by D. J. McCune
They left the karaoke bar within the hour and headed back to the hostel to pack. There was an hour in front of weird Japanese TV (short skirts, pervy hosts and shrieking seemed to be a key feature of evening entertainment) but most people were tired and headed to bed before it got stupidly late. Their itinerary had been packed with visits. Adam wished he had been able to enjoy it all more. He wasn’t going to enjoy the tsunami – but the relief of thinking about the people who would be saved was better than the guilt of thinking about all the people who were supposed to die.
Assuming of course that Spike was able to get into the system. He had vanished upstairs as soon as they got back, presumably to start investigating the warning system. For the first time a pang of doubt crept into Adam’s mind. Surely Spike would be able to do it? The stuff he could do with a laptop was scary, mainly because he didn’t seem to have any respect for laws or ethics or privacy. Although once again, Adam reflected, on this occasion he wasn’t in any position to judge.
When he went up to their room, he hardly dared to look at Spike. What if he said it was impossible? There was so little time to act. But although Spike was frowning, his brow was furrowed with concentration, not defeat. He opened his mouth to speak but Adam shook his head, nodding towards Dan and Archie, who were still bickering while they stuffed socks and souvenirs into their rucksacks. Spike shrugged but stayed quiet.
That night, for the first time all week, Adam fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. When he woke the next morning he ate a good breakfast and cheerfully sat on the warm, steamy-windowed coach for four hours as they crawled through the Tokyo traffic, ostensibly staring at landmarks. They could have walked through sewage for all he cared. And at last, just after lunchtime, they boarded the train for Hachimana.
The train journey itself was different from any train journey in England. Everything still looked exotic and alien. Apartment blocks and billboards blurred past, interspersed with trees and small parks. Glossy skyscrapers gave way to more modest office buildings as they left Tokyo behind. There were scraps of green but flat land was so precious that it was a long time before they saw any real break in the buildings.
Spike didn’t notice anything about the surroundings. He was totally absorbed in his laptop, making the most of the Wi-Fi on board. Archie and Dan barely noticed his silence; they were used to him disappearing into one of his projects. Adam tried to act normal, conscious that tomorrow when this was all over he didn’t want anyone to think that he had been behaving oddly. Some of the buoyant feeling had deserted him. Now that he was almost there, the enormity of what was going to happen was making him shiver. He realised, with a shudder, that it was Halloween.
He wondered how his parents would feel, once they heard what had happened. Their first thoughts would be for his safety. But tonight they would all be blissfully unaware of what was to come, heading off to Ireland to see the McVeys. Uncle Paddy always threw a Halloween party – he said he liked the irony. Of course the real irony would be the following day – All Souls’ Day. Please let all the souls be saved, Adam thought fervently.
By Japanese standards, Hachimana was a small city. They stepped off the train several stops before the main Hachimana station. The boys and girls were separated once again and frogmarched off in different directions. Their accommodation was in the suburbs in an apartment block owned by Murai, normally used to house seasonal workers. For now the apartments lay empty. An unsmiling supervisor put them into rooms. They were bleak and bland, empty apart from six futon mats lying on each floor, covered by a thin sheet and blanket. The teachers got a room between two. Adam and his friends had Mr Fenton and Mr Donnelly as their teachers in residence. It wasn’t brilliant but it was better than having The Bulb. He probably would have made them wrestle for their food.
Nobody felt like going too far, after dragging their luggage from the station. The joyless supervisor wheeled a trolley along the corridor, laden down with vast bowls of rice, soup, noodles, fish and pickles. There were small bean-paste buns for after and coffee for the teachers. Everyone else drank water. Adam ate a bit, then spent a lot of time watching the clock on his mobile phone. Every minute brought them closer to zero hour. He let his eyes wander round the room, taking in all the familiar faces. How could he keep his mouth shut when all he wanted to do was blurt out that everyone should just stay up here tomorrow, safely out of the way?
