“Hi, it’s Carl Preston, the warden. I haven’t discovered anything pertaining to the translation of the tablets yet but I wanted to apprise you of something nasty that we have found.”
Hayden put her cup down. “What is it?”
“If you remember rubbings were made of the tablets. Old rubbings made by William Niven himself and his colleagues. Though some were later found and released to the world at large, most ended up here, one way or another, inside these archives.”
“Out of sight out of mind,” Hayden said. “I get it.”
“Yes, well, all the rubbings are missing. And not taken by these Irishmen of yours. Camera footage shows a blackout about a week ago. We believe that is when they went missing.”
“Any suspects?”
“Yes, a prominent member of our security team who suddenly quit a few days ago. He’s missing too.”
Hayden hung her head. “All right. Send me his details. We’ll start an inquiry at this end.” She ended the call and looked around. “Any ideas?”
“Could still be the Pythians,” Karin said with a shrewd look. “First they went simple—tried the rubbings. When they didn’t pan out they took the tablets themselves. Didn’t someone say the rubbings weren’t accurate?”
“The guard was working for the Pythians?” Kinimaka repeated. “Possibly then he was paid off. Relocated.”
“Or buried,” Komodo growled.
“Don’t forget the Peking Man fossil,” Smyth added. “How is that involved in all this?”
Hayden shook her head. “Shit, my brain hurts. Getting blown up has done nothing for my cognitive process. I’m actually thinking Drake’s got it easy right now, over there in Japan. All he has to do is break Mai out of a compound, right?”
Kinimaka nodded gloomily. “Right.”
“So let’s find Mu,” Karin said. “Obviously it’s critical. Let’s find the Lost Kingdom.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Drake paced the carpet as he waited for Dai Hibiki to join them. Alicia, Dahl and Yorgi sat in various states of repose, clearing their minds. Grace nibbled on snacks she’d taken from the mini-bar. They expected this operation to take the form of a swift, clandestine, well-executed strike of the dagger—in and out before the Yakuza knew it, leaving them reeling and none-the-wiser. The team needed to be prepared.
The knock at the hotel door made them all take offensive positions. Drake put his eye to the peep-hole and waved them down. “Only Hibiki.”
The Japanese cop entered the room, a resigned expression vying with the weariness already engraved into his face. Without smile or greetings he walked to the center of the room. “Mai wasn’t taken to the Yakuza compound. She was taken straight to their headquarters in Kobe. That explains why we’ve been seeing all these arrivals and no guests physically arriving on site. This HQ,” he shook his head, “it is virtually impregnable.”
“If we have to we’ll use sheer firepower to break her out,” Drake vowed. “Headquarters or not.”
Hibiki sighed. “I truly wish it were that simple. I’ve been wracking my brains for a suitable plan ever since I heard. Their HQ is huge, ultra-modern, almost a skyscraper. The very first and least of your problems would be locating her. After that, well, how do you infiltrate a heavily guarded, ultra-secure, modern building? There is no parking garage. No windows or roof that you can access without setting off a hundred sensors. No grounds. No pliable security guards or staff. The place is run purely by hardline Yakuza. It is . . . a fortress.”
“Calm down, Dai-Dai.” Alicia rose quickly, a sickened look on her face. “What the hell’s wrong with you? I never took you for a bitchin’ pussy. Got your thong on back to front?”
Drake stared at him. “Bitch has a point.”
“Damn right she does.” Dahl rose too.
Alicia glared at them both. “Hey.”
Hibiki stared from one set of hard eyes to the other. “I’m open to any suggestions, my friends.”
Alicia started counting on her fingers.
Drake screwed his face up. “What are you doing, love? Counting Yakuza?”
“Nah, just counting how many guys there are still alive in this world who can get away with calling me a bitch. I’m at two, maybe three.”
Drake gauged the space around him. “Am I one of them?”
“You’re still standing aren’t you?”
Hibiki caught their attention. “Look. You can’t just blast in and out of there. It has to be done a certain way.”
