by Chris Ward
Jun lifted his eyes across the field to the edge of the town beyond, and the bluff rising up out of distant trees to the castle sitting on the top, and the birds circling in the air overhead.
‘If it was,’ he said, ‘then I think I know where we can find him.’
Ken lifted his head as the door to his cell swung open with a creak. Professor Crow walked in, the hood covering his face.
‘A bright and shiny morning to you, sire.’
‘Go and fuck yourself with a rusty metal pole.’
Crow threw back his head and laughed, his hood falling back off his face. Ken had been expecting it, but even so, the sight of Crow’s deformed face made him flinch.
‘Such couplets suggest your lyrical skills are as good as those of your fingers. Oh how I’m looking forward to cutting them off.’
‘Kill yourself. I would, if I looked like you.’
‘The irony. Such a destructive force now chained. I haven’t forgotten what you did to my beautiful experiments, you know. Fifteen years of work thrown away.’
‘Before they could kill anyone else. The only downside is that you got away.’
Crow gave a little bird whistle, and two of his servants appeared in the doorway. ‘Bring him along,’ Crow said. ‘I have a little game for him to play.’
Ken tried to struggle against them as the two birdmen dragged him to his feet, but despite the spindly nature of their limbs their grip was iron hard. They left the shackles on his hands and feet but unchained him from the wall and dragged him after the retreating figure of Crow. Ken had known he was in a castle, but he hadn’t realised how high they were until they passed a window at the end of the corridor through which he could see a patchwork of rolling fields and forests spreading out far below.
They turned a corner to find Crow standing outside an open door. ‘In there,’ the professor said. ‘Take him to the bench, settle him in.’
Ken was expecting to find himself in some dank torture chamber, but his eyes widened at the sight of banks of complex machines and computer terminals lined up along the walls. In the centre was a low metal table, surrounded by dozens of racks of medical instruments, measuring devices and other equipment Ken couldn’t begin to guess the use of. The room looked like a futuristic hospital, but there was something strange that it took him a moment to figure out.
He frowned. Every single reflective surface had been covered with a dull grey substance, as if someone had set about cleaning everything then given up after applying the murky polish. He remembered Karin telling him how they had managed to escape from Crow before.
‘You have the mind of a genius yet you still can’t look at yourself, can you?’ he said. ‘Can’t stand the sight of your reflection.’
Crow’s eyes narrowed. ‘It is not the chore it once was, dear Kenichi,’ he said. ‘One just finds one’s vanity a little … distracting, when trying to work. And once I get to work on you, I’ll need all my concentration. The only way to the most tuneful of songs is perseverance and practice.’
‘You can go to hell.’
‘I appreciate the well wishes. Who knows, one day it might come to pass. Perhaps I’ll see that whore of a wife of yours down there with me. She deserves it, after all.’
‘Do not mention her name.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it. Makes me feel dirty, almost as though I can taste all those cocks she’s sucked myself. Doesn’t it bother you, that? When you kiss her goodnight, don’t you imagine her lying on her back with another man’s cock inside her? Perhaps with a second shoved inside her mouth? Three’s a crowd and all that?’
‘Kill yourself.’
Crow sniggered. ‘But your daughter … so lovely and pure. Wouldn’t she delight to see her daddy like this?’
Ken strained against the plastic straps the two henchmen had used to strap him down to the metal stretcher. ‘If you harm a single hair on her head….’
‘Oh, Kenichi! Ease the cheese, please. Drop the silly clichés won’t you, and come up with something original?’ Crow gave a little shake of his head. ‘It’s no wonder your last few albums bombed.’
‘She’s done nothing to you.’
‘Oh, I know that. But, as my former employers might have said, guilty by association?’
‘Fuck you.’
Crow went over to a table near the wall and filled a syringe with liquid out of an unmarked bottle. He held it up and turned back towards Ken. ‘It’ll please you to know that I’ve sent an envoy to collect them.’ He cocked his head, and Ken shivered as his own voice came out of Crow’s mouth: ‘Hi, Karin, it’s me. I need your help. I’ve sent a car to pick you up.’
