6 A Bold plan

There was silence as the two boys waited with the agent that had been assigned to them. Agent Yamamoto did not trust them to leave on their own and the police were called to escort them back to school, keeping Kobayashi’s bike there. It was just set against the wall, but even if either of them made a break for it, the agent would doubtless have them followed and caught before getting far. That was considering that the opening in the parking lot was the only way they could see in and out of it, unless there was a tunnel in the basement, as a chainlinked metal fence surrounded the entire perimeter of the bureau.

It didn’t take terribly long for an officer to pick them up, returning them back to school under a gruff stare, like they were the worst of delinquents.

“Boys, I’m very disappointed in you,” their principal had lectured them when they got back. “What you did, well, you’re both smart enough to know it was wrong. We will discuss the punishment tomorrow. Dismissed.” It was as if he had timed it perfectly, the bell finishing the sentence.

“Tomorrow,” Ichiro said to Kobayashi as they almost made it back to the apartment and he started to veer off. It was the first word they said to each other the entire walk back.

“Tomorrow,” Kobayashi repeated in reply. The last word.

Ichiro hung his head, thoughts swirling in confusion and worry. The NBSP was not at all known for taking in people, much less high school students. It had all happened so fast and he had no idea what was going on with her, now that they had her and Shizuko in custody. He tried to clear his head, wondering what to tell his mother about why the girls weren’t downstairs, when he saw the Sato apartment door open up.

Ichiro’s eyes lit up in confusion. “Shizu!?” he exclaimed as she stepped out of the apartment.

“Oh, hey, Ichi,” she greeted with a nonchalant wave.

“You’re… here.” He was at a loss for words.

“Uh, yeah, where else would I be?” she replied with a chuckle.

“We— Hikari was trying to contact you. She—”

“Oh, yeah yeah, I saw the calls. I forgot my phone.” She waved her hand, brushing the concern away.

“She said you were at NBSP! She—”

“What? No, we were shopping. My sister didn’t have any rice; is she not Japanese anymore? Where is she anyways?” Shizuko asked, looking over the boy’s head.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you! The Bureau has her!”

Shizuko’s expression froze. Ichiro could feel the wave of terror and anger that flashed in her eyes. “Ichiro…” she growled, her voice low and threatening and commanding. “Come inside and tell me what happened.”

— — —

“Shit!” she yelled, slamming a fist on the table. Ichiro had left out no detail of the past 2 days; the test, the cheating, the agents, the chase… and the capture. “That… I thought there would be time before the test. You didn’t… hear any rumours about yesterday, did you?” she asked, prodding mysteriously.

“About the test? Or cheating? No,” Ichiro told her. “Not that—”

“No no,” she waved her hand, “not that. It’s not relevant then.” She buried her head in her hands, groaning. “You know which location they took her in?” she finally asked as she faced him again.

“Uh, yeah, here.” He pulled out his phone, bringing up the building on a map.

“Ok, ok…” she muttered as she slowly nodded. She pulled out her own phone and quickly typed on it. “Alright, I have to go. Now.”

“To the bureau? I’m coming too!” He stood as she did, following behind her to the door.

She jerked to a stop, pivoting on her heels, and he almost bumped into her. “Are you crazy?” she asked, looking at him as if he had 2 heads. “You are already in trouble there. You think I’m going to take you along with me for… what, moral support?”

“I can do something!” he insisted. Even if she was looking ever so slightly up at him, her gaze bore into him. He felt small doubting his words as her eyes held a determination to be aspired.

“And what would that be? I don’t need a cheerleader, Yamada Ichiro.”

“I just… I need to help!” he insisted, digging in his heels, leaning in. “We had her. Almost. We caught up to her, and they still took her in. I need to know that she’s alright.”

“Hmm…” She looked him up and down, lips tightening as she seemed to ponder something over. “Ok… you can come. But only under one condition: You have to do whatever I say.”

“Done!” he quickly answered without hesitation.

“Alright.” She opened the door. The sun was already lowering. “You better let your folks know you're out.”

“Oh, right!” He quickly stepped around her and ran up the stairs.

“Ichi?” Sakura greeted him as he walked in. His mother was at the table, and after a brief half-truth about going out with Shizuko and Hikari, and a quick ‘Ok, dear’, he clattered down the steps and into Shizuko’s car.

“I almost thought you’d leave without me,” he joked as he put on his seatbelt.

“I almost did,” she didn’t joke.

That set the mood for the drive. Ichiro could see just how white her knuckles were as she gripped the wheel, her fury appearing to wax and wane as they got closer. “Right up here,” he told her, pointing, and she just nodded, driving past it. “Hey, uh, that was the parking lot. You missed it.”

