Trenchard looked out of the window as Kanuka drove, the traffic, while busy
was bearable as they turned into the Ginza ward. The area's stunning
commercial affluence had declined in recent years due to the nation's
economic troubles. But it still retained the status of being the one and
only definition of consumer culture in the world, with shopping centres and
department stores on such size and scale that the likes of New York, Paris
and London could only dream of constructing. There was however no sign of
what had happened only a couple of months before, with the whole ward being
cordoned off to tackle a rouge labour.
"God how are we going to get around this?" Trenchard said as he saw the mass of shoppers.
"Thank god it isn't Golden Week" Kanuka muttered back as she slowed down for traffic lights.
Trenchard nodded and picked up his radio "Silly point this is mid off" he said with a sigh "entering the crease over"
"Received" came the reply from Gallagher "keep in touch over"
"Got it" Trenchard said as he put the radio down.
"Who came up with that?" Kanuka said as she turned right, heading now down past the Matsuzakaya department store.
"Gallagher, must be obsessed with cricket" Trenchard mused as he looked outside "so we're looking for a stocky IC3 male with very short black hair and short glasses?"
"Yeah" nodded Kanuka.
Trenchard nodded as he looked off at the crowd of shoppers, out for their weekend shopping. It was quite disturbing to watch, all of them oblivious to the impossible search for a potential killer (or killers). Defiantly a change of scene from Waseda.
"Ah this is crazy not to mention boring" Trenchard muttered to himself in Japanese.
"First Brit I've seen that speaks Japanese" Kanuka smiled.
"Well I had to learn it if I was going to survive at Waseda for the Patlabor course" Trenchard said as he flipped and folded the map to the right place "is that strange having full blown Ganjin like me speaking Japanese fluently?"
"Well it's like say having a Cowboy with a Jamaican accent" Kanuka replied as she pulled over "just turns head you see"
"Ah" he replied "I see what you mean, it was fun at Waseda after I grasped the language and could read, everyone was really cool, maybe it would've been good training for my post back in Brixton" he mused.
"What did you do there?"
"Well a Community officer at one of the many high crime areas around there" Trenchard said with a sigh "difficult to say the least"
Kanuka's Radio crackled into life "Mid off, this is Silly point received?"
"Received Silly point" Kanuka said with a groan.
"We're here at the Matsuya, keep us posted out"
"Received" Kanuka said.
****
Gallagher looked at the Matsuya Department store, a massive structure sitting slap bang right in the middle of a row of nearly identical fashion stores and even a Boots, Gallagher recognised Boots anywhere, great for Paracetemol and Pro Plus after a piss up the night before. Seemed strange that even the usually dull grey concrete seemed exciting here, maybe it should be the PR achievement of the millennium he thought as he entered into the main hall, looking up it was amazing a nice glass roof with escalators going from floor to floor as well as clear glass lifts.
"Guv!" came a shout.
Gallagher turned to look behind him, it was Williams, seeing it was him he waved him over, taking out his box and placing a roll up into his mouth.
"Ah not here guv" Williams said, pointing to the obvious no-smoking signs.
"Anything new?" Gallagher asked as he put his box away with a sigh.
"Nope, Goto is in the security room right now, want to see the video feed it's amazing?!" Williams commented.
"May as well" Gallagher replied as Williams walked off, motioning for him to follow.
Flashing their warrant cards to yet another contingent of National Security officers he looked out of the one way windows, looking out at the hundreds of people in the store shopping, perfect place to play with semtex. They
walked up endless stairs, looking at incomprehensible signs whose meanings were probably simple to the extreme.
Finally they came to the video watch room, a voyeur's paradise greeted them with over 50 colour LCD flat screens covering a whole wall area. Gallagher felt like he was having an epileptic fit already in this dark, smoke filled
room.
"Hey Harry!" Goto called "we're all set up"
"Excellent, any sign of Aoi?" Gallagher asked as he shuffled over to Goto, who was sitting down by one of the many security monitors.
"Nope not yet, Clancy and Trenchard have the front of Matsuzakaya covered" murmured Goto as he lit another Silk Cut.
"And Ota and Asuma are outside watching this place" Williams said as he looked at the banks of LCD screens "Christ this is like using a Combine Harvester to look for a needle in a haystack!"
"If he comes in here, we'll find him" Goto said as he breathed in deeply, then looked away to puff out the smoke into an unoccupied corner.
"I told you we should've brought a mini-TV!" Asuma muttered in the driving seat. This was one very, very boring morning.
"You should be keeping your wits about you" Ota replied, arms crossed.
"For what!?" Asuma said pointing outside "what exactly is going come out at us, oh my god!" He shouted jokingly at a small construction truck driving past, its size miniscule compared to a labour that now does its job ten times as quickly "JCB attack Ota get down!"
"Oh grow up!" Ota barked "we're meant to be looking for Aoi if he comes near"
"Jeeze" Asuma sighed as he leaned back on his seat "this is gonna be one loooong day!"
"Wait you idiot!" Ota said, picking up his radio "is that him!?"
Asuma looked up, a young man was crossing the road at one of the designated crossing points, walking towards Matsuya, he looked up from his black sports pullover, shaggy, uncut hair, short glasses, IC3. In other words his man.
"Silly point the batsman has stepped up to the crease" Asuma said into his radio.
