Holdin' On for a Hero (82 page)

She gave Shen a hateful look. “But that suited Kitaro just fine. He used my addiction to torture me. He would give me the drugs sometimes and others he would make me go without. I would suffer all the withdrawal symptoms and when I was at my weakest he would pump me full of them again.”

Senna closed her eyes and blew out her breath slowly, trying to release the hatred and rage that the memories inspired. “I reached a point that I was ready to die. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I begged him to kill me. He refused, but something did change. He took away the drugs. That was bad enough. It took me weeks to get them all out of my system and I was really sick. When I was finally clean he came up with a new game. He would bind me and rape me. But he had an audience now. It would be like a big party. People would be laughing and drinking and he would have me brought in. I was the entertainment. When he was feeling generous he would allow his guests to have a turn. Nothing was too perverse for his tastes.”

Konnor stood up and tried to take her in his arms but she wouldn’t let him, despite the fact she was shaking like she had a high fever. “No, I have to get this out,” she said.

He sat down and she cast Shen a glance. His face was a mask, as if his emotions were being held tightly in check. “One night, after one of his parties, he had me taken back to my cell. I lay on my pallet and cried for hours, trying to will my heart to stop beating. I guess I cried myself to sleep. Something woke me. There was someone with me. He was touching me, so gently, and whispering words of comfort to me. I looked at him and screamed. It was Kitaro. But he didn’t act like Kitaro. He didn’t shout at me or hurt me. He looked like Kitaro on the outside but inside he was Kitaro’s opposite. He said his name was Shen and that he had come to save me.

“Over the next few months the abuse continued. Kitaro must have been receiving pressure from someone because he began again trying to get the information. Each time he failed he would fly into an awful rage and make me suffer more than ever. But each time it happened, Shen would appear in my cell to take care of me. It started to feel like he was an angel. When he was there with me I was safe and loved.

“I don’t know what happened, but suddenly Kitaro stopped trying to get me to remember. And the parties stopped. For weeks I didn’t see Kitaro or Shen. Then Kitaro had me brought to his private quarters. He wanted me. By then I had lost the nerve to fight. I didn’t fight and it seemed to surprise him. The way he touched me was different. I thought he was Shen and I responded to him. I even called him Shen. When I did it was like waving a flag in front of a bull. He started beating me, demanding to know who Shen was. I told him the truth, that Shen was a man who came to me when I was alone who wore his face, that Shen was a man who loved me. Suddenly he just seemed to freeze in place. He looked like a statue made of flesh and blood. I thought for sure he was going to explode any moment and tear my head off or something, but he didn’t. Instead Kitaro disappeared and Shen emerged. He held out his hand and told me that we had to leave. I was too afraid and confused to argue. I did as he said and he took me to Japan. I stayed there, as his lover, until Kitaro emerged one day. He was dominant for two weeks then Shen took control. He told me that he had to send me away. Then he used the device he had taken from Marcus on me. I was taken to a private plane and flown to the States, then taken by car to Harlan’s house. When I arrived I didn’t know where I had been or what had happened.”

Everyone looked at her in shock when she finished. Her only concern was for Konnor and his reaction. “Konnor, you have to understand. The adversary you thought Shen was fighting all these years…it isn’t another person, it’s another part of Shen. Or more accurately I should say, Shen is a part of Kitaro. He’s a result of Kitaro’s mind fragmenting. Shen is Kitaro’s consciousness. He is, basically, the good side and Kitaro is the evil but they are, in the end, the same person.”

Konnor looked at Shen. “Damn you.” His voice sounded strained. “Damn you to hell. You lied to me.”

Shen’s face suddenly transformed from an expression of patience and compassion to one of arrogance and menace. “You pathetic fool,” he sneered at Konnor then included Lucas and Minora in his glance. “All of you, fools every one.”

Senna jumped forward as he reached into the pocket of his coat. He grabbed her and wrapped one hand around her throat, holding her gasping for air as he lifted his weapon.

