Boss Tanto

Rinako stamped her feet to keep warm, arms folded, her hands tucked away inside the voluminous black feather boa that was wrapped around her upper body. Kurama looked for a moment as though he was going to say something but on seeing her expression thought better of it.

Women actually wear this stuff. She looked down at the black miniskirt she’d squeezed herself into. Voluntarily…

They were standing in a spot just out of the glare of a lone streetlight around the corner from the address Asahi had given them. Apparently, the doctor operated from the back room of a nightclub - always a good sign. The only way to get to see him was by first speaking to the owner of the club, who acted as security. And was also knee deep in almost every protection racket you could find in the chessboard.

She could feel the silence growing thicker by the moment. ‘I know, alright. I’m… ‘ she closed her eyes, ‘… building up to it.’

Kurama held up his hands. ‘I didn’t say a thing.’

A wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows and she teetered over to the corner - these fucking heels - and peered around it, looking one final time at the queue outside the reinforced metal door of the club. Shades of light-smoke rose up at various points along its course, like smoke stacks along a river. The women were all dressed similarly to her - Kurama had been right about that at least: ‘Believe me, this is the only way you won’t be,’  when she’d protested at how conspicuous she felt in the car. She pulled the boa tight around her.

‘Ok?’ Said kurama.

She couldnt bring herself to reply so instead just started around the corner, and joined the end of the queue where Kurama joined her. The muffled bass of a monotonous beat thudded from the ground beneath them. Great, a basement.

‘Listen, what if something goes wrong?’ She whispered, though everyone else in the queue seemed caught up in their own conversations.

‘I told you, we got it covered.’ He tapped his ear. ‘Chizuru’s piggybacking the frequency they use for the scans. As far as they’re concerned, whatever they pick up is coming straight from your memory.’

‘But…’ She exhaled and leant back against the wall. ‘I don’t know… I mean, a hard line?’

She had hated needles since third grade when they’d given them all shots for the radiation effects of living near the ocean.

‘Listen. It’s like she told you. They only need the physical connection to pull up your data. Chizuru sends the feed before it even touches your banks. It’s almost impossible for your brain to get fried.’

She looked at him sharply. ‘Yeah, thats really reassuring.’

‘She might not look like it but she knows what she’s doing with this stuff.’

The receiver crackled in both their ears. ‘I can hear you, you know.’

He scratched his head sheepishly then turned back to her. ‘You know I’d do it but they’ll make me in second. You’re new here, it’s perfect.’

She felt like some packaged meat product with a freshly stamped expiry date. The miniskirt wasn’t helping.

‘… and I’ll be in contact the whole time.’ He continued. ‘Come on, it’ll be fine. Hey, you got a free outfit out of it.’

She winced and wriggled, pulling at the hem of the skirt which seemed intent on riding up whenever she left it for a minute or two. ‘And there’s that too. I’m just - I don’t wear this type of thing. I feel like a… I don’t know, a street… worker… or something.’

Saito looked her up and down, opened his mouth, then turned back and looked toward the club.

HE DIDN’T EVEN DISAGREE.

‘Ok.’ He said. ‘We got to seperate now, just in case. Anything happens, we just met, alright?’

Too late now.

She took one last look around the queue toward the door, nodded and he looked away, putting a finger to his ear, and leaving her with only the cool night air for company.

***

Inside, the club was much as she’d expected. A large low ceilinged space that looked like a converted wine cellar. One wall was taken up entirely by the bar, there was a dance floor in the middle with two podiums on top of which writhed a pair of holographic women with wings, one set made of indigo fire the other white light (—of course—), and at the back in the distance she could see a few booths with padded couches. The whole place was packed with swaying people, half of whom, she was surprised to see, were wearing suits. Maybe workers from the city come in to blow off steam. The other half looked like they were here on bail. There were corridors stretching off at the back beyond the booths. The whole place was flooded in blue light that shifted and dappled the walls like the reflections in a swimming pool. They’d left it unfinished so that it had the feel of one of those catacombs with sloped ceilings and ingresses for bodies set into the walls.

