A/N: Reminder of timing: This story takes place between episodes 18 and 21. EPR has attacked MI-6, CIA, and the Chinese Embassy, but Hei's team has yet to bomb the American Embassy. Also, everything I know about Tokyo I learned from Google Earth, so the details here aren't going to be terribly accurate - please pretend that they are.
"She's getting into a van," Yin told him. "Nogizaka Station."
Hei cursed inwardly. Yin had had trouble following Jiao-tu, as dry as the streets had been recently. Without knowing exactly where his cousin was headed, Hei hadn't been able to catch up to her. They're moving her to a secure location, he realized. That wasn't good news for Jiao-tu; once off the street, they could torture her, kill her, and no one would ever know.
"Which way is the van headed? Gaien Higashi Dori?"
"No," was Yin's reply. "The other way."
The opposite direction from him. Hei cursed again. But they were in Roppongi, and dealing with the MSS, so…
"They're taking her to the Chinese Embassy. Yin, send your specter there. But be careful, there may be contractors with her."
He shifted the small gear bag on his back and sprinted down the street, taking the most direct route possible. It was about a mile to the embassy; he wouldn't be able to catch the van, not on foot - but maybe he could cut it off. He had thrown an old jacket from the safe house's stash of clothes on over his black clothes and weapons harness; his trench coat and other potentially useful items were stowed in the bag. It was the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday, and the streets were busy with local neighborhood traffic, tourists, and shoppers. He couldn't afford to stand out too obviously. More so than he already was, anyway.
"Has anyone come for the phone?" he asked as he took a short cut through a residential street, startling a woman walking a small dog. The dog yapped at his heels.
"Negative," Misaki said over the radio.
"Stay on it," he told her. Mori Tower loomed ahead. Hei didn't bother waiting for the traffic signal to change. He paused long enough to find a gap in the traffic, then ran across the street, dodging cars and trucks.
He reached the embassy in time to see a white van pull into a small gate on the east side of the building. There was far less traffic here than there had been on the main roads. The barrier came down as the van passed, and two guards armed with assault rifles paced in front of it. There would be more patrolling the grounds, he knew. After the recent terrorist bombings, all embassies' security had tightened.
He halted across the street from the gate, concealing himself in the shadow of an apartment building to catch his breath. How was he going to get inside in broad daylight, past the guards? It was Saturday, and the embassy was closed - he couldn't walk in on pretend business. He would have to breach the perimeter.
Hei adjusted his windbreaker and gear bag and wandered casually down the street, eyeing the security cameras mounted on the walls. He was looking for a weak point in the embassy's security. There - the portion of the embassy's western exterior wall that had been damaged during the bombing would be the most logical place to hit - but he could see that there were twice as many guards on that section.
As he scanned the narrow street running parallel to the wall, an idea flashed in his mind. Twice as many guards…if he could draw even more guards to that area, he may be able get through the eastern gate without too much trouble.
"Grab the phone and get to the embassy as fast as you can. Across from the northern wall," he said into the radio.
He hadn't wanted to interfere with the drop; if the MSS sent someone to pick it up and it wasn't there, they would hurt Jiao-tu. But he steeled himself to the very probable possibility that she was going to get hurt, no matter what. He was sure now that Jiao-tu's life was directly tied to that phone. As long as it was out of the MSS's hands, she would at least live long enough for Hei to reach her.
"Roger," Misaki responded. Hei hoped she was a fast runner. He took up a post opposite the north side of the embassy, near the wall of an office building that was partially concealed by a row of trees. Out of direct line of sight of the security cameras, he removed his gear bag and swapped the jacket for his bulletproof coat.
While he was changing, Yin spoke. "I have her. Basement room. No windows."
"Careful, Yin," Hei warned. "Don't let them see your specter."
"The water is under a table. They can't see. Three men." Then to his surprise, Yin began relaying the conversation in the room, in Chinese. He didn't think she understood the words, but she was repeating them perfectly. Hei listened intently; so Jiao-tu had thought to hide the phone, on her own? That was smart. Chuzi - Cook. That was probably a contractor.
A few minutes after Yin had informed him that one of the men was leaving the room, he saw Misaki turn the corner and slow to a brisk walk, surreptitiously scanning the area, obviously wary of the cameras. She'd made good time.
Hei gave a low whistle to attract her attention. She saw him in the shadows and trotted up, breathing hard, her face flushed with exertion.
"Here." Hei handed her a road flare. "There's a car parked across the street from the damaged west wall; walk by, light the flare, and drop it in the gas tank. If they see you, just run; they can't follow, not on Japanese soil. I'll use the distraction to get through the gate."
Misaki looked at the flare in her hand, and the mask in his. Hei saw the indecision in her eyes, and suddenly remembered that she was a cop - how had he forgotten that?
"You don't have to," he told her softly, looking into her eyes. "I can get in on my own."
Then Yin said, "They brought in another woman. Mei-li. She's been hurt."
Hei saw Misaki's grip on the flare tighten. "Get them both out if you can," she said. Then she clenched her jaw, and without another word headed down the street and around the west corner.
Hei waited a few moments after she turned the corner to give her time to get to the car. Then mask in hand, he strode down the street in the opposite direction. Rounding the northeastern corner of the embassy, he headed across the street, straight towards the gate and the two security guards. The guards saw him, and fidgeted with their assault rifles nervously. One moved his hand towards his radio.
