Chasing Rats

We received a call from Matsumoto in the morning, informing us that the assault was a success. They hadn’t located the second base yet, and the investigation and examination of the evidence they found was still ongoing. At the very least, this should’ve detracted Kamiko’s attention away from us.

I looked at the list of names and their addresses. They were all ordinary names you’d find anywhere in a phonebook. The car came to a stop, and I folded the piece of paper. We had arrived at the address of the first name on the list. A high-rise apartment towered over us as we looked at it from the bottom. This contact had recently been noted that a large sum of money had been deposited into their account when they returned without a stack of files they left the house with.

An automatic sliding door opened, and we met a machine with numbers on it. I dialed the room number that was on the paper, and it rang for a few minutes before someone picked up.

“Hello, who is this?” said the person, his voice groggy. It was the weekend after all.

“We’re detectives. Need some questions answered,” said Mana.

Silence passed us again until the person returned, his voice sounding sober now. He allowed us to pass and use the elevators to his room. I felt the elevator rise from my feet for a while before it finally chimed open. We knocked on the door and was greeted by Tanaka, a young man with black hair, white dress shirt, and black khakis. Sunlight streamed through the window walls, and the white hardwood flooring made it brighter. Mana took a seat on a white couch and flipped open her notebook, facing the man while I wandered a bit.

“We heard you’ve come into contact with the Rats recently. We wanted to know how you did it,” said Mana.

The young man’s face froze, and his knees shook. Sweat trickled down his cheeks.

“I, I didn’t do anything wrong, ma’am. Talking to some people isn’t illegal, you know?”

“You’re not going to get in trouble. We just wanted to know how you did it.”

“They’re dangerous. They might come after me if I say anything.”

I came up behind him and gripped his shoulders. He gave a small shriek.

“You’ve got bigger problems right now, Tanaka,” I said. Mana cleared her throat.

“Look, I’m not a Rat, ok? I just sell them information from time to time. They pay a lot.”

“How?” said Mana.

The Rats slipped notes under Tanaka’s door, telling him where to go and what time to meet. It was usually random locations like a specific bench at the local park, the library, the back of a convenience store, or a parking lot. These meetings were also designated at random times, and Tanaka wouldn’t even see their faces. He’d leave the files at the spot and look away for a few minutes. When he returned, they would be replaced by wads of cash. From the sound of it, the Rats approached you, not the other way around.

I released my grip on Tanaka’s shoulders, and we left the building, leaving the poor man frozen on his couch.

“’Back of the convenience store’ was oddly specific,” I said when we were in the car.

“We better check it out just in case.”

The convenience store was unremarkable. People were moving in and out, making purchases with employees scanning the items and microwaving the food. We walked to the back of the store and saw a girl sitting on a short stool, focused on her phone. She looked to be a middle-schooler and wore a black hoodie that was much larger than her with pink linings and accessories on it. She wore a white mask, concealing the bottom half of her face.

“Excuse me. Have you seen anything suspicious around here recently?” said Mana.

The girl looked up at Mana and shook her head. She glanced at us both before getting up and leaving.

“Wait, we still have a few—” The girl disappeared before Mana could finish.

I shrugged. Since we didn’t introduce ourselves as police, we were the suspicious ones. Wanting to investigate the interior of the store, I entered, buying two anpans. There wasn’t anything suspicious about the store or the employees. I had asked them about the girl behind the store, but they all shook their heads. She was probably either waiting for someone, or she just wanted some alone time, and we deprived her of that.

“That girl was definitely suspicious,” said Mana, eating her anpan.

“She’s just a little girl. If she does have something to do with all this, we’ll see her again.”

After finishing, we made our way to another contact, a sushi chef for an expensive restaurant in a wealthy business district. It was quite famous too as CEOs and high-ranking officials have gone to dine there in the late hours after work. According to Matsumoto, this guy knew how to contact the Rats.

