Chapter 1
After ninety minutes, the press conference dribbled to a close. As far as Natsume Hyuuga was concerned, the whole thing could have been wrapped up in fifteen minutes, tops. Announce the results of the joint fugitive task force. Outline its future. Answer a few questions.
Done.
But the reporters had an uncanny ability of coming up with another way of asking what they'd just asked and politicians of saying what they'd just said. And the Alice Agency and Tokyo Police Department brass wanted their fair share credits, deservedly so, maybe, but Natsume just wanted to get back to work.
He cleared his way out of the airless meeting room on the ground floor of a fancy Central Town Hotel- the choice of mayor's office - and made his way out to the street, welcoming the blast of chilly Tokyo air.
It was midday. Traffic was bad some of the pedestrian had their umbrellas, but it wasn't really raining. Just misting, not even drizzling. People were craving real spring air – it was the first week in May – but it felt like March again.
Ruka Nogi, a fellow agent, stood next to Natsume and hunched his shoulders against the cold. "My southern blood is protesting."
Natsume glanced at his colleague. They both had their best dark suits, plus their nine-millimeter semiautomatics, their cuffs, their badges – the hard – ware wasn't visible, but Natsume doubted that they can pass for Tokyo businessmen, either. "Air feels good to me."
"It would. I'll bet the snow hasn't melted you came from."
Hokkaido. Natsume hadn't been home since his sister Aoi's wedding in February. "My uncle tells me there's still snow on the ridge. It's melted in the valleys."
"The frozen north." Ruka gave an exaggerated shiver. He had the kind of blond good looks and irresistible effect on the female support staff – and more than one female agent. "Tokyo's plenty cold enough for me. Come on. I need to dose of spring time. Let's check out the tulips in the Central Town Park."
"Tulips? Ruka, what the hell are you talking about?"
"I saw about a million tulips when I was in the Holland a couple weeks ago visiting my folks," He gave Natsume an unabashed grin. "I'm kind of into them right now."
Before Natsume respond, Ruka seized on break traffic and jaywalked across Central Town Hotel. Natsume, who was taller an lankier, followed at a slower pace, still un accustomed to his fellow agent's wide range of interests. He had no idea how or why Ruka Nogi had ended up in the Alice Agency, never mind being assigned to southern Tokyo district. The Nogis were prominent Kyoto family – Ruka had been educated at privet school abroad in Nashville and Washington, D.C., and graduated from Georgetown. He'd done a year in Paris. He'd been everywhere and spoke six or seven language, including Arabic and Farsi. Sooner or later, someone in Tokyo would reel him and put him to work in the intelligence.
After just four months in Tokyo, Ruka noticed everything. After three years, Natsume didn't even notice the noise and grime anymore. He liked the city, but he didn't delude himself. He wasn't staying there. There talk of sitting him at a desk at Alice head – quarters in New York. It would be a major promotion after more than half dozen years in being a field agent.
He and Ruka walked down the steps at Fifth Avenue and the Fifty-Ninth Street and entered the normal busy southeast corner of the town. But on such miserable day, it was quiet; the noontime traffic above them almost distant, as if they'd entered an oasis in the middle of the tall buildings and millions of people.
The grass wash lush and green, the spring leaves thickening on the trees and brush on the steep bank along the Central town park fence and the famous elliptical – shaped pond. There was enough of a drizzle to cause pinpricks across the pond's gray water.
"The tulips are something, aren't they?" Ruka walked up the gently curving path along the edge of the pond. "My sister says they're done for in Kyoto."
"Ruka, Christ. I've got to work to do. I can't be wasting time looking at the flowers."
"What's the matter? We hard-ass agents can't appreciate tulips?"
Natsume made himself take in the thousand of tulips that blossomed in waves on the sloping lawn to the right path, opposite the pond. Crimson, Dark Pink, light Pink, white – they added a cheerful touch of color against the gloom. "Alright. I've appreciated the tulips."
"When do tulips bloom in Hokkaido? July?"
"We're a couple weeks behind Tokyo."