‘You bastard. I’ll kill you.’
‘I don’t know about that, but I have plans to make you play for me. You do produce a wonderful tune. I’m looking forward to hearing your next composition, and hopefully your beautiful wife and daughter will join me in the audience, as will that stupid boy, Matsumoto. I haven’t forgotten about him, you know.’
‘He’ll kill you, if I don’t do it first.’
Crow laughed. ‘Oh, I’m sure he’ll try.’ He grabbed Ken’s arm in his bony, deformed fingers and jabbed the needle into the skin, making Ken gasp. ‘But be quiet now. It’s time for you to rest, and for me to get to work.’
The bird, where it sat with its head cocked on the windowsill, seemed to be mocking her. Crina threw a clump of bloody hair in its direction, but it landed short, dropping to the flagstones halfway across the room.
Crina rubbed her fingers against bed sheets that were already stained a brown-red colour. Golden strands of hair made a crude halo around her. She could twist and roll over now, but the skin of her fingers was split and sore. Her precision had long since left her, and instead of methodically breaking the fused hairs one by one, her shaking hands could only tug and scrabble at her scalp, turning it into a bloody mess.
She couldn’t guess at the time, but the sun had long ago passed over her window, leaving her a view of grey clouds and the occasional eagle as it made trips from its hunting fields back to her balcony and its young.
She had seen and heard nothing from the man who had captured her or his henchmen. No one had come to her room.
She slumped back on the bed, trying to get her breath back, trying to stop herself from crying. There were only so many tears, and she had used them all.
The wind soughed outside her window, whispering through the high rafters of the room. She felt hot and flustered, wishing she could open the window and let some fresh air clear out the cloying stench of blood.
Then something cut through the silence, a muffled, lengthy cry. She froze, hardly daring to breathe, and a few seconds later it came again, harsh, painful, a man’s desperate call for help.
She felt chills down the back of her neck, and all she could think was that she hoped it wasn’t Grigore.
27
A protected species
The sole policeman in the otherwise deserted station didn’t seem to know what to do about Jennie and Jun as they came marching through the door, barely clothed and covered in a mixture of ash and garbage.
‘We need help,’ Jennie said, running up to the front desk and slamming her dirty hands down on the previously clean desktop. The man—an overweight, jowly policeman with coffee stains on his uniform—recoiled, wrinkling his nose.
‘Do you know there’s been an explosion at the Heigel Hotel?’
The policeman shook his head. ‘I don’t speak American or Chinese—’
‘I’m speaking Romanian!’
He waved his hands. ‘Look, we’re understaffed as it is and I’m not allowed to leave the station unattended. The phone lines are down and mobile phone reception is getting blocked by something. It’s best for me to stay here.’
‘And do what?’
‘Someone has to stay here. We’ve got a crisis situation—’
‘And it’s getting worse!’
Jennie thumped the desktop, causing the officer to stan
d up.
‘Don’t make me put you in the cells.’
‘Can’t you just help us?’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘We need to get into Heigel Castle.’
‘Why?’
‘Because we think the person behind all the bad things that have been going on is living in there.’
The police officer raised an eyebrow. ‘Grigore Albescu? Are you sure?’
‘Who’s Grigore Albescu?’
‘He’s the new owner of Heigel Castle. He bought it just a month or two back. He’s probably the second most famous man in Romania after the president, but he’s a damn sight richer. Some say he bought Heigel Castle just because he could, although he’s standing for mayor in next month’s elections, so he sounds pretty serious about getting involved in the local community.’
Jennie glanced at Jun, who was watching the door. Of course, he couldn’t understand their conversation, so she had to remember to tell him everything later. This could be vital, though.
‘Is there are reason why people might not want him to be the mayor?’
