The Weak Shall Die: Complete Collection (Four Volume Set)

by Taylor Michaels

  "Not so. I won fair and square. The instructions didn't say our detection couldn't be outside the fence. They said we couldn't be outside the fence. I never went outside the fence. I followed instructions precisely. I found the most devices. It's simple. I won."

  "Ugly American!"

  "Hold on, you two. Cooperation is important. We will look at your maps and combine them into one. Then we'll see how you two did alone compared to how the others did working together. That way you'll see the value of teamwork."

  Masako and John won the competition, both individually and collectively. However, they were disqualified because they failed to follow the rules by not working together. The rest of the summer, Masako and John's relationship was rocky at best, with barbs being constantly exchanged, each sharper than the one before. The next year, the camp included most of the same people.

  "Hi, Masako. Nice to see you again."

  "John. I'm still upset with you, you cheater. You Ugly American."

  "I was just the messenger. Blame the message, not the messenger. So, what do you think this whole spy school is about? I've always treated it as just a game. But now, it's serious. Are we really being trained to be spies? I thought they usually took people from the military. We're young for this."

  "I've done some research this last year. I've been spying on my neighbors and their children. The ones who convinced my father to send me here. Those rats! They are spies. For the United States, as you said. If I had known what they were doing, I would have turned them in to the government, a long time ago. Now I can't because I'm part of their spy ring, and their spy school and I would go to jail too. Those rats. I've mostly been spying on my own father, but also on a man down the street. I think he was spying on my father too."

  "Is your father a spy?"

  "I don't think so. I think he's just a normal newspaperman, but he is well connected. He seems to know everything. I worry about him. If the Americans are spying on him and the man down the street is too, then maybe he is in danger. I followed him a few times and watched the man down the street following him."

  "Did your father do anything odd? Go anywhere odd?"

  "Only once. He went to a sushi bar and spoke to a man I'd never seen. I've seen most of his employees at parties. I never saw this man. I took his picture." She pulled out her phone and showed John a picture, then pushed a button. "And this is the picture of the spy down the street."

  "Did you run the pictures through facial recognition?"

  "No, how do I do that?"

  "Wi-Fi doesn't work here. My satellite phone doesn't either. They have some kind of jammer. I think it's in the main building. After dinner, while everyone is at the campfire, we'll sneak into the main office and shut down the jammer. Then, tonight we'll check it out."

  The two were caught when they went back to turn on the jammer, but were excused when they explained that the man down the street from Masako's house was a Russian spy. The other man was an informant. The company dispatched a team to detain and question the Russian. Masako and John received a reprimand for breaking into the office and a special commendation for the use of imagination, technology and teamwork.

  For the following summer camps, John and Masako always teamed together and relations were much better than in the beginning. Masako decided that working for her mother's people was not bad and that she was not really hurting her country because Japan and America were allies. And, she decided that she was not spying on her father, but protecting him. By capturing the Russian spy, her father was safer.

  She concentrated her spying on watching out for him rather than watching him - a distinction without much difference. Over the next few years, she uncovered three other foreign spies watching her father and her relationship with John improved considerably, especially when he moved to Japan and they were going to the University together. When he moved to China, their relationship cooled off, but she was still fond of him.

  Chapter 8 - The Gathering, Japan

  John and Cho had been walking all night and had no sleep. They walked up the beach to the hotel slowly and it was past noon when they reached the giant glass and steel structure. At over seventy stories tall, it was the tallest building in Japan. They entered the rear door by the pool and Cho waited outside the reception area, near the elevators. The three soaked bags were still dripping and making a small puddle on the floor.

  As John walked through the reception area in his disheveled and still damp clothing, he smiled and spoke to several people he had never seen and grabbed a suitcase sitting by a small fountain. The heavyset American woman standing nearby, talking to a man, didn't notice her bag was gone. The bag would provide credibility when John checked in.

  A small notice board read "Miakawa Electronics Group, Conference Room 2." John handed the receptionist a credit card and his passport, both taken from a plastic bag and still dry.

  "I'm meeting with the Miakawa people. My friends threw me into the pool for arriving late. It was so embarrassing. Cold too. I need to put on some dry clothes."

  The receptionist smiled as he signed the form and she gave him a room keycard. On his way back to the elevators, he dropped off the suitcase and picked up Cho. The heavy lady was still talking, but the man she was talking to had become interested in a group of stewardesses who just arrived. He probably didn't hear anything she said about the beautiful Japanese Kabuki dolls she had just purchased.

  In the room, John and Cho changed into white terrycloth bathrobes and John called the valet to arrange for their clothes to be cleaned and pressed. As he looked out the window and over the sea, he thought about the bodies he had seen in the last day and of so many more he would see in the future. In the window, he saw the reflection of himself and Cho, transparent, like ghosts. Like the people in his office. That now seemed so long ago, standing with his co-workers watching the first three dead bodies loaded onto stretchers.

  The sky was now grey and the ocean was calm with only a glimmer of the sun's light peeking from behind the clouds.

  "Cho, I am so sorry about Mama. I know you two were close." When he spoke, the sadness was evident in his voice.

