The Toyotomi Blades (Ken Tanaka Mysteries Book 2)

by Dale Furutani

  I had a flashback to Vietnam. I was there only three weeks, but I knew exactly what was going on. “Somebody’s shooting at us. Come on,” I said. “Get behind the rock and let’s get into the brush.”

  Mariko nodded and scuttled around the rock on her hands and knees. I followed. As we made our way into the brush, I heard excited voices from the other side of the clearing. “Get up and run like hell,” I said. “Those guys mean business.”

  Mariko nimbly got to her feet and started running through the brush and trees with me crashing around behind her. As we ran I could hear shouts and voices behind us. “I think they’re following us,” I told Mariko.

  I could see the forest ahead was getting thicker with brush and I realized that if we kept running in this direction we’d soon get tangled up and caught. “I’ll cut to the left and cross the stream, making a lot of noise,” I said. “You go ahead for a little bit, then cut to the right and double back towards where Junko dropped us off. Get help.”

  “No. I’m not going to leave you,” Mariko said.

  “Get back to the road and get help. I’m not acting like a hero, I’m just doing what’s sensible. When I cut to the left, you go ahead and then double back. Find someone and get the police. Then bring them back here. If I lose them, I’ll be hiding around the meadow. Okay?” I panted out the last few words. The thin mountain air made me tired, even after the short sprint.

  “But Ken…”

  “For God’s sake, please do it! We’ve got to work together. We don’t have time to argue.”

  “Okay.” Mariko stopped running, turned around, and grabbed me around the neck. With my forward momentum, it almost tumbled us to the ground. She gave me a brief, fierce kiss and said, “I love you. I’ll bring back help, no matter what. Don’t take any risks!”

  “Don’t be silly. Just get help. I love you, too.” She let go of my neck and started running to the right, up the slope of a hill. My grand plan was for her to go forward a little before she cut to the right, but the way she darted through the woods like a deer made me think she probably knew more about it than I did. Now my job was to draw off our pursuers. I turned left and started crashing through the brush, shouting to an imaginary companion. I could hear people yelling to each other, so I was sure they could hear me, too.

  I came the edge of the stream. It was only four feet wide and I jumped it at a dead run. Now I was running uphill and fatigue started dragging at my legs. Behind me I heard shouting, so I knew I was being followed. I also knew I couldn’t elude my pursuers long enough for Mariko to get help unless I thought of something more imaginative than just staying ahead of them.

  As I clambered higher up the hill the slope got steeper and the thick trunks of the trees grew closer together. Below me I could hear men shouting to each other. It sounded like three of them, and they had spread out into a picket line, making inexorable progress up the mountainside. I realized I would soon be trapped.

  I looked around for a weapon and, acting on an instinct as old as man, I stooped down and picked up a rock the size of my fist. Then I looked for a place to hide.

  Ahead I saw two trees growing so closely together that the trunks of the trees were mated, forming an expanse of wood wide enough for me to hide behind. I scurried up the slope and got to the uphill side of the trees. Then I pressed back against the trunks, pushing my back against the unyielding wood and holding the rock tightly in my hand.

  My breath came in ragged gasps and my heart was beating so loudly I was sure the men would be able to hear it long before they came upon the tree. I fought to control my breathing, closing my eyes momentarily and trying to focus my energy.

  Around me the woods took on a strange silence and time seemed to pass with excruciating slowness. I was sure they were right behind me, but I stood pressed against the trees so long that I thought they might have given up the chase.

  Then I heard the slide of rocks and dirt as someone scrambled up the hillside. The sound came closer and I raised the rock. If the man passed more than a few feet away, I realized I was probably a dead man because there was no way to throw the rock faster than the flight of a bullet. Besides, as a kid, baseball was not my game. I wasn’t sure how good my aim was.

  My lungs were burning and I realized I had been holding my breath. I allowed myself the luxury of a slow exhale as I waited for the first sign of my pursuers.

