Sorry this took sooooo long. I struggled to find a way to move the story forward. I think I'll wrap it up soon unless I feel like I have another outing idea for the crew. Never say never.
Chapter 20
Morning came and Mika woke up alone. She could hear smells and sounds coming from the living room and so got up to shower. Raizo wasn't lying, as soon as she went to stand she felt tightness and pain throughout her entire body but mostly legs, arms and stomach. It even ached to breath deeply but she was determined to power on through. Being surrounded by bad asses really does give ones ego a bit of a beating she thought as she padded to the shower.
Once out of the shower she noticed a pile of clean clothes laying on the bed. Jeans and a t shirt and underwear. Instead of questioning the workings of this magic house she got dressed and headed to the kitchen diner.
She found Jacob on the couch with a laptop and a coffee she was certain had some sort of liquor in it. He also had a joint nestled between the fingers of his left hand. Raizo and Mel were on stools either side of the breakfast bar with a laptop between them and a coffee each.
"Ah she rises!" Mel squealed, hopping off her stool to rush over to the oven. Taking a tea towel off her shoulder she took a tray of what looked like bacon and omelette stuffed bagels and lay them down on a cooling rack on the counter.
"Morning Mel, hey Jacob." She called across the room as Mel ushered her over. Jacob seemed engrossed with what he was doing but raised his mug to wave in her direction.
Mika walked over to Raizo and took a sip of his coffee. "Morning," she said to him, her smile almost guilty looking on her face.
"Oh you must have slept very well mah love. I am very jealous." Mel winked at Mika, "Doesn't she make wonderful noises liefde?!" she called over to Jacob who just gave a thumbs up without lifting his head from his computer screen.
Mika could feel the heat rising up her chest and neck and settling in her cheeks. Raizo could hear her heartbeat speeding up and put an arm around her to pull her close. He ran his hand up under her t-shirt and lay his palm against her back in a show of comfort. But the smile on his face was indication that he too was having a little fun with this.
"Oh don't mind me," Mel said while pouring herself a glass of water and typing something into the laptop. "Maybe one day we can compose a duet." She reached over and cupped Mika's cheek.
"Down girl." Jacob called over without raising his head. Mel pouted. "Fine, well last night was very quiet for us at least." The swift subject change caught Mika off guard but she welcomed it gratefully.
"Any noise from Berlin or Georgia?" Raizo asked. Mel shook her head.
"Something about this just isn't making any sense." Jacob finally piped up. "Our security is tight. I can't imagine someone is betraying us and if they were, it wouldn't matter because they don't know everything so how the fuck did these assholes find the safe house with enough time to launch that kind of a strike!"
Mel went over to Jacob and rubbed his shoulders. "Don't pain your head Jakey." She leaned over to kiss him on the temple which led to a kiss on his cheek and then on his mouth. A kiss that got deeper and more vigorous very quickly.
Raizo took Mika's hand and wordlessly guided her out of the kitchen and into the hallway. When they came to a door she'd not noticed the night before. Raizo pushed it open to reveal a staircase that led down to a basement.
"Are they going to…?" Mika asked as she made her way down the steps carefully followed by Raizo who found the light switch.
"Best we give them some privacy or risk being included." Raizo responded.
"That's not even a joke is it?" Mika asked while taking in the arsenal that was this cellar fortress.
Raizo shook his head taking a dagger off the far wall and turned it over in his hands. "They won't be long." He put the blade back.
"Do you think it's worth me checking in with Maslow, see if anything has come up on the Europol radar?"
"Maybe" Raizo said sitting down on a nearby crate. "Something doesn't make sense. Mel and Jacob think this is personal."
"Which makes you think it's to do with you huh?" Mika walked over to Raizo and stroke his hair.
"No offence Mika but the only people that have been on Europol's radar and might have a problem with you are 'my' people…well 'were', my people."
Mika looked down at Raizo quizzically, "You really think this is Ozunu? Aren't they all dead?"
