Huge in Japan

by Matt Lincoln

  My nose was throbbing, and by now, the dull ache in my side had grown into a sharp, stinging pain. It was getting harder for me to push my way through the dense crowd, and Saito was getting further away from me as we ran. He turned to see if I was still behind him and sneered when he saw me following him. A moment later, he pulled a gun from his pocket and fired over his shoulder at me. The bullet whizzed by my head, and I heard a scream as it lodged into one of the pedestrians behind me. A moment later, the crowd began to panic as they realized that someone had been shot, and all of a sudden, everyone was running in every direction.

  I felt guilty about abandoning whoever had just been shot, but I couldn’t afford to lose track of Saito. He suddenly took a sharp turn and ran down the steps into a subway station. I followed him down. He was just passing through the turnstiles as I made it down. I raced after him, leaping over the turnstiles as I did. One of the attendants manning the turnstiles yelled something at me, but I didn’t bother to turn around. Hopefully, it would just encourage them to call the police.

  On the loading platform, he turned and fired at me again before running onto the train. This bullet missed as well, though fortunately, it only struck a metal pole behind me instead of a civilian. I ran forward and made it onto the train just as the doors were closing. I looked around the train car, which seemed to be occupied almost entirely by businessmen and women in suits, probably making their way home. I couldn’t see Saito anywhere, but one of the women on the train pointed toward the next car down.

  I took off in that direction. The doors opened automatically for me as I passed, and I finally spotted Saito making his way up the train. I chased after him, and he turned around just as I was about to make it to the train car he was standing in. His eyes went wide as he saw me coming toward him, and he looked around desperately. Suddenly, he hauled a woman off of her seat and held her in front of him. He pointed his gun at her head, and I stopped dead in my tracks.

  The only thing separating us was the clear glass door. All I had to do was move forward just an inch, and the doors would slide open. I’d be able to grab Saito in a matter of seconds. If I did that, though, he might shoot the woman.

  The passengers on the train had burst into screams as soon as we’d boarded, but now the entire car was deathly quiet as they watched us.

  “Drop your gun!” Saito shouted, his voice muffled by the thick pane of glass in the door. I really didn’t want to do that, but I didn’t see any other option. One wrong move and he could snuff the hostage’s life out like a candle.

  “Let her go, Fukoda,” I tried to reason with him. “That’s your real name, right? You’re only making this worse for yourself. Just let her go, and we can talk.”

  “Are you stupid?” Saito barked, and the woman he was holding shrieked as he gripped her tighter around the neck. “You’re in no position to bargain here, agent. Do you think I care about killing her? Do you have any idea how many people I’ve killed? The only one of us who gives a crap if she dies is you, so drop your gun before I blow her brains out!”

  I clenched my teeth at his words. I didn’t know what to do, and I was scared. If I didn’t lower my weapon, he’d kill that innocent woman. If I did, he was almost certainly going to shoot me the moment I was unarmed. It was a lose-lose situation. My gaze drifted down to meet the woman’s, and my decision was made.

  I slowly lowered my gun to the ground before standing back up with my hands held out in a show of surrender. The moment I’d looked into the woman’s frightened eyes, I knew I couldn’t just abandon her.

  “Good,” Saito sneered. “Stay right where you are. You get any closer, and I’ll kill her.”

  He slowly backed away from the door, and I dug my nails into my palms so hard that it stung. I wanted so desperately to chase after him, but I couldn’t risk it while he still had a hold of the hostage. The passengers in the other car flinched away from him as he passed until he was finally leaning against the closed doors of the train car. A moment later, I felt a small jolt as the train began to slow down.

  The train came to a full stop, but to my surprise, Saito didn’t get off right away. A few of the people waiting at the station began to board until they saw Saito holding the gun, at which point they turned and ran back off. Several of the other passengers followed their lead and began to flee the train, though some appeared too scared to move. The seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly. There was a digital clock mounted over the door, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off of Saito.

