Football Frenzy (5 page)

The drill seemed to fall in slow motion, heavy, sharp...and deadly.

Jessica was grabbing players by the arms and dragging them out of the way, but they were moving too slowly – Josh had to do something,
anything
...

His eye fell on the concrete block. He gasped in a breath and leaped up, planting one foot on the block and using it to launch himself higher into the air. He brought up his foot as he flew,
spinning at the last second and thrusting a flying kick at the drill. If he missed, it was all over.

The world seemed to slow down, and then he landed a kick on the side of the drill handle and it spun away, thudding harmlessly into the mud a couple of metres from the players. Josh hit the
ground next to it and skidded.

He looked up to find Jessica and the players arranged in a circle around him, gazing down at Josh in amazement. Karl Clarke helped him to his feet.

“That was incredible,” Clarke said. “You just saved our lives!” Josh swallowed hard, then grinned as everyone swarmed forward to shake his hand.

“Both of you did,” Goro Sasaki said, bowing to Jessica and then scooping her up into a big hug. “If you hadn’t warned us we’d never have got out of the way in
time!”

Josh looked around for Shini. He was fine, but standing by himself, staring up at the tower, his face pale. Josh was about to go over to him when one of the Japanese FA officials pushed past
Josh and Jessica, waving his arms furiously.

Josh watched him stomp through the crowd to where the Minister for Social and Cultural Affairs was standing staring at the devastation, his face as white as the handkerchief pressed to his
sweating forehead. The official reeled off a long stream of complaints in Japanese as he came face-to-face with Kobayashi.

Takeshi saw him watching the exchange.

“He’s saying he is...er...disappointed,” he translated diplomatically. “The site was supposed to have been checked, so accidents like this couldn’t
happen. Kobayashi could get into a lot of trouble for this.”

“Thank goodness nobody was hurt!” said Jessica.

“But they could have been,” Josh said quietly. He glanced at the platform again, at the huge block of concrete still embedded in its splintered, wooden surface. He turned so that
only Jessica could hear him. “That looks really heavy, doesn’t it? You’d have to give it a pretty hard shove if you wanted it to move – or fall.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think...” she whispered, “...that maybe it wasn’t an accident?”

Josh chewed his lip. “I thought I saw something moving up there before it fell. I don’t know what it was, just a dark shape – it caught my eye and then it was gone.”

“Should we tell someone?” Jessica suggested. “After all, we were meant to be keeping an eye on Shini.”

“I dunno. I’ve got a bad feeling.” First the attack on the Hanzos’ restaurant, and now this... Could there be a connection? He shook his head. “It’s
possible it was an accident. We need to know more. Let’s keep quiet for now. I think we should keep watch for anything else suspicious.”

Jessica nodded. “Right. Let’s go over what happened later, so my notes are totally accurate if it turns out to be important.”

When Josh looked around again the shoot was in disarray, the officials hurrying their players back to the team coaches.

“Where’s Shini?” Jessica said. “I was going to tell him we’d see him at the reception.” She frowned. “I know he wasn’t hurt, but I hope he’s
okay...”

Josh looked round at the spot where Shini had been standing. “He must have got on the coach,” he said, watching the team bus pulling away and out of the gate.

As the coaches drove out, a large black car drove in.
That must be the Minister’s ride,
he thought.
And there he goes. Looks like he can’t wait to get out of here
.

Kobayashi was making a beeline for the car. He passed a blue jacket that had been left draped over the back of a chair and stopped, as if he might pick it up, but he was just bending down to tie
his shoelace. He walked on and climbed into the car.

Obviously thinks he’s too important to deal with lost property,
Josh thought.

Josh walked over to the jacket as the shiny black car drove back out through the gate. Jessica followed. He picked it up and showed it to her.

“I wonder who left this behind,” he said. “We should find someone to give it to.”

“Looks like a Team Japan jacket. If it’s one of the players’ we can give it back this evening,” Jessica pointed out. “Has it got a name?”

