Cure (19 page)

“It is my pleasure,” Hideki replied in passable English. “And it is my pleasure to thank you for your gracious help, especially for tonight. It would be hard for us to do it alone, as it is on such a famous avenue.”

“It is my pleasure to help, and you are correct that the location makes the task more difficult. It would be the equivalent for us to rob an office on the busiest street in the Ginza district in Tokyo.”

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“Not easy.”

“Not easy,” Louie agreed. “Excuse me, Shimoda-san,” Louie said before calling out to Carlo and Brennan, who had backed up against the wall opposite the bar to keep an eye on Susumu and Yoshiaki. “Why don’t you two go ahead with what we discussed, and call me as soon as you finish?”

They nodded and quickly left the room.

“I’m very sorry to interrupt, Shimoda-san,” Louie said. “I’m sending my two men to the city morgue to make sure that what you said about your hit was as you promised. I want to be certain it is being considered a natural death and not a professional homicide.”

“You have contacts in the city morgue?” Hideki asked. He was clearly impressed.

“A resource we rarely tap,” Louie answered.

“I would appreciate hearing what they learn.”

“Getting back to what we were talking about,” Louie said, “I want you to know it will not be easy to break into the offices of iPS USA. It can be done, but it will have to be done quickly. To be as safe as possible, we will have only minutes to be in the office. My understanding is we will be looking for lab books. Is that correct?”

“It is entirely correct. We must get these lab books.”

“What kind of lab books are they?”

“I am not authorized to say.”

Louie was taken aback. He stared at Hideki. Here the guy was going to the extent of trying to extort Louie into helping him obtain lab books but wasn’t willing to say anything about them. It was irritating to say the least. And what was more irritating was that after speaking with Paulie, Louie knew the basis of the extortion was, in Louie’s vernacular, a crock of shit. There’d be no way that Hideki’s Aizukotetsu-kai would be able to team up with Dominick, because it would mean teaming up with the hated Yamaguchi, which would never happen.

Louie felt himself getting more angry but more curious, too. Why were these damn lab books so important?

“What do they look like? I mean, once inside the office, my guys and your guys 111

are not going to have a lot of time. Everybody will have to look for the missing books.”

“I was told they were dark blue, but the most important way to recognize them is that they say ‘Satoshi Machita’ in yellow letters on the front cover. They will be easy to recognize.”

“What the hell?” Louie questioned. “You said they were stolen.”

“They were stolen. They were stolen by the man who owns iPS USA.”

Louie rubbed his forehead roughly. Nothing was making sense. He was beginning to believe Hideki was teasing him, making fun of him, but for what reason he had no idea.

“I think we should stop talking about the lab books and get on with the plans for tonight,” Hideki said.

“Just a few more questions,” Louie said. “I gotta have some sense of what we’re after. I mean, we’re taking a risk here for you.”

“I’m not authorized to discuss the lab books.”

“Look!” Louie said suddenly. “You’re pissing me off. Up until these lab books, you and I have gotten along superbly. We’ve never had a disagreement, and we’re making money together hand over fist, which means we’re making a lot. Either you answer my questions or we’re out, and you can get the lab books on your own. The trouble is, you didn’t level with me about Satoshi right from the beginning. You said it was a shakedown, making me believe it was a gambling debt or something. But it turns out it’s a lot more, and I want to know what it’s about.”

“You are going to make me turn to your competition,” Hideki warned.

“Bullshit!” Louie scoffed.

Sensitive to a sudden change in atmosphere, Susumu and Yoshiaki slid off the barstools and stood. Simultaneously, Arthur and Ted slipped from their booth.

Each twosome eyed the other.

“You’re not about to go to Vinnie any more than I am,” Louie rejoined. “I learned something today. You Aizukotetsu-kai and Yamaguchi-gumi get along like oil and water.”

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For a few tense minutes, no one in the room moved. It was like those charged moments just before a summer thunderstorm, when lightning was on its way but no one knew exactly when. Then suddenly the atmosphere lightened as Hideki audibly breathed out and said, “You are right.”

