Caine turned the knob. The door creaked open.
As they stepped into the room beyond, Koichi reached for a light switch. Caine put his hand on the old man’s shoulder to stop him. He pulled a small penlight from his leather jacket and flicked it on, keeping his hand cupped over the bulb. He let the small pinprick of light dance over the office as their eyes adjusted to the darkness. Koichi grunted, and they both drew their weapons. Caine crept along the wall, keeping to the edge of the room.
“Looks like someone had the same idea we did,” he said.
The beam of the flashlight revealed overturned chairs, open file cabinets, and papers littering the floor.
The office had been ransacked.
A safe in the wall, behind a now-empty bookshelf, hung open. Its contents were strewn across the floor like confetti after a New Year’s Eve party. A massive mahogany desk—a bit too grand for its dingy surroundings—sat in front of a large window. Through the window, Caine could see the Ikebukuro lights in the distance. They twinkled behind the dark, jagged skyline of the buildings across the street.
Caine and Koichi crept past a glass partition in the middle of the office. A small sitting area lay behind the frosted glass. A pair of cheap sofas, their vinyl surfaces marked with stains and cigarette burns, flanked a small coffee table. A cracked ceramic ashtray perched on top of a stack of magazines. It was filled with butts and ash. Caine bent down and sniffed. Koichi gave him a strange look.
“Smoked recently,” Caine whispered. He looked up, noticing a small closet door in the corner. The Japanese writing on the wooden door said “Supplies.” Caine pointed to his eyes, then the door. Koichi nodded and held his gun out as they stalked forward.
They flanked the door on either side. Caine reached down and twisted the knob. The door swung open about an inch, and something heavy shifted. The closet door crashed open. Caine stepped back, Beretta pointed at the door. A large object toppled over and fell into the room with a thud.
Koichi gasped. It was a body.
Caine knelt down and examined the corpse. It was a Japanese man in his thirties. His ripped, tattered clothes hung off him like rags on a scarecrow. His face was unrecognizable. It was covered in cuts, bruises, and some marks Caine suspected were burns.
“He was tortured,” Caine muttered. “Who the hell did this, Koichi? What’s going on here?”
Koichi shook his head. “Waters-san, I swear I have no idea. Someone didn’t want him talking to us.”
“So, who knew we were coming here tonight?”
Koichi looked back and forth between the body and Caine. “I don’t know. I must call Yoshizawa-san.”
“Wait,” Caine said. “Let’s get our facts straight first. I’ll search the body. Check the desk. See if you can find anything on Hitomi.”
Koichi headed over to the desk. He rustled through papers as Caine dragged Naka’s corpse into the center of the room. He patted down the body. The man’s wallet was still in his back pocket. Caine flipped it open and found the usual contents: a driver’s license, some random business cards, and a few thousand yen. “They left his money,” Caine said. “This wasn’t a robbery.”
“Was there any doubt?” Koichi answered back.
Caine patted down the man’s pockets again. He looked around the floor of the closet. There was nothing there other than boxes of printer paper and other supplies. The bottoms of the boxes were soaked by a thick pool of blood.
“Koichi, I don’t see this guy’s cell phone. He has to have one, right?”
“This is Japan. Three-year-olds have cell phones. Maybe he left it in his desk?”
Caine heard a click, and the room filled with light. Koichi had turned on a desk lamp. Caine blinked. The light was dim, but in the dark office, it was almost blinding. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Caine saw a diffuse red glow sparkle across the frosted glass divider.
It could be nothing ... a trick of the light? Perhaps his eyes were still adjusting to the sudden brightness? But as Caine stood up, he felt the familiar tingle and knew to trust his instincts.
He stepped out from behind the divider, raising the Berretta in a double-handed grip. He aimed the weapon towards Koichi and pulled the trigger.
Chapter Nineteen
BLAM!
Koichi looked up in shock as Caine’s gunfire blasted over his shoulder. The bullet pierced the window behind him, sending a spiderweb of cracks through the large pane of glass. Koichi raised his gun towards Caine, but before he could even aim, a second shot rang out. This time the retort was quiet, distant, from across the street. The window exploded into a shimmering curtain of falling glass shards.
