by Joe Shine
“Thank you,” the woman said, finally finding her voice after I slammed the door to the boiler, closing it.
“Of course,” I said automatically, my mind still busy trying to figure out what to do and what I’d gotten myself into by doing the stupid, right thing. What the heck was I supposed to do with this lady now? What had I done? I had to see this out now, consequences be damned. I had to get these people out and back to their families. I’d started down a path but had tripped and fallen, and was now cartwheeling down the mountain toward the bottom, which was coming one way or another. “How many of you are there?”
“Being held for ransom?” she asked before guessing a pretty precise, “Thirty-six?”
I nodded as I took in the information. Crap, that was a lot. Now what? I couldn’t leave them here. I mean, I could, but I couldn’t. And there was no way I could sneak them out of here either, without being caught. I could try a few at a time, but that would take forever, and every trip could be the one that would get us caught. Now, if it was only me, I’d maybe risk doing it, but it wasn’t only me. If they caught me, who knows what they’d do to Ryo. Now, that was something I couldn’t ignore.
I looked at the woman. She had old bruises. Old, infected cuts. She’d been abused, neglected, humiliated.
I had to make these men pay for what they’d done. I needed help, though. I needed a group of stone-cold killers to come wipe all traces of this filth off the planet. And I knew a bunch of them who’d do it, gladly, if they knew what was going on, but the problem was, this group wanted to wipe all traces of me off the face of the planet, too.
Uh-oh. Am I having a . . . yep, it’s happening.
Idea time.
Terrible, horrible, stupid idea time . . . a Hutch staple.
But . . . yeah, I was going for it.
Chapter 25
Hook, Line, and ... Huh?
I tucked the woman into a sweet hiding space in the back of the boiler room and promised I’d be back. She wasn’t too happy about being alone, but I convinced her it was her only choice. Had she thrown a fit I don’t know what I’d have done. With her safely hidden away, I raced back to the safe side of the compound, where, thankfully, Akiko was still awake.
“Didn’t get caught, I see,” she said without looking up.
“Tell me you know nothing about what’s going on over there?” I said a bit more forcefully than I’d meant to.
For a second I regretted it, but then I didn’t. If she knew anything about it, my tone was the least of her worries. She would be my enemy. It took her by surprise, so she didn’t answer.
“Tell me,” I repeated seriously. I had to know. I had to know if she knew. It mattered.
“No, I-I don’t,” she stammered.
“Good. Sorry, I had to make sure.”
“What is going on over there?” she asked. She sounded scared. “Why do you have blood on you? Are you hurt?”
“Bad things, not important right now, and no,” I answered in the order of her questions. “We’ll talk about it later. Do you know anywhere else we can hide?”
“Why?” she asked, looking up and pursing her lips.
“I maaaay have done something stupid. Scratch that. I did do something stupid. More than one thing, actually. And I have to do more.”
“Why?” she repeated, frustrated.
“Because it’s what I do and it was the right thing to do.”
“Noble but stupid,” she muttered.
I almost laughed. “Yep, it’s what I’m best at. Look, yes or no. Do you know of anywhere else we can hide? I can explain later.”
She looked at me for a few seconds before smirking and pulling out her laptop.
“Let me see,” she said as she began to hack away. “When I set up their looking glass into the school computers, they had to give me access to their own system. I set up some looking glasses of my own.”
After about thirty or so seconds of her fingers whizzing away on the keyboard, she smiled and spun the screen around as she said, “Where do you want to hide?”
On the screen was a long list of addresses for other safe houses.
“Any way to tell if they’re being used?” I asked.
“I don’t know how accurate the list is, but these,” she said, pointing at a box with an asterisk, “I believe indicate if it is occupied or not.”
“Any of these super secluded, off-the-grid-type places?”
She pulled the screen back toward her and went at it on the keyboard again.
“Throwing all the addresses into a map,” she muttered for my benefit. “This one.”
She showed me the map of somewhere in northern Japan.
“Hokkaido. Small cabin in the mountains. It’s rural and even if your people somehow track us to the city using the city cameras, those don’t exist out in the mountains. It’s blanketed in snow and truly off the map. It looks to be only accessible by snowmobile.”
Perfect, I thought. As we sat staring at the map on her computer screen, our faces were inches away from each other, and I couldn’t help but sneak a sideways glance at her. Her dark eyes were glued to the screen, and her short, steady breaths were intoxicating. My mind began to wonder if her skin was as soft and smooth as I remembered. What would she do if I tried to kiss her? Totally inappropriate in the moment, but this girl was awesome and good at making out so . . . Fifty-fifty chance she either kissed back or beat the hell out of me. Both sorta turned me on.
“Can we make out again?” I only half joked.
She smirked. “Later. Now tell me why we have to leave.”
I filled her in on what I’d seen. Like me, the guns, cash, and drugs were whatever, but when her mouth dropped open as I got to the part with the old woman and the boiler, I knew she was on board.
“We have to get them out, and the only way to do it is with help,” I finished.
“I agree, but who can we call? They control the police and most of the politicians. By the time anyone could help, the hostages would all be moved or killed.”
