CHAPTER
32
Okaasan and Shoko sat at the kitchen table across from me, drinking tea. They were looking at a fashion magazine, pointing at the pictures, sometimes laughing. For the first time in days, Okaasan looked relaxed.
They’d become a bit too close as far as I was concerned.
I’d given Okaasan a brief rundown of what I’d found at Walter’s. She was as surprised as I’d been. You never know people like you think you do.
As I worked on my laptop, Okaasan looked up from the magazine. “What if he notices you’re on his computer?”
“I’m not on his computer. I’m using a copy of his hard drive that I moved to a server I have in …” I looked up at her. I’d been about to say “Panama,” where I rented two servers, a cheap and easy thing to do anonymously. But somehow, I was reluctant to tell her that. She was still my mother, after all.
“Panama?” she asked.
I glared at her.
“You leave a sentence like that hanging and leave your mind open, I’m going to look.” She lifted her teacup and traced her finger around the ring it had left on the table. “Tell me what you’ve found.”
“More bank accounts in the Turks and Caicos.” I paused to take a bite of a cookie. “They’ve been open for about twenty years, but they’re definitely not company accounts, and there’s no way all this is Walter’s money.” I spun the screen toward them. “Look at these routine deposits, all in amounts of three to five thousand dollars.” I pointed to a deposit in Walter’s account and then tabbed back to the general account for the Thompson Hotel Group. “There’s a withdrawal for the same amount on the same day. And there’s been a withdrawal once a month for years, starting with two thousand dollars and gradually increasing to five thousand dollars. The hotel managers must think it’s some kind of regular bill or something, and they’ll do whatever Walter says, right? He’s the chief financial officer. And by the looks of these other deposits, he’s doing the same thing with a bunch of Grandpa’s companies, over a dozen.” I did a quick tally in my head. “He’s transferring over seventy grand a month.”
“That would add up fast.” Okaasan started to do the math on her fingers.
“Look at this!” I spun the computer around again to show her another account I’d found.
Shoko looked, too, but her face was blank, like a cat staring at a wall.
“This is an actual Thompson Group account but linked to Walter’s. He opened this account about two months before the Bayview project started having trouble.”
“And?”
“Look at the balance!” I said, louder than I intended.
“I don’t know what I’m looking at!” Okaasan yelled back.
I pointed at the bottom line. “There’s over eight hundred million in there!”
“Holy crap!” Okaasan yelled and slapped her hand over her mouth. I started laughing before she did.
Shoko looked curious. “Is that a lot of money?”
“Yes, Shoko, that’s a lot of money.” Okaasan turned to her. “You could buy … a nice meal for every person in Japan.”
Shoko frowned. “Why would I do that?”
I leaned back. “Mark Smith and Grandpa can’t understand why they’re in financial trouble when all the divisions are doing well. Walter’s telling them it’s the Bayview project that’s sinking the company, but he’s the one emptying the Bayview accounts.” I shook my head in disbelief. “Maybe Walter knew this would stress Grandpa out … Maybe he hoped he’d have a heart attack.” My eyes widened. “Bartholomew can’t cause heart attacks, can he?”
Okaasan shook her head. “He has nothing but the power of persuasion. He uses sex, money, and power to influence people.”
“Well, it’s working. From what I’ve read in the e-mails, they want the Thompson Group to go under, and Walter gets to ransack the company in the process.”
“And with Edward in the hospital …” Okaasan said, understanding dawning on her face.
My head began to spin. “And if I’m not in the picture—”
Okaasan looked at me in alarm. “Then there’s no one to stop him! Oh, Junya, be careful!”
I felt that now-familiar anger begin to rise inside me. “I’m not dead yet. And neither is Grandpa.”
“Junya, … please.” It was Shoko. Her hands were on her temples.
I let out my breath slowly, trying to control the release. After a moment, she nodded and gave me a little smile.
Grandpa had once told me about the banks in the Turks and Caicos. I found it an especially boring lecture at the time. He said the laws there allowed total anonymity for the account owners. They only needed a resident of the Islands, usually a lawyer, to represent them, so whoever had the access codes controlled the account, no identification required.
I changed the password on Walter’s account to a long and complicated one. I did the same to the Thompson Group accounts. Then, more for fun than anything else, I transferred the balance of his three investment accounts and his checking account into my bank account. I doubted the transfer would go through, not without someone confirming it, but I wanted him to know I was on to him. And unless he had another account I didn’t know about, he wouldn’t be able to buy a cup of coffee.
Walter had lost access to almost a billion dollars. I leaned back in the chair, linked my fingers behind my head, and let out a sigh of satisfaction.
“What are you looking so smug about?” Okaasan asked.
“I’m savoring the feeling of victory.”
She snorted. “One skirmish doesn’t decide a war.”
“It’s one heck of a first strike.”
She pushed the magazine aside and frowned. “You’re thinking only of the money and the power that comes with it. That worries me.”
I gave her a look. “You and Shoko kill people, but I’m a bad person for thinking about money?”
“Purity is determined by one’s intentions, not their actions.”