“Get down!” Caine shouted.
Koichi dove to the floor, revealing a pencil-thin beam of red light tracing through the office. Caine fired again, and the desk lamp exploded in a shower of sparks. Once again, darkness engulfed the room.
Koichi cursed in Japanese as Caine crawled across the floor, dragging Naka’s corpse behind him.
“That shot, Waters-san. You scared the hell out of me!”
“I saw the laser sight. There wasn’t time to warn you. I figured cracking the glass might throw off his aim.”
“I just thought you were a bad shot.”
“By the way, this may not be the best time, but you should know my name is not Mark Waters.”
Koichi and Caine flanked the window, keeping low. “I thought as much,” Kochi said, “but is there something else you prefer I call you?”
Caine thought for a second, then shrugged. “Not really.”
The sniper’s beam continued to dance across the room. It drifted through the darkness like a cobra, swaying in the air before delivering a killing strike.
Caine shoved Naka’s body across the floor to Koichi. “When I give the word, let’s give this guy something to shoot at. Understand?” The old man nodded. Caine waited until the laser sight disappeared again. “Okay, now!”
Koichi gripped the man’s body by the scruff of his neck and heaved the corpse up onto the windowsill. The laser sight blinked back on and darted towards Naka’s body. Caine peered around the corner of the window. He saw the flash of red across the street, on the rooftop of another building. Its blaze gave away the sniper’s position, huddled behind a rooftop air-conditioning unit.
The shooter fired again, the bullet thudding into Naka’s dead body. Koichi hissed as the impact knocked the corpse backwards. Before the body even hit the ground, Caine stood and aimed his gun towards the roof of the building across the street. The laser sight snapped towards him, but before it could settle, Caine opened fire. He emptied the Beretta’s magazine in a wide pattern, sending a hail of bullets at his hidden enemy.
The laser sight dipped down as the sniper took cover. Caine dropped back down below the level of the windowsill. Koichi peered around the corner of the window. “He’s moving!”
Koichi opened fire. Caine turned and saw the dark figure on the roof burst into a sprint. Koichi’s bullets kicked up tiny explosions of dust at the fleeing man’s feet, but the shots did not hit their mark.
“Kono yarou!” the old man cursed, his face twisted into a snarl. “The little shit is heading for the fire escape!”
“Give me your gun! Do you have another mag?”
Koichi looked at him in disbelief. “I’m not running away from this piece of shit coward!”
“Kenji is still downstairs! You have to get him out of here!”
Koichi’s face clouded. He handed over his pistol and an extra magazine of ammo he pulled from his shoulder holster rig.
“You’re right, Waters-san. Good hunting.”
Caine grabbed the gun and ammo and jammed them in his waistband. He sprinted towards the emergency exit on the other side of the room. He threw open the door and found himself high above the dark alley behind the building. The metal stairwell creaked and shook as he ran out onto the balcony. To the right, he spied a water pipe running parallel to the fire escape. Without hesitating, he grab
bed the pipe and stepped off the fire escape.
The rusty metal pipe was slick with rainwater, and he slid faster than he was expecting. The peeled, flaking paint tore and bit at the skin on his hands. He grit his teeth and grabbed the pole tighter, slowing his descent as he neared the ground.
When he hit bottom, he fell from the pipe and rolled across the pavement. Gasping for breath, he staggered to his feet and drew the Colt. As he ran around the corner of the building, he ejected Koichi’s spent magazine and slammed in the new one.
He burst out onto the street and jogged towards the other building. His hands were bloody and sore, making it hard to keep a firm grip on the pistol, but the pain was worth the head start he’d gotten on his adversary. He could see the dark figure across the street, just making it to the bottom of the fire escape.
Next to the office building, a bewildered Kenji waited alone behind the now-abandoned dumpling stand. “Hey, man, what the hell is going on?” he yelled. Caine ran past him into the street, splashing through the puddles that filled the cracked pavement.
