Page 117 of Dragon 7

I stared at the sky below us where two of my men had just disappeared. My chest cracked open. Rin's three red flowers on his back. Yoichi's gold flash. The staircase shaking under my boots. The wind pulling at my face.

Reo's voice cut through. "Move, Kenji! Now!"

Hiro turned me around. “Brother, let’s finish this!”

I swallowed. “Y-yes.”

“They didn’t die for nothing!” Hiro’s hands shook on my arms. “They didn’t!”

“They didn’t!” I shook my head.

“Listen!” Hiro blinked. “There’s no time to. . .mourn.”

Reo added, “We’ll do it later!”

“Let’s go.” I got out of Hiro’s hold and headed up.

The twins dove through the hatch firing. Bullets sparked off the metal frame. Reo threw himself through behind them and his gun flashed once inside the plane and men screamed.

Once Hiro and I got up fast, I saw that it was dark inside. Still, I grabbed the hatch frame with one hand, aimed my silver gun into the interior with the other, and fired four shots into the muzzle flashes.

A man dropped.

Another stumbled.

I threw myself through the hatch, hit the metal floor, and rolled to the wall. Hiro came in behind me, blades drawn, and buried one in the nearest man's throat before his feet had settled.

Where are you, father? You fucking coward! Because of you so many good people have died!!

Wind howled through the open door behind us. The staircase tore free from the plane with a sound like a building collapsing—metal screaming, bolts shearing, the entire ramp peeling away into the night and crashing through the canopy below.

A tree branch sheared across the open hatch and splinters exploded inward.

The plane climbed harder.

The floor tilted.

The trees below grew smaller.

We were inside.

The hatch gaped open behind us.

Wind and moonlight poured through.

The plane shook as it clawed above the tree line.

Five of us remained—Reo, the twins, Hiro, and me. With my guns aimed forward, I squinted to get a better view of the dim cabin in front of us.

Ahead, deeper in the cabin bay, Akiro and his remaining men waited in the dim red emergency lighting and surrounded him.

And right behind them, the Fox crouched in the shadow with two guns in his shaking hands.

There you go.

Chapter eighteen

The Inside of a Wound