“What about your mother?” Hisoka asked.
“She can come too. Change of pace would be good for her. She can sit and smoke in front of a window with a different view.”
Hisoka looked like she wanted to smile, but she held back.
“How do I know this time you mean it?”
“Because I’ve seen what life on the Path does to families. If it doesn’t tear them apart outright, it slowly pulls them apart at the seams. I don’t want that for us.”
“I mean, this is your life, your friends, your … your calling. You sure you can leave it all behind?”
“A few weeks ago I wasn’t sure. Now I am. I don’t want this life anymore. I just want us to be a family, and get away from all this. What do you think?”
“I … of course I’m willing to get out.”
“You’d be able to leave your friends? Your job?”
“There are sick people everywhere, and hospitals always need nurses. I can find a job.”
“What about your connections here?”
“Sure, I’ll miss my friends, my coworkers. But anymore they’re pretty much the same. I don’t have much holding me back here. No family to speak of except for you.”
“Then let’s do it,” Satoshi said.
Hisoka smiled at him and nodded.
“Tell you what,” he continued. “Bring back the ultrasound results, and I’ll bring a list of names. We can figure it out then.”
“Deal!”
Satoshi smiled.
“This will all be over soon. Then we can start over somewhere far away from here.”
Superintendent Endo looked up when he saw Ozaki marching into his office with Mei in tow.
“You. How did your little extralegal raid go?”
“It went fine. And you know full well that we had permission from—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Endo said, waving his hand. “What can I do for you? To get you out of my office, I mean.”
“I want to report one of your officers for potential corruption. Detective Kimura here.”
“What did she do? Assassinate a politician? Engage in sokaiya-style extortion? Launder money—”
“Those are nothing but rumors started by our enemies, and you know that.”
“Do I? What does Detective Kimura here stand accused of doing?”
“I found this on her,” Ozaki said, slamming the syringe of Thyrogen down on Endo’s desk.
Endo reached out and picked it up, turning it over in his hands so he could read the label. When he had finished, his eyes shot up in a stony glare that caught Ozaki.
“Do you mean to tell me, Ozaki, that—”
“Major. It’s Major Ozaki.”
“Do you mean to tell me, Ozaki, that you walked into a police station carrying a controlled substance?”
“Yes, but I took it off of—”
“Did you? And exactly what proof do I have of that?”
“I … if you tested it for fingerprints I’m sure you’d see—”
“Your fingerprints, and mine, I’m sure. If Detective Kimura had ever touched it, I’m sure her prints are gone by now, considering how much it’s been handled. So I will ask you once more: did you walk into a police station carrying a controlled substance?”
“Yes. I suppose I did.”
“And do you have a single reason why I shouldn’t prosecute you fully for being in possession of this controlled substance?”
“Because doing that would be a grave mistake, and you know it,” Ozaki said stiffly.
Endo shook his head incredulously. “There it is, isn’t it? Such a bold admission of abuse of power. Are you people all completely shameless, or just you?”
“What I find shameless,” Ozaki said, leaning over the desk, “is the collusion I see here. Hospitals don’t give that stuff out, it’s carefully controlled. So if she has it, it’s because it’s either been stolen or imported illegally. Just having this hints at possible ties to organized crime.”
“I’ll have to take your word that it was ever on her person, seeing as how I have no proof of it myself. Empirical or otherwise.”
“My word should be all the proof you need.”
“You’re obviously not a cop. We have a higher burden of proof here. One that you have failed miserably.”
“I think—”
“I don’t care what you think. I’m not going to have you arrested. I can’t, as you’ve pointed out. But I don’t have to listen to you slander a good officer either. So how about you just get the fuck out of my office and we’ll call it even?”
Ozaki glared at Endo, then turned to Mei.
“Well, it must be nice to know you’re in good company, considering this whole department is corrupt. I’ll leave you to it, then.” He walked towards the door, turning around when he reached it. “But just know it won’t last. When we come to power—which we inevitably will—dirt like you two will be swept away by the rising tide. So enjoy it while it lasts.”
Endo watched Ozaki as he left. His jaw seemed to be grinding involuntarily. Only when he was gone did Endo’s expression soften somewhat, while still retaining its edge. He glanced at Mei, then picked up the plastic syringe holder.
“For you?”
“For my father.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
He handed it back to her.
“Get it out of the station. And don’t ever bring something incriminating like that back here again.”
“Yes sir.”
“How did he even find that on you? Did you go to feed him information with that in your pocket?”
“No, sir. I’ve been … limiting the information I give him lately. I just happened to come across the end of their ‘raid,’ or whatever it was.”
Endo sighed heavily. He looked exhausted. “How bad was it?”
“They killed them. I don’t know who they were after, but they killed them.”
Endo didn’t look surprised, just defeated.
“Of course they did. Ueda authorized it when I refused. He’s basically just their puppet. Ozaki’s hand up his ass moving his mouth, but it’s Ozaki’s voice that comes out.”
“Why would Ueda allow this? This is completely unethical.”
