Of Cinder and Bone

by Kyoko M

  He cleared his throat. “Not in particular, no.”

  “Uh-huh. You do know I’m going to make you pay for that, right?”

  “Yeah. Still worth it, though.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I can take care of myself, you know. You don’t need to fight my battles for me.”

  “That’s not what I was doing.”

  “Really? What were you doing, then?”

  “It wasn’t for you. In case you haven’t noticed, I have a bit of a temper and I don’t like bullies. Besides, it made me feel so damn good I very nearly had to change my pants afterward.”

  Faye snorted back laughter. “Lovely. Just be honest. You want to get back on my good side, don’t you?”

  “Well, maybe I’m reconsidering your offer.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Oh, right. So, I told Kamala I’m in love with her.”

  “You did what?”

  “Well, I mean, I thought we were gonna die, so take that into consideration.”

  “What did she say?”

  “To give her some time to think it over. It wasn’t exactly a no, but I’m not skipping down the street whistling a tune either.”

  Faye nibbled her bottom lip. “I’m sorry. I hope it’s a good ‘I need to think it over’ and not an ‘I need to stall so I can explain why this is never gonna happen.’”

  “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Faye.”

  “Hey, just keepin’ it real, buddy. How did that go, by the way? Telling her?”

  “Pretty sure my heart didn’t beat the whole time. Haven’t been that damn nervous since the first time I had sex.”

  “Are you coming on to me, Jack?”

  “Always.”

  She shook her head, smiling. “You did a brave thing. No matter what she says, after all of this is settled, you did the right thing telling her. I hope you know that. I’m proud of you.”

  “Faye—”

  “And not just for telling her. For all of it. For going there and getting Pete back and proving to the world that you can beat the odds, even if you suffer losses in the meantime. I know it’s hard, but I also know you. You can do this, Jack. You can win this thing.”

  She swallowed past the lump in her throat, hoping he couldn’t hear the subtle and sudden wobbly undercurrent in her voice. “So, you beat these bastards and you bring Kamala home to me, okay? Promise me. Promise me you’ll come home.”

  He didn’t speak for several paralyzing seconds. “I promise.”

  “Good. Now get off the phone and go save your friend.”

  “Okay. I will. Thank you, Faye. I…” He coughed slightly. “I’ll call you after it’s over. Get some sleep, huh?”

  “Okay. Bye, Jack.”

  “Bye.”

  She hung up and plugged her phone back into its charger. Then she pulled up the covers and went to sleep.

  ~*~

  Of all the places Yagami Sugimoto figured he would die in, he’d never suspected it would be a pig farm.

  As soon as they’d rolled back the van’s door, he knew where he was. He hadn’t spent much time with livestock during his education, but the scent was uncanny, and everywhere in the air surrounding the farm. One could often smell it a few miles out if the windows were down in the vehicle. He also knew it was pigs instead of beef due to being familiar with the import and export culture of the country, as he’d been in countless meetings with his father as a young boy, carted around and being groomed for taking over the company someday. So much for that.

  The men hauled him, still hooded and gagged, over grass and dirt for a bit until he could hear the grunts and squeaks of the pigs nearby. Then, to his surprise, they took off his hood and gag, though noticeably not the zip-ties, and told him to stay put or they’d rough him up.

  Yagami glanced up at the sky and figured out the sun’s placement. It was probably between one and two o’clock in the afternoon. By now, the R&D compound would be swarming with police officers. They’d find evidence of his presence all over the place, and the media would have a field day speculating. Once Keiko got wind of it all, she’d be set for life as the C.E.O. of the company. His father had reservations about it, but he cared more about his reputation than anything else. Any hope of staying alive dwindled and sputtered out. Yagami would die here. He was certain of it.

  A strange sense of calm filled him. He’d tried. At least he’d tried.

  The dirt crunched underneath heavy feet next to him. A cloud of smoke rose up into the sky. Yagami didn’t bother to acknowledge him.

  “You’re standing in pig shit,” Okegawa drawled.

  “These are old shoes,” Yagami replied mildly. “I’ll get over it.”

  “Since when?” Okegawa snorted. “Remember that time I dropped my ice cream on them and you made me buy you a whole new pair instead of just taking them to the cordwainer?”

  “I was teaching you a lesson about courtesy. Obviously, it didn’t take.”

  “You wound me, aniki. I’m always courteous.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew a retractable stiletto blade. Then he leaned over and cut Yagami’s restraints off. He tucked it back inside his jeans and then offered him a cigarette. Yagami accepted. Okegawa lit it for him and they both stood in silence for a while, watching the pigs wander about and nap in the sunlight.

  “How is Keiko-chan?” Okegawa asked.

  “Conniving and impossible.”

