The Man With The Red Tattoo

by Benson, Raymond

  “I just need a few minutes of your time. I’ll pay you.”

  She considered this a moment, looked back into the hallway, then shut the door. “What’s your name?” she asked.

  Bond didn’t mind telling her the truth. “James.”

  She sat beside him and crossed her legs. Bond could see why a girl like her could make a fortune. She was practically perfect in every way.

  “So what do you want to talk about, James?”

  NINETEEN

  SECRETS

  “LISTEN TO ME, MAYUMI,” BOND SAID. “I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU.”

  The girl’s eyes widened. “Who are you? How did you know my name?”

  “My name is Bond. James Bond. I work for the British government. I’ve come to take you home.”

  At first she almost burst out laughing. “Are you crazy?” she asked. Then her demeanour changed and her eyes flashed with anger. “Did my father send you?” she spat. She stood and put her hands on her hips.

  “In a way,” Bond replied. “Calm down and listen to me.”

  “No. Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can just waltz in here and take me home? Do you know who runs this place? Do you have any idea what they would do to you if they knew you were talking to me like this?”

  “Please, Mayumi, just listen to me for a minute.”

  She looked appraisingly at him for a moment, and said, “All right. I’m listening. I’ll give you a minute but talk fast. You should know that all I have to do is push the button on the intercom over there if you cause any trouble.”

  “Can they hear us?” Bond asked.

  “No.”

  “You had better sit down.”

  “I’m fine right here.”

  “Very well, then I shall tell you straight out. Your parents are dead.”

  Mayumi looked as if she had been slapped. “What?”

  “Your parents and both of your sisters are dead. I’m sorry. I was hoping I would be able to break the news to you gently, but you didn’t give me much choice.”

  She moved to the bed and sat beside him.

  “How did it happen?” she whispered, obviously shocked.

  “We’re pretty sure that the Ryujin-kai killed them.”

  She looked at him with disbelief in her eyes.

  “Yes, the people who run this place, the men who employ you. They did it. The yakuza you work for. They wanted to take over your father’s company. Your great uncle was a part of it. He’s dead now, too.”

  Mayumi trembled a little. She swallowed and asked, “When … when did all this happen?”

  “About a week ago.”

  “A week ago?” She stood again and began to pace around the room. “Why didn’t anyone tell me? How come I didn’t know?”

  “Mayumi, it was in all the papers and on the news.”

  “I don’t look at any of that stuff,” she said.

  Bond considered whether or not he should risk blasting his way out of there and taking her with him. What were the odds? There were the two men at the front. There could be others. Did he want to cause a disturbance at this point? Was there another way? It would certainly be better to get her out discreetly and quietly.

  “Why don’t you sit down?” he urged.

  “I don’t want to sit down!”

  She was obviously very upset about the news, but was struggling to master her emotions. The girl obviously had a fiery resolve; she was used to being in control in this room and was fiercely resisting Bond taking it from her.

  “Mayumi,” he said, “can we leave and talk somewhere else?”

  “No,” she said. “They’ve been keeping me here for the past two days. They won’t let me leave the building. I’ve been staying in a room upstairs. I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Did they give you a reason why you couldn’t leave or work?”

  “They said my life was in danger. I was told that it was some business-related thing between a jealous client and Kubo, the manager here. Apparently this client threatened to have me killed because I’m the Casanova Club’s most valuable asset. Kubo said that I had to stay here for a few days and not go home because my apartment was being watched.”

  “Mayumi, your life is just as much in danger if you stay here.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she studied him. He could see the thoughts passing through her head. Could he be trusted? Was he telling the truth? What was this really about?

  She sat down again on the bed. “Tell me what is going on.”

  Bond took her hand. “My government sent me to Japan to investigate your parents’ deaths. They died of a deadly man-made virus manufactured by Yonai Enterprises. They needed your father’s company for its technology—specifically, the virus itself—and they use genetically engineered mosquitoes to transmit it.”

  “But why … why my mother and sisters, too?”

  “So no one but Fujimoto would control the family’s stock. The board of directors was free to agree to a merger with Yonai. Your great uncle masterminded the plan, then he was killed by the Ryujin-kai, after he had outlived his usefulness.”

  “This is too incredible …” she whispered. His words were beginning to sink in.

  “I’ve been asked to bring you back to Tokyo,” he continued. “With you back in the picture, the merger could be made void. To tell you the truth, I find it amazing that you’re still alive.”

  “But I don’t want to go back to Tokyo. Especially now. Besides, from what you’re telling me, the Ryujin-kai is not going to let me go even if I wanted to.”

  “Mayumi, don’t you see that you’re a slave?” Bond said.

  Those words seemed to hit a nerve. “I never wanted to look at it that way,” she said. “I was brought here by one of the oyabun of the Ryujin-kai. For a while I was treated in style as the girlfriend of a powerful yakuza. Then he was killed in a gun battle with a rival gang. I wanted to go back to Tokyo, but they put me to work here. They ‘provided’ for me, because the man I was with was well respected. At first I thought I couldn’t work here, but to tell you the truth, I became determined to become the best soaplands girl in the business. And I am. Then … I don’t know … things changed.”