  After what felt like an eternity, he suddenly launched the woman away from him before lifting his gun and training it at me. He pulled the trigger, and I jumped when the glass door cracked and splintered as the bullet embedded itself in the center. He rushed off of the train just as the doors were closing. I tried to follow him off, but the doors slammed shut in my face before I could get off. I cursed as I watched Saito’s form growing smaller and smaller as the train carried me swiftly away from the station.

  34

  Fiona

  “Oh my word, what happened to you?!” I cried as Junior and Charlie stepped into the hotel room. Junior’s face and shirt were covered in blood.

  “It’s not as bad as it looks,” Junior assured me as he moved through the room and collapsed onto his bed. “Saito head-butted me. I was worried he’d broken my nose, but the paramedics on the scene said it was fine. I also popped some of my stitches while I was chasing him.”

  “So, he did get away then?” I asked. “Charlie called to tell me that he wasn’t at the brothel and that he was heading over to the apartment to assist, but by the time he got there, there was no sign of you or Saito, and the other NCB officer was unconscious on the floor.”

  “Yeah, he shot Takeushi,” Junior replied. “I chased him all the way to Ginza station, but then he took a hostage and managed to get away. She’s fine, though. She was really hysterical after the whole thing, but she seemed okay by the time the police got there.”

  “That’s good,” I sighed. “I can’t imagine how scary it must have been for that poor woman to be attacked suddenly on her way home from work. So, what are we going to do now? As far as finding Saito, I mean.”

  “We’re just waiting for Hajime to finish dealing with all the fallout from the mission,” Charlie informed me. “Two of the suspects in the brothel were shot, and one of the patrons was as well. Then there’s the fact that over fifty victims were found being held captive in the brothel. She’s dealing with getting them all medical attention and finding somewhere safe to place them all, as well as contacting their families.”

  “Someone got shot during my mission, too,” Junior interjected. “Saito was shooting at me over his shoulder while we were running through the street. He missed, but he hit a civilian. I’m sure she’s dealing with that as well.”

  “What a mess…” I muttered bitterly. It made me angry to think about how many people’s lives had been negatively affected because of this group.

  “Seriously,” Charlie scoffed. “Anyway, as soon as she’s finished with that, she’s meeting us here to come up with a new plan to find Saito. There’s no way he’ll return to his apartment or to the brothel now that he knows we’re looking for him.”

  “So we just wait?” I asked. I knew I sounded whiny, but I was getting tired of just sitting around, waiting for things to happen.

  “I’m going to go get cleaned up,” Junior stated as he rolled back off of the bed. “Probably shouldn’t be walking around covered in blood.”

  An hour later, Hajime still hadn’t shown up. Not that I could really blame her. Several people had been injured tonight, civilians as well as criminals. Then there was the fact that we had discovered a massive trafficking ring operating right out of central Tokyo. The media must have been in a frenzy over it, and as the NCB’s international liaison, it was Hajime’s job to deal with it.

  Junior and Charlie were playing a card game. They’d invited me to join them, but I felt too restless to relax and participate
. I stared down at the computer that had been open on my lap for the past twenty minutes. I was certain that there was something within the files we already had pertaining to the case that would give us a clue as to where to look next. I just didn’t know where to begin.

  I opened the audio file of Charlie’s interrogation with Watanabe. Hajime had recorded the entire thing with her phone and had forwarded me a copy, along with everything else the NCB had in preparation for the mission. Ultimately, it hadn’t ended up being anything we didn’t know, but it was convenient to have an organized record of everything we’d discovered so far.

  I plugged a set of headphones into my computer so I wouldn’t bother Junior and Charlie, then played the audio file. Charlie convinced Watanabe to turn on the group, Watanabe confessed to what he did in uncomfortable detail, Charlie made some thinly veiled threats, and then finally Watanabe revealed Saito’s real name and the location of the brothel. I’d listened to the recording before, but it still made me uncomfortable to listen as Watanabe casually admitted to kidnapping and killing women. It made sense now why Charlie had been in such a foul mood the afternoon he’d come back to the hotel after interrogating him.