  "Mama idea to travel on boat. Cho miss her."

  John hugged her and then they showered, ordered breakfast and turned on the television to CNN. The crisis in Ruhan was being discussed by a group of four. The Chinese government admitted that over five thousand people were stricken by the virus, but claimed most were under a doctor's care and recovering. They said their own antivirus drugs were doing a great job and declined western offers of antivirals. Only one hundred had died, they said. The lockdown had been increased to fifty kilometers outside the Ruhan city limits, "just to make sure the virus was completely contained."

  "We barely made it. If we had waited one more day, maybe even one hour, we would have been trapped inside with the virus. And we would die there."

  "Cho make good escape plan. Hit while iron hot. Make hay when sunlight shine. Go when good to go. But still miss Mama. If we all stay, we all die. Now, just Mama."

  John put his arm around her and gave her another long hug. "She was a good shot. We would be dead, if she hadn't saved us. Also, I could easily see where you got your good looks."

  "John still upset, no three-way with Mama."

  "No, of course not. Would you forget about that? She just appeared to be a good person. A somewhat different version of you. And where would I be without you? Locked inside Ruhan and dying."

  "What next? We get plane to US? Go today?"

  "I think so. First, I'm going to send an email to a spy I knew back in camp and from school and then I'm going to take a nap. I'm really tired. I didn't sleep much on that boat. I kept worrying about someone breaking in, attacking us and throwing us overboard."

  John used a code system he and his friends had developed in school to tell his friend he was in dire trouble, 'Mama Cass is on a diet.' His friend, Masako, responded quickly and they agreed to meet later that evening at a tempura restaurant ou
tside the massive Shinagawa train station complex about twenty minutes away.

  * * *

  The small restaurant was almost full as John bowed under the noren curtains at the entrance and stepped in. Masako was seated at a small table in the far corner with a large bottle of sake in front of her. She put down her glass and as he approached, refilled it and took a long drink. John smiled and kissed her cheek as he sat in the chair beside her. It was rare for women to drink cold sake in public. Most usually drank warm sake from a tiny cup, as did the men in more formal situations.

  Masako looked deeply into John's eyes, reached over and put her hand on his, then whispered, "John, what's going on? Tell me the truth. I know you were in China. Around that Ruhan place they keep talking about on the news. I knew that sounded familiar the first time I heard it. Then, when I received your email, I remembered. What was that place you were watching? It had a funny name, Bug City."

  Her speech was slurred and it appeared she had consumed a considerable amount of sake. John lifted the brown bottle and held it up to the light. It was half full.

  The server in her traditional Japanese dress greeted John and he ordered a Kirin beer as Masako took another drink of her cold sake. She closed her eyes and smiled as she enjoyed the delicate flavor. "John, this isn't going to be good, is it?"

  Turning his attention back to Masako, he said, "What have you heard? I'm not up to date. CNN said it was under control."

  "CNN and everybody else said what the Chinese government told them to say." The anger in her voice was evident. She was chewing her words and spitting them out like spoiled fish. "Nobody is telling the truth. I know the truth and I hate it. I don't know if I can go on like this." She took another large drink, refilled the glass and drank again.

  "Masako, you've had enough. I know you. You don't drink like this," he said taking the bottle.

  "I do now. The world is going to hell," she said grabbing the bottle back and topping up her glass.

  "Come on. You're stronger than that. You can handle it." After speaking, John wondered if she really was strong enough. And if not, then what? How could he help her be strong? He needed her for his plan to succeed. She was essential and irreplaceable. Again, he had to do what was necessary.

  "No, I'm not strong. Not when everybody is dying and I might be next. You can't imagine how this is tearing at my insides," she said, taking another long drink. "The news organizations had to go along with it for political reasons. If they told the truth, the Chinese would have thrown them out. The Japanese government thinks it's completely out of control and highly lethal. My father does too."

  That's my entry point, John thought. Make sure she talks to her father and listens to what he says. She respects him. This is crucial. I have to sell it.

  "Your father is probably the smartest person I've ever met. He's not only smart, but he always had his finger on the pulse of the region. Talk to him. See what he says. I'm sure he'll have some great advice. Just trust him. That's what I'd do."

  "You remember that my father works for the Shinbun. The paper has correspondents all over China and everywhere else. People with satellite phones. They reported that tens of thousands have died and the virus has spread hundreds of kilometers from Ruhan. Nothing they can print in the papers here, of course. Rumors. Especially as long as the Chinese government claims it's under control. Politics, I hate it."

  She popped out those words with a raspy voice. She was obviously upset as she raised her glass to her lips and took another long drink. "This isn't helping a lot," she said, looking at the nearly empty sake bottle. She waved to the waitress and ordered a glass of Suntory whisky. The waitress must have noticed Masako's agitated state and delivered the drink quickly.

  "Masako, you're going to regret this."

  "I already regret it," she said sipping the strong drink. "Why can't everybody just tell the truth? Our government thinks all of China will be a wasteland within a month, maybe sooner. Nothing left but marauding gangs of thieves, looting and stealing. No more law and order. Japan won't last much longer. My homeland will become a wasteland. The land I was born in. The land I grew up in …"

  As she stopped talking, she slumped forward, her head resting on the table and her glass falling to the floor.