  The yakuza lieutenant smirked. “Just the way I like her. When’s the last time you saw your father?”

  Yagami thought about it. “Three months ago. He looks like a walking, talking beef jerky in a toupee.”

  Okegawa choked on a laugh. “That’s nice. How long?”

  Yagami shrugged. “He’s been in and out of chemo. Anywhere between six months and a year. The arrangements have been made already.”

  “Will you miss him?”

  “There has to be something to miss. He’s a void. A black hole with a pulse.”

  “Aren’t we all?” He tossed the cigarette stub to the ground and stomped it out before lighting a new one. “I want to make an arrangement.”

  “I bet you do,” Yagami said.

  “Not that kind. Between you, me, and Keiko-chan. I think it’s more beneficial if we work together than if we keep fighting each other.”

  “So, that’s why I’m still alive. I’m your meal ticket, huh?”

  Okegawa gave him an even stare. “You really think I’d kill you?”

  Yagami’s face tightened with anger. “You already betrayed me. What’s the difference? A metaphorical knife in the back is the same as a real one.”

  “Grow up,” Okegawa sneered. “Just grow up, aniki. You’ve spent so much time in your rich, pampered little bubble. This is what the real world looks like. I’ve waited my entire life for an opportunity like this, and yet all you want is to go back to your lab and hide behind your beloved science. Never get your manicured hands dirty. Never make the hard choices when it’s down to the wire.”

  “Oh, how awful. Poor Kazu. You’ve had to work so hard to be a traitor, a killer, a liar, and a criminal. How could I ever, as a rich son of a crime-lord, understand the pain and anguish that you’ve gone through?” He tossed his own spent cigarette to the ground. “Cry me a fucking river, Kazu. You just dismantled my entire life and killed someone I respected. Do you really think it’s this easy? Do you really think after the dust settles you’ll get exactly what you want? You are the one who needs to grow up. You have no idea what you’ve done.”

  “I’ve done what’s necessary.”

  “Really? Tell me, where is Fujioka?”

  Okegawa grimaced. Yagami crossed his arms. “Yes. Precisely. You’ve got an innocent woman tied up, being tortured for information like she’s one of your disobedient kyodai, or one of your victims, all because you can’t control one man. Why do you think I left
you out of the loop? You escalate everything you get your hands on. That’s how we got into this mess to begin with.”

  “You needed my help,” Okegawa hissed, pointing a finger in his face. “But you were too damn proud to ask for it. I didn’t just do this for me. I’ve been rotting away in Tokyo, playing both sides, until I found a way out. If we pull this off, then I’m free. All I have to do is hand over what the oyabun wants and I can walk away with my own life intact. I can start something with that dragon, with what we’ve learned about it from Jackson’s research. We will do something the world hasn’t ever seen before, and you are a fool if you’re willing to give up that chance because of your ego.”

  “You want me to work with you after you told me that you’ve been Inagawa all along? How am I ever supposed to trust you again, Kazu? You lied to me for over a decade. Ten years of my life. All I’ve cared about on this planet has been my work and you. That’s it. I almost had a life. I almost had a family. And you took both of those away from me.”

  “You think I wanted to?” Okegawa spat. “I was ten years old. I had no choice. I would have died on those streets if not for the Inagawa.”

  “What did they promise you that was good enough for you to use me?”

  Okegawa turned away and scrubbed his face with both hands, running one through his damp, unkempt locks. He inhaled deeply and blew out another lungful of smoke before answering. “I didn’t know any better. They told me they’d set it up to make it look like I saved you, and once I was in with the Yamaguchi, I’d wait for further instructions until the time was right. They didn’t tell me it would be years. They didn’t tell me I’d become your brother. After a while, I almost forgot about my original mission because it was nice to know what family felt like. To have someone in your life who genuinely cared about you, and not because you can do something for them. Believe me, I wanted to tell you the truth for years, but by the time we were teenagers, I knew you wouldn’t understand if I told you. The lie just kept growing and growing with every year, and I kept it buried inside me because I hoped it would protect our friendship.”

  He faced him. “I’m not asking for forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. I’m not going to pretend like we can go back to what we were before today. But we can do this. Not as friends. You don’t have to trust me. Just become a part of this now and then rebuild your life later. If we pull this off, you’ll never have to see me again. I promise.”

  “And if I say no?”

  “I won’t kill you. I can’t. You know that.” He took a deep breath. “But I can’t vouch for the others in our organization. If the orders come down from on high that you’re too much of a loose end, then even I wouldn’t be able to protect you. That’s all I can offer now, aniki.”

  Yagami turned toward the pigs. “You will do two things.”

  “Hai?”

  “You will foot the bill for Watsuki’s funeral. I want his loved ones compensated for the rest of their lives.”

  “Hai.”

