by Matt Lincoln
“Great,” I grumbled flatly. The pain in my head was getting to be unbearable now that the adrenaline of the fight was wearing off.
“Are you okay?” Junior asked once he had Saito securely handcuffed and pressed against the wall. “You’re bleeding through your bandages.”
“Yeah, scumbag must have reopened my injury,” I hissed, shooting Saito a dark look. “Whatever. I’ll get checked out as soon as we’re done here. Let’s get this trash off the plane.”
We dragged Saito down the stairs between the two of us. To my surprise, he didn’t struggle or try to fight back at all. Rather, he held his head high and seemed resigned to his fate.
“Thank goodness you’re both okay,” Gardner rambled after we’d handed Saito over to Takaba. “Everything happened so fast. One second we were all in the car, and then suddenly, Charlie was on the plane, and I could hear gunshots, and Junior was fighting with that muscle-head guard.”
“Fiona, calm down,” Junior cut her off as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Everything’s fine. We got him. Charlie just reopened his wound, and it really wasn’t much of a fight, anyway. He was pretty dazed after Charlie threw him down the stairs.”
“Yeah, that was intense,” Gardner agreed as she turned to look at me. “Like when you hear about moms lifting cars off their babies. That guy was like twice your size, Charlie. You threw him like he was nothing!”
I couldn’t really remember how big the guard had been or how I’d maneuvered around him. All I could remember was the intense rage I’d felt when I thought that Saito might get away after everything he’d done. I hadn’t told Gardner or Junior, but I’d caught a glimpse of what was inside the fourth floor as I was leaving the brothel after my mission. The image of so many women huddled together, dirty and malnourished, fear in their eyes as the officers tried to help them, would be burned into my mind for the rest of my life. I’d remembered their eyes as I watched Saito climbing the steps up to that plane. The next moment, I’d been sprinting out of the car and up to the plane without any regard for the danger.
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t about to let this scumbag get away,” I responded as I nodded at Saito. A police car pulled up then, and Hajime stepped out of the driver’s seat.
“I’ll take him from here,” she insisted as she instructed Takaba to load Saito into the back of her car. She slammed the door shut behind him, then walked over to where we were standing. “I’m not about to take any chances. The NCB investigation is still open, and we haven’t conclusively determined exactly how many police officers are working within this organization. Now that their leader has been captured, they’ll likely begin to panic and scramble. Regardless, I’ll be transporting him personally to ensure that none of his men are able to intercept his arrest. I’d like to thank all of you for your cooperation in this joint investigation.” She moved forward to shake each of our hands.
“So, what happens now?” I asked. Part of me really wanted to interrogate Saito as soon as possible, but another, more exhausted part of me just wanted to lay down.
“He’ll be transported to a secure facility and kept in solitary confinement,” Hajime replied. “We can’t risk any of his undercover men communicating with him. An NCB officer will guard him around the clock. If you’d like, we can push the interrogation off until tomorrow. I would understand if the three of you wanted to take some time to rest after the events of tonight.”
We must have looked particularly awful if Hajime was offering to let us delay the interrogation.
“That’s a good idea,” Gardner agreed. “You two both need to see a doctor. You won’t be able to interrogate him well if you’re half-dead, right?” Gardner looked nervous as she spoke as if she was worried we wouldn’t agree with her.
“I’m fine with that,” Junior conceded. “My side is bleeding again too. I’m pretty sure I popped my stitches again. It really would be a good idea to go get fixed up before we do anything else.”
“Okay,” I agreed. My headache was starting to subside, but I felt I probably should go get checked out, anyway.
“Understood,” Hajime nodded. “In that case, I’ll have one of my officers transport you to the nearest hospital. It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done.”
We thanked Hajime, and she led us over to one of the police cars that had arrived alongside hers. As I slid into the stiff plastic seat, I finally allowed myself to relax. We’d really done it. We’d captured the man who had kidnapped so many women and who had tried to stop us from investigating by bombing our office the moment it seemed like we were onto him. I leaned my head back against the hard seat. It wasn’t at all comfortable, but for the first time since our office had been attacked, I finally felt at ease.
36
Charlie
“I wish I’d gotten to spend a little more time exploring, but I guess I can’t complain,” Gardner sighed as she set her shopping bags down on the seat next to her. The train was fairly empty at this time of day, so there was plenty of room for all of us, plus the multiple bags of purchases. “It was a work trip, after all. I’m lucky I got to spend any amount of time looking around at all.”
It was two in the afternoon the day after we’d apprehended Saito. Hajime had called early that morning to let us know that we could come to do the interrogation whenever we were ready. At first, I’d wanted to leave right away, but I had changed my mind after hearing Gardner lament that she hadn’t gotten to see any of Japan. We’d be flying home tonight after everything was wrapped up with the final interrogation, and I decided a few more hours wouldn’t hurt.
We’d headed to Harajuku, which was the place Fiona had been most interested in seeing. She’d lamented how unfair it was that I’d gotten to go the day I went to pick out Amber’s present. She’d dragged us to several shops, but I didn’t really mind. Now that we had neutralized the greatest threat to our safety, I no longer felt paranoid about being outside. I even recommended that they try the conveyor belt restaurant I’d eaten at a few days prior, but in the end, we hadn’t had time.
