Agent Matt: Academy of Shadows
Chapter 17: The Death of Matt Hiroku
The green and white ambulance raced down the Avenue Maquis de Gresivaudan in the north of Grenoble, heading toward the river. It was five o'clock in the morning and there was no traffic yet, no need for the siren. Just before the river it turned off into a compound of ugly, modern buildings. This was the second-biggest hospital in the city. The ambulance pulled up outside SERVICE DES URGENCES-the emergency room. Paramedics ran toward it as the back doors flew open. Mrs. Jensen got out of her taxi and watched as the limp, unmoving body of a boy was lowered on a stretcher, transferred to a gurney, and rushed in through the double doors. There was already a saline drip attached to his arm, and an oxygen mask covered his face. It had been snowing up in the mountains, but down here there was only a dull drizzle sweeping across the pavements. A doctor in a white coat was bending over the stretcher. He sighed and shook his head. Mrs. Jensen had seen this. She crossed the road and followed the stretcher in. She was beside the boy, realizing her worst fears; Matt Ishida was unconscious and was losing a lot of blood. A thin man with close-cropped hair wearing a black sweater and vest had also been watching the hospital. He saw Mrs. Jensen without knowing who she was. He had also seen Matt. He took out a cell phone and made a call. Dr. Sorrow would want to know...
Three hours later, the sun had risen over the city. Grenoble is largely modern, and even with its perfect mountain setting, it still struggles to be attractive. On this damp, cloudy day it was clearly failing. Outside the hospital, another car drew up and Eva Stenavich got out. She was wearing a silver -and -white -checked suit with a hat perched on her ginger hair. She carried a leather handbag, and for once she had put on makeup. She wanted to look elegant. She looked like a man in drag. She walked into the hospital and found the main reception desk. A young nurse sat behind a bank of telephones and computer screens. Mrs. Stenavich addressed her in fluent French.
"Excuse me," she said. "I understand that a young boy was brought here this morning. His name is Matt Hiroku."
"One moment, please." The nurse entered the name in her computer. She read the information on the screen and her face became serious. "May I ask who you are?"
"I am the assistant director of the Academy at Ombre Académie. He is one of our students."
"Are you aware of the extent of his injuries, Madame?"
"I was told that he was involved in a snowboard accident." Mrs. Stenavich took out a small handkerchief and dabbed at her eye.
"He tried to snowboard down the mountain at night. He was involved in a collision with a train. His injuries are very serious, Madame. The doctors are operating on him now."
Mrs. Stenavich nodded, swallowing her tears.
"My name is Eva Stenavich," she said. "May I wait for any news?"
"Of course, Madame." Mrs. Stenavich took a seat in the reception area. For the next hour, she watched as people came and went, some walking, some in wheelchairs. There were other people waiting for news of other patients. One of them, she noticed ' was a serious -looking woman with badly cut black hair and very black eyes. She was no doubt from Japan, as she was periodically glancing at a copy of the Tomoeda Times. Then a door opened and a doctor in a white coat came out. Doctors have a certain face when they come to give bad news. This doctor had it now.
"Madame Stenavich?" he asked.
"Yes?"
"You are the director of the school?"
"The assistant director. Yes." The doctor sat next to her.
"I am very sorry, Madame. Matt Hiroku died a few minutes ago." He waited while she absorbed the news. "He had multiple fractures: his arms, his collarbone, his leg. He had also fractured his skull. We operated, but unfortunately there had been massive internal bleeding. He went into shock and we were unable to bring him around." Mrs. Stenavich nodded, struggling for words.
"I must notify his family," she whispered.
"Is he from this country?"
"No. He is Japanese. His father ... George Hiroku ... I'll have to tell him." Mrs. Stenavich got to her feet. "Thank you, Doctor. I'm sure you did everything you could."
Out of the corner of her eye, Mrs. Stenavich noticed that the woman with the black hair had also stood up, letting her newspaper fall to the floor. She had overheard the conversation. She looked shocked. Both women left the hospital at the same time. Neither of them spoke.
