The Secret Meaning of Blossom: a fast-moving spy thriller set in Japan

by T. M. Parris

  “In all the rooms, and we’ve swept on and below deck.”

  “What about inside the containers?” asked Rapp.

  “You’re kidding. There are thousands of them.”

  “Is there any way they could have got off the ship without us noticing?” asked Fairchild.

  “Maybe,” said Zack. “There was some cloud cover earlier. We’d have to review the satellite coverage.”

  “Or we could ask,” said Fairchild.

  Zack glanced at the mobsters. “Good luck with that. I wouldn’t want to be the one to rat out the boss.”

  “Not them. The crew. Starting with the captain.”

  “Good idea,” said Rapp.

  “I’d like to lead, if that’s okay,” said Fairchild to Zack.

  “Knock yourself out.”

  “Hold on right there,” said Rapp. “I should be leading. Why him?”

  “Because I say so,” said Zack. “But you should be there too. Get up there, both of you.”

  Rapp wasn’t pleased, but then neither was Fairchild. He’d prefer to deal with this without the woman. But Zack didn’t have all the options in the world. On the bridge, the two of them took the captain aside.

  “We’re not interested in the ship,” said Fairchild. “It’s the hostages we want. And the people who took them. If they’re no longer aboard we’ll leave you alone. But you have to tell us what you know. Your arrangement with your passengers and whoever runs this ship, that’s not our concern right now. But we need our people.”

  The captain remained impassive. “I’m not keen on giving you information while you’re pointing guns.”

  “We had guns pointed at us.”

  “Not by the crew.”

  “Immaterial. And we’re here with the permission of the Japanese government. Some of the hostages are Japanese citizens. So unless you want us to take apart this ship container by container and fully disclose whatever we find to the authorities, tell us what you know.”

  “Okay. Some of them escaped in a rescue boat.”

  “How many?”

  “Not sure. We don’t have all details of all passengers.”

  “I see. And did others go after them?”

  “We have another rescue boat, a spare. They took that.”

  “Who’s ‘they’?”

  The captain didn’t meet his eye.

  “Was one of them the guy who boarded?” asked Fairchild. “The one you were waiting for?”

  No response again.

  “Did he call himself Milo?”

  The captain looked up, recognition in his face. Fairchild and Rapp exchanged glances. “Which way did they go?” asked Fairchild.

  “Back towards Tokyo.”

  “Are you in contact now with either of these boats?”

  The captain shook his head.

  “What are your instructions?”

  “Wait here for another hour. If no word, back to port to reprovision.”

  “Reprovision? You’ve only just set off.”

  “We have no rescue boat. We can’t sail like that.”

  “Well, it’s good to know you have such regard for human life. I’m sure the guy lying in that cabin with three bullet holes in his chest would be gratified. Whoever he is.”

  Rapp cut in. “We got what we want. That’s enough.”

  They passed the info to Zack. In the lift back to the galley, Fairchild said “Sorry. There’s something about his pride in his correctness that gets me. He knows enough about what goes on here, but he chooses to ignore it.”

  “This is personal for you, isn’t it?” Rapp was looking at him intently.

  Fairchild hadn’t anticipated how much he’d be affected emotionally. It had ended up with Rapp holding him back, not the other way round. “Yes, it’s personal.”

  “Me too,” she said. “My mother was in one of the hospitals that got the ransomware attack. She was there for an emergency procedure. They couldn’t do it, so they transferred her to another hospital a couple of hundred miles away. She died on the way.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Fairchild.

  They rode down in silence.

  When they got to the galley, Zack was already on it. “The copter is searching the bay. We’re going over the surveillance video now. Christ, this place is big, though. They could have landed anywhere. Assuming they made land at all. If we don’t get sight of the boats, they’re invisible.”

  Fairchild’s phone vibrated. It was Takao. Why was he calling at this hour? “What’s up?”

  “Fairchild. Problem. Big problem.” He sounded on the verge of tears. “I’m at their hotel room. They’re not here!”