An explosion ripped through the air; the guards both turned towards the commotion. As they turned, Hei put on his mask and sprinted to the gate. He vaulted over the barrier and dropped the nearest man with a roundhouse kick to the head. The other guard noticed him then, and brought up his gun to fire; Hei grabbed the barrel and jerked it up, kicking the man hard in the stomach. The guard dropped to his knees, losing his grip on the weapon. Hei brought the butt of the rifle down on the man's head, knocking him out. He'd decided he would do his best not to kill anyone here, for Misaki's sake.
Tossing the rifle to the ground, Hei darted into the guard booth and placed his gloved hand on the closed circuit television. The diversion had worked; he could see the other security guards gathering on the west end of the compound. Summoning his ability, he killed the security cameras. There was an electrical conduit buried in the ground, running parallel to the wall; Hei could sense the electricity running through it. He'd already lost the element of surprise, but confusion would be just as useful. Pressing his hand down on the floor of the booth, he sent enough electricity into the conduit to overload the system and knock out the power for the entire embassy.
As he ran across the deserted drive to the main building, he heard a radio inside the guard booth crackle. "Perimeter, check in, over."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jiao-tu stumbled along beside Chuzi; his fingers were digging painfully into the flesh around her elbow. She'd tried pulling away from him once, but he'd told her kindly that he would boil the blood in her arm if she tried it again. Three men in embassy guard uniforms had joined them after they'd left the interrogation room. One was leading the party, the other two bringing up the rear, assault weapons at the ready.
"Is it contractors?" Zhang asked, dragging a weeping Mei-li behind him.
"So I am guessing," Chuzi said. He was still smiling, his teeth flashing white in the dark corridor, but his voice was tight, as if he was worried. "Just one, though, I am almost sure."
"One? We're panicking this much over just one contractor?" Jiao-tu couldn't see Zhang's face, but she could hear the scowl in his voice.
"I have heard rumors of one certain contractor who is recently in Tokyo, one who can control electricity - he it was who killed Feng and Wuxing, no doubt. Strangely, I have also heard that this same contractor is o Anjo Negro, who was no contractor the last I see him. Strange, indeed. That one is enough, even if he is still no contractor."
Jiao-tu wondered what he meant by that, but she was too afraid to ask. They entered the stairwell and headed up. Mei-li tripped on a step; Zhang jerked her to her feet with a curse.
"Why am I carting this useless sack of rice along with me?"
Chuzi tut-tutted. "Do not be discarding our leverage; not yet, at the least."
From the stairwell they emerged into a parking garage. Jiao-tu saw the van that had brought her here, as well as two black sedans with darkly tinted windows. Her feet splashed through puddles left by a dripping water pipe.
"Ah, um problema pequeno," Chuzi said, staring at one of the puddles."We are splitting up, I think." He motioned to one of the rear guards. "You - take that girl and our dear leader and head to the other base, being sure to confuse any tails. I and this one will follow, with this fellow."
"I'm not letting Xu out of my sight until I have that key!" Zhang said.
"Está bem," Chuzi said impatiently. "You come with us then."
Zhang shoved Mei-li at one of the guards, who half-led half-carried her to a car and pushed her into the back seat. As Chuzi, Zhang, and Jiao-tu reached the other car, she heard a strangled noise behind them. They all turned to see the third guard scrabbling at a thin cable that was wrapped around his neck. The man was suddenly wracked with spasms; he dropped to the ground, unconscious or dead Jiao-tu couldn't tell. His fall revealed the man standing behind him, holding the other end of the cable: a man dressed all in black, with a ghostly white, eyeless face. A mask.
She gasped in shock - it was the man from the park, who she'd seen kill those other men. He was after her too?
Chuzi's grip on Jiao-tu's arm tightened and he pulled her against him as if to use her as a shield. The masked man dropped the cable and tensed, but then unexpectedly spun around. Another embassy guard had emerged from the stairwell behind him. Instead of a gun, this one carried two traditional Chinese fans. As Jiao-tu watched, the guard highlighted in an eerie blue light and made a complicated gesture with the fans, then threw one with blinding speed at the masked man. But the man was already moving. He threw a cable to his right; it wrapped around a pillar and pulled him out of the way of the fan, which sliced into the side of the van, narrowly missing him.
Chuzi didn't hesitate. "In!" he shouted at Zhang, then he wrenched open the car door and shoved Jiao-tu into the back seat. Zhang, wide-eyed, jumped into the passenger seat. The remaining guard ran around to the driver's side and climbed in, pushing a button to start the ignition. Jiao-tu crawled across the seat and tugged at the door handle, but it was locked, and no amount of pulling on the lock would budge it; safety locks.
She turned to go back out the door she'd been pushed through but paused when she saw Chuzi. The contractor stood a few feet away with his hand on the leaky water pipe that was running from the floor of the garage to the ceiling. The masked man was across the garage and still dodging fans. The blue glow of synchrotron radiation surrounded Chuzi, and a pipe above the masked man burst, shrouding him in a thick cloud of burning steam.
"Go!" Chuzi shouted, and jumped into the back of the car with Jiao-tu as it swung out of its parking space. Jiao-tu saw a wicked-looking knife impale itself in the pipe that Chuzi had been touching only moments ago. She turned to look out the back window. The masked man burst from the cloud of steam and ran after them, another knife in his hand. Suddenly he threw himself to the side, barely dodging another fan thrown by the other contractor.
With squealing tires, the sedan sped out of the garage, and she lost sight of them both.
Portuguese translations:
o Anjo Negro...the Black Angel
um problema pequeno...a small problem
Está bem...it's good/fhine
Chinese translations:
Chuzi...cook
Feng...wind
Wuxing...invisible