The aircraft waiting on the runway was a Lockheed Martin C- 130 Hercules. It had landed just after midday. Now it waited beneath the clouds while three vehicles drove toward it. One was a police car, one a jeep, and one an ambulance. The Saint-Geoirs airport at Grenoble does not see many international flights, but the plane had flown out yesterday morning from Japan. From the other side of the perimeter fence, Mrs. Stenavich watched through a pair of high powered binoculars. A small military escort had been formed. Four men in French uniforms had lifted up a coffin that seemed pathetically small when balanced on their broad shoulders. The coffin was simple: pine wood with silver handles. A Japanese flag was folded into a square in the middle. The red disk lay in the middle of the coffin. Marching in time, they carried the coffin toward the waiting plane. Mrs. Stenavich focused the binoculars and saw the woman from the hospital. She had been traveling in the police car. She stood watching as the coffin was loaded into the plane, then got back into the car and was driven away. By now, Mrs. Stenavich knew who she was. Dr. Sorrow kept extensive files and had quickly identified her as Mrs. Jensen, head of Special Operations for JIN 7 and number two to its chief, Korindo Ooishi. Mrs. Stenavich stayed until the end. The doors of the plane were closed. The jeep and the ambulance left. The plane's propellers began to turn, and it lumbered forward onto the runway. A few minutes later it took off. As it thundered into the air, the clouds opened as if to receive it, and for a moment its silver wings were bathed in brilliant sunlight. Then the clouds rolled back and the plane disappeared. Mrs. Stenavich dialled a number on her cell phone and waited until she was connected.
"The little swine is dead," she said. She got back into her car and drove away.
After Mrs. Jensen left the airport, she returned to the hospital and took the stairs to the second floor. She came to a pair of doors guarded by a policeman, who nodded and let her pass through. On the other side was a corridor leading to a private wing. She walked down to a door, this one also guarded by a policeman. She didn't knock, but went straight in.
"You know, you're very lucky to be alive. You should at least broken something." She said to the figure standing by the window. Matt Ishida was standing by the window, looking out at the view of Grenoble on the other side of the River Isere. High above him, five steel and glass bubbles moved slowly along a cable, ferrying tourists up to the Fort de la Bastille. He turned around as Mrs. Jensen came in. There was a band age around his head, but otherwise he seemed unhurt.
"I thought I was dead," Matt replied.
"Let's hope that Dr. Sorrow believes as much." Despite herself, Mrs. Jensen couldn't keep the worry out of her eyes. "It really was a miracle," she said.
"Madison's ski suit protected me," Matt said. He tried to think back to the whirling, desperate moment when he had been thrown off the train. "There was undergrowth. And the fence sort of caught me." He rubbed his leg and winced. "Even if it was barbed wire." He walked back to the bed and sat down. After they had finished examining him, the French doctors had brought him fresh clothes. Military clothes, he noticed. Combat jacket and trousers. He hoped they weren't trying to tell him something. "I've got three questions," he said. "But let's start with the big one. I called for help two days ago. Where were you?"
"I'm very sorry, Matt," Mrs. Jensen said. "There were ... logistical problems."
"Yes? Well, while you were having your logistical problems, Dr. Sorrow was getting ready to cut me up!"
"We couldn't just storm the academy. That could have gotten you killed. It could have gotten you all… killed. We had to move in slowly try to work out what was going on. How do you think we found you so quickly?"
"That was my second question." Mrs. Jensen shrugged.
"We've had people in the mountains ever since we got your signal. They've been closing in on the academy. They heard the machine-gun fire when the snowmobiles were chasing you and followed you down on skis. They saw what happened with the train and radioed for help."
"All right. So why all the business with the funeral? Why do you want Dr. Sorrow to think I'm dead?"
"That's simple, Matt. From what you've told us, he's keeping fifteen boys prisoner in the academy. These are the boys that he plans to replace." She shook her head. "I have to say, it's the most incredible thing I've ever heard. And I wouldn't have believed it if I'd heard it from anyone else except you."