  Suddenly, at the edge of the tree, a brown hand grasped the trunk. On instinct, I stepped from behind the tree and brought the rock down with all my weight behind it. The wolfish Yakuza looked up with surprise. In his other hand was a gun, but he was off balance, pulling himself up the hillside, and couldn’t get a shot off.

  The rock came crashing down on his cheekbone with a sickening crunch. He crumpled, releasing the gun and letting it skitter down the steep hillside. I fought to regain my balance so I wouldn’t go tumbling down the slope, too.

  I grabbed the tree to steady myself and looked down at the man. Fresh blood already covered one side of his face, and he was making a feeble attempt to cover his head with his arms. The smart thing to do would have been to hit him again to finish him off, but I guess I’m not smart. I didn’t feel remorse for hitting him. The bastard had a gun and, for all I knew, he was the one who had shot at Mariko and me. But I just didn’t have the stomach to strike a second blow.

  Instead, I looked for the gun that had slipped down the slope. I couldn’t see it, and I was about to start a search for it when I heard another voice shouting to my right. The voice called a couple of times, and I heard the man at my feet moan a kind of response. I figured someone would be coming to investigate why their buddy wasn’t responding to their hail, and it was time to move out again.

  Abandoning my search for the gun, I dropped the rock and started scrambling up the hill again.

  28

  I made my way farther up the mountainside and hid in the forest. Whenever I stopped to listen for the sounds of pursuit I heard nothing but an eerie stillness and the sound of a light breeze rustling the tree branches. I started thinking about making my way back towards the meadow when I realized I was on the side of the stream with the rocks shaped like the letter M and already up the steep slope where the rocks perched.

  I decided to check out the rocks. I wasn’t motivated by greed. By this time, thoughts of actually keeping any treasure were the furthest thing from my mind. I was motivated by an intense curiosity and a desire to see things to their conclusion. I know what curiosity did to the cat, but I wasn’t a cat. I hoped.

  I cut to my left and started making my way through the forest. After twenty minutes or so, I came out of the trees and I was confronted by the outcropping of rocks, which appeared very much like a castle close up. I looked around carefully to make sure that none of my pursuers were near, then slowly approached the rocks.

  When I got up to the rocks, I realized there was a kind of seam in their face, a fissure that led back into the rock. I peered down the fissure and saw what looked like the entrance to a cave. Taking one last look around to make sure I was alone, I walked into the fissure and what lay beyond.

  As I approached the cave entrance I was able to see that it was overgrown with brush. I don’t know if this was how it was almost four hundred years ago when the treasure was placed here, but now it was a perfect hiding place because it was almost totally invisible until you were right on it. I peered into the cave, down a natural tunnel that was six to seven feet high at the entrance. The sunlight did not penetrate into the depths.

  I entered and felt something crunching under my feet. I looked down and saw some bleached animal bones. Fortunately, they were all small bones and none were big enough to be human. At least that’s what I told myself. Over the years, some wild animal had evidently used the cave as a den. I hoped whatever animal was involved wasn’t currently in residence.

  I stopped for a few moments to let my eyes get used to the darkness, but it wasn’t much use. The light from the entrance was swa
llowed up about fifteen feet down the tunnel. I didn’t have a flashlight, but I wasn’t about to let something like good sense stop me. I felt I was close to the treasure and the allure of gold easily pierced the darkness in front of me. Blind, I plunged deeper into the cave, out of the half light of the entrance and into the black.

  I moved in short shuffling steps, holding my hands above me at head height to make sure I didn’t bump into a low ceiling. As I got into the cave, the air was damp and heavy and the velvet darkness soon swallowed up any remaining visibility. I had no feeling for how large or small the cave might be. I thought it would be a good strategy to get to one wall and brush my hands against it.

  Before I could do that I bumped into something. It startled me because although behind me I could still dimly see the light from the entrance, in front of me it was pitch black. I stopped and reached down. Instead of feeling a solid object, something crumbled under my hand. I felt like I was plunging my hand into a large mound of dry leaves. I couldn’t figure out what it was. It was weird and unsettling.

