Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
“And a lot of ways for us to die.” Hiro sucked on the lollipop. "We fight through the kitchen, through the garden, and then we hit the stairs. That’s a heavy fucking battle for us. We’ll be exhausted by the stairs."
I nodded in agreement. “We divide the Scales with jobs. One group for the kitchen. Another for the garden. A final to hit the stairs and clear as many as they can before we get there.”
“Much better.” Hiro took out his lollipop. “Now we rush inside and our biggest problem is not tripping over dead bodies.”
"And once we get to the stairs, we don't stop." I sneered. "We go up. Room by room. Landing by landing. All the way to the top. No matter how much pain we’re in. Everything ends with this battle. Neither the Fox or Akiro can escape."
Everyone nodded.
I looked at the layout and saw every place where my men could die.
The kitchen was tight—close quarters, limited visibility, and brutal.
The garden was too fucking open—exposed to fire from multiple angles, the waterfall’s mist would blur sightlines, and the Fox could have mines there.
And the staircase—that single, vertical, inescapable path—was a gauntlet. Each room a chamber that couldn't be skipped. Each landing a forced confrontation.
My father had made sure that anyone who wanted to reach him would have to earn every single step in blood.
Don’t worry, father. We will.
Reo continued, "The hackers will kill all feeds and cut cameras. They’ll also jam their internal communications. They will have no radios or phones. For the first five minutes, they won't know we're inside."
Hiro frowned. "Five minutes isn't long."
"Five minutes is enough to take the kitchen and reach the garden.” Reo shrugged.
Five fucking minutes.
The length of a song.
The length of a cigarette.
The length of a fight that decides whether any of us live to see the next day.
Reo sighed. “After that, it doesn't matter if they know. By then, we'll be on the stairs, and there's only one direction—up."
I felt the weight of everything this battle would bring—the inevitability, the narrowness of the path, the knowledge that this plan had almost no margin for error.
If the hackers failed, we'd be walking into a prepared defense.
If the kitchen took too long, we'd lose the element of surprise.
If any of us got wounded on the stairs, there was no retreat—only forward, upward, and through.
"We'll need smoke." I looked at Reo. "Heavy, industrial smoke for the kitchen and the first two rooms on the staircase. If they can't see us, they can't target us."
“Okay.” Reo pulled a small notebook from his jacket and wrote it down. "Done."
"And we go at night. Late. When staffing is lowest and the Fox's men are at their most complacent."
"Tomorrow night," Reo said. "That gives us twenty-four hours to finalize equipment, brief the men, and get the hackers in position."
Tomorrow night.
Those two words sat in the room like a held breath. I could feel everyone behind me processing it—the Claws, the Fangs, and Hiro.
Tomorrow night, we walk into a building named after me and kill the Fox.
Hiro was quiet. He'd taken the lollipop out of his mouth and was holding it between two fingers, looking at the top of the miniature hotel—the Fox's room—with an expression I'd seen before. The expression he wore when death became personal and all meaning centered around blood.
He looked at me. "A hundred steps. Probably sixty to seventy men between us and the top."
"Probably."
"Let’s add the twins to our three.”
“Okay.”
“Pace yourself, brother." His voice grew deadly. "You and I—we need our energy when we get to the top. Because it will be you and me that make the kill."
My heart boomed in my ears.
He held my gaze. "We're going to kill our father together."
Our men and the space went still.
I nodded. "Together."
“And we’ll take our time.” Hiro put the lollipop back in his mouth.
“Yes, we will.” I looked down at the book in my hands with the worn cover, and I considered some of the words inside that had been written by men who hunted demons centuries before I was born.
To hunt demons, we wore their faces.
I tapped my finger against the book. “One more thing."
Everyone looked at me.
"We're wearing masks."
Reo tilted his head.
Hiro raised an eyebrow.
The Claws and Fangs shifted around us.
"Oni masks." I tightened my hold on the book. "In the last fight with Akiro's men, they saw our faces. Once they identified me, Hiro, and Reo, they targeted us specifically. Because killing one of us three devastates the entire operation."
Reo's eyes sharpened. He was already piecing together the logic. "If we're all masked, they don't know who to prioritize."
"Everyone looks the same. Everyone is a threat. No one is the target." I scanned their faces. "It levels the fight. They can't hunt what they can't identify."
Reo pulled out his notebook again. "I'll have masks made tonight."