****
"Got it" Goto said "Harry, he's here, west entrance"
Gallagher looked up at one of the Screens, sure enough his man was there.
"Ask them if they've seen any European men enter the building earlier?" he asked Goto.
Goto asked one of the security operators.
"No sir, no Ganjin like that have been in at all" shrugged the operator.
"Watch him" Goto replied "tell me if he does anything"
"Okay!"
Goto got up and turned to Gallagher "suggestions then?"
"I would go with the original plan and just follow him around, see if anything happens" Gallagher said.
"Heh, what happened to the bring him in routine?" Goto smiled.
"Just wanted to see how Captain Shinobu was when mad" Gallagher grinned "you can be rational and very angry at the same time y'know"
"I see" Goto nodded "in the meantime you want to send your DC Williams down there to keep tabs on him just in case he does do something silly?"
Gallagher shrugged "don't see why not" he said turning to Williams "you know what to do"
"Yes Guv" Williams nodded before taking a radio and walking out onto the shop floor.
****
"I don't see what you're getting at Chief Engineer" the Rover MG representative said "all I was told was that this had to be ready just to walk around and please the crowds at LabourExpo"
"Nuh-uh!" Macca said "I had to refit the fuel tanks the bloody thing is so unbalanced!"
"We already did a combat simulation with it and I for one am not happy with it!" Sakaki added "now you either give us the updated engine equipment Rolls Royce Aviation handed over the other night at Longbridge in the UK or this thing
is not going anywhere!"
"I'm sorry, but the Fairfax Mk.1 is still the property of MG Rover and we demand that you put the old tanks back in time for LabourExpo" the rep said.
Sakaki inside was incensed, this machine was perfect now thanks to the work they had put on it, but pure red tape was threatening to blow it all away.
"Sorry mate no deal" Macca replied "the Fairfax is on standby for immediate use and if I use the old set-up, I'll be looking at a disaster"
"I'm sorry but that's what I have been told" the rep shrugged.
"What's going on!?" Shinobu called down from the above gantry.
Sakaki and Macca both looked up, "MG Rover want to take the Fairfax back because we changed the config round" Sakaki shouted up in Japanese "you think you could make him go away please ma'aam?"
Shinobu smiled and looked at the Rep, who sadly (being British and all, the poor thing) was looking up, expecting the head of Division to comply with the company's request.
"I can't do anything" Shinobu shrugged, this time in Standard English "I impounded it last night" she winked as she turned around and walked back to her office.
"Wha!?" the Rep blinked "she can't do that can she!?"
"What the head of Division says, goes around these parts mate" Macca smiled.
"We can't do anything until the notice has gone through" Sakaki said.
"Then there is Captain Goto's report" Macca added.
"Not to mention the Chief Engineers statement" Sakaki continued.
"The Jockey's statement" Macca added.
"Division's impound receipt has to be sent in the post"
"Might get lost in the post, now you don't want that, would you sir?" Macca asked, looking up.
"No, not at all Engineer" Sakaki shook his head "not at all"
"Okay, okay I get the picture!" the rep said, rubbing the back of his head "you can keep the Fairfax, I'll get Longbridge to back down okay?"
"That and get Rolls Royce to give us the new specs?" Sakaki asked.
"yes, yes of course, good day!" the rep said, turning and walking quickly out of the hanger, looking behind him a couple of times as he did.
"What can I say" Sakaki said as Macca held in his laughter "we're the people to go to if you want things done!"
****
It was quite strange, in a sea of Oriental faces, one Ganjin was following someone might've aroused quite some suspicion, if not curiosity among the native Japanese, however this was Tokyo, looking more like an international city than ever. Here Australians rubbed shoulders with their Canadian Commonwealth counterparts as workers in the City's countless cafes, tea shops and restaurants of innumerable descriptions.
"He's milling around guv" Williams said into his radio. Goto and Gallagher watched from their LCD screen. Aoi wasn't doing anything, simply looking around, eating a Panini he had picked up from one of the many Starbucks that were springing up all over Japan to feed it's craze for Coffee.
"Standby" Gallagher said into his radio.
"What are you doing?" Goto said, still looking at the LCD screen.
"He's got something big in his rucksack" Gallagher said "large paper wrapper along with the covered plastic for the food he is eating, I know what he is up to"
"You arrest him now and not only will we have lost any chance of getting to your IRA men, we might have extinguished any chance of stopping a bomb at the LabourExpo" Goto explained with a smile "speaking of which, they've just arrived"
"Who have?" Gallagher blinked.
"Screen 14, top left"
Gallagher looked up at the screen and sure enough, in the flesh was Arnwell and O'Tool, climbing the elevator to the electronics section, right where Williams was.
"Jesus bloody-" Gallagher exclaimed grabbing his Radio "Wills get out of the way there, something very big is about to play out"
Williams looked at Aoi, who was heading his way out of the Electronics section, then the other way to O'Tool and Arnwell who were heading his way into the electronics section. He couldn't advance or retire, the only way round this was to step sideways.
Williams with cunning (or laughable perverseness that only a man from the county of Essex could possess), slipped quickly into the female lingerie section, which very strangely shared the same floor space as the electronics section. He caught
some very weird stares and glances as he ducked out of view of the three suspects, making it look like he was 'sniffing knickers' or something.
