High & Low Fires of the Past

Chapter 29: Haphazard Plans

(Fitting Music:  nf- trauma // lyrics)

     We roll up a short way off Judge Ito's compound and make the rest of the way on foot to avoid suspicion.

     Stone walls and thick hedges encircled a tall, imposing mansion.  Four great pillars held up a balcony overlooking the porch, detailed metal fences fencing the second floor while still allowing it an on-look of the garden.  Two chimneys puffed smoke into the cool night air, whiffs dancing around and stinging my eyes as I crept closer to the complex.  Dark shadows leer under the balcony, advancing into the courtyard as the night grows longer.

     Takeru's hand flashes, two fingers pointing one way and then the other.  I nod, moving off to take point on the right, Cobra, Noboru, and Masaki falling in behind.  Tetsu, Yamato, Dan, taking Takeru's lead as he circles the left of the towering walls.

     The brush tickling my cheek as I duck and weave my way around the outer hedge, mapping out the perimeter in my head and scrutinising the mansion for weakness and entrances.  Years on the streets have my senses are driven into overload, and my feet pad in a comfortable rhythm as a small smile surfaces on my features.  Adrenaline thumps through my veins, my whole body twitching with awareness, every small detail magnified.  My eyes light up, and I could not deny the fact I was enjoying this.  It made me feel alive, the excitement and anticipation, it was invigorating.

     A deep musky voice accompanied by the clap of booted feet has me freeze, holding up my hand for the rest of my team to do likewise.

     My heart leaps in my chest, as it grows louder and increasingly closer.  I can place two sets of feet.  Two guards, I muse, quietening my breathing and keeping impossibly still. A sharp cone of light piercing the deepening gloom and pushing back the darkness as the guard moves a torch across the clearing.

"Keep an eye out.  Boss, is expecting company tonight."

     My eyes bulge as they stop just on the other side of the hedge.  Just one well-placed look would have us spotted.  I held my breath, licking my lips as my mouth is suddenly dry.

"Something to do with that body they brought in, I'd think."

     A grating laugh resonates through the silence.  A scuffle has my eyes darting up, and my jaw drops when I catch Takeru and his group crouching a few feet ahead of me.  This must-have circled around the rest of the building, I realise, but what stops me cold was Takeru.  His eyes seething, jaw clenched, and hands balled white at his sides.  He looked like he was going to tear through the hedge and throttle the two men at the other side.

"What was that?"

     Alarm leeks into the guard's voice, leaves crunching and branches snapping as he swings around wildly.  Light scurries over the garden, focusing on each obscure and possible hideout.  Suddenly, it breaks through the hedge, casting a speckled glare on the road right between Takeru and me.

     It flicks over the distance, stopping mere inches from Takeru's crouched form, but he does not move, does not even blink.  Time seems to slow in the next few moments, and all I can hear is my heart pulsing violently as I struggle to calm myself down.

"Probably just a fox, Max."

"There are no foxes here," the voice gruffly retorts.

     The other man sighs.  "A bird then.  Come on, it's cold out here!"

     The light stays for a minute longer before moving back into the compound.

"Fine."

     Footsteps move away, but it is only once silence completely returns that I let out a heavy breath, my legs giving out beneath me and leaving me sitting on the pavement.  My head drops into my hands, as Takeru and his group creep over.  That was close, too close.  The reality of the situation hits me as heavy as a sledgehammer.  Hiroto's life was in the balance.  The guard's words playback over in my head.  '...The body they brought in,' my heart suddenly stops.  Body . . .