“I know. Which is why I called in the cavalry, my cavalry.”
“Cavalry?”
“My people. The ones hunting us,” I clarified, always forgetting that normal American sayings are often lost in translation. “There were wireless cameras monitoring the cages. I waited for a camera to sweep by the door and made sure my face was in the window when it passed. It was too small and fast for the guards to see it in their video stream, but my people’s facial recognition will find it. It may only take minutes, or it may take a few hours, but they will find it and when they do, they’ll come. But don’t worry,” I said, then paused before adding totally unconvincingly, “I think I have a plan.”
I quickly explained my plan to her.
“It’s practically suicide. You honestly think that will work?”
“Fifty-fifty?” I said, cringing, knowing full well the odds were a lot lower. “Twenty-eighty . . . maybe?”
“My job seems relatively easy in comparison,” she said.
“But it’s the most important,” I reminded her.
“I will not fail you.”
“I don’t care about me. Don’t fail him,” I said, pointing toward the room Ryo was sleeping in.
“Never,” she said absolutely.
“Good. Gotta get moving, then. We should have a few hours, but that’s a guess. If they already tracked us to Japan, they could be here any minute now, which is why you and Ryo need to get out of here. Once you’re gone, I can make sure the hostages get out safely and then start on getting to the bottom of all this. I can’t do either of them if I have to worry about Ryo.”
“You’re not worried about me?” she asked, joking.
“I’m pretty sure you can handle yourself.”
“How will you know if we’re even still alive?” she asked. “
Ryo and me?”
“Trust me, I’ll know. If he dies while I’m still linked to him, I’ll go out of my mind and be kill-everyone-around-me nuts.”
“Linked?” she asked as I realized I’d finally let something slip about the world she was now involved in. “What are you?”
My breath caught in my throat. “You’d never believe me if I told you. Stick with believing it’s the CIA, trust me. All you need to know is I won’t rest until he is safe and I’ll die to protect him,” I added, pointing at the room where Ryo slept. “Now go wake him up. You’re a much prettier face to wake up to than me.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” she said.
I could feel my face flush. Not the time or place, hormones.
She stared at me for a moment and I knew there were a thousand questions bouncing around in her head. I was super glad she didn’t ask any.
A few minutes later, Ryo stumbled out of his room still half asleep, with Akiko poking him to hurry.
“Okay, okay,” he yawned out. When he saw me, he asked, “What’s going on?”
“The Yakuza sold us out,” I lied. “My people are coming. We have to go.”
Nothing like a death squad heading right at you to kick-start the morning. The sleep disappeared from his face as terror took over. It pained me a bit to have caused him that, but if it got him moving, so be it.
“Follow me,” I told them as I headed for the door.
Dawn was still a few hours away, so the dark was on our side. I guided them along the edges of the complex until I found a weak spot in the metal fencing. With a few quick tugs I was able to pull a corner out far enough for Akiko and Ryo to squeeze through. Ryo immediately noticed when I didn’t follow.
“What are you doing?” he whispered to me.
“I’m staying,” I told him.
“You can’t. Come with us,” he pleaded, and it took every bit of willpower to not obey.
I shook my head. “I have to figure out what’s going on. I have to fix this.” It was now my turn to plead. “Go, please.”
“You’ll find us?” he asked.
“You’ll see me again one way or another. I promise,” I told him.
I locked eyes with Akiko.
She nodded in understanding. She knew the plan. She’d be ready. I shoved the piece of metal back into place. My heart sank. This was the most difficult moment of my life. Every piece of me was telling me to go after Ryo, but I fought it. I had to.
The old woman in the boiler room was glad to see me again. I pretended to listen as I made small talk with her. She told me about her family, and how excited she was to see them again, but I only half listened. I felt empty. Ryo was gone and I had no way of knowing if he was okay. Alive? Yes, I knew that, but in danger? Hurt? No clue. Could I count on the link to let me know? I didn’t know. There was a hole inside me that was getting bigger and bigger with every second of uncertainty.
The distant Pop! Pop! of gunfire was the most welcome sound in the world. It was like Mozart to me as it started off soft and slow before picking up until it was an all-out war raging out there. Just beautiful. Hot lead for breakfast, anyone? My love affair with the Yakuza had ended in the boiler room. FATE had taken the bait, and now these gangsters were getting theirs. The plan was working. I would make my next move under the cover of chaos.
With everyone busy fighting, the old woman and I made our way to the cages without running into anyone. Together, we quickly freed the prisoners. I’d been worried, but getting everyone out of here turned out to be pretty simple, really. Whichever way the fighting seemed heaviest, we went in the opposite direction. It wasn’t until we reached the “safe” side of the compound that we even saw another soul. Peeking out a window I saw three fully armed Yakuza charging down the sidewalk in the morning light toward something or someone. Didn’t know. Didn’t care.
With the coast as clear as it got, I hurried the stream of people toward the same loose fence piece I’d shoved Ryo and Akiko through earlier. One by one they shimmied through the space until it was only me and the old woman. She thanked me, hugged me, and whispered into my ear, “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Huh?” I questioned.