"We got a photo for the album by the way Wills" Gallagher said, trying to the laughter.
"Wow thanks guv" Wills hissed in a sarcastic tone as he moved off of the shop floor, flashing his pass at the National security assistant as he made his way back to the control rooms.
"What do you think they are doing?" Goto asked, staring at monitor 14.
"No idea" Gallagher replied "they didn't see DC Williams, but by the look of that bulge in his bag they might be up to no good"
"Put surveillance on order" Goto said.
Gallagher nodded and lifted up his radio "They're here" he said "keep watch".
****
"What?" Kanuka sighed in annoyance "what happened to the 'silly on' bullcrap!?"
"Out of the window is my guess" Trenchard said sleepily as he leaned his head out of the window in boredom.
"Hey don't you get tired on me now" Kanuka said with a shove "we've got all afternoon yet"
"Sorry" Trenchard nodded, as he sat up "I'm starving I-" he stopped as he blinked.
They were parked just poking out of a narrow alleyway looking onto one of the smaller roads, down the road was the cafe Tenmaru, which in turn faced the Matsukaya Department Store. Trenchard had his eyes fixed on the other side of the street, there was another access alleyway, probably for fire engines and other emergency vehicles etc to get to the other buildings in the area. What Trenchard had his eyes on however was a scuffle between two boys. Teenagers, probably 14 and 16, the 14 year old was pinned against a wall by the older boy who was making threats and throwing occasionally throwing the odd punch into his belly to press his point.
"What the bloody hell are they doing" Trenchard said, looking at Kanuka.
"Where" Kanuka replied, looking "there?"
"Yeah" Trenchard said, pulling his seatbelt off and putting his crisps to one side "there aren't any police round here.."
"Leave it" Kanuka said "it has nothing to do with our job"
"What!?" Trenchard said in surprise, eyes wide "a kid is getting his bloody head kicked in and you expect me to watch!?"
"We have no choice" Kanuka spat back "this is our mission, not that over there!"
"Sod this" Trenchard said, shooting a glare at Kanuka as he opened the door.
"Tim, you dare get out of this-" Kanuka shouted now before watching Trenchard sprint off, running across the busy street, narrowly dodging the traffic, even leaping over a car bonnet as he got to the alleyway.
"You want this knife in your belly eh?" the older kid shouted.
"No no please just get off of me please!" the other boy cried out, in some pain.
"Say you won't tell the pigs about the local house and I will!" the older kid said, giving the younger kid another punch in the gut, the younger kid slid down to the ground, crying as the older boy laughed, stepping away.
"Oi!" shouted Trenchard as he ran into the older boy, kicking the knife out of his hand.
"Hey!" the older boy shouted "mind you're own fucking business Ganjin!"
"You think it's fun taking boys younger than you eh? Eh!?" Trenchard shouted back, shoving the older boy further and further back "common then, come and pick on someone your own size" he glared, eyes narrowing as he cornered him as the older kid backed into a wall "take a shot at me mate! Common! Common!?" he bellowed in Japanese.
"I'll get my dad!" the older kid yelled back, now in fright rather than confidence.
"Oh yeah!?" Trenchard screamed as he grabbed the older kid and shoved him back against the wall "I'll get my dad too, he's harder than me mate" he barked, face one of aggression "friggin heavyweight champion of the world he is!"
"Let me go" the older boy cowered, his true nature showing "I wasn't going to do anything, honest!"
"You bloody well better not have" Trenchard glared, dropping the boy "or you'll get a visit from me again"
"Ok ok!" the older boy said shakily as he got up and ran out of the alleyway, Trenchard looked round to see that he was gone, then turned back to the younger boy who was in tears on the floor.
"Hey mate, you alright?" he said quietly in Japanese again "I'm police, don't worry I'm police" he smiled as he flashed his warrant card and temporary Tokyo Met Police Card.
"I'm okay, I am really" the boy said, perking up "thank you sir"
"Why was he bullying you?" Trenchard asked "mugging you?"
"He's a stupid bully from school, said he'd beat me up if I didn't do his homework for him" the kid sniffed.
"Ah, well you forget about him okay?" Trenchard said, helping him up "wait, what was this about 'the local house'?"
The kid looked up, in his eyes, Trenchard knew he really wanted to tell him what really happened but then he looked down at the ground and said quietly "nothing sir, really, I have no idea what you are talking about".
Trenchard sighed and fumbled in his shirt pocket "well this must be the number to where I'm based, if you 'remember' something mr?"
"Namekeda" the boy said.
"Ah okay Namekeda-kun" Trenchard said, bending his knees to make himself look smaller "what sports do you like to play?"
The boy blinked, then thought for a second "erm..baseball, football and I run allot too!"
"Football as in Soccer or as in poofy American Football?" Trenchard winked.
"Football of course sir!" Namekeda laughed through the tears.
"Well I'll tell you what, if you remember anything at all, I'll get you an English Premiership football team strip?" he said, handing the boy the card "Arsenal sound good? How about Blackburn Rovers?"
The kid looked at the card, then at Trenchard before saying "no, that won't be necessary sir" wiping a tear he said "Mother will be worried about me, I have to go now"
"Sure mate, watch yourself okay?" Trenchard said.
