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The Company
Time: Thursday, December 15, 2011 (afternoon).
Place: Tokyo, Japan.
Last Event: Wen and the organophosphate bubble wrap.
On receiving Asuka's phone call regarding Wen's predicament, Qoqa explodes into action. She suspects that Asuka wouldn't mention something as improbable as VX unless Wen had said something about it before collapsing; thus, she acts on the assumption that Wen really has been exposed to a deadly nerve agent. Nobody who knows Wen's past would doubt her experience with such dangers! With those thoughts in mind, Qoqa races toward the ambulance she saw parked nearby.
The two ambulance attendants – a man and a woman – are hunched over a tablet, working on a report of some kind. Qoqa gets their attention by banging on the window and shouting in English, and the female paramedic responds in English. Qoqa hands the woman her phone with Asuka still chattering away on the other end; within seconds, the medic is grabbing equipment. Qoqa does her best to list the drugs necessary for treatment. Fortunately, the ambulance has this stuff – a direct consequence of the Subway Sarin Incident.
When the paramedics are ready, Qoqa leads them to the court building at a dash. As they run, she hangs up on Asuka, calls Zhang, warns him that she's coming in with two medics, and asks him to clear a path. Luck is on Qoqa's side when she reaches the lobby: there's an elevator standing open. The medics scream at people to get out of the way, and then they and Qoqa ride the elevator up to the eighth floor. When the doors open, Zhang is there to lead the way to the suite where Wen collapsed.
As the paramedics prepare to treat Wen, Qoqa tells them that she's a former military medic, trained in Russia to deal with chemical weapons. Asuka translates this into Japanese for good measure. Incredibly, the medics believe the story – likely because it's evident that somebody correctly diagnosed the victim's condition, and Qoqa certainly knows the correct antidote. A second after the medics nod and agree to accept Qoqa's assistance, she pushes them aside, pulls on the gloves, and takes over.
Qoqa works quickly and precisely, preparing the correct drugs and administering them to Wen as if she had treated nerve-agent poisoning dozens of times. In fact, she did have some experience with such things in Chechnya. When Asuka tells Qoqa that Wen fell ill after handling an envelope, Qoqa orders everyone to stay away from the envelope and not to touch Wen's hands. Then she dons another pair of gloves and starts scrubbing Wen's hands with detergent. As all this is going on, the paramedics stand aside and call in the incident, while Zhang phones Anabel and Jili to fill them in on what happened.
Less than a minute after the paramedics make their call, two more medics show up – this pair wearing masks and gloves. In Japanese and then English, they say, "Emergency response! We're here about the poisoning." When told that the victim has already been treated, they acknowledge this and explain that they must administer a "precautionary antidote" to everybody present, just in case. In Russian, Qoqa warns Zhang that this is crazy talk . . . but Zhang already felt that the story sounded shaky. Zhang informs the newcomers that the situation is under control and asks them to leave, which they do after saying something about signing a waiver for refusing treatment.
Moments after the questionable paramedics leave, Zhang realizes that they left behind a portable oxygen tank. When he points out this oddity to the others, the barely conscious Wen sizes up the tank and then croaks, "Bomb! Wreck building!" Zhang wastes no time – he snatches up Wen and runs for the stairs. Qoqa hustles Asuka and the paramedics along, shouting that whoever tried to kill someone with poison just left a bomb as insurance. Everyone in the meeting room stampedes into the hallway, following Zhang's lead. Along the way, Qoqa spots a fire alarm and pulls it.
If the bomb is large enough to menace the building, as Wen believes, then chances are good that the fake medics who planted it will have left enough time on the clock to make their own escape. Nobody wants to hang around and find out, though. Zhang leaps, slides, and vaults his way down the staircase, despite having Wen over one shoulder; the others struggle to keep up. It isn't long before everyone who was in the meeting room is outside, with the court building emptying out behind them in response to the alarm.
Either because he was called by Jili or through blind good luck, Vinnie is pulling up in front of the court building just as his associates come barreling out the front door. On seeing this, Zhang dashes for the vehicle, still carrying Wen. Qoqa delays to ask Asuka to tell the paramedics the number of the suite with the suspected bomb and to suggest that they pull their vehicle back, just in case. Asuka does so, and then she and Qoqa catch up with Zhang and Wen at the car. As soon as everybody is aboard, Vinnie hits the gas.
Vinnie spots a car tailing him as he pulls out. Zhang takes a look, but about all he can tell is that the phony paramedics aren't inside. Vinnie drives evasively and soon loses his shadow. Everybody keeps an eye out for helicopters, too, but nobody spots one. Before long, it looks as though Vinnie has managed to elude his would-be pursuers.
The drive back to the hotel is uneventful. Vinnie takes a circuitous route for security reasons, while Qoqa monitors Wen's condition. Asuka switches on the car radio and tunes in a news station. Translating for the benefit of her non-Japanese-speaking allies, she says that there's now a serious fire raging at the courts, but that she heard no mention an explosion. It would seem that the rigged oxygen cylinder concealed an incendiary.
