"I don't understand," Misaki was saying. "How did they take her? Some sort of transport ability?"
Hei pushed past her into the room. There was nothing to indicate forced entry or contractor activity, no sign that anyone else had been here at all. Then he saw that the window was open - it had definitely been closed when he'd made his last sweep, right before coming back upstairs. He stalked over to the window and looked down, gripping the frame. The courtyard below was empty. They were only on the second floor; it wouldn't be too difficult to climb up, or down. Although anyone would have trouble climbing down carrying a struggling person.
Unbidden, an image of Jiao-tu lying on the lawn of the park with his knife buried in her chest flashed through his mind. Where had they taken her? Why hadn't he heard anything? How could he have been so careless? You said you'd always protect me, Brother, Bai's voice whispered. Where were you?
"Hei!"
Hei turned from the window with a start. Misaki's hand was on his bandaged arm; his burns throbbed with pain, but he was only dimly aware of it.
"We'll find her," Misaki said confidently. "If they took her out the window, they can't have gone far. We can split up, take different directions."
Hei exhaled slowly, fighting his rising panic. Misaki's touch was like an anchor, steadying him. Focus on the job at hand. Emotions are unnecessary distractions.
"Okay," he said. "Right. We - Yin!" Her specter was floating in a half-empty water glass on the floor by the futon; Hei hadn't even noticed the glass before.
There was a phone in the kitchen. Hei broke away from Misaki, who was squinting at the glass as if that would help her see the specter, and ran to the kitchen. The phone was attached to the wall shared with the bedroom, its cord hanging free. He plugged it into the jack, and as soon as he heard a dial tone he punched in the number for the tobacco shop. Yin picked up on the first ring.
"Do you have her?" Hei asked. Yin's specter here in the safe house could only mean that she'd been keeping tabs on him again. She might have seen what happened to Jiao-tu. Misaki came out of the bedroom to listen.
"Yes," the doll answered. "Walking into Suekazuinari shrine."
Hei paused, surprised. "Walking? On her own?"
"Yes."
That would explain why they hadn't heard anyone take her, but… "Why would she leave?"
He only realized that he'd spoken aloud when Yin answered, "She read a message on her phone. Then she left."
"A message…damn it, we told her not to contact anyone!"
"Wait," Misaki interrupted, "no one took her? She left on her own?"
"That's what it sounds like," Hei said. "A message sent her to Suekazuinari shrine."
"Suekazuinari shrine…" Misaki pulled out her phone and started typing. "That's close by. Why would she take off without telling us though?"
Hei shook his head; he had no idea. Jiao-tu was angry with him for lying, yes, but she wasn't the type to hold a grudge. He'd expected her to want to talk when she woke up, not run; certainly not run straight to people whom she knew didn't care whether she was alive or dead. Had her roommate lured her out?
"She doesn't trust you."
Hei looked at the phone in surprise. "Yin? What do you mean?"
"She was listening to you talk to Misaki last night and cried before she fell asleep. She waited until you came back inside to leave."
Hei felt the blood drain from his face. He'd completely forgotten about her propensity for eavesdropping; no conversation was private with Jiao-tu in the vicinity. How much had she heard? He tried to remember everything that he'd told Misaki, but the exact words didn't matter; none of it was anything that he'd wanted Jiao-tu to know. His fault. Careless.
"Hei?" Misaki asked, coming up and taking his arm again. "What is it?"
"She heard us talking last night."
Misaki's eyes widened. "Oh. Damn."
Focus on the job at hand. "Yin, were you able to see the message she got at all?"
"No."
"Did she respond to it?" Misaki asked.
He repeated the question to Yin, who answered, "Yes. Then she heard you come back, and she left."
Hei rubbed at his face with his free hand, trying to focus. "Is she still at the shrine?"
"Yes. She's there. Wait - she's stopping at a bridge over a pond. She's hiding her phone underneath."
Hei frowned. Had the message been to set up a dead drop?
"Now she's leaving."