  I started the audio clip again from the beginning. This time, I paid close attention to exactly what Watanabe said and how he said it. The slightest change in intonation could reveal that he was being deceitful or hiding something. I was almost at the end of the recording when something he said stuck out to me. I rewound it to the point where he began to speak and played it again.

  “There are only so many tourists we can snatch without drawing attention,” I muttered as I snatched the headphones out of my ears.

  “What?” Junior asked as he set his cards down and turned to look at me.

  “That’s what Watanabe said during his interrogation,” I explained. “He said that the reason Saito had men stationed all over the world was so he could abduct women of all ethnicities and nationalities.”

  “So, what are you thinking?” Charlie asked.

  “How would they get the women here?” I prompted. “Tourists get here on their own. They’re already in Japan. If they wanted a woman from any other part of the world, how would they get her here?” I could hear the gears turning in their heads as they considered the implication behind what I was saying.

  “An airplane,” Charlie proclaimed, his eyes wide with realization.

  “Or a helicopter,” Junior added. “You think he has a private form of air travel?”

  “I’m about to find out,” I proclaimed as I started a database searching program on my computer. “I’ll run a search for any airplanes or helicopters owned by people named Izumi, Fukoda, Saito, or any variation of those names. If he does have one-”

  “Then he’s probably on his way there now to flee the country,” Charlie finished.

  “Exactly,” I nodded. I searched as quickly as I could.

  It didn’t take long for something to pop up. “I found something! A small jet registered to a ‘Sato Fukoda.’ It’s parked at a private hangar in Narita Airport. I can’t be sure it’s definitely his, but it’s one of the few privately owned airplanes in all of Tokyo. I’d seriously be surprised if it was a coincidence.”

  “I agree,” Charlie replied. “Come on, Junior, we need to go now before he gets away. I’ll call Hajime on the way down there.”

  “I’m coming with you,” I insisted as I pushed the computer aside and stood up. “It’ll be safer if we stick together, anyway. Saito’s desperate right now, so there’s a good chance he’ll be trying to send any men he has left to kill us.”

  “Fine,” Charlie agreed. “The trains have stopped by now so we’ll take a taxi there. Let’s go.”

  The three of us made our way down into the lobby of the hotel and then out onto the street. The air felt cold, and the weight of the gun on my hip felt more pronounced now than it had just a moment before. I’d insisted on coming with them to the airport, citing safety concerns, but now that we were actually climbing into a taxi to head over there, I could feel my heart pounding. I began to tremble as I broke out in a cold sweat. I was terrified of what might happen when we got to the airport, but at the same time, I was excited. It was thrilling to think about what was waiting for us. As I watched the lights of the city pass in a blur through the window of the taxi, I thought about how anxious I was to see this mission through to the end.

  35

  Charlie

  “Hajime says that she’s on her way,” Junior informed us as he ended his call and stowed his phone back into his pocket. “She’s calling ahead to make sure we’ll be allowed through the airport.”

  “Hopefully, she gets here soon,” I replied as we made our way through the large doors at the entrance of the airport. Several security guards were waiting just inside the doors, and my first instinct was to be suspicious.

  “Hello, are you Agent Hills, Agent Chapman, and Agent Gardner?” one of the guards asked. The scene was eerily similar to the one a few days before when we’d been ambushed by Ueda. Junior must have had the same idea because I saw him surreptitiously reach for his gun.

  “Yes,” I answered tentatively. “Who are you?”

  “I’m officer Takaba. We received word from the NCB that you’d be coming. We’ll escort you through the airport.” I allowed myself to relax a little. Hajime did say she’d be calling ahead, and this man seemed to know that.