The chatter around the bar faded as the sound in her earpiece adjusted and she heard Chizuru’s voice again. ‘We can’t get you in, ok? It’s up to you from here on.’

The guy she was looking for was known as Boss Tanto. According to Asahi, he had something of a reputation for being a hothead though a lot of it was front. He liked to cultivate the image of being unpredictable or out of control, when it was only ever in situations in which there was no real risk to him. In truth, Tanto was an astute businessman who had built himself up through carefully calculated moves over the long term. But that made him even more dangerous. She looked down the bar at the row of faces illuminated by the white lights shining up from beneath its glass surface. A shaven headed guy with black bug’s eye tints glanced up at her, the rest of the bar distorted across the surface of his shades, and she swiftly looked away.

‘Anything I can get for you?’

The barman was standing in front of her, polishing the inside of a glass with a white cloth.

‘Oh…uh…’ She quickly scanned the rows of drinks behind him. ‘I’ll have a... uh… Osaka Sunrise, please. With ice.’ She was relieved when he nodded and disappeared. In front of her, the holo-avatar for Osaka Sunrise appeared on the bar, rotating slowly. It was just about the only spirit she recognised. Her dad had always kept a bottle in the cupboard. When she was little that was. She remembered staring at the label, mystified by its blue sun rising up over a little island. Her mother telling her it was for grown ups, not little girls. She frowned. It was weird, she didn’t remember ever seeing her father drinking. Just that bottle in the cupboard—

‘Hey.’

She looked up. It was the bald guy with the bug’s eye shades.

Perfect.

He was standing obscuring her view of the club. She could see the wires at the edges of the shades sunk into his flesh. A glow from some sort of overlay was just visible flickering around them. ‘I just saw you—and uh, you looked like you could use some company.…’ He looked down at the little island rotating on the bar in front of her. ‘Osaka Sunrise, eh? Good choice.’

She looked around trying to locate Kurama.

‘Do you want to—’

Rinako hunched and coughed a few times before swaying a little and holding her head. ‘Sorry, I was in Chinatown earlier. Think I must have picked something up. What were you—‘

‘Chinatown??’ He was backing up already, the overlay in his shades flickering rapidly. ‘I… uhh… hey… I just remembered… I have to...’ He jerked a thumb over his shoulder then turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

Yeahhhh, you do. She smiled to herself and resumed scanning the crowds. After a couple of passes she found Kurama lifting a glass filled mostly with straws and the glowing canopies of mini-umbrellas at a semi-circle couch not far from the bar. He was so at ease she hadn’t recognised him at first, chatting to one of the waitresses collecting empty glasses on a tray. She studied the wordless motion of their mouths, the way the girl glanced up at him.

‘Wait, you know her?’ She spoke under her breath, trying to remain casual by leaning back against the bar and smiling as if to someone she knew. ‘She’s what - half your age. Probably works here to pay off school fees.’  The type of work someone like that might do suddenly occurred to her.

‘What do you think I am… honestly.’  Kurama didn’t look over but manufactured his own smile, his arms spread along the back of the sofa, the glass of green liquid hanging from one hand.

In the earpiece she heard a voice rise up above the background noise. ‘Hey, Sato. You forgot your pen.’ The waitress passed something to him across the table and he scrabbled to pick it up.

‘Uhh… yeah… hah—thanks.’

She smiled, put two fingers to her lips then turned and walked into the crowd.

‘Look. I’m… blending. You know, undercover. Just keep your mind on finding the target.’

Rinako shook her head. He was definitely blending. The noise of the music faded again as another voice came in over the earpiece. Chizuru.

‘Everything ok?’ She said.

‘Yeah.’ Said Rinako. ‘Just locating him now.’

‘Ok. There’s something odd on the scanners. I’m checking it out.’ She paused. ‘Oh, and Kurama. Let me know when you’re done. I’ve got something else for you.’