  Bond waited a moment for her to continue.

  She shrugged, unwilling to admit the truth. “Let’s just say that it’s not as glamorous as I thought it would be.”

  Bond sensed that there was pain behind her pride. He elected not to press her on it. “What can you tell me about the Ryujin-kai? Have you heard anything about something they might be planning?”

  “Listen, Mister Bond, is it? This is crazy. Why would the yakuza suddenly turn against me? I have remained loyal to them.”

  Bond felt exasperated by her delusion. He said, rather brutally, “Mayumi, many people will die if you don’t talk to me about it. This has become bigger than you or your family.”

  Suddenly she put her hand to her mouth and clenched her face, fighting the urge to cry. She clearly didn’t want to do so in front of Bond. He waited patiently, giving her a few moments.

  Finally, she took a deep breath, composed herself and said, “A lot of high-ranking men come here. A few nights ago there were men from the Northern Territories here and I had to help entertain them. Kubo made a big deal out of that. Yasutake Tsukamoto, the oyabun, was here with them. He was giving them a send-off. They were on their way to Tokyo on some kind of secret mission for the Ryujin-kai.”

  “This is very important,” Bond said. “What else do you remember?”

  But Mayumi couldn’t concentrate. She rose once again and walked over to the sink. She gazed at her reflection in the mirror and said, “I hated my parents for so long. But now that they’re gone, I … I just don’t know how I feel …”

  “I understand.”

  “And my sisters. I didn’t get to say goodbye.” Her voice cracked but she still refused to cry. Bond could see that this girl had an iron will. She was tough, unpredictable and very attractive. She was also
very young, vulnerable and in terrible danger.

  She took a tissue and wiped her nose. “About a month ago, they took me to some place outside of Noboribetsu,” she said.

  “Go on.”

  “It was a place that had a lot of tanks full of insects. A laboratory of some kind. I had a peek into a big room where I probably wasn’t supposed to be. Anyway, there was some kind of high-level meeting there with Ryujin-kai top-ranking officials. I was hired, along with four other girls, to service them there. I heard a bit of their conversation but I didn’t think anything of it then.”

  “What did they say?”

  “They were talking about infectious diseases. In a very general way. But I remember Tsukamoto asking someone about their disease. I distinctly recall being struck by his choice of words, like it was something they were in possession of. The other man replied that it was ready.”

  Mayumi came back to the bed and sat down beside him.

  “Don’t you feel used, Mayumi?” he asked gently. “You can’t want to stay here. It’s not the life for you.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked him casually, with no anger. “You are not in London any more. You do not understand Japan. The conditions are not as bad as one might think. Some of my clients are celebrities. All of them are rich. I already have a reputation for being the best girl in the place. My apartment is very nice; I can come and go as I please. Some people might say that I’m a bad girl, but I like to think of myself as a party girl, Mister Bond. I prefer it that way. My family never understood that. I didn’t want their lifestyle. I have everything I want here.”

  Bond allowed his eyes to travel around the characterless yet faintly sordid room. She saw this and her face tightened. “I’m paid very well.” As she spoke, Mayumi’s eyes betrayed her. She didn’t believe what she was saying. These words were meant to convince her as well as him.

  “You know that’s a delusion,” Bond said gently. “You don’t have your freedom. Mayumi, they’re going to kill you.”

  There was a moment’s pause and she whispered “Then what should I do?”

  “Is there any way that you can get out of here?”

  She thought a minute and shrugged. “There’s a fire escape in the room upstairs. The window is locked but I can always break it.” She got up again. “What am I talking about? I can’t leave! I have nowhere to go.”

  “I’ll see that you get back to Tokyo safely.”

  “I don’t want to go to Tokyo! Anywhere but there. Look, I can’t believe they’re going to kill me. James? That’s your name?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m too valuable a commodity. I look Japanese but I speak English. I have blue eyes. I’m exotic. I have a lot of important clients. From Russia, from Korea, from America. From Britain. ”

  “You’re mistaken, Mayumi,” Bond said. “You are a trophy. You are the daughter of a rival and your presence here makes them feel superior. You are the spoils of war and a prisoner.”

  She was quiet after that.

  “I’m not leaving until you tell me that you’re going to come back with me to Tokyo,” he said.

  She sighed and said, “I need to think about all of this. I can’t promise anything. If I try to leave, I had better do it very early tomorrow morning. Where shall I meet you?”

  “I’ll come back here and wait for you.”

  “No,” she said. “I want to get away from here. Let’s meet somewhere in the city centre.”

  “All right. Let’s meet at the Tokei-dai clock tower,” Bond said.

  “You’ve been reading too many guide books. All right. If I decide to believe your story and if I make it out of here, I’ll be there at four o’clock. Now go away. Maybe I’ll see you later.”

  He nodded. “Trust me. If you can get that far, I’ll get us out of Sapporo safely.”

  They stood and went to the door. Bond reached for his wallet but she put a hand on his arm. “No,” she said. “You have to pay Norika.”

  Norika met them outside the door. Mayumi went past her and up the stairs, not looking back. Norika then quietly said, “Thirty thousand yen please.”

