Bullet Train

by Kotaro Isaka

‘The son of a dangerous man.’ The instructor seems to be speaking to himself. ‘That’s right. One moment he was alive, and then he wasn’t.’

  Nanao can’t believe he’s talking about this, knows he shouldn’t be talking about it, but he can’t stop. This man just makes you want to tell all, he thinks. Like he’s got some kind of special aura. Like the space around him is a confession booth. He warns himself not to tell the man anything more, but it’s like there’s a membrane inside him, shielding him from his own advice. It’s his eyes, he thinks, but that thought too is muted.

  ‘Now that you mention it, the time I had my brush with trouble there was another dangerous man whose son was killed. The dangerous man was killed too, actually.’

  ‘Who are you talking about?’

  ‘I don’t think you’d know the name. Although he was apparently famous in his line of work.’ For the first time the man makes a pained face.

  ‘I don’t know for sure what line of work you’re talking about, but something tells me I’d recognise the name.’

  ‘His name was Terahara.’

  ‘Terahara,’ Nanao repeats. ‘He was famous. Died by poisoning.’ He doesn’t mean to say it, and as soon as he does he regrets it.

  But the instructor isn’t perturbed in the least. ‘That’s right! The father was poisoned. The son was hit by a car.’

  The word poisoned stays in Nanao’s head, switching on a light of recognition. ‘Poisoned,’ he mutters. Then the name of the professional who killed Terahara comes back to him. ‘Hornet?’

  ‘Sorry?’ The man cocks his head.

  ‘I bet Minegishi’s son was killed by the Hornet too.’ Then before he can stop himself, he points at the man. ‘Are you … are you the Hornet?’

  ‘Take a good look at me. Do I look like a hornet?’ He raises his voice slightly. ‘I’m just an exam-prep instructor. I’m just Mr Suzuki.’ Then he gives a little self-deprecating laugh. ‘I’m a human being. A hornet is an insect.’

  ‘I can see that you aren’t an insect,’ Nanao says seriously. ‘But I still think you’re a walking priest.’

  The truth is that Nanao has no idea what the professional known as the Hornet looks like, what his distinguishing features are, or really anything concrete about him. I bet Maria knows, he thinks as he takes out his phone and starts thumbing through to her number. When he looks up again the man is gone. He feels a flash of fear that he was just talking to a phantom. As the phone rings he looks through the window on the door into car five. There’s the instructor walking away from him. He puts his hand on his hammering heart. Not a ghost after all.

  Stepping back over to the window where the scenery flows by, he brings the phone up to his ear. The muck on the outside of the glass has been scattered into little droplets.

  The phone keeps ringing but Maria still doesn’t answer. Nanao gets more and more fidgety, expecting Tangerine and Lemon to appear at any moment. He starts pacing up and down the gangway. The coupling between cars writhes back and forth like a reptile.

  ‘Where are you?’ Maria’s voice finally sounds in his ear.

  ‘Huh?’ Nanao makes a sudden noise of surprise.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘It’s here.’ He sounds completely dumbfounded.

  ‘What’s where?’

  Nanao had called Maria, but now he’s forgotten all about that. He’s staring at the black suitcase. Right there on the luggage rack, where he first found it. As if it had never gone anywhere in the first place.

  ‘The bag.’ The unexpected appearance of the very thing he was searching for doesn’t feel quite real.

  ‘By the bag do you mean the one we were hired to get? Where was it? And good work finding it.’

  ‘I didn’t find it, really, I just called you and then there it was. On the luggage rack.’

  ‘Where you lost track of it before?’

  ‘No, where I first picked it up at the start of all of this.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘It came back.’

  ‘Like a dog coming back to its master? How touching.’

  ‘Maybe someone took it from me by accident and when they realised they brought it back.’

  ‘Or maybe they stole the bag from you but were too scared to hang on to it. So they gave it back.’

  ‘Scared of Minegishi?’