"Yin, put your radio on. Channel three. Keep tracking her; I'll be there as soon as I can." He hung up the phone and turned to Misaki. With that look of determination on her face, he'd have to knock her out before she'd agree to stay behind. After Amber, he'd sworn never to trust anyone again; but Misaki wasn't Amber, and there wasn't time to strategize in any case.
And he could use her help.
"Will you go to the shrine?" he asked. When she nodded, he continued, "Find a place to observe the bridge over the pond; Jiao-tu hid her phone there. See if anyone picks it up, but don't interfere. I'll follow Jiao-tu."
Hei gave her hand a brief squeeze as he removed it from his arm, then moved to the main room. Standing on the coffee table, he could easily reach the wooden panels of the ceiling. He counted the fifth panel from the wall with the window, and pushed it up to reveal a black duffel bag stowed in the crawl space. He pulled the bag down and tossed it to the sofa, where it landed with a muffled metallic clunk.
"Do you need the map to the shrine?" Misaki asked. She had put her blazer back on, hiding her weapon, and was looking at the bag with apprehension.
"No, I know this area." He'd never used this safe house before, but when he'd gotten the list of addresses upon first arriving in Tokyo, he'd made sure to scout them all out.
"Okay." Misaki pocketed her phone and started for the door, but Hei called her back.
"Take this," he said. He unzipped a side pocket of the duffel and pulled out a radio, which was little more than an ear piece with a tiny microphone attached. He adjusted the settings and handed it to her. "In case we need to coordinate. Channel three is our back-up emergency channel; no one should be listening besides Yin and myself, but try not to say anything unless it's absolutely necessary."
Misaki gingerly took the radio from his hand, a look of disbelief on her face.
"I'd better get that back," he warned.
She gave him a grim smile. "Don't worry." Securing the radio in her ear, she hurried from the apartment. Hei watched her go. So much for his decision to keep his distance from her.
He pulled his tactical gear from the duffel. He didn't care what Jiao-tu had heard, or what she thought about him. He wasn't going to leave her to the wolves.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jiao-tu waited impatiently at the intersection; she had maybe five minutes left to get to Nogizaka Station. Her detour to the shrine had been a split-second decision. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she was beginning to regret it. If they killed Mei-li because she was late…she didn't care what Tian and Kirihara said about Mei-li, there was no way her best friend would betray her like that. The photo they'd sent was only confirmation of Mei-li's unwilling involvement. The image of her roommate's face, beaten and bloody, with a gun held to her head, was engraved in Jiao-tu's mind.
The signal changed, and only the pain in her hip kept Jiao-tu from running across the busy street; the climb down from the bedroom window hadn't helped any. She took a short cut through an office park, hoping that she was remembering the route correctly. Aside from the nightlife district, she didn't know this neighborhood at all; she'd needed the GPS on her phone to tell her where the nearest train station was, and she'd left her phone at the shrine. Emerging onto another street, she almost cried in relief; the station entrance was just up ahead.
A crowd of people emerging from the station slowed her progress. As she pushed her way through them, a hand caught her elbow and began pulling her down the street.
"Hey, let go!" Jiao-tu swung her fist at the shoulder of the man who held her and tried to pull away.
"Now, now, none of that, Anjinha," the man said in heavily accented Chinese. He wasn't much taller than Jiao-tu, with dark hair and olive skin. A well-tailored business suit, together with a cheerful smile despite the punch to his shoulder, gave him a handsome air. "You were told to come here; I was told to pick you up. As lovely as your picture, you are. This way."
Jiao-tu followed without resisting, though he didn't let go of her until they reached a van parked just down the street from the station.
"In," the man said, pushing her into the back of the van. He climbed in after her. As soon as he shut the door, the van pulled away from the curb.
"Where are we going?" Jiao-tu asked nervously. Her heart was beating so hard she thought her chest would burst.
The man sat back comfortably on the seat next to her, his arm across the back. Jiao-tu pressed herself as close to the window as she could, away from his arm. He noticed, and smiled. "Someplace we can talk in private. My employers thought another public assault would be não faz mal, eh, no problem. I, I have a better idea. This is why they hire me."
