Emergence (Fox Meridian Book 5) (24 page)

‘It’s weird certainly,’ Helen said. She was quietly washing herself down at one of the small stations near the bath.

‘A feint more than a probe, perhaps,’ Fox said. ‘Come on, Helen. I hate talking over my shoulder.’

‘All right for you. I’m not used to this communal bathing business.’

‘I’ve only been to Japan once before, and that was for forty-eight hours. I’m just shameless.’

‘Yeah, right. Why are we doing this here anyway?’

‘Because relaxing in a hot both is exactly what I need right now.’

‘There is nothing to be ashamed of, Helen-san,’ Yuriko said. ‘This is a common practice here, even in mixed company. It has been done for centuries.’

Helen slipped into the water and sank down until it covered her chest. ‘I know. When in Japan and all that. So, we’re thinking Minotaur may have mounted that attack to keep us from spotting something else?’

‘It’s a valid theory,’ Fox replied. ‘Helen, ride the tech crew doing the analysis on the network tomorrow. Make sure they check for anything that might have changed, time-delay viruses, that kind of thing. You know the drill.’

‘Okay, boss.’

‘Yuriko, tomorrow afternoon I want to take a look at the clubs below the hall. I need you to make sure we can get access.’

‘There should be no problem, Fox-san, but I will liaise with the management first thing.’

‘Great.’ Fox sighed again, lifting a little to rest her arms along the edge of the bath. ‘I have to admit, I think your people got this right. Baths should be for relaxing.’

‘It
is
kind of relaxing, yeah,’ Helen admitted.

‘Turning native, Helen-san?’ Yuriko asked.

‘Not sure I can handle all the bowing.’

Yuriko suppressed a giggle. ‘Oh, Fox-san, I noticed an interesting trending item in local social media this afternoon.’

‘Does it have a silky, white tail?’ Fox asked. Kit appeared beside the bath, whimpering slightly.

‘It does. Or she does. There are a number of conversation threads, several with attached videos of Kit-san’s appearance at the Koma Mall.’

‘Oh…’ Kit moaned.

‘She is, apparently, paru-kawaii.’

‘Not telling me anything I don’t already know,’ Fox replied. ‘You reading the feeds, Kit?’

‘I’m just going to hide in a server and review personnel data,’ Kit replied.

‘But, Kit, your public wants you.’

‘They can’t have me!’ Kit squeaked, and promptly vanished.

15
^th
February.

At two o’clock in the afternoon, Club Gokkun seemed to be doing a fair amount of trade, more or less all of it domestic. Fox could sort of see the point since the club was named after a form of pornography she could definitely not get her head around, though the word did just roughly translate to “gulp” which various patrons seemed to be emulating with beer. Still, this was the on-site club at Koma with the most sexually oriented theme and also the most downmarket atmosphere. It was almost sleazy.

‘How many yakuza in here?’ Fox asked Yuriko as they walked through the main floor. The lighting was fairly low, even lower in the booths which surrounded the open area of tables nearest the bar. The staff were all female aside from a few bouncers, and two of the latter were women. Hostesses in micro-skirts and cropped tops swept around the floor with drinks trays, frequently with hair done up in pigtails tied with long ribbons. As with everywhere, it seemed, v-tags were ubiquitous.

‘Difficult to say in this light,’ Yuriko replied, ‘but I recognise one man. The table of six near the rear door. The tallest of them is Toyotomi Tabito, a local kyodai with a reputation for violence. It is likely that his companions are his shatei. Except the woman, obviously.’

‘You said there were more women in the Fukui-kai now.’

‘Yes, but they do not wear such revealing clothing. They hide their tattoos just as the men do. No, that is Shina-chan, an adult sensie star with a significant following at the moment.’

‘Huh.’ AS idols were something else Fox could not quite understand. They had taken over from adult video idols almost as soon as sensie-based entertainment had become viable for most people. AV idols were sort of understandable in a way: they had exciting lives, outside the cultural norms, and girls could aspire to be them while men admired the more physical aspects of their chosen girl. AS idols broadcast almost every aspect of their lives from their point of view via paid and free multicast. The chance to
see
your idol was relatively rare and Fox could not imagine what it did for male viewers.

‘What’s through the rear door?’ Fox asked.

‘A more… secluded area with fewer restrictions on activities and paid hostesses. There are private booths as well.’