"Yes sir" the kid smiled as he picked up things that he dropped and ran off round the corner of the alleyway and into the street.
Trenchard sighed to himself as he walked out of alleyway and crossed the street carefully and crossed to the car.
Kanuka ran the passenger window down "get in" she said, showing no emotion.
Trenchard got in but no sooner had his legs slipped into the car than Kanuka slammed the gear into reverse, the tires squealed as the Nissan Primera zoomed down the alleyway, out of sight of anyone in the street. Trenchard's head nearly hit the dashboard as Kanuka slammed the breaks on.
"What in the hell did you think you were doing?" Kanuka shouted.
"I was saving that kid from having a knife stuck up into his chin!" Trenchard said.
"Oh yeah, that's nice, a have-a-go-hero right here!" Kanuka said, hand hitting the steering wheel hard.
"Oh leave it!" Trenchard replied, shaking his head.
"What if the police did appear huh? What if they saw you pushing what looks like a seemingly innocent kid around!?" Kanuka pressed, she wasn't going to let this go "I'll tell you what, they would've dragged you down to that station, find your name in the Ganjin register and sent on the next 747 back to merry old England that's what!"
"Oh how would you bloody know eh!?" Trenchard spat back, shouting himself now "I suppose you've been deported too huh!?"
"Oh don't be stupid Tim!" Kanuka seethed.
"Just because you couldn't be arsed to get up and help him wasn't huh!?" Trenchard said, glaring right back into her eyes, standing up to her. His head was suddenly dragged closer to hers as she grabbed the collar of his pullover, the Sergeant just getting to point of coming to blows with the Constable.
"Yeah common take your best shot, go on!" Trenchard hissed "make sure we're brought in front of Captain Goto and DCI Gallagher because you know what? They'll give you just a bigger bollocking as they will to me"
Kanuka's eyes were wide with anger, one of the very rare times where she had even contemplated striking a fellow officer, she loosened up.
"Now let me tell you, I may not have come from any bloody 'ghetto' or policed Harlem or any other of the crap-holes like that but I tried to be a good copper in Brixton, I tried to help those, Black, White, Asian and Oriental who were either in Crime or effected by crime but I failed, you want to know why!?" Trenchard said, his adrenaline still pumping.
Kanuka was silent, shaking a bit from her clenched muscles.
"Because I was white. Nothing to do with Race mind you but really can you trust a white Ganjin can you Sergeant?" Trenchard smiled "especially when he's got the power of arrest if he suspects you have committed a crime?" he then cocked his head as Kanuka remained silent "I think you hate us Brits y'know Kanuka"
Kanuka shoved Trenchard back into the his side of the car.
"Do what you want to do Constable" she said as she slammed the gear stick into 1st "but it's your funeral if it all hits the fan".
Trenchard just dusted himself down and crossed his arms as they drove back up to the alleyway to look once again onto the road.
****
"What happened there?" Gallagher blinked, looking at the radio. Even Goto's eyes were half open as the transmission from the radio stopped.
"Guess Kanuka pressed her authority I guess" Goto shrugged "she's good at that kind of thing"
Gallagher nodded "They sound like a team though".
"How so?" Williams asked.
"They may argue now, but they know how strong each other are" Goto grinned "Kanuka won't be so uncertain and Trenchard won't be so scared of her now"
"Very true, Trenchard was quite intimidated by her" Gallagher said "now to our present problem" he added, turning back to Screen 14.
"The threesome are still talking" Goto mused "We could either let them do their thing, or wait for the IRA men to leave and arrest Aoi"
Gallagher didn't say anything "wait for them to walk outside" he said quietly "if they go their separate ways then arrest then we'll nail Aoi outside, doing it in a heavily crowded shop will cause too much commotion, if we do a grab quickly outside then we'll be able to smoothly get Aoi bundled into a car"
"That seems to be the best way to go" Goto nodded with approval as the threesome started to head down one of the side escalators.
Gallagher nodded back and lifted up his Radio "Officer Asuma are you ready?"
"Yes sir" Asuma reported back "but do you have any idea what was happening on the radio earlier?"
"No comment" Gallagher sighed "be ready for me in about a minute or two"
"Received sir"
Gallagher picked up his coat "would it be okay if DC Williams hung around with you Goto?"
"Not a problem" shrugged Goto as he lit up on his last B&H.
"Good" nodded Gallagher turning to Williams "well you heard us, stay here and help Captain Goto in any way you can okay?"
"Guv" nodded Williams.
Gallagher paced quickly down the steps and back onto the shop floor, taking a side staircase down to the main entrance to the Matsuya, as he predicted, O'Tool, Arnwell and Aoi were walking out, joking almost as they walked out onto the pavement outside.
"Asuma, three suspects, two foreigners, tall IC3 males, one light red hair the other dark brown can you see them over?" he barked into his radio as he paced over to the exit.
"Yes sir just left, heading north to move round the corner" Asuma replied.
"What did he say, what did he say!?" Ota said excitedly.
"Pipe down!" Asuma said, covering the radio.
"Right get the car ready" Gallagher said "we're following them"
"Yes sir" Asuma nodded "they've gotten into a silver Daihatsu Move, heading north along Chuo Dori"
Gallagher ran out of the store and dived into the Primera "drive, go go!" he said "I don't want to lose them!"
