A Kunoichi, a female Ninja, has begun murdering Yakuza members in Tokyo. The murders are violent and nearly impossible to believe. Trace Conner, an American Ninjutsu instructor, is asked to come to Japan and help because it is believed that he knows the Kunoichi and may be able to stop her. Once there, Conner finds that he does know her but has almost no hope of stopping the murders. Following a trail of death that takes him all over Japan, he tries to catch the killer without getting killed himself. In the process, he learns aspects of Ninjutsu that had been hidden from him for more than a decade.
Read below for an exclusive excerpt from:
‘Lethal Blossoms (Trace Conner Book 2)’
The client had specified only the target should die, none of his guards or soldiers. This kill was meant to send the message, ‘nobody is untouchable’. She would attempt to accomplish this with the bow and arrow. If she failed, she would have to try again later. It would be impossible to get inside after the hornet’s nest was stirred up.
Her target knelt to begin his prayers and meditation, this would last at least fifteen minutes. She would be gone long before that. Assuming the first position, she drew the bow back to its full length. The Yumi was larger and stronger than she should have been able to pull, the muscles on her back rippled. Her body the equivalent of an Olympic gymnast, far stronger than she looked from the years of ceaseless training. She looked again at her target, he was kneeling now. Raising the bow, she closed her eyes, emptying her mind of all thought. She released the arrow. An instant after her fingers let go of the string, she grabbed a second arrow and nocked it, knowing immediately that her first arrow would be short. She adjusted slightly and released the second arrow before the first one had reached its destination. Fortunately for her, the gods of death, the Shinigami, smiled on her. The target was leaning forward, touching his hands and forehead to the ground in supplication, when the first arrow hit him, entering the right side of his back, deflecting slightly off the scapula causing it to cross through the center of his chest and exit his left side, between the fourth and fifth rib, ending its flight buried in the tatami mat. As she grabbed the third arrow she glanced down at her target, barely saw the red feathers protruding from his back and her incredible luck. In that instant, she saw the second arrow land inches behind his foot. All the arrows were coated with a fast-acting neurotoxin but to be sure, she split the difference between the first and second shots and sent the third arrow on its path. That’s when the gods laughed at her.
The guards were more than fifty meters from the target and had not heard the first or second arrow over the sound of the water feature they stood to either side of. They did hear the third arrow when the Shinigami intervened again, blowing it just enough to land next to the target. Hitting the small copper bowl that held incense and sending it flying in a clanging racket.
She heard the clang of the bowl and cursed the gods she had thanked seconds before. Grabbing the whistling arrow, she began to back up the mountain, staying deep in the shadows. She watched the scene below her as the guards found their leader and the alarm was raised. The first guard reached out to check their boss’s pulse and must not have found one because he stood back up, shouting commands she couldn’t understand from this distance.
Men poured out from the walls of the compound, guns raised and pointing at the shadows. They quickly began to ascend the mountain, checking every shadowed depression and rock outcropping.
Raising the angle of the bow high, as if to shoot the sinking moon in the west, she released the hikime, the whistling seemed to come from everywhere as it flew high over the area. The guards immediately dropped lower and searched the skies, giving her more precious time to escape…..