[Thomas Caine #1] Tokyo Black (32 page)

“And you did the same,” Caine said. “You ran your father’s finances. You shifted his money to short positions on the same investments, didn’t you?”

“I would have made this family millions.  Maybe even billions. Do you know what kind of power that money could bring? We could have absorbed the other clans. We could have—”

“Kusaka’s going to murder innocent people, and possibly start a war, just to satisfy his personal politics,” Caine interrupted. “Your father may have been a lot of things, Kenji, but he wasn’t a mass murderer or a traitor.”

Kenji flinched.

Caine lifted his pistol and placed the barrel on Kenji’s knee. “What’s the target?”

Kenji shook his head. “I swear, I don’t know. He never told me.”

Caine cocked the trigger on the pistol. Koichi eyed him warily, but said nothing. He grunted and turned away.

Kenji looked up at Caine, desperate.

“Kenji, you need to think very carefully. What is the target? Don’t make me ask again.”

“Look, I don’t know, okay! What does it matter? He could attack anything … the capital, a mall, an office building. All that matters is the news will report a Chinese stealth drone attacked Japan!”

Caine pressed the barrel harder into Kenji’s knee. “Where is he?”

“He could be anywhere in the city! Bernatto didn’t just give him the drone codes. He modified the piloting controls, so they fit in a suitcase. He can’t access the Chinese satellites, but once the drone is over the Tokyo metro area, all he needs is line of sight.”

“Dammit, Kenji, you have to do better than that! People are going to die unless we stop him!”

“Caine-san, just a minute,” Koichi said.

Caine turned towards him but kept Kenji in his peripheral vision. “Go ahead.”

“The boy said Kusaka needs line of sight to control the drone once it reaches Tokyo?”

“That’s right. That’s all I know,” Kenji stammered.

“That’s actually more difficult than it sounds,” Koichi said. “There are so many tall buildings in Tokyo. Even local radio and TV stations that broadcast from Tokyo Tower have trouble with blocked transmissions. If Kusaka and Bobu are using a portable transmitter, they’ll need someplace taller than that. It would have to be taller than all the surrounding buildings.  Oterhwise, they’ll break the line of sight between the transmitter and the drone.”

Caine nodded. “Okay, sure. You have a place in mind?”

Koichi examined his cellphone. “Kusaka has offices all across the city, but his newest branch just opened a few months ago. It’s in the Skytree Plaza, right across from the Skytree tower.”

“Never been there.”

Koichi nodded. “It’s new, wasn’t built when you were here last. But take a guess what the tallest structure in Tokyo is?”

“Sounds like it’s worth a look.”

Koichi stood. “As I said, the Yoshizawa family has been ordered to lay low until the council makes its decision. I am forbidden to send any of our men to help, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go with you on a sightseeing trip.”

The old man stepped forward, then grabbed his stomach and groaned in pain. Caine hurried over and eased him back in the chair. “Koichi, you’ve done enough. Mariko and I will take it from here. You’ve got other things to worry about.”

Koichi nodded glumly. “Damn it. Can’t take a bullet like I used to.”

“Jesus, how many times have you been shot, old man?”

“Lost count after the third.”

Kenji’s trembling voice rang out. “Listen, there’s one more thing you should know.”

“Speak up, kid,” Caine said.

“Kusaka gave me a deadline to get all my trades in. Whatever he has planned, it’s happening today. And soon.”

Caine glared at him. “Soon? As in when?”

Kenji looked at the clock on the wall. His voice wavered. “Soon, as in, an hour from now.”

Caine and Mariko sped down the expressway in silence. The skies overhead were a swirling abyss of black clouds. The rain had intensified, and droplets of water battered the windshield.

Mariko flipped on the windshield wipers of the new car Koichi had lent them. It was an economy car, nothing fancy, but the last thing they needed was to stand out and get pulled over by the police right now.

Koichi had also provided him with another firearm, a new Beretta PX4 Storm Compact. The pistol came with a range of adjustable back strap grips in its case. Of all the weapons he had used recently, it fit the most comfortably in his hand. He ejected the weapon’s magazine and checked the slide as they raced through the rain towards Tokyo’s Sumida district.

