I pace the floor while Chloe and Free go to collect Nagi. It only takes the slightest thing to go wrong and we’re all fucked. It seems like hours since they left, although I know it’s no more than ninety minutes. My mood isn’t helped by wondering if Ken got Yohji to safety. If they are safe…well that’s something else I’m going to have to come to terms with…seeing Yohji again.
The door opens and Chloe pokes his head round it. “We’ve got Naoe,” he says. “He’s waiting in the kitchen.”
I trust Chloe’s cool and incisive judgement on a lot of things so I have to ask him, “What do you think of him?”
“Thrilled to be given this chance, frightened and deeply upset over what he’s been forced to do. He hides it all well behind a calm and impassive exterior. Actually, in many ways, he reminds me of you.”
I’m not overly impressed by the comparison and I want to see him for myself before I make any decisions about his future…or lack of it. I shoot Chloe a dirty look before brushing past him and striding into the kitchen where I find Nagi hunched over a mug of tea that Free has provided him with. He looks to be at the end of his tether and my heart suddenly softens towards him. He glances up as I enter the kitchen and visibly winces. I imagine he would have been a lot happier to see Ken than me.
Free wordlessly hands me a mug and backs off. He knows this is between me and the telekinetic and that the final decision is mine and mine alone to make.
“Hello Nagi.”
He nods. “Abyssinian.”
I shrug. “I’m not part of Weiss anymore. What made you approach Ken?”
He stares at his tea. “I’m tired of killing to order and I’m afraid.”
“Takatori Mamoru is making you afraid? I find that hard to believe.”
He lifts his head and stares at me and I can see the fear in his haunted eyes. “Not him,” he whispers, “his grandfather. He wants me dead because of my connections to Schwarz.”
“That’s hardly surprising,” I tell him. “You were instrumental in almost killing Kritiker agents on several occasions. His grandson was one of them. Plus Schwarz was not exactly on our top ten favourite people list.” I take a sip of my own tea, watching him carefully over the rim of my cup.
He nods, sighing quietly. “I know but, whatever you may feel about Schwarz, they never forced me to kill. I did the hacking and only fought when I had to.”
I remember this tired and scared young man as a teenager, desperately trying to save the youngest of the Schrient women and, by so doing, having nothing to do with the abduction of my sister. I realise that he is speaking nothing but the truth but I can’t call him anything but an enemy as yet. “You say Takatori Saijou wants you dead. Do you have any proof of this?”
“Is there a computer here? If there is, I can provide you with proof.”
I share a surprised glance and a nod with Chloe who leaves the kitchen to get our laptop. I hadn’t actually expected Nagi to have anything more than a gut feeling and I wonder what this ‘proof’ might be. Chloe returns with the laptop and we connect to the web with the aid of a mobile phone.
I stare challengingly at Nagi. “Okay, let’s see your proof.”
He doesn’t even approach the computer but the cursor ball rotates and there are several clicks and some sign of typing. Then the computer turns, apparently all by itself, until the screen is facing me. I lean forward to read the e-mail displayed and gasp aloud before turning to Free. “Were you followed at all?”
“Someone did try, but I managed to lose them.” Somehow I doubt that, knowing just how good Kritiker’s agents can be at tailing people. I switch off the mobile and slam the lid down on the laptop. “We’re out of here! Right now!”
Free and Chloe don’t waste time with pointless questions as they scramble to collect the few belongings we brought with us. I glance across the room at Nagi who is now wearing the saddest expression I’ve ever seen on his face. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers.
“Never mind that now,” I tell him. “You’re leaving with us. I can’t promise you safety until we’re out of Japan. Even then it might well be hit and miss.”
“I know,” he says. “Thank you.”
Free and Chloe having cleared the place of our luggage, we head out of the back door and towards the Nissan just as some sort of mortar or shell explodes into the front of the house. Free lets loose with a string of invective in German and we run for the Nissan even as we wait for our deaths. Another missile bursts through the back door and explodes around us in a blinding, eye-stinging flash of brightness and flying shrapnel. I shut my eyes against the glare and expect immediate death only to find that I’m still standing and very much alive.