  “Start at the beginning, Takao. Whose hotel room?”

  “Fiona and the children! I got missed call from Fiona half an hour ago. Couldn’t get hold of her, so came over in a taxi. No answer at the door. So got the manager. Now we’re inside. It’s all messed up, Fairchild! Chair on the floor, clothes everywhere. Fiona’s phone is here, all their stuff. But they’re gone!”

  Chapter 37

  Mirai was on a mission. James was struggling to keep up with her, and he wasn’t the only one. She led them round the promenade and it looked like she was going to head straight inland, but then she ducked sideways and disappeared. They almost went past the little cut-through that she took, but she called them back. How did she manage to know every little nook and cranny? Still, lucky she did. They ducked down and waited, and pretty soon several sets of running footprints echoed past them and faded.

  “This way!” whispered Mirai, and led them in the opposite direction. At least with all this running about she was warming up a bit. James had been seriously worried for a few minutes in the boat. Or maybe he was just worried he’d be expected to undress the woman. Luckily it hadn’t come to that.

  Lost River Delta was the name on the building they were skirting now, an edifice that looked like one of those temples in Cambodia, as far as he could see, although he only caught the edge of it in Rose’s torchlight as there was no other lighting. How did Rose still manage to have a torch on her after all this time? He must remember to ask her that. They were on a wide walkway with arches on one side and a stone wall on the other dotted with old-style street lamps, unlit. Beyond that, water. This place was huge, though normally it would be swarming with people, he supposed. They’d taken the kids to a couple of such places. He had to admit he rather enjoyed them. You had to enter into the spirit of it all.

  They were still running, skirting the water, then Mirai took them over a rather charming little hump-backed bridge. James was getting a little breathless by now, but they could never get too far away from those animals. Hopefully they could lose themselves in this labyrinthine world and stay put until help of some kind arrived. And here, coming up, was the arched entrance to a cave. A cave was exactly what they needed! Mirai took them in confidently though it was pitch black. Deeper and deeper they went, until it widened out into a kind of central gathering area with lifts that led, presumably, up – or down – to the main attraction, some rope barriers and so on, and a big screen. Finally Mirai stopped.

  “What is this place?” asked Rose, who barely seemed out of breath at all. She explored every corner with the torch.

  “Journey to Centre of Earth,” said Mirai proudly. “My favourite.”

  “Okay, well, that’s good, but if there’s a particular reason for coming here—”

  “Screen!” Mirai cut Rose off. “See?” She pointed. “It’s controlled from a room. Door is here. I saw once. Screen wasn’t working. Staff went through door here to fix it. Come, come!”

  She led Rose and the torch along the wall.

  “I say, you must have come here quite a few times to know it so well,” said James.

  “Fifty, hundred times, maybe,” Mirai said.

  Wow. That was a lot of trips to Disneyland.

  They found the door. “You can open it?” Mirai asked Rose.

  “Let’s see. Hold the torch.”

/>   Rose got a set of tools from her pocket and began poking about with the lock. Odd, seeing your little sister calmly breaking and entering. Still, it was good she was around. They’d all be a goner otherwise. A silence fell, apart from an occasional clicking. Tomo and James were just standing about. The ladies were definitely running the show right now. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Perfectly normal chez Clarke, in fact. All power to their elbow.

  A more satisfying click – more of a clunk, really – and Rose pushed the handle. The door opened. The others crowded in. Someone found a light switch. It was rather disappointing after the grandeur of the cave. Still, even Disneyland needed offices. Several fairly old desktop computers sat on the crammed-in little desks. They went round switching them all on.

  “Okay, what we want now is to get a message out saying where we are,” said Rose. “Can you do that, James?”

  “I hope so.” He sat at the nearest one and accessed the command prompt. “Do you have an email address?” He typed fast – but not too fast, James. No errors now. Not with everyone watching. Rose read out an email address.

