Kusaka chuckled and smiled. “Well, well, so much for the CIA. I should have known Bernatto’s dogs would screw things up. The man never gets his own hands dirty.”
“You should have taken care of me yourself,” Caine said.
Kusaka shrugged. “I take it my chauffeur isn’t coming back?”
“Occupational hazard. He picked the wrong employer.”
Kusaka eyed a leather-bound briefcase near his feet. “Is this about money? I can pay, you know. As much as you’d like.”
Caine’s lips curled into a sardonic smile. “I’m glad to hear that. Here.” He removed a smartphone from his pocket and handed it to Kusaka.
The older man looked at the screen. A banking app filled the tiny screen. It was set up to authorize a large transfer of money from one of his corporate funds to an unnamed Swiss account. The sum was sizable, but to a man of Kusaka’s wealth, it was nothing.
“That’s it?” he asked. “Why didn’t you just say so? Son, you should be working for me, I could pay you this every week.”
“It’s not for me, Kusaka-san. It’s for Hitomi. And it’s enough. Enough for her to live a normal, happy life. Small enough that no one will come looking for her. Now, please enter your account information and authorize the transaction.”
“How do you even know she’s alive?”
“I’ve had you under surveillance since this afternoon. I saw you load her into the trunk. I know you’ve drugged her. I know she’s alive. Kusaka-san, please, don’t waste my time. I told you before, I’ve dealt with men like you. Trust me when I say, eventually I will get what I want. The only question is how much pain you suffer first.”
Kusaka looked Caine in the eye, and his joking demeanor dissolved. “Yes, you did say that. You also said that you’ve stared death in the face, Caine-san. I can see now that’s true. When you look into the abyss, into the darkness like that … it changes you. It changed my father. He was never whole after his war. So, what did you see, Caine-san?”
Caine cocked the pistol. “Why don’t you tell me, Kusaka-san? What do you see right now?”
Kusaka stared at him another moment, then took a long, slow sip of his scotch. This time, he savored the flavor. It was exquisite. It tasted of wood, and earth, and soil. Of rain, and sun, and light. A woman’s perfumed skin. Sweat and blood. It tasted of life, and everything he held dear. He swirled the liquid in his mouth, then swallowed. He thought of the darkness that awaited him.
“Tell her … tell her I’m sorry,” he said. His hands trembled as he entered some numbers into the phone and tossed it to Caine. He watched as the man checked the screen, then slid it back in his pocket.
“Do you want to know?” Kusaka asked. “Do you want to know why I—”
Caine’s emerald eyes didn’t blink as he pulled the trigger. A loud pop, like a champagne bottle being uncorked, filled the limo. A bright red hole decorated Kusaka’s forehead. The old man gasped his last breath. He slumped forward, and his precious scotch sloshed across the seat. A tiny droplet of the amber liquid dripped down his finger and fell into nothingness.
Caine opened the trunk of the limo. The harsh glare of the trunk light illuminated a black body bag, stuffed between a few small suitcases. He unzipped the bag, revealing the face of Hitomi, angelic in her stillness.
Her eyes were closed, and her skin was deathly pale. For a moment, Caine worried that Kusaka had given her an overdose of whatever tranquilizer she was on. He pressed a finger to her neck and felt a faint pulse. He unzipped the bag further, only to discover she was naked.
He yanked out a suitcase and rummaged around until he found a large jacket. He wrapped it around her, lifted her from the bag, and set her down on the cold pavement. He gently slapped her cheek.
“Hitomi, wake up. Come on. It’s me, Tom. You’re safe now. Wake up.”
Hitomi uttered a soft moan. She turned her head, and her breath became stronger. He lifted her to a sitting position. She trembled as the cold air washed over her. She pulled the coat tighter.
Caine brushed her hair back from her face. “Are you okay? Dai joba desu ka?”
She nodded and coughed. “Hai. Dai jobo desu.”
Her body shook as she struggled to stand, and Caine helped her to her feet. She looked over at the limo. The rear window was splattered with blood. “You … you came back for me? Why?”