Caine raised the pistol, taking aim at the dark figure now dropping to the ground. Traffic screeched to a halt as cars skidded around him on the wet streets. Before he could fire, a sleek red car streaked in front of him, blocking his shot. The man jumped into the passenger seat, and the car sped around the stopped traffic.
Caine swore until he realized he still had the keys to Kenji’s GTR. He turned back to the young man. “Koichi’s on his way down. Go with him!”
“Yeah, but what about my car?”
Caine ignored him as he sped back to the alley.
Chapter Twenty
The black GTR tore out of the alley like a stealth fighter, screeching into the wet city streets.
Caine was just in time to see the taillights of the getaway vehicle as they sped away from the building and rounded a corner. He stepped on the gas. The engine’s growl shifted to a high-pitched wail as the powerful car pursued its prey.
He clenched his jaw as the steering wheel vibrated in his hands. The GTR’s tires squealed as he drifted around a corner, but they held their grip on the slick, wet pavement. His quarry’s rear lights grew closer, as the two vehicles raced towards Ikebukuro Station.
Caine realized he was chasing after the new Acura NSX, a 550-horsepower supercar. His Nissan maintained a slight edge in power, but the Acura was more nimble ... and at these speeds, the slightest mistake would cost him his target. And quite possibly his life.
Closer to the train station, the NSX shot through an intersection. It looked like a curved stiletto perched on massive racing wheels, and all heads turned as it flew by. Caine growled as the light changed. A crowd of shoppers and pedestrians wandered out into the street, heading for the mall on the right.
He jerked the wheel to the side. The car smashed through a thin metal railing dividing the highway from the lanes to the left. It crumpled the barrier as if it were cardboard. A shower of sparks shot up in the air behind him, as the car caught and dragged a twisted scrap of metal along the ground. Caine turned the wheel again and swung around the crowd of people with inches to spare. He had just enough time to make out the shocked expressions on their faces as they watched him blaze past.
The car shuddered as the metal fragment dislodged and fell to the ground. The maneuver had cost him distance, but he could still see the Acura ahead. It sped around more traffic and pedestrians, then darted towards an exit off the freeway. Caine followed. Glancing down at the dash, he saw the speedometer creep towards ninety miles an hour. He caught a brief glimpse of a street sign before it became a blur in his rearview mirror; they were heading towards the Yamate Tunnel.
Part of the Shuto Expressway, the eighteen-kilometer underground tube was monitored by traffic cameras at regular intervals. Caine knew it would not be long before they attracted the attention of the police. For a moment, he considered giving up the chase. If he were arrested, Rebecca would not be standing by to bail him out again. Plus, Bernatto would learn that Caine was alive, if he hadn’t already.
Instead, he stepped on the accelerator, closing the distance between him and the Acura. His instincts drove him to pursue. The people in that car had known he would turn up at Naka’s office, had been waiting there for him. There was a good chance they had been the ones to search the office, which meant they might have Naka’s cell phone—the next link in the mysterious chain that led to Hitomi.
He had to follow.
The Acura sped right, entering the twisting, banked curve of the tunnel entrance. Caine slid the GTR to the shoulder of the road, speeding past the commuters waiting their turn to enter. The road dipped down. Caine’s stomach fluttered as his car dove into the tunnel opening and the dark, rainy night disappeared behind him.
The tunnel was massive. Its grey concrete walls were illuminated by orange bursts of light that flashed overhead. The roar of the GTR and the high-pitched whine of the turbo-charged Acura merged in an unholy mechanical scream. As they shot past the traffic at the entrance, the cars behind them slowed to a crawl. For a brief second, they were alone in the tunnel, like two shiny bullets racing down the barrel of a gun.
Here on the smooth straightaway of the tunnel, Caine’s powerful GTR had the advantage. He closed the gap, pulling up next to the Acura. He saw the driver glance over at him, his brow furrowed in determination. Caine turned his eyes back to the road. A sea of blinking red taillights filled his view; they had caught up with the tunnel traffic.