“Your way?” Alicia asked. “Pussy style?”
“Let me give you an example.” Hibiki frowned. “The way you guys charged that arms bazaar. Remember? Using the Light Brigade method. Though successful, what has that wrought upon you?”
Drake pursed his lips. “You mean this Ramses bloke? He’s a myth. I can’t see there being any kind of real terrorist royalty.”
“Well, believe me when I say that there is, and that the threat is very real. But that’s not our problem. Your brazen attack has caused you complicated issues down the line. You simply can’t defeat all the Yakuza. So what do you do?”
“Do have a plan?” Alicia looked confused.
“Denial is everything.” Hibiki said. “You can’t have an organization like the Yakuza hunting you for the rest of your life, ergo they can’t know for sure that it was you. For starters, your careers would be over. No security force in the world would touch you. So, you can’t kill them all. The cops are infiltrated. The building is impregnable. What do you do?”
“Hang on whilst I pour a bloody rum.” Drake made a show of heading for the mini bar. “ ‘Cause this round of question time is giving me a headache.”
“Okay, okay. There’s this. I think Yorgi, with his bespoke skills, could probably break in. Alone. But he could never get Mai out. And he couldn’t locate her on his own so he’d be forced to take somebody with him. Which wouldn’t work because the Yakuza are already watching all of you. That leaves us with many problems, the first of which is to actually locate Mai. I know only one way to achieve this.”
“Spill.” Dahl looked threatening.
“Send in a girl.”
Everyone blinked. Drake and Dahl looked at Alicia as the Englishwoman looked straight at Yorgi.
“What?”
“Of course, every structure has a weakness, even a seemingly indestructible brick wall. The Yakuza are primarily young males. They admit girls to their compound, and their HQ, every day.”
“But aren’t they . . . Japanese girls?” Dahl asked.
Alicia glanced at Yorgi. “Damn, looks like you’re off the hook.”
Hibiki nodded. “Yes, primarily. Of course, this is a HQ and they admit prisoners too, most of whom leave in body bags without being seen.” He blinked. “Somehow. Now, in Yakuza-run Kobe a foreign woman would stand out like a forest fire. Only a Japanese woman would be able to infiltrate unnoticed.”
Drake saw now where this was all headed. “No way, pal. I mean, shit, how would you explain it to Mai? She’d fucking kill you.”
“Like I said before—if you have any other suggestions. . ?”
“Impossible.” Dahl turned away. “After all she has been through? I won’t allow it.”
Alicia stared at Hibiki with shocked eyes. “Are you mad?”
The cop took a step back. “Well, I expected an objection but not quite so much.”
Drake waved a hand at Grace. “She’s a seventeen-year-old kid and only here because we couldn’t lock her up back in bloody DC. She stays in the room, Hibiki.”
Grace looked slightly affronted. “Hey, I handled myself okay for . . . a lot of years. I think.”
“Ah, now I see. No, I wasn’t referring to Grace. The Japanese woman I propose we send into the Yakuza stronghold is Chika, Mai’s sister.”
For a second Drake froze as he tried to compute. Though not as radical as sending in Grace, Hibiki’s suggestion still drifted as close to the edge as anyone would surely like to sail.
&nb
sp; “Mai’s sister?” Alicia repeated. “Dude, you have a death wish.” It was a statement of fact.
“If we can’t get her out of there soon she’s dead.” Hibiki’s voice was edged with deep stress. “And there’s no other way to find out where they’re keeping her in such a large building. The girls will at least have some free run.”
Alicia eyed him closely. “You do know what you’re asking of your girlfriend then?”
“Fuck.” Hibiki walked to the nearest chair and threw himself in it. “Of course I know. It’s . . . it’s the only way. And even then it’s practically suicide.”
“You’re a cop,” Yorgi said. “Do you not know girl you can use?”
“Not a girl I would trust with Mai’s life,” Hibiki moaned. “The only person I’d truly trust to get in and save Mai is Mai herself.”
