Pandora's Succession (20 page)

The black stretch-limousine cruised between forty and fifty kilometers per hour through the streets of the Shibuya Ward, a major fashion district of Japan and also a major nightlife area that teemed with young people and countless garishly-lit neon lights and billboards.

“I thought you’d be happy to see me. After all, we rescued you,” said Tanaka. His bodyguards flanked Fox while he sat opposite them.

“Yes, you did. Only now I’ve been kidnapped in luxury and without any sake to serve me this time. It’s an interesting scheme Hashimoto has going on. You keep the Boeisho in check so that he can carry out his plans. If only you knew what you were doing.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You must admit that it’s hard to believe an important person within the Boeisho could be swayed by the teachings of a cult.”

Tanaka laughed. “I hope you weren’t too taken in by what your contact told you. His understanding of things is, how should we say, limited. He most likely blew things out of proportion.” Tanaka sighed. “May he rest in peace.”

Fox was not surprised. He feared the worst once he saw the October Man panic. He said nothing but just stared angrily at Tanaka.

“Poor soul. It was the only way to put an end to his state of confusion. We can’t allow people like him to spread lies about us. It was for his own good, and, you could say, for ours as well.”

“Ours? I don’t see anything good about your so-called beliefs, so I guess you’ll have to kill me, too.”

Tanaka laughed again. This time he sighed louder. “It’s a real shame that you don’t understand the way things should be, at least for now. It was the same for everyone at first, including me. But that’ll change, and trust me, you won’t regret it.”

“Is that why you’re keeping me alive? So that I learn the teachings of Hashimoto? My God, he’s really warped your mind. Sooner or later the Boeisho will discover you’re a mole, responsible for the deaths of your own men, which will leave you either court-marshaled or executed without trial. But I’m guessing that you’ve accepted that as part of Hashimoto’s plan.”

“It’s the final outcome that matters. If I should die before then, I will have gone down as a martyr.”

Fox didn’t say anything else, but noticed that they were slowing down, and he looked out the window to see where they were. Outside was the glitzy entrance to a nightclub.
Cylinder
was written, in both Japanese and English, in large, green neon lights above the entrance. The line-up was the same as with most nightclubs, long enough to go around the block with probably a sixty-to ninety-minute wait.

“Does this remind you of your high school years?”

Fox stared at the crowd. “It sure does. I never had to wait in lines though, since I always knew someone on the inside. It’s always helped, just like it’s helped Hashimoto having
you
on the inside.”

When the limousine stopped, a bouncer, the size of an NFL linebacker, opened the door, and Tanaka’s two henchmen gestured for Fox to exit.

“No, after you,” Fox said to the ninjas. The two men forced him out, causing him to nearly stumble and fall. The two motorcyclists, who had accosted Fox earlier, had parked on the sidewalk close by, away from the crowd.

Tanaka was the last to get out of the car and the same bouncer closed the door. He looked at the two motorcyclists and waved them off. They both responded by revving up their engines and speeding away. Tanaka then straightened his tie as he looked at Fox.

“It’s not a good idea to disobey Hashimoto’s ninjas, especially since they’ll kill on a command from an authoritative figure.”

“Well, since it’s only you, I guess I have nothing to worry about.”

Tanaka laughed once again.

Another bouncer unclipped the velvet rope to allow the four of them to pass through. As expected, the people closest to the front of the line yelled in protest and Fox gladly waved back to them. They walked up a set of stairs and were met by another bouncer who opened the door for them.

Fox noticed that all the bouncers had similar physiques.
Steroids...could they be more obvious?
They were almost cartoonish with their oversized upper bodies and stout lower bodies, sort of like the bulldog from
Looney Toons
. Fox forgot the character’s name. Hector, possibly.

The foyer, circular and painted, lit in fluorescent red, ringed the actual dancehall. A clever feature was the smell of cherries, and it made him thirsty. With the massive crowd outside, Fox knew the bartenders would have their pockets overflowing with tips by early morning.

The inner circular wall was covered in mirrors and had four entrances to the main dance floor, all equidistant from each other. Each dancehall entrance had two rows of thick, black-leather curtains that acted as a sound barrier to keep the music inside.

Tanaka turned to Fox. “We should hurry. The young people will be streaming in any moment now.” Tanaka led the way to the glass-enclosed elevator, which was on the outer circular wall of the foyer.

Along the walls, were small artificial palm trees in large ceramic pots, filled with sand. Fox dropped down and pretended to tie his shoe. As expected, Tanaka’s henchmen grabbed him from behind and pulled him up. However, Fox pretended to stumble and caught the edge of one of the pots with both hands. Again, Tanaka’s men were too occupied pulling Fox up onto his feet to notice him dipping a hand into the sand and then dropping some of it into his pants pocket. He could’ve flung it in the eyes of Tanaka’s men right now, however he wanted to meet Hashimoto, and letting Tanaka lead him was the easiest way to do so.

Once they got in, they rode the cylindrical elevator up all five stories. They exited the elevator into an area that was similar to the street-level foyer, except the walls were fluorescent green and actually emitted a strong lime scent. A powerful blast of House Music overwhelmed them when Tanaka pulled open the second leather curtain of the doorway.

This floor of the dance club was empty, and it resembled a cylindrical-shaped prison with fluorescent surroundings. The fifth floor was fluorescent green, the fourth floor was yellow, the third was blue, and the second, purple, then the bottom floor was red.

From where he was, he saw that each floor was ring shaped with the exception of the bottom floor and that there were bars that surrounded the inner ring. Then there was the most spectacular feature. Five cage-dancers, three young men and two women, each dressed in fluorescent red, purple, blue, yellow, and green bodysuits. As they danced, their individual cages were randomly lowered and raised in the open space of the cylinder.