“My daughter’s a big fan . . . Bobby Sky. Though Ryo is her favorite.”
I watched her leave. “I’m not . . .” I started—but before I could get the rest out, a stream of bullets raked across the metal wall behind me.
I let go of the fence piece, rolled, and blindly opened fire in the direction of whoever was shooting me. It was two of the three Yakuza who’d run past earlier. I emptied the rest of my clip at them, killing both. I took their weapons and listened. The explosions and gunfire were dying down as the battle was beginning to end. My people simply don’t lose, especially not to gangsters. I could hear some heavy fire being exchanged way off somewhere to my left, a holdout of the last Yakuza, I could only guess. I went right instead, where there were only some sporadic shots and the occasional yell. Yes, I’m fearless, but I still don’t want to die.
In a large open space that was once a garden but was now overgrown with grass and weeds, a large group of Yakuza, fifteen or so, had circled up around someone on the ground. That someone became something real quick when the group of Yakuza opened fire all at once. Within seconds the body, even with all the armor it was wearing, was nothing more than a mass of torn-up meat. A cold way to go. And a waste of bullets, too. One well-placed shot would have done the job. Emotions make you do stupid things, like waste ammo. Whoever it was they’d killed had definitely been FATE, though. I’d recognize that specific state-of-the-art body armor anywhere. I wondered if I knew them.
With the group preoccupied, I saw movement from behind an old storage shed. A person burst from behind it, trying to get away. Her plain brown hair, in a tight French braid, was tucked into her body armor to keep from whipping around. If that had been all I could see, I’d have thought she was just another soldier of FATE, but I knew that run. It was a half-sprinting, half-prancing stride I’d mocked relentlessly. When she turned around to look at her pursuers, I didn’t need to see those green eyes behind a face dusted with tiny freckles to know . . .
“Sam?” I whispered to myself.
She didn’t get far before she was spotted and the group chased after her. My path was clear now, but . . . well, great. I knew better, but did I? Did I? She wasn’t the mission. She wasn’t the priority. But she was my Sam.
They trapped her in a run-down single-story pagoda and circled around her like a pack of wild dogs. Great. How many could I realistically kill before they turned on me? Five? If only I could curl bullets in circles like in the movies—that would be convenient right about now. Come on, FATE, let’s make that happen. I’ll drop it in the comment box next time I’m there.
In unison they opened fire on the pagoda, a couple hundred yards away, spraying it with bullets. My stomach was in my throat. Had they . . . nope. Sam popped up from a window, fired off a burst that took out three of them, and dropped back down. They opened fire again, and like before, the moment they paused she burst back up, only from a new spot this time, killing another two.
I took a deep breath before running out of my hiding place and opening fire.
One down. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.
All dead before they could do anything.
Seven, eight, nine, and ten, though, had time to react and opened fire at me.
They tagged me in my left arm, chest, hip, and leg.
Back at FATE we called that “hitting for cycle”—which any of your baseball-obsessed friends can explain to you if you don’t know what it means. Being shot as a normal person probably sucks, but since I couldn’t feel any pain it wasn’t that big of a deal (as long as no major players were hit—head, heart, man parts, etc.). All that really happened was that the momentum of the bullets, when they hit me, knocked me off balance. Oh, and y
eah, there was blood, but whatever.
The point was, it worked. While they shot at me, Sam popped up and dropped them easily.
Now that everyone was dead, Sam and I were stuck in an old-fashioned standoff.
I kept my gun on her and she did the same. She’d been hit, too, from the looks of it.
“Don’t we make the pair,” she said dryly.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Right as rain. You?”
She kicked through what was left of the pagoda door and stepped out into the open.
“Nothing’s falling out so, yeah, I think so. That’s twice now, by the way, that I’ve saved you.”
“Didn’t do much math back at FATE, but I can count to two,” she said with a smirk. “Doesn’t matter, though. Can’t let you go, not this time.”
“I know.”
“Then why’d you do this?” she asked. She slowly walked toward me.
“I thought there was a puppy in there. I didn’t know it was you. This was totally an accident.”
She laughed.
“Thought your leg was broken. Figured you’d be out of action for a while,” I went on, remembering how mangled it looked after the Polaris crash at the ranch.
“Twisted,” she admitted. “Still works.”
I lowered my gun.
“What are you doing?” she asked as she kept her gun on me.
“What does it look like?” I dropped the gun to the ground.
“Why?”
“I have a plan?” I joked, before adding seriously: “This is the only way I thought I could get some answers.”
“Our order is to kill on sight.” There was a touch of sadness in her voice. Maybe I was just imagining it. But she hesitated, her finger hovering over the trigger.
“No doubt, but that would be a mistake,” I warned. “I told Ryo everything. Like everything. What we are. Where we are. Who we are. He doesn’t hear from me in three days and he goes public. You call home and tell them all of that. If he still says kill on sight, then that’s what you do.”
Her eyes narrowed. With the gun still pointed at me, she took out a small, practically invisible piece of square glass from her front vest pocket. After thumbing some messages into it, staring at it, and sighing, she smiled.