  He faced the yakuza lieutenant again, his dark eyes radiant with anger. “Don’t ever call me aniki again.”

  Okegawa sighed quietly. “Hai.”

  “What’s the arrangement?”

  ~*~

  “Are you sure that is everything you know, Dr. Jackson?”

  Jack took a deep sip of his tea before answering. “Yes.”

  The translator, a short, thin man in his thirties, glanced at the female detective and nodded. The detective finished writing the notes on a pad of paper and then replied curtly to the translator.

  “Detective Hayasaka wants to know if you’ve been contacted since your friend was abducted.”

  “Not that I know of. They sort of crushed my personal phone, and my other method of contact is inaccessible at the moment.”

  “Is it possible for you to contact them instead?”

  Jack placed Nakamura’s phone on the table. “The ringleader’s phone number is on here. I don’t know if it’s his personal number or not, but the last time they reached him, it was through this number.”

  “How long has it been since her abduction?”

  Jack glanced at the clock on the wall. “Just over three hours.”

  The translator cleared his throat. “Detective Hayasaka says it would be a lot easier if you divulged the dragon’s current location.”

  “I don’t exactly know it, to be honest. I’m unfamiliar with the area. It took me nearly twenty minutes to catch a cab back to the nearest train station.”

  After the translator answered for him, Det. Hayasaka’s eyes narrowed slightly. Jack stared back at her and sipped his tea. She flicked her gaze down to the pad and continued writing, her voice still emotionless.

  “She says for now, they will see if it’s possible to get permission to trace Okegawa’s phone, but you must be patient. If someone calls with demands, then the investigation gets put on a fast-track, but until then, I’m afraid there isn’t much we can do.”

  Jack took a deep breath. “I understand.”

  The translator patted Jack’s shoulder and stood, following the detective and carrying on in low tones as they walked away from her desk. Jack set the tea on the detective’s desk and folded his hands before taking stock of the bullpen. Most people weren’t paying him any mind. They were all working on cases up on whiteboards or making phone calls.

  Except for the tall, thin secretary near the elevator.

  She’d been doing a marvelous job of being subtle, but Jack had felt her eyes on him from the second he walked into the precinct. He hadn’t looked at her for more than a second to keep up the ruse, but he knew in his gut that something was up. The bullpen was far too large for him to be able to listen in on her phone calls, but he got the distinct impression she’d reported his appearance to someone. He sighed inwardly. He’d hoped that his suspicions were wrong, but with organized crime running so deeply through Tokyo’s veins, it was possible to run into a mole. It meant he’d have to get his hands even dirtier than they already were.

  About thirty minutes into his wait for the detective to get clearance for a phone trace, the secretary told her coworkers that she was going on her lunch break. She slipped on her purse and headed out the door. Jack waited until he was out of her line of sight and then followed.

  The late afternoon foot traffic in Tokyo was intense. However, due to his height, it wasn’t hard to see where she’d gone: around the corner and down the street to a small marketplace that also served lunch. To the secretary’s credit, she often looked over her shoulder, but Jack managed to stay out of sight until she sat down at the sushi bar to eat. He eyed the purse that she’d placed on the stool next to her and slid inside the marketplace. He greeted the hostess and tugged her aside for a moment.

  The secretary had eaten about half of her lunch by the time a waitress walked past and tripped, spilling soy sauce all over her blouse. The waitress immediately apologized profusely and grabbed several napkins while promising to pay for the dry cleaning. It drew the attention of nearby patrons, thus distracting them when Jack brushed past and stole her phone out of the purse.

  He slipped outside and hurried back towards the precinct. Thankfully, her phone wasn’t passcode-protected, so he checked the last number she’d called from the phone. The area code wasn’t any of the ones for Tokyo. He researched and found that it was the number to a pig farm less than an hour away from Kanagawa.

  Jack stopped at the steps of the precinct. Well, he’d gotten a lead. Illegally. If he turned it over to the authorities, he’d still be in a shitload of trouble for stealing the secretary’s phone and technically stalking her beforehand. It couldn’t hurt to secure some proof before he told them what he’d done.

  He chewed on his lip and then stepped around the corner, calling the number. A moment later, someone answered.

  “May I speak to Kazuma Okegawa?” he asked in Japanese.

  “I’m sorry, sir, bu
t there’s no one here by that name.”

  He paused. “I’m an associate of his. We’ve made a business arrangement through a mutual client named Misaki Fujioka.”

  A pause. “One moment please, sir.”

  He waited. Nearly five minutes passed, and then a sickeningly familiar voice spoke. “This is Okegawa.”

  Jack’s free hand balled into a fist. “Nice secretary.”

  Silence. Then Okegawa let out a dry laugh. “You are terribly resourceful, Jackson-sensei. Especially for a scientist.”