“Right about what?” Louie demanded. He’d gotten himself worked up that Hideki had been playing him for a fool.

“Everything you said. I have not been truthful with you. I had been given orders to kill Satoshi and get his lab books. I had hoped I could achieve both goals at the very same time, but it did not work out that way. I do not know all the details about the lab books myself, as it is a complicated story related to who will own the very important patents for the next kind of stem cells, the induced pluripotent stem cells.”

“Slow down. What was that?”

“What do you know about stem cells?” Hideki asked.

“Nothing,” Louie admitted.

“I’m no expert, but it’s a topic covered constantly in the Japanese news media,”

Hideki said. “We’re constantly reminded that it was a Japanese scientist named Shigeo Takayama who produced the first pluripotent stem cell. Kyoto University patented the process on his behalf. Then my oyabun learned that another researcher, Satoshi Machita, had actually beat Takayama in creating the special cells, which was proved by his lab books. Although during the day he’d been working on mice under Takayama’s tutelage, during the night he was working by himself on his own mature fibroblasts, creating human iPS cells before anyone else.”

“So the man your guys killed yesterday is considered the grand-daddy of these special cells.”

“That’s correct.”

“Which makes the lab books quite valuable.”

“Yes. In Japan they are to be used to challenge Kyoto University patents, and here in America they are to be used to get the patents. Same with the European patent office and the WTO.”

Louie pondered this revelation for several beats and thought about its money-earning potential, then tucked it into the back of his mind. There was no way he 113

would consider actively going through with the planned break-in at iPS USA.

Then Hideki told him something that totally shocked him.

“My oyabun learned these things from the government.”

“The government?” Louie questioned with surprise. “Which government?”

“The Japanese government.”

“Now, that’s hard to believe.”

“But it is true. A vice minister met with my oyabun and told him all of this, including the fact that Satoshi had fled the country illegally with the help of the Yamaguchi-gumi. They were the ones who engineered the theft of the lab books from Kyoto University. It was Kyoto University which had physical but not legal control of the lab books, as Satoshi had been an employee. It is the Japanese government who wants the lab books.”

“Good grief!” Louie said. “I can’t believe the Japanese government approached your leader for help. What’s his name again?”

“Hisayuki Ishii-san.”

“Our government would never come to me for anything,” Louie said, laughing heartily.

“There has always been give-and-take between the Yakuza and our government.

That’s how we operate so openly in Japan. The Japanese government has found us useful on occasion, and we Yakuza are generally left alone by the authorities.

It’s the same with the Japanese people; they too find us useful as an out in an otherwise strict and stratified culture.”

“If that’s true, why did the Yamaguchi-gumi go against your government by helping Satoshi to flee the country and help iPS USA, presumably to get the lab books?”

“We are not sure,” Hideki said, “but it is assumed by my boss that the Yamaguchi-gumi is financially associated with iPS USA as a way of laundering money.”

“That’s not working together.”

“No, it’s not,” Hideki admitted. “You have to remember that the Yamaguchi-gumi is a younger organization than other Yakuza, and not bound as tightly by 114

tradition. They are also much larger, almost double the size of the next smaller.

“Now that I have been fully open with you,” Hideki continued, “how about we get back to discussing tonight’s break-in?”

Before speaking, Louie silently questioned himself if there was anything else he wanted to know about the lab books and their backstory, but nothing came to mind. As up-front as Hideki had seemingly been, Louie was glad that there weren’t plans to kill him after all. Killing the two out-of-control enforcers would be enough.

As concisely as possible, Louie then went on to describe that night’s faux plans, including the pickup location and time, and the fact that the robbery was designed around a diversionary explosion to preoccupy the police, to be set off on Fifth Avenue, south of the break-in location, perhaps at the New York Public Library. When he was finished, he paused to give Hideki time for questions. He felt confident the plans sounded real.

“What if there are still police or general public around the iPS USA building after the explosion?”