"You're too kind," Matt muttered.
"If Dr. Sorrow thought you'd survived last night, the first thing he would do is kill every one of those boys. Or perhaps he'd use them as hostages. We had only one hope if we were going to take him by surprise. He had to believe you were dead."
"If we're going to take him by surprise?"
"We're going in tonight. I told you. We've assembled an attack squad here in Grenoble. They were up in the mountains last night. They plan to set off as soon as it's dark. They're armed and they're experienced." Mrs. Jensen hesitated. "There's just one thing they don't have."
"And what's that?" Matt asked, feeling a sudden sense of unease.
"They need someone who knows the building," Mrs. Jensen said. "The library, the secret elevator, the placement of the guards, the passage with the cells . . ."
"Oh, no!" Matt exclaimed. Now he understood the military clothes. "Forget it! I'm not going back up there. I almost got killed trying to get away! Do you think I'm crazy?"
"Matt, you'll be looked after. You'll be completely safe."
"No!" Mrs. Jensen nodded.
"All right. I can understand your feelings. But there's someone I want you to meet." As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. It opened to reveal a young man, also in combat dress.
The man was well built with black hair, square shoulders, and a dark, watchful face. He was in his late twenties. He saw Matt and shook his head. "Well, well, well. There's a surprise," he said. "How's it going, Cub?" Matt recognized him at once. It was the soldier he had known as Dragon. When JIN 7 had sent him for eleven days' SAT training in the Nagano Prefecture, Dragon had been in charge of his unit. If training had been hell, Dragon had only made it worse, picking on Matt from the start and almost getting him thrown out. In the end, though, it had been Dragon who had nearly lost his place with the SAT, and Matt who had saved him.
But Matt still wasn't sure where that left him, and the other man was giving nothing away.
"Dragon!" Matt said.
"I heard you got busted up." Dragon shrugged. "I'm sorry. I forgot the flowers and the fruit basket."
"What are you doing here?" Matt asked.
"They called me in to clear up the mess you left behind."
"So where were you when I was being chased down the mountain?"
"It seems you were doing fine on your own." Mrs. Jensen took over.
"Matt has done a very good job up to now," she said. "But the fact is that there are fifteen young prisoners up at Ombre Académie and our first priority must be to save them. From what Matt has told us, we know there are about thirty guards in and around the school. The only chance those boys have is for an SAT unit to break in. It's happening tonight." She turned to Matt. "The unit will be commanded by Dragon." The SAT never uses rank when it is on active service. Mrs. Jensen was careful only to use Dragon's code name.
"Where does the boy come into this?" Dragon demanded.
"He knows the school He knows the position of the guards and the location of the prison cells. He can lead you to the elevator."
"He can tell us everything we need to know here and now," Dragon interrupted. He turned to Mrs. Jensen. "We don't need a kid," he said. "He's just going to be baggage. We're going in on skis. There'll be blood. I can't waste one of my men holding his hand."
"I don't need to have my hand held," Matt retorted angrily. "She's right. I know more about Ombre Académie than any of you. I've been there-and I got out of there, no thanks to you. Also, I've met some of those boys. One of them is a friend of mine. I promised I'd help him, and I will."
"Not if you get killed."
"I can look after myself!"
"Then it's agreed," Mrs. Jensen said. "Matt will lead you in there, but then will take no further part in the operation. And as for his safety, Dragon, I will hold you personally responsible."
"Personally responsible. Right," Dragon growled.
Matt couldn't resist a smile. He'd held his ground, and he'd be going back in with the SAT. Then he realized what had happened. A few moments ago, he'd been arguing violently against doing just that. He glanced at the head of Special Operations. She'd manipulated him, of course, bringing Dragon into the room. And she knew it Dragon nodded.
"All right, Cub," he said. "Looks like you're in. Let's go and play."
"Sure, Dragon," Matt sighed. "Let's go and play."