“No,” Yashiro said forcefully. “Osama wants anyone captured to be delivered alive to the facility. He plans to use them as a hostage to lure his other friends out into the open.” The driver, caught off guard, lowered the weapon and asked, “Who are you? I don’t recognize you.”
“I’m just one of our Oyabun’s many operatives. You must know that he doesn’t make it a habit of identifying all his people,” Yashiro responded abruptly, hoping the ploy would work. “We must get him to the helicopter on campus where we can transport him. I’m sure Osama will greatly reward your diligence.”
Falling for the ruse, the driver put the gun down and said, “Very well. Put him in the back seat, but keep him covered.”
“You,” Yashiro barked, nudging Samuel with the 45 still wrapped in the towel. “Get into the back — move!”
“Okay, okay. Just don’t shoot,” Samuel replied, feigning trepidation as he opened the rear door and slid across the seat to the opposite side. Yashiro slid in next to him.
The sedan pulled onto the busy street, slowly making its way back to the university campus. Yashiro discretely slid the gun across the seat to Samuel, who shot Yashiro a sly wink of approval for his command performance.
“Do you have anything to bind him with?” Yashiro asked the driver as the car left Laguna Street and headed up one of the many side streets in town.
“There are plastic tie wraps and duct tape in the trunk that we can use,” he replied. Just then, Samuel sprang into action, raising the gun and pointing it directly at the back of the driver’s head.
“Thanks for the lift, amigo, but you can pull into that next alley on your right,” Samuel said with a smile as the driver’s eyes went wide with shock. Doing as he was told, he made the turn and slowly went up the deserted alley.
“Stop here,” Samuel ordered as the driver complied and came to a halt. “Now, very slowly, hand me your weapon grip first. No funny stuff.”
“You’re not going to kill him, are you?” Yashiro asked hesitantly as the driver handed Samuel the pistol.
“Unlike this guy and all of his friends, I’m not a cold-blooded murderer. I’ll only kill him if he gives me a good reason” Samuel replied to Yashiro’s relief.
“What are we going to do with him?” Yashiro asked as he opened the door.
“You heard the man. There are tie wraps and duct tape in the trunk. We’ll just truss him up like a Christmas turkey and let him marinate in the trunk,” Samuel responded, motioning the driver to get out of the vehicle.
Minutes later, the driver safely secured in the trunk, his hands and feet bound and his mouth duct-taped. Yashiro put on the driver’s jacket, then the two backed the car out of the alley and continued to make their way to the helicopter behind the antiquities building.
“I sure hope Josh is alright. That other guy looked pretty nasty,” Samuel said in a concerned tone, not knowing that at that very moment Josh Turner was in a struggle for his life.
At the preservation lab, Turner could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He remained motionless, breathing ever so shallowly as he heard the footsteps come ever closer. He tried to put the ominous threats made by his pursuer out of his mind, and focus on the fight that lay ahead of him. He knew this was to be a struggle with only one victor. Once engaged, there could be no holding back. Adrenaline now coursed through his body as the shadow of the huge killer passed by his fragile table shelter.
The toothless Japanese mercenary grinned as he slowly brought his 9mm Glock to bear on the head of the figure under the sheet. In one swift motion, he yanked the sheet off only to reveal another lifeless mummy; its dead eyes still looking upward as the two shoes at the end of the table fell away to the floor.
That was Turner’s cue. He jumped from the table behind the assailant and hit the man square in the back with the ancient four pound stone axe head. Taken by surprise, the huge man fell onto the table in front of him. He and the ancient corpse crashed to the floor, smashing the table to fragments. The big man gasped at the wind being knocked out of him, but still held the gun firmly in his hand. Turner then leaped onto the mercenary’s back and jammed his knee into the man’s spine, causing the Yakuza mercenary to groan in agony. In that same moment, Turner brought the weight of the stone axe down onto the 9mm gun, crushing the man’s trigger finger and snapping the slide bolt mechanism off, rendering the weapon useless.
Furious and wincing in pain, the hulking Japanese managed to swing his body around and smash his huge forearm into Turner’s head. The horrendous blow sent Turner reeling against the table behind him, causing him to see stars and drop his only weapon to the floor.
Even with a partial fracture to his spine, the huge, vindictive killer slowly rose up from the debris-strewn floor, his breath rasping in pain and defiance. He lunged toward Turner, unleashing a lethal kick aimed at his head. He scarcely managed to avoid the full force of the kick by rolling to his side at the last moment. However, the killer’s boot slammed into his shoulder, causing a blinding flash of pain that ran down his arm.
Turner painfully backed up; keeping his eyes on the man as the hulking figure approached him once again. Pointing his mangled finger, he said, “Once I’ve killed you, Turner, I intend to find that pretty lady that was with your group. She will die very slowly as well, but not until I’ve enjoyed her completely,” he hissed, spitting blood from his shattered lips.
The mere thought of this monster’s intent with Maria produced a rage in Turner that he’d never experienced before. He locked his eyes coldly on his assailant and, with a yell, rushed the killer. He smashed into the man with all the strength that remained. Turner's onslaught sent the two men crashing to the floor amidst the splintered remains of the mummy and debris from the examination table.
The giant Japanese man promptly wrapped his arms around Turner's mid-section, lifted him up off the floor and began to squeeze with a vise-like grip. Feeling the breath forced out of his lungs, Turner looked wildly around for anything that would cease this painful torment. Nearing the point of blacking out, he saw the stone axe head lying on the floor near them. He raised his left leg and kicked the side of the killer's right knee, sending the two crashing to the floor. The killer continued his death grip as Turner struggled to grasp the stone axe.
Darkness was beginning to fill his world as he finally felt his fingers touch the cool stone axe. With his last conscious effort, he picked it up brought it squarely down onto the Yakuza’s nose. It shattered the cartilage into oblivion and sprayed blood everywhere. The huge man howled in pain and released his grip on Turner, just long enough for him to pull back and fall free of his tormentor. Rising up and gasping for breath, Turner backed away from the monstrous form lying before him. Turner made his way to the artifact table as the bloody, murderous demon rose up once more. He picked up a sharpened metal leg from the shattered remains of the table. Now exhausted and in excruciating pain, Turner saw the bloody remains of a toothless grin leering at him as the killer again came towards him, the pointed table leg raised over his head.
Turner's sense of compassion and civility was instantly replaced by a pure, unadulterated hatred for this monster of a human being. The Japanese man yelled and rushed at him with his makeshift spear poised to strike. Turner quickly grabbed the ancient spear from the table next to him and thrust it forward. As the huge freight train bore down on him, Turner sent the still-pointed spear head plunging deep into the Yakuza mercenary’s chest. The bloody hulk dropped the table leg and leered sickeningly at Turner as a gush of blood seeped from his mouth. Then, with a long rasping sound, he fell to the floor dead.