Meanwhile in the control room Williams blinked while Goto held his cigarette in his mouth.
"Guv seemed in a hurry" Williams said after a long silence.
"That's his problem" Goto said as he clicked his neck "he insists on going too fast".
| |
"God how are we going to get around this?" Trenchard said as he saw the mass of shoppers.
"Thank god it isn't Golden Week" Kanuka muttered back as she slowed down for traffic lights.
Trenchard nodded and picked up his radio "Silly point this is mid off" he said with a sigh "entering the crease over"
"Received" came the reply from Gallagher "keep in touch over"
"Got it" Trenchard said as he put the radio down.
"Who came up with that?" Kanuka said as she turned right, heading now down past the Matsuzakaya department store.
"Gallagher, must be obsessed with cricket" Trenchard mused as he looked outside "so we're looking for a stocky IC3 male with very short black hair and short glasses?"
"Yeah" nodded Kanuka.
Trenchard nodded as he looked off at the crowd of shoppers, out for their weekend shopping. It was quite disturbing to watch, all of them oblivious to the impossible search for a potential killer (or killers). Defiantly a change of scene from Waseda.
"Ah this is crazy not to mention boring" Trenchard muttered to himself in Japanese.
"First Brit I've seen that speaks Japanese" Kanuka smiled.
"Well I had to learn it if I was going to survive at Waseda for the Patlabor course" Trenchard said as he flipped and folded the map to the right place "is that strange having full blown Ganjin like me speaking Japanese fluently?"
"Well it's like say having a Cowboy with a Jamaican accent" Kanuka replied as she pulled over "just turns head you see"
"Ah" he replied "I see what you mean, it was fun at Waseda after I grasped the language and could read, everyone was really cool, maybe it would've been good training for my post back in Brixton" he mused.
"What did you do there?"
"Well a Community officer at one of the many high crime areas around there" Trenchard said with a sigh "difficult to say the least"
Kanuka's Radio crackled into life "Mid off, this is Silly point received?"
"Received Silly point" Kanuka said with a groan.
"We're here at the Matsuya, keep us posted out"
"Received" Kanuka said.
****
Gallagher looked at the Matsuya Department store, a massive structure sitting slap bang right in the middle of a row of nearly identical fashion stores and even a Boots, Gallagher recognised Boots anywhere, great for Paracetemol and Pro Plus after a piss up the night before. Seemed strange that even the usually dull grey concrete seemed exciting here, maybe it should be the PR achievement of the millennium he thought as he entered into the main hall, looking up it was amazing a nice glass roof with escalators going from floor to floor as well as clear glass lifts.
"Guv!" came a shout.
Gallagher turned to look behind him, it was Williams, seeing it was him he waved him over, taking out his box and placing a roll up into his mouth.
"Ah not here guv" Williams said, pointing to the obvious no-smoking signs.
"Anything new?" Gallagher asked as he put his box away with a sigh.
"Nope, Goto is in the security room right now, want to see the video feed it's amazing?!" Williams commented.
"May as well" Gallagher replied as Williams walked off, motioning for him to follow.
Flashing their warrant cards to yet another contingent of National Security officers he looked out of the one way windows, looking out at the hundreds of people in the store shopping, perfect place to play with semtex. They
walked up endless stairs, looking at incomprehensible signs whose meanings were probably simple to the extreme.
Finally they came to the video watch room, a voyeur's paradise greeted them with over 50 colour LCD flat screens covering a whole wall area. Gallagher felt like he was having an epileptic fit already in this dark, smoke filled
room.
"Hey Harry!" Goto called "we're all set up"
"Excellent, any sign of Aoi?" Gallagher asked as he shuffled over to Goto, who was sitting down by one of the many security monitors.
"Nope not yet, Clancy and Trenchard have the front of Matsuzakaya covered" murmured Goto as he lit another Silk Cut.
"And Ota and Asuma are outside watching this place" Williams said as he looked at the banks of LCD screens "Christ this is like using a Combine Harvester to look for a needle in a haystack!"
"If he comes in here, we'll find him" Goto said as he breathed in deeply, then looked away to puff out the smoke into an unoccupied corner.
"I told you we should've brought a mini-TV!" Asuma muttered in the driving seat. This was one very, very boring morning.
"You should be keeping your wits about you" Ota replied, arms crossed.
"For what!?" Asuma said pointing outside "what exactly is going come out at us, oh my god!" He shouted jokingly at a small construction truck driving past, its size miniscule compared to a labour that now does its job ten times as quickly "JCB attack Ota get down!"
"Oh grow up!" Ota barked "we're meant to be looking for Aoi if he comes near"
"Jeeze" Asuma sighed as he leaned back on his seat "this is gonna be one loooong day!"
"Wait you idiot!" Ota said, picking up his radio "is that him!?"
Asuma looked up, a young man was crossing the road at one of the designated crossing points, walking towards Matsuya, he looked up from his black sports pullover, shaggy, uncut hair, short glasses, IC3. In other words his man.
"Silly point the batsman has stepped up to the crease" Asuma said into his radio.
****
"Got it" Goto said "Harry, he's here, west entrance"
Gallagher looked up at one of the Screens, sure enough his man was there.
"Ask them if they've seen any European men enter the building earlier?" he asked Goto.
