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The Company
Time: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 (evening).
Place: Tokyo, Japan.
Last Event: One day of lawyers down, tons to go.
With Asuka's first day of courthouse fun out of the way, she and the Agents retire to the hotel for the evening. Vinnie and Zhang escort her in the guise of her driver and bodyguard, respectively, while Anabel, Jili, Qoqa, and Wen maintain their cover as businesswomen. However, Anabel wants to know what happened behind closed doors today – and given Asuka's manner, she feels that it would be best to speak with her face to face. To avoid breaking cover, she calls Asuka and arranges a "chance meeting" in the hotel bar, under the pretense of a nightcap.
Anabel wanders down to the bar alone, disguised as a redhead. Vinnie and Zhang escort Asuka onto the premises, whereupon Vinnie hangs back near the entrance while Zhang accompanies Asuka inside. Everybody does a decent job of making the meeting look like an accident, with Asuka and Anabel literally bumping into one another and deciding to chat. As far as Zhang and Vinnie can tell, nobody in the establishment shows any special interest in this.
Asked about her day, Asuka claims it was boring. She spent six hours with lawyers, answering questions and signing paperwork. Even coffee and lunch were brought in, meaning that she had few excuses to grab a moment away from her counselors. The only news she has is that there are two rival claimants to Toru's legitimate business empire, names not yet known. Asuka doesn't need names to know that they're Yakuza, though, and warns Anabel that it would be better to defeat these guys with the pen than with the sword, as the latter would muddy her claim.
After that, Anabel and Asuka pal around and act social for a while. They have a few drinks and take advantage of a Yamaha exhibition to play the piano. Neither Zhang nor Vinnie spots anybody showing undue interest. Eventually, the whole group heads upstairs for some rest. In the elevator, Anabel tells Vinnie and Zhang about the rival claims on Toru's estate. Then everybody returns to his or her room, where the night passes uneventfully.
Over breakfast on Wednesday morning, Anabel fills in Jili, Qoqa, and Wen on what Asuka said. The women decide that it would be best to increase security around Asuka, but subtly. After some discussion, the decision is to have Anabel remain with Jili at the hotel, ready to act if Jili sees signs on the TMPD network that Toru's DNA samples have been ordered for testing. Wen will dress in business clothing and accompany Asuka as a personal assistant. Qoqa will patrol the area on her own, playing tourist, her phone at the ready just in case.
With those plans made, Vinnie drives Asuka the courts once again, with Zhang riding along as her bodyguard and Wen posing as her PA. Vinnie is careful to watch for a tail, but sees nobody following. At the court building, Zhang escorts Asuka up the stairs while Wen trails behind, pretending to talk on her phone. There's no trouble on the way in – but Zhang spots the man with the cell-phone camera again, clearly showing an interest in Asuka. This time, Zhang pointedly takes the guy's picture with his own phone camera, causing the furtive photographer to scurry away, clearly disconcerted!
On the elevator ride to the eighth floor, Zhang checks out the picture he snapped. It's very clear – possibly clear enough to yield a database match. He sends it to Jili and asks her to find out what she can find out about the man. Jili forwards the photo to Anabel, Qoqa, Vinnie, and Wen, so that everybody knows who to look out for.
After that, the day goes much like the previous one. Vinnie returns from parking the car, making sure that he wasn't followed, and joins Zhang standing guard in the hall – although today, Wen goes into the meetings with Asuka, while Qoqa is on call a block away. However, the closed-door session isn't any more exciting, with the exception that the lawyers now have names for Asuka's rivals in the brewing legal war:
• Hiroshi Kasahara, a "known Yakuza associate." The Agents met him once – he was Toru's de facto second in command. He's being represented by Nishimura & Associates.
• Kenji Tanaka, another "known Yakuza associate," although his relationship to Toru is unclear. He's being represented by Matsumoto & Mori.
According to Asuka's legal team, the quality of the opposing lawyers is high. They represent a serious professional challenge, even if nobody on the other side attempts foul play. It's also interesting to note that both law firms are above the pay grade of the typical mid-level gangster. Kasahara and Tanaka clearly have their own wealthy backers.
The day ends at long last, and once again the lawyers vanish almost immediately. Wen and Zhang keep an eye on Asuka in the lobby, while Vinnie goes to fetch the car. As on the previous day, Vinnie notices that he's being followed on foot. This time, though, his shadows are more persistent, and he cannot shake them. Before long, he realizes that there are two large Japanese men between him and his car, and two more behind him. All have jackets that bulge in a way that suggests they're armed.
Surprisingly, the men don't attack Vinnie, but speak to him – in English. They make it crystal clear that they would like to meet Asuka, their spokesman stating, "I think the girl you drive is very pretty. I would like to meet her. You're going to help me." When Vinnie rejects this overture, the lead goon gets right to the point: He's authorized to offer Vinnie money – US$150,000 in cash – for an "introduction" to Asuka. When Vinnie calls the bluff, the guy hands over a $15,000 advance.