  ‘Or scared of you. Maybe they were like, That Nanao’s involved, it’s too dangerous. He’s like a magic lamp that sucks in and stores all the world’s bad luck. Either way, good for us, right? Now don’t lose it again. And make sure you get off at Sendai.’ Maria breathes a heavy sigh of relief. ‘I was worried for a moment, this could have been really bad, but everything’s okay now. I have a feeling everything’s gonna be just fine.’

  Nanao’s face contorts. ‘Maybe, but there’s still Tangerine and Lemon to worry about.’

  ‘Did you run into them after all?’

  ‘You were the one who told me to man up and go to car three!’

  ‘I don’t remember that.’

  ‘I remember it very clearly.’

  ‘Okay, let’s say I did tell you to go to car three, did I tell you to tangle with them? No, I don’t think I said that.’

  ‘Yes, you did,’ Nanao shoots back, knowing it isn’t true. ‘I remember it very clearly.’

  Maria laughs dismissively. ‘Well, what’s done is done. I guess you just have to figure out how to get away from them.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Somehow.’

  ‘Easy enough for you to say, but there are only so many places I can go on the train. Should I just hide out in a toilet?’

  ‘That’s one option.’

  ‘But if they search carefully it’s only a matter of time before they find me.’

  ‘Sure, but it’s pretty hard to force open the toilet doors on the Shinkansen. At the very least it’ll buy you some time. You’ll be at Sendai before you know it.’

  ‘But if I come out of the bathroom at Sendai and they’re waiting to ambush me, then that’s that.’

  ‘Okay, well, force your way out.’

  Pretty vague, not exactly a strategy, Nanao thinks. But he acknowledges that she’s not totally off the mark. The entrance to the toilet is tight, so if they come in after him and he’s ready to attack, it could work. Whether he uses a blade or goes for a neck break, he’ll have better odds against the pair of them if it’s a tight space rather than out in the open. Or else once the train reaches Sendai he could burst out of the bathroom forcefully enough to overwhelm them and make a break for the station platform. Maybe.

  ‘And there could be more than one toilet in use, so it would take them some time to check all of them. If your luck is good then a bunch of the toilets will be in use at once and Tangerine and Lemon will have their hands full figuring out where you are. The train could get to Sendai before they find you.’

  ‘If my luck is good? You must be joking.’ Nanao almost laughs. ‘You do know who you’re talking to, right? Saying to me If your luck is good is basically like saying Here’s something that will never happen.’

  ‘Yeah, you’re right,’ Maria agrees. ‘Or, hey, you could use the crew room.’

  ‘The crew room?’

  ‘Or the little room at the end of the green car. The green car is number nine, so in the gangway between nine and ten. People use it for breastfeeding.’

  ‘What should I use it for?’

  ‘Maybe breastfeeding, if you feel like it.’

  ‘Great. If I feel like it I’ll have a look.’

  ‘Oh, and one more thing, just in case you didn’t know, you can’t get from the Hayate to the Komachi while the train’s moving. They’re linked up externally but there’s no passage between them, so don’t try to hide in the Komachi.’

  ‘Even a preschooler knows that.’

  ‘Some things preschoolers know that adults don’t. By the way, what was it you wanted? You called me.’

  ‘Right. I forgot. When we talked earlier you menti
oned the Hornet. Not the insect. The professional, who used poison needles.’

  ‘And who killed Terahara. Although some people say it was the Hornet and the Whale and the Cicada working together.’

  ‘What’s the Hornet supposed to be like? Or look like?’

  ‘I can’t say for sure. I think it’s a man, but I also hear that there was a woman involved too. Maybe a solo operative, or maybe a pair. Either way, I don’t imagine they’d stand out in a crowd.’

  No, probably not, Nanao thinks. It’s unlikely that they would go around wearing something that screams killer for hire. ‘I think the Hornet might be on this train.’

  Maria is quiet for a moment. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I can’t say for certain. But there’s a dead man on board with no visible injuries.’

  ‘Yeah, the Wolf, and it was you who killed him.’

  ‘No, not the Wolf. Someone else.’

  ‘What do you mean, someone else?’

  ‘I mean what I said, there’s someone else who was killed, maybe by a poison needle.’ He can’t bring himself to tell her that it’s Minegishi’s son. At the same time, her mention of the Wolf triggers something in his mind.