Jiao-tu didn't like the way he was looking at her, like a cat who'd caught a rabbit. "Who are you? Where's Long Mei-li?"
"Me? Lately, I am Chuzi. Not very imaginative, my current employers." He shrugged. "As for your friend, do not be worrying about her."
"Of course I'll worry about her!" Jiao-tu said. "That's why I came!"
"Ah, friendship - such powerful human emotion," Chuzi said with a sigh. "It only makes you a fool."
There was something about the way he was speaking - aside from his horrible accent and grammar - that seemed off to Jiao-tu. Like he wasn't including himself in the category of 'human'.
"Are you…a contractor?"
Chuzi's smile widened. "Good guess, Anjinha." He leaned closer to her and patted her cheek. "With one touch, I can boil all the blood in your lovely veins, until you turn red, then purple, and then burst. So, behave."
"That's why they call you 'Cook'?" she asked, trying to shrink away. She hadn't understood the name when he first said it, his pronunciation was so bad.
"Like I said - not very imaginative."
He hadn't taken his eyes off of her once since they'd gotten into the van, but now his watchful gaze turned shrewd. "You look familiar. Why?"
"I don't know," Jiao-tu said. She wanted to get as far away from this man as possible; but she had to make sure Mei-li was alright first. You're a dragon, she told herself hopelessly.
She turned to look out the window - anything to distract herself from the smiling monster beside her - and realized with a start that she recognized the street they were on. The Chinese Embassy was here; she hadn't known it was so close to Nogizaka station. The van passed through the embassy's gate security, then pulled into the parking garage.
The driver - a Chinese man, Jiao-tu noticed for the first time - came around to the side of the van and opened the door.
"Come," Chuzi said, exiting the van.
The driver gestured with a handgun for Jiao-tu to follow the contractor, then brought up the rear of the little procession. Once inside the building, they took her by private hallways and a secure-entry stairwell, deeper and deeper into the embassy. Finally, they led her to a small windowless room, containing nothing but a metal table and two chairs. All that's missing is the giant spotlight, Jiao-tu thought, too petrified to actually feel scared.
"Sit," Chuzi told her, pulling out one of the chairs. Jiao-tu sat, folding her hands meekly in her lap. Chuzi himself remained standing, leaning against the wall to her side and quietly whistling an upbeat tune. The driver also remained in the room, taking up a guard position next to the door.
A minute later, a wiry, middle-aged man with a shock of white hair entered. He took the seat across from Jiao-tu with a slight bow of his head, and gave her what he probably thought was a fatherly look. "Miss Xu, it is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Zhang. I am an officer of the Ministry of State Security."
He seemed to be expecting a response, but Jiao-tu just stared at him, her throat too dry to speak.
When she didn't answer, Zhang continued. "First of all, let me apologize for the manner in which you were brought here, and for the misunderstanding last night. It was never our intention to cause you harm - you are, after all, a fellow citizen of our dear country. So let me emphasize this: you are not our prisoner, but our guest. Would you care for anything to drink?"
His tone was friendly, but there was no warmth in his eyes. Jiao-tu found him almost as unsettling as Chuzi. "Um, may I have some water?" she managed at last. "And can I see Long Mei-li?"
Zhang motioned to the driver, who left the room without a word. "I assure you, your roommate is fine. All we need is to retrieve a certain file that was placed on your phone. Then both you and she are free to go."
Jiao-tu was strongly reminded of the government men who'd shown up at Grandfather's door all those years ago; she'd snuck out of the kitchen to hear them telling him that Tian and Xing were dead. Even his black business suit was the same. "I want to see her first!"
The driver returned with a bottle of water, which he handed to Zhang. Zhang passed the bottle across to Jiao-tu. She brought her hands out from under the table to retrieve the bottle, but she was too nervous to drink. Instead, she moved her hands back to her lap, clutching the bottle tightly and trying to make herself as small as possible.