“Oh – it’s Shini’s.” Josh stared at the name sewn on the inside of the lapel. “He really must’ve been in a hurry.”

“Hey,” said Jessica, bending to pick something up. It was a piece of card. “This fell out. Could be a business card, or...” She turned it over, and her face froze.
Josh felt a shiver pass over the back of his neck.

“What? Jess, what?” He took the card out of her hand. There was a single line of spidery writing on the other side. It read:
Next time we won’t miss
.

Jessica looked up at Josh, her eyes wide. “I guess that answers our question,” she gulped. “It
wasn’t
an accident.”

“Yeah,” Josh said. “And it has something to do with Shini.”

“So it must be connected to the Hanzos’ restaurant getting smashed up too,” Jessica said, almost to herself. “But why? What’s going on?”

“No idea.” Josh looked up as Granny’s car pulled into the construction site. “But I know who we need to go to next.”

The whole team was waiting for them, relaxing in the soft leather chairs. Nana, the team’s surveillance expert, was serving steaming green tea from a stainless-steel and porcelain teapot.
She balanced her own cup on the edge of the control panel, making tech-expert Mimasu wince. Mr. Nakamura, the ancient Team O medic, and Mr. Yamamoto were bent over a touch-screen pad, in the middle
of a virtual game of Go, a traditional board game that looked a bit like solitaire. Josh smiled to himself – it reminded him of the OAP community centre his English grandparents visited
sometimes, but with a lot more weapons and fewer floral-patterned sofas.

Mr. Yamamoto raised his cup in greeting as the twins walked in. “Ah Josh-kun, Jessica-chan. Mimi-san says you have a case for us.”

“We might have,” Josh said. Nana passed a cup to Granny, who blew on her hot tea before taking a sip. Josh took a deep breath. “We think something dangerous might be going on.
Something to do with Shinichiro Hanzo.”

“The football player?” Mr. Nakamura asked, raising his bushy grey eyebrows.

“First – I think Granny told you – there was the attack on his parents’ restaurant last night,” Josh began. “It was like someone wanted to scare them, to
damage the place but not actually hurt anyone. Then this morning someone nearly
was
hurt.” He described the “accident” at the photo shoot.

“Thank goodness you two were not harmed!” Sachiko gasped.

“Indeed,” said Granny. She was staring into the middle distance, her eyes unfocused for a moment. Was she imagining what she would’ve done if they had been hurt? How would she
have explained it to their parents?

“Then afterwards we found this,” Jessica said, nodding at Josh.

Josh passed the card around the team. “It was in Shini’s jacket. It must have been planted there while nobody was looking.”

“In fact,” Jessica said, flipping through her notebook, “there was something else as well. Remember when we first met Shini? There was a man in the changing room. Shini said he
was a weird fan, but maybe there was more to it than that.”

“That could have been his first warning,” said Sachiko, stroking her wrinkled chin thoughtfully. “Or our villain making some sort of demand.”

“Money, do you think?” Nana asked.

“Straightforward extortion? I think not,” Granny said, taking a sip of tea. “I would have believed it after the restaurant – but someone could truly have been injured at
the photo shoot today. I imagine whoever we’re looking for really wanted something bad to happen, and with the sabotage at Shini’s restaurant, I wonder if he’s the person the
attackers wanted to get at.”

“But who would want to hurt Shini Hanzo?” Nana frowned.

“Nobody who cares about Japanese football, that’s for certain,” Josh said. “Not with the England game coming up.”

“Then a personal rivalry?” Jessica wondered. “Something...girlfriend-related?” She looked at Josh. He hadn’t thought of that – could it be about Kiki?
Either one of them could have a jealous ex, or an insane fan who felt threatened. He shook his head.

“Shini and...and his girlfriend haven’t gone public yet,” he said, just managing to avoid mentioning Kiki. “So it’d have to be someone
really
close to
them, and...” A thought struck him. “Wait, there’s something else. This could be about the big game itself.”

“Shinichiro’s contribution will be invaluable on Saturday, won’t it?” Nana said. “Nobody who wants Japan to stand a chance against England would let him come to
harm.”