Louie thought it was a good question, and gave it a bit of thought before responding. “If there are people or cops in the immediate surroundings, then we abort. We don’t do the break-in. We postpone it until another day. There’s to be no civilian casualties whatsoever if we can possibly avoid it. This is to be a clean break-in with no violence to others, except possibly to an inside security guard if there is one. Have your guys wear masks, gloves, and nondescript dark clothing, not white shirts and sunglasses.”

Louie looked at Hideki. There was a pause. Louie couldn’t believe Hideki didn’t have more questions. Hideki was clearly inexperienced at organizing such an event and was seemingly buying into the plan even though from Louie’s perspective it was, as he would say, nuts.

“If you have no questions for me,” Louie said finally, “I have one for you. When we spoke on the phone, you assured me that Satoshi’s death would be considered natural. How was the hit done?”

“I have been open with you as you requested about the lab books,” Hideki said.

“But about this special technique, I can say nothing, as my oyabun has specifically ordered. We use it rarely, but it has always worked as designed.”

“Why did you use it on this occasion?”

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“Specifically, we did not want the hit to appear as a hit.”

“I appreciate that you made the effort. If it is signed out as a natural death, it won’t cause the police to become agitated. That’s important to me, but why did you care?”

“Because of the Yamaguchi-gumi’s involvement. They had made a big effort to bring Satoshi over to America after they had helped iPS USA to acquire his lab books. If his death had been an obvious hit, we were fearful they might suspect us, the Aizukotetsu-kai, as the instigators. They are our rivals, and there has been tension between us because they stole the lab books from under our noses in our home city of Kyoto. In the past, such a situation could have resulted in violence. The problem is that they have grown too large. We would be overwhelmed even if we acted preemptively.”

“My God!” Louie exclaimed. “Such intrigue.”

“It is a time of change, I am afraid. The Yakuza used to be more respectful of tradition. The Yamaguchi-gumi are mere upstarts.”

After confirming that Susumu and Yoshiaki would be waiting outside the Barnes

& Noble store in Union Square at eleven p.m., the three Yakuza left, all bowing before slipping out the door.

“Weird people,” Arthur said as soon as the sound of the outer door closing slipped back through the heavy draperies.

“This whole situation is weird,” Louie responded.

12

MARCH 25, 2010

THURSDAY, 3:10 p.m.

I
don’t like this,” Carlo said. “I’ve never been in a morgue. How can people work in such a place day in and day out?”

“I think it’s kind of interesting,” Brennan said. He liked the forensics shows on television.

They had pulled into a no-parking zone on First Avenue at the southeastern corner of 30th Street. OCME was ahead of them on the northeast corner.

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“It doesn’t bother you?” Carlo asked nervously. He was in the driver’s seat of his Denali, unconsciously gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles.

Brennan shook his head. “Why? Come on, let’s get this over with. Maybe we should call this Vinnie Amendola and see if he’ll come out and meet us in a bar or something. Having worked here for so long, he undoubtedly knows the area.”

“I think Louie was pretty clear that he wanted you to talk to him face-to-face in the morgue.”

“He didn’t say specifically me,” Brennan said. “He said ‘we.’ And he didn’t say we had to talk to him in the morgue. But you’re in charge.” There were times that Carlo irritated him, especially with the fact that he was officially in charge when the two of them were on assignment, as they were at that moment. Brennan was not impressed with Carlo’s general intelligence and thought that his intelligence should trump Carlo’s seniority. Once he’d brought the issue up with Louie but had gotten reamed out for doing so, such that he’d never brought it up again. But the issue sat there in the back of his mind, like a mildly bothersome toothache.

“I am in charge,” Carlo acknowledged. “So here’s how we’re going to handle this.

You are going in the morgue, make contact with the guy face-to-face, and tell him I want to talk to him wherever he wants, but I want to talk now.”

“And what are you going to do while I’m in the morgue?”

“Sit here and watch the car. It’s a no-parking zone. I don’t want to get a ticket.

If I’m not here when you come out, I’ll be driving around the block.”

Brennan stared at Carlo for a beat, feeling Carlo was making him play gofer.

“Suit yourself,” Brennan grumbled as he climbed from the SUV.