The Secret Meaning of Blossom: a fast-moving spy thriller set in Japan

by T. M. Parris

  She outlined her idea. They absorbed it in silence.

  “You know, that’s probably a step away from absolutely crazy,” said James.

  “It should work if we plan it well enough,” said Rose. Of course James was right, but someone had to be positive.

  “Eh, toooo…” ventured Mirai. “Problem, maybe. Tomo can’t swim.”

  The young man reddened.

  “Oh,” said Rose. “Was he going to mention that at all?”

  That made Mirai redden also, for some reason.

  “Well, we’ll have to amend the plan, then. A bigger role for you, Mirai. Can you manage it?”

  She looked, frankly, terrified. “I try,” she said faintly.

  Chapter 34

  At some ungodly hour the night shift was roused into action by the piercing scream of a woman, coming from the deck. Especially shocking, as the crew had no idea there was a woman on board. What was anyone doing on deck at this time of night? And the area was restricted anyway. Even with the strange assortment of passengers they got on these lines, not to mention the freight with the missing paperwork and the unexplained changes to schedules that seemed to have nothing to do with cargo, the captain did manage to lay down the law there. Do what you want in the private cabins, was his rule, but stay out of the crew areas and keep away from the cargo. Well, not tonight.

  The first ones there noticed a window pane missing from one of the cabins on the superstructure, and some kind of rope hanging down. Was there something wrong with the stairs? Then they heard what the screaming woman was actually saying; they had enough Japanese for that.

  Man overboard! Man overboard! They ran to the side and stared down into the blackness of the water. Of course they couldn’t see anything. How many knots were they doing? He was probably done for, to be honest, but they followed the procedure and sounded the alarm. The bridge reacted fast; the engine rumble fell away.

  Then came an oddity – the captain wanted to know who was overboard. What difference did it make? But orders were orders, so they asked her.

  “James-san!” screamed the lady, pointing with a horrified look on her face. “James-san! Fast! Fast, please!”

  This was relayed back, and they were told to proceed. Made you wonder what would have happened if it had been someone else, but that was just another question you didn’t ask. The crew ran out of the superstructure like ants from an anthill. Up to the rescue boat! Regulation said this had to be launchable in five minutes. Was the captain timing it? Wouldn’t put it past him. Lights were trained all over the wake of the ship as far as their beams would reach, but there was no sign of James-san or anyone else down there. The cover was off, the launch crew was in place, the crane came out and the winches whirred. Down the RIB went until it hit the water. Nicely done. Just like the drills. The next bit wasn’t, though.

  The rescue boat powered up – but then it died. How’s this? There should be two people on that boat, but somehow there were four! No – five! Now wait – their two crew were in the water and the boat was powering away from them! What on earth was going on down there?

  People clustered round to get the jettisoned crew out of the water fast. Lifesavers went down, and ropes. Meantime the rescue boat circled towards the bow. Now the screaming woman was silent, and standing the wrong side of the railings staring down at the water. You don’t want to do that, lady. It’s a long way down and a shock when you get there. A shout came from the launch: Mirai, jump! A woman’s voice. There were two women aboard? Well, there would soon be none because this Mirai was steeling herself to jump, though she was clearly petrified. She didn’t look like she could do it. But then, two of those great lumps who were staying in the guest cabins came lumbering up. Anybody would jump to get away from those animals. She turned and saw them, turned back, took a breath, and was gone.

  Over the side, a splash and a scream, or maybe it was the other way round. But the launch was already alongside and they were pulling her in. Now one of those goons pulled out a gun. A gun! The things you saw. The other stopped him, though, putting out his hand and shaking his head. That thug was all set to fire until then.

  The RIB raced off, back towards Tokyo. The searchlights followed, turning their wake a huge white scar on the water, but what can you do? The affairs of the passengers were nothing to do with the crew, but the captain wouldn’t be pleased they’d stolen his rescue boat.