“But what if someone wants them to lose?” Jessica said, her eyes widening. “What if – no, not someone on the England team, surely?”

Josh shook his head. “They got on so well at the photo shoot. And all of them were on the ground with us, even the managers.
And
they hadn’t arrived in the country when we saw
the man in the changing rooms yesterday.”

“Well if it’s not someone connected with the team, some mad England fan?” Jessica suggested, wincing.

“No...I can’t believe that,” Josh said. He tried to sound certain, but he felt his face flush with shame at the very idea.

“Ah...” said Mr. Yamamoto, quietly. The rest of Team O turned to look at him. He was staring at the frozen game of Go on the pad in front of him. “I think it may come down
to money, after all.”

“You have a theory, Yamamoto-san?” Granny asked.

Mr. Yamamoto stood up and walked to the console. After pressing a few buttons, the banks of screens filled up with Japanese websites.

“Betting websites. Let’s see...” He scrolled through them, scanning the columns of figures. “This reminds me of a scam I came across in the forties – but on a
larger scale,
much
larger...yes, indeed,” he said, pointing out some of the kanji. “The odds on the match have changed again, and they are even more strongly in
Japan’s favour since we spoke about them yesterday. Everyone has been putting money on them to win the match. But if you put money on England to win, with these odds...and if, say, the
star goalkeeper of Japan were to let in a few goals, or be mysteriously injured just before the match...”

“Then if someone bet just one hundred yen on England...” Mimasu said, rising to join Mr. Yamamoto at the console, her eyes flicking over the numbers on the betting websites.
Josh guessed she was doing some complicated maths in her head. “They could make...
millions
.”

Mr. Yamamoto turned to Granny, who nodded.

“I believe we have our motive,” she said. “And a fix on this scale is certainly government business. Team O will take up the investigation.”

Josh let out a long breath. “There’s something else,” he said. “We didn’t see any police cars last night at the restaurant. Shini said he’d phone them,
but...”

“I’ll check,” said Nana, turning and tapping her control pad. One of the screens filled with long strings of numbers and she scanned them as they scrolled past.
“No,” she said. “I see no call to the police from the restaurant yesterday.”

“Why wouldn’t he call them?” Jessica asked.

“Perhaps the mysterious gambler warned him against it – he could have threatened to hurt Shini, or his parents, if Shini went to the police.”

“We had better tread carefully,” said Mr. Nakamura. “If they find out we’re on the case they might think Shini has called us in and do something even more
drastic.”

“I’ll put out a protection call on the Hanzos,” Nana said. “Other field agents will keep an eye on them until we have discovered the source of the threat.”

“And how do we do that?” Jessica asked. “Plenty of people would be interested in making millions on a bet. It isn’t much to go on.”

“We need to find another lead,” Granny said. She finished her tea, set the cup down in its saucer decisively and turned to Josh and Jessica. “You two will attend the reception
this evening as planned – but now you will be there on business, not pleasure. Be on your guard for threats against Shini, and look out for anything that might be a clue. I don’t want
you to take unnecessary risks,” she added sternly. Josh thought she might’ve seen the gleam in his eye at the thought of officially working for Team O again. He couldn’t help it.
He’d be attending a posh reception to stop a possible international gambling fix!

Granny went on, “We must find out who is responsible for this, and soon – it’s already Wednesday, so we have two full days to make sure that Shini is safe and gets to the match
on Saturday. You will have remote backup from the team, in case anything goes wrong.” She nodded at Mimasu, who nodded back and headed towards her workshop.

“I’ll bring out the latest,” Mimasu muttered as she disappeared through the doorway.

Josh exchanged glances with Jessica, who looked just as excited as he was. He could guess what “the latest” meant –
secret-agent gadgets
. James Bond had nothing on the
Murata family!

Even though he was worried for Shini, Josh couldn’t help a bubble of excitement rising in his chest. He and his sister were about to become government agents for the second time in as many
weeks. Scary, but on the other hand, he thought...
I can’t wait!