He stacked his bowl with all the others and slipped into the corridor outside. To his surprise Spike was out there, his laptop perched on his knee, typing frantically. He glared up at Adam. ‘You have no idea how much security there is on this stuff. The sensors are a no-go – you’re talking satellites there and it’s way too risky. So I’m going for the control centre.’
Adam nodded, trying to look wise. ‘Can you do it?’ His rice and fish suddenly seemed to be creeping back up his throat.
‘Yeah, as long as I keep getting Wi-Fi. I’m picking up better signals out here than I was inside. Just keep Fenton in there.’ Spike’s attention was already back on the screen, his fingers tapping out a tattoo.
It was another hour before Spike came back into the apartment and to Adam’s relief he grinned and nodded. Some of the tight, coiled feeling eased out of Adam’s chest.
It was happening. They could do this.
It was going to work out.
Chapter 23
hen Adam woke up the next morning, it was from a deep and dreamless sleep. The room was warm and humid from the breath and heat of six bodies, squeezed in too close for comfort. He lay for a moment, getting his bearings, then felt his stomach curl and roll as he realised where he was and what day it was. Hachimana. All Souls’ Day. Ground zero.
He was the first one awake. He glanced over towards the door, where Spike was still sleeping, one protective hand resting on his laptop. Adam crept past, sliding the wooden screen door aside and stepping into the small kitchen area. In the bathroom he had time to shower, crouching on the tiled floor, ignoring the low stool. He definitely preferred a standing, Western-style shower.
He had just finished getting dressed when the front door opened and the surly supervisor came in. She ignored his Ohayou gozaimasu and wheeled a trolley of rice, fish and miso inside, complete with a stack of bowls and a large urn of green tea. A bleary-eyed Fenton emerged from his room, throwing baleful glances back at Donnelly, whose snores had filled the whole apartment the night before. He slid the other bedroom doors aside and growled at them all to get up and dressed.
Adam took a bowl and piled it high with rice. It wasn’t what he would have chosen to eat for possibly his last meal but once the tsunami struck it could be hours or even days before they got to sit down and eat again. He looked around the others, wishing he could tell them to stop turning up their noses and eat something, while they still could. An eerie sense of unreality was gripping him. This wasn’t a secret he would have chosen to know but without it they might all die. If something went wrong with his plan, there was nothing to say that his classmates and teachers wouldn’t become victims like everyone else. He might become a victim. Then he would meet Hikaru and his family again, one last time, as they took his keystone and guided him on to the Unknown Roads.
He pushed these dark thoughts away and copied everyone else; finishing food, scraping bowls, packing up their rucksacks. For the billionth time of the trip Fenton exhorted them to Check their passports! Adam slipped his into his pocket and checked that his keystone was safely round his neck. His rucksack felt heavier today. He wondered if he would still have it at the end of the day. Absurdly, he realised that if the tsunami struck the fish factory he would probably never see his favourite hoodie or his phone charger again.
Out in the corridor they climbed down four flights of stairs and gathered in the courtyard outside. Until now Adam had been avoiding Spike’s eye. Spike hadn’t missed this. ‘Don’t tell me you’re chickening out?’
Adam shook his head. Chickening out wasn’t an option. He just still didn’t know ho
w he would explain it when an actual tsunami struck. ‘No.’
‘Good.’ Spike pulled out his mobile phone and frowned. ‘We’re going to miss the train.’
Adam pulled out his own phone to check the time. Sure enough, they only had ten minutes to get to the station. That way they would be at the fish-processing plant with an hour to spare, a safe margin in case Spike hit any last-minute snags. The tight feeling in his stomach clenched hard enough to hurt.
Fenton didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. He was taking a desultory headcount. ‘Put your bags down. We’re still waiting for Mr Bulber’s group.’
Adam stared at him in dismay. The Bulb probably had them wrestling each other on the tatami mats or something equally stupid. He turned to Spike, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice. ‘Have you much to do when we get there?’
Spike shrugged. ‘I’ve done as much as I can. I just need to run the program I coded. It should only take a couple of minutes if I get a good connection.’