Fox nodded, though her attention was mostly concerned with Toyotomi and his crew. Shina-chan seemed to be unhappy with the amount of attention she was getting from the tall gangster: it probably made for poor sensie material. Toyotomi was definitely paying more attention to Fox and Yuriko, though exactly which of them was drawing his attention was unclear. ‘Does Toyotomi know you?’

‘It is likely,’ Yuriko said, a hint of displeasure straying into her voice. ‘Many of the Fukui-kai know who I am.’

‘Right. Let’s get out of here. I feel like I need another bath.’ Fox turned and started for the exit. ‘Make sure we’ve got camera coverage of as much of this place as possible on the night of the concert. Get the police involved if you have to.’

‘Hai, Fox-san. Yes.’

Fox smiled. ‘I can cope with some basic Japanese, you know. Even without Kit to provide subtitles.’

‘It’s a matter of politeness, and a little of pride. I should not put you to the trouble of having to translate.’

Thinking about it, Fox could not remember Yuriko slipping into Japanese before. ‘Toyotomi getting to you?’

‘He is a most unpleasant man and having his attention focused on me is not pleasurable.’

‘I can understand that. Hopefully the other clubs aren’t going to be the same.’

‘They will be better,’ Yuriko said. ‘Perhaps we should have left this one until last so that we could go straight to the sentō.’