Kurama’s voice cut in. ‘Something else? Oh really, you’re too kind.’

‘Something you’ll be interested in…’

The line cut out and the noise of the club rose up around her again like the fade-up at the start of a movie.

The barman returned and replaced the rotating holo with a glass of blue liquid, bubbles lit by the under-bar lights.

‘Hey…’ she said, and he turned back. ‘You know where I can talk to uh guy named Tanto.’

He looked around then fixed his eyes on her for a few moments. ‘Listen, I dont think they need any more girls at the—‘

‘No!’ She dropped her voice several decibels on seeing his reaction. ‘No, not that. I just—have a little medical issue.’ She opened a glittery black purse that was secluded in her boa and flashed him the credit chips inside. ‘Urgent.’

He glanced at the cash then back to her and she tried her best vulnerable yet earnest expression. After a few moments, the barman exhaled loudly, looked to the far corner with all the booths then back to her. ‘I’ll be a minute.’ He waved a pair of fingers at her before he left. ‘Just… don’t go anywhere, ok.’

‘Sure, sure.’ She nodded.

He disappeared into the throng of people at the far end of the bar beyond where she could see him, then, good as his word, returned a couple of minutes later.

‘Ok, he’ll see you. Arctic.’

She smiled, hoping it looked like she knew what he was talking about.

‘Just uh… ’ he spoke quietly. ‘I wouldn’t go flashing those chips, ok.’ He was looking down, tending to another drink. For a moment, she didn’t recognise the scared looking woman staring back at her in the mirrored wall behind him.

‘Ok, got them.’ She walked across the club, turning this way and that between the clusters of people. Every now and then someone would step clumsily into her path or try to start a conversation with her but she kept going, eyes on the pocket of booths at the back. Over a row of heads at the end of the bar she could now see large murals on the walls above the booths. One was of a neo-baroque metropolis, a huge cathedral towering over a river that glittered in slow animation, another depicted herds of hybridised animals, giraffes with two necks and many legged antelope prowling a dusty savannah. In between them, separated by two wooden partitions, the back wall was filled with huge geometric blocks of ice floating in a frigid ocean. The blocks gave it a tremendous sense of depth.

She stopped and adjusted her boa and skirt again, wiggling and tucking as much of herself as she could out of sight.

‘You stand like that you might as well have come in uniform.’ It was Kurama’s voice.

She grunted and ignored him, stamping her foot a final time before heading over to the table beneath the blocks of ice. A group of men littered the couch around it, each in disheveled suits and brightly coloured shirts. Women in tight fitting but expensive looking dresses were draped around the booth like seals on the coastline. Two bouncers stood like totems at the partition walls staring into the distance. She could hear raucous laughter as she approached the table.

In the middle of the couch, with two women entwined either side of him, his hair slicked back, and a gold chain glinting between the large open collars of a bright pink shirt, sat a man in a grey suit. His eyes were hidden behind a large pair of black shades, a pale scar crossing his cheek.

‘Uh… I’m looking for Boss Tanto?’ She said.

The laughter ceased and she could feel the weight of eyes on her body. The women looked at her with expressions of disdain. She remained focused on the man in the centre. It seemed like everyone was waiting on his reaction. After a few moments, he reached forward and picked up a glass, his sleeve riding up to reveal a number of gold and silver chains. He inclined his head toward her so that his green eyes were visible over the top of his shades. The booth was now completely silent.

‘You’re the one throwing my name around at the bar.’ He said.

‘I-I’m sorry. My friend told me you could help. I got money—’

He held up a hand, and eyed her up and down. One of the women at his side leant over and cupping her hand, whispered something in his ear that made him smile.

‘Yeah, sure, sure I can.’ His tone seemed to have lightened. The other occupants of the booth started chatting again, and the women’s attention returned to them.

Tanto shifted to the side so that there was an empty space next to him.

‘Why dont you sit down first? Have a drink.’

He slid a glass toward her.