  “Okay,” I responded. I still felt a little nervous, but time was of the essence. I’d have to take the risk and trust that this man was telling the truth. “Gardner, which hanger is Saito’s plane parked in?”

  “At the very end of Terminal Two,” she answered.

  “Let’s go,” Takaba declared before turning to the guards with him and saying something in Japanese. The men nodded in response, and a moment later, the group of us was moving swiftly through the airport.

  We were almost stopped at security until Takaba said something that had the security officer backing down with a nod. The airport was massive, and we broke into a run as soon as we were on the other side of the security checkpoint. Through the large windows lining the wall, I could see airplanes superimposed over the glittering Tokyo skyline.

  “Come this way!” Takaba yelled. “There’s a security personnel entrance through here. We can drive a vehicle down to the Terminal Two runway.”

  He led us through a locked door that let out into a restricted part of the airport. Parked just outside were several cars. Takaba led us to a large jeep parked a few spaces down, and Junior and Gardner hopped into the back while I climbed into the front passenger seat. Takaba started the car right away and took off at high speed before I’d even gotten my seatbelt on. Now that I wasn’t running, I felt jittery and tense. The adrenaline coursing through me had nowhere to go, and I crossed my arms impatiently as the car moved quickly around the perimeter of the airport. I willed the jeep to move faster. I was itching to get my hands on Saito, and I would be damned if I let him get away from us again.

  "There he is!” Junior yelled as we rounded the left side of the airport and came upon a small jet stationed there. Even from this distance, I could see Saito climbing up a long set of stairs, just a few feet from the door of the plane.

  I jumped out of the car the moment Takaba shifted it into park and took off running toward Saito.

  “Stop!” I yelled as I got to the base of the staircase. Saito turned, and I could see shock and fury in his eyes. He drew a gun from behind his back and fired two shots at me. I jumped to the side as I pulled out my own gun. I fired back at him, but the bullet missed and hit the side of the plane with a metallic ping. Saito turned and rushed into the plane, and a moment later, a large man in a dark suit emerged. I rushed forward even as the guard reached into his jacket. I ascended the staircase two steps at a time, and before he could draw whatever he had in his jacket, I punched him square in the face. The guard cried out in pain and stumbled backward. I gripped him by the front of his shirt with both hands and
twisted around to toss him out of my way and down the staircase.

  As I turned, I saw Junior reach the bottom of the staircase. Beyond him, Takaba and the other officers were busy fighting with two men who I didn’t recognize. I assumed they must have been more of Saito’s guards, but I didn’t have time to think about that now. I turned back around and ran through the door into the airplane.

  The cockpit door was open, and Saito was screaming something at the pilot. As if sensing my presence, he turned around just as I was entering the plane. He lifted his hand to shoot again, but I ran forward and forced his arm up just as he pulled the trigger.

  The bullet struck the ceiling of the plane and ricocheted off the metal. In the small area of the airplane, the sound of the gun going off was painfully loud. My ears were ringing, but I held firm. If I let my grip become slack, Saito would surely shoot me.

  Saito sneered at me, and the next second, he reared back before head-butting me. The left side of my face exploded with pain, and I could feel something warm seeping down my cheek. The blow caused me to lose my grip momentarily, and Saito attempted to take advantage of the lapse by shooting again. I managed to push his hand away in time, but once again, the sound of the bullet caused my head to throb painfully.

  I kicked Saito between the legs. It was a low blow, but this wasn’t the time to worry about fighting fair. He dropped the gun and hunched over in pain. I punched him again, then shoved him face-first against the bulkhead wall of the airplane. I pulled a set of handcuffs out of my pocket. My fingers were trembling, and I fumbled to get them on him.

  “Here, let me do it,” Junior offered, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. “There were two other guards outside, in addition to the one you tossed down the stairs. That was really shocking, by the way. Anyway, we apprehended all three. Takaba is calling for backup now.”