Adam nodded, not daring to say any more. There was a high-pitched shrieking coming from the hallway and The Bulb burst out into the daylight, his group streaming beside him. The supervisor was waving her hands and jabbering in short angry bursts of Japanese, interspersed with a few English words. Adam was sure he caught something about rice ball and toilet. The Bulb was trying to sound placatory but gave up and nodded to Mr Fenton, indicating that it was time to make their escape. Adam didn’t need to be asked twice. He seized his rucksack, dizzy with relief. They were moving. They might still get there on time.
Only they didn’t. At the bottom of the street, none other than Mr Fenton thought that he had lost his passport. After a thorough search of all his baggage the passport was discovered in the concealed pocket inside his jacket. Someone else’s rucksack strap snapped and The Bulb insisted on trying an amateur repair job in the middle of the pavement, while irate Japanese workers stepped into the road to get past. When they eventually reached the train station, it was to the sight of their train disappearing into the distance. Kenai had mysteriously reappeared and tersely told them that the girls had gone on ahead and that they would have to wait twenty minutes for the next train.
For a moment, Adam felt like screaming. He fought back the urge to chase the train along the tracks and leap on board. What was the use? Without Spike he couldn’t do anything anyway. No one else seemed to mind. It was fair to say that a tour of a fish-processing plant wasn’t on anyone’s highlights list. Dan and Archie joined everyone else at the vending machines, buying boxes of Pocky and bottles of Pocari Sweat, mostly because they liked the names.
Spike was the only other person looking irritated at the delay. ‘Idiots. I knew we were going to miss it. At this rate it will hardly be worth hacking into the system. We’re only going to get a couple of hours at the research plant.’
‘Of course it’ll be worth it!’ Adam’s temper was stretched to breaking point and he was in danger of losing it with exactly the wrong person. He forced himself to breathe in. ‘Two hours of computers are better than two hours of fish guts!’
‘Easy for you to say,’ Spike muttered. ‘You’re not the one breaching their security. I don’t know much about the Japanese prison system but I hope it’s better than Thailand’s. I saw that film about the backpackers with the heroin … They must have been mentalists!’ He tailed off, his face dark.
Adam might have started to panic but for Kenai’s timely return. He informed them that there was another train they could catch, which would require three stops instead of one but they would still arrive in the centre of Hachimana before the next express train. A few minutes later they were on board, listening to the cheerful bing-bong of the announcement system, standing awkwardly in the aisle under the curious stares of local people.
Adam counted off the stops, bouncing up and down on the soles of his feet. His whole body felt curiously alive, one big wave of adrenalin waiting to break. He swayed with the movement of the train, clinging to the ceiling strap, eyes closed. People swarmed on and off the train. Two stops to go … His hearing was almost superhuman. A baby further down the carriage was crying and her mother shushed her in a singsong voice. The Bulb said something in a low voice and the other teachers laughed, just loudly enough to seem insincere. One stop to go … There was a humming sound in Adam’s ears. After a moment he realised he was the one humming, low and droning, blocking everything else out. Getting ready.
And at last the train pulled into Hachimana main station. Adam stared around the carriage, mesmerised, as everyone else fustled about gathering bags and coats. They were here at last. The unreality of it … To be here, in a place he had never seen before, knowing that in less than an hour everything would be different. He watched the Japanese people on the train step off, holding their packages, helping their children and the elderly, moving quietly, self-contained. His throat clenched tight and he suddenly felt close to tears. He wished for one frantic moment that he could stop this; that he could make the earthquake never happen.
There was no point thinking about it. He stood up and grabbed his rucksack, swallowing down the ache in his chest. As they walked the short distance from the station to the factory his eyes darted from landmark to landmark. They turned on to the main street, running parallel to the shoreline, and Adam stopped dead, earning curses and protests from the people behind him. He couldn’t help it. He had just seen the electronics store and the digital clock. He stared at it, fascinated. The time blinked and then steadied – 10:29. At exactly 11:08 it would be engulfed and the store behind it smashed to pieces. He imagined the red numbers blinking, then flashing out of existence along with the rest of the street. As they walked past a shudder ran through his body.
