The helicopter dropped like a stone and sideslipped over the roof, as the pilot implemented immediate evasive action away from the line of tracer. It was a reflex action and effective in that it was unexpected, but it brought them closer to the control tower.
A second burst from the .50 punched through the airspace they had just left, but then a third burst caught the tail rotor. The helicopter started to spin on its own axis, but they were now so close to the roof landing area that they hit almost immediately.
There was the sound of screaming metal as the skids dragged across the metal grating of the landing area, showering sparks everywhere, and then the rotors disintegrated as the wrecked machine came to a halt against the base of the control tower.
The impact had been severe, but the short drop made it far from fatal, and the slide across the pad had dissipated much of the energy. Strapped in as they were, Chifune and the surviving detectives were bruised and shaken but otherwise unharmed. Immediately, they scrambled out of the cabin door and took shelter at the base of the tower away from where the helicopter had impacted. The pilot tried to follow them, but just as he was climbing out, the fuel tanks blew and engulfed the near side of the control tower and much of the landing pad in burning fuel and red-hot debris.
A guard staggered toward them. A long piece of rotor blade had hit him in the back as he ran away from the crashing helicopter, and as they watched he pitched forward, thick blood spewing from his mouth.
A figure peeled over the roof parapet of the control tower. They were too close to the base of the tower for the .50-caliber to be brought to bear on them, but the guard had a submachine gun and was bringing it to the point of aim as Chifune fired. The guard jerked and blood sprayed from him as the burst cut him open, then he pitched over the parapet edge and crashed to the ground beside them.
Chifune crawled toward the body. They had to take out the heavy-machine-gun team on the control tower roof, and she needed grenades. Her effort was in vain. The guard had none. Her movement attracted the attention of other guards firing from a doorway about fifty meters away. Rounds cracked over her head and smashed into the base of the tower behind her.
Sergeant Oga and Detective Renako mounted a furious hail of fire in reply, and under its cover Chifune crawled back to where they were. Effectively, they were pinned down in a crossfire between the guards on the control-tower roof and the others around the door.
* * * * *
Fitzduane held up his left hand, effectively stopping Hitai, in front of him, and the two yakuza guards, behind him, in their tracks.
The gaijin was responding at last. He was doing something other than retreating. This was good. This was what Namaka-san wanted, and what he wanted, his men wanted.
"Namaka-san," said Fitzduane, "I was thinking about the difference between Western swords and those of Japan. Is it not true that Japanese swords were perfected around the eighth century and that a sword made a thousand years later is more or less the same in appearance?"
Despite his rage, Kei was interested. The gaijin was a fellow weapons expert. What he had to say, particularly under these extreme circumstances, could well be worth hearing. "Wait," he said in Japanese to his men.
Hitai had been preparing to kill the gaijin by drawing his sword and slashing in one continuous flowing move. Kei Namaka was famous for it and Hitai wanted to show that he, too, was a master of Iai-do — the art of drawing a sword.
The gaijin did not look to be presenting much of a problem as an opponent, but his behavior was upsetting. His method of retreating meant that it was hard to keep the appropriate striking distance away. And this ridiculous conversation was just distracting. It upset the dignity of the occasion. Hitai found it irritating, and it was hard to clear his mind as he had learned to do.
His object was to make his mind like water: a reflection in water is the symbol of a clear, calm mind in harmony with its surroundings — the highest level of training in a martial art. The gaijin's behavior was the mental equivalent of throwing pebbles into that water. Hitai could not focus.
"Yes, it is so," said Kei. "The classic Japanese sword, the katana, reached perfection at a time when Europeans were fighting with crude lumps of steel — and then how do you improve on perfection? Instead, the emphasis changed to perfecting the use of the sword. One hundred and twenty draws and a thousand cuts per day was normal for a warrior's training. It is only through constant practice that perfection is achieved, and that warrior and sword become as one."
"I have to admit, Namaka-san," said Fitzduane, "we're a sloppy lot in the West by comparison. Instead of settling on perfection, we keep on trying out new things. It makes for a disorderly but creative society. Take the rapier, for example. At one stage, some models were all of five feet long — rather difficult to wear on social occasions. Of course, trial and error produced a more acceptable result. But then we all switched to the gun. What do you do with degenerates like that? Fickle. No staying power."
Kei Namaka was nonplussed. The gaijin was playing with him. Hitai glanced toward Kei in a silent plea that this nonsense be stopped.
Fitzduane stepped back three paces, and as the two yakuza stumbled in surprise at this totally unexpected move, he executed one ferocious thrust which pierced the neck of the man next to him and continued without pause to sink its point deep into the second yakuza's eye.
Kei gave a bellow, and Hitai turned back to his opponent and drew his katana with incredible speed and slashed in a reflex at where Fitzduane had been. The blade caught the second yakuza as he fell away, mortally wounded from the sword in his eye; after cutting through his spine, it severed his right arm.
Fitzduane, who had little time for style over substance when his life was on the line, left his rapier in the first yakuza's neck and grabbed the man's Uzi. The strap would not come away, so he cocked it and fired it while still attached to the yakuza's body.
The weapon hammered and Hitai's weapon shattered as the first rounds hit it. It did not seem quite the occasion for restraint, so Fitzduane fired again, and Hitai sprouted red flowers as he shot backwards into the second yakuza master swordsman.
The Uzi jammed. Fitzduane pulled his rapier out of the dead yakuza's neck with some effort and met his new opponent as he advanced. The yakuza delivered a series of slashing blows in a vertical cloverleaf arrangement that effectively prevented anyone from getting near him. It was an aggressive defense, because the man advanced as he deployed this flashing perimeter.
Fitzduane scooped up Hitai's damaged katana and used it to parry the yakuza's blade, and as he did so thrust his rapier into the yakuza's stomach. The man sagged forward onto his knees.
Fitzduane whirled to meet any possible attack from Kei Namaka, and was stunned to see that neither he nor Goto had moved.
Kei just stood there, the ax in his hands, enjoying the spectacle. Then Fitzduane moved forward and the ax was a blur in his hands. There was a fountain of blood , and the yakuza's head flew across the room. The headless body slid to the ground, as Kei watched, mesmerized. Then he looked at the dripping weapon. "Superb," he said. "The balance, the craftsmanship, quite superb."