Raizo looked up at her, "I thought most were, that or dispersed. It doesn't make any sense for any of them to come out and launch this kind of attack. I must be missing something!"
Raizo rarely let frustrations get the better of him. He always seemed to be so cool and in control but down in that cellar filled with enough weapons to launch a small land strike he looked as weary as any normal human being.
Mika stepped closer and took Raizo's head in her hands, gently cradling it to her chest, "We'll figure this out." She lay a kiss on top of his head.
Raizo raised his hands behind Mika to hold her close. He breathed in the scent of her. It calmed him, centred him. She was his single greatest vulnerability.
35 minutes had passed when both Mika and Raizo decided it would be safe to go back upstairs. There was silence in the house when Mika and Raizo entered the living room cautiously.
"Wooh!" Mel cried out as she popped up from the sofa smoothing down her dress. "Oh hey you two." Mika called over spotting Mika and Raizo standing silently near the kitchen counter. Raizo started to pour some drinks. Liquor for Jake and Mel and water for himself and Mika.
"Feeling better now?" Raizo aimed the question at Mel but could see Jacob putting his boxers on across the room. "Just what the Doctor ordered." Jake called over before getting up to take a glass of vodka from Raizo.
"Cleared your head?" Raizo asked with all seriousness.
"Always does brother." Jacob replied pulling a stool up to the breakfast bar and proceeding to roll a joint. "We're not leaving." He muttered while grinding the greenery.
"Ever?" Mika asked concerned.
Jacob laid out the rolling papers and started to sprinkle the weed liberally across them. "Just not right now."
"Because the threat is here." Raizo added.
"Better we meet them here rather than bring the fire home." Mel said before downing a shot of vodka.
"We draw them out here. We fight them here. That way we don't burn our homes down, figuratively or literally."
"How long can we last out here in the middle of nowhere?" Mika asked.
"Maybe 14 days." Jacob replied before licking the edges of the rolling papers to seal the joint together. "Between now and then, no one goes out alone. No one so much as answers the door without cover. Mel will double stock the rooms and refuge zones in the house and I will…"
"Wait!" Raizo cut in. The house went still. Nobody moved.
"DOWN!"
Everyone hit the deck moments before something too quick to see clearly crashed through the windows on one side of the cottage and out through the windows opposite. Glass shattered around them.
Mel scrambled for a rifle stashed under the sofa and scurried to the wall beside the broken window. She looked to Raizo who was crouched down on one knee beside Mika near the kitchen Island. Raizo nodded to indicate the air was quiet for the moment. Jacob had hurled himself across the room while grabbing his laptop and a gun stashed under another chair. Mika pulled down two handguns from under the kitchen counter. Everyone was quiet while Mel put the barrel of the sniper rifle through the corner of the broken window and scanned the distance for movement.
"Green." She whispered, the dust around them continued to settle. Raizo in a flash sprung away from Mika and out of the window that the object left through. Mika and Jake covered him. Mika felt like it was the longest 3minutes of her life just as Raizo returned with a large broken self propelled object in his arms. It looked like a small torpedo with wings.
"Shit!" Jacob exclaimed rummaging through a near-by tool box.
"What is it Jakey?" Mel called over without taking her eyes off the rifle scope.
"Goddamn sky rats." He proceeded to take the object apart.
"Looks kinda like a drone." Mika said while keeping an eye on the window opposite Mel.
"It is," Jacob replied not looking up. "Well partly. The other parts are mostly more intrusive surveillance and timed explosive"
"We need to leave." Raizo said calmly. "We can figure this out somewhere else brother." He said to Jake.
"I need to disable this first. It's a glorified landmine right now. And maybe if I can extract its motherboard I can trace back where the operator came from, maybe even who they are."
A buzzing sound started to come from the underside of the drone's inner casing. "I thought you were disarming that thing Jakey!" Mel called over.