“So, now at last you all know the truth,” he said, directing the comment to the others. “And now you can take it to your graves.”

Konnor dived as Kitaro’s finger tightened on the trigger but he was too late. Lucas lurched backward in his chair as his chest exploded from the shot. Konnor had crossed the distance between him and Kitaro when Kitaro raised the gun and pointed it at Senna’s head. Konnor jerked to a stop.

“Now, I believe we have somewhere to go,” Kitaro said. “After you.”

“Lucas,” Senna gasped.

Kitaro looked across the room to where Lucas was tied to the chair. His head was drooped forward so that his chin rested on his chest. Blood covered the front of his shirt. “He is dead.”

A muffled sob came from Minora. “Move!” Kitaro barked. She walked over beside Konnor. He took her hand and after a moment’s hesitation walked ahead of Kitaro. Senna gulped air as the pressure on her throat eased and Kitaro shoved her behind Konnor. She bumped into Konnor and reached out to grab him for support.

“Do not touch her!” Kitaro barked as Konnor started to take her arm. “She can walk on her own.”

“Where are you taking us?” she rasped hoarsely.

“To our destiny,” he said with a victorious smile.

For a moment she hesitated, wondering if he would shoot her if she just took off running. At that moment she would almost have preferred it because she knew if she did what he wanted she would live in hell for however long he allowed her to live. More than that, she knew that he would never allow Konnor to live and she didn’t think she could bear seeing him die.

“If you think to defy me, bear this in mind,” Kitaro seemed to read her mind. “I will make them suffer a very long time.”

That was enough to get her moving again. He made Konnor drive the jeep that was parked outside. They drove to what appeared to be some type of aircraft hangar and he ordered Konnor to stop. There were no guards, no soldiers, not a living soul in sight. Senna could not figure out why the base seemed deserted. If the Sumer project was so important then it should have been guarded. But she had no time to ponder the question. Kitaro motioned them toward a door in the side of the building.

As soon as they walked in they all stopped dead in their tracks. A craft unlike anything any of them had ever seen took up almost the entire area of the cavernous building. It looked at least four-stories high and almost as long as a football field. Its surface was a dull matte black and it was a bit reminiscent of a Stealth bomber, only many times larger.

“Behold.” Kitaro’s voice was barely above a whisper and carried a hint of awe. “Sumer.”

Senna marveled at the sight. The prototype Lucas had developed was actually only the control center. He had been interested more in the instrumentation and how it worked than the actual application of it to any type of craft. Her eyes traveled over it and she noticed what appeared to be some sort of ramp that extended from the belly.

Kitaro motioned them toward the ramp. The interior was cool but well lit. Every wall and ceiling inside seemed to be made of the same type of material—a slick silver metal that oddly enough didn’t seem to reflect light. The floors were a dull black material that felt like very thick, hard rubber. It had a bit of give to it when they walked but absorbed all sound.

They were directed to a door that slid open when they stopped in front of it. Kitaro motioned them inside and keyed in a sequence on the lighted control pad. Senna felt a slight motion, and although she could not tell from it whether they were ascending or descending, she knew they had to be rising. The doors opened and Kitaro prodded her forward.

Her breath caught in her throat. It was almost like being transported back in time. They had reached the control center. It was circular in shape. All along the walls banks of controls were mounted. Each, she knew, had a specific function, but all were controlled from central command.

The ceiling of the room rose to a peak in the center. Suspended from the central point was an enormous globe of glass. From the information in her mind she knew that it was a type of viewer, offering a three dimensional image of whatever the sensors were targeted on.

Directly beneath the globe was a structure that resembled a raised circular lectern. On two sides there were crescent indentions, forming almost a niche in the rounded structure. Each of these two sides rose at a slight angle to a flattened point in the center. Each sloped surface bore a control panel. The panels looked something like a keyboard, but instead of letters and numbers the keys were lit and marked with symbols.