“All right, well I have to ask,” Dahl said. “What was Chika’s reaction?”
Hibiki squirmed a little. “I haven’t asked her yet.”
Alicia groaned and turned to Yorgi. “And we’re back to you and those delicate cheekbones. Think you could fit in a size ten?”
The Russian glared, but Hibiki spoke up strongly. “No. No, this will work. I’m sure of it. I have a way, I think, of getting us all in. We would assume all the risk, and the rescue. Chika would only mark her position.”
“Wait, you said it was impregnable,” Dahl pointed out.
“It is,” Hibiki said. “Nobody has ever broken in, nobody has ever broken out. No team could enter that building without being seen. But there’s another way. A cleverer way.”
“What way?” Drake was intrigued, despite everything.
“Well, it was the American White House that gave me the idea . . .”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Chika Kitano was a survivor, a fighter. Though young, she still remembered the day the bad men took her sister, the agony etched in her parents’ faces and eyes, the way they aged ten years overnight. Though far wiser now, she still felt a touch of hatred for them. Growing up hadn’t been easy for her—she had waged a constant war against hunger, poverty and perverted old men. She had resisted education until she finally realized it was her way out—not the only way but the best way.
Finally, settling into her life as well as a hand fits into a glove, reunited with her sister and not knowing nor caring where her parents were, the older Chika Kitano had landed a great job. Then Dmitry Kovalenko struck, the Blood King kidnapping her and forcing Mai to hand over some dusty old relic for her return, which even then was achieved only by Mai’s abilities. Another month, another job, and her résumé was starting to look like a scribble pad. Though Kovalenko’s men had treated her fine she still harbored the fears the episode had given rise to. But fear could be overcome and Chika had not forgotten her roots, nor the trials she overcame there.
Always, a fighter.
Then Dai Hibiki entered her life and, though some part of her craved the security such a man offered, she initially pushed him away, fearing she would lose her own fighter’s instinct by depending on another. But, through tentative months, she came to understand that together the two of them strengthened each other. Their relationship shored up their inner drive and together made them incredibly durable.
Chika thought there might be nothing on earth that could defeat the two of them.
But when Dai Hibiki came through the door the look on his face instantly told her that there was.
Torn again, shredded, she listened to his story; to the consequences of Mai’s old actions, her new activities in murdering Hayami, humiliating Hikaru, the Yakuza and even helping to prevent the Pythians from unleashing the Pandora plague. Though a fighter, Chika found herself almost defeated. Mai? Oh, Mai . . .
Unable to speak, battling her inner fears, doubts and old memories, she knew that there was only one way to get through this. To be as one. Both her and Hibiki. Together.
“SPEAR are in Kobe,” Hibiki was saying. “But the Yakuza have taken Mai to their HQ, not the compound. And the HQ,” he shook his head. “It’s pretty much impregnable.”
Chika felt a bolt of fire. “What are you saying?”
“That this is going to take all of us, working together, and that the risk . . . is high. Higher than high, it’s off the scale.”
“Of course it is.” Chika said. “This is the Yakuza in their own city.”
Hibiki spun on the spot and walked over to a window. Beyond the lawn and the road outside, the city of Tokyo sprawled, a forty minute plane ride from Kobe. Chika walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“What is it? Is this story the only reason you pulled me out of work?”
Chika had recently landed a job with a video games designer, one of the biggest in the world. Working her way up to chief publicist would be tough, but it was her ultimate goal. Somehow, she loved the idea of being the spearhead for a new game, the public image, the influence and drip-feed behind a new release and the person who stoked and watched the hype intensify.
“No,” Hibiki said softly. “You’re going to have to take some time off.”
Chika sat down as Dai explained his plan, that she gain access to the Yakuza headquarters alone by posing as a . . . as a what?
“Are you saying you want me to be a Geisha?”
Hibiki wouldn’t look at her. “Something like that.”
Chika tried to adjust. “Because . . . because it’s the only way in?”
“No. Because it’s Mai and she will be safely locked away somewhere. We can’t make our move until we know where she’s being held.”