  Never mind, though. They had another.

  Chapter 35

  While Rose steered the boat at full pelt back up Tokyo Bay, the others dried off the shivering Mirai as best they could and wrapped her in the towels they’d brought from the room.

  “Is she still shivering?” asked Rose, intent on the horizon.

  “A little,” said James.

  “Get her clothes off if you have to.” She sensed him looking round at her. “Well, it’s her clothes that are making her cold.”

  “We don’t have anything for her to change into. All we have is our own clothes. We’re keeping her wrapped up.”

  “Get something over her hair.”

  The two of them manhandled a towel, practically smothering the woman. Mirai ended up taking it off them and wrapping it herself. She was okay.

  “You did brilliantly,” James said.

  “Yes you did, Mirai. Well done,” said Rose.

  Whatever Tomo said in Mirai’s ear put some colour in her cheeks as well.

  “Where exactly are we heading?” James asked Rose.

  “The nearest bit of land that isn’t the port we just came from,” said Rose. “All this bay area is built-up – roads, trains – we should be able to get somewhere from anywhere along the shore.”

  James gazed anxiously behind.

  “See anything?” asked Rose.

  “No. You think they’ll come after us?”

  “If they can, but they’d need something fast enough. They might call the authorities and claim that we’re pirates or something, but I doubt it. Not with a dead body on board.”

  “So we’re probably okay?”

  “Probably. Unless they have access to something like a drone or a helicopter. Didn’t see anything like that. Or…”

  She felt James stiffen next to her.

  “What?”

  “I think I see a light.”

  “Could it be another ship?”

  “It’s a white light, not green or red. Or what?”

  “Sorry?”

  “You were going to say something.”

  “Or, they could have another rescue boat stashed away somewhere. A spare. That might be a problem.”

  She glanced behind. It was a long way off, but the light was steady, pointing their way.

  “Is it getting closer?” she asked.

  All three of them were looking back now. James waited a while before answering. “Yes. Slowly. Can we go any faster?”

  “I don’t think so. That doesn’t help.” Rose pointed to a section of the inflatable bow that was flapping in the headwind. “The knife caught it when we sprung the crew.”

  James stared at it. “We’re not going to sink, are we?”

  “No. But it’s slowing us down.” She pushed the gear to try and get more speed. The bow tipped up sideways. Mirai gasped and James reached out to grab something. Rose pulled back on the gear and they straightened. “This is as fast as we can go. We just have to hope we get to land before they catch us.”

  They carried on. The engine was whining. The rigid underside of the boat thumped on the swell. In the distance, a trail of lights along the horizon emerged.

  “Land up ahead,” she said. “It’s not far.”

  “Well, it had better not be,” said James. “They won’t be shy about using a gun out here.”

  “I don’t think they were shy before,” said Rose. She’d wondered if anyone else had noticed the yakuza drawing his gun on the deck of the ship. “They don’t want to accidentally hit you. You’re our ticket out of here, golden boy.”

  “Go
lden boy? You used to call me that when you were twelve years old!”

  “Well, you always were the favourite child.”

  “No I wasn’t! You just told yourself that. It was an excuse to act up.”

  “No, it was real. Mum preferred you.”

  A pause. “Well, maybe. But Dad preferred you. I think he saw you as the man of the family.”

  They briefly exchanged glances. Rose had forgotten about all this shared history, decided years ago that it was unimportant.

  “How close are they now?” she asked.

  He glanced back. “Oh, hell. Closer.”

  “Compared to the shore we’re heading for?”

  He looked back and forth. “They’re further away than that. But they’re gaining on us. It’ll be tight.”

  The lights in front became more distinctive – street lights along a highway. It was flat; all the land surrounding the harbour was reclaimed. In front of the road was a concrete drop and a uniform line of boulders, too narrow to form a beach. Her best play was to drive the boat as far up onto land as possible so they could jump out. As the rocks got larger in front of them, she kept going towards them full throttle. She glanced behind. They were close enough now that you could see a boat, not just a light. Possibly within firing range but they weren’t trying that, at least not yet.

