Chapter 16

Leonardo was on edge. He'd dozed off in an armchair earlier but had woken up in the middle of the night to discover that neither Michelangelo nor Raphael had returned. When he roused Donatello an hour later, he'd already decided it couldn't be mere coincidence that tonight was supposed to be the last night in Mike's three-month-long stint with the Rising Hand. Something was wrong. He could feel it.

"We'll find them, sensei," he said as he strapped on his scabbards.

Don had one of his modified cell phone devices in hand and the dazed look of a person who'd sprung awake too quickly. "I should be able to pick up Mike's location once we're aboveground."

Splinter nodded. Leo could see the concern in his flattened whiskers and his furrowed brow, but the sensei spoke calmly. "Surely Raphael is with him."

There was a sound from the entryway and the three of them rushed over to see Michelangelo come in. Leo let out a breath of relief, then sucked it back in at the sight of the blood dried on his brother's plastron. "What happened?" he demanded. "Where's-"

"I'm right here," Raphael said, stepping in behind Mike.

"Jesus," Don said at the sight of Raph's face, the right side scraped raw and swelling up purple. "What hit you?"

Raphael jerked a thumb at Michelangelo. "Ask him." He bent over a little, hand on his left side. "We got any Vicodin stashed away?"

"Tend to them. Explanations can wait." Splinter's voice was tight, clipped.

After his gashes had been stitched up and his torn knuckles bandaged, Michelangelo sat down heavily, pressing an ice pack to his neck and wiping the blood off himself with a wet towel. He looked up into the circle of expectant faces. "I don't know where to start."

"How about who you were fighting," Leonardo suggested.

"One of Doshida's men. A guy named Snake. He was on the squad that Doshida asked me to train. Except, I never really had a handle on him, he was always aloof and kinda odd."

"Odd?" Raphael grimaced as he took the antiseptic pad that Don handed him and pressed it to his face. "That's one way to put it. He was frickin' unreal."

"One man," Donatello said. One man had taken on two of them together.

Mike said, "He was crazy fast and strong. Unnatural, even... like he didn't feel pain. And his eyes were bloody, big - they looked all messed up."

Leo and Don exchanged glances with Splinter. "How did it happen?" Leo asked.

"Just before I was about to leave for good tonight I found out that Snake had been sent on an assassination assignment. I went to stop him and he wasn't too happy that I warned away his target before he got there."

Leonardo looked over at Raphael, who said, "I got there during the fight."

"You knew, Michelangelo," Splinter reminded him, "that the Rising Hand engaged in criminal activities. Why did you choose this particular instance to intervene, so suddenly, and on your own?"

Michelangelo lowered his eyes. "I had to." He pulled a folded photograph from his belt and handed it to Leonardo. "I saw her name, on the photos of Snake's targets."

Leo opened the photograph. "This is-" He stared, and sat down slowly without finishing the sentence.

"Who?" Don took the photo from him.

"Holly Chambers," Mike said. "Standing next to her father, Dr. Evan Chambers."

Raphael frowned over Don's shoulder. "The man who-"

"Yeah, that's him," Don said.

Mike said, "His daughter is on Saito Doshida's hit list."

Stunned silence- so absolute they could hear the faint sloshing of runoff water outside.

Softly, Splinter asked, "Could it possibly be because of his association with us?"

"Maybe. I don't know, sensei," Mike said. "We haven't had any contact with him for a year, and he wouldn't remember anything about us."

Leonardo stood up and paced over to the wall, bracing one arm against it, head bowed. "You did the right thing, Mike," he said, but his eyes were fixed on a crack in the plaster.

"Where is Ms. Chambers now?" Splinter asked.

"I don't know. I broke into her apartment and left her a note, telling her to leave for her own safety. I saw her get into a cab."

"And this man- Snake?"

"Dead," Raphael supplied. "Won't be long before he's found though."

"Doshida will know it was me," Mike said. "Tami- another Rising Hand ninja- she saw me looking at the assignment file."

"What will Doshida do?" Donatello wondered.

"He won't leave a job uncompleted," Mike said. "He'll send someone else to find her. As for us...I don't know what he'll do, but he won't be happy about me jeopardizing Agete's business, or about Snake's death." Michelangelo dropped his head into his hands. When he raised it again, his face was a picture of abject misery. "I'm sorry. This is a mess. You were right, from the beginning. Getting involved with the Rising Hand was bound to end badly." He looked at Raphael apologetically. "You know, up until tonight, I thought I was going to pull it off. I really thought it would turn out okay."

Raphael shook his head. "Numbnut that you are, this ain't your fault, Mike."

"There is truth to your brother's words, Michelangelo," Splinter said. "You fulfilled your agreement honorably. It is Saito Doshida who has chosen to profit from the taking of lives."

"And I worked for him," Mike added, despondent. "I trained his team. And now he'll use them against us. He even has me on video."

Leonardo turned back, solemn. "What's done is done, Mike. All you wanted was to help- to help Raph, to help the Rising Hand ninjas who trusted you, to help Holly Chambers. You shouldn't be sorry for any of that."

For once, Michelangelo was silent, expressing deep, weary gratitude only with his eyes.

Leonardo said, "We'll do whatever we have to, to get Doshida to lift the death sentence on Holly Chambers. In the meantime, we need to find out where she is and make sure she's protected." As the words left his mouth, he felt their undeniable weight press down on him, on all of them. He looked at Splinter. For a desperate moment, he wanted his sensei to step in, to overrule him. Of course he would not. "Mike," Leo continued, "you'll need to tell us everything you know about Agete - the people, the headquarters, anything that might help us know what we're up against."

Splinter did speak up now, only to say, "Later. First, the two of you must sleep."

Michelangelo nodded. He was drooping with exhaustion, cold, blood loss and stress. Even Raphael, who frowned at the thought of being left out of any ensuing conversation, didn't put up a fight when the elderly rat put a firm hand under his son's elbow and steered him towards his room.

As he passed Leonardo, Raphael paused. "You want to know what we're up against," he said. "It took both me and Mike to take down that one bastard. I don't know where the hell Doshida got him, but I wouldn't expect him to be the only one."

Leonardo put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Get some rest."

Donatello took Leonardo aside as their brothers left the room. Don had a look on his face that Leo had seen before: his checkmate face. An expression that would sometimes appear halfway through a game of chess between them, or when Don was in the middle of a frustrating technical problem. It meant he'd already played through the whole thing in his mind and determined that he couldn't win.

"You sure you want to do this?" he asked.

Lay our lives on the line to go to war with the Rising Hand over the life of a stranger? Leo met Don's knowing gaze. "We owe that family a great debt," he said.

"I know that better than anyone. But to protect one woman indefinitely against an entire ninja organization? What leverage do we have against the Rising Hand? If there's one thing we know about Doshida, it's that he's one determined son of a bitch. And if Raph's suspicions are correct, and he has more...super soldiers..."

"I don't know how we're going to do it, Don. Only that we're obligated to try. Could you argue otherwise?"

Don let out a troubled sigh. "No."

"Donatello is correct, however," Splinter said, coming back into the room. "The Rising Hand is considerably more powerful than it was last year. And Saito Doshida is no Oruku Saki, to be drawn into a challenge of honor and met in battle. You must find a different way." The sensei laid the full authority of his gaze on them. "Be careful."