“I wish you’d gotten to ride the bullet train to Kyoto with us,” Junior replied. “It was even faster than the one we rode to get to Shinjuku from the airport.”
“Didn’t you get shot after riding that train?” Gardner teased.
“Yes, I did,” Junior smiled. “But I’m choosing to focus on the positive aspects of that train ride. It was still really nice getting to see so much of the country in such a short span of time.”
“That does sound pretty cool,” Gardner replied wistfully. “Well, maybe I’ll ask to be included in the next mission too. As a field agent, I mean.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Gardner answered shyly, wringing her hands. “I know I didn’t really do that much this time, but I really liked being close to the action. Even when things got scary, there was something exciting about it. Is that weird?”
“We established a while ago that everyone working for MBLIS Las Vegas is weird,” Junior pointed out. “But what do you mean you didn’t do much? The only reason we figured out that Saito even had a plane was that you noticed some tiny comment that Ueda made. If we’d realized just a few minutes later, the plane would have been gone by the time we made it.”
Gardner smiled at Junior’s praise.
“Yeah, you’re right,” she agreed. “I did play a pretty major part in catching him, didn’t I? That settles it, then. I’m definitely going to talk to Wallace about letting me go out into the field more often.”
“That’s the spirit,” I smiled. “I think you did a pretty good job, considering your lack of experience. I think you’d make a decent field agent.”
Gardner beamed at my words, and she clutched the shopping bag she was holding tighter against her chest. We made it to our stop a few minutes later, and I could feel the atmosphere around our little group become cold and serious as soon as we stepped off the subway train. We made the five-minute walk to the police station, and I
began to buzz with energy as I thought about getting the chance to speak with Saito.
Hajime was waiting for us in the lobby of the police station.
“Agents, right on time,” she greeted. “Saito, or should I say, Fukoda, is already in the interrogation room. He had to be restrained and cuffed to the table after he became belligerent as an officer was attempting to transport him into the room.”
“Belligerent?” I asked as she led us down the hall to an elevator. “That’s surprising. He seemed so calm and controlled when we arrested him yesterday. What changed?”
“It seems he wasn’t expecting the extreme measures I put in place,” Hajime smirked. “According to my officers, he was calm and collected for the first few hours he was here. However, as time went on, and it became clear that no one was coming to break him out, he began to get more irate.”
I chuckled at the mental image.
“He’s clearly not as powerful as he’d like us to believe,” I scoffed, “now that he doesn’t have his men rushing around trying to eliminate anyone who crosses him.”
“Well, it’s likely that there are still members of the group we haven’t caught,” Hajime asserted. “The men we apprehended at the brothel were merely the leaders of the operation. We know that Daichi wasn’t the only police officer working with them, so there’s still the matter of finding the other officers. Rest assured that we will. I will see to it personally.”
The elevator doors opened as we reached the third floor.
“Saito is being held just down the hall,” Hajime told us as we stepped out of the elevator. She led us down to a room at the end of a short corridor. Inside this room was a large glass window and a door that led into a smaller, darker room. Through the glass, I could see Saito sitting behind a gray metal table. His hair was mussed, and his face was splotchy and bruised.
“He’s looking rough,” I remarked.
“As I said before,” Hajime smirked, “he didn’t want to come willingly. In any case, he hasn’t said much of anything so far. I have noticed that he seems to get upset anytime someone uses his real name, so keep that information in mind. So, are you ready, Agent Hills?”
“I’m ready,” I answered confidently. I’d been looking forward to this moment from the minute our office had been attacked.
“We’ll be right out here,” Junior assured me as he and Gardner took a seat on two of the chairs that had been placed facing the two-way mirror.
I looked back at Saito. I knew now that he felt weak without his men to back him up and that he didn’t like being referred to by his real name. He most likely enjoyed the prestige that the fake name had given him. Now that his source of power and mysterious persona had been stripped away, he was feeling vulnerable. I could take advantage of that.
I pushed open the door and stepped into the room. Saito’s head snapped up as I walked in, and the look he shot me was dripping with venom.
“Good afternoon, Fukoda,” I greeted as I pulled the chair out from under the table and took a seat. Hajime’s suspicion that he didn’t like to be called by his real name was confirmed when he clenched his fists as I spoke. “Sorry that I’m getting here so late in the day. We would have come sooner, but Agent Gardner wanted to go shopping first. You remember Agent Gardner, don’t you?”
I was deliberately trying to upset him. First, by making it sound like interrogating him wasn’t even a priority, and second by bringing up the name of the person who’d led us to him in the first place. Saito’s mouth morphed into a hateful snarl, but he didn’t answer.
“You know,” I started, “if you hadn’t tried to kill her by sending that bomb to our office, we might have never found you. We didn’t have much to go on as it was, and our boss didn’t even want to take the case. It was your little stunt that pushed us all over the edge, and it was a component from the bomb you sent that Agent Gardner was able to trace straight back to Shinjuku. You did this, Fukoda. You led us right to you.”