Fox walked on with the others as he observed the surroundings.
A front for recruits, no doubt.
According to what he knew, Hashimoto was recruiting people in the age group he saw lined up outside. It didn’t matter what happened behind the scenes at this nightclub, but Hashimoto had no right to be around anyone this age. And if things went Fox’s way, he’d burn the place to the ground.

Fox saw an area separated by a glass enclosure. Even the inner ring of that section had its bars replaced by glass. Tanaka opened the glass door, and when it closed behind all of them, the loud music was left behind as well.

Tanaka stepped aside and gestured to the others to walk past him. “Ah, much better, much quieter, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Actually, I liked it out there. I was about to have a John Travolta moment.”

For the first time, Fox noticed that Tanaka didn’t laugh. Obviously he didn’t seem to understand the joke.

Unlike the dance floor outside, this room was a cocktail lounge complete with booths and round tables with a glass vase and candle on each. All of the tables were empty, except for the last table where Fox saw the silhouette of a person. The person sat alone, facing away from them.

Fox squinted as he tried to discern the shadowy figure. “So, you’ve brought me to meet Hashimoto personally.”

Tanaka laughed again, and Fox rolled his eyes. “Hashimoto? That’s not Hashimoto.”

Fox took a second look at the person, but still couldn’t identify who it was.
Of course, Katori told me that Hashimoto reported to someone else.

“I thought I told you to watch your back, Fox,” said the silhouetted figure.

Fox stopped where he was.
Hold on, I know that voice.

The two guards were close to Fox as he was made to stand about eight to ten meters away from the booth, where he finally saw the woman, confirming his guess.

“Surprised?”

He was surprised, and Fox’s blank stare probably didn’t hide it. “I thought I’d learned everything tonight, until now.”

Dr. Tabitha Marx took a sip of what Fox thought to be a Black Russian. “There’s a lot that we need to talk about.”

“Really, where would you like to start? Do you want to talk about how you managed to recruit Japanese secret agents into your organization? Or would you rather talk about your acts of treason and how many years back they go?”

Marx relaxed into the cushiony seat and took another sip. “The recruitment process wasn’t much trouble. We help people see things as they are. Once they see the alternative that we offer, they’re practically on hands and knees begging to join. It might surprise you to know how resourceful I really am. Given the right moment, I could even recruit you.”

Fox smirked as he nodded. “Is that right?”

“Oh, I know so. Would you rather hear it from Tanaka instead? Or would you prefer to hear it from the police commissioner?”

Fox lost his smirk once he heard this.

Tabitha’s smile grew as she saw his expression change. “By the way, the word on the street is that you’re a murderer. A vicious assassin, I might add. Five, no, in fact nine men in total this evening. All of them believed to be of Russian origin and one of them Japanese, all ambushed and slaughtered. I’m impressed.”

“You would be. And I’ll bet that my fingerprints magically appeared all over the victims and the murder weapons that were conveniently left at the scene of the crime.”

“Correction.
Scenes
of the crimes.”

Fox chuckled and turned to Tanaka. “So are you going to offer me more sake, then lift my prints from the oshokos to frame me for another murder? Or do you have enough?”

Tanaka laughed.

“Oh Fox, it’s good to see you can still keep your sense of humor, or sarcasm, or whatever you want to call it,” said Tabitha. “No, if I wanted you thrown in jail or executed, I would’ve already given the order. But I need you alive, not just because I admire your presence, but because there’s something I need from you. And within the next few minutes I’m going to have it.”

Chapter 21

Shinigawa Empress Hotel, Shinigawa Ward, Tokyo, 10:25PM

The drive was long, and Parris wasn’t a fan of vans, especially the eight-year-old one that Levickis drove. Simply put, she did not feel safe in it whatsoever. Its base was too narrow for its height, like some of the vans she saw on the roads in Barbados that looked like they would flip the moment they flew around a curve. Levickis’s van was similar, and she sat firmly into her seat with one hand gripping the hand bar above her passenger window and the other on the seat next to the gear. On top of that, she wanted to reach over to the volume dial and turn down the loud music he played, too.

Levickis glanced over at Parris. “You’re safe, you know. That’s what the seatbelt’s for.”

“I feel much safer hanging on.” Parris’s grip tightened just as Levickis took a curve without slowing down. “Will you turn down some of that noise?”

Levickis quickly glanced at her. “This
noise
is what’s keeping me awake. You wouldn’t want me to fall asleep and crash, would you?”

“Trust me, it’s not the music that’ll make you crash this van.” Parris held her breath as he overtook a motorcyclist. “For now, I’m not in the mood for any song that keeps repeating the verse,
‘It’s the end of the world as we know it’
.”

Levickis sighed and turned down the volume. “I’ve been wanting to ask you something. What’s your problem with Fox?”

“Problem? What are you talking about?”

“Come on. I asked you before what you knew about him. You didn’t have anything nice to say.”

“We had a falling out in the past, and that’s all I’m going to say.” She saw him glance at her out of the corner of her eye, but she wouldn’t look at him.
Now he wants to bring up Fox.
Levickis remained silent for the rest of the ride.

When they made it into the Shinigawa ward, the breathtaking view of the Tokyo Harbor with its high-class restaurants and hotels instantly made Parris forget about the ride. Levickis found a parking space a block away from the Shinigawa Empress Hotel. Parris was more than anxious to get out of the van and was ahead of Levickis as they crossed the street.

The hotel’s lobby bustled with tourists—even at that hour—most of whom she figured were meeting in groups to spend a night on the town. Just as well that nobody knew what was going down. She shuddered to think of the mass carnage that could tear the city apart.