  John picked up the glass and thought, has she passed out? I should keep talking. "Maybe the government is doing the right thing for once. Maybe it isn't politics. If the people see what this really is, they will panic, worse than anything we've ever seen. The US has seen small panics before with hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms and floods. This would make those look like a peace rally. Grocery store shelves empty in two days. People will begin starving before the virus kills them. They will take to the streets with guns. There will be lawlessness. Gangs. The police won't be able to control the gangs. Everybody will be on their own. It may be more humane this way. Put the worst off as long as possible."

  "That's horrible," she said, sitting up and waving to the waitress. "When did you leave there?"

  "I've been on vacation for the last two weeks. Singapore. I won't be going back to China any time soon. I was thinking of going back to the US until it all clears up. To my father's old place. I told you about it. When he died last year, he willed it to me. It's a nice place. A lodge and some cabins. Away from everybody. Nobody to bother us. Peaceful. Beautiful setting. Near the mountains. Great sunsets. No neighbors for a mile."

  She appeared to sober up for a moment and she looked him in the eye. She sat up straight and said, "I was sorry to hear about your father, John. He sounded like a nice man. This plague is not going to clear up. You may be there for a long time."

  I'm not selling this, thought John. She's upset about the problem, but she doesn't see the solution. At least not my solution. I'm not good at this kind of thing. I should have tried the hypnosis. What else can I say?

  "No problem. The lodge has land for farming. A water well. Trees to burn for heat in the winter. I could plant some veggies and raise some cattle. A small group might hold out there for a long time. Maybe even become self-sufficient. I've wanted to do something different for a long time. Spying was getting old. It was time for a change."

  John looked into Masako's eyes. He tried to send her a telepathic message, but that had never worked either. In summer camp, he tried to hypnotize her, but that only worked a few times. What to do? "Just keep listening to your father. He's a wise man. I'm sure he'll have the answer."

  "What's going on, John? That's not you talking. You're too young for retirement, physically and mentally. I know you. Plowing the ground with a tractor. Crawling around on your hands and knees, pushing seeds into the ground. I don't think so."

  "Actually, they have machines for that. Just drive around and push buttons. Pull a few levers. Anybody can do it. You could do it. Tractors now even have automatic transmissions, or hydrostatic, same thing. Wouldn't it be nice to sit around the fireplace at night, reading books. I'll buy an eBook reader and fill it up with all the great books I've heard of, but never had time to read. Take it easy and improve my mind. Stay home a lot. Sounds great, don't you think?"

  Masako looked at him for a second, then her eyes narrowed and she jumped up. "Damn you, John!" she shouted. "You're really pissing me off. You always used to piss me off. You're doing it again." She sat back down, put her head back down on the table and began to cry. The other customers turned and watched and, after seeing them, she sat back up, wiped her eyes and became quiet. A few long minutes later, she whispered. "You're always talking in code. Riddles. You have made me upset more than any other human being on this planet. Why don't you just say what you mean?"

  John scanned the restaurant casually over the top of his beer glass. Although most people at the tables had returned to their own conversations, he could see a few partially hidden glances in his direction. Not surprising after Masako's outburst. They probably thought she was fighting with a foreign boyfriend and they were ready to jump to her defense if it became physica
l.

  John knew that the mark of a good spy was not to let others know you were eavesdropping. A seemingly innocent couple could be the downfall of a spy.

  "You never know who's listening. You may not believe this, but I know a hotel where every room is bugged, even the toilets. They have sophisticated software that can filter out the sound of running water. So, …"

  "John, cut out all that crap and listen to me for once in your life. This is important."

  She sat up straight again and appeared in total control. John was amazed, knowing how much alcohol she had consumed.

  "Taking a flight to the US from here is not possible," she said quietly and distinctly. "Father says the Japanese government is checking all arrivals by plane and boat and quarantining anyone from China. Airports are being watched. He said the US west coast is doing the same. If they find out you've been in China, your own people will put you in a camp. To die."

  "OK, thanks. I'll have to do something else, then. By the way, did you bring that package I mentioned?"

  "Package. The stupid package. The world is falling apart and you are worried about a stupid package?" she said, finishing her drink and pouring another glass of sake. "What the hell, sure," she said, pulling a package the size of a loaf of bread from a shopping bag under the table. "Back when I was sober, I thought of a few other things you might need," she said, handing him another small package. Inside were a small pistol, a box of fifty bullets, two throwing knives, and various small bottles that looked like meds. "I wish you would tell me the truth. I can keep secrets, you know."

  "You could when you were sober."

  "I can hold my alcohol as well as my secrets. Far better than you."

  "I didn't think it would be wise. 'Plausible deniability' the government people call it. Anyway, it doesn't look like it was necessary. You already know everything. Probably, more than I do. You father is well connected. I'm sure he gave you a great briefing. So," he paused and thought for a moment, "taking the short route to the US is out." He took another drink of his beer and said, "Maybe going back through Europe would be better. I know some people over that way who could help me. What do you think?"