The Lion’s Roar
Chapter two
The Lion’s Roar
Kenji
The dial tone rang once, and then the Lion answered, telling me he was watching Japan with a bucket of popcorn in his lap.
"The Dragon." His voice came through the line amused. "I have been waiting for your call."
Surely, the Mosquito’s team had probably heard about Kiko's call to the Fox before we did and alerted the Lion.
In fact, he had probably known about the clinic fire before I'd stepped inside it. And then, the Lion sat somewhere with a cigar and a glass of vodka, waiting for me to break.
I frowned. “Good evening, Kazimir.”
“But, is it a good evening for you?”
You fucking asshole.
Before I could shape the ask in my mouth, the Lion began to speak. "There is a history of fathers and sons fighting on opposite sides of war. Did you know that?"
Goddamn it. I don’t have time for a fucking history lesson.
I closed my eyes for half a second. “Kazimir—”
"The English Civil War had fathers loyal to the king while sons joined Parliament. Entire bloodlines tore themselves apart because the younger generation refused to inherit the old world quietly."
Sighing, I checked my watch.
"Then came the Wars of the Roses. Fathers sacrificing sons. Sons betraying fathers. Families consuming themselves in pursuit of power while pretending it was honor."
A long pause came from his line. He was savoring this. Of course, he was. He had probably been rehearsing this speech for twenty fucking minutes and getting hard.
"And the Ottomans. . .ah. They understood it best of all."
I rolled my eyes. “And what did they understand, Kazimir?”
"That the father and heir cannot coexist forever. Most dynasties fear admitting that truth, but history repeats it endlessly."
“That’s morbid if you want to have sons.”
“No. My son will know from the first day he can walk that he will replace the Lion and sit on the throne. And my daughter will be her own queen and travel around the world with me during my retirement.”
“Why not let your daughter rule?”
“Thrones are too sharp for feminine flesh. Why would I give that life to her? No. It is better that my son take it.” His voice softened. "But that is not important. I doubt I will ever have kids. The interesting thing about history is that the sons almost always won."
My hand tightened on the phone.
Many feared the Lion because he bombed and killed with no care for bloodshed. They saw his violence as erratic and unpredictable. However, I knew that he was an intellectual predator, and that scared me most of all.
"The sons won not because they were stronger, but because they adapted. Old kings rule through fear, tradition, and isolation. Sons survive through alliances.”
He let the silence stretch and then spoke, “They create loyalty.
Emotional debts. Coalitions. History favors ambitious sons willing to burn the old kingdom down.
" A long beat came and then he finally stopped the foreplay and went in for the kill.
"Tell me, Kenji. Are you a son willing to burn down the kingdom? "
I ignored that question. "Your Mosquito knows where my father is. I want you to bomb the hotel."
"There is a price to making the Mosquito buzz and the Lion roar." His voice carried a hum of pleasure. "Are you prepared to pay it?"
"Name it."
"You already know what I want."
Yeah, but I hoped you would ask for something else.
The Russians already had their grips on lots of places throughout the world, but Asia was still impossible due to the fact that outsiders could never be too comfortable here.
"A seat at the table is impossible." I shrugged. "You know it. The families would tear my throat out before they let me put a Russian at the table."
“But, you’re the Dragon—”
“Even terrifying beasts have soft places to harm—”
“Maybe for dragons, but not for lions—”
"The seat is out of the question, but I can put you in the rooms. I'll give you an introduction to every dangerous bloodline in Asia.
The Triads in Hong Kong. The Sun Yee On.
The Yamaguchi-gumi cousins I haven't burned yet.
Bamboo Union. The South Koreans who don't trust anyone.
I'll be in the room when you make the deals.
That's better than a seat, Kazimir. That's a path to ten of them. "
The temperature on the line changed.
Next, the Lion growled. "You come to me cocky?"
“It’s a compromise.”
"I said a seat. Not a fucking hello. The Lion knows how to exchange pleasantries with strangers. I don’t need you in the room.”
I let the silence hang on my end of the line. Then, I said, cold and clean, "Then the deal is is off the table."
I ended the call.
The phone went black against my palm.
Reo watched me. “He’s pissed?”
“His mane is ruffled.”
“You hung up on him?”
“Kazimir doesn’t respect civility. He craves chaos.”
