Outside Forces

by R E Swirsky

CHAPTER 39

  Tuesday 15:50 Paris, France

  “Got him, Nate,” Jack said. “We’ve marked Kaito.”

  Diane was still upset with Nathaniel for disappearing to meet his so-called business friend and had taken both girls down to the spa after a quiet dinner, leaving him alone to sit and wait for them to return. It was her way of punishing him for disappearing for most of the day. At the moment, he was holed up in the hotel lounge nursing a French Chablis as he waited. Being punished this way really wasn’t so bad.

  “Great. Where is he?”

  “He’s in Victoria. Caught him doing a drive-by past Metcalf’s place. We tracked him back to a hotel about a kilometre away.”

  “Is he alone?”

  “Hell, no. He’s got a couple of bad-asses with him. If my instincts are correct, I’d say they’re carrying.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “No, it’s not. I’m not carrying and I don’t want to be anywhere near either of these men if something’s going down.”

  “Antonio will be packing.”

  “I don’t care if Antonio’s packing. I’ve never been this close to any action, and that’s the way I prefer it. I’m practically retired.”

  “Are Lucas and Myles with you at least?”

  “They’re over at the hotel watching Kaito. We’re outside Metcalf’s, and Antonio’s tracking something inside…hold on a sec.”

  Mumbles and quiet chatter between Jack and Antonia drifted through the phone.

  “Antonio’s getting something, but it’s not very clear. It sounds like Metcalf’s wife, Cindy. Something about a boy, but it’s not clear. Might be that Michael boy again. We’ll monitor and let you know if there’s anything of interest. I just wanted to let you know that we finally got a mark on our man.”

  “It’s the best news I’ve had in three days. Thanks, Jack.”

  Nathaniel hung up and motioned to the bar hostess for another Chablis. There was a lot to think about, starting with the message he left Kaito a few hours ago. What was his friend waiting for? Nathaniel’s drink came as he looked at the time. The girls would be back in less than an hour, and Diane had yet more plans for an evening walkabout. Nathaniel had no desire to go walking through the streets of Paris after dark, but it filled the time as he worried about ending the Kaito saga.

  Nathaniel’s phone vibrated on the table. It was Kaito.

  “It’s about time you called back.”

  Kaito laughed.

  “I don’t see any humour in this.”

  “You want to know why I laugh? It’s because you lie, Nate.”

  “Why didn’t you return my calls?”

  “You lied about my son.”

  “I asked you a question, Kaito. Why wouldn’t you return my calls?”

  “You know why.”

  “I don’t know why. All I want is for this to end. It’s got to stop.”

  Kaito laughed again. “See? That’s what I’m talking about.” His responses were odd, not at all useful for what needed to be said to move the conversation forward.

  “You want your son back?”

  “Come on now, Nate. You know I do. It hasn’t been easy letting you take my son, trying to make me believe he did something I know he didn’t do.”

  Wait a second, Nate thought. Was Kaito admitting he set his son up to take a fall? Was that the reason he didn’t reply to any of Nathaniel’s calls until now?

  “You killed an innocent girl.”

  “I didn’t kill anyone.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Seriously, Nate. I only encouraged her to climb a mountain. That was the extent of it. The rest…well, it was fate, you could say. I never touched her, and just so I can be clear about crossing the line, your men…” he stopped and laughed again, “…I mean the Order’s men—none of them pushed her off any mountain.”

  He was being much too deceptive.

  “So you see, my friend, you can rest easy knowing this fall from the mountain was nothing more than an accident.”

  Yeah, just like it was laid out in the papers. He didn’t think so. What was Kaito really up to?

  “About your son.…”

  “You took my son and then threatened to kill him.”

  “I never.…”

  Kaito interrupted. “You told me in no uncertain terms that you were prepared to do whatever necessary, and if that meant terminating my son, you were willing and ready to go down that path.”

  “C’mon, Kaito. You call me up out of the blue to tell me you mixed Taka in with our men on a job. What was I supposed to do? And he goes by Johnny now, just so you know.”

  “He’ll always be Takahiro to me. His mother picked that name for him. She insisted on naming him after my father.”