"I am, I mean I thought I did." Jake said looking confused. He Reached down inside the cavity of the drone's shell. "There's something in here." He said pulling out a small cell phone. It was a burner. The phone kept ringing. The number on the screen was just a set of 3s and 4s. Jake scrambled over to his laptop and pulled some small cables out of his tool box. He connected the cell phone to another small device that looked like a remote control. He pressed the button on the cell phone to accept the call and put the phone on speaker.
The voice on the phone made Raizo grow still. "You people are quite aggravating. I'm tired of this game so I will tell you what will happen next."
Raizo's hand went to Mika's shoulder instinctively. His breath had slowed down to almost nothing. He was like a statue. The voice on the phone continued.
"I'll take your silence as compliance Raizo." Raizo remained silent. He knew this person's voice instantly and he knew what they were capable of.
"As we speak there are two other devices similar to the one that crashed through your little cottage, programmed to keep tabs on two targets. One is your dear friend Mr Maslow at Europol, the other is Mika's father. Believe me when I tell you that they will die if you do not do exactly as I say. You will walk 2 miles north of this location where you will find an unlocked parked car. Inside this car you will find keys and a map. You will drive to the location on the map and there you will pay for your crimes Raizo. You have 3 hours. Oh and bring your woman."
The phone went dead.
Silence hung in the air for a moment before Raizo got up and started heading towards the door.
"No!" Mika called out.
"You know this person brother?" Jacob asked calmly.
Raizo nodded. He stopped just before he got to the door. Mel scurried around in silence closing curtains before going back to her post by the window, scanning the horizon for movement.
"Ozunu?" Jacob asked while tapping away at his laptop.
"Yes and no and maybe." Raizo answered. "We don't have much time. I need to do as they ask. Can I leave the drone problem with you two?" Raizo asked Jacob and Mel.
"You got it brother. It might take a while. Could be 45minutes, could be 45 hours. If they have multiple servers for me to infiltrate it will make it tricky but if I can then those drones are mine. Here take this, it's a rumble pack." Jacob handed Raizo a small semi transparent object that looked like a micro sd card. "Slide that behind your belt buckle. Hopefully they won't think to look there."
"A rumble pack?"
"like a tiny version of those things restaurants give out to let you know you're table is ready. I'll alert it when we've neutralised the drones."
Raizo nodded and slid the small device into a cavity at the back of his belt buckle. He could feel the weight of Mika's silence. He knew what she was going to say.
"I'm coming with you!" Mika hoisted a bag of weapons up on to her shoulder.
"Mika.." Raizo exhaled a breath less steady than he would have liked.
"No. Not this time. That is my friend and my father they're threatening to kill." Mika headed over to the door but Raizo stopped her hand reaching for the handle.
"Mika please. This is exactly what they want."
"I'm going with you. I can't hack, I can't help anyone sitting here and I will be damned if I watch you face Ozunu alone again. Besides, they told you to bring me."
Raizo closed his eyes for a brief moment but his brain was doing a thousand multiplications trying to figure out a scenario where Mika was out of danger. When he opened his eyes Mika was looking back at him with a softer gaze. She reached her palm up to cup Raizo's cheek.
"By your side." She said in nearly a whisper.
Raizo nodded taking a hold of Mika's hand and bringing the inside of her wrist to his lips. "Let's go."
They drove in silence. Mika didn't feel the need to ask questions. She'd get all the answers at their destination and Raizo had gone to the place inside him that made him still and calm. He was sentry now because if he allowed it, his mind would be screaming at him. There were so many questions but most of them didn't matter anymore. What mattered was not to make the same mistake twice, not to lose someone he cared about. Again.
The drive seemed to go by quickly and when they reached their destination they were met by 6 armed guards, dressed in black and their faces obscured. They had rifles and hand guns.
"Get out of the car. Slowly. And keep your hands visible." The voice came over a loud speaker on a post to their left.