“But unfortunately legal-ish now. Ueda’s a climber. He sees the influence the Dark Army has within the Genyoto Party, and he’s aligned himself with them. He’s powerful enough to help make it a self-fulfilling prophecy, too.”
“But they fucking killed those men! Whoever they were.”
“Terrorists, supposedly. The evidence didn’t back it up, of course. But I’m sure whatever evidence they ‘find’ there will corroborate their theory. Then they go on TV and look tough when they say they’re keeping the city safe while the police diddle themselves with their ‘due process’ and ‘burden of proof.’ And we all slide down a rung on the greased ladder to fascism.”
“You think that’s what they’re angling for?”
“Japan’s been down this path before. Hell, every country with strife and discord has been down this path. There will always been strongmen promising peace if the people just let them rule them with an iron fist. I’m just afraid that the Japanese people might take that deal.”
Chapter Seventeen
Vasili took another long slug from his bottle of vodka. He eyed it and saw that it was more than half gone. He slammed it down on the table in front of him and looked around. Most of his lieutenants were about halfway through their shochu bottles.
“Alright. Who’s first?”
“I’ll go!” Kozu shouted, red-faced. “Fuck you for making us do this again!”
Vasili nodded. “Noted. Anything else?”
Kozu swayed a little unsteadily in his seat. His bottle was almost finished. Quick drinking for him.
“Yeah. Whazabout the new boss? Whozit gon be?”
“Of all of Kaisha?”
“Yeah.”
Vasili shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“
You?”
“No.”
“How do you know?” Chieko asked. “You’ve got to be in consideration. You and shacho are tight.”
Vasili nodded. “It’s not me. She offered. I declined.”
“What the actual fuck?” Kozu shouted.
Vasili stayed calm. These outbursts were sometimes part of the process, and he didn’t hold it against them. It was all about fostering a culture of trust and open lines of communication. Even if that occasionally involved screaming.
“That how you all feel?”
Nobody said anything, but their faces revealed what they thought. Chieko, Kozu, and Hikaru were pissed (not that that last one was a surprise by this point). Tengu was unconcerned by it. It barely registered with Madoka. But then he had been out of it all night. Vasili made a mental note to check back on that later.
“So, you’re pissed. Why exactly?”
“You know why!” Kozu said.
“I want to hear you say it.”
Kozu sputtered. “Because if you move up, we move up! That’s how this works! You just turned down a promotion for all of us.”
“You could have at least asked us,” Chieko said. She was more disappointed than angry, it seemed.
Vasili shook his head and faced Kozu. “So you want to move up. Good. That’s good. What are you going to do to earn it?”
Kozu said nothing.
“Because if you plan to just ride my coattails …” He shook his head. “No. We all row together. Anyone who doesn’t row will have to swim to shore.”
“At least tell us why,” Chieko said. “If Eriko was going to make you king, why not take the crown?”
“Couple reasons. Mostly because this is where I can be most effective. My territory runs like well-oiled machine. Look at how you live. Do other lieutenants at your level live in same way? Very few do. Hell, you live better than some bosses. Is because of what we’ve built here. Do you know what you’d be trading this for?”
He looked around. Nobody said anything.
“You know what we’d be doing if I were shacho? Shoveling shit. Wiping asses. Cleaning up others’ messes. That is life of shacho. I don’t want that. And I don’t know why you would. You think is prestige in that? Go ahead. Join new shacho. I give you good letter of recommendation. List me as reference.”
Tengu snorted at that. He was almost falling-down drunk. “Fuck it. I’m with you all the way, big man. Whichever way you turn, I got your back.”
Vasili nodded. “I know, Tengu.”
He turned to Chieko. “And you?”
“I’m with you, Rock. Always with you. I just don’t understand you sometimes. Don’t you think you’d be good running the syndicate?”
“Maybe when I was younger. But I’m too old to extend machine throughout the city. This is where I can do most good. Where I have infrastructure in place.”
“What do you mean ‘do the most good’?” Kozu asked. “You gonna open up an orphanage? Alms to the poor, that sort of shit?”
“I run a halfway home for kids,” Vasili said. “And a soup kitchen that uses scraps from my restaurants.”
Kozu looked at him quizzically. Then he turned to Kameko, who stood in the corner of the room. She nodded.
“Di’n know you were such a softy, there, big guy,” Kozu said. “Such a humanina … humatinarian … hummanarian …”
“Humanitarian, dipshit,” Madoka said.
“Sorry, I’m a li’l drunk,” Kozu slurred.
“It’s not just about money,” Vasili said to him. “It’s about power. For me, the power is more important. Because with power, I can help some people, maybe do—”
“Oh, bullshit!” Hikaru had been fuming up to this point. Now he exploded. “You want to protect the weak and innocent, do you? What about Takemi? Huh? You fed my cousin to the wolves without a second thought!”
“True,” Vasili said. “But ask yourself: how many would have died if I had let him go? It would have been war.”
“You could have tried! You could have made an effort to—”
“No, I couldn’t have. You lost someone close to you. Is hard, I know. But being boss means making hard choices. Sacrifices have to be made for greater good.”
