Wolf and Cub
By DJ Clawson
Chapter 8 – Stage PlayOnce they were on the road, Zenigata felt himself mentally collapse. There was no moon out and the road looked to be leading them into nothing but a giant blackness. He took another sip of coffee and kept going.
"No rest for the wicked," Jigen said, slumped into the seat next to him with his feet up on the dashboard. Goemon was silent in the backseat. "I hate to break it you, Zenigata, but I don't think anyone's going to be awake when we get there."
"That's fine," he mumbled. He just didn't want to blow another night, while Lupin was still very much in danger and the other Lupin was still very much on the loose.
It was very late then they pulled in to the tiny coastal village. In the daylight the place was probably beautiful, but it was hard to appreciate. The smell of saltwater was everywhere as they got out of the car. Only a little convenience store was open, its fluorescent lights flooding into the street.
Zenigata flashed his batch at the counter, and held up a file photo of Lupin the Second. "Inspector Zenigata with Interpol. I'm looking for this man. Have you seen him?"
The owner, a pudgy old French man, put on his glasses and got up closer. "Who is he?"
"Arséne Lupin the Second. But he may be here under an alias, like LeBlanc. And he's older than when this photograph was taken."
The man hesitated before answering. "I think there's a guy like that, but he goes in and out. Has a place on the water, just past town. I can't tell you if he's there or not."
"Thanks," Zenigata said, trying to contain his excitement.
They got back in the car and followed the same road, which was long and winding. To their left was the ocean, and various docks and homes. Finally they hit the 'Now Leaving Deauville' sign and the place thinned out. In the seat next to him, Jigen was loading his gun.
"This is police business," Zenigata said. "I don't want you killing anyone."
"Relax, Pops," Jigen said, cocking his gun. "There's a difference between scaring a guy and shooting him."
There was at last a house on the left, small and secluded among the trees. Zenigata turned the headlights off as he pulled the car up to the porch. Goemon went around the back, leaping up onto the roof to get there. Before Zenigata could announce his presence, Jigen shot the lock off the door and it swung open.
"Uh – Interpol!" he stammered. "Open up!" He charged in, but the living room was empty. "G-ddamnit, he'd better be here!" The house was very well furnished with antiques. There was a door closed in the hallway, which he was able to open by nudging. "Hands up!"
It was the master bedroom, but no one was inside. The bed was unnamed and there was a tumbler and a bottle of whiskey on the dresser. There was also a framed photograph. Zenigata picked it up and wiped off the dirt and dust. It was a black-and-white of Lupin the Second, obviously in his twenties, holding a toddler that could only be Lupin the Third.
Jigen tapped on his shoulder and pointed to the right. There was a door to a private bathroom. "Lupin!" Zenigata shouted for good measure, and kicked the door in. It nearly swung off its hinge with the force of the blow, revealing one of those old-timey bathtubs with animal feet, and a toiler with a pull chain. He stepped inside. It appeared empty, but as he got closer to the bathtub, he felt a weight on his shoulders as someone leapt on his back from above. A hairy man in a black suit had emerged from his hiding spot above the door. A pain shot down his shoulder and back, forcing him onto the rotting tile floor.
"Zenigata!" It was Jigen's voice, but it seemed distant. "Make another move and you're toast," he said, obviously to Lupin. Out of the very corner of his eye, Zenigata could vaguely see Jigen pointing a gun at the elder Lupin's head, but for some reason, he couldn't turn his head very far sideways. There was the unmistakable sound of the safety clicking off in the Smith and Wesson. "Now get up."
The weight came off him, but it was like he was still held down. He struggled to flip over, bracing his back against the bathtub as he watched Lupin the Second get to his feet, holding a dagger to his back.
"J-Jigen," Zenigata said. "He has a knife."
But Lupin was already on the move, with the family's legendary speed. Jigen barely ducked out of the way in time, back into the bedroom, nearly tripping over the bed. As Lupin advanced, his neck met Zantetsuken's sharp edge. "Come closer," Goemon said, "and my sword will cut a very unworthy object."
"Lupin," Zenigata said, but his voice was weaker than it should have been. "You're under arrest!" He tossed the handcuffs, and one of them snapped onto Lupin's wrist, and the other to the doorknob. Jigen had meanwhile recovered, and as Lupin the Second turned away to undo his cuffs, the gunman knocked him on the back of the head with the butt of his gun. The mighty thief collapsed, one arm held up by the handcuff. His dagger fell to the floor.
"Inspector," Goemon said, stepping over the fallen thief, "you're bleeding."
He hadn't been aware of it, but now he noticed blood welling up through his trench coat, which meant it had already soaked through three layers. "Hey, I think I am."
Goemon removed his sash and wound it around Zenigata's shoulder. It hurt much more than he had noticed before. It felt like his back was burning away.
"What are we gonna do about him?" Jigen said, kicking Lupin's body. He picked up the dagger, which had a gold-plated hilt. The blade was perfectly polished and shined in the light.
"Radio for some local help," Zenigata said, pulling out his radio in the hopes that one of them would do it. He was getting tired now, and it really seemed like a bother. "Though – I think you might not want to give your name, Jigen."