Goto asked one of the security operators.
"No sir, no Ganjin like that have been in at all" shrugged the operator.
"Watch him" Goto replied "tell me if he does anything"
"Okay!"
Goto got up and turned to Gallagher "suggestions then?"
"I would go with the original plan and just follow him around, see if anything happens" Gallagher said.
"Heh, what happened to the bring him in routine?" Goto smiled.
"Just wanted to see how Captain Shinobu was when mad" Gallagher grinned "you can be rational and very angry at the same time y'know"
"I see" Goto nodded "in the meantime you want to send your DC Williams down there to keep tabs on him just in case he does do something silly?"
Gallagher shrugged "don't see why not" he said turning to Williams "you know what to do"
"Yes Guv" Williams nodded before taking a radio and walking out onto the shop floor.
****
"I don't see what you're getting at Chief Engineer" the Rover MG representative said "all I was told was that this had to be ready just to walk around and please the crowds at LabourExpo"
"Nuh-uh!" Macca said "I had to refit the fuel tanks the bloody thing is so unbalanced!"
"We already did a combat simulation with it and I for one am not happy with it!" Sakaki added "now you either give us the updated engine equipment Rolls Royce Aviation handed over the other night at Longbridge in the UK or this thing
is not going anywhere!"
"I'm sorry, but the Fairfax Mk.1 is still the property of MG Rover and we demand that you put the old tanks back in time for LabourExpo" the rep said.
Sakaki inside was incensed, this machine was perfect now thanks to the work they had put on it, but pure red tape was threatening to blow it all away.
"Sorry mate no deal" Macca replied "the Fairfax is on standby for immediate use and if I use the old set-up, I'll be looking at a disaster"
"I'm sorry but that's what I have been told" the rep shrugged.
"What's going on!?" Shinobu called down from the above gantry.
Sakaki and Macca both looked up, "MG Rover want to take the Fairfax back because we changed the config round" Sakaki shouted up in Japanese "you think you could make him go away please ma'aam?"
Shinobu smiled and looked at the Rep, who sadly (being British and all, the poor thing) was looking up, expecting the head of Division to comply with the company's request.
"I can't do anything" Shinobu shrugged, this time in Standard English "I impounded it last night" she winked as she turned around and walked back to her office.
"Wha!?" the Rep blinked "she can't do that can she!?"
"What the head of Division says, goes around these parts mate" Macca smiled.
"We can't do anything until the notice has gone through" Sakaki said.
"Then there is Captain Goto's report" Macca added.
"Not to mention the Chief Engineers statement" Sakaki continued.
"The Jockey's statement" Macca added.
"Division's impound receipt has to be sent in the post"
"Might get lost in the post, now you don't want that, would you sir?" Macca asked, looking up.
"No, not at all Engineer" Sakaki shook his head "not at all"
"Okay, okay I get the picture!" the rep said, rubbing the back of his head "you can keep the Fairfax, I'll get Longbridge to back down okay?"
"That and get Rolls Royce to give us the new specs?" Sakaki asked.
"yes, yes of course, good day!" the rep said, turning and walking quickly out of the hanger, looking behind him a couple of times as he did.
"What can I say" Sakaki said as Macca held in his laughter "we're the people to go to if you want things done!"
****
It was quite strange, in a sea of Oriental faces, one Ganjin was following someone might've aroused quite some suspicion, if not curiosity among the native Japanese, however this was Tokyo, looking more like an international city than ever. Here Australians rubbed shoulders with their Canadian Commonwealth counterparts as workers in the City's countless cafes, tea shops and restaurants of innumerable descriptions.
"He's milling around guv" Williams said into his radio. Goto and Gallagher watched from their LCD screen. Aoi wasn't doing anything, simply looking around, eating a Panini he had picked up from one of the many Starbucks that were springing up all over Japan to feed it's craze for Coffee.
"Standby" Gallagher said into his radio.
"What are you doing?" Goto said, still looking at the LCD screen.
"He's got something big in his rucksack" Gallagher said "large paper wrapper along with the covered plastic for the food he is eating, I know what he is up to"
"You arrest him now and not only will we have lost any chance of getting to your IRA men, we might have extinguished any chance of stopping a bomb at the LabourExpo" Goto explained with a smile "speaking of which, they've just arrived"
"Who have?" Gallagher blinked.
"Screen 14, top left"
Gallagher looked up at the screen and sure enough, in the flesh was Arnwell and O'Tool, climbing the elevator to the electronics section, right where Williams was.
"Jesus bloody-" Gallagher exclaimed grabbing his Radio "Wills get out of the way there, something very big is about to play out"
Williams looked at Aoi, who was heading his way out of the Electronics section, then the other way to O'Tool and Arnwell who were heading his way into the electronics section. He couldn't advance or retire, the only way round this was to step sideways.
Williams with cunning (or laughable perverseness that only a man from the county of Essex could possess), slipped quickly into the female lingerie section, which very strangely shared the same floor space as the electronics section. He caught
some very weird stares and glances as he ducked out of view of the three suspects, making it look like he was 'sniffing knickers' or something.
"We got a photo for the album by the way Wills" Gallagher said, trying to the laughter.
"Wow thanks guv" Wills hissed in a sarcastic tone as he moved off of the shop floor, flashing his pass at the National security assistant as he made his way back to the control rooms.