Realizing that he's being made an offer he can't refuse, Vinnie decides to play along. He agrees to take the advance and drive two of the men to meet Asuka, but warns that he had better see the other $135,000 that day. The heavies flash a steel briefcase and claim that they're good for it. With that, Vinnie leads the way to the car, knowing that it's a setup but hoping to reduce the thugs' numbers before he makes his play.
The largest of the hoods gets in the front passenger seat, latches his seatbelt, and sets a sawed-off shotgun in his lap, pointed at Vinnie. Then the gangsters' leader gets in the back seat, also straps in, and presses a pistol against the back of Vinnie's seat. Vinnie is a bit annoyed that both goons are so safety-oriented – it means that braking swiftly won't deal with his problem – but there are other options. For now, he drives safely, feigning intimidation at gunpoint. The other two louts follow in their own car, but at quite a distance.
Vinnie drives toward the courts, skillfully losing the trailing car in traffic. As he leaves the intersection immediately before the building, he suddenly accelerates and hits the curb in a way calculated to flip the vehicle. It works! The car ramps up on one side and crashes down on its roof. The airbags inflate on impact, and an instant later, the sedan spins to stop against a row of bollards, showering the street with glass and debris.
The controlled wreck takes Vinnie's passengers by surprise, dislodging their weapons. Vinnie sees the shotgun skittering along the street and the pistol bouncing around the interior of the vehicle. Deciding not to stick around to see how the angry ruffians react, he frees himself from his airbag with experienced ease and wriggles out the broken window. Behind him, he hears the sounds of cursing.
From their vantage in the lobby, Wen and Zhang see the car arrive and flip. Both realize that there's no way Vinnie would do that by accident – he's an expert driver and the road was completely clear. Zhang dashes outside to lend a hand, while Wen spirits Asuka out of sight. Across the street, Qoqa hears the crash from the café she's in, and also runs to help. For the moment being, though, Qoqa and Zhang are too far away to offer Vinnie much assistance.
Fortunately for Vinnie, the gangster in the back seat gets tangled up in his seatbelt, and thus is unable to do anything but swear. The hoodlum in front proves surprisingly agile for a man of his size, and emerges from the wreck brandishing his boss' pistol. He's also smarter than he looks, as he takes one look around, hides the pistol, and flicks open a baton instead. Vinnie tries to goad the heavy into attacking him in front of the court building, but the man seems to be biding his time, menacing Vinnie without striking.
Only Zhang is in a position to see why Vinnie's opponent is delaying: There's a car moving in fast, and it looks as if it's coming straight for Vinnie! Zhang shouts a warning, and Vinnie needs no encouragement to leap out of the way. However, it turns out that the driver of the other vehicle wasn't aiming to run down Vinnie, but to recover his associates. By the time Vinnie is back on his feet with Zhang at his side, the man with the baton is gone, riding off in the car screeching down the street.
Zhang looks around and signals to several policemen who are on their way over to the crash site. Fortunately, one of the officers speaks good English, which enables Vinnie to explain that he was carjacked by robbers with guns. He points to the shotgun sitting on the asphalt as proof. The cops seem to believe Vinnie, but of course want a statement from him. Vinnie manages to convince them to agree to let him check in with his employer, whom he believes might have been the target of the attack, before they take him away to get his deposition.
As Vinnie speaks, the officers examining the car start exclaiming and pulling out their batons. It seems that the gangster tangled up in the back seat didn't get away! They drag him out of the vehicle and react poorly to finding a shoulder rig under his jacket. It might "just" be a holster and a couple of spare magazines, but that's all it takes for the cops to rank Vinnie's word above the thug's blustering. Qoqa witnesses all of this but remains in the crowd, pretending to be a rubbernecker taking phone pictures – especially of the man the police arrest.
While all this is going on, Wen manages to get Asuka out of sight in the ladies' room off the court lobby. It has one easily watched door, and as it's late in the work day, the place is empty. Eventually, a well-groomed woman in business clothes comes in and starts doing her makeup. This wouldn't be remarkable at all, except that as the woman finishes up and goes to put on a little cologne, she suddenly spins, points the atomizer at Asuka, and sprays a jet of liquid across the room!
Wen, being quick and hard to surprise, reads the woman's body language in time to bear Asuka to the ground and out of the path of the liquid jet. The woman adjusts her aim and sprays at Asuka again, but as Wen's shove pushed the girl largely out of sight, the stuff misses. Wen scrambles to her feet, reaching into her handbag for something to use as a makeshift weapon – or at least for a fistful of Skittles to chuck as a distraction. As soon as the attacker sees this, she spins and kicks open the door, and then runs from the restroom. Wen decides to stay put, and pulls out her phone to call Zhang about the attack and then Qoqa about a possible toxic spray.
However, Qoqa and Zhang are trapped in a knot of police and bystanders, with the cops ordering witnesses not to leave until they've given statements. There's no way to escape that situation without drawing unwelcome attention. Thus, the mysterious woman gets away. Wen elects to stay out of sight in the washroom until she has backup. She's no expert on biochemical weapons, but she's almost certain that the gunk sprayed at Asuka wasn't just pepper spray or tearing agent – it has hallmarks of an assassination weapon of the sort used over the years by the KGB, Mossad, and similar charming organizations.