Caine contemplated her and her question, struggling to find words. Finally, he cleared his throat. “I came to Japan to find you,” he said. “I couldn’t leave until I did.”
Her eyes cleared slightly as the haze of drugs wore off. She nodded. “I see. Thank you.”
She watched in silence as Caine removed a gasoline can from the limo. Putting the vehicle in neutral, he rolled it to the edge of the road. He used a road flare to ignite the gasoline, tossed it in the car, then pushed it over the edge of the chasm.
The burning limo briefly illuminated the road as it teetered over the abyss. The fire drove away the shadows and bathed Caine and Hitomi in a warm, flickering light.
Then it plunged down into the darkness of the valley. Its burning glow disappeared from sight.
Caine watched for a few more minutes, then he turned and looked for Hitomi. She was wandering away from him, disappearing into the fog. “Hitomi!” he called after her. “Hey, wait! Where are you going?”
She didn’t answer. All he could hear were his own words, echoing back to him through the empty night.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Isato Yoshizawa was buried in Yanaka Cemetery in the Taito ward of Tokyo, just north of Ueno. Caine had been to the cemetery before, in April, when the famous cherry trees exploded into bloom. They covered the grounds with electric pink blossoms, giving the cemetery road the nickname “Cherry Tree Alley.” But now, in the fall, the gnarled trees were black and austere.
The funeral service was for family members only. In Isato’s case, that meant a motley assortment of blood relatives, yakuza bosses, and other gang members affiliated with the Yoshizawa family. Caine was not invited, but Koichi met up with him afterwards at a small shabu shabu restaurant, in nearby Asakusa.
They sat cross-legged on floor cushions while a pot of broth boiled on the low table in front of them. They cooked mountains of local vegetables in the savory liquid and dipped paper-thin cuts of beef in a slice at a time. The thin, perfectly cooked meat absorbed the tangy sauce, and each bite burst with flavor.
Caine washed his food down with a cold Asahi beer, while Koichi made small talk about the funeral.
“You wouldn’t believe it,” the old man said, after shoveling another helping of rice and vegetables into his mouth. “The row of cars must have been a hundred long. All American. Cadillacs, Lincolns, one guy even had an old El Camino. You know how much it costs to import those things? You’re practically doubling the price!”
Caine nodded, slurping down some udon noodles. “Yoshizawa-san had a lot of friends.”
Koichi shook his head. “Bah. Friends? Half the people there had threatened to kill him at one time or another. In the yakuza, your value isn’t measured by the quality of your friends. It’s the quality of your enemies that makes you a man.”
After the meal, Koichi ordered another round of drinks. Caine took a sip of his beer, then stared at Koichi. The older man sucked in air through his teeth. “Go ahead. Ask. I know you’ve been avoiding the question.”
“I thought it would be rude to be so direct.”
Koichi smiled. “For a gaijin, your manners are definitely improving.”
“All right. What’s going to happen to Kenji?”
Koichi sighed. “It’s a complicated matter. Kenji is neither yakuza nor civilian. He tried to walk a line between the two lives. Maybe in the end, that saved him; I don’t know. At any rate, the Yamaguchi-gumi council decided to let him live. They ordered him to leave Japan. He should be out of the country already. They gave him twenty-four hours. Then they reported the murder to the police and turned over the videotape
evidence. In essence, they’ve banished him. They made it clear, if he ever comes back or interferes with yakuza business in any way, he’d better pray the police find him first.”
Caine nodded. “Sounds like he got off pretty easy, all things considered.”
Koichi cocked his head and gave Caine a strange look. “Do you think so? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s a terrible thing to live like that. To lose your dreams and your reality in one stroke. Myself, I think I’d rather just die and get it over with.”
“And the Yoshizawa clan? You guys still in business?”
Koichi shifted on his cushion. “Well, with Bobu gone, Tokyo Black is finished. I’m sure a few of his more fanatic followers will scurry off and try to regroup. But the yakuza wants nothing to do with them. The Yoshizawa clan will absorb the remains of the Shimizu organization. And, for the time being at least, I’ve been appointed Chairman.”
