The Lost Scroll of Fudo Shin by Jon F. Merz

Author:Jon F. Merz [Merz, Jon F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-30T18:08:26+00:00

Chapter Twenty

“I can’t believe he’s dead.”

They were in a Kentucky Fried Chicken a few streets over from Hanzo’s shop. Vanessa kept an eye peeled to the television screens overhead that showed news coverage of the event.

“The entire place is gone,” said Vanessa. “That much paper and wood? It’s a wonder it didn’t happen before this.”

Jimmy bit into his chicken sandwich and blanched. “What the heck is this?” He spat the mouthful out on to his tray. “I ordered the one with lettuce, didn’t I?”

Vanessa peered over and shook her head. “Looks like cabbage.”

“No, wait.” Jimmy scowled at the illustrated signs showing menu items. “I chose that one. That’s lettuce.”

“Nope. Cabbage,” said Vanessa. “Might be a good idea to brush up on your Japanese at some point. Chances are you’ll be spending a fair amount of time here.”

“I hate cabbage,” said Jimmy. “How can you put stuff like this on a sandwich anyway?”

“You should see what they like to eat on pizza.”

Jimmy eyed her. “What?”

“Corn.”

“On pizza? You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Nope.” Vanessa took a bite of her meal and then pointed a fork in Jimmy’s direction. “Eat up, we’ve got things to do. If you don’t like the cabbage, either take it off the sandwich or get a new one.”

Jimmy shoveled it off and then resumed eating. After a moment, Vanessa looked at him again. “It was nice what you did back there.”

“What did I do?”

“The sentiment you showed Hanzo. He would have appreciated it greatly.” Vanessa sighed. “He was one of those humble people who works his whole life believing in the greater good.”

“Yeah, but he’s dead now.”

Vanessa shushed him and pointed. “News is back on. Let’s see if they say anything about us.”

Jimmy listened but to him, it sounded like a mishmash. But here and there, he thought he caught a few words that seemed to register with him. How was that possible? He didn’t speak Japanese, at least not that he knew of. But then there had been the incident in the taxi as well.

Weird.

Vanessa took a breath. “All right, we’re in the clear. That’s good news. Now we can concentrate on figuring out where we’re heading to next.”

“I saw Hanzo give you something.”

Vanessa nodded. “He did. A slip of paper that will no doubt have information for us.”

“So, why not read it now?”

“Because we’re in the open. It’s never a good idea to read information out in public like this. These days, everyone has a cell phone and every cell phone has a camera or video on it. The last thing I want to do is give our enemies an advantage.”

Jimmy finished a French fry. “So where do we go?”

Vanessa smiled. “You like Karaoke?”

“I’m not much of a singer.”

“That’s fine. We only need the cover of the singing to act as a buffer for us. Come on.”

Outside, Vanessa hailed another taxi and directed it across town. Jimmy watched the enormous buildings whiz past the taxi, whole sides of them turned into giant video screens depicting dinosaurs hawking soft drinks, crazy samurai warriors in bubble baths, and a whole host of weird visuals.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.