I open my eyes and blink in stunned amazement. We appear to be standing in the centre of a firestorm that has no power to touch us. Nagi has a look of intense concentration on his face and I gather my wits enough to realise that he’s shielding us. Even the Nissan is unscathed and we scramble into it.
We have just pulled away from the kerb when the whole house goes up in flames. I find myself imagining the official headlines, ‘Freak Explosion Caused by Gas Leak’ and then shake my head in attempt to clear it and get rid of the ringing in my ears. I need to stay focused and not give into my shock.
We accelerate away from the burning building and the small group of agents I can now see at the front of it. They spot us and start gesticulating wildly and running for their own vehicle. The dangerous race for the airport is on except… Suddenly I’m laughing like a maniac and Chloe turns to stare at me as if I’ve gone crazy. All I can manage to do in my mildly hysterical state is to point at the view through the back window. He peers through it and chuckles softly. Our would-be assassins appear to be unable to start their car.
I turn in my seat and glance at Nagi sitting motionless next to me. “How long can you prevent their car from starting?” I ask him.
He turns to stare at me. “They’re not going anywhere,” he says flatly. “That car will never start again.”
Hmm, useful.
Even if Nagi doesn’t want to kill, he is still a handy man to have around in a fight. I start to wonder what Takatori Mamoru was thinking when he forced him to use his power offensively rather than defensively. If I hadn’t chosen to take him with us, Chloe, Free and I would now be char-grilled and very dead. It’s a sobering thought.
We make it onto a London-bound plane without further incident and, once up in the air and on our way home, I can relax. Well, I can pretend to be asleep rather than field all the questions I know both Free and Chloe want answered. I can’t face that; not yet, anyway.
I know that I will have to share the contents of that e-mail with everyone once we reach London. Until then I don’t want to even think about the connotations of what I’ve read. Suddenly half the world seems like a very short distance.
* * * * * * *
I gaze at the shop and start laughing. Some things never change, even the name is the same except that it’s in English. Kitten’s House. Nope, don’t even want to try figuring that one out!
“Did you miss flower arranging?” Ken asks with a huge grin.
“It’s been years since the trailer, Ken. I’d probably be as rusty as hell.”
Ken shrugs. “I still haven’t picked it up. Still doing the watering, sweeping, delivering and serving. Luckily Aya never did lose his touch and Chloe’s pretty good. Free can make up simple bouquets and bunches.”
“I have yet to meet all these people,” I point out, wondering how they’ll react to Nagi and I. Always supposing Aya agrees to bring Nagi out of Japan, of course. That could easily go either way.
“Well, Yuki and Michel are at the Castle. You’ll meet them when the others return from Japan and things get back to what passes for normal around here.”
“You’ve mentioned Yuki before. Something to do with saving Aya’s life?”
Ken nods. “Yeah. There were two opposing groups in New York apparently, Orphen and Blue Eyes. Aya was stabbed by a kid from Blue Eyes and Yuki, with the rest of Orphen, rescued him and got his wound tended to. It’s a long story, but Orphen was destroyed although Aya managed to save Yuki. Then Chloe and Mihirogi found Aya. He and I went back to New York to rescue Yuki and bring him here.”
“And I’ll get to meet the mysterious KR I assume.”
“Yeah. We’ll need to let him meet you and decide where to go from here. He’s been rather concerned with the way things are going in Japan.”
“I’ll just bet he has! Are he and the Takatori involved in some kind of old boys network?”
“I think his organisation and Kritiker have helped each other out in the past,” Ken says, “but he’s very worried now.”
I nod dismissively, not really wanting to think about the Takatori family in any way shape or form. I wait patiently as Ken picks up his bag and lets us both into the shop.