  ‘Oh for goodness sake,’ says Maria, sounding more than a bit exasperated. ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but there’s something seriously wrong with your train. Nothing but trouble.’

  Nanao has no rejoinder. He feels exactly the same way. Tangerine and Lemon, Little Minegishi’s corpse, the Wolf’s corpse. The train is lousy with underworld characters. ‘But it’s not the train’s fault. It’s mine.’

  ‘True enough.’

  ‘What do I do if the Hornet really is on board?’

  ‘I haven’t heard anything about him in a long time. I’m guessing he’s retired.’

  This sparks some speculation on Nanao’s part: could it be that the Hornet is trying to re-establish his name by killing Minegishi’s son the same way he killed Terahara? At the same time, lingering thoughts of the Wolf come into the mix. Wasn’t the Wolf a lackey of Terahara’s?

  ‘I can imagine you’re scared. Needles are scary. You’d probably cry if you saw one.’

  ‘Actually I used to help an old lady in my neighbourhood with her insulin shots. I did it all the time.’

  ‘That’s a medical procedure. I think it’s illegal for someone who’s not a relative to do that.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yup.’

  ‘Oh, by the way, it seems that Tangerine and Lemon are also working for Minegishi.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘They’re supposed to be bringing the bag to Minegishi.’ The pace of Nanao’s words speeds up as he shares his theory. ‘Minegishi probably doesn’t trust anyone. So he hires more than one professional for the same job so that they mess each other up and he comes out ahead. Maybe he doesn’t want to have to pay anyone, or he plans to take all of us out.’

  Maria considers this. ‘You know, if it turns out that’s what’s going on, don’t try to be a hero or anything. You can always give up.’

  ‘Give up?’

  ‘Yeah. Or maybe call it aborting the mission. Forget about the bag, just give it to Tangerine and Lemon in exchange for your life. I bet they’d be satisfied as long as they got it back, and if Minegishi was planning something bigger then it won’t really matter that much whether or not we finish the job, right? We’ll forfeit the payment and apologise. It’ll probably be fine in the end.’

  ‘What’s come over you all of a sudden?’

  ‘I’m just thinking that if it’s as complicated as it’s starting to sound, pulling out might be the best option.’

  Of course, it’s not just the bag. There’s also the not-at-all-insignificant matter of Little Minegishi’s death, but Nanao doesn’t know how he can tell Maria about that. It would just upset her even more.

  ‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing. You’re saying that the job comes second, that my safety is priority number one?’

  ‘I’m talking about a worst-case scenario. All I’m saying is that if you get to the point that it looks like you’re totally stuck, you can pull out. The job most certainly does not come second. The job is priority number one. But, you know, sometimes you just can’t make it work.’

  ‘Okay. Got it.’

  ‘You got it? Then first things first, try to get that bag off the train. Do whatever you can. And then, if nothing you’re trying works, plan B.’

  ‘Got it.’ Nanao hangs up.

  Do whatever I can? No way. One hundred per cent give up.

  The Prince

  THE DOOR BEHIND THEM OPENS and someone enters the car. The Prince composes himself and leans back in his seat.

  A man walks up the aisle with a suitcase. The man with black glasses. He neither slows nor looks around him, just keeps moving quickly for the far door. Kimura seems to notice him too, but he only watches silently.

  Then the man in the glasses exits car seven and the door slides shut behind him, as if to seal him away.

  ‘It’s him,’ Kimura mutters.

  ‘Yes it is. I bet he’s pretty excited at having found the bag. And there’s another pair looking for it too. They should be after him any minute. He’ll just keep going to the front of the train. Things are getting interesting!’

  ‘What are you gonna do?’

  ‘Let’s see.’ The Prince was just wondering that himself. ‘How can we make things even more interesting?’

  ‘I keep telling you, it’s dangerous for a kid like you to stick your nose into adult stuff.’

  A phone starts buzzing, inside the Prince’s backpack. ‘It’s your phone, Mr Kimura,’ he says, pulling the mobile out. The caller ID says Shigeru Kimura. ‘Who’s this?’ he asks, holding the phone up to his captive’s face.