The police officer shrugged. ‘Only that he’s a hotshot asshole from Bucharest that thinks he can buy himself political success. That until he bought Heigel Castle he couldn’t have found the town on a map, or that all he cares about is his image and how much money he has in the bank.’ He smiled. ‘He’s likely to win by a landslide. He’s promised to have the train line extended to Heigel, get the roads re-laid, and a host of other things. God knows how he’s going to pay for it all. Hopefully out of his own pocket.’
‘He sounds more like a businessman.’
The police officer shrugged again. ‘He has his finger on the pulse, though. He’s got all sorts of policies against multinational companies trying to build their god-awful foreign shops everywhere, but most people are just happy he’s revoking the hunting ban on those horrible birds.’
‘What birds?’
‘The Romanian Black Eagle. It’s native to these parts, but it’s an ugly bastard. It’s not like most eagles, it’s almost parasitic. It eats garbage, and breeds like a motherfucking rat. Because some archaic classification put it in the eagle family it gets special treatment. With all the tourists tossing their shit around in the summer months the damn things are everywhere. I think rats would be more preferable. At least they don’t shit on your head unless you’re standing under a water pipe or something.’
At a flapping gesture the police officer made, Jun came forward. Jennie gave him a quick translation, then turned back to the police officer.
‘What does it look like?’
The police officer squeezed his cheeks together with his hands and cocked his head to the side. ‘Kind of squinty,’ he said. ‘Ugly bastard, for sure. Black tuft of hair on the top of its head.’
She translated for Jun, who nodded. ‘Crow’s protecting them,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how, but he wants to stop them being hunted.’
She told the officer what Jun had said, but the policeman just shrugged. ‘So we’re dealing with a crazy animal rights campaigner, is that it? Seriously, those fuckwads should be locked up. If it isn’t wolves it’s bears, and if it isn’t bears it’s deer. They think every one of those bark-stripping little bastards is Bambi. Ruin the forests, ruin the crops, ruin the tourist trade.’
Jennie raised an eyebrow as the police officer turned back to his notepad and began scribbling what appeared to be the beginnings of a drawing of a decapitated deer.
‘What an unfortunate situation,’ she said. ‘While we’re resolving it, I don’t suppose you have a shower room back there in your office somewhere? And is there any chance of some clean clothes? What few things I have are covered in crap.’
The police officer looked up at her and gave a leery grin. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘And while it doesn’t bother me particularly, you’re making the station smell.’ He nodded towards a door to the left of the desk. ‘Third room on the right. It’s the one we use to shower the crims. There’s a lost property box back there too. Take whatever you want.’
Jennie translated to Jun who shrugged. ‘Better than nothing,’ he said.
‘Thanks,’ she said to the policeman, forcing a polite smile.
28
Collection at the airport
When Karin heard her name over the PA she thought she was hearing things. It had been in English the first time, so she hadn’t been paying attention, but when it came again, this time in Japanese: ‘Could Karin Kobayashi go to the information desk on the second floor,’ she thought there had to be some mistake.
She glanced down at Nozomi, the girl dragging her pink Kanjani-Eight suitcase along behind her, then up again at the departures board. Their flight for Narita left in just over an hour. They had barely enough time to get through immigration before their flight would be called for boarding.
‘Come on,’ she said to Nozomi. ‘We have to hurry.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘There’s a call for us at the information desk. I just need to see what they want, then we’ll be on the plane, I promise.’
‘Where’s Daddy?’
‘He’ll be coming soon.’
Aware of the seconds ticking away, she hurried back towards the information desk on the lower floor. She hoped against hope that it might be Ken, that he was all right, and he was calling to tell her not to go, and that he was safe with Jun back at their hotel, that there had been no sign of Crow, and that things would now go back to normal. As she reached the information desk, she was practically hyperventilating.
‘I’m Karin Kobayashi,’ she gasped. ‘I heard the PA say my name.’
A young information clerk nodded. ‘You have a call,’ she said, holding out a phone.
