“Yes.”
Gravedigger nodded. She raised her blade and held it level with Craig’s chest. “You helped unleash Pandora upon us.”
Craig swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I know. And I knew you might have to do this. It’s okay.” He lowered his head and took a deep breath. “I let a lot of people down over the years. I always had a bad habit of picking the wrong women, you know? And Pandora… she was the worst I ever chose.” He started to look up, obviously about to say something else, but the words were forever silenced.
Gravedigger’s sword struck into the side of his neck, cutting through bone and sinew. His head flew up into the air, flipping over several times, before disappearing over the lip of the roof.
Down below, a woman began screaming as Craig’s decapitated head struck the ground.
Gravedigger was already on the move.
Chapter X: Carnage at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Hiroshi Tamaki stared out the window, his eyes fixed on The White House. He was in the front room of one of the Blair House’s many subdivided living areas. Behind him, Prof. Potter was nervously preparing the ETD for use. The old man was obviously having second thoughts about his role in all of this but Hiroshi wasn’t worried about his loyalty. Potter had seen enough to know what would happen if he balked.
Pandora stepped up beside him and Hiroshi smiled. Their lovemaking had been intense and violent. His lower lip was still swollen from where she’d bitten it and he could see a few bruises on her neck and arms.
“It is smaller than I expected,” she said and Hiroshi chuckled in response.
“That, my love, is practically a castle to these Americans. The White House is the representation of all that they love in their leaders. It’s not just a center of government. It’s where the President and his family live, work and play.”
Pandora nodded but it was obvious that she’d already moved past any discussion about The White House’s merits. She placed a hand on the sword that was buckled at her hip. “I feel… uneasy,” she admitted.
“Why?”
“I’m not sure.” Pandora looked at him with Locke’s features but he’d long since stopped seeing his former employee in her face. The cast of the features, the deeper voice, the hard stare of the eyes; all of those were far different than Locke. “Things seem positioned so well for us that I can’t foresee how we could be stopped but I can’t stop thinking about that woman at Hendry Hall.”
“The Gravedigger,” Hiroshi said. The way he drew out the words made it clear that he held venom for their mutual foe. “I knew it was a gamble using her to find out the information I wanted but in the end, it won’t come back to bite us.”
“That’s what you hope.”
“Yes. But as you said, victory is within our grasp. Once we have control of the President, she won’t be able to get anywhere near us. We’ll outlaw vigilantes like her and Lazarus Gray. We’ll generate fear in the entire country so that the populace will hunt them down for us and rip them to shreds!”
Pandora recoiled slightly. Though her body had responded easily enough to his advances, she knew that Hiroshi was being driven by the very things that she had sworn to destroy: the Seven Deadly Sins were firmly driving his so-called mission. Given that she now had access to the ETD, did she even need him? The device gave her the ability to control mass numbers of people. She could begin a process of slowly breeding out the evil from their souls. Each generation would need to be culled, selecting only those who seemed pure enough to pass on their traits to the next. There would be numerous deaths, especially at first, but ultimately humanity could be restored to its pristine state.
“You’re thinking of something important, aren’t you?” Hiroshi teased, taking her hand. “Tell me. We should share all of our triumphs and failures.”
She was saved from lying about the nature of her thoughts when Potter moved forward. “It is ready.”
Hiroshi frowned at the interruption but quickly shifted his expression. Putting an arm around Potter’s shoulders, the would-be Emperor said, “You have done so well, Professor. I hope you realize that in the new world order, you will be treated like royalty! All of your scientific pursuits will be funded to the best of my ability.”
Potter donned a shaky smile. “Thank you, Mr. Tamaki. I know you’ve been aware that I have had my doubts as of late but ultimately I appreciate what you’ve done for me. You gave me the opportunity to see unfettered science at work. It’s given me a new dedication to what’s truly important.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Hiroshi gave the old man a gentle push towards the door. “Now, if you could please go check on Doctor Craig, I would appreciate it. I fear he may have gotten lost.”
When Potter was gone, Hiroshi turned back to Pandora, who was already holding the ETD headset.
“I suppose it’s time to end this,” she said.
“No.” Hiroshi shook his head. “This isn’t the end. This is only the beginning.”
PROFESSOR POTTER STEPPED out of Blair House and exhaled. He was obviously a nervous wreck but he seemed to be quite happy to be free of the confines of the House. He looked both ways and then hurried towards a brown-colored sedan.
Gravedigger watched him from the shadows. She allowed him to drive away, knowing that he would be picked up by one of the others before he rounded the corner.
After her conversation with Craig, she’d thrown a coat on over her uniform and found a pharmacy that had a phone for public use. A quick call had alerted the rest of her team and brought them to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Cedric and Li were parked at the end of the street and Gravedigger saw them pull out into traffic just behind Potter’s retreating automobile.
Mitchell and Mortimer were across the street pretending to be tourists. They joined the milling crowds gawking at The White House but both of them kept turning wary eyes towards Blair House. Their hands were set deep into the pockets of their coats, where they held pistols at the ready.
All of them knew that they were not to interfere with Gravedigger’s work unless they were either called to do so or the situation seemed to demand it. When it came time to find the authors of death and destruction, Gravedigger wanted the opportunity to handle things herself. It wasn’t that she wanted to snag any imagined glory, of course, but it was her soul that was to be judged so she took it as her responsibility to make sure that justice was meted out to the guilty.
Gravedigger emerged from the gloom, her sword gripped tightly in her left hand. Her right fist was clenched, ready to fire her crossbow bolt as needed. A few people on the street noticed her and gasped but there were no screams.
Not yet.
PANDORA WAS JUST about to slip the headset into place when the door was kicked in with a loud clatter. She whirled about just in time to see Gravedigger stride into the room. The masked woman pointed her wrist-mounted crossbow at the closest of Hiroshi’s men and fired. The bolt embedded itself in the man’s throat and he fell to the floor, the finger of his gun hand twitching spasmodically. He fired wildly, wounding one of his compatriots in the thigh.
Gravedigger ended both of their suffering by decapitating them in a blur of motion.
Before even Hiroshi, he of the lightning fast reflexes, could respond, Gravedigger had quite literally disarmed two more men. Their limbs hit the carpet, blood spraying from the stumps of their arms.
Hiroshi gave a roar that sounded more put-upon than angry. This was meant to be the moment of his coronation, after all, and Pandora knew how badly he lusted after it. The Japanese man drew his sword and was about to throw himself at Gravedigger when Pandora’s words gave him pause.