from the air and searches were still being carried on his behalf. Johnny Mac Gregor passed away during the fight, shot down by Garland. The singer Ming Ming and other associates of Boris were caught later on. The Tornatore sold their villa and was moving back to Italy. Their paintings were returned to them by Lee Chow who was set free of charges by Giovanni Tornatore himself. As a matter of fact, the White Tiger Corporation was now holding hands with the Tornatore's art galleries to run a society together called 'Angelico' in honor of the ninjas formed by Tornatore.
The former ninjas and other people concerned by the Balkov affair as it was well known now met for the last time at Tala Ivanov's funeral.
"Where is Kai? Has anyone seen my brother?" Hilary was wading through the crowd of the people who were present at the dinner after the funeral.
Everyone shook their heads.
"Why are you such a fuzzy sister? Aren't you scared of becoming a second Prima?"
Hilary turned to the owner of the voice only to find Enrique sitting in an armchair with a glass of wine in his hand. He was smiling as usual.
"So, you're going to Tokyo?" he asked casually.
"Yeah. Tyson says that his grandpa knows someone who can-well find us a place there," she finally spit the plan she and Tyson had been making a couple of days ago.
"That's great," Enrique said, with honesty in his eyes.
Hilary was quite taken aback by his frankness, but she was glad that there wouldn't be a wall between them like she thought there would between exs.
"And you, Italy with Prima?" she asked.
"Yeah," Enrique laughed running his hand through his hair. "It's like Hell."
"Don't say that," she said. "Where is Prima anyway?"
Prima was out in the garden of the Chow's mansion where the dinner was being held. She felt that she had some ideas to clear, the destiny awaiting her. She couldn't pretend that it hadn't happen, this pain in her heart each time she saw him. And the kiss… Oh, how she was cursed! Shit, someone's coming out…
"Hn, I knew that you'd be here."
The voice froze her soul. Prima dared not turn around but simply gaze up the twinkling sky.
"You're not with your sister?" she asked as Kai stood beside her.
He shrugged.
"Finding her doesn't mean that I'll always have to stay with her," he replied.
She started feeling cold again. The November night wasn't even the cause of it.
"Prima, I-." Kai began but Prima turned and interrupted him.
"Kai, we have to forget what happened between us," Prima said firmly. She was speaking fast and her voice was dry. "I am not the girl for you because of the only reason that I belong to someone else. Therefore you'd better go and find another whore because I because-"
Kai gripped her and pulled her into a kiss. Prima tried to struggle but his grip was iron and to be honest, she couldn't resist the touch of his lips on hers and his tongue curling around hers. But her sense got the better of hr and she pushed him away. Kai looked at her as if he couldn't believe what had just happened.
"Look, I was trying to make it better for both of us and why do you have to go ruining it with –that- with that."
Her voice broke. Kai once again witnessed tears rolling down the young Italian's cheeks.
"I don't want to have anything to do with you again okay!" she shouted behind tears. "Love someone else that will be there for you! Figlio de la puta, why do you have to want something unreachable?"
At that, she disappeared into the night. Not knowing what to do, Kai walked around the garden with a heavy heart. What did he do wrong? Was he to blame if he was in – that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her?
The sentence barely formulated in his mind, he fell down as if tripped over something.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!"
The star lights shone on a young girl with short navy hair. She seemed to be sitting on the grass when he tripped over her.
"You're Hilary's brother right?" she asked while helping her up.
Kai grunted.
"You're Salima," he stated.
"Yeah, but don't get any ideas. This is not my real hair. I've dyed it for a… mission," she said quickly when she caught him looking at her.
Kai couldn't help himself smiling.
