by Carrie Asai
But I felt compelled to help her. I felt compelled to do something for her, anything. As much as I wanted to be around her, I thought maybe this was not the best way. Not with my father in charge. And if I didn’t help her now and Heaven was to marry me, she would hate me for life.
I don’t know if I could deal with that.
Now I’m sitting here wondering what I’m going to tell her. I just spoke with Ojo. Pounded it out of him. He knew everything: what had happened, where the exchange was going to take place, what time. Now all I had to do was tell Heaven. Or not tell her.
Get a grip, man. Why the hell would I tell her? What is wrong with me? Am I going soft? What will happen to me if I do tell her? Surely they’re gonna know it’s me….
And the money. I need that money. But I need Heaven, too. I need her on my side.
I look at the phone. Call her and tell her the truth? Make something up? Stupid. Make something up. What are you thinking, man? Make something up. Wait, no. I’ll tell her the truth. Yeah. It’s better. No one knows she called me. No one will know that I’m the one who told her.
God. No. Tell her something, anything, but not what’s true. They’ll find out you told her! Plus she might like being married to me. Or she might hate it. Hate me. Love me. Hate me. Do I want Heaven to hate me? Make something up. Or not.
I pick up the phone and dial the number she gave me.
Teddy
14
The following morning Hiro and I arranged to meet at another warehouse in downtown L.A. When I walked in to greet him, he was staring out the window blankly. He looked like he hadn’t slept.
“How are you?” I asked.
Hiro shook his head.
“I called Teddy,” I said nervously.
Hiro turned to me, a look of anger on his face. “Didn’t we agree that you would not do that? Karen’s life is at stake!”
“I know that,” I said. “Believe me. But I had to see what Teddy knew. And if I’m judging correctly, he didn’t know anything. Apparently these plans had been made without him. He offered to help. He called me back with the location of the exchange and the time when it will happen.”
Hiro stood with his arms crossed in front of him. He looked seriously shaken. I felt foolish, too—every connection I’d made with Teddy had gone wrong before. Would this one, too?
“Where is it?” he finally said in a low voice.
“The corner of Winston and Los Angeles. A parking garage. Pretty close to here, I think. We can go check it out! And that means the Yukemuras are definitely behind this.”
Hiro put his head in his hands and walked around in a circle. “How do we know he’s not lying?” he said. “He could say anything. Melrose. The Chinese Theater. He could have told us Englewood. Or…or San Francisco!” I could see he was getting a little hysterical. “Should we really go to this…parking garage? What if these people spring out and catch us in a trap? That’s possible, Heaven—maybe Teddy set you up so they can just capture you here and now.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think Teddy told anyone that he was talking to me. It was very hard for him to tell me this information. I really think we could go check it out. It’s a risk we have to take, but I think we should take it. If he’s not lying, think of how I can use the space to my advantage! We could hide a katana there! Or two!”
Hiro paced and didn’t make eye contact with me. “I don’t know,” he said. “You really trust him on this?”
“I can’t say I trust him, but we have to go and check out the place,” I said. “Weren’t you talking about the powers of intuition that come with invisibility? Knowing where your enemy is? Doesn’t that include knowing your enemy’s battleground?”
“I’m more nervous about the fact that if we show up there early to check the place out, somehow they’ll…know…and something will happen to Karen.”
I shook my head again. “But I don’t think Teddy told anyone. Why would they be watching the site if they think we don’t know where it is? And…what if Karen is there? What if that’s where they’re holding her? We can get her back days sooner!”
Hiro scowled. “No,” he said. “Let’s just run through what we’ve got. I don’t want to risk it.”
I picked up my things. I had a feeling about this; I didn’t want to let it go. “I’m going without you, then.” I was tired of Hiro’s way being the right way. I was tired of his endless lectures about things being done in “the samurai way.” I was tired of Hiro not trusting my instincts. What if all this with Teddy was a hundred percent true? Then all of my tactics with him were completely right. Then my decisions would have been good ones.
