Tales from the Club Room

Episode 21: Hojo's Final Exam (Season Finale Part two)

Author's note: The song that Lance and Angela sing is "Come What May" From the movie Moulin Rouge. All credit goes to the writers of the song and not me.

"Officer, I need to speak with you. It's about the kidnapping!" Ohno said tugging on a police officer's uniform sleeve. The man turned around, "Didn't we just interview you more than ten minutes ago? Why do we need to talk now?" he said pushing up his glasses, "I believe I might know where my friends are. They are in serious danger, maybe even worse." Ohno said, the officer turned looked at her, "Let me call the precinct and find out where Detective Hojo is at. Maybe you can talk to him, the gods know I can't do squat diddly here!" The officer pushed on his radio. "Hojo-san what's your 20?" he said, there was no reply. "Hojo-san I need your coordinates, hellooo?" The officer shrugged, "I guess his radio is off." He said as Angie walked up behind him, "You're men are probably already dead. If I know Sue, she is going into this full throttle. I suggest calling your precinct and sending some men two blocks from here. There you will find an old building that used to be used as an animation studio before 2004. I wouldn't bother though like I said they are probably mincemeat now." She said. The officer was stunned how did she know this? "Do you two know something that we don't?" he asked, Ohno nodded, "You better get something to drink, it's going to be a long story." The cop ushered them to his car and pulled out a tape recorder. "Tell me what you know!" he said.

The basement of the old anime studio was slick with rain water that had seeped in through the walls. Detective Hojo turned the lights from an old breaker box near the bottom steps. "Okay men, the nut job said there are twenty five rooms here, there are twelve of us myself included. That means can search up to twenty four rooms two at a time. Everyone split up." The men walked down the hallways not knowing what was in store. Officer Hideyuki Ito and his partner Junji Tajima walked to the first room. As soon as they reached the door a TV monitor in the wall turned on. Kuchiki spoke, "Hello Officer Ito, welcome to your test. Three months ago you burst into a motel room and illegally searched it. You thought it was your wife in the room, sleeping with another man. It was being used by a family at the time as their residence until their new house was finished. The children are in therapy because of that incident and you didn't get reprimanded at all. You were so scared to lose your wife that you went to extremes, now I must ask how far you are willing to go, what extremes you will extend yourself to find out what's behind that door. By my watch Mr. Ryan has only less than sixty-five minutes to live. Make your choice quickly." He said as the TV shut off, in the background it sounded like there was screaming coming from behind the door. "I'm going in!" Ito said, his partner held him back, "No way man! God only know what is behind that door. Just walk away and let's search the other room!" he said Ito ran to wall and then raced towards the door kicking it open. As he stepped through the doorway he didn't even notice the shotgun over the doorframe. A loud bang filled the confined space, Ito's head exploded, brain and skull fragments spattered all over his partner. Junji screamed was going to race down the hall, but stopped as the TV turned on again. Seeing Kuchiki's face he turned and ran, he didn't even hear Kuchiki's message. "Hello Officer Tajima, now it is time for your test, which is if you haven't turn and ran away. Just like you did when that girl was getting raped in that alley when you were a rookie, watch out for that razor wire, it can hurt like a bitch!" Kuchiki said laughing manically. Ten feet from the TV was Junji's head, his body was close by. He didn't even notice the sharp wire that had just popped out of the walls. All around him Hojo could hear screams, his partner Detective Ox was by his side. "It's a god damn slaughterhouse!" Ox said, Hojo balled his fists and screamed, "I am right here you son of a bitch! If you really want to play a game then come and get me!" The TV turned on in front of them. "Hello Detective Hojo and hello Detective Tamura or as your friends call you 'Ox', I really was just having some fun with your men. I really wanted to test the men who tried to capture me. In room number twenty four you will find photographs that portray you both in a very unflattering light. On the back are numbers, these are digits to the code that open the safe. However there are only five numbers in the code. Mr. Ryan by my watch should have less than fifty five minutes left. For each digit you get wrong I will subtract a minute from the clock. Hunt quickly gentlemen or this will become your tomb." And that was the end; Hojo pushed open the door the twenty-fourth room. Millions of pictures littered the floor. "Shit! He's as good as dead! Let's get started anyway!" And began rummaging through the photos hoping there was still time.

"Lance? Lance, are you there?" Angela said Lance spoke his voice a bare echo. "Angela if we die in here, I want you to know that I will always love you. I'm sorry I got you into this mess." He said Angela grew serious, "We are not going to die in here! No way in hell, am I going to die in here without seeing you again. Are you hurt?" she asked Lance grunted, "My leg is broken, it hurts like hell, I'm cold too. Angela, there's something I wanted you to hear before we go." Angela shouted, "We are not going to die!" Lance hushed her, "There is this song, I wanted it to be our first dance together when we get married if we live. It was Ann's favorite song. It sounds like this: Never knew I could feel like this, like I'd never seen the sky before." Lance sang his voice bringing Angela to tears, "Want to vanish, inside your kiss. Every day I love you more and more." Angela sobbed, "Stop Lance!" she said through her tears, Lance kept on "Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing, telling me to give you everything. Seasons may change, winter to spring. But I'll love you till the end of time." Angela knew the song, together they began to sing, "Come what may, come what may. I will love you until my dying day." They sang, and then Lance grew silent. "Lance? Come on babe, talk to me let me know you're still alive! Lance? Lance!" she shouted, Lance had passed out, and was ready to go into shock. Angela sat there and wept, silently praying that they'd escape alive.

"Of all the damn things they have me do; they make me babysit the queen of the pantsuit lagoon!" Clarice said watching Secretary of State Clinton take the stage. Just as she was about to address the crowd, Foster's cell phone began to ring. Her caller ID said Jack Glen, flipping her phone up she began to speak. "What Jack, I'm kinda busy!" Glen spoke, "Sock has struck again, he's got Ryan and his fiancé in a basement in some building on Oku Street and according to our sources, the place is set to explode in forty five minutes. We can't get a hold of Hojo or his men, and frankly I don't want the Japanese or Ryan's family to go ape shit. I am removing you from guard duty as of now. I suggest getting your ass in the nearest taxi and meeting the task force ASAP!" Glen said, Clarice sighed, "Can I just say I told ya so! If you had kept me on this case we wouldn't have this problem. You owe me Jack, big time!" she said and hung up. Grabbing her things she hailed the nearest taxi and flashed her FBI credentials, which was a signal for the driver to get his ass in gear! "I know the quickest way there, you'll be there in ten minutes!" the driver said, Clarice hoped so. The last thing she wanted was another gigantic cluster fuck on her record.

Sue watched as Hojo and Ox entered in code after code. Each time she deducted five minutes, they were now down to twenty five. "This is gonna be good!" she said and then looked at the clock, and growled. "Who the hell is messing with that thing?" she said as the clock ticked backwards towards an hour. She reached into her pocked for the timer remote, it wasn't there. "Damn! Damn it! How could… I hid the thing where no one could find it!" She said flustered bursting out of the door she raced down the hall. Looking out the window she could see a mob of police and TV cameras. "Shit! How? How did those bastards find me?" She raced back to her chamber and watched the detectives; the clock had gone up to two hours again. "I am not going to let them win!" she shouted and grabbed a rifle that was next to her desk. She hoped the roof had a good vantage point.

Ohno watched as the cordoned off the area, "Oh god, of all days why today!" Angie just stood there silently; Ohno didn't even notice the remote she had in her hands. "Game over Sue, You lose!" she whispered and slid the remote back in her pocket.

To be continued. . .