Page 31 of Circle of Death
So while the rest of the household is immersed in a fierce Monopoly contest, I’m content to just sip my drink and observe. I guess it’s a good sign that Maddy didn’t protest when Dache decided to hang around after their lesson. Maybe she’s getting used to him. The monk is sitting on the floor with the others—Maddy, Margo, Jessica, Jericho, Moe, and Burbank—like it’s a normal family night. And from the stack of pretend cash in front of him, he appears to be winning big.
Bando leans his head against my seat cushion. I reach down to scratch him between the ears, his favorite spot. My mind is warm and fuzzy. I should be thinking about the president’s challenge, about a way to tackle the Command, about a plan for tracking down the World’s Fair killer. Instead, I’m just thinking how lucky I am to have the people who mean the most to me in one room.
One evening off can’t hurt, right?
Suddenly, I hear a blast from outside. The weakened windows shatter. Lines of black holes appear on the parlor wall, blasting off thick chunks of plaster. Armor-piercing ammo. Blasting through Khan’s reinforced glass. I hit the floor and crawl toward the others. Everybody flattens themselves on the carpet. Everybody except Dache. He sits perfectly still as furniture splinters around him.
“The damn drones!” yells Jericho. “They’re back!”
Dache shakes his head. “Chinasian commandos,” he shouts over the metallic bursts. “Highly skilled. And relentless.”
I guess the president’s visit was no secret. And being on his team put a bounty on our heads. “Nobody move!” I shout.
The gunfire gets more intense. Multiple shooters. Multiple angles. Light fixtures explode. Glassware shatters. Books are blasted into confetti. I’m waiting for a pause, deciding when to make a move. I see Dache reaching for Maddy’s hand.
“Come, Madeline,” he says. “Let’s show them who you are.”
Maddy pushes herself up from the floor and stands in the middle of the room, as bullets whiz around her. I grab for her leg to pull her back down.“No!”
Margo screams, “Stop! Don’t do it!”
Dache puts his arm around Maddy and walks her across the floor toward the front entrance. He yanks her to the side as another stream of bullets blasts through the shattered windows. He looks back at us, his voice calm, but firm. “If you don’t trust me, how can she?”
He nods to Maddy. She opens the door.
CHAPTER 34
MADDY WALKS OUT onto the dark lawn with Dache at her side. For a moment, the shooting stops. She feels the adrenaline rush that always accompanies fear. But there is no fear. Instead, it’s a feeling she couldn’t describe if she wanted to. Her mind now separates from the danger—from the obvious fact that there are killers in the darkness. And that they want to see her die.
As her eyes adjust, she sees black-masked commandos filtering out from behind foliage and walls. A dozen, maybe more. Long metal magazines hang from their flat-black guns. The man in the lead raises his weapon and points it at her face. He pulls the trigger. Maddy’s in another zone now—a zone where she can actually see the bullets as they leave the barrel of the gun. She stares, unblinking, as the slugs stop an inch from her face, then watches them drip onto the grass like beads of mercury.
She hears Dache call out an order in Mandarin, which she somehow understands. His voice is calm and assured. The commandos stop in mid-step and lower their weapons, letting them dangle from straps around their shoulders. One by one, they walk to a storm grate near the entrance and slide their weapons into the opening. Maddy hears the rattles and splashes from the sewer chamber beneath the street.
Dache whispers into her ear. She calls out a phrase in perfect Mandarin, which she can now speak. The commandos move back onto the lawn, peeling off their tactical outfits until they’re down to their black underwear. All at once, they drop to their knees and bow in prayer, as if in a temple.
“Good job,” says Dache, waving his arm over the group. “New converts.”
“You have a weird sense of humor,” says Maddy.
Dache gives her a respectful bow. “Coming from you, Madeline, that is a true compliment.”
CHAPTER 35
AT MIDNIGHT. I’M the last one still up. I’m staring at the shattered parlor windows, wondering how long our luck can hold out. A man’s home is his castle, but this place is starting to feel like a shooting gallery. For tonight at least, we’re all still breathing. Thanks to Dache and Maddy.
A few hours ago, Dache lined up the Chinasian commandos on the front lawn and sent them on their way, single file, to a monastery upstate. A fifty-mile overnight hike. I wanted to question them first, but Dache said it would be a waste of time. The commandos had been trained by Toor Bayani, and they were as mindless as Dr. Mocquino’s bloodsuckers. They had nothing in their heads but the mission. And now, not even that. Dache says none of them will ever touch a weapon again.
I take one last look out one of the broken windows and then head upstairs. As I walk down the hallway, I hear voices and laughter from Maddy’s room, like she’s having some kind of slumber party. I knock on the door, announce myself, and peek in. The laughter is coming from Dache, high-pitched and silly. He’s sitting cross-legged on the floor with Maddy’s antique tape player in his lap, volume up full. Maddy is sitting across from him, clearly enjoying his reaction.
They’re listening to one of the old Shadow radio shows from Maddy’s collection, and Dache is clearly eating it up. Maddy obviously knows the script by heart. She’s mouthing every word from every character. She must have heard this tape a hundred times.
She must not have heard me. Neither did Dache, who’s listening to the program intently, moving his body in sync with the action—feelingevery twist in the drama. As the episode ends, the radio announcer intones,“As ye sow evil, so shall ye reap evil. Crime does not pay. The Shadow knows!”
Dache throws his head back in delight, clapping and whistling.
Maddy reaches over and clicks the player off.
“I thought you’d like it,” she says.