“But why did it have to be Takemi?”
“You know why. Look, sometimes is life-and-death decision, and best choice is one where less people die. Sometimes people have to die to keep this machine running. Is not pleasant, but is necessary. I can’t save everyone. I learned that long time ago. But I can make it so less people die. That is the good I can do.”
“Hardly sounds like good, when you put it that way,” Chieko said.
“Maybe ‘good’ is strong word. Maybe ‘better than nothing’ is right phrase.”
“Except that’s not right either,” Madoka said. “I wouldn’t be here doing what I’m doing otherwise.”
“What are you doing here, exactly?” Tengu said. “I get the Toymaker and all. And the drugs and shit. But what’s with all the R&D? What are you cooking up there?”
Madoka looked at Vasili. He nodded.
“I’m trying to reverse-engineer a number of medications. Cancer medications, specifically.”
“So we don’t have to import?” Tengu asked.
“Exactly.”
“But we still have to import the chemicals to make them, right?” Chieko said.
“Yes, but those are easier to get hold of. And if we can make them right here, we can distribute them throughout the city. At a lower cost than the official versions.”
“Cancer rates in the capital are holding steady at about one-quarter of population,” Vasili said. “The market scale for this is enormous.”
“But you’re not doing it just for the money, are you?” Kozu asked.
Vasili shook his head.
“Fucking Robin Hood over here,” Hikaru said. “What about the drugs? I don’t mean medications and shit, I’m talking about the stuff we pump through the clubs and push out on the street? We probably kill as many with that shit as you’d save.”
Vasili shrugged. “Ecstasy, MDMA aren’t addictive, not dangerous. Cocaine, meh, kinda dangerous. Meth, heroin, speed. Yes, addictive. Yes, dangerous. People kill themselves with those. But you will always have that. You can’t stop someone that wants out. They will always find a way. Is better their money is in our pocket than someone else’s. That is only real choice there.”
He looked around at his lieutenants as he let that sink in.
“Just remember, money isn’t only master. So I will ask you all. Don’t answer me now, but I want you to think about this. Think hard. Question is: who do you serve? And I mean, who do you really serve?”
“So, you really believe all of what you said at your drinking match there?”
Vasili looked up to see Kameko’s upside-down silhouette standing in the doorway to the bathroom, one arm resting against the door frame. The room was spinning all around him as he lay with his head hanging off the bed. Whose fucking idea was it to keep having these drinking sessions? He’d have to find that person and have them shot. Just as soon as the room slowed down.
“What’d I say again?”
“About your plans to save the city. Or at least your slice of it.”
“Oh, that. What can I say? The city is dying. What are people going to say about us? That we just looted its body as it drowned?”
“You can’t save this city.”
“No. But I am in position to save some of the people. Is best I can do. So I will try.”
“Noble.”
“Again with sarcasm.”
She walked over to the bed and lay down on top of him.
“I’m not being sarcastic.”
“You’re onboard?”
“Always.”
“That’s what I like about you,” he said as he wagged a hefty finger roughly in her direction.
“Just that?”
“Well, that and I don’t have to worry about you. Among other things.”
“I’m low maintenance. Not no maintenance.”
“No, I mean … we can actually have a relationship. Because you can handle yourself.”
“How drunk are you?”
“Very.”
“What do you mean I can handle myself?”
“I don’t have to worry about you, the way I did with Sachiko … and others.”
“How many others again?”
“Not many, stop worrying about it. I’m trying to say that you are … tough. In a way that not many people are.”
“So you don’t worry about me out there?”
“No … of course I do. And Jun, and everyone else. But you … you’re hard, in a good way.”
The room was still spinning. He hoped what he was saying wasn’t getting him into trouble (or making things worse), but at the moment he was too drunk to tell. She looked nonplussed, but then smirked again as she grabbed his penis.
“Just wish I could say the same.”
“Maybe let’s talk for little bit. I’ll get there.”
She pouted but rolled off next to him. “Oh! Got some good news about the killer.”
Kameko then got him caught up on her findings with Mei.
“That motherfucker,” was Vasili’s reaction when he had heard the news.
“Who?”
“Matsuo. He’s in on it too. And he’s got the balls to squeeze me out in Chiba.”
“Yeah. Curious to see how you want to play that.”
Vasili thought about it for a while as he stared up at the ceiling.
“He has to die,” Vasili finally said.
“Killing him would solve a lot of problems.”
“We need to be careful how we do it. I’m obvious suspect in this.”
Even as he said this, he regretted threatening him at their last meeting. Oh well, he’d just have to work around it.
“I’ve got some ideas,” Kameko said slyly. “Oh, baby, seeing you order the death of another boss is such a turn-on!”
“Are you joking or serious now?”
“Why? Is that weird?” she asked, suddenly serious.
“A little.”
She smiled and shrugged. Then she rolled on top of him until she was straddling him. She began nibbling around his lips, pulling at them with her teeth. Then she began kissing him full on the mouth as she ground her pelvis down into his. She took both sides of his head into her hands.
Tokyo Noir: The Complete First Season Page 61