  Bond didn’t flinch. He pulled the bills out of his wallet and gave them to her. She took the money and put it in a small purse. Then she led Bond back to the reception area, where, in front of the men, she kissed him demurely on the cheek. She said goodbye and for him to “come back again soon.” The two punch perms glared at Bond as he bowed to them and left the premises.

  Mayumi went up to her room, shut the door, and considered everything that she had just been told. Was she really in danger? Did the Ryujin-kai really kill her family?

  Her family … mum … dad … her sisters … Oh God, what had she done … ?

  She finally broke down and cried.

  TWENTY

  ESCAPE FROM SAPPORO

  AT THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING, MAYUMI MCMAHON, DRESSED IN jeans and a T-shirt, opened the door to her room on the top floor of the Casanova Club and peered into the hallway. Everything was quiet and still. Kubo had been gone since the afternoon, leaving only the two men downstairs to watch over the place … and her. They had been there every night since she was told that she couldn’t go home.

  She crept down the stairs and inched around the corner to take a look. Both men were asleep in their chairs, mouths open, snoring away.

  Some guards, she thought.

  Mayumi went back upstairs to her room and shut the door. For the fifth time she examined the locked window that gave access to the fire escape.

  What did they think would happen if there really was a fire? she wondered.

  The last few hours had been tough. The full impact of what the Englishman had revealed to her had not hit her until a few hours later. Then she stayed in her room and cried herself to sleep. She woke up disoriented.

  She felt shell-shocked and numb. It was very confusing.

  Mayumi had spent the last five or six years absolutely hating her parents. Her teenage years had been miserable and she blamed them. They had been so controlling and strict, much more so with her than they had been with her older sisters. Of course, Kyoko and Shizuka were model daughters. They never complained, were always dutiful and well behaved.

  As an adolescent, Mayumi had done as she pleased. Although her IQ was high, she was a poor student in school because she simply didn’t care. She often skipped classes. More often than not, she was hanging out with other young troublemakers in pachinko parlours. When she was fifteen, she posed nude for a photographer who specialised in pornography. She got in with a rough crowd.

  Things really started happening when she met Kenji Umeki through her association with the photographer. Umeki was part of a bosozoku and Mayumi had found that exciting. He worked as a bouncer at a soaplands in Kabuki-cho and she got to know how those places operated.

  By the time she was sixteen, she was enjoying the lifestyle of a gangster’s girlfriend. She got into all the best clubs, dabbled with drugs and had a great time living on the dark side of life.

  Mayumi McMahon had thought that she had it all under control until that one night. The night that opened her eyes to the truth about her father.

  But now that he was dead, Mayumi wasn’t sure how she felt about him. She grieved for her mother and sisters, as they weren’t so bad. But her father? After the years of his being “disappointed” with her and the hundreds of times he had shouted at her that she was “no damned good?”

  God, how she hated him. What a hypocrite.

  Still undecided about what to do, Mayumi paced the floor. She still couldn’t believe that the gang would want to kill her. Kubo liked her. He wouldn’t let any harm come to her. Kubo wouldn’t—

  There was a knock at the door.

  “Who is it?” she asked.

  “Kubo.”

  Wary, Mayumi unlocked and opened the door a crack. He was standing alone in the corridor.

  “What do you want?”

  “Get your things,” Kubo said
. “I’m moving you out. We have to be quiet. The guards are asleep.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I was gone most of the day trying to find you a new place to live.”

  “But I like my apartment. Why can’t I go back there?”

  “It’s too dangerous!” he hissed. “Hurry! Get your things, now!”

  She was confused but she also picked up on Kubo’s nervousness. Something was wrong.

  “All right. Wait a second.” She shut the door and quickly piled some clothes into a small bag that she had brought from her apartment a few days before.

  Then she heard a door slam downstairs, followed by shouting. Mayumi recognised Kubo’s voice and then heard some scuffling. She set down her bag and opened the door. As she lightly stepped down the stairs, she could hear Kubo talking to other men. When she got near enough to hear what they were saying, Mayumi stopped on the stairs, unseen by the men.

  “No, you can’t go upstairs!” Kubo was saying.

  “Get out of our way, Kubo-san. The kaicho gave us orders.”

  “But she is already dead, I tell you! I killed her myself!”

  “Then why won’t you let us go upstairs?”

  “You can’t! She—”

  Then there was the sound of a struggle that went on for several seconds until a gunshot made Mayumi jump out of her skin. She heard Kubo groan. Another shot silenced the fighting.

  Now trembling with fear, Mayumi strained to listen to the newcomers downstairs. They were talking with the two guards. When she heard a guard say, “She’s upstairs,” she quickly backed up the stairs and ran to the sanctuary of her room, prison cell that it was. She locked the door and turned her attention to the fire escape window. It was her only hope.

  Mayumi picked up a wooden chair and threw it at the window. The glass shattered, leaving shards within the frame.

  It had made much more noise than she had thought was possible. They must have heard it.

  As she climbed through the window she cut her calf and cried out. She fell onto the fire escape platform, clutching her leg. It was dark but she could see that her jeans were torn and that she had a pretty bad cut. It was bleeding profusely.