"What do you think they are doing?" Goto asked, staring at monitor 14.
"No idea" Gallagher replied "they didn't see DC Williams, but by the look of that bulge in his bag they might be up to no good"
"Put surveillance on order" Goto said.
Gallagher nodded and lifted up his radio "They're here" he said "keep watch".
****
"What?" Kanuka sighed in annoyance "what happened to the 'silly on' bullcrap!?"
"Out of the window is my guess" Trenchard said sleepily as he leaned his head out of the window in boredom.
"Hey don't you get tired on me now" Kanuka said with a shove "we've got all afternoon yet"
"Sorry" Trenchard nodded, as he sat up "I'm starving I-" he stopped as he blinked.
They were parked just poking out of a narrow alleyway looking onto one of the smaller roads, down the road was the cafe Tenmaru, which in turn faced the Matsukaya Department Store. Trenchard had his eyes fixed on the other side of the street, there was another access alleyway, probably for fire engines and other emergency vehicles etc to get to the other buildings in the area. What Trenchard had his eyes on however was a scuffle between two boys. Teenagers, probably 14 and 16, the 14 year old was pinned against a wall by the older boy who was making threats and throwing occasionally throwing the odd punch into his belly to press his point.
"What the bloody hell are they doing" Trenchard said, looking at Kanuka.
"Where" Kanuka replied, looking "there?"
"Yeah" Trenchard said, pulling his seatbelt off and putting his crisps to one side "there aren't any police round here.."
"Leave it" Kanuka said "it has nothing to do with our job"
"What!?" Trenchard said in surprise, eyes wide "a kid is getting his bloody head kicked in and you expect me to watch!?"
"We have no choice" Kanuka spat back "this is our mission, not that over there!"
"Sod this" Trenchard said, shooting a glare at Kanuka as he opened the door.
"Tim, you dare get out of this-" Kanuka shouted now before watching Trenchard sprint off, running across the busy street, narrowly dodging the traffic, even leaping over a car bonnet as he got to the alleyway.
"You want this knife in your belly eh?" the older kid shouted.
"No no please just get off of me please!" the other boy cried out, in some pain.
"Say you won't tell the pigs about the local house and I will!" the older kid said, giving the younger kid another punch in the gut, the younger kid slid down to the ground, crying as the older boy laughed, stepping away.
"Oi!" shouted Trenchard as he ran into the older boy, kicking the knife out of his hand.
"Hey!" the older boy shouted "mind you're own fucking business Ganjin!"
"You think it's fun taking boys younger than you eh? Eh!?" Trenchard shouted back, shoving the older boy further and further back "common then, come and pick on someone your own size" he glared, eyes narrowing as he cornered him as the older kid backed into a wall "take a shot at me mate! Common! Common!?" he bellowed in Japanese.
"I'll get my dad!" the older kid yelled back, now in fright rather than confidence.
"Oh yeah!?" Trenchard screamed as he grabbed the older kid and shoved him back against the wall "I'll get my dad too, he's harder than me mate" he barked, face one of aggression "friggin heavyweight champion of the world he is!"
"Let me go" the older boy cowered, his true nature showing "I wasn't going to do anything, honest!"
"You bloody well better not have" Trenchard glared, dropping the boy "or you'll get a visit from me again"
"Ok ok!" the older boy said shakily as he got up and ran out of the alleyway, Trenchard looked round to see that he was gone, then turned back to the younger boy who was in tears on the floor.
"Hey mate, you alright?" he said quietly in Japanese again "I'm police, don't worry I'm police" he smiled as he flashed his warrant card and temporary Tokyo Met Police Card.
"I'm okay, I am really" the boy said, perking up "thank you sir"
"Why was he bullying you?" Trenchard asked "mugging you?"
"He's a stupid bully from school, said he'd beat me up if I didn't do his homework for him" the kid sniffed.
"Ah, well you forget about him okay?" Trenchard said, helping him up "wait, what was this about 'the local house'?"
The kid looked up, in his eyes, Trenchard knew he really wanted to tell him what really happened but then he looked down at the ground and said quietly "nothing sir, really, I have no idea what you are talking about".
Trenchard sighed and fumbled in his shirt pocket "well this must be the number to where I'm based, if you 'remember' something mr?"
"Namekeda" the boy said.
"Ah okay Namekeda-kun" Trenchard said, bending his knees to make himself look smaller "what sports do you like to play?"
The boy blinked, then thought for a second "erm..baseball, football and I run allot too!"
"Football as in Soccer or as in poofy American Football?" Trenchard winked.
"Football of course sir!" Namekeda laughed through the tears.
"Well I'll tell you what, if you remember anything at all, I'll get you an English Premiership football team strip?" he said, handing the boy the card "Arsenal sound good? How about Blackburn Rovers?"
The kid looked at the card, then at Trenchard before saying "no, that won't be necessary sir" wiping a tear he said "Mother will be worried about me, I have to go now"
"Sure mate, watch yourself okay?" Trenchard said.
"Yes sir" the kid smiled as he picked up things that he dropped and ran off round the corner of the alleyway and into the street.
Trenchard sighed to himself as he walked out of alleyway and crossed the street carefully and crossed to the car.
Kanuka ran the passenger window down "get in" she said, showing no emotion.
