Chapter 7

It was well after lunch before Haruka found a town with a place to eat in it. He was far into the mountains of Japan on a small two lane road. The air here was cooler than it had been down on the mainland. He had been enjoying the views, even stopping a couple of times at overlooks to gaze down into valleys and towns. In a way it was too bad it wasn't fall when he could enjoy the colors of the leaves but it was still beautiful. He felt like he was more relaxed than he had been in years. The sky shone blue, there was a gentle warmth in the rays of the sun and no one, no one was around to ask questions, announce an emergency or need to be told what to do. He smiled as he climbed out of the car, his biggest decision in the next hour would be what to order for lunch.

Haruka was still smiling as he emerged from the restaurant. Lunch had been delicious and light in calories. He needed to be careful not to gain too much weight on vacation, driving a car wasn't that vigorous of an activity. Maybe there were hiking trails nearby and a hotel? It might be nice to stay in the area for awhile. He started to put his keys in the car door and then jerked. What the? A bee sting through his shirt? He looked down at his arm and saw a small smudge of blood. Suddenly he staggered slightly loosing his balance. He felt hands close on his arms.

The small man smiled and walked out of the shadows between two buildings across the street from the where Ishikawa stood. Once again it was handy to be so small and unnoticeable. And it was handy to have a tracers small enough to put into a plastic 1x1 box with sticky glue on the back and small darts loaded with sedative that were too small to be seen sticking out of the skin. Sometimes being small was also very, very profitable. Mission accomplished, it was time to collect his money and move on to the next case.

"Ishikawa my friend, what is wrong. Are you ill? Come let us take you to our room." Haruka tried to shrug off the hands, to say that he had no friends in this town but he seemed unable to do more than make weak ineffectual movements. And as he was moved towards a waiting car his vision began to darken. No, he had to stop this, he couldn't be taken, he had to – the rest of the thought was submerged in blackness as the sedative took over his body.

Haruka awoke to find himself strapped to a heavy wooden chair. He tried to jerk with his body and move the chair but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't move it. It was some time before anyone came into the room. Long enough for him to make an accurate guess as to how big the room was, notice that there was one window in the rooms and to see from the long shadows growing outside that it was probably early evening. He had the sinking feeling that he was going to find that this unmonitored vacation was not the best idea he'd ever had. He gave himself a shake, fine. He'd just have to escape, find his car and pretend all this had never happened, he'd defeated worse odds. But he found himself wishing Iwase was by his side.

Finally a group of men entered the room, lead by a brown-haired man in a blue suit. "Well Haruka, I'm glad you came. How nice of you to come visit us for a while." The men behind him all chuckled as if he had made an especially witty joke. Haruka bristled at the use of his first name but didn't say anything. Since they hadn't killed him outright he knew what they were after; information. The less he said in casual conversation the less likely he would say something, anything that might be of use to the terrorists. The man ignored his silence and moved forward to pat his shoulder. "And only 3 days into your vacation! Why, the garrison will be without you for another 4 entire days." A cruel smile appeared on his lips. "More than long enough for us to use information you know to break into the garrison and set things up for our little plan."

"I'm supposed to check in every morning via the cell phone." Haruka spat out in an effort to make the man think his plan wouldn't work. "They'll know something's wrong. Security will tighten and - "

"Oh I don't think so." The brown-haired man cut Haruka off. "They'll just think its part of your effort to truly have a 'traceless' holiday. You never wanted that contact anyway." Haruka started, how did they know that? Where had they gotten that information?"

Further musings were cut off as a cart was wheeled into the room with two syringes full of liquid on it. "Oh, I'm sorry," the man said " here I've been talking without introducing myself. I'm Crusader." Haruka had to work to keep his jaw from dropping. Crusader was a self-appointed avenger of the 'common people's rights'. Where the 'common people' were the yakuza that roamed the back streets and slums of Japan. SST had already tangled with him several times, it was well known that he had no concern for life, killing anyone that got in his way. It was said that he was the one that had paid for the Chameleon bomb to be developed, the one that had almost killed Iwase (vol 1, chapter 1).

Haruka's attention was pulled back to what was currently happening as Crusader approached him with a syringe in his hand. "So tell me, where would you like your injection? The left arm or the right?" The man grinned down at him, "I've heard it does tend to make the arm sore, especially when handled by one who is less than expert at it."

Haruka was silent.

"No preference? Than I guess I'll pick for you." As they began rolling up his shirt sleeve on his left arm. Haruka closed his eyes. "Motohisa" he thought silently. "I'm sorry. Please take care of my brothers."

The needle had just started to pierce his flesh when there was a commotion at the doorway of the room.

"Boss! Boss! Stop! Iscariot says he's been made allergic to sodium pentathol. You use it and he'll die!"

The needle was removed from his arm and there was a small click as it was set back down on the tray. Haruka opened his eyes to see Crusader suddenly stride quickly to the man that had just entered and send him crashing into the doorway with a fist to his face. "What have I said about never using personal names?"

The man held in his vise-like grip slid his eyes over towards Ishikawa. "It's not like he's every going to be able to use the information." he muttered. That earned him another hit, this one in the stomach.