20. Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Andy
We spend the next few days before the party sleeping off jet lag and fucking. We drag ourselves out of bed around noon two days later, still feeling the time change, but as ready as we’ll ever be to do some surveillance. I don’t want Chi to come with me tonight, but she insists, and to be honest, it will probably be to my benefit. I don’t know Japan, certainly not this area, as well as she does. Plus, I think it’s pretty obvious that no one will tell Chichi Yano what she can and cannot do. At least, no one alive will.
In everything Oxy has run for us, she finally got a tip on this organization, the Kantouku-sha . Lord knows how she was able to do it, but by dropping in on conversations all day and all night in this rich area of Japan, she was able to hear the name whispered amongst some high-powered American government officials in an airport on their way back from a meeting. As we had hoped, it isn’t too far from our humble little safehouse, right on the outskirts of the extremely wealthy area of the city. That other name the hitman said, Kyouka Suigetsu, comes up as well, but all Oxy hears is that “they” have to be careful, with very little context.
So we have to focus on what we do know. We dress ourselves in full black gear and head out to the address Oxy gives us for what is hopefully Kantoku-sha headquarters. We tell only Riku where we’re headed, and we make sure to tell him to be on the lookout for distress texts that we can send with just a click of one emergency button on our phones. I’m certain we won’t need this feature, though, since we are just planning to take a look around tonight.
Even if I didn’t know this was a high-end venue, it’s easy to tell by all the security surrounding the place. We climb over an electric fence I deactivate with a cutoff switch and have to get past a group of armed guards. Through satellites, we’ve already made sure they have a gap in their perimeter just wide enough to miss us.
Since Oxy knew about this mission ahead of time, she cracked into the two cameras that we will be in view of tonight and put in a one-time command to them to play looped surveillance of the past hour over and over again. Even in the unlikely event that someone does realize it’s happening, they’ll probably just think the camera is busted.
Oxy has told us what to expect, but I’m still taken aback by the frivolous extravagance of the building. It’s a beautiful, sleek, dark blue fa?ade reaching into the clouds. There are huge picture windows spaced out symmetrically over the tall, majestic structure, but they are tinted and impossible to see into, especially in the dark.
Luckily, I have a small bag of top-of-the-line devices so that I can at least try to hear some conversations and see into the little nooks and crannies that aren’t fully protected. I’m hoping that someone will crack a window, or there will be people we see leaving who don’t stop their conversation as they cross the threshold between the real world and the haven of rich, unethical assholes that this place seems to be.
Unfortunately for us, tonight it is pretty dead. There aren’t really any people coming and going. We see a couple of well-dressed individuals working at computers with the windows cracked, but they say nothing. I take out a device that gets Oxy onto the shared network, but she says less than ten minutes later that she can tell there’s nothing important on what she’s able to see. I don’t know why I’m so disappointed; I knew this probably wouldn’t work. I just really wanted it to.
Chi can sense my disappointment, and I know she feels it, too. Still, I don’t see her next move coming at all. I look down for a moment to put Oxy’s device in my pocket, and when I turn back, Chi is gone. I look around frantically, certain she couldn’t have gotten into any trouble without me realizing it, knowing that she ran off on her own. My eyes dart from side to side, sweeping the area for her, sweat beading at my temples.
Finally, I spot her hovering by a pillar near the main entrance. I see why now: two men emerge from the doorway, paying little attention to anyone nearby. They open the door wide, and I watch Chi. I’m unable to see her face behind her mask, but I know what she’s about to do anyway and am unable to stop her.
She darts for the slow-closing door as soon as the men are out of earshot and slaps a piece of tape right over the door latch so that the door won’t stay shut when it closes. I don’t remember teaching her that, and I’m almost impressed, but we absolutely can not go into this building right now. We are extremely close to active cams already; I can’t imagine what we’d encounter if we went in there.
She looks up and I know she’s making eye contact with me, even through her mask. I shake my head slowly from side to side, warning her in the most menacing way I can think of, but she ignores me and peeks through the door anyway, while it’s still closing, to see if anyone is there.
She wouldn’t be so stupid as to go through that door without me. No way. But she must know that if I get anywhere near her, I’ll throw her over my shoulder and run as fast as possible to that electric fence. She weighs barely anything, and I’m sure I could jump it with her, even struggling.
I make the plan in my mind, but even as it begins to materialize, she looks up again, and I can tell that she realizes what I want to do somehow. She makes a run for the door, opens it as I charge at her, and makes it through just in time.
We have gone through blueprints, and I’ve shown her where the cameras are in the building, but there are at least a dozen all over the reception area. There are very few places to hide without being seen, and virtually no way to miss being caught on one. And, of course, there are multiple cams trained on the entrance, which means if they happen to see either of us before we duck out of the way, we’re fucked.