Karin shoved it against her ear so hard she felt a jolt of pain through her skull. ‘Ken? Ken, is that you?’
‘Hey, Karin,’ came Ken’s voice. ‘Is that who you would like me to be?’
She frowned. ‘What? Ken…?’
‘Or would you like me to be your old friend, Jun?’
Karin gasped as the voice changed again. She wanted to throw the phone away as Jun’s voice turned into squawking laughter, but she was immobilized through her fear. ‘You … that’s you, I know it.’
‘Or I can be your former squeeze, if you like,’ Crow squawked. His voice changed again, and this time Karin sobbed O-Remo began to speak. ‘Karin, why did you leave me? I’m so sorry about what happened. I love you. I’ve always loved you and if you just come back to me….’
‘I’m sorry,’ she muttered, before she could help herself.
‘Hahahaha!’ Crow screamed into the phone. ‘You stupid fucking whore! A good job you never went into acting, isn’t it? I, on the other hand, am a one-man band.’
The information clerk was staring at her. ‘Is everything all right, miss?’
Karin waved her away. ‘What do you want?’
‘It’s not a question of what I want, but what you want. I have your husband. If you want to see him again, you’ll come out to the parking bay on level three, where I have a car waiting for you. And don’t forget your daughter. I’m very much looking forward to meeting her too.’
‘I’ll never let you touch her!’
‘Look, sweetheart,’ Crow said, in Ken’s voice again. ‘Don’t worry, he isn’t going to kill me. He’s just going to hurt me really, really bad. And he’s going to keep doing it until you and Nozomi get here.’
‘Ken—’
‘HHHAAAA, you fool!’
Karin pulled the phone away from her face and was about to smash it against the desk in front of the clerk’s stunned eyes, when she heard a screeching, ‘Don’t hang up or he dies!’
She put the receiver back to her ear. ‘What do you want from me?’
‘Get in the car. And remember, don’t forget the kid. Three’s a crowd and all that, and the crow likes a gathering.’
The line went dead. Karin handed it back to the clerk, her
hand shaking. She looked down at Nozomi, standing at her side, peering up at her with those wide, inquisitive eyes.
‘Is everything all right, Mummy?’
‘It’s fine, sweetheart. Nothing you need to worry about.’
Getting into Professor Crow’s car would be the death knell for them all. There was no way it could possibly end well.
She looked up at a bank of signs hanging from the ceiling, and saw one pointing to car parking to the left, departures to the right.
‘I’m sorry, Ken,’ she whispered, tears filling her eyes. ‘I can’t risk her getting hurt. Please forgive me.’ She gripped Nozomi’s hand and started to drag her towards the stairs back up to the departures lounge. ‘We have to hurry now, sweetheart. They’ll start to call our names in a minute.’
‘Again?’ Nozomi said, giving a little laugh that only made Karin more certain she had made the right decision. Ken had his own demons to fight, but the last thing he would have wanted was to endanger his child.
They were halfway up the stairs when an ear-splitting boom came from the floor above.
As lights flickered, wall glass shattered, and masonry fell from the roof, the whole airport seemed to shriek in terror. Karin took a moment to place it as the milling customers all beginning to scream at once, and realised her chances of getting Nozomi safely on a plane were evaporating. The stairs were blocked as a wave of fleeing people came rushing down.
As desperate airport customers shoved Karin and Nozomi aside in their haste to escape, Karin grabbed her daughter and tried to crouch, only to find herself caught in the cascading flood of people. Dragged along with her daughter clutched tightly against her, she was finally shoved out at the bottom of the escalator as people rushed off in all directions, screaming and crying for their loved ones.
Sprinklers had come on, although there was no sign of a fire. Sirens had begun to blare and several security guards shoved past her in their haste to get upstairs. Karin found herself sprawling towards the ground, only avoiding a fall when she landed on a discarded luggage trolley that spun out across the crowded floor, carrying her with it.