Kitaro shoved her toward the stand. She lurched forward and caught herself then turned to him. “Please,” she beseeched him. “Don’t do this. You don’t need this, Kitaro. You’re already a wealthy, powerful man. You don’t have to—”

“Silence!” he shouted at her.

“All right.” She recognized the insane gleam in his eyes and knew not to push him too far. She had to find another tactic, anything to stall for time. “But will you please answer something for me?”

He narrowed his eyes then nodded curtly. “Was Lucas working with Slater?”

“Slater thought so.”

“Then Lucas was telling the truth. He wasn’t working with Slater and Marcus.”

“In the beginning he was.”

“I don’t understand. If he didn’t want Slater to get his hands on the machine then why work for him?”

“He needed the funds Slater could provide and he trusted Marcus and Andrea. When he discovered who Slater really was and what he wanted with the research, he betrayed them.”

“So he ordered my mother…Andrea’s death,” Senna said.

Kitaro’s face lit in a sly smile. “Indeed he did.”

“You find that amusing?” she asked angrily.

“Highly,” he replied then looked up for a split second as if in thought. “Perhaps I should have let Lucas live a bit longer. It might have been worth the bother just to see the look on his face.”

“What are you talking about?”

He pulled a communicator from his pocket similar to the type law enforcement agencies use and spoke into the microphone. “Bring her in.”

Senna stared at him in confusion then looked at Minora. Min shrugged as if to indicate she had no idea what was going on. The entrance doors to the control room slid open and Senna felt like she was going to faint.

“Andrea!” Minora’s voice was weak with surprise.

The man holding on to Andrea pushed her ahead of him into the control room. “Well, well, if it isn’t the pristine Minora and her bastard brat,” Andrea sneered and walked over to stand beside Kitaro.

He stepped back so that like everyone else, she was in his line of fire. “You may leave,” he said to the man at the door then looked at Senna. “What? Have you nothing to say? And I thought you would be overjoyed to at last be reunited with your mother.”

Senna was speechless but Minora was not. “You bitch!” she hissed.

“Poor Minora,” Andrea taunted her. “So righteous, so honorable…so stupid. Did you think I wouldn’t figure out Lucas’ pathetic plot to kill me? Who do you think took the material from your house that he sent?”

Minora glared at her. “I could wring your neck myself, you unfeeling, sadistic slut.”

“Now, now…” Andrea wagged her finger in a mocking way. “Is that any way to talk in front of your daughter?”

Minora took a step toward her but Kitaro raised his gun. “Enough. We have wasted enough time. Senna, you will activate the final gate and initiate the system, now.”

“I won’t do it.” She hoped she sounded determined.

Kitaro raised his gun and pointed it at Minora’s head and Senna’s resolve to defy him weakened. Minora looked at her with frightened eyes and she felt her will diminish even more. She could not let Minora die.

Andrea laughed. “What’s the matter, Min? Scared? Are your pants wet?”

“Shut up!” Kitaro shouted at her.

She looked at him haughtily. “Don’t use that tone of voice with me. If it weren’t for me you’d never have gotten this far, you fool. Or have you forgotten…”

Her words were interrupted by a soft pop from the silencer of his gun. Blood and tissue sprayed as the back of her head exploded. Her body swayed once then fell. Minora jumped back and Senna fought to keep from throwing up. She felt Konnor ease up behind her and put his hand on her back to steady her.

“Now.” Kitaro leveled the gun at Minora but spoke to Senna. “You have three seconds to decide if she lives or dies.”

At the count of one, Minora made a whimpering sound then put her hand to her mouth.

“Two.” Senna swallowed and looked from Minora to Kitaro. “Thr—”

“Okay!” Her surrender came out in a shout. “I’ll do it!”

He smiled but didn’t lower the gun. “Where is the gate?”

She straightened her shoulders before answering. “You’re looking at it.” Immediately she felt Konnor’s tension through his hand on her back. She turned and looked at him. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let her die, Konnor. She’s my mother.”