But there’s no turning back now. I’m not about to leave without her, and she knows it. I shove my anger aside and dive through the door before it closes.
The lights are dimmed at this time of night, which is helpful, but I’m still worried that we’ll be spotted. I run to the nearest potted tree and duck behind it as fast as possible. As expected, Chi is waiting there for me.
I grab her and shake her, remembering too vividly the last time I was attacked by an enemy with my party of men and had to carry Dr. Miller to safety after the rest died in the blast. Going through the dead men, even quickly, gave me images that will stay with me forever. I can’t ever let anything like that happen again, especially not while I’m protecting Chi.
I pull both our masks up and stare into her as intrusively as possible. “What the fuck were you thinking?” I whisper harshly.
“Shhh,” Chi says, her voice quavering but barely audible. “Everything records with sound, remember? I know you’re angry, but—”
I lower my voice, but I’m still raging. “Angry doesn’t even begin to cover it. You’ve just put both our lives in danger. I should have never brought you with me, you irresponsible little girl.”
Her mouth drops and, even in this dim light, I see her cheeks go red. She shuts her mouth quickly, but she’s already shown the vulnerability she’s trying to hide. “You know, I’m going to be the only reason we get anything tonight. And I’m not just some little girl, Andy. I know what I’m doing. I’m…I’m a black-belt and—and I have my knives with me. I know how to use a sword—”
“Oh good, I was really worried that you might not know how to fight the fucking Trojan army.”
“I know how to shoot a gun, too. I’m just not as good at it, and I don’t have one,” Chi seethes, but then she finally shuts up for a minute while I wonder how we’re going to get the fuck out of here. They must not have seen us, thank God, because if they had, someone would have been shot by now for sure.
Chi is right that we have to stop talking so much. I’m getting carried away. As if in answer to my worries, my phone buzzes in my pocket at that moment. I hastily pull it out.
It’s from Oxy, of course. WTF? Okay, guess it’s a good thing I’m paying attention. Mics disabled, cams in reception on loop. Do not leave that room and tell Chi to finish whatever mental breakdown she’s having outside.
I show Chi the text and I swear I can feel her embarrassment as she says, “Oh.”
A plan starts to materialize in my head of how we can turn around and run back out the door all the way to the fence. I think carrying Chi would actually be faster. She is slower than I am with those short legs, and I don’t think her weight would slow me down until we were over a mile away from here. I could probably make it to the car with her —
“I’m sorry for running off. But I want to go in further, Andy. I want to find something. Please.”
She grabs my hands and rubs them with her thumbs. Even with gloves on, it softens me considerably. I worry sometimes that Chi could have anything she wanted from me if she just asked this way. The fact is, we just can’t do this. We will get caught and killed, for sure.
So I tell that to Chi. “There are people who will kill us if they get even a whiff of our presence. You don’t seem to understand how dangerous this is.”
“I do,” Chi says, pleading her case sweetly. “Andy. Please.”
I shake my head. “This was all a terrible idea. Look — we could have gotten close enough to the guys who left here to listen in on their conversation. We could have followed them a considerable distance before we would have had to hang back, and probably could have tracked the conversation they were having until they got to their car. But instead, you decided to run through the door and nearly expose us.”
Chi deftly dodges the fact that we could be dead right now because of her and replies to the easier of my statements. “I heard their conversation, Andy. That’s why I came over here in the first place. I heard them talking about their fucking mistresses and how they were going to…” Chi grimaces, and it’s clear that she doesn’t want to go into the full details. “Anyway, we’re not going to get anything by hanging around the entrance hoping to hear a few whispered words, Andy. Especially not at night.”
“There are parties coming up, Chi. Parties and other events that some of the people who we know work in this building will attend. You can’t just go running into things like this head-first. You need to play the long game and see what you can find out. Your eagerness is going to get us both killed.” Even as I say the words, I know she won’t understand. Or even if some rational part of her brain understands what I say, the irrational part will take over. When it comes to her father and Daiki, I wonder if she will ever be rational.
“I need to find something.” Her eyes begin to fill with tears, and no matter how terrible of an idea this is, I’m certain I will follow her to whatever death she wants to inflict upon us now. “Please help me, Andy. Let’s just do it. We’ll never find anything just by sitting around waiting. It’s been a week and every day… it hurts so much. I can barely breathe. I need revenge.”
My mind changes tack, and suddenly I start thinking of all the ways we can stay and not get killed instead of all the ways we can leave so we don’t . My brain is already running against me, and my heart left me in the dust as soon as her fingers rubbed over my hand. I have no choice.
“Fine,” I huff through my teeth. “But we’re not leaving this room. One of the guards should be sweeping through here in about ten minutes, but at this time of night, it really could be any minute now. I’m sure they don’t feel the need to stay 100% on schedule.”
Chi sighs in relief. “Oh, thank God. I can work with 10 minutes. I have a plan.”