  “You know,” I said out loud, “this is the final dumb thing you’ve done on a pretty dumb day.” I turned around and groped towards the light of the cave entrance. I didn’t know what I had encountered, but I did know I didn’t like it.

  As I walked out of the cave, before my eyes could adjust from the gloom and darkness of the interior to the sunlight, a blow struck me across the shoulder and base of my neck. Stumbling with pain and surprise, I fell to one knee, grabbing at my shoulder. I looked up and saw Professor Hirota advancing towards me. He had somehow appeared behind me at the cave’s entrance. In Hirota’s hands, held before him like an ancient samurai sword, was a tree branch.

  I scrambled to my feet and took a step backwards before the advancing tip of the tree limb could strike another blow. I was trapped in the narrow fissure that led to the cave entrance and couldn’t move to the right or left, only backwards.

  Hirota did not smile. His face was set in rigid lines, his eyes watching every move I made. “Are you surprised to see me?” he asked.

  “A little, but I figured you knew more than you were telling when you sent me off to Kyoto to meet with Sonoda-san instead of just telling me the legend. It was also strange that Sonoda-san’s blade wasn’t stolen, which could mean either you or Sonoda-san were involved. Besides, you didn’t have the hands of a scholar. Most Japanese wouldn’t notice because they bow, but a Western handshake can tell you a lot.” Actually, I wasn’t that clever. With him standing before me, a lot of things clicked into place, but the truth was that I was very surprised to see him. However, when you’re shocked, hurt, and scared spitless, a little stupid macho posturing is allowed. It comes from watching too many Humphrey Bogart movies. “Where did you come from?” I asked.

  “From nowhere. I am the shadow. I am the wind. The way of Ninjitsu teaches me to be invisible.”

  “Ninjitsu?”

  “The way of the Ninja,” Hirota said. “I was quite invisible and you walked right past me.”

  I didn’t believe him. It was his turn to do some macho posturing. It’s a male thing. My eyes darted past him and I searched for where he had been hiding. I couldn’t see a place in the narrow confines of the fissure. Maybe he was invisible. He saw my eyes looking around and he smiled. It was a smile that brought me no comfort.

  “I see you don’t believe me,” Hirota said. “In that case, I don’t suppose you would believe that a Ninja can see into your heart and that I knew you were coming here.”

  I looked at him warily, but made no reply. Considering our relative positions, I thought it was best to curb my tongue.

  “You spotted this place when you and the girl were eating down by the river bank,” Hirota continued. “My companions decided it was time to remove you from the picture. They can be a bunch of asses at times, but you have been a bloody irritant to us. In fact, in a way, you are the cause of all this.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes. I saw your picture in the Asahi Shimbun and realized you were holding a Toyotomi blade. I’ve tracked the locations of the blades for years. Your photograph showed me the blade that I needed most of all, and it spurred me to action.”

  I looked behind me at the forest. I wondered what my chances were of getting back into the safety of the woods.

  Hirota saw me glancing towards the shelter of the trees. “I wouldn’t plan on it,” he said. “The back of your head would make a tempting target if you started to run away from me. I’m not sure how fast you can run, but it would be an interesting game to see if I could catch you.” He smiled. “Besides, I have a gun in my pocket.”

  Then I wondered if I could stall Hirota until Mariko arrived with the police. As if reading my mind, Hirota added, “I’ll make the decision what to do with you long before your girlfriend has a chance to get back with the police. It will take them quite a while to get here. Japanese police are not paragons of efficiency.”

  Hirota took a quick step forward and I jumped back. Hirota laughed, enjoying the game. “Do you know that at times students are killed with wooden kendo swords? The swords have lead in them to approximate the heft and feel of a real sword and in the heat of a match students sometimes get carried away and there are serious injuries or even death. This tree limb—” Hirota lifted the tip of the limb slightly—“does not have the same feel as a sword, but I can still make it do almost anything I wish. For instance, I could quite easily shatter your kneecap or poke out an eye.”