The familiar floral scents set my mind to working fucking overtime again. Do I really want to go back to the whole flowers by day, killing by night lifestyle? Does Aya want me here at all? Are we really safe from the long reach of Takatori Saijou? Damn! I wasn’t going to think about him!
Sighing, I follow Ken into the shop. It’s bigger than the Koneko was and has large, plate-glass windows on either side of the door which is recessed to provide bays for the fine displays. As soon as I walk into the place I feel right at home.
“Coffee?” Ken asks.
“Sounds wonderful,” I tell him. We have already agreed it amongst ourselves that we will not be going to bed until the others arrive here safely so the caffeine fix is a must.
“Come on then,” Ken says and leads the way through the back door of the shop. I follow him through a workroom and into a large and pristine kitchen. I gaze around, awed by the space after being used to the enlarged broom closet that was called a kitchen at the Koneko and the only slightly larger version at the apartment.
“Just how big is this place, Kenken?”
“Four floors,” he says with a smirk as he scoops coffee into a machine in the corner of one of the counters, “two more the same size as this one and a slightly smaller one on the top. There’s a basement study stroke mission room, workout area and more storage and a garden with greenhouse out back.”
He pours water into the sump and switches the machine on before turning to face me. “At the Castle we have the use of two swimming pools, one inside, one out, a full-size dojo with well-equipped gym and a games room with pool and snooker tables, games consoles, widescreen TV and bar. We’re encouraged to stay there as often as we like. It’s a totally different set-up to Kritiker and we’re better paid.”
I perch on a corner of the table and grin at him. “Sounds like you’re happy here,” I say as I compare the contented-looking man in front of me to the edgy, almost psychotic companion from Europe and Koua and decide he looks a hell of a lot better.
“Yeah,” he says after a moment’s thought, “I am. Oh sure, we have our moments and Chloe can be a bit of a prick at times but, on the whole, it’s good.”
I don’t know whether I should ask my next question or not. I’ve just been brought safely out of Japan so it seems needlessly cruel to open up old wounds for my rescuer but I’m curious by nature so I do open my big, fucking mouth. “And Omi?”
Ken pushes the bangs out of his eyes and shoots me a look that tells me he’s furious, although whether it’s with me or the chibi I can’t be sure. “I really loved him, you know, and he…” His hands form fists and he slams one of them into the kitchen counter as I wince. “Ouch! That was fucking stupid of me!”
“I’m sorry, Ken. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s not your fault,” Ken says as he examines his grazed knuckles. “When he sent an e-mail asking me to collect Aya’s sword from you, I thought it was partly because he wanted to see me. It wasn’t, of course. He simply didn’t want Aya snooping around or knowing you had regained your memory.” He shrugs slightly before turning to grab two mugs out of a cupboard. He fills them both with fragrant coffee. “Milk, coffee mate or black?”
“Coffee mate? What the fuck is that?”
Ken grins at my reaction and I’m glad to see him restored to contentment after my faux pas. “It’s like powdered cream, and you don’t need sugar as it’s slightly sweet,” he tells me.
“I’ll try anything once,” I say before returning to my questions and suppositions. Once a detective, always a detective I guess. “You know, there may have been more to it than Aya ‘snooping around’ as you put it. Takatori Saijou thinks he’s dead, just as he thinks I’m dead.” I watch Ken closely to see what he makes of my thought processes. He hands me my coffee and picks up his own, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“And you think Mamoru wants him to continue thinking that?”
“I don’t really know, Ken. I was told I was nobody and nothing by the little shit, so I have absolutely no idea how his fucking mind works anymore. But, however I look at the situation, I end up back with his grandfather.”
“After all that Crashers told us, so do I,” Ken says with a sigh, “and the old bastard has a very long reach.”
That is so not what I want to hear but I know that Ken has spoken nothing but the truth. All these years of loyalty to Kritiker and we’re repaid with the antiquated old fart wanting us permanently out of his grandson’s life. Wanting desperately to think about something else, I swallow my coffee down and then ask Ken to show me around the rest of the building.