Raizo and Mika were both taking in as much of their surroundings as possible. They were parked in a clearing that looked like it could have once been a campsite. There were three large free standing huts. The grounds were overgrown and unkept. A murky pond lay to the left surrounded by old logs placed on their sides. Smoke was coming from the chimney of one of the huts. All the windows were blacked out of all the huts. It looked like they'd been spray painted.
"Search them." The voice over the loud speaker again.
"Keep your hands in the air!" A woman's voice. The rest of the guards aimed their guns equally at Mika and Raizo. They were searched and all their weapons seized.
"Clear!" the woman called out.
"Take them inside." The loudspeaker announced and then went quiet.
Mika and Raizo were led into the hut to their far right. It was dark inside. The windows let in just enough light through the haphazard paint smears that Mika and Raizo could see each other ad the surroundings. They were then tied to separate load baring posts about 2 meters apart. Their hands and bound behind them around the posts and they were forced to sit on the grass covered floor. And then they were left alone.
Mika's heart was pounding. But the rhythm was different. This wasn't fear. This was anger.
"Breathe." Raizo called over to Mika quietly.
"Yes, Mika. Breathe." Came a voice from the shadows in front of them. Mika was startled but Raizo remained calm.
The figure moved slowly out of the shadow and into a smudge of daylight, that lit him enough that his face was now visible. Mika didn't recognise him but she did recognise the way he moved. He didn't so much walk as glide. And he didn't emerge from the shadows, it was more like the darkness bled him out. He was dressed in a tailored black suit that looked very expensive. His eyes were dark orbs, his hair close shaved and his jaw even closer shaved.
"I'm glad you took up my offer brother. It's been such a long time." The man said with almost no emotion in his voice.
Raizo's eyes fixed on him. "You say that as if you gave us a choice." He replied.
"People like to say that they had no choice," He gently unbuttoned his suit jacket and took it off. "But that is never true. There is always a choice. It would be more accurate to say that there are no decisions without consequence."
He folded his jacket neatly and lay it down on a near by crate. "You see you made several choices years ago and now you are reaping the consequences of those decisions brother. Everything that happens from here on out is because you made it so."
"Ozunu is dead. What do you hope to accomplish?" Raizo asked calmly. He needed to buy Mel and Jacob enough time to disable the drones but he wasn't entirely sure how he would get out of this situation once they did.
"You're right. Ozunu is no more. I had to hire some people with very different skills to track you down. Turns out the new world has its uses. And speaking of new things." The man's gaze turned towards Mika.
"I see you have taken to western delicacies quite enthusiastically." His eyes met with Mika but she couldn't read him at all. That was more terrifying than anything else. He gave nothing away.
He pressed a button on the wall and two of the guards from outside came into the room and aimed their guns at Raizo's head.
The well dressed man went over to Mika and pulled an elegant silver blade from his back pocket. He cut Mika's bonds and pulled her to her feet. His gaze roamed up and down her body slowly. It was as if he were studying her as a curiosity.
"You forgot all your training so soon?" He posed the question to Raizo without taking his eyes off of Mika.
"What do you want from me?" Raizo asked growing impatient.
"You love her?" he asked, ignoring the previous question.
"This is not the way brother." Raizo tried to appeal to him.
"You didn't answer my question. Do you love her?"
"Yes." A simple short and simple but the weight of it hung in the air.
The well dressed man traced the back of his fingers across Mika's cheek. She tried to pull away but instead felt the man grip her by the back of the head painfully. He was applying pressure to the base of her skull with two fingers and it felt like her brain was being jabbed with a spike. She couldn't move.
"Stop this!" Raizo finally exclaimed breaking his composure.
The well dressed man glared back at Raizo, "Where was this compassion when my sister was alive!?" He demanded with anger still holding on to Mika but turning them both so Raizo could see the panic in her eyes.
"There was nothing I could do brother." Raizo tried to appeal to him.
"YOU COULD HAVE DIED INSTEAD OF HER!" He yelled back.
"Yes I could and you would still be feeling this pain." Raizo replied.