  “Fine.” He wanted to repeat what Johnny had told him but refrained for the time being.

  “You were my friend, Nate.”

  Now where was he going? Nate wondered.

  “I’m still your friend. That’s the only reason why your son is still alive.”

  “I mean a real friend. Remember our trip out to the Okanogan?”

  That was two years ago. Both families camped in rented RVs near the lake where Kaito kept his boat. It was a good time. Not great, just good.

  “I remember.”

  Kaito laughed again, but wait—was it a laugh? It almost sounded like he was crying.

  “She left me, Nate.”

  “Lena?”

  “After Reina died.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know.” It had been a year since Reina drowned in their backyard pool, and the families had not managed a single get-together since.

  Kaito’s voice broke as he spoke. “Yeah, she left me last fall.”

  Even though it felt like the proper thing to do, apologizing for not knowing was the furthest thing he was prepared to do at the moment. Kaito had never called him about it and he even sidestepped answering when asked last Friday how Lena was doing. She’s fine, I guess was his reply.

  “Is there anything I can do?” It was the best he could offer up.

  “You could give me my son back.” His brief emotional breakdown had ended.

  Why was Kaito still being so blatantly manipulative? He hoped it wasn’t on purpose, and moved back to the topic at hand.

  “Why are you in Victoria?”

  “So you’re following me now?”

  “What did you expect? Does your business there include Harvey Metcalf?” He knew it did.

  Kaito had composed himself and chuckled lightly. “What business I may or may not have with Harvey Metcalf is between him and me.”

  “As a friend, I’m asking you to back away from Metcalf.”

  “Me? Nate, c’mon.”

  “I mean it. Haven’t you done enough? Whatever it is you two have going on with each other, it has to stop.”

  “There’s nothing going on.”

  “Then go home.”

  “I can’t do that. Not yet.”

  “His daughter’s dead. Isn’t that enough?” He gave Kaito time to answer, but Kaito remained silent. “You need to go back home.”

  “Or else what?”

  It was time to play ball. Kaito was not going home on his own.

  “You do want your son back, don’t you?”

  “Nate, Nate, Nate.” His voice was boisterous and almost jovial. He sniffed once and Nathaniel could tell his upbeat manner was forced. “I know you too well. You’re not going to do anything to my son. I know you.”

  “You really are putting me in a difficult spot here,” Nathaniel said.

  Kaito interrupted him again. “You know why you won’t do anything to my son?”

  The question was rhetorical. He didn’t answer.

  “Because my son never did anything wrong, but I’m sure he already told you that. And I think you believe him.” Kaito gave him time to digest the suggestion. “As I said before, I know you Nate. You can’t have my boy taken out if there is even the slightest chance that
he’s innocent. Know what I mean? And I’m telling you now, he isn’t guilty of anything.”

  “He knows who our men are. You said so yourself.” Kaito’s assumption that he had spoken with Johnny came as a surprise.

  “But to have him murdered for something he didn’t even know he was doing. Ta, ta, ta. Now that’s something different, and I know you’re not that kind of man. You know enough of what happened since Friday night to no longer make the claim that you had no idea what was going on, but you still don’t know everything. You didn’t have to step into this one, but you did. I was handling everything just fine on my own. So how ’bout I explain the rest? I can fill in the details of how it went down on the mountain and then you’ll know what went on and why you can’t touch my boy.”

  Listening to anyone describe the events detailing the takedown of a target was against every instinct he had and every rule he was ever taught. Plausible deniability was everything in this business. One level down was the golden rule, but at the speed this mess was spiralling around him, there was no point in resisting. He already knew too much, and this one had become personal. Geordie’s haunting words returned—there’s no place for friends in our business.

  “Okay, but…I need a moment,” Nathaniel said. He felt nauseous but for no other reason than what he was preparing to hear. Kaito’s emotions seemed to be filled with ever-changing lows and highs, and at the moment Kaito was soaring towards the atmosphere. Nate motioned over to the hostess and requested a drink much stronger than a Chablis.

  “Only you could appreciate the irony of it all,” Kaito said exuberantly, as if he had been waiting for this moment for days. “Shall I begin?”

  PART IV