Mariko hissed a string of Japanese curses under her breath as she turned and exited the expressway. Caine couldn’t quite make out the words, but her sentiment was clear.

“I take it your phone call with your partner didn’t go well?”

“Ex-partner, you mean. And no, it didn’t. He felt bad about ratting us out before, so he gave me a heads up that the Security Bureau has issued a warrant for my arrest. Yours, too, by the way.”

Caine shrugged. “Well, it beats being executed by a private death squad.”

“
Hiyowana okubykomon, ne
!”

“I don’t know what that means, but it doesn’t sound good.”

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. “It means coward with no waist.”

Caine chuckled. “I think you mean spineless coward.”

She nodded. “Yes, exactly. I told them what you found out, but I don’t know if they will take the threat seriously. Even if they do, I doubt they would make a move before bringing me in for a debriefing. They’ll have to get approval from the various security and intelligence chiefs. If what you say is true, there simply isn’t time.”

“We make quite a team,” Caine said. “I’m wanted for treason. You’re under arrest for defying your superiors. And Koichi’s entire clan may be disbanded.”

Mariko flashed Caine a bitter smile. “Now we truly are ronin. Masterless warriors. But we will still do our duty.”

Caine slapped the magazine back into the Beretta and flicked the slide release lever on the pistol. The slide slid shut with a metallic click. He thumbed off the manual safety and tucked the gun into his waistband.

“Duty? No, that’s not why I’m here.”

“Why then? You completed your mission; your superiors betrayed you. You could have left at any time. Why stay?”

  Caine looked out the window and watched the raindrops trickle down the glass, each one following a unique, unpredictable path.

“First of all, there’s Hitomi. Drone attack, terrorists, billions of dollars on the line … in the middle of all that, no one else is going to care about one missing girl. Kusaka has her stashed somewhere. I’m to find her before this is all over. Assuming she’s still alive.”

Mariko’s voice softened. “I see.”

“And then there’s Kusaka. I know Kenji is responsible for his own actions, but I just can’t…. I’ve held on to the memory of what happened so long. It’s the one thing that’s kept me going all these years. And Kusaka took that and twisted it. Corrupted it. Now, it’s just one more bad dream, something that will keep me awake nights.”

“And you want to make him pay?”

“Call it what you like. I don’t care if it’s justice or revenge. I just want Kusaka out of this world. Whatever waits for people like us … hell, bad karma, or just worms and dirt, I’m going to send him there.”

“People like us? You are nothing like Kusaka,” Mariko said. “You are a good man.”

Caine shook his head. “No. I’m not. But for this, I won’t have to be.”

Caine looked up to see the massive Skytree tower looming before them. It drew closer and closer in the distance.

The tower was a slim, delicate-looking skeleton of steel. The graceful lines of its support structure swept up into the air, narrowing as they reached its apex. It looked almost too fragile to support the bulbous observation decks at the top, over a quarter mile above the city streets.

The clouds around the tower were grey and grim. To Caine, it felt like the sky and earth had somehow been inverted. When they ascended the tower, they would not be rising up, closer to the heavens. They would be descending, deep into the dark underworld of death.

After parking, Mariko used her police ID to bluff their way past the ticket line in the lobby. First, she informed the guards that Caine was an Interpol agent, on loan to the Public Security Bureau. Then, she battered them with a barrage of threats and insults when they failed to pay the proper respect. In the end, they bowed and ushered them through the security line, eager to get rid of them.

Safely ensconced in an elevator, Caine watched the floor numbers flick past on an LCD screen. They rose at a dizzying speed. A recorded voice played over the elevator’s speakers: “Next stop, Tembo Deck, floor 355.”

It was still early morning, and the heavy rain had discouraged most tourists. They were alone in the glass box as it rose up the tower. The rain and clouds obscured the view. Caine saw only a dream-like landscape of partially hidden skyscrapers, protruding from the mist. The grey, rippling waters of the Sumida River snaked towards the complex. He could just make out the lights of boats, forging across the water, leaving cold, white trials in their wake.

The elevator began a gentle deceleration. Floor 340, 345, 350 … finally, there was the soft hiss of brakes. “Floor 355, Tembo Deck,” said the voice. The doors opened. Caine and Mariko stepped out.