We brushed pass the entrance curtains and saw the empty restaurant with the chef standing behind the counter, knife in hand. He greeted and informed us that they weren’t yet open. When we told him that we were here to talk to him about the Rats, he shifted his gaze across the room, to the entrance, then returned it to us. He held a finger up and went to the back, bringing the knife with him. We heard a door slid open then closed. Mana and I glanced at each other before we darted out of the shop. The chef was running on the sidewalk, some distance from his restaurant.

Our feet thudded on the concrete as we gave chase in the pale sunlight. Some people were walking about, staring at us as we passed them. The gap between him and us was growing closer. The chef craned his neck and saw this, cornering a street. He ducked into an alleyway, and we followed him in, right behind his heels. Brick walls were at our sides, and we saw that there was another one waiting at the end of the alley. The chef jumped and tried to grab the wires. He fell to the ground as we came up from behind him. He got to his feet and pulled a knife from his pocket.

“Don’t come any closer!” said the chef, pointing the tip of the blade towards us. We backed away, hands in the air.

“We just want to talk,” said Mana.

“I know who you people are! You’re going around, asking us about the Rats, and after we tell you, you kill us!”

“I assure you, we are not those people. In fact, we’re trying to find the ones who are responsible for those murders.”

“Oh yeah? And how do I know I can trust you?”

“We’re detectives.”

He scoffed. “Everyone knows all the cops in this city are crooks.”

“We just want to know how to find the Rats is all.”

“I’ll not tell you anything because when I do, my life is over. Now get out of my way before I run through the both of you.”

I felt the revolver at my waist. I glanced at Mana. She lowered her eyes then nodded. I unholstered the gun and aimed it at the man’s chest.

“Police, my ass. You’re the same as them.”

“Drop the knife,” I said.

“Or what? You shoot me in broad daylight? Without your information? I don’t think so.”

He readied his knife to charge me. When he does, what should I do? My heartrate accelerated and sweat made its way to my palms. I can’t actually shoot him. Should I grab the knife and push him to the ground? No, it would be too risky. Should I duck then pull him to the ground? No, too risky. Then my only choice would be to get out of the way and take him down from behind.

The chef lunged at me, knife aimed towards my chest. I dodged, the knife narrowly missing my arm in the process. He couldn’t slowdown from the speed. I wrapped my arm around his neck and pressed the gun against his head.

“Drop the knife, or I’ll blow your head off.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“There will be plenty of time to escape after I shoot you, and we still have a lot of contacts to find the Rats. You’re not important.”

I increased the pressure around his neck, and he groaned. From here, I could see the end of the alleyway. People walked by and cars blurred past, but none looked here. The knife came clattering onto the pavement. I released my arm around his neck and pushed him against the brick wall, gun fixed on his chin.

“T, the Rats, right? I know how to get in touch with one. I have their number.”

Mana wrote down the number in her notebook as the chef spoke. I pushed him into the wall one last time.

“Remember, if you tell anyone about this, I know where to find you.”

He nodded weakly, and I released him. He slumped to the ground as we walked out of the alleyway and into the car.

“That last line wasn’t needed,” said Mana, strangling the steering wheel.

“Sorry, just wanted to make sure.”

She pressed her palm against her forehead and closed her eyes.

“Want to call the number?” I said.

“Not yet. This last contact knows what one of the Rats look like. It’ll be easier to set up a meeting if we know who they are.”

We drove to a residential district, concrete walls around the perimeter of houses with people strolling about. Some were walking their dogs, and I heard the indistinct noises of children at the playground and their parents gossiping in hushed voices.

The contact’s house was a standard, modern home, looking the same as the rest of its neighbors. Scanning the area, we made sure no one was looking at us as we approached the fence and pressed the bell. No one answered. We pressed it again, waited a few minutes, but still no one answered. A car was in their lot, and from here, I could see a balcony behind the house where clothes were hanging to dry. We glanced at one another and opened the fence, walking towards the door. Mana knocked while I looked around. Other than a picturesque flower garden, some tools lying on the grass, and a snake-like water hose, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

Mana recalled my attention to the door. She had turned the knob, and the door was ajar, darkness laid inside. We stepped into the foyer and closed the door behind us. I flicked a light switch, but nothing happened. A door was on our right. I pushed it open and smelled a metallic odor. Blood. A muffling noise resonated through the empty, dark room. On my right, I saw the silhouette of a couch and a TV. On the left, I could barely make out the counter top and dining table. The sunlight that was supposed to stream through the windows were covered by thick curtains. We followed the muffling towards the TV. As we neared the sound, I could see there was something lying on the couch. I got closer, stepping on something dry, and it cracked under my foot. What was on the couch wasn’t something, it was someone. A person laid there, legs tied up, mouth taped shut, and hands holding their abdomen.