"'sokay. I'm pretty good at impersonating you. Not like Lupin, though. It's like a hobby of his." But the gunman picked up the radio. "This is Inspector Zenigata of Interpol, requesting assistance."
Zenigata tuned the rest of it out. He was getting annoyed by the attention Goemon was giving him. "I'll be all right."
"After you see a doctor."
"I just want to get him in custody," Zenigata said. "Then I'll feel better."
When news got back to Paris that the famous Lupin the Second had been caught, they immediately sent up a prisoner transport van. Lupin was still unconscious when they loaded him in. Zenigata had by this point lost most of his strength, so he let the officers do it. The local doctor was woken up and brought over to the house, where he diagnosed a stab wound to the shoulder that was largely superficial but had taken a lot of blood from Zenigata. He was stitched up and he demanded to ride in van with Jigen, now the driver.
"You were damn lucky," Jigen said, as they start out to the capitol. Light was beginning to appear in the early morning sky now.
"Yes," Goemon said, holding the dagger in his hands. "This is the legendary Zantetsu dagger."
"Lupin the Second knows the secret smithing formula? Really?" Jigen said with disbelief. "I bet Lupin would kill for it. Not literally, but you know what I mean."
"He stole the scrolls from my master and memorized the formula before they were recovered," Goemon said. "This was years ago, of course."
"No kidding," Jigen said, puffing on his cigarette. "So Lupin – our Lupin – never got it out of his father, and he never got it out of you."
"Lupin keeps things from me, and I keep things from him as well," Goemon said simply. "Lupin's father I cannot speak for."
"Well, of course I wasn't going to give it to the little brat. What do you think, that I'm stupid?"
They all turned their heads – Zenigata, very painfully – to see that in the back, Lupin the Second had apparently woken. His face was largely hidden behind an overgrown beard that still had traces of black in it, but it was obvious enough that he was sneering.
"The first thing he does when I get out of jail is try to kill to me," he said. "He tosses a television at my head, then stabs my hand with a knife."
"Somehow I don't think you were completely innocent in this," Jigen said.
"Well, it's hard to make introductions when you're wearing a pinstripes," Lupin snapped. "He killed the men I was with, too. I bet you didn't know that – I bet you didn't know my son is as bloodthirsty a killer as his dear old dad."
"There is a great difference," Goemon said, "between killing in self defense and in anger and spite."
"You keep telling yourself that, ronin," Lupin said. "I know him better than you do."
A heavy silence pervaded over the car.
Jigen, at last, broke it. "And I thought my family was messed up."
Zenigata agreed with Jigen's sentiment, but he was too tired to express it. Still, if Lupin the Second was awake in the backseat, there was no way in hell he was going to let himself nod off now. If he hadn't been injured, his impulse to deck him would probably have been greater. And, he kept reminding himself, Lupin was a sick old man, in more ways then one.
"So – Keibu, you've caught the great Lupin the Second," Lupin said. "And thanks to me, you've caught Lupin the Third. For a couple thousand euros I'll let you know where dad is buried." He seemed like he had more to say, but it was interrupted by a hacking cough.
"I only know where Lupin is because you screwed up," he said coldly. "You sick son of a bitch."
"You talk to the commissioner with that mouth?"
"I'll do whatever I damn want, asswipe." He leaned over to reach Lupin, but Goemon held him down.
"Let it go. He's not worth it," Jigen said, putting one hand on Zenigata.
"Do as the wanted criminal says," Lupin said. "At least Musashi-Keibu knew his friends from his enemies."
"I somehow doubt you have any understanding of the word 'friends,'" Goemon said simply.
"And you call yourself friends," Lupin said. "More like assistants. A Lupin doesn't need any help – at least I didn't, and dad didn't. So what does that make Arséne?"
"Your son," Zenigata said.
"Don't remind me." He doubled over with another coughing fit. Miserable hacking sounds filled the van, then laughter.
"Jesus," Jigen said. "This guy is one twisted fu – "
Zenigata never heard the end of that sentence. He heard only the explosion that rocked the van, propelling them as far forward as they could go with their seatbelts. The vehicle spun wildly and crashed into a tree in the French wilderness just off the road.
He didn't realize he'd been out until Jigen was shaking him. This caused him a great amount of discomfort with his shoulder, but he held it in. "You there, old man?"
Zenigata turned over. They were sitting on the ground now, because the van had been torn in two by the force of the blast. Lupin the Second towered over them. "Pathetic. Don't you know a Lupin always has done last trick up his sleeve?" He pulled out another dagger, and used it to cut off his handcuffs.
"Lupin!" Zenigata shouted. "You're under arrest!"
"Not until the final act," Lupin said, tossing a smoke bomb. By the time it had cleared, he was gone.
"You know, for an old man, he can really move," Jigen said, as he helped Zenigata up. "What's the final act supposed to be? I knew the Lupin family was full of drama queens, but this ridiculous."
Zenigata knew the answer already. "He has to finish what he started. He has to kill his son."