‘Yeah, well, hindsight is always twenty-twenty…’

~~~

‘Of the forty-eight security staff employed by Koma, I have identified eight as definite Fukui-kai members, and another sixteen as probable members.’ Kit was perched on the edge of the bath, legs crossed, hands on her knees. It was a ludicrously improbable position, but you could do things like that when you were just a virtual image. ‘Unfortunately, the picture is worse than it appears since the head of security, Tsuramatsu Yamabe, is one of the definite members.’

‘Not good,’ Fox said. ‘We basically can’t trust the venue’s internal security. Though that’s
if
the Fukui-kai actually plan to do something about Sakura.’

‘It is by no means a certainty,’ Yuriko said. ‘ATW did not take her departure with equanimity when she left to join the Independent Music Channel. There were early attempts to sue for some of the profits from
Songs on the Wind
, claiming that the success of the album was based upon ATW’s work in promoting Sakura-san’s image. The suits were rejected, but that was some time ago. My brother is many things, but he is not that petty. He may be more irritated by Palladium’s employment for security here, rather than one of his companies, than he is over anything Sakura-san has done.’

‘You think we may be overplaying the yakuza angle?’

‘I would be the last to discount the Fukui-kai as a threat, but I do not believe they will act purely based on the information available at this time.’

Fox nodded. ‘All right. You two can handle the rehearsals tomorrow without me. I’ll hang back here and formulate a full evacuation plan for the site. The day after we’ll run through them together, on-site, with the leads on our security team.’

‘Planning for the worst case?’ Helen asked.

‘Basically, yes. Plan for it and hopefully you’ll be wasting a whole load of time. Don’t plan for it… I’m probably more concerned about Minotaur. He’s a total unknown in this and if we don’t get him soon, he’s going to be a threat hanging over Sakura when she returns to America. We know he’s in Japan. He must be here to
do
something, but he’s being too damn quiet for my liking.’

‘Perhaps,’ Kit said, ‘he was scared by being tracked down in New York and is reluctant to try too much here.’

‘Maybe. You really think that might be the case?’

Kit looked thoughtful for a second. ‘Given the psychology, no. It seems more likely that he was angered by his failed efforts. I believe he will attempt something drastic and probably difficult to predict. He may be more of a problem than ever.’

17
^th
February.

‘All ready for tomorrow?’ Fox asked. They were in a sentō again, but this time it was the one in the VIP accommodation area, and Sakura and Iberson were in the bath too.

‘Shouldn’t I be asking you that?’ Sakura asked in turn.

‘No, you should be assuming we are. I’m making small talk.’

‘I’m assuming you are,’ Iberson said. ‘It’s comforting, and allows me to relax and enjoy the experience.’

‘Huh, yeah. I wish I had room for something like this at home. The hot tub is just not gonna cut it now.’

‘I was referring to being naked with four attractive women.’ Iberson smirked. ‘I’m allowed to say things like that due to my reputation as ice-bitch of the universe.’

‘Be careful. The water’s hot and you might melt.’

‘Huh,’ Iberson grunted. ‘So what have you got planned for tomorrow?’

‘You don’t need to know the details. You just need to stick with whichever one of us is with you if anything goes wrong. At least one of us
will
be with you at all times.’

‘Except on stage, obviously,’ Helen added.

‘Except then. Primary extraction route is straight to the roof and the vertol. I have a secondary route there if the primary’s blocked, and there’s a third way out, by car, if the roof is a no-go.’

‘And if all three are blocked?’ Sakura asked.

‘Then we wing it. It won’t come to that, but if it does, Yuriko knows the area well. Between us, we should be able to get you out of anything short of a full military assault.’

‘And Fox has got out of those too,’ Helen said, grinning. ‘So if the defence force does attack, don’t give up hope.’

‘You seem to be planning for an absolute worst case,’ Sakura said.

‘Yes, but we don’t think we’ll need it. This way we’re ready, but the real problem is still Minotaur, and he’s not going to come in with guns and a squad of mercenaries. The problem is that we don’t know what he
will
try. The network guys are ready for anything they can think of, but I’d have preferred to have been able to give them more intel.’

Sakura nodded. ‘I’m used to improvisation. I plan and rehearse, but every performer needs to be ready to work with events on the night. Only in a studio can I control everything, and the world is not a studio. I would not wish it to be.’

‘Be kind of useful though. Get it wrong and you could just go back and re-record.’

‘There are many things I would wish to do that to,’ Yuriko said. ‘Sadly, no one has ever given me the remote control.’

‘I think it got lost,’ Helen said. ‘I checked the sofa too. It’s always in the sofa, but no luck.’

‘Isn’t Jackson Martins working on an app for that?’ Iberson asked. ‘I just bet he’s got a time machine somewhere.’

‘No, I’m pretty certain he hasn’t,’ Fox replied. ‘His wife would still be alive for one thing. No, we don’t get do-overs, so we’re just going to have to do it right the first time. And we will. Everything’s in place. I’ll go ahead tomorrow with the advance team and make sure the setup goes okay. All you need to worry about, Nishi, is performing. Leave the rest to us.’

18
^th
February.

‘How are things in New York?’ Fox asked.

Jason’s avatar gave a shrug. ‘Dark, but brighter for seeing you in nothing but a thong.’

Fox flashed him a grin and continued dressing. There seemed no point in masking her image for the man she slept with. ‘Yeah, well, it’s getting covered up.’

‘I shall contain my disappointment. Your operation is going well?’

‘Some wrinkles, but it seems to be going reasonably smoothly. The concert’s tonight and we’ll be flying back tomorrow evening. Which actually means we’ll get in at about five thirty Saturday morning. Expect an early wake-up booty call.’

‘I may not sleep at all.’

‘You’d better. You’ll need your rest. See you then.’

‘Au revoir, mon chère.’ Jason’s image vanished and Fox smiled.

‘I am happy,’ Kit said, appearing more or less where Jason had been.

‘You are?’ Fox asked.

‘I am happy because Jason makes you happy.’

‘Ha! Well, I’m happy that Vali makes you happy, so that makes me doubly happy.’

‘Are you attempting to out-happy me?’

Fox finished buttoning her blouse over her bodysuit and shook her head. ‘I’d never try. You being paru-kawaii and all that, I’d never manage it.’

Kit managed a passable impersonation of a scowl, even if it was kind of cute. ‘You just
had
to bring that up again, didn’t you?’

‘Every chance I get.’

~~~

Iberson was reading a magazine in the lounge of her suite when Fox entered. ‘Nishi’s meditating,’ Iberson said without looking up.

‘She do that a lot?’ Fox asked.

‘No. Usually it’s when she’s nervous about something. She’s nervous about this gig. First time she’s done one in front of a Japanese audience since she ran away.’

‘Not because of Minotaur or the Fukui-kai?’

‘Hell no. That’s added sauce, I guess, but it’s her audience who have her worried. She wants this to be perfect for them.’

‘I suppose I can understand that.’ Fox frowned. ‘Aren’t you going to be missing an episode of
Straight Talk
being here?’

Iberson looked up and grinned. ‘The joys of a connected world. We’re doing a special on Japanese attitudes to women with guests here and at home. The producers thought it was a great idea and MarTech have the facilities here to handle the necessary media feeds. Plus, I get to shoot the thing tomorrow afternoon to air live at the normal time in New York.’