  ‘No idea.’

  ‘Is it a relative of yours? Your dad, maybe?’ Kimura purses his lips, which tells the Prince that his guess was right. ‘What does he want, I wonder?’

  ‘Probably just checking on Wataru.’

  The Prince looks thoughtfully at the still-buzzing phone. ‘I’ve got an idea. Let’s play a game.’

  ‘A game? I don’t have any games on my phone.’

  ‘Let’s see how much faith your father has in you.’

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

  ‘Take his call and ask him for help. Tell him you’re being held and you need his help.’

  ‘… Really?’ Kimura looks uncertain.

  ‘But don’t say anything about your son. Grandpa will soften right up if he thinks anything’s amiss with his grandson.’

  The Prince thinks about his own grandmother, recently passed. His family isn’t close with their relatives, and his other three grandparents had all passed away in the first few years of his life, so his father’s mother was really the only elderly family member he had. She was just as clueless as the rest as far as the Prince was concerned. He acted innocent and well behaved around her and made sure to look happy when she bought him anything. That’s a good boy, she always said, her face scrunching up into a smile, You’re getting so big, her eyes glistening as she saw her own diminishing future live on in him.

  Over summer break when he was eleven he was home alone with his grandmother, and asked, ‘Why is it wrong to kill people?’ He had tried asking other adults the same question and they didn’t even attempt to give him any real answers, or maybe it was more that they couldn’t give him any real answers, so he didn’t have very high expectations for his grandmother either.

  ‘Satoshi, you shouldn’t say things like that,’ she replied, looking concerned. ‘Killing is a terrible thing.’ Same old stale stuff, he thought, disappointed again.

  ‘What about in war? Everyone says that it’s wrong to kill, but then we have wars, right?’

  ‘War is terrible too. And killing is illegal.’

  ‘But the same government that makes laws against killing goes to war and has the death penalty. Don’t you think that’s we
ird?’

  ‘You’ll understand when you’re older.’

  Her deflection only annoyed him. ‘You’re right,’ he said finally, ‘it’s wrong to hurt people.’

  He presses the button to accept the call. An old man’s voice comes across the line. ‘How’s Wataru?’

  The Prince covers the microphone and says hurriedly, ‘Here you go, Mr Kimura. Remember, no talking about your son. Break the rules and Little Wataru never wakes up again.’ Then he holds the phone up to Kimura’s ear.

  Kimura gives the Prince a sidelong look, trying to gauge what to do. ‘Wataru’s fine,’ he says into the phone. ‘But, Dad, I need you to listen to what I’m about to tell you.’

  A sardonic grin spreads across the Prince’s face as he sits there listening. It would make the most sense for someone to ascertain their situation before jumping in, yet Kimura just goes along unthinkingly. The Prince had said they would play a game but he never explained the rules. Kimura didn’t even demand to know the ins and outs before he started playing. The Prince almost feels sorry for him. People want to act of their own free will, but in the end they just surrender to someone else’s control. If a train were to suddenly pull into a station and someone said to get on, it would be a good idea to find out where the train was going, to weigh the risks. But someone like Kimura would just get on. The ignorance is astonishing.

  ‘I’m on the Shinkansen,’ Kimura continues. ‘Headed to Morioka. What? No, this has nothing to do with Wataru. I told you, he’s fine. I asked the other parents at the hospital to keep an eye on him.’

  It seems that Kimura’s father is angry that the boy was left alone. Kimura tries to calm his father down by explaining the situation. ‘Just listen to me. I’m being held. By a bad person. That’s right. What? Of course I’m telling the truth. Why would I lie to you?’

  The Prince has to bite down to keep from laughing. Kimura’s going about it all wrong. His father will never believe him if he goes on like this. To get someone to believe you, you need to be deliberate. About your tone, about what you say, so that you give the other person a reason to trust what you’re saying. Kimura isn’t doing any of the necessary work, he’s just putting it all on his father, saying it’s up to him to do the believing.