Bobby glanced behind them to see where the object had come from, who had launched it, and how. He saw nothing and no one.
He pivoted toward the truck. The man with the knife was about to jump on top of Johnny.
Bobby exploded, summoning all the power in his hips to catapult himself forward. The man with the knife jumped on Johnny. Slammed his fist into Johnny’s neck. He raised his knife hand in the air—
Bobby was twenty strides away. He wouldn’t make it in time.
Another whistling sound. This time he heard it in his right ear. A black blur flew through the air. It twisted and turned and sailed across the lawn toward the man with the knife. It severed his arm and landed in the side of his head.
The severed arm and the knife in its grip fell to the ground. The man went limp on top of Johnny.
Bobby raced to Johnny. Bobby reared back and kicked the man in the head repeatedly until he lost consciousness. Then he hauled him off Johnny’s back. Up close he could see the object buried in his head. It was a boomerang, its wings sharpened to a razor’s edge.
Bobby pulled Johnny off the unconscious man beneath him. Johnny coughed and gagged.
“Are you okay?” Bobby said.
He stammered and nodded.
An engine rumbled to life. Exhaust billowed in their faces.
Nadia arrived breathless. “Shit.”
A whine was followed by a grinding noise. The truck slipped into gear. The engine wailed.
Two dead men. One unconscious. Johnny struggling to regain his breath.
The truck rolled forward. Genesis II was on board. Bobby had caught a glimpse of him from behind while the third man — the driver — pulled him off the street into the truck. There was nothing familiar about this Yoshi at all. He was just some Japanese kid, who quite possibly had the key to the formula that would change the world, and someday save it from the people who inhabited it.
Bobby watched the truck pull way. There was nothing he could do to stop it. Nothing he could do to save Genesis II.
A face appeared in the window of the back door. It stayed there for one second, just long enough for the eyes to lock onto Bobby’s and for the image to register in his brain.
The truck gathered speed and started to pull away.
Bobby stood staring at the empty window trying to understand what he’d just seen. It made no sense, but one thing was certain.
He could not let that truck get away.
CHAPTER 20
Luo stood near a house thirty meters away from the action. He’d thrown the boomerangs as soon as he’d rounded the corner and had seen what was happening. He was rushing to help the woman and the man overcome the other Russian men but the scene unfolding before him caused him to stop in his tracks.
The boy was chasing the truck.
What was he thinking? The truck was picking up steam but the vehicle’s engine didn’t have much torque. Just like the Japanese cars Luo had driven in Moscow. They were powered by smaller engines that took time to build speed from a standstill. This shortcoming was only magnified in a heavy truck.
The boy covered ten meters to the truck’s bumper in two heartbeats. A narrow metal frame protruded from the bottom of the truck. It was the length of the bumper. A tow-hitch was attached to it, the kind a utility truck might use to attach a generator for emergency repair.
Five strides away from the bumper and on the verge of collision, the boy didn’t slow down. Instead, much to Luo’s amazement, he accelerated as though he’d been catapulted from a slingshot. He slid under the truck and grasped the metal frame. Luo looked for his feet under the truck but couldn’t see them. That meant he’d either found a foothold or was using his stomach muscles to hold his legs in the air. The odds of finding a foothold so quickly seemed low, which suggested the kid was staying alive by performing a gymnastics maneuver. It was among the boldest and most athletic maneuvers Luo had ever witnessed. But no matter how strong he was, the kid would have to find a foothold soon. If he didn’t, he’d fall onto the road and have to pray one of the wheels didn’t roll over his legs.
The boy was the key to the treasure.
Luo sprinted around the back of the house to a parallel street.
He’d flown to Tokyo as soon as he’d finished talking to Denys Melnik. His hotel had arranged for a translator. The latter placed some phone calls to Tokyo hotels on his behalf and discovered that Nadia Tesla and Bobby Kungenook had reservations at the Century Southern Tower in Shibuya. Luo was not surprised. It was just a matter of time until they, too, discovered that answers awaited in Fukushima. Just like Luo, and the men who’d killed Ksenia Melnik. That’s what a treasure did. It lured people.
He’d followed Nadia and the boy on the train to Aizuwakamatsu. His Siberian facial features and Black Beret tradecraft had helped him blend in and avoid detection. He’d stolen a car from the parking lot beside the inn and caught up to the old man’s truck on the highway. When the Global Medical Corps van pulled into the gate to the Zone of Exclusion, Luo drove on. He passed a barricaded entrance via a side street and wove his way through a lightly wooded forest to get inside the Zone. Eventually he spotted the van half a kilometer away. By the time he’d circled to park on the side street, a second truck had arrived and the fight had begun.
Now he would need to do the same in reverse. Luo climbed behind the wheel of the car he’d stolen, shifted into drive, and took off. This time he would not be following civilians and medical personnel. This time he would be following the boy.
And this time he had no idea where he was going.
CHAPTER 21
Nadia watched the truck disappear with Bobby beneath it.
Johnny looked ashen and disheveled. The remaining Russian lay unconscious beside him. “Where’s Bobby?”
“Gone.” Nadia ran to Nakamura’s body. “Get in the van. I’ll get the keys. They must be on him. Quick. We have to follow.”
“Follow what?”
“The truck. He’s on it. Or under it, to be more precise.” She cringed at the sight of Nakamura’s limp body. He’d been a doctor and healer until he came in contact with the formula. Now he was dead. She suppressed her discomfort with the task at hand, held her breath, and fished the keys to the truck out of his pants. “I’ll explain in the van.”
“Your bag,” Johnny said. “It’s in the house.”
Her wallet and passport were in the bag. “Shit.”
She raced into the house, down the hallways, and into the bedroom.
The old woman’s brow creased as soon as she saw Nadia. She unloaded a barrage of questions in Japanese. Nadia saw the panic button in her hand, the phone beside her. Good, Nadia thought. Her doctor was dead and the volunteer was gone. If she became ill, she could get help. By the time they arrived, Nadia and Johnny would be gone.
Nadia grabbed her bag and ran out the door. The phone rang behind her. The shrill ring gave way to the burble of the van’s engine. Johnny sat in the driver’s seat. Nadia raced to the passenger seat and climbed inside. Johnny took off.
“Left turn at the first intersection,” she said.
“Same way we came here.”
“That’s where he went.”
“It was a TEPCO truck,” Johnny said. “I saw the lettering on the side. He could get out the main exit if he has a hazmat suit. The guards didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the folks that were leaving the Zone.”
“Did those guys look like the type who would finesse an entry or exit?”
Johnny turned left. The tires squealed. “No. You’re right. They came in off the grid.”
Johnny pressed the throttle. They zipped through the residential area, passing home after home without sign of life. Johnny slowed down through the first two intersections, fearing another car would appear at the worst possible place at the fatal moment in time. When he reached the third intersection, however, he crossed it at full speed.