I had to see what the place looked like. Hiro could rest on his haunches if he wanted—he wasn’t the one who had to take the risk in there and battle who knew how many people once everyone else had left. I had to know what I was up against.
I stormed down the metal staircase outside the warehouse to the street. We were already on Los Angeles. I checked my L.A. street map and realized that Winston was only a few locks up. Pivoting, I strode quickly down the street. My face crumpled into a scowl. I took giant steps and saw Winston looming in the distance.
Shoes pounded on the street behind me. I tensed up and turned. It was Hiro.
“Look,” he said, a little out of breath. “I’d better go with you if you’re insisting on going.”
“Fine,” I said frostily. I could tell Hiro was annoyed.
We walked in silence to the garage. It was a desolate, confusing part of downtown L.A. and would be even scarier at night.
We got to the address. The corner lot was a big parking area with a small garage with a metal door at the far end. The door was up; it was empty inside except for some metal folding chairs. No car was in sight. A few minutes went by with not a single person passing.
We stood watching, sensing.
“What do you think?” I said softly.
Hiro sniffed, as if he was trying to get a sense from the air. “It really looks like this place is dead. I don’t see any cameras or wires or detection devices. If this is the place, it’s just an ordinary, abandoned garage.” He inspected the sidewalk, the chain-link fence enclosing the lot. There was no barbed wire at the top. “If we’re going to check this out, we have to use all of the settings to our advantage. The street, the lot, the garage. Everything.” He turned and checked out the escape routes to the street. “When I drop you off and collect Karen, I could drive around this corner and sit up the street a little; it looks like the view is completely obstructed. Plus it’ll be so dead around here at night, it’ll be easy to tell if they have people guarding the lot. You know, outside. Maybe they think we’re gonna pull something like this.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But you better make sure the area’s secure before you come back for me. We don’t want Karen to get kidnapped again.” It felt strange to say that—like I was admitting that I didn’t matter as much to Hiro as Karen. Did I really believe that? What if it was true? Was I throwing myself to the dogs here?
Hiro frowned. “The important part of this operation is to recover both Karen and you. Not one or the other. I’ll make sure it’s safe, but don’t think I’m not going to come to your aid.”
I sighed. Right. Hiro’s honor would never let him leave me alone…no matter how much he might want to.
We walked through the lot and ran through some scenarios on how we could use its surroundings to our advantage. Hiro strode across it to get a feel of how big it was. We went over where the streetlights were, which shadows I could use to duck in and out of.
Finally we went into the garage itself. It was dimly lit—full of shadows. The only light came from a lightbulb protruding from a wall. The garage was filled with nooks that would make perfect hiding places. I decided I would come back later and hide a katana there. Somewhere that I could find but the thugs couldn’t. I would have to think carefully.
Hiro and I went through a few fighting scenarios in the garage.
Again we discussed the shadows. “This whole wall will be dark,” Hiro said. “By ducking back here, you’ll be able to elude them. Your best bet would be to get one to chase you and rush to attack you but then slide into the shadows and cause the guy to attack another one of his cohorts. They would essentially knock each other out.”
“That’s a good idea,” I agreed. I felt like I’d seen that in so many movies, but all slapsticky kinds of movies where the move would never work in real life. With real attackers—thugs hired to hurt, maim, and fight—was I capable of pulling it off? I wasn’t sure.
“It’s all about quickness,” Hiro said. “And using the shadows to your advantage. Lure them to this corner. This is the corner that will work for you.”
I decided I would hide the Whisper of Death in that corner.
We trained for a little while longer, keeping a formal, polite attitude around each other since both of us were still tense. “Do you think this is enough?” Hiro asked. “I want to go back to the warehouse. We’re putting ourselves at risk.”
