She bobbed her head. “The night staff is due to start work in two hours. Two more doctors. Several nurses and techs.”
Reo sighed. “Call and let them know they’re starting their shift early tonight and. . .the clinic will be. . .”
I sighed. “Move the clinic to the Bamboo garden. The massive basement could keep them safe as they deal with the injured.”
Reo blinked and nodded. “Yes. That will have to do. I’ll get Scales to rush equipment there. If anyone goes down during the battle, people can rush them there too.”
“Good.”
Reo looked at two Scales and the nurse. “Go ahead.”
They rushed off.
Stunned, Reo looked at me. “I have a plan for the evacuation. . .just give me a second to remember it.”
Kiko had managed to do something not many people in this world could ever do. . .she’d disrupted my Roar.
This fucking bitch.
All we had prepared for was gone, washed down the drain by one phone call to my father. There would be no time for my men to get any rest. There was no need for the masks nor the Burial Ritual. I’d worked on this island being a safe haven for my people for so many years, and now my brother's and father's men would step their slimy feet onto my mother’s land and dirty it.
“Okay. . .” Reo swallowed, pulled out his phone, and began typing. "We have ten safehouses on the other side of the island. But first, elders, mothers, and kids can be on boats inside the hour if we move now. Your Tiger, Hiro’s mom, Chef Bunzo, thestaff, and others can ride emergency helicopters on the north pad.”
Hiro raised his eyebrows. “How many helicopters?”
Reo tensed. “Four.”
“That’s not enough.”
“I hadn’t planned on needing to evacuate the entire island in less than an hour.” Reo continued to talk and his voice reached me through something thick. I could hear the words. I could not yet feel them. I shut my eyes for one second to let the air settle.
Then another second.
The fire crackled somewhere behind the walls. My pulse hammered against my temples. I opened my eyes and made myself catch up to the conversation that had already moved past me.
I cleared my throat. “We may have longer than an hour.”
“Oh God! It hurts!” Kiko shook against the nurse.
Hiro turned to the other Scales. “Get her out of here and into the Bamboo Garden.”
The men lifted her up. She screamed. They took her away and the nurse followed.
I rubbed my temples. “Even if Akiro and his men left from Tokyo when she called, it will take ninety minutes by air. We have antiaircraft guns on the guard posts in the outer ridge to blast anyone heading here. We should be able to blow up some of them. Let’s have Scales there and ready to use them.”
“Okay.” Reo typed into his phone.
Hiro looked at me. “What dowedo?”
“We get ready to fight.” I walked off with my hand still shaking from the trigger I had not pulled.
Ruined.
That was the only word that sat in my fucking head.
Kiko ruined everything.
I had been about to bury my soul in the earth with my Tiger tonight.