“So, you can massacre a crowd of people as long as your intentions are pure?”
Okaasan crossed her arms. “Shoko killed for you, but she had no malice toward those men. Her intention was to do her duty and save you. She has no other agenda.” She gazed into my eyes. “What’s your agenda?”
“I’m fighting for my family.”
“Do you think your father wants this fight?”
“I doubt it, but I need to take back what’s mine.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Isn’t it still your grandfather’s?”
I didn’t answer.
“You need to maintain balance,” Shoko said. “Your heart is leaning too far one way. The Elders will be concerned.”
“So if I get unbalanced, what will the Elders do?”
“They told me you may be useful to them,” Okaasan said. “But Shoko also said you could be a liability.” Now she looked worried. “I have no idea what they’ll do.”
It was after eleven when Okaasan finally went off for her bath, leaving Shoko and I alone.
“Let’s go for a walk,” I said. “I need some fresh air.”
“A walk?” She shrugged. “OK.”
It was cooler now and the clouds had drifted east without dropping their payload, leaving the sky clear. The moon was rising over the city.
Shoko had her hands stuffed into the pockets of her jacket, staring straight ahead. It felt odd being with her now, with no distractions. We hadn’t ever talked about anything personal—we’d never had a chance.
“You are quiet,” Shoko said. “What are you thinking about?”
“Just how much my life has changed.” I let out a sigh. “I did things today I could’ve never done a week ago, and yet”—I turned my face away, pretending I was looking at the passing car—“I’m still the same old Junya in a lot of ways.” Like being afraid to talk to a girl.
A slight smile turned the corners of her mouth. “I have felt like a different person lately, too.” She stopped at the red fire box, the same o
ne we’d stopped at days before. “It feels like a long time ago that we last stood here.”
It felt like another lifetime.
“I said I wanted to get to know you better, and yet … I understand you less now than I did then.”
I tried to swallow the sudden lump in my throat. I pointed to the east. “Have you ever eaten pizza?”
She tilted her head and frowned. “I have never even heard of pizza.”
“It’s Italian food, round, flat dough with tomato sauce, cheese, sliced meat and stuff on top, baked in an oven. It’s delicious.” I looked away. “Would … would you like to have some with me?”
“Well, I am hungry.” She smiled. “Yes, I would like to try this pizza—with you.”
I gave her a big smile back.
CHAPTER
33
The streets were empty of pedestrians as we walked along Sacramento Street toward the pizza shop. Shoko walked close beside me and when her hand brushed against mine a few times, I felt my heart speed up. I glanced sideways at her the third time it happened—she was biting her lower lip.
“Excuse me,” she whispered.
I took a deep breath and grasped her hand, interlocking my fingers in hers—we’d never held hands like that before.
She gave me a smile, a kind I’d never seen on a girl before, and she added a little bounce to her stride. Happiness erupted inside me.
“Were you OK inside Walter’s place?” I said. “I was worried about you.”
She shrugged. “I do not like being without my senses, but I had my weapons … and your senses. You had no need to worry about my feelings, although …” A smile moved onto her face. “It is nice that you were.” She looked away. Her grip on my hand tightened, as if she were afraid she’d fall.
“Are you all right?”
“I am confused. I feel torn inside by mixed emotions.”
“Like what?”
“I still do not understand what you did with that computer thing. I feel stupid.”
I laughed. “Don’t, it’s complicated. The important thing is, I found a lot of information about how Walter is stealing Grandpa’s money—and now we know he’s working with Bartholomew.”
She nodded.
“I keep thinking about what Grandpa said about Bartholomew wanting his gold,” I said. “But Mr. Müller asked Walter for the map, not the gold. Why would Bartholomew need that?”
She thought for a moment. “Perhaps he wants to know where Edward found the gold.”
I stopped walking. “So then … maybe the gold isn’t the treasure after all. Maybe the gateway is.”
She didn’t answer at first but I felt her energy change. She turned to me. “If that is so, then we must go back. There is no reason to delay this.”
“Delay what?”
“Killing him.”
My mouth dropped open.
“This Walter stole your grandfather’s money, acting on Bartholomew’s wishes, and his men tried to kill you. What if he does find the map? He needs to die.”
“No, he doesn’t! I wiped Walter out tonight! I got all of Grandpa’s money back, and without money he can’t pay his men. They’re going to desert him. Plus we know where the map is, and there’s no way Walter can access it.”
“You cannot be sure. We must cut him down and end this.”
I scowled at her. “That’s murder.”
She shook her head. “Your way is so complicated … and weak.”
I let go of her hand. “Has it ever occurred to you that there are other options besides your sword?” I took a deep breath. “You told me to embrace change. Maybe you should give it a try.”
She looked down at her hands. “You laugh at my obedience,” she said, almost too quiet to hear, “but rules are all I know.” She moved farther away from me. “The more I know you, the less I understand my life, and I do not like that.” Her voice faltered, and when she looked up at me I saw the glimmer of a tear on her cheek. “My duty is to the gods, but … I feel free here.” She looked away. “Perhaps that is the poison my mother is always warning me about.”