"She was all I had. My only true family. We managed to hide it from everyone but for some reason she trusted you with our secret." He reached into his back pocket again with his free hand and pulled out a short sword.
"She was weak and you indulged her! She thought she would escape and come back for us. She was foolish and stubborn, and you could have stopped her."
"As could you brother."
"She did not love me the way she loved you Raizo. How could you not see that? When she was captured I had to watch a blade pierce Kiriko's heart and even in those final moments her eyes found yours. You did not deserve it! You did not deserve her!"
"On that we can agree." Raizo said softly. "I was not worthy of her affection."
"Well today we will redress the balance. Today I will watch the life disappear from the eyes of someone you care for." He let go of Mika's neck and shoved her against the far wall while motioning at one of the guards to keep his gun on her. "If she moves, shoot Raizo but don't kill him."
The well dressed man took the short sword and used it to swiftly cut open Mika's t shirt from neck to hem. "Put you hands behind your back my dear. This won't take long." He instructed. Mika did as she was ordered.
"I'm sorry you have been caught up in all of this Mika but you have a habit of ending up in the middle of matters that are none of your concern." He raised the tip of the blade and placed it against Mika's throat but instead of piercing her flesh he gripped the hilt, spun his wrist around and punched Mika square across the jaw. Her vision blurred and her head snapped to the side like a rag doll. She'd been punched before. This was different. Raizo went very still, his eyes fixed on his brother.
"You will not touch her again." He said in a language Mika didn't recognise.
The well dressed man dismissed the warning. "It took me such a long time to find you. I nearly gave up after a couple of years but then I caught your scent. It was like the universe wanted me to find you. You got arrogant, sloppy. Wearing cologne, scented soaps. Living as if you were free, as if you had nothing to atone for."
He punched Mika again but this time in the side causing her to double over and gasped in pain. It was a kidney shot and the pain was simultaneously dull and sharp. She felt like she could be sick but more than that she was angry. She wasn't going to let this man use her to force Raizo to make a mistake.
The well dressed man grabbed a fist full of Mika's hair to pull her upright. Her mouth was bleeding and her jaw was already starting to swell. He pressed the blade against Mika's throat enough to draw a tiny trail of blood. Mika was trying to keep her breathing under control and trying to stop the sudden panic from consuming her. She couldn't see a way out of this. She fixed her eyes on Raizo's. He looked calm. It made her feel calm. A Stillness filled the air.
The well dressed man noticed the stillness too but before he could say a thing, the world seemed to all at once explode around them. The windows shattered, the ground shook and everyone leapt to the ground. Mika was curled up on the floor while the smell of burning begun to fill the air. She couldn't hear very well but she could see the well dressed man yelling at the guards who quickly got up and ran out with him closely behind.
Mika scurried over to Raizo and pulled one of this small knives hidden in the heel of his shoe. She cut him loose and like a magic he was gone. No words, no signals, just up on to his feet and melted into the shadows. Mika didn't have time to worry about that. It sounded like a war was happening outside. She ran over to the doorway where the door had been shaken from it's frame and took a quick glimpse outside. A bullet flew past her cheek.
"Shit!" She said to herself. Raizo was nowhere in sight and gun fire was now becoming the dominant noise outside. Mika looked around for a weapon but there were none. Peaking her head outside of the door again she saw a clear path to the car they'd arrived in. She decided to run for it. There were weapons hidden inside. She took off with all her might hearing gun fire all around her but not seeing where it was coming from. She heard the sound of people being hit. Mika made it to the car and got inside and crouched down when one of the side windows shattered. She thought he heard a buzzing which got louder and louder until she noticed it was coming from the glove box. She opened it and took out a phone that was still buzzing. She didn't recognise the phone or the number but answered it anyway.
"Oh sorry about that mah love, that one got away from me. Are you well?" The voice sounded like it was smiling.
"Mel?" Mika answered confused.
"Of course my sweet. Sorry for the noisy entrance but Jakey does like a bit of fan fair when he gets excited."