The Acura broke away, darting around a group of slower-moving cars. Caine braked to avoid slamming into a Toyota van. He jammed his fist down on the horn as he jagged left and right, looking for an opening in the traffic. A white Mercedes driven by a perfectly coiffed young lady pulled over, letting him pass. She gave him the finger as he sped by.
Up ahead, he spotted the Acura’s distinctive taillight bar. The traffic had forced its driver to slow down as well. The car’s racing tires squealed as it swerved around a green-and-white taxicab. The cab slammed on its brakes, letting the Acura zip past. Caine darted left, barely sliding past the stopped vehicle. He heard the sound of metal grating against metal. His passenger-side mirror flew off as it scraped against the side of the cab.
He breathed a quick sigh of relief, then stamped back down on the gas. As he gained on the Acura, the traffic ahead slowed to a stop. Up ahead, two lanes of the tunnel merged into one. The single lane crawled forward to the left. A barricade blocking some road construction closed off the right lane. Beyond the barricade, the tunnel branched off into an exit.
Caine sped around a motorcyclist riding a Kawasaki crotch rocket. He was now neck and neck with the crimson Acura. They were running out of room, the split in traffic just a few hundred yards ahead. Caine chanced a quick glance at his adversary. The driver was staring straight ahead, not watching him. Caine clenched his jaw, braced himself, and threw the wheel to the right. The GTR slammed into the Acura at triple-digit speed. Both cars wove back and forth as they struggled to regain control. The GTR’s all-wheel drive regained its grip first, and he slammed into the Acura again.
Both cars drifted right, towards the barricade. With a crash of splintering wood, they exploded through the barrier and charged down the closed tunnel exit. The unfinished section was barely lit at this hour. Between the pools of darkness, Caine saw flashes of construction equipment, stacks of metal pipes, and piles of debris.
Caine’s car shuddered as the Acura swerved over and slammed into him. Well, all’s fair, Caine thought as he struggled to keep control of his vehicle. The Acura slid towards him again. His rear wheels began to fishtail as the two cars crashed together. When they separated, bits of metal and trim fell from the cars and clanged behind them on the pavement.
In the hazy orange glow of the work lights up ahead, Caine saw a forklift. It was parked in the center of the unfinished exit lane. He straightened the GTR out and charged towards it. The driver of the Acura glared at him and sped up, keeping pace beside him
. Caine looked over to see the driver jerk the wheel towards him again. But this time, Caine was ready.
He stepped on the gas and jagged right. The two cars scraped sheet metal, but Caine was able to keep his position. They continued speeding towards the forklift. He saw the menacing twin metal prongs of the lift platform, suspended in the air like blunt metal fangs.
He wove back and forth, keeping his distance from the Acura. The timing has to be perfect, he thought. He watched the Acura’s driver, saw him glancing back and forth between him and the road.
He straightened the car out and relaxed his fingers on the wheel, anticipating his enemy’s actions. Now! his brain screamed.
As the Acura driver once again jagged the wheel to the left, Caine slammed down on the brakes with both feet. The car shuddered, its anti-lock system struggling to engage. As Caine’s speed plummeted, the Acura slid left into empty space and shot in front of him.
Before the other driver could react, Caine slammed back down on the gas. In less than a second, the speedometer shot back up to triple digits. Caine’s car lurched forward and rammed into the rear of the Acura. The other driver struggled to control the car as it surged forward from the impact.
As Caine spun his wheel to the left, he sped past the Acura and saw the driver look up in horror. The NSX plowed straight into the forklift. As the two metal bodies collided, the twin prongs of the lift sheered the roof off the sports car. With a horrendous metal crash, the body of the car crumpled. The mass of fused metal flipped over into the air, slamming back down with an echoing clang.
Caine winced at the sound. He hit the brakes, his car skidding to a stop. He took a deep breath and removed his hands from the steering wheel. He waited until they stopped shaking. After a few seconds, the adrenalin racing through his body subsided.
Thomas Caine series Boxset Page 12