  James kept looking across at her. “You are planning on slowing down at some point, aren’t you?” he said.

  “You want them to catch us?”

  “No, but we can’t just plough through a bank of rocks.”

  “Not through them. Onto them.”

  “Without flipping over, or some such thing?”

  “Ideally not. But you’d better hang on. All of you. Twenty seconds.”

  They all reached for the rope grabs around the inflatable layer.

  “Ten seconds,” said Rose. She risked a glance over her shoulder. “Shit.” They were close.

  “This is too fast, Rose.” James sounded stressed.

  “Five seconds.”

  “Slow down, for God’s sake!”

  Two seconds out she slammed into reverse. The engine howled. They lurched forward and jolted to a complete stop with enough force to cause a whiplash injury. Something snapped at the back: the rudder, probably. But they were on the rocks, not pansying around in the water trying to wade in.

  “Go! Go!” she shouted, jumping out and clambering up to the concrete wall. She looked back. They had about a minute before the other boat made land. The wall was no more than three feet high. They hoisted themselves up. Then came a boardwalk, a line of grass and the highway. There was no traffic. Rose ran across, trusting that the others were right behind. Now they had a problem – a wire fence. She fished in her coat for wire cutters – they were only the size of nail clippers but with a ratchet grip that made them surprisingly powerful. She attacked the fence from the bottom up. As the others ran up she’d cut about eight inches.

  “It’s enough.” They pulled the wire up and twisted it out of the way. She dropped and slid under on her belly. As the others followed she looked back. The other boat was now on the shore. Four or five figures were getting out, one of them looking like Milo. That might slow them down a bit, she hoped.

  They climbed up to a raised railway line that looked like a monorail, then across another road. A steep drop took them down to a promenade and more water. On one side was a building made of stone with battlements along the top like a castle. Directly opposite was some kind of dome, in front of which futuristic catamaran-like craft sat on the water. Off to the right was a ship, but it looked small, somehow, and old-fashioned.

  Mirai put her hand in front of her mouth. At first Rose thought it was shock, but it wasn’t. It was a delighted recognition. Tomo was looking at her, smiling. It was the first time she’d seen either of them look remotely happy.

  “Mirai, what is it? Tomo? Where are we?”

  Mirai turned, looking suddenly elated like a little girl. “Disneyland! This is Disneyland!”

  “Oh, golly!” That was James.

  “Tell me this is good news,” said Rose.

  “It’s good news. I know Disneyland. I know Disneyland! This way!”

  Mirai ran along the promenade. The others followed.

  Chapter 36

  In the early hours of the morning, a helicopter navigating with night vision entered airspace over Tokyo Bay and hovered over a cargo ship that was previously heading away from port but for some time had been sitting with its engines idle. A number of figures dropped from ropes onto the top of the superstructure. The copter withdrew but stayed close, a constant background thrum. The running and shouting on the ship was brief, and not witnessed by anyone else. It was soon over.

  Considering Zack was in charge, it was a very restrained, low-key affair. The lead team went straight for the bridge and took control. Others worked systematically down the superstructure, taking everyone they found to the galley, the biggest room in the tower. Fairchild and Rapp were sent to the bridge. Fairchild intended to stick to the woman like glue, and she seemed to feel just as untrusting towards him. So while the cabin doors were booted open one by one, all Fairchild could do was monitor what was going on via his radio earpiece.

  The bridge crew was secured and under guard. The captain was offering no resistance. How could he? This was a civilian cargo ship being raided by an armed group. Without the blessing of the Japanese government, this could be considered piracy. Did they have such a blessing? They could only hope Gardner and Barclay’s work that evening would ensure continued ministerial support. There were Japanese hostages too, after all. The crew, on the other hand, seemed to be mainly Filipino. The captain was; he spoke very good English.

