Alejandra led Kenji and Rosa into the sunlit courtyard garden, slipping her shiny black stiletto shoes back onto her surgically modified, toeless feet with embedded soles. In doing so, her long slender legs slipped between the long slits of her white form-fitting dress, and from the corner of her eye she caught Kenji looking at them with more than just curiousity. “You embarrass yourself, old man,” she chided him.

Rosa saw Kenji look away and blush, his reddened cheeks noticeable even with his deeply tanned skin. “You are a very striking-looking woman. Some may even say unnaturally so,” Rosa commented.

Alejandra laughed loudly, grabbing Rosa by the arm, “That is the intended result, young woman. The bloom on your rose will not last much longer… but I can fix that.” The extra-knuckled fingers under the glove’s material tighted like tiny pythons, making Rosa flinch slightly from the pressure. “Before I show you your room, let’s wait here in the courtyard and enjoy its serenity.”

Alejandra guided Rosa to a bench across from a tiered stone fountain, keeping her grip on the younger woman’s arm, which appeared to be wing of the crane-pattern on Rosa’s yukata. She dropped the ball of money next to her and gestured for Kenji to sit at another bench nearby. As they sat down, Rosa noticed someone else sitting by the fountain, the person’s head completely wrapped in bandages, like a mummy. The bandaged person nodded awkwardly at Alejandra, and took a sip from a straw in a drink held in a bruised hand, poking the straw through the bandages to a concealed mouth. “Good day, 546. I trust you are as excited as we are for the scheduled removal of your bandages tonight?”

546 gave a thumbs up from the free hand, and took another noisy slurp from the straw. Rosa had a perturbed look on her face, unsure of what the bandages concealed and asked Alejandra, “It sounds like you don’t know the names of your clients?”

“Of course not. Discretion is the name of the game here.” Alejandra turned to face Rosa with her piercing green eyes, the sun glinting off her tightly pulled back black hair. She asked her joylessly, “My dear, wouldn’t you love to see how 546 looks now, post-surgery? 546, should we show our new friend what you paid a king’s ransom for? Or should I say a ‘queen’s ransom'”, she said with sarcasm, the green of her eyes turning paler.

546 gave another thumbs up, and put down the drink, letting out a heavy sigh. An attending male nurse appeared, almost out of nowhere, and quickly put aside the drink from the now wobbly patient. The man gently lifted the patient from the bench and into a wheelchair, pushing the now incapacitated person out of the courtyard and into an adjoining hallway. Rosa looked at the drink left on the bench and noted a line of blood trickling down the straw and running between the ice cubes.

“I’m not sure I want to accept your invitation,” Rosa said quietly. She looked over at Kenji, who’s eyes were darting around, trying to find an escape route, if needed.

“I insist you join us in the reveal of my handiwork,” Alejandra said, and then added, “Your elderly friend is wasting his time. You can leave anytime you want. This isn’t a prison, it’s quite the opposite. We keep people out, not in. My clients pay a lot to keep the world out.”

Alejandra loosened her grip on Rosa’s arm, and Rosa pulled away immediately, standing up from the bench. She walked over to the fountain, unsure about where she was or her reason for being there. She noticed a plaque in the fountain, next to what appeared to a brass-lined divot on the bottom edge of the bottom tier. She read out the inscription on the plaque, mostly for Kenji’s benefit:

“The world is filled with darkness, from within and without. Let’s cut away the shroud, and let your inner light shine out.”

Kenji shifted uncomfortably in his bench, “I think this is where we will watch the unbandaging of 546. A baptism of sorts, I gather?”

Alejandra stood up excitedly, unexpectedly dropping her cool demeanor, “So you are planning to witness the reveal? That’s delightful! It’s at 2am sharp!”

Rosa backed away the fountain, alarm in her voice,”In the middle of the night?”

At that moment, Rosa’s son Theo and Arfie appeared with Hanyo and Skoaler, the miniature Husky barking angrily at one of the white-uniformed armed guards trying to prevent his entry. Alejandra looked over and beckoned to the guard to let the dog in. She stayed seated on the bench, watching the visitors gather together by the fountain, touching the pearls around her neck. She picked up the ball of cash next to her, and held out her hand for payment. Skoaler came over and dropped a handful of gold coins into her black-gloved palm. She quickly examined the coins, and closed her hand, standing up.

Alejandra called out to the guard, “Josiah, please escort this young woman, her son and his dog to one of the available rooms in the servant’s quarters. Hanyo’s partner and this old man can stay in the plane outside, bring them what they need for food and water. Hanyo, we have some other unfinished business to attend to,” she said calmly, tapping at the center of his chest.

Rosa gave Hanyo a frightened look as she, her son and Arfie were led away down a narrow corridor at the far end of the courtyard. Skoaler and Kenji unceremoniously let themselves out of the fortress through the entrance they just came in through.

“I’ll meet up with you in the morning!”, Hanyo called out after Rosa, then looked into the green eyes watching his every move and expression. “I hope…,” he added quietly. He turned to Alejandra, saying, “I see your hands are full with your first love,” referencing the ball of bills balancing in one hand and the gold coins in her tightly clenched other hand.

Alejandra, didn’t respond, instead turning to a stairwell rising up to the upper level of the courtyard. Hanyo watched her slender body in the elegant white dress walk away from him, heading for the stairs. Hanyo looked down at the bronze-lined divot on the fountain edge, mumbling, “let’s cut away the shroud, no doubt.” He followed Alejandra up the stairs to the balcony above the courtyard, and then into the room he knew she wanted him to enter. In the center of the room was what looked like a dentist’s chair, but with straps for holding down the occupant and trays for holding instruments. The operating room light was an opening above the chair, letting in bright sunlight to shine directly on it.

Alejandra dropped the tightly wound ball of cash onto a metal drawer protruding from the stone wall, and released the gold coins noisly into it. She pushed the drawer into the wall and pulled it open again, the ball of bills and coins released into an unseen vault.

“Take off your shirt and get in the chair,” she commanded him, removing her gloves and pulling over a tray of scalpel blades. She straightened the multiple knuckled-fingers, the tiny pythons ready to receive new fangs. She pulled off her fingernails and began inserting the scapel blades in their place. “Hurry up, for your sake the daylight is at it’s best right now.”

Hanyo looked up at the skylight as he removed his shirt, baring his chest. “You know, I don’t have to agree to this -” was all he could say as the blow on the back of his head from the male nurse who came silently up from behind him knocked him out.

“No, you don’t have to agree to this. Your agreement is irrelevant. Our agreement no longer stands,” Alejandro mused as she lifted up a slightly hissing mask connected to a canister, clutched carefully between here glinting fingertips. The nurse roughly dragged Hanyo’s limp body over to the chair and strapped him in, taking the mask from the green-eyed surgeon and plopped it over Hanyo’s handsome face.

“Your Golden Queen comes from beyond the clouds with a fortune from a land of dreamers,” Alejandra leaned over and hissed into his unconcious ear. “She will see tonight what all the wealth in the world actually buys for true believers.”

*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***