  He made no move to put either threat into action, so I said, “Why would you want to do that?” I wanted it to sound nonchalant, but I’m afraid it came out with a bit of a quaver.

  “Because right now I am cross and feel cheated. More important, you are part of the reason I was cheated.”

  I decided to try and change the subject. “You said I had the blade you wanted most of all, but that was only five of them. One’s still missing.”

  “I have the missing sixth blade. It’s been in my family for generations. We’ve always been taught to hide the fact, and unlike Sonoda-san’s family, we have. It’s foolish, I know, because the Toyotomi are never coming back. Still, if a family can be loyal to a certain brand of automobile, buying nothing but that brand across generations, I guess my family’s loyalty to the responsibilities they accepted along with the sword isn’t too peculiar.”

  “And you stole the blade in New York? The police said they thought someone was lowered from the roof.”

  He sneered. “The police everywhere have no imagination. Ninja have tools used to scale steep castle walls. They work amazingly well on a modern skyscraper.”

  “And the man killed in the robbery?”

  Hirota smiled again. “Why would I admit to doing that?”

  That gave me my first hope that I might get out of this alive. He wouldn’t be cautious if he thought I wouldn’t be around to testify against him.

  “I will tell you one thing,” Hirota continued.

  “What’s that?”

  “Studying to kill a man and actually killing one are two very different things.”

  I was going to pursue this interesting statement, but decided discretion really is the better part of valor. Instead, I asked, “What about the Rotterdam blade?”

  Hirota laughed. “That was trivial. All it took was a piece of string, a wire, and the ability to blend into a group of Japanese tourists. If you think about it, I’m sure someone as clever as you will be able to figure that one out.”

  “And the student who was accused of stealing the sword from the Japanese National Museum?”

  The smile was wiped from Hirota’s face. Bad move on my part.

  “I was in Los Angeles trying to steal your sword from your flat when the student, Ishibashi, died.”

  “The burglar that Mrs. Hernandez saw!”

  “Is that the old woman who lives above your flat?”

  “Yes.”

  “She caused me a little difficulty. I had to cut short my search of yo
ur flat when the police showed up, but I would have returned the next night to finish the job. Instead I had an excited message from my colleagues that you were in Japan with the sword and would be appearing on a television show.” The TV promo. “I told them to follow you to see what hotel you were staying at while I arranged a flight back to Japan. Unfortunately, their enthusiasm exceeded their ability to perform even that simple task, and they decided to catch you and force you to give them the sword. Fools. When I got back to Japan and found out that the TV show was trying to contact me about the blades, I was ecstatic. When you actually gave me your blade to examine, I thanked the gods.”

  “So you were in Los Angeles when the student died?”

  “Yes. Ishibashi was a student of mine. He was going to Waseda, but also taking a class in Japanese history from me at All Japan University. He took the sword from the Japan National Museum to please me. I would not have hurt him.”

  “So it was actually a suicide?”

  Hirota looked at me a long minute. Then he said, “The members of a group like the Nippon Tokkotai may be filled with Yamato Damashii, but they aren’t always filled with good judgment. They thought the proper way to insure silence in Ishibashi was to eliminate him. If I was in Japan, I would not have allowed it.”

  “Who did it?”

  Another pause. Then Hirota said, “You took care of Mr. Kim very smartly with a rock. It knocked the treasure hunting zeal out of him.”

  “So Kim killed the student?”

  Hirota smiled. “Even the Japanese police might come to the truth of things if they stopped accepting any plausible explanation and sought the facts.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Hirota shrugged. “Have you had a chance to inspect the treasures that our long search has brought us?”

  “It was too dark for me,” I admitted. “I couldn’t tell what was in there. I bumped into something that felt weird, but other than that…” I let the sentence trail away. I kept my eyes on the tree limb Hirota held in front of him.