Mika was trying to connect the dots, "How.."
"It's alright Jakey hacked the programming on the drones. That Ozunu boy didn't hire the best when it came to his cyber security. I suppose if you can't stab it or punch it well…oh hang on."
Mika caught the sight of a body hitting the floor just out of the side of her vision
"Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes so Jakey managed to take charge of the drone network and re-route all of them. One he sent back here, that was all the boom boom you heard and the other two are heading out to sea as we speak where they will hurl themselves into the side of a near by cliff. It's all worked out rather well don't you agree?"
"Wait, what? It's over? What about Raizo, he ran off somewhere."
"Oh yes, seems all over for now well apart from Raizo. If you look to your left you can see he just needs to tie up some loose ends."
Mika did so and saw the shadows of two figures fighting beside the murky lake's edge. Flames had started up around them, ignited by embers from the explosion earlier on mixing with the dry tinder that surrounded the lake. Mika shook her head. She knew there was nothing she could do. She knew Raizo would not want her to intervene. In any other fight, one on one, she would have no worries about Raizo winning, easily but this was no ordinary fight. This was someone trained the same way he was, with the same single minded ruthlessness and a thirst for vengeance raging within. Mika had to strain her eyes to see through the light of the dying sun and through the smoke and flames. The two figures hurled themselves into the lake and lunged at each other, flung each other, launched fists and feet and whatever else they could get their hands on.
The fight had been going on for what seemed like over 30mins when a grey van slowly pulled up behind the car that Mika was in. Mika ducked down as soon as she saw the headlights. She had a hand gun in her hand that was stashed under the passenger seat early on.
The headlamps flashed twice then went dim. Mika was confused and tried to see the van through the wing mirrors of the car. "Come sit with us!"
Mika jumped, startled. She had forgotten she was still had Mel on the phone. "Is that you in the van?"
"Of course my sweet. Come sit. We have snacks! Don't worry, the only bad guy left is playing with your boyfriend."
Mika got out of the car cautiously and entered the van through a sliding door on its side. Mel wasn't lying. They had a hamper filled with snacks and a cooler filled with water, beer and spirits. The van smelled new. Mika had so many questions. Jacob was behind the wheel eating a bag of chocolate covered brazil nuts with his eyes fixed on a pair of binoculars. Mel had a rifle strapped to her back and a hand gun strapped to her side.
"They're getting tired. I reckon this will be over soon." Jacob said to no one in particular.
25mins later Mika felt like all her nerves were on edge. She audibly yelped when Jacob announced, "It's over!" cutting through the silence of the dimly lit van.
"It's over?" Mika scrambled to the window of the van's front seat so she could see for herself. Up to that point she couldn't bring herself to watch the fight. Instead she let Mel tell her all about how Jacob managed to corrupt the drones and how they had used Mika and Raizo's chips to find out where they were being held.
Mika squinted trying to see better in the fire lit darkness. Jacob handed her the binoculars to make it easier to see a dark figure dragging itself up from the water's edge and climbing to it's feet. He had something in his left hand and when Mika adjust the focus she realised it was the head of well dressed man. Raizo tossed it into the flames and started to walk toward the van as if he'd done this a million times before. He was dragging his right leg and had one arm cradled around his ribs.
Mika in that instance forgot all her training. She pried the door open to the van and ran toward Raizo. He was soaking wet and covered in mud, sweat and so much blood. He was exhausted but when he saw Mika running towards him he used the last of his strength to close the distance.
"BABY!" She yelled, her arms going around his neck. And as soon as Raizo felt her body against his, the rest of his energy left him. His knees buckled and he slumped to the ground with one arm now around Mika's waist.
"You're okay, are you hurt?" He managed to whisper through his pain. Moments later he fell to his side. His shirt was shredded, this was bad.
Jacob had driven the van closer and in seconds Mel and Jacob had Raizo in the back of the van on the floor while Jacob sped off to a new safe house.