  “Who’s that?” he asked as he typed.

  “John Fairchild. One of the team.” There was a teeny hesitation there. Interesting.

  “So we want the back-up team now?”

  “Now we do, yes. Now Milo is here. Now we’ve seen him shoot one of us. We’re desperate, James. Just send the message!”

  “Okay, okay! What shall I say?”

  “Well, don’t encrypt it, for goodness’ sake.”

  “Of course not.” He went for Centre of Earth, Disneyland and left it at that. He was just wondering if a bit more detail might have been helpful when the screen went blank and all the lights went out. The computers whirred to a halt.

  “EeeehhhH?” intoned Mirai.

  “What’s going on?” said Rose.

  Out in the main cavern area, things flickered into life and an orange-red glow appeared. There seemed to be some hissing and steam and recorded metallic banging sounds. They ran out of the office. The lights were flashing over the lift doors and a display cabinet holding old-style scientific paraphernalia was lit up brightly.

  “Someone’s got access to the power,” said Rose.

  A loud thumping noise emanated from somewhere and filled the cave. Then, a man’s disembodied voice. A voice they all recognised.

  “Hello! Hello, out there, theme park lovers!”

  “Does he know where we are?” whispered James.

  “Wherever you’re hiding, I know you can hear this,” said Milo, his voice sounding strangely loud and intimate at the same time. “You’re in here somewhere.”

  “He must be using some kind of central tannoy,” said Rose. “This is going out to the whole park.” She sidled up to James. “How confident are you that the message went out?”

  He’d been thinking exactly the same thing. “Fifty percent,” was his honest answer. He wished he could be more reassuring.

  “I don’t think you realise yet who you’re trying to run from,” continued Milo. “My fault. Clearly I haven’t communicated this well enough to you. Let’s just say what you’re doing is futile. You cannot run from us. We are everywhere. And we will have what we want.”

  The rhetoric was familiar from Fire Sappers ransomware attacks James had read about. But this Milo sounded like he actually believed in that omnipotence drivel. Clearly he was unhinged, which made him even scarier.

  The tannoy cut out. They all looked at each other.

  “He has no idea where we are,” said Rose. “How can he hope to comb a whole theme park like this? He’s bullshitting.”

  The lighting changed. The power in the office had come back on. That thumping again, and the voice returned. “You probably made some attempt to get help. So I’m guessing you can get onto the web from wherever you are. I think you’ll want to see what I’ve got to show you. Or, I should say, who. Especially James.” James suddenly felt breathless. “Try this.” Milo reeled off an online address that James recognised as a dark web location. So did the Japanese two, he could tell. They ran back into the office.

  The computers had powered up again. Between the three of them, they recalled the location. He typed it in. The screen turned into dark moving shapes.

  “Ah, I see you! Thanks for coming,” breathed the tannoy. “Let’s have some light, shall we?”

  The screen brightened, went out of focus, then sharpened again. James stood up. Something behind him fell over but he didn’t care.

  Fiona. Sophie. Henry. The three of them, sitting next to each other on a sofa, with their hands tied behind them. Looking terribly, terribly scared.

  “No, no, no!” Everyone was looking at him. Rose had a hold of his arm.

  “It’s very sweet,” said Milo softly. “They came to Tokyo to find you, James. They really made it easy for us. Now I think we need to talk again, don’t we? We need to talk about how we can help each other. Do you agree?”

  Chapter 38

  The tannoy cut out again. Every muscle in James’ arm was tensed. Rose had never seen him like this. That bastard Milo. There was nothing he wouldn’t do. Rose had mis-judged Fiona as well – she’d never expected her to show up in Tokyo. Who was looking after them? Clearly they hadn’t done a good job, but then who anticipated this? The guy was streets ahead of them.

  Milo came back on with a click. “I suggest we continue this conversation face to face. It would make things easier, don’t you think?” A message box popped up on James’ screen. “Just tell us where you are, now.”