True, the garage was a little creepy. But I was wired. Was this where it would go down? I couldn’t quite believe it. What would happen in two days? I felt good, yeah. Honestly, I felt like a badass. But I had a feeling that these guys would be about triple my size. How had Ohiko dealt with this in sparring practice? He wasn’t a big guy, but I saw some of the people he had to fight. Some of them were huge. And Ohiko had always come out the winner. What was his secret?
I agreed to leave with Hiro. We walked back to the warehouse. The air was eerily silent—which was strange, because even though downtown L.A. was anything but residential, it was the business district. Where was all the commerce, the hubbub of people who worked? It was as if the city were dead. It made me shiver and pull up my coat collar further.
I told Hiro at the end of the day that I planned to go back to the location the following day and hide two katanas, one being the Whisper of Death. “We’ll probably be searched during the exchange,” I explained. “Wouldn’t it be good if we planted something?”
Hiro wasn’t sure. “While it would be great if this really were the location, we still can’t say for sure. What if it’s not? What if we’re doing all this work for nothing? Look what we’ve figured out today—I wasn’t envisioning the attack would take place in a garage at all. Learning about all of those hanging hooks and the garage’s strange shape was a gold mine. But who knows if it’s true? Why should we risk losing two katanas if the exchange happens somewhere else?”
I frowned. Hiro still didn’t believe me.
Still, I wanted to hide the katanas. And hide them I did. I woke up early the next morning and took the bus down to the fated location. It was strangely ghostly. A misty cloud surrounded it. I crept into the garage and found a very dark nook that was long enough for both of the swords. Holding my breath, I set them in, then stood back. I’d brought a flashlight; I shone it in to see if they were noticeable. They weren’t. I reached my hand in; were they hard to get out? Nope. Easy.
I scurried out of the garage just in time to avoid a car coming around the bend to see me. I watched from behind the bushes as it passed; I couldn’t see who was inside. Probably no one, I thought. Still, my heart was pounding at a thousand beats a minute.
Hiro and I met at the warehouse again. He was twirling around, doing a few punching moves, when I walked in. I went behind a wall to change into my gi. Hiro was really concentrating. You could tell he was nervous.
“I still don’t know,” he said later as we were taking a break, eating some rice and beans that he’d brought from home. “I just can’t be sure about this location. We have to be able to adapt our plan. Why would Teddy just give you this information?”
It was honestly the same question that had been rolling around in my head. Why would Teddy tell me where the exchange would take place? He surely had some idea of my training and abilities—I would have had him on the ground in front of Life Bytes if it hadn’t been for his knife. Or what if Teddy told them that we knew, and they brought guns? And would Teddy come along to the exchange as well, rounding up as many guys as he could so that we would be completely outnumbered?
But something told me Teddy’s advice was real. And that he didn’t have anything to do with it. But his motives had me puzzled. I knew he wanted to marry me. Couldn’t he have just told us that the exchange would take place at Winston and Los Angeles, then when Hiro and I went to check it out, pounced on us and kidnapped me for good? I took a deep breath. It was actually incredible that Teddy hadn’t been lurking around that old parking garage. He’d made a perfect setup for us, and we’d fallen right into it. The only missing link was that Teddy hadn’t been there to claim his prize.
What was he up to?
Hiro and I went through a few fighting scenarios to adapt our plan. Hiro explained how to locate shadows quickly and direct the attacker toward them. He had me duck and roll and slide into a shadow in the warehouse about seven hundred times. My back began to ache after a while from so much movement.
During the training, it really felt like the old Hiro again. We were a team—working toward a goal. We spent so much time together over the next two days that all of my bitterness toward him melted away. I could see that Hiro really cared for Karen—the way he would look off into space sometimes, his seriousness about the operation, his nervousness whenever his cell phone would ring. I felt that he’d really found someone to love.
But still. I thought of that strange look we’d given each other the day Teddy beat Hiro up. What was that all about? The tension had been thick. Then Karen bounded in, and we flew apart. But we didn’t have any reason to feel guilty—did we?
