“Yes, I understand. I’ll be there,” Annja said.

“Good,” Shizu said, her voice dripping with satisfaction. “And one other thing. Be sure to leave that British bastard, Henshaw, behind. You don’t need him trying to be a hero and messing up what should be a simple exchange.”

With that parting shot, Shizu hung up the phone.

25

Henshaw came out of the bedroom, his face set in a mask of fury. “I can have that garden flooded with men inside of twenty-four hours. We’ll grab her and…”

Annja wasn’t listening. A sudden suspicion had swept over her, one that would change everything if it was correct. She dug through her backpack for the drawing pad that she’d been carrying around with her since her session with Dr. Laurent. When she found it, she pulled it out and flipped to the first image, the one of the swordsman’s face.

She stared at it intently, trying to see beyond the mask and hood. She studied the bridge of the nose, the shape of the eyes, the overall sense of what the picture was telling her, trying to answer a single question.

Could the Dragon be a woman instead of a man?

“What is it?” Henshaw asked, noting the intensity of her study and the way she’d stopped listening to him.

“I’m not sure yet….” She trailed off, not ready to explain. Her thoughts went back to that day in the café, to the young woman she’d met. Shizu. Could she have been far more than she appeared to be? Annja had been convinced she was an agent of the Dragon, sent to harass her, throw her off balance, just like those who had been following her and the men who’d been sent to try to kidnap her on the streets later that night.

But what if she was something more than just a foot soldier?

What if shewas the Dragon?

It would certainly explain a few things.

Annja summoned up a memory of Shizu’s face and tried to mentally impose it over the image of the swordsman she’d drawn on the pad.

As best as she could tell, the two were a match.

Annja explained her theory to Henshaw, showing him the drawing and explaining how she’d arrived at her conclusion.

He was shaking his head before she was finished. “That can’t be right, Annja. The Dragon has been operating since the late seventies. Every single scrap of information about him points to the fact that he is a man.”

She moved to interrupt him and he held up a hand. “Hell, even if that was all a front, even if she cleverly used misinformation to throw everyone off track for decades, you’ve still got a problem with the time frame. The girl you saw couldn’t have been more than thirty, yet the Dragon has been claiming credit for political assassinations for more than three decades.”

But Annja had already considered that. “She’s his successor,” she said, and the act of verbalizing it made the theory crystalize into fact in her mind. She was right; she knew it.

“I’m sorry, she’s what?”

“His successor.” Annja began to pace back and forth. It helped her think things through sometimes, just like walking did. “Most everyone, and by that I mean the various law-enforcement agencies, believes that the Dragon, the real Dragon, died in that explosion in Madrid, right?”

Henshaw nodded.

“Okay, so let’s assume that is true. The Dragon diddie. And I’ll bet that your intelligence information would support that theory, too, wouldn’t it? For years there was no further activity associated with the Dragon after the failure in Madrid.”

Again, the nod. “Word that the Dragon had resurfaced didn’t start up again until about three years ago,” Henshaw said.

Annja stopped pacing and turned to face him. “You see, that’s the key. Someone else has taken up the mantle of the Dragon, has suborned his identity and has been using it as their own for the past several years.”

“But why? What would be the point?”

Annja shrugged. “Fame. Fortune. A sense of adventure. Who knows?”

“And the rumors about the sword?”

Annja didn’t have an answer for that and it was the one part of her theory that was bothering her. Had it been the sword that had influenced Shizu to pick up the tattered image of the Dragon and wrap it about herself? Had the sword somehow guided her actions, given her the skills she needed to step into the role, to fool the law-enforcement community for so long?

If so, then it was all the more important for Annja to stop her and destroy the sword.

Perhaps even more important than rescuing Roux.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “But I think I know the reason.”

She explained about the conversation she’d had with Garin and his theory that the Dragon and her weapon were a polar opposite to Annja and the sword she carried.

For the second time that day Annja was treated to a view behind the mask that Henshaw usually wore. She could see the wonder of it all on his face.

“Two swords, created for cross-purposes, one representing the light and one representing the dark,” he said, his thoughts distant and his gaze focused on something far away.

He shook his head as if to clear it and asked, “So what do we do now?”

“We get Roux back, whole and in one piece,” she said, letting her anger at how one of her friends had been treated in order to influence her show through. “And then we deal with the Dragon once and for all.”

It didn’t take them long to come up with a plan. Using Annja’s laptop they discovered that the park opened up at eight every morning and closed again at six. Sunset would happen just a few minutes before closing, so they should have the park to themselves at that point and they intended to use that to their advantage.

Henshaw would go in shortly after the park opened the next morning. He’d find a suitable position where he wouldn’t be stumbled upon by park visitors, but one that at the same time would allow him to keep the pavilion itself under observation.

They had little doubt that Shizu would have the park under surveillance, but they hoped she wouldn’t have it in place that early. Just to be safe Henshaw agreed to wear a disguise when he made the entrance attempt.

By arriving so far in advance of their scheduled meeting time, Annja hoped to be able to spot Shizu’s people getting into position. Once Henshaw knew where they were, he could relay that information via directional radio to Annja. It would be a lot easier for her to take them out once she knew where they were.

Henshaw would be armed with a high-powered rifle and he would keep Annja in view at all times. When the Dragon appeared, hopefully with Roux in tow, it would be Henshaw’s job to deal with anyone who posed a threat to Roux’s continued well-being. Annja, on the other hand, would focus her energy and attention on the Dragon. If things got too dangerous, she’d call in a little extra help from Henshaw.

In order to pull it off, they were going to need a communication system that would be difficult to intercept. Henshaw knew where to get one. Just in case the phone in Roux’s suite had been bugged, Henshaw went down to the lobby and used a pay phone to make arrangements.

While he was gone, Annja tried to clean up things a little; she put the cushions back on the couch, put the chairs in their places and swept up the loose glass from the smashed coffee table and television set.

When Henshaw returned half an hour later, he had a well-built dark-haired man who looked a bit like Antonio Banderas with him.

Seeing him, another piece of the puzzle fell into place in Annja’s mind.