  His false gentleness made Rose feel sick. James stared at the message box, then at her.

  “Not a good idea,” she said. “We have an advantage at the moment. If we give away our position—”

  Something changed on the monitor. In the room with Fiona and the children, something off-screen had got their attention. Then they turned and crowded closer to the camera, gazing in. They were talking – their mouths were moving.

  “What are they saying?” asked James. “We need sound. Can we get sound? Please?”

  Mirai and Tomo hunted around the computer. Mirai went back out into the cavern area.

  “Ah! James-san!” she called. They all ran out. The big screen was also showing the hostages. Mirai felt around the edge of the screen and found a button. There was a crackle and the chamber filled with noise. Fiona was saying something:

  “…if he’s really there?” She was turning to someone in the room who was out of sight. “How we do know that? We can’t see anything.”

  Henry and Sophie were gazing into the camera with frightened eyes.

  “Oh, they’re there,” said a voice. “They can hear you, too.”

  Rose felt her body freeze. That voice!

  Milo came on again. “Tell me where you are and you can speak to them. They can see you, even. We’re not monsters, James. We don’t want you all to suffer. Let me make it easier for you. No one will be hurt, I promise. I just want to talk. And you can speak to your family. How about that?”

  James turned to Rose with pleading eyes.

  “You believe him?” she asked. “He could storm the place and take us all.”

  “James?” That was Fiona’s voice now. “James, are you there? Please, James, whatever they want, let them have it. I’m scared. We all are. I can’t see you. Are you there?”

  James was staring at his wife’s face on the screen. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again, turned and made for the office. Rose followed.

  “Don’t do it, James. Help is on its way.”

  “Is it?” He turned to her, furious. “We don’t know that! We’re on our own, Rose. What’s he going to do to them?”

  Before she could stop him, he’d typed into the message box: Centre of Earth.

  “Don’t send it! You’re being a fool, James!”

  She grabbed his hands off the keyboard and shoved him, hard. His chair rolled back, but he planted his feet and pushed her aside with a
strength she didn’t know he had. She fell to her knees, recovered, and came straight back at him. But all he needed was a second. By the time she was at the keyboard, he’d sent the message.

  “Ah, very good!” Milo intoned around them. “A wise choice. Expect me soon.” He cut out.

  “Idiot!” Rose snapped. “We put all that effort into getting away and you’ve led them right to us!”

  Without waiting for a response she went back into the cavern.

  “Mirai, is there only one way in and out of here?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  Rose looked around. “Stay together, all of you.”

  James had come back into the cavern. She could barely stand to look at him. She freed up a heavy metal barrier post, dragged it over to the display cabinet, planted her feet and swung the post shot-put style into the glass. It smashed, and the shards scattered everywhere. From inside the display she grabbed a heavy-looking metal tripod. It gave her comfort at least to have something heavy in her hand. She made towards the cavern entrance.

  The shadows suddenly diminished. She looked round. The cave had brightened. Someone had adjusted the lighting. There was a shriek. It was Fiona.

  “James! James, we can see you!”

  James was spinning round, trying to see a camera.

  “Here! Here!” They were waving at him. Mirai and Tomo were looking for the camera too. “Yes! Yes, that’s it!” cried Fiona. The camera was up on the wall, though it was well disguised. Rose stayed back, one eye on the cavern entrance.

  “You can see me? Can you see me now?” cried James, staring up.

  “Yes! Oh, James! I’m so sorry!” said Fiona.

  “No! No, it’s my fault.”

  “We shouldn’t have come. But no one was telling us anything and I thought if we all showed up—”

  “Fiona, love, I think it’s wonderful you came out here. Of course all of this isn’t very wonderful, but you know what I mean. Are you all okay?”

  “Yes, we’re okay. They haven’t hurt us.” She glanced over to the side of the room.

  “Sophie, darling!” said James. “I’m so sorry I missed your birthday! Are you all right?”

  Sophie nodded shyly.