  Rapp drew Fairchild away. “Okay, you got what you wanted,” she said. “Now spill.”

  “He calls himself Milo,” said Fairchild. “He’s Hungarian. I’ve got his real life ID as well. I’ll share it with you at some point.”

  Rapp radioed that to Zack.

  “Roger that. Hungarian.” Zack was in the galley looking over whoever was being taken there.

  “That’s it?” said Rapp to Fairchild. “An online name? Big deal.”

  “That’s not it. Like I said, I have the proof of who he really is. We can use that when we talk to him. We have him in the palm of our hands.”

  She didn’t look impressed. Fairchild walked away from her to look down onto the cargo deck. Soldiers were working their way over it, torches flashing. He turned to the captain.

  “Does the deck have floodlights?”

  The captain nodded towards the control panels which he couldn’t reach from the chair he was tied to.

  Fairchild radioed Zack. “Do you want more light on deck? They have floodlights.”

  “Sure.”

  “Show me,” he said to the captain, walking over to the console.

  “On the right,” said the captain. “The white switches.” Fairchild flicked them all, and the deck burst into light.

  The captain’s face was showing fear or anger, it was hard to tell which.

  “We’re not here to hurt anyone,” said Fairchild.

  “Who are you?”

  “Americans. FBI.”

  He didn’t seem overly impressed. “What do you want with us?”

  “With the crew, nothing. It’s your passengers we’re interested in. Some of them aren’t here of their own free will.”

  “You’re not American.”

  “You’re not a hostage-taker. But I guess we have our roles to play.”

  His earpiece exploded with shouting. Stressed voices yelling orders. On the ground! Now!

  “Update,” said Zack from the galley.

  “Weapons found in a cabin. Handguns. They’ve been disarmed.”

  “Everybody heard that,” said Zack.

  Fairchild turned to the captain. “You have guns aboard this ship.”

  The captain shook his head.

  “Well, you do. We just found them. T
hey were pointing at us, it seems.”

  “I wasn’t aware.”

  The next sound in his ear was like a punch in the gut.

  “We have a body. Confirmed. Not breathing. Body on the third floor.”

  He took a look at the captain. “I don’t suppose you were aware of the dead body, either.”

  He ran for the stairwell. Rapp shouted after him but he ignored her. The radio was still going: Gunshot wounds to the chest. His feet hammered on the stairs.

  “Who is it? Do we have an ID?” Zack’s voice was sober.

  “Young male.”

  Fairchild had reached the third floor. His chest constricted. He bent over. He couldn’t get air into his body. He sank against the wall. It wasn’t Rose. It wasn’t her. He could forget the images his brain had made of her lying bloodstained in a dark cabin. He closed his eyes and made a forced effort to relax. With a long slow breath he filled his lungs. His heart rate began to slow. He sat, feeling weak. Rapp hadn’t come after him; she wouldn’t want to leave the bridge. Fairchild gave it a few more seconds and climbed to his feet. He felt sick but forced it back. He opened the door to the third floor and strode along the corridor. A soldier was standing by an open door.

  “This the body?” asked Fairchild.

  “Yep.”

  Fairchild leaned closer. It was one of the Japanese hackers, one of the students. He got on the radio.

  “Zack, where are these hostages, for Christ’s sake? Have we searched every floor?”

  Zack came back. “Yes, we’ve searched every floor. You’d better get down here. Rapp as well.”

  The galley held the entire crew except for those who were on the bridge. There were about thirty of them, dour-looking Asian men watching everything. There were also four guys who were Japanese mafia, judging from their muscle and tattoos. They were being held separately with a much more significant guard. Fairchild arrived at the same time as Rapp.

  “See any Hungarians here?” Zack asked them. “Or any of our hostages?”

  Fairchild looked round. “They’re not on board.”

  “We’ve looked everywhere?” asked Rapp.