"Miss Xu, let me explain this," Zhang said with a smile and an air of false patience. "When I sent my agents to retrieve your phone from you last night, I instructed them not to harm you. Unfortunately, they did not follow those instructions. The file that was hidden on your phone concerns a matter vital to state security. You have the opportunity to serve the People's Republic, simply by giving us your phone."
You're a dragon, not a rabbit. She squeezed the water bottle under the table, the plastic making a loud crinkling sound. "Mei-li first."
Zhang was obviously struggling to keep his expression benign. "I had hoped you would be more cooperative. Chuzi."
The contractor stopped whistling, and took a step forward.
"I don't have the phone!" Jiao-tu said hurriedly, cringing away from Chuzi.
Chuzi paused. "Where is it?" Zhang asked, his fatherly demeanor evaporating. "You were told to bring it!"
Jiao-tu's hands were shaking. She took a deep breath. "Let Mei-li go. Then I'll tell you."
"This one understands leverage," Chuzi said jovially. "You see? This is why I tell you not to kill the anjinha. Had you done, we would have no phone. Had you killed the other, we still would have no phone. This one wants to bargain, so we bargain."
Jiao-tu blanched. They had been going to kill both her and Mei-li? That was why Chuzi hadn't just tried to take her phone on the street, she realized; they were planning to kill her no matter what. She was suddenly glad of her idea to hide the phone. And it was a good thing that she hadn't left it with Tian and Kirihara; Tian wasn't her cousin anymore, but she still wasn't going to do anything like send MSS contractors straight to him.
A vein in Zhang's forehead pulsed as he clenched his jaw. "Fine. Bring her."
The contractor left the room. Jiao-tu and Zhang sat across from each other, not speaking. For her part, Jiao-tu was desperately trying to come up with a way that would get her and Mei-li out of this alive; it didn't sound like Zhang had any intention of letting them go, once he had her phone.
After what felt like hours, but was probably only several minutes, Chuzi returned. He was propping up a young woman whose face was barely recognizable behind her bright red - now cracked - glasses.
"Mei-li!" Jiao-tu gasped, wanting to run to her friend but afraid to move anywhere near Zhang or the contractor.
Chuzi let go of Mei-li's arm, and she fell to the floor. "'Tu," she managed to say, "I'm sorry, I -"
"That's enough, Benzinha," the contractor said. He bent down and lifted Mei-li to her feet again; Mei-li flinched from his touch but seemed too weak or afraid to fight him.
"There," Zhang said impatiently. "You see your roommate; she's alive. Now, where -"
The room was abruptly plunged into darkness. "Damn it!" Jiao-tu heard Zhang swearing. "What happened?"
The emergency lights flickered into life, casting the room in a dull grayish light. The driver and Zhang both had guns out and were aiming them through the open door. The driver also held a walkie-talkie. He pressed the button and said, "Perimeter, check in, over." He was answered with nothing but silence. He repeated the message; still nothing.
Chuzi pushed Mei-li at Zhang. "Time to move," the contractor said, and darted around the table to pull Jiao-tu out of her seat. She banged her shin on the metal table, dropping her water. "We must get them to the base in Yokohama; have Shanzi deal with our visitor."
"You're not in charge -" Zhang began, but Chuzi interrupted him, still smiling.
"You hire me to be the expert; I am the expert. I say 'go', we go."
Zhang looked furious at being told what to do, but he took Mei-li and roughly pulled her out of the room. At a quick nod from Zhang, the driver spoke into his radio again, issuing rapid instructions that faded into unintelligibility as Chuzi and Jiao-tu followed Zhang and Mei-li.
"Má sorte for Shanzi, I think," Chuzi said conversationally as the party rushed down the darkened hall, "if our visitor is who I think he is. But lucky for us, anjos caídos cannot fly."
Portuguese translations:
Anjinha...Little angel
não faz mal...no problem
Benzinha...term of endearment, e.g. sweetheart
Má sorte...bad luck
anjos caídos...fallen angels
Chinese translations:
Chuzi...cook
Shanzi...fan