They were immediately greeted by a Japanese woman in a hospitality uniform. “Welcome to Skytree tower,” she said and guided them to the panoramic observation window that curved around the entire floor.

Caine nodded and smiled but kept a wary eye on the small crowd as they ventured out into the lounge. He froze when he felt a slight tremble under his feet. “Is this thing moving?”

“Yes,” Mariko said. “It was designed to move counter to wind and earthquake vibrations. Its flexibility makes the structure stronger. Japan is one of the most seismically active regions in the world. We have to design our buildings to withstand quakes and typhoon force winds.”

Caine shook his head as he felt the subtle shifting of the floor beneath his feet. “Guess I’m glad we skipped breakfast then.”

They cautiously walked the edge of the observation lounge. On any other day, Caine would have enjoyed the stunning view of the Tokyo skyline. Even through the rain and clouds, he could still see the massive city, stretching out in all directions. But today, he kept his eyes on the crowd. He searched for any sign of Kusaka, Bobu, or their Tokyo Black soldiers.

“The clearest line of sight would be from the upper observation deck, the Galleria. It’s about a hundred meters higher than this point,” Mariko suggested.

“Then that’s where we go,” Caine answered.

“We have to take a second elevator up. It’s a more expensive ticket than this floor.”

They followed the curved path to the other side of the lounge. There, they found another attendant and a set of ticket machines, next to a separate elevator. To avoid a scene, Caine purchased the tickets normally, and they stepped into the elevator.

“Next Stop, Tembo Galleria, floor 445,” the elevator’s voice chirped. One-hundred meters sped by in a blur of clouds and raindrops. Then they slid to a smooth stop, and the doors parted. Another attendant greeted them as they stepped out onto the deck. A sign on the wall informed them that they were now 445 meters above the city.

The Tembo Galleria was actually two observation decks. The lower area was connected to the upper deck by a large, winding glass tube that curled up and around the tower. There was a gap between the two ends of the tube. From where they were standing, they could see the higher end, a flat glass window sixteen feet above them.

Caine and Mariko pushed their way past a small group of tourists returning to the elevator. A few sight-seers snapped pictures of their friends, waving from the other end of the tube.

Mariko stopped and pointed to a map of the structure mounted on the wall.

“Look, here. The Galleria tube leads up to floor 450. There’s a maintenance corridor here….” She pointed to a spot on the map on a second observation deck, just past the exit from the tube. “That must be how you get to the roof.”

Caine nodded. They began to walk up the tube when Caine felt the floors shift again. This time the motion was a sudden jerk, more pronounced than before. Mariko grabbed his arm to steady herself. Outside, the rain picked up in intensity. It pelted the glass windows surrounding them, like the patter of automatic weapon fire.

A woman’s voice came over the loudspeakers. She began issuing instructions in calm, measured tones, first in Japanese, then in English.

“Ladies and gentlemen, due to winds velocity, the Skytree observation decks have been closed. Please make your way to the nearest elevator and descend to ground level. No new passengers will be admitted up to the tower observation decks at this time.
Arigato gozimas!”

A group of tourists scrambled towards Caine and Mariko, eager to catch the elevator down. As the crowd engulfed them, Caine craned his neck. He struggled to look past them and see if anyone remained in the tower.

The crowd parted and moved on, leaving two men standing in the middle of the tube. They were dressed in dark-colored suits, their faces hard, their features sharp. Caine saw the tell-tale sign of scars, just below the collar of their shirts.

He was reaching for his pistol when the men turned and saw them, standing apart from the crowd at the elevator. They shouted in Japanese and ducked into a low shooting stance as they reached behind their backs.

Caine grabbed Mariko and dove for a small alcove along the inside edge of the tube. He fired three wild shots as he leapt through the air. They struck the glass behind the men. The bullets left tiny cracks in the thick, industrial glass, but the window did not shatter.

 The crowd screamed and surged forward, as the gunfight erupted behind them.

“Everyone, get down!” Mariko shouted back at them. “On the floor, now!”

The two men returned fire, their bullets ricocheting off the edge of the alcove. Caine winced and shielded Mariko with his body. Sparks and chips of paint exploded around them.