“Shut up!” Saito growled as he tried to lunge toward me. The restraints keeping his wrists bound to the table stopped him, and he ended up slamming into the table.
“What would your men think if they saw you now?” I taunted. “Unkempt, flopping around like a fish, throwing a tantrum like a child. I have to say, I really expected more from the leader of such a powerful organization. It’s disappointing that all we get at the end is you.”
“Go to hell,” Saito grumbled. “You don’t have any idea who you’re dealing with.”
“Oh, I think I do, actually,” I disagreed. “Izumi Fukoda. Forty-seven-year-old businessman. You own a chain of hotels and casinos, which will probably be seized in order to pay reparations to the dozens of women you kidnapped and tortured. You have no family, and your only friends are the people you pay to work for you. I know exactly who you are, Fukoda. You’re a pathetic, washed-up piece of scum who’s going to die alone in a jail cell without even your ill-gotten money to keep you company.”
Saito was silent for a long moment before bursting into forced laughter.
“You honestly think I’ll be sent to prison, Agent?” He spat. “You may have captured my board of directors and me, but I still have men all over the country. All over the world! I won’t be here for long. That fool Daichi wasn’t the only police officer I have working for me in Japan.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing you won’t be in Japan for much longer,” I smiled calmly. I felt a thrill of satisfaction as I watched Saito’s face fall.
“What are you talking about?” he asked nervously.
“You’re going to be extradited to the United States, Fukoda,” I informed him. “Just a few days from now, in fact. And considering the severity of your crimes, it’s very likely you’ll be placed in a high-security prison. Any men you do still have scampering around in the US won’t be able to get anywhere near you.”
“What are you talking about?” Saito blanched. “I’ve never been to the United States! I know how the law works. I was always very careful not to get my own hands dirty, agent. Surely you must understand the laws of your own country!”
“You’d be right if this was just about the kidnappings,” I replied. “The laws of extradition are very strict, and normally this would all fall under the jurisdiction of the Japanese government. Unfortunately for you, there’s also the issue of the bomb. You attacked a federal agency with an explosive device. The Department of Homeland Security takes potential terrorist threats very seriously, Fukoda.”
His face went white as he realized what I was saying.
“No, you can’t,” he started before abruptly cutting himself off. “It doesn’t matter. My men will find a way to get me out. You have no idea how many of us there are out there. Don’t underestimate me.” His words sounded threatening, but his voice was growing weaker and shakier as he spoke. It was clear he wasn’t confident in what he was saying.
“You’re right, Fukoda,” I nodded calmly. “I don’t know how many of you are still left. But you’re the one who shouldn’t underestimate me. We’ll find every last one of your men. After all, we found you, didn’t we?”
Saito opened his mouth as if to answer but clamped it back shut before saying anything. He gritted his teeth and glared at me.
“There’s just one last thing I’d like to ask you, Fukoda,” I stated. “How were you getting the animals to Galanis? We know that you were using that fancy private plane of yours to transport the women. Is that how you were moving the animals too?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Saito spat. “Who’s Galanis?”
I was surprised by his reaction. He seemed genuinely confused. It was possible he was lying, but there wouldn’t be much point now that we had so much else on him.
“The man who was trafficking animals through Greece,” I replied slowly. “All the crates the animals were found in were marked with the same symbol that the women had tattooed on the back of their necks. We found the same tattoo on Laura and half of the women we r
escued from the brothel. Wasn’t your group the ones who put the tattoos there?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Saito grumbled, but unlike before, he didn’t sound like he was telling the truth. He sounded scared.
“The flower symbol,” I insisted as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I pulled up the image before showing it to him. “It was tattooed on most of the victims, and it was on all the ads advertising your brothel.”
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore,” Saito responded stiffly. His face was white, and I could tell that every muscle in his body was tensed.
“Fine,” I answered. “We got your confession. You’ll be transported to the United States in a few days.” I got up and left the room unceremoniously.
“Excellent work, Agent Hills,” Hajime praised as I shut the door behind me. “You got him to admit to everything, including the fact that he has police officers actively working within Japan. That will give the NCB a lot of room to work, so thank you.”
“That was pretty cool, Charlie,” Gardner beamed. “I’ve never seen you that emotive before. Usually, you’re so serious and indifferent, but you really got under his skin.”
“Thanks,” I answered vaguely. Something about the way that interrogation had ended left me feeling unsatisfied.
“We still have a few hours until our flight,” Junior said. “How about we go get some drinks to celebrate before we head home?”
“Yes!” Gardner exclaimed. “That sounds great. Officer Hajime, you should come too.”
“I think I have some time,” she agreed with a smile.
I still felt a little uncomfortable with the outcome of the interrogation, but I didn’t want to rain on their parade.
“Alright, let’s go,” I agreed.
“I know just the place,” Hajime smiled.
Hajime led us out of the station and down to the subway station. The restaurant she’d chosen was actually in Kabukicho. It was a tiny place sandwiched between a bar and another restaurant. The inside was so small that there were only five seats inside.