Caine toasted Koichi with his beer and took a sip. “I know it’s not how you would have wanted it to happen, but congratulations anyway.”
Koichi sipped his beer. “So, you heard from your friend? The one in Thailand?”
Caine knew that was as much as Koichi would divulge about matters concerning the Yoshizawa family. He took the hint and allowed the change of subject.
“Yeah, Rebecca. She finally got through to me. She’s all right. Well, she’s alive anyway. The doctors in Thailand said she was hurt pretty badly in the explosion, but she managed to escape. And she took out one of Bernatto’s hired killers in the process, so I guess she did okay.”
Koichi nodded. “Sounds like a woman I wouldn’t want to piss off.”
Caine laughed. “Well, too late for that. We have some history there.”
“You have history here, too. Will you be staying in Japan?”
Caine shook his head. “The Japanese and American governments both want me out of the country for a while, for obvious reasons.”
Koichi nodded. “Well, there’s always next time. Soon you’ll come back and liven up an old man’s life again, eh?”
Caine sipped his beer in silence. He stared at the knots and whorls of the wood table. The slab of oak was probably older than he was.
“Maybe I should have stayed away,” he said. “I can’t help but feel like somehow I’m responsible for what happened. To Kenji, to Isato … hell, even Rebecca. It’s as if … somehow, I’m tainted. Everything I touch, everyone I care about … when I’m around, they get hurt.”
Koichi shrugged. “You left things unfinished before. You had to come back, to tie up loose ends. And what if you had stayed away? What would have changed? Kusaka would have succeeded, innocent people would have died. Nothing would have changed for Kenji or Isato. They made their choices; they chose their fate. Just as we all do.”
Caine nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe I never should have come here in the first place. Maybe things would have been better if I never got involved in this family.”
“Oh, you think so? If Kenji had died that night, I would have given up more than my finger. Protecting the oyabun and his family was my responsibility. If I had failed, and Kenji had died due to my negligence, the price would have been my life—a price I would have gladly paid.”
Koichi took a long sip of beer and sighed. “I’ll tell you something else. Maybe he didn’t know how to show it, but Isato loved Kenji. If he could have somehow seen the future, if he knew that letting Kenji die that night would have stopped all of this from happening…. Well, I don’t know much, but I knew that old gangster well. Better than my own father. And I tell you, he would not have traded a second of the time you gave him. Time to see Kenji grow up, go to school, become a man…. No matter how things turned out, Isato would not have given up those years for anything, in this world or the next.”
They were silent for a moment. Caine listened to the clacking of chopsticks and plates. The soft bubbling of the boiling pots filled the restaurant. The sounds were soothing, and he felt the melancholy fog begin to lift from his mind.
“Hey, what about that lady cop?” Koichi asked. “What was her name?”
“Mariko.” Caine checked his watch. “Actually, I should get going. I’m meeting her for dinner later tonight.”
Koichi insisted on paying the bill and tossed some yen from his wallet on the table. The two men stood and shook hands. As they walked out of the restaurant, Koichi slapped him on the back.
“You know, you think too much, Caine-san. All this talk of the past, the future, destiny … what is all that about? Me, I’m just an old gangster. The word ‘yakuza’ comes from a losing hand of cards…. That’s what we are, the losers, the outcasts of polite society. So what do I know?
“Well, I’ll tell you. The past and the future belong to the gods—or spirits, science, whatever you choose to believe in. You and me, we’re just men. And all a man has is this moment in time, right now, staring us in the face. True, it’s not much. Just one fraction of a second after another. But it’s enough. At any moment, you could change your life. But then again, at any moment, the ride might be over, and then you have to pay the price for your ticket.”
Caine caught a cab outside and looked back at Koichi as he drove off. The old man leaned on his cane and waved. Then he turned and walked down the street, flanked on either side by black, gnarled trees.
The night was clear, and the jeweled lights of Shinjuku were a dazzling sight. The glittering carpet of stars spread across the inky black velvet of the dark city streets. Caine knew there were alleys of death and ugliness hidden between the points of light. But still, he could not begrudge the view from the towering windows of the New York Bar, perched at the top of the Park Hyatt Tokyo.