Kenai led them up the street he recognised from his dream. It took a lot longer climbing up the hill than it had taken Adam to run down it, especially carrying their gear. Kenai explained apologetically that Hachimana station was too small for luggage lockers. Adam felt nothing but relief. Faffing about would have slowed them down even further and if they kept their bags with them there was a chance people might have something to eat and drink in the hours after the tsunami, even if it was just sweets.
And finally, they had arrived. They turned right from the road into the yard. Ahead of them, down the sloping entrance lane, were the long, low buildings. The girls and female teachers were already there. They raised a mocking jeer that made The Bulb scowl and Kenai’s lips press together so tightly that they almost vanished. The group straggled down towards the buildings.
Adam felt someone nudge his side. He turned and saw Spike jerking his head towards a small equipment shed on their right. ‘Over here,’ Spike whispered. ‘There’s no point going inside or we’ll just lose even more time.’
Adam nodded. They fell to the side of the group and Spike dropped down onto one knee, pretending to tie his shoelace. As soon as the group passed them, they slipped in behind the shed. Spike dropped straight to the ground and pulled out his laptop. He typed very fast, then stopped and waited, a slight frown between his eyebrows.
The wait stretched, along with Adam’s nerves. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Not picking up any Wi-Fi signals.’ Spike shrugged and pointed back towards the road. ‘Some of the houses there looked like they were about to fall down. Whoever’s living in them … let’s just say Wi-Fi probably isn’t top of their priority list.’
Adam stared at him in horror. ‘What, so that’s it?’
‘No, not necessarily. It’s just trickier. Luckily I came prepared.’ Spike reached into his shoulder bag and pulled out several cables, two small, flat boxes and his mobile phone. ‘I’m going to have to improvise. It’ll take a bit longer. Make sure no one is looking for us.’
Adam swallowed down a scream of frustration. When he’d heard the tsunami talk, he’d thought somebody somewhere was on his side. Now it seemed like everything that could go wrong was going wrong. He peeked his head round the side of the shed. None of the te
achers were watching and Archie was talking to one of the girls from the plane with a huge grin on his face. Only Dan was standing on the edge of the group, looking around with a bemused expression. Don’t worry about us, Dan! Maybe somebody somewhere was on their side because a second later Kenai began to speak to the group, gesturing to the building behind him.
‘Got it!’ Spike said. He grinned and held his hands up in the air, like a footballer who’d just scored a goal. He waggled his fingers. ‘Now just wait for the magic.’
He began typing again, very fast. Adam closed his eyes and leaned back against the shed, feeling as if every nerve in his body was tingling. Either this was going to work or it wasn’t. It was out of his hands now. He pulled out his mobile and checked the time. It was 10:48. In exactly twenty minutes the tsunami was going to hit the shoreline.
Seconds stretched into hours. Spike was still typing. The sound of his fingers pattering on the keyboard was shredding Adam’s last remaining nerve. He wanted to scream. Instead he breathed in and then out, slowly, then forced himself to do it again. In … and out … and in … and out. His head began to feel pleasantly light. There’s nothing else to do, a voice sang at the back of his mind. Nothing more to do.
‘Done!’ Spike hissed, slamming the laptop shut. At the same moment a loud voice called from beside them. ‘You, boys! What you do?’
Adam almost lashed out. He was beyond thought now; his body was charged for fight or flight. Spike scrambled up beside him as they stared in silence at a very angry security guard. ‘You no be here!’ He walked over to the edge of the shed and shouted something in Japanese. Twenty seconds later Kenai appeared, followed by The Bulb.
Adam had a dim sense of muttered imprecations and dire threats as they were hustled back towards the rest of their group. He didn’t care. He couldn’t breathe. He looked at Spike for reassurance and saw his friend smirking in the way he always did when he had pulled something big off. The Bulb deposited him beside Fenton, who snarled in his ear and told him not to move an inch from his side.