Trenchard got in but no sooner had his legs slipped into the car than Kanuka slammed the gear into reverse, the tires squealed as the Nissan Primera zoomed down the alleyway, out of sight of anyone in the street. Trenchard's head nearly hit the dashboard as Kanuka slammed the breaks on.
"What in the hell did you think you were doing?" Kanuka shouted.
"I was saving that kid from having a knife stuck up into his chin!" Trenchard said.
"Oh yeah, that's nice, a have-a-go-hero right here!" Kanuka said, hand hitting the steering wheel hard.
"Oh leave it!" Trenchard replied, shaking his head.
"What if the police did appear huh? What if they saw you pushing what looks like a seemingly innocent kid around!?" Kanuka pressed, she wasn't going to let this go "I'll tell you what, they would've dragged you down to that station, find your name in the Ganjin register and sent on the next 747 back to merry old England that's what!"
"Oh how would you bloody know eh!?" Trenchard spat back, shouting himself now "I suppose you've been deported too huh!?"
"Oh don't be stupid Tim!" Kanuka seethed.
"Just because you couldn't be arsed to get up and help him wasn't huh!?" Trenchard said, glaring right back into her eyes, standing up to her. His head was suddenly dragged closer to hers as she grabbed the collar of his pullover, the Sergeant just getting to point of coming to blows with the Constable.
"Yeah common take your best shot, go on!" Trenchard hissed "make sure we're brought in front of Captain Goto and DCI Gallagher because you know what? They'll give you just a bigger bollocking as they will to me"
Kanuka's eyes were wide with anger, one of the very rare times where she had even contemplated striking a fellow officer, she loosened up.
"Now let me tell you, I may not have come from any bloody 'ghetto' or policed Harlem or any other of the crap-holes like that but I tried to be a good copper in Brixton, I tried to help those, Black, White, Asian and Oriental who were either in Crime or effected by crime but I failed, you want to know why!?" Trenchard said, his adrenaline still pumping.
Kanuka was silent, shaking a bit from her clenched muscles.
"Because I was white. Nothing to do with Race mind you but really can you trust a white Ganjin can you Sergeant?" Trenchard smiled "especially when he's got the power of arrest if he suspects you have committed a crime?" he then cocked his head as Kanuka remained silent "I think you hate us Brits y'know Kanuka"
Kanuka shoved Trenchard back into the his side of the car.
"Do what you want to do Constable" she said as she slammed the gear stick into 1st "but it's your funeral if it all hits the fan".
Trenchard just dusted himself down and crossed his arms as they drove back up to the alleyway to look once again onto the road.
****
"What happened there?" Gallagher blinked, looking at the radio. Even Goto's eyes were half open as the transmission from the radio stopped.
"Guess Kanuka pressed her authority I guess" Goto shrugged "she's good at that kind of thing"
Gallagher nodded "They sound like a team though".
"How so?" Williams asked.
"They may argue now, but they know how strong each other are" Goto grinned "Kanuka won't be so uncertain and Trenchard won't be so scared of her now"
"Very true, Trenchard was quite intimidated by her" Gallagher said "now to our present problem" he added, turning back to Screen 14.
"The threesome are still talking" Goto mused "We could either let them do their thing, or wait for the IRA men to leave and arrest Aoi"
Gallagher didn't say anything "wait for them to walk outside" he said quietly "if they go their separate ways then arrest then we'll nail Aoi outside, doing it in a heavily crowded shop will cause too much commotion, if we do a grab quickly outside then we'll be able to smoothly get Aoi bundled into a car"
"That seems to be the best way to go" Goto nodded with approval as the threesome started to head down one of the side escalators.
Gallagher nodded back and lifted up his Radio "Officer Asuma are you ready?"
"Yes sir" Asuma reported back "but do you have any idea what was happening on the radio earlier?"
"No comment" Gallagher sighed "be ready for me in about a minute or two"
"Received sir"
Gallagher picked up his coat "would it be okay if DC Williams hung around with you Goto?"
"Not a problem" shrugged Goto as he lit up on his last B&H.
"Good" nodded Gallagher turning to Williams "well you heard us, stay here and help Captain Goto in any way you can okay?"
"Guv" nodded Williams.
Gallagher paced quickly down the steps and back onto the shop floor, taking a side staircase down to the main entrance to the Matsuya, as he predicted, O'Tool, Arnwell and Aoi were walking out, joking almost as they walked out onto the pavement outside.
"Asuma, three suspects, two foreigners, tall IC3 males, one light red hair the other dark brown can you see them over?" he barked into his radio as he paced over to the exit.
"Yes sir just left, heading north to move round the corner" Asuma replied.
"What did he say, what did he say!?" Ota said excitedly.
"Pipe down!" Asuma said, covering the radio.
"Right get the car ready" Gallagher said "we're following them"
"Yes sir" Asuma nodded "they've gotten into a silver Daihatsu Move, heading north along Chuo Dori"
Gallagher ran out of the store and dived into the Primera "drive, go go!" he said "I don't want to lose them!"
Meanwhile in the control room Williams blinked while Goto held his cigarette in his mouth.
"Guv seemed in a hurry" Williams said after a long silence.
"That's his problem" Goto said as he clicked his neck "he insists on going too fast".
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