"This honour bullshit is just ridiculous!" Mel yelled at Raizo as she took his pulse and then pulled a near by portable oxygen mask over his nose and mouth while shaking her head. Raizo tried to lift a hand to rest on Mel's but she shook him off. "No you save that strength for when you are better and I need to throttle you!" She took Raizo's hand and placed it in Mika's. "Here hold on to him. If his grip loosens we are in worse trouble than I thought." Mika didn't know what that meant but she did as she was told.
"How long Jakey? He's going to need to basin."
"Ten more mins." Jacob was driving like a man possessed.
"The basin?" Mika asked feeling helpless.
"Yah, a metal tub like a bathtub but filled with ice. To heal damage this extensive, he needs to slow down everything. I don't claim to understand all this Ozunu voodoo but somehow the nearer they get a state like hibernation, the more they seem to be able to speed up healing."
Mel was roughly tugging Raizo's clothes off and then wrapping him in bandages. "This is just to slow the bleeding until we get him in the basin. There's nothing else we can do now."
Jacob pulled up to the back of a bungalow that once again seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. He chucked Mika the keys to open the doors and he slung Raizo over his shoulder while Mel ran on ahead to prepare the basin. It was in the cellar and exactly how Mel described it. A huge metal bath tub but also like a coffin without a lid. Jacob and Mel lay Raizo down on the packed ice and then started packing more ice on top of him. They left his arms free. He needed to be able to move his hands to aid his healing.
Mika stood back until they were finished and then let Mel guide her upstairs to the kitchen. Mel took out three glasses and poured bourbon into each one.
"Drink mah love."
Jacob downed his and poured another glass but as Mika went to down hers both her jaw and her ribs protested and the abruptly lowered the glass. "Fuck." She'd forgotten about her injuries. It all seemed so long ago.
"Sit!" Jacob said to her downing a second shot. "How bad is it?" He was shining a torch in her eyes.
"It's fine it's nothing compared to Raizo." She tried to lean away from the light while Jacob pressed firmly around her swollen jaw.
"What it is, is not a competition." Jacob said calmly. "Stand and take the shirt off."
Mika did as she was told and Jacob prodded around her waist. She was bruising already. "Mel, bring the tape and the gel please."
Mel got up and rummaged in a cupboard and handed Jacob a box. "I'll roll us a smoke mah darling."
"You took some bad hits here Mika." Jacob said unpacking the tape and a gel pack.
"It was just a couple of punches." Mika said not seeing what the fuss was. Yes it hurt like a son of a bitch but it was two punches.
"No sweetheart. You took a couple of Ozunu punches. They damage differently. You're lucky you don't need that kidney removed. I'm gonna wrap your torso but if it isn't getting better in 3 days, we might need to get you to a surgeon. You'll need to ice that jaw. I can give you something for the pain. You won't be able to sleep without it."
"Here." Mel passed Mika a freshly rolled joint but Mika pulled back suspiciously.
"The last time I smoked what you guys smoke I had to have a lie down and that was only after a couple of tokes."
Mel laughed. "I promise this one is not so strong. You will feel better. All the thoughts and feelings from tonight are going to come at you all at once and you'll want to filter that through the lovely smoke. Raizo will be out for at least 2 days."
Mika took the joint and drew in deep.
"Slowly now, if you start coughing your ribs will not be friendly to you."
Mika took that advice and drew in slow and deep. She instantly felt the haze of weed fill her head and her lungs. She felt lighter. She smiled.
"Why don't you go and clean yourself up. There's a room down the hall, 2 doors on your right, it's fully stocked." Jacob said. "If you have trouble sleeping there things to help you in the bedside cabinet. Mel and I have a room just around the corner. Come find us if you need anything. And don't worry, we have a camera and a heart monitor hooked up to Raizo. We'll keep an eye on him."
Mika was exhausted and too damn tired and high to argue. So instead she nodded and headed down the hall to her room.