Probably more than a couple weeks this year, according to his uncle. Even for a tried-and-true Northern Japan like Gus Winter, it had been a long winter. More snow than normal, more days with temperatures that fell below zero – and a Valentine's Day wedding in the middle of it. Natsume's younger sister, Aoi, and childhood friend, Youichi Hijiri, had finally married. They'd almost made it to the altar the previous Valentine's Day, but cancelled it at the last moment. It had taken a murder and a dangerous showdown with a madman on infamous Sapporo's Cold Ridge before they came to their senses and finally married.
No one had said, "One down, one more to go," but Natsume had heard the words in his mind. He had no intention of getting married while he was working on the streets. He'd been orphaned as a little boy. He liked not having anyone worrying he'd come home that late. A wife, kids. A dog. He didn't even own a cat.
His uncle was in his fifties now and had never married. He was just twenty when he'd ended up raising his nephew and two nieces after their parents died of exposure on the ridge that loomed over their small town of the same name.
Natsume had left Hokkaido at sixteen and never went back to live.
He never would.
"I caught the dogwoods when I was home in April," Ruka said in his amiable southern accent.
"You don't see so many Cherry Blossoms up here."
"Ruka? Are you going to keep talking about goddamn flowers all afternoon?"
"Cherry Blossoms are flowering tree – "
"I know. Give me a break."
"You should come to Kyoto. My sister – " Ruka flinched suddenly, his body jerking back and up, his knees stiffening as he grab his upper left abdomen and swore. "Fuck. Natsume…shit…"
Natsume drew his Heckler & Koch, but told himself Ruka could just be having a back spam or a heart attack. The guy almost never swore. Something had to be wrong. Maybe a bee sting. Was he allergic?
Ruka staggered back a step, his suitcoat falling open.
Blood.
It seeped between his fingers and spread across his white shirt on his upper left side.
A lot of blood.
"I've been shot," he said sinking.
Natsume caught him around the middle with his left arm, still holding the HK in his right hand, and glanced around for cover, spotted a rock out copping near the pond on the other side of the path.
The shooter – where the hell was he?
Ruka tried to keep his feet moving, but Natsume more or less dragged him toward the rocks, and then realized he hadn't heard any gunfire. Apparently no one else had, either. People were going about their own business. Two elderly women with Prada Limited edition bag, a middle-aged man jogging on the path, a park worker inside a fenced area near the far edge of the tulips.
They were all potential targets.
"Get Down!" Natsume yelled. "Now!"
The park worker dove for the ground without hesitation. The women and the jogger were confused at first, and then did likewise, covering their heads with their hands and going still, not making a sound.
The rocks seemed a million miles away. Natsume had no idea where the shot had come from. Fifth Avenue? Central Town Hotel? The undergrowth along the shore of the pond presented a number of places for a shooter to conceal himself.
A trained sniper could be within hundreds of yards.
A bullet tore into Natsume's upper left arm. He knew instantly what it was. He swore but didn't let go of Ruka, didn't let go of his semiautomatic.
Definitely no gunfire. Even with the street noise, he should have heard a shot.
The asshole was using a silencer.
"Put pressure on your wound," he told Ruka.
"Don't let go. You hear me? I'll get help."
But before Natsume could get his feet, a mounted Tokyo Police officer rode towards them. "What's - " "Sniper." Natsume cut in. "Get your horse before – "
He didn't even need to finish. The Tokyo cop saw Ruka's bloody front, saw his badge on his belt and dismounted, shouting into his radio for Help. Agents down. Sniper at the pond in the Central Town Park.
Natsume knew cavalry would be there in seconds.
The young Tokyo cop stayed calm and crept toward the rocks. "You both hit?"
Natsume nodded. "We're Alice Agents. The shooter's using a silencer."
"All right. Stay cool."
Ruka moaned, his arm falling away from his wound. Natsume took over, applying pressure with his hand, as he'd learned in his first aid training. He could feel his own pain now. His suit jacket was torn and bloody where the bullet had ripped through the fabric. What caliber? Where was that bastard who'd shot him?
Who was next?
The Tokyo cop yelled instruction to bystanders. Sirens. Lots of Sirens on the streets above them. Natsume looked at the thousand of tulips brightening the dull landscape.
What the hell had just happened?
End Of Chapter 1
Love it? Or Hate it?