“But how would I . . . where would I . . . what—”
Hibiki still didn’t turn around. “The girls stay for the night. There are so many of them, you should be able to wander a little. They change the girls every day. And you have an excuse if you are seen. We believe Mai’s trial is tomorrow, so . . .”
Chika fended off a dagger of ice that threatened to split her heart. “Tonight? You’re telling me I have to go in tonight?”
“Nobody wants this—”
“Oh. Do you think?” Chika shouted at her boyfriend and then felt instantly sickened. Not because of what she was being asked to do but because she hadn’t agreed immediately. This is Mai. My sister. She’s already gone through Hell a dozen times for me.
Hibiki’s head fell. “I’m sorry I’m asking, Chika.”
She turned his face around so that their eyes finally met. “Do you know what you’re asking? I mean, forget about Mai for just one second, but . . . do you know?”
Hibiki tried to turn away but she held on. “Of course,” he hissed. “Of course I fucking know what could happen in there.”
“I have to ask, since you’re a policeman, is it because you don’t want the force involved that you haven’t found someone else?”
“Not only that,” Hibiki said. “Yes, the force all the way from Tokyo to Kobe and way beyond are probably compromised in some way, but even with the best intentions word of our operation could get back to the Yakuza bosses. And it’s also because I don’t trust them with Mai’s life. I don’t trust them to put everything on the line for her. I don’t trust them to push and push and search every square meter.” He licked his lips. “That’s it.”
Chika’s own mouth was dry. She poured them both a glass of fresh mango. “SPEAR don’t have a contact?”
“They have Lauren Fox, but she’s too far away and an American. It’s you or we go in blind, Chika, and we are going in. But you don’t have to do this. Nobody is forcing you.”
Chika set her glass down hard. “Mai is as much my responsibility as I am hers. And we’re more important to each other than even you could imagine. You really think there’s a choice? That I want a choice?”
“I—”
“Just get me on the damn plane. We’ll talk tactics on the way.”
Chika turned away before Hibiki saw the fear in her eyes, the twitch in her grim smile. She turned away before she started to cry. She tur
ned away to let the fighter live once more.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Before darkness fell over Kobe, Chika Kitano made herself ready to join a fresh group of girls being admitted to the Yakuza building. Exiting out of a line of limos they would look like party girls, intoxicated by the night, but nobody was really fooled. The cops turned a blind eye and the girls were gone come the dawn. The Yakuza’s security remained intact because they used their own sources; nothing was left to chance.
Hibiki’s face changed from passive to surprised, to scared and then terrified as Chika changed from city business woman to Geisha girl in a little over thirty minutes. Then, a little more conservatively, the six-inch heels were changed in favor of three, the hemline lengthened, the lipstick applied a bit less gaudily.
Alicia gave the finished girl a critical once over. “Y’know, I’ve done this a million times. The question is—do you want your suitor to be the weaselly little ferret-boy with the nasty glint in his eye or someone with a bit more sophistication? Deck’s loaded either way.”
Dahl reached for an apple. “A million times? Whoa.”
“Not the sex act,” Alicia quickly amended. “I meant getting through security and into the building.”
“Of course.” The Swede kept a straight face. “Sex act, maybe only half a million, right?”
“Fuck you. Hey, I just heard a click. Was that your wife snapping her fingers? Better get running, Torsty.”
Chika felt a freezing sensation in the pit of her stomach that deepened with every passing second. “If we could focus on the building and the blueprints again maybe that would help take my mind off things.”
Alicia smoothed out the plans across a table. “Entrance. Elevator shafts. Recreational area.” She tapped the drawings as she worked. “Twelve potential upper levels. The building does have lower levels but they’re not detailed. My guess is, because that’s where they take the girls and other, um, guests.”
Drake stepped into view at that moment. “And Mai, we hope. It’s unlikely that they’ll be holding her inside the business levels of the building.”
The Lost Kingdom (Matt Drake Book 10) Page 9