The war room balcony opened and Hiro headed back in with a lollipop in his mouth. He’d left the space looking frazzled. He’d returned with a smile on his face that told me he was more than ready for war.
Reo walked around the table and stepped closer to me. "Kenji—"
I held up my hand. "He'll call back."
He has to.
I set the phone on the briefing table. Face up. So I would see the screen the moment it lit.
Then, I waited.
Outside the war room, boots stomped in the corridor. A radio crackled in fast Japanese—outer ridge, three contacts on radar, southwest approach, weapons hot. A door slammed somewhere down the hall.
Nyomi’s face came to my mind.
Tora.
I shoved the thought down.
The arms on the clock moved.
Twelve seconds.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
Pick up the phone, Kazimir. Pick up the goddamn phone.
I had just hung up on the only man who could save my island in the next hour. If the Lion's pride was bigger than his ambition tonight, the war might lean back in Akiro and my father’s favor.
Twenty-eight seconds.
Thirty.
The phone lit.
It rang once.
I let it ring.
It rang twice.
I let it ring.
It rang a third time.
I picked it up and did not speak.
The Lion's voice came through low. The growl was still there, sanded down at the edges into something colder. "You can stand in the room when I make the deals with them, but you have no percentage in it."
He's saving face. He thinks he's taken something from me. Good.
I didn't care about the fee. I'd never collect it. But if I folded too easily on the second call, the Lion would lose respect for me before the ash had cooled in Tokyo.
The Lion needed to feel he was wrestling.
“No.” I shook my head. "I get a fee for being in the room. My presence at those tables is the only thing that makes you valuable to whoever you sit across from. That has a price."
"Careful, Little Dragon. I have more options than you.”
“Do you?”
“Why just bomb the hotel when I could also bomb the island? Then, I walk into the Coalition with both bodies in my arms."
Tension gathered at my shoulders.
“You could.” I let the threat hang for one full breath, and then I played the card he could never argue with. "But, no white man will ever rule a country in Asia, Kazimir. You know that. That's why we're all still alive."
A long, slow exhale came on the line. It was the sound of him pulling on a cigar. He exhaled and I imagined a large plume of gray smoke leaving his nostrils and distorting his face. "Hmmm."
The silence that followed was different from the silences before it.
The Lion was reconsidering, and that was much better than his roar.
Okay. It’s time.
I let out a dramatic exhale. "I'll give up my fee."
"Then I'll bomb the hotel."
“So this is a deal?”
“It is. Do you want your father dead? Or. . .do you simply want him scared enough to get on the plane with Akiro?”
I kept my face straight and my shoulders stiff, but that question. . .it told me that the Mosquito had been giving the Lion a feed of my war room.
One day, I will swat out that annoying bug.
“I want the Fox so terrified that he comes to the island.”
“That I can do, Dragon. I’ll bomb his safehouses too."
I blinked.
“Be careful of innocent deaths—”
“There are no innocents in war.”
I sneered. “I only want my father’s people targeted, no civilian casualties—”
“That can’t be helped, my friend. Bombs only know how to explode, not to differentiate. But I’ll add a few rocket launchers to be more precise—”
"Kazimir."
"Yes, Dragon."
"If you kill more civilians than soldiers tonight, our next conversation will not be on a phone."
A pause came.
Then, the Lion laughed once. "I do enjoy our conversations, Kenji. The bombs will go off in two minutes. By the way, tell your Tiger I said hello."
The line clicked dead.
Tell your Tiger. . .
Chills ran up my spine.
How much more does he know about Nyomi? No. . .don’t think about that now or you’ll be going to war with him tonight.
I held the phone against my ear for a beat longer than I needed to.
Two minutes. That’s all it will take him to hit the hotel.
I lowered the phone, realizing a new terrifying fact.
Two minutes means the bombs were already placed there before I called. The Lion already has the rocket launchers ready in Tokyo too. Where else has the Lion put bombs?
I stared at the map on the table.
Tomorrow I'll worry about that. Tonight, my only focus can be war.
I set the phone down on the briefing table.
I didn’t make a deal with the Lion. I made a deal with the devil. Tonight, Kazimir would not only bring fear to my father, but he would terrify Tokyo too. And I’d given him the permission.
I closed my eyes.
Please don’t let him kill too many innocent people.