“I know. And I didn’t.” She pulled off to the side of the road, quickly turning off the vehicle. “There’s a gap in the fence, so that we don’t have to go through the gate. That is, if they haven’t noticed it in the last 2 years. Stay quiet and follow me.”

Ichiro questioned how she knew that, and also how a hole would be missed, but he didn’t question it, following her example of exiting the vehicle as near silently as possible and skirting around the building until they reached the back. She made a bee line straight for the fence, jogging over, grabbing it, and pulling it back. It was a clean cut in the metal, overlapping the post, and would have been nearly invisible if one was not looking for it. She held it up for him, silently waving him through, and he went ahead.

They both looked up at the back of the building. In the dying light, it looked even more brutalist, striking Ichiro as something that would appear more at home in America or Russia, concrete walls and thick glass windows that looked too small to provide real natural lighting. “Come on,” she whispered. “Help me look for an unlocked door.”

Unlocked door!? All of this, and her plan for getting in was to sneak in through a, hopefully, unlocked door. The logical part of Ichiro thought she was going to come in through the front door and yell at people until Hikari left with them. Parking down the street and sneaking in through the back felt like a recipe for trouble. But he wasn’t going to just leave Hikari in there, and if this was how Shizuko decided to go about it, so be it. “Do you think they’ll just have a door unlocked back here?” he asked, questioning the optimism.

She didn’t look at him, just grabbing the first door in front of them and pulling. It barely squeaked as it opened for them. “Why lock what gated?” she questioned rhetorically, though only remained rhetorical because Ichiro didn’t point out how shaky that logic was.

The inside was empty. There were offices and chairs and meeting rooms and all manner of things that did not surprise Ichiro in the least, but there were no people. The desks of various receptionists sat empty, passerbys were absent from the hallways, and the glass windows of offices and meeting rooms revealed not a soul.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Ichiro asked, not sure where Shizuko was going.

“We find Hikari, and we leave.” She was typing on her phone again and Ichiro followed behind.

“Where is everyone?” he questioned as they tried doors.

“It’s after hours. That’s the government for you,” she muttered, though incredulity underscored her tone. Each door they tried was locked, but she knocked on each, trying to whisper for Hikari, to no response.

“Maybe… this wasn't the best idea?” he questioned as the hallway led them down a single route.

“No, we have to get her out,” Shizuko insisted. “Where is that passion you had earlier?”

Ichiro grimaced, nodding reluctantly as they kept going. The hall ended ahead of them, not in a wall, but an opening. A large room opened before them. Desks were pulled back against the walls, opening up the space in front of them. They looked around, seeing the walkway on the second floor surrounding and looking down on them as the ceiling reached above it.

“Come on, one of these rooms might—”

BRUUUUUUUUUUMM!

Heavy brass bursts through the room, filling the air. All of the lights turned on at once, flooding the pair’s eyes and forcing them to blink and look away.

“Lokal hathmali,
Reo daigon he-alo…”

The aria began as 2 female agents came into the room on the upper walkway, singing is a haunting alto that stiffened the air.

“No!” Shizuko grunted as she tried to rush them, but it was like swimming in honey. The air clung to them, and even breathing was something Ichiro suddenly struggled to breathe. The thick air was a gelatinous prison that reduced them to snails, forced into a standing crawl.

“Good evening, Sato Shizuko.”

Ichiro whirled, or rather, agonizingly slowly turned his head, before he could see Agent Yamamoto. The civil servant stood just on the edge of the room from another hallway, just outside of the affected area, holding a small loudspeaker that let him be heard over the song of air stiffening. And in his other hand was Hikari.

“Shizu, it’s a trap!” she yelled in a panic, struggling against the agent, but he held her arms cuffed in front of her, yanking her back to him as she pulled forward. Agents in suits began to pour out from side hallways. They clung to the walls and upper walkway, a few dozen, circling around until they were surrounded, their entry blocked off by tall, broad men that looked more like Yakuza than civil servants.

“Let her go!” Shizuko yelled, her voice low was fury as she saw her sister being dragged around. But her plea fell on deaf ears as the agents finished getting into position.

“You need only surrender, and I’ll hand your sister over!” he called out through the loudspeaker. The atmosphere, however, didn’t feel that way.

Shizuko opened her mouth to respond but Hikari spoke first. “No, Shizu,” she yelled, “it’s a lie!”

“Alright,” Agent Yamamoto groaned, giving Hikari a side eye before turning to face all of his men. “Take them all into—”

Then there was silence.