Mana rushed towards the windows, tearing open the curtains that were thicker than usual, freeing sunlight into the room. All I could see in that light was blood. Blood was splattered across the room, covering the hardwood floor and white couches. On a single couch was a man who had a bullet in his head, his eyes lifeless and head leaned to the side. On the floor near them were two youthful-looking adults, holes in their head. The blood on and around them were dark, cracked, and dried.

The woman in front of me was pressing down on her belly with a pillow where blood was pouring out. The couch was already covered in red, and I couldn’t imagine how much she already lost. How she was still alive was beyond me, but I knew she didn’t have much longer even if an ambulance got here in time. I tore off the duct tape from her mouth, and she groaned in pain. The panicked footsteps of Mana resounded throughout as she opened and slammed cabinets, looking for medical supplies. Out of earshot from the idealist detective, I leaned into the woman’s ears and whispered to her.

“You know what one of the Rats look like. Tell me, and I’ll go after them. You’ll join your family soon after.”

The woman struggled to breathed and used all of her strength to force out the description of a Rats member. Through her ragged breathing and groans of pain, I made out “Short girl, black hoodie, pink.” I thanked her, picked up a bloodied pillow off the floor, and placed it over her face. I pushed as hard as I could. It was the first time in my life that I had used so much of my strength.

When I was done, an odd feeling washed over me, a feeling I had never felt before. It weighed on my shoulders and strangled my heart. I felt a hole in my stomach, and something was coming up from my intestines. It reached my throat, but I pushed it down, swallowing the scent of blood with it. I heard the distant sound of sirens playing in my head.

Mana returned, towels in her hand, but when she looked at the lifeless woman, she dropped them, staining the clean, white cloths red. She backed away and fell onto the bloodless floor, a hand on her mouth. She closed her eyes where tears had begun to fall and swallowed.

The sirens grew louder until they were too loud to just be in my head. From outside, someone used a megaphone and spoke.

“This is the police! Release the hostages and come out with your hands in the air!”

I looked through a window. Multiple police cruisers were parked outside the road. They had barred the streets, not allowing anyone through. Parents hugging their children looked at the house we were in, horrified. I ran to Mana, huddling on the ground.

“We have to go,” I said.

Under her breathe, she had been muttering, “I can’t do this anymore.”

More vehicles pulled up to the house. I grabbed Mana by the arm and pulled her up, pushing her towards the stairs. We were halfway up when the door busted open and men wearing helmets and bulletproof vests with ‘POLICE’ written on them in white charged inside. They saw us climbing the stairs, raised their rifles, and fired. We ran up the stairs and reached the second floor before they could hit us. I headed for the balcony behind the house where the laundry was hanging to dry.

We were met with the bright sunlight and sirens exploding through the neighborhood. We climbed the fence of the balcony and jumped onto the perimeter concrete wall. The door behind us was kicked down and police charged out, aiming their guns at us. We jumped from the wall to the road and took off running. A gunshot rang out behind us, and I felt a flash of pain and pressure hit near my hip. I stumbled to the ground, and Mana looked behind her, picking me up by the arm. I heard someone shouting from the balcony.

“You idiot, did you forget where we are?”

We ran, thanking our luck that we were in the residential district surrounded by innocents. With an injured leg, I limped with Mana’s support. I remembered my promise with not just the woman who lost her entire family, but also Tadao. The weight of the promises pressed down on my shoulders. I’ll do what I could, but for now, we had to focus on fleeing.