“Are you talking about this world or me?”
She stopped under the green awning of a flower shop, in front of a window bursting with flowers. “We are being foolish. I must remember my duty.”
“What? To kill me if the Elders tell you to?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You are wavering.” She tilted her head to the side. “On one side, you have overwhelming power. You find it exciting, yes?”
I nodded. I couldn’t deny that.
“Well, that power is not from the gods,” she said. “On the other side are the gods, the Gatekeepers, your mother—a life of duty, and purity.” She stood up straight. “You have both inside you, and I do not understand how.”
I ran my hands through my hair, pushing it back. “Doesn’t everybody?”
“I do not.”
I let out a sigh. “Sometimes I wish I had a rulebook to follow. It might make life easier. I react the way I do because it’s all that I know. Maybe all of this is my path or whatever, but I have my own dreams, too.”
She snorted. “Dreams are a waste of time.”
“Are you serious?” I stared. “Every goal ever reached started out as a dream. They’re what keep us going.”
“The path of our life is already laid out for us. Our duty is to follow that path, not dream of a different way.”
“So when you sneaked away to ride trains and eat ice cream, that was part of your destiny?”
“Who says I cannot ride trains and eat ice cream?”
I gave up. “Let’s just go have pizza and stop talking about this.”
“No!” She sank onto a bus bench and turned away.
I sat beside her, an arm’s length away, unsure what to do. Why did we have to have all these complications? Couldn’t I just be a teenage boy with a crush on a cute girl?
“We must stop this now,” she said. “I am a Gatekeeper. I have dedicated my life to the gods, and I will never forsake them.”
“I don’t think I could ever be like you Gatekeepers.”
“And I can never be like you.” She slid off the bench and onto her knees. “I am sorry. I think … I think I should go home.” Then she slapped her hand against the sidewalk and faded away as if she’d never existed.
A half-hour later I was on the bench in our Zen garden, my head in my hands. It was colder now and the air curled around me, giving me goose bumps.
It was motion more than any feelings that made me look toward the house, brightly lighted and warm. Okaasan was silhouetted in the doorway.
“What happened?” she said.
“I just wanted to go for pizza.”
She let out a sigh. “That girl likes you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be surprised if she kills me one day.”
Okaasan chuckled. “That’s how I know she likes you.”
She stepped down into the garden and sat on the bench, crossing her arms against the damp night air. “You two are very different, and both young. You’re both struggling, but she has a code she can never violate. She’s a warrior, Junya.”
I was shivering now.
“We were trained like soldiers—obedient, no need to think—but we had good reason for our discipline,” she said, her voice soft in the night. “How many times did I see my mother come home, her clothing splattered with human blood or the black blood of Evil Ones? Whether you like it or not, you will never change her.”
“But I don’t want to change her.” Did I?
She sniffed and rubbed her arms. “I can feel evil, close by, closing in, and I feel the darkness inside you, growing more and more each day.”
I looked at the sky. “That’s what Shoko said.”
“Anger strengthens you. I’ve seen it.”
“That happens to everyone when they get mad—it’s just adrenaline.”
“But you are not just anyone. I heard you were able to stop Tomi with a burst of en
ergy that hit her like a wall. If you had done that in anger, what would have happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.” She put her arm around me and held me. We stayed that way for a while, and then she pulled back and looked at me. “Have I ever told you how proud I am of you?”
I made a face. “Never,” I said, only half-joking.
“Well, I am. And no matter what you think, I love you and I love your father, more than anything in the world.”
I squeezed her back. “I know.”
“And I believe you’ll do the right thing.” With that, she walked back inside, leaving me alone in the quiet of the Zen garden.
CHAPTER
34
I left my house a little after eight the next morning. I’d awoken with an urgent need to see Grandpa—he wasn’t doing any better, but I needed some reassurance that I was doing the right things. I hoped I could get that much from him.
As I started up the hill, I scanned the area with my eyes and my mind but didn’t sense anything—the stream ran clear and quiet. In fact, there were no messages at all.
That changed the minute I reached the bus stop. Negative thoughts and energy bombarded me. I dropped to the bench, holding my head in my hands. A dark sensation descended, growing stronger every moment—but it wasn’t coming from these people.
“Are you all right?” It was a woman, the only source of positive energy here.
“Yeah, just tired,” I said, keeping my head down.
“He’s obviously on drugs,” an old woman said.
“Not every kid’s on drugs, you know.”
I looked up and saw a man across the street dressed in a long black coat. His face was expressionless, ageless, his eyes like black holes in his head. Then the bus arrived, slicing between us, and the woman called to me again.
“Come on.”
I looked up. A young black woman, the one who’d asked me if I was all right, beckoned me towards the bus.
“I’ll catch the next one,” I said. “Thank you for your kindness.”
She looked surprised but disappeared into the bus without looking back. When the bus pulled away, the man in black was gone, but the dark sensation lingered. I was just turning to search for him when a black car almost as long as the bus stopped in front of me. The rear window slid down.
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