“Quite a view, isn’t it?” Mariko’s voice was relaxed. Soothing.
Caine turned away from the window and gazed at her across the candlelit table. “Well, it’s not as impressive as the view I got at Skytree tower.” Even as he joked, he felt his stomach tremble as he recalled the dizzying sight of the city beneath his dangling feet.
Mariko laughed. The flickering candle reflected in her dark eyes, highlighting their newfound warmth and openness. The cold intensity of her stare seemed to have melted away. Her smiles looked natural, genuine.
Caine knew that, like him, Mariko had been touched by darkness. And when darkness had left its mark on you, moments of brightness could be brief and short-lived. He hoped Mariko’s would last. He liked seeing her smile. It chased away some of his own dark thoughts about the last few days.
Her white silk cocktail dress wrapped around her like a kimono. The dip-dyed fabric faded to a dark black where the hem ended above her knees. A thin black band of black fabric cinched the dress closed at her waist. Caine thought it suited her. Sleek and modern, but somehow traditional at the same time.
Her hair fell in dark silken waves around her face, and she wore no jewelry. Caine realized that he was staring and smiled. He had to admit, she was even more beautiful than the spectacular view out the window.
“So, I assume you’ll be back on duty again soon?” Caine asked.
She sipped her wine and shook her head. “I don’t know. We’ll see. The Security Branch has convened a special anti-corruption task force. The director, Taro, and many others, they’ll all face charges. After I testify before the committee, they said they would revisit the matter of my suspension.”
“Revisit the matter? Your boss was a dirty cop. You saved the city!”
She nodded. “Yes, but it’s not that simple. I disobeyed my superiors. I broke the law. I detained and even killed with no legal authority. I may lose my badge when this is all over as well.”
Caine shook his head. “You did what you had to do. You were the only one willing to do your duty. Everyone was against you, even the people you were supposed to be able to count on. It just doesn’t seem right.”
“Caine-san,” Mariko said, her voice quiet and thoughtful, “duty always has a price. Anything of value does. I had a duty to the Security Branch, but I also
had a duty to my family. To my mother and sister. Now, that duty has been fulfilled. I am free. I know they can rest easy. If this is the price….”
Caine nodded. “It’s a price you’re happy to pay. I think I understand. And, for God’s sake, please call me Tom.”
She smiled again. “Tell me about the girl, Hitomi. What happened to her?”
“Well, to be honest, I don’t exactly know. Rebecca, my handler, said she would arrange for the girl to get a visa and passport. I know she left Japan, but I don’t know where she went. She didn’t say goodbye, not that I blame her. I’m sure she wants to start over, put all this behind her. Thanks to Kusaka, she has enough money to start a life anywhere she chooses.”
Mariko shuddered, and Caine regretted bringing up Kusaka’s name. But then the song changed, and the music seemed to brighten the mood.
“So, this is it,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s over. You know, right now, at this moment, I honestly don’t care what happens to my job at the Security Branch. I’ve given them enough of my life. I feel like that night we met in that bar, that was another person, another life. Mariko Smith … she’s gone now. I’m a different person.”
They stopped talking as the waiter cleared away their dishes and refilled their wine glasses. A piano played soft, quiet jazz, as Caine leaned back in his chair. He took a sip of his dark red cabernet. Like the food, it was exquisite. Perfect.
“So, this is where you wanted me to take you?” Caine asked. “You know, it’s funny, I checked into this hotel the first night I got to Japan. And I haven’t spent a second here since.”
Mariko was quiet for a second. She sipped her wine, then looked up at Caine. Her dark eyes were like liquid onyx in the warm glow of the candlelight.
“No, Tom, I took you here because I thought you would like it, but this is not where I wanted you to take me. I want to go back to that love hotel in Shinjuku. I haven’t thought about going to a place like that in years. Now, tonight … after all this, I can’t think about anything else.”
[Thomas Caine #1] Tokyo Black Page 28