Suffice it to say, my brain was a swirl of activity, especially on the day of the exchange. We trained all afternoon, then meditated in the evening to prepare. I was back at Hiro’s house again, alone, with Hiro. We sat on the floor and waited nervously for the phone to ring. The clock ticked past nine forty-five.
“Try to clear your mind,” Hiro said.
I realized I was shaking, sitting on my little mat. This whole thing had me nervous. I couldn’t help but imagine four sweaty, humungous guys lunging at me. Could little shadows really be the key to a victory? I read somewhere that sports stars envision their game before they play it to prepare. Marathon runners imagine running the whole race in order to win. I knew that I had to imagine coming out of the exchange alive and victorious—everything going to plan. If doubt crept into my head, I had to beat it out. I had to be positive. I had to be clear. I breathed in loudly. Breathed out.
The phone rang. We both jumped. I let out a little yelp.
Hiro raced to get it. “Hello,” he said quickly.
He got a pen from his telephone stand and held it poised in midair. “Uh-huh,” he said. He stared straight at me. A shiver went through my body. Was he getting the location? Was it completely different from what Teddy had said?
“Uh-huh,” Hiro continued. “Yes. I know where that is.” I noticed he wasn’t writing anything down. Was it such a common place that he didn’t need to take notes? “Okay,” he continued. “Yes. We will be there.” He hung up the phone and stared at me silently. The look on his face was stoic—I couldn’t tell if things were good or bad.
“Well, what?” I said. I couldn’t stand it anymore.
Hiro raised his eyebrows. The pen dropped to the pad. “You won’t believe this,” he said. “But Teddy might have actually told you the truth. We’re meeting in a parking lot on the corner of Winston and Los Angeles. Eleven-fifteen.”
I stared at him, feeling a lot of things. Surprised. Confused. Scared. A little smug that I’d been right. I checked my watch: ten-fifteen. We had an hour. If we’d have just learned this, we wouldn’t have been able to plant the katana, practice the way we did, take into consideration the shadows, the light. “Why did he tell us the truth?” I whispered. Now I was even more nervous than before.
The hour fled quickly. Soon enough Hiro and I we
re driving to the location in Karen’s car, which Hiro had found the keys to. The nervousness between us created a strange fog of tension. I wanted to joke about something to ease it a little but couldn’t think of anything funny. I racked my brain. The only thing that came close was a joke Ohiko told me once, and I didn’t feel like telling it. Nothing to do with Ohiko was funny anymore.
Suddenly I blurted, “So, what’s up with you and Karen?” Way to go, Heaven. Very suave. Because things weren’t already awkward enough.
Hiro perked up. “We’re just getting to know each other right now.”
“Yeah, she said something to me about it,” I said. My heart sank a little further down in my chest. It was strange to talk about it with him. I’d figured if I didn’t discuss it with him, it wouldn’t be real. I mean, of course I knew that they had a relationship or at least the beginnings of one. Hiro’s long face and nervous attitude over the last couple of days was a testament to how crazy for Karen he truly was. But see, he’d never said it outright. Meaning, I could pretend it wasn’t real.
“We have a lot of things in common,” Hiro went on. “I can’t believe her strength. I just hope that she comes out of this okay.”
“She will,” I said. Somehow, even though Hiro was talking about another girl, the respect he had for her made me like him even more than I already did, if that was possible. Hiro went on to talk about a sort of random, mundane-sounding evening with Karen he’d had just a few days ago. How easy it was to talk to her. First I bristled—I didn’t want to hear this—but then I relaxed. In a way, the conversation made me feel less anxious. Some of my awkwardness came from the fact that I really didn’t want to hear about Karen around Hiro. But talking about it wasn’t so bad at all because finally I was actually having a real conversation with Hiro—we’d had such stilted, curt talks lately. And we’d been so irritated with each other ever since I’d called Teddy. I felt relieved; things were slowly returning to normal.