At the hotel, Asuka, Qoqa, Vinnie, and Zhang help Wen inside, doing their best to make it look like she merely has the flu, even slipping a little paper mask over her face to enhance the illusion. They spirit her up to the spacious suite where Vinnie and Zhang were guarding Asuka. As soon as the doors are shut, Qoqa drags Wen into the bathroom and scrubs her down again. Then she sticks Wen in bed and resumes her treatment and monitoring. She also draws a couple of blood samples in case analysis proves possible.
Meanwhile, Asuka switches on the television and continues to follow the news about the fire at the courts. The report shows flames shooting from the eighth story of the tower as firefighters hose down the blaze. Apparently, nobody was injured, but there's already conjecture about the inferno being the product of an incendiary device of some kind. The reporter even mentions that the incident comes on the eve of a high-profile court case involving the Yakuza!
The news report doesn't stop there, however. It segues into another item related to the same high-profile case. It seems that "known Yakuza associate" Kenji Tanaka just died of a drug overdose. Paramedics arrived on the scene mere moments after Tanaka was found, but they were unable to revive him. This leaves Asuka with just one rival: Hiroshi Kasahara. It also leaves Kasahara's murderous backers with but a single target: Asuka.
Anabel decides that it would be prudent to call Chaturvedi, given how badly out-of-control things are at this point. She gets him on the speakerphone and fills him in on the day's events, which clearly make him unhappy. Anabel then asks Chaturvedi to contact Asuka's lawyers in Tokyo via Staedert's people in Darmstadt, and have them get in touch with the police regarding this day's events. It wouldn't do to pretend that nobody saw anything – not if Asuka wants her claim to look legitimate.
With the phone call out of the way, the team decides to spend the night at the hotel – with all six Agents and Asuka in the big suite for security reasons – and then get out in the morning. Half an hour after everybody's belongings are stashed, Asuka's phone rings. She speaks in Japanese for a few minutes, and then hangs up. She says that her caller was a member of her legal team. Given Tanaka's death and the suspicious fire at the courts, the inheritance hearing has been put on hold until the police can complete an investigation.
The Agents are still discussing this complication when Anabel's phone rings. Her caller is V. The FSB officer explains that her people in Tokyo have analyzed the chemical sprayed at Asuka in the restroom yesterday. It's a mixture that her division has taken to calling "liquid heart attack." It causes an apparently natural cardiac arrest shortly after exposure. As far as V knows, only the Chinese use it.
Anabel fills in V on the day's events. V appears to know about the fire already. She sounds disappointed that the Agents didn't collect evidence of the supposed VX or the incendiary used to cover it up – and V does feels the fire was a cover-up. She informs Anabel that a fire as intense as the one at the courts will have destroyed any evidence that there was ever an envelope treated with a nerve agent. When Qoqa overhears this, she mumbles something to the effect of "Russians! Only an idiot would carry something that toxic through a mob of people fleeing a fire and then in a crowded car!"
V continues to converse with Anabel, explaining that the sketch Wen made of the restroom assassin doesn't match anybody on file but depicts someone with ethnic Chinese features, if a drawing can be trusted. That's certainly consistent with the heart-attack chemical, and suggests MSS involvement. However, using a nerve agent as Plan A, fake paramedics with a doubtless deadly "precautionary antidote" as Plan B, and a firebomb to hide the evidence as Plan C smacks of over-thinking to V, which she feels suggests CIA work. All of which segues to her next revelation.
As far as the FSB is concerned, there's some kind of shoving match going on between top-drawer intelligence services. Clearly, Toru's mob had or did something of interest to the big boys – most likely the CIA and MSS. Now those players are fighting a proxy war over the matter, and V states plainly that this is way over the heads of "freelancers." Thus, the FSB has decided to step in. Asuka is the only claimant to Toru's empire that lacks a covert international backer, so the FSB aims to get in the race by supporting her. Conveniently, its freelance friends are already in place to assist with this matter.
Anabel asks V what this implies. V replies, "You'll know it when it happens." However, V does warn Anabel that if the intelligence services of global superpowers are having a downright dirty war over Toru's empire, the stakes must be high enough to be worth some serious risks. This means the opposition will expect the FSB to step in on Asuka's side sooner or later, and that anybody around Asuka will be seen as working for the FSB . . . which is to say, the Agents will become targets.
As soon she concludes her chat with V, Anabel calls back Chaturvedi. Unfortunately, he doesn't pick up – she has to leave a message. The rest of the evening passes without Chaturvedi calling back, and eventually it's time to get some sleep. Only Wen gets a full night, though. The others take turns keeping watch, just in case.
On Friday morning, the Agents and Asuka make plans to get out of the hotel. The basic strategy is simple: Find an out-of-business restaurant with a "For Rent" sign up, rent it under the pretext of remodeling and reopening, and relocate the whole team there – at least until Hamid, Klas, Lev, and Paul arrive and/or the FSB makes its move. Asuka says that she's familiar with the process and is willing to facilitate the whole thing, albeit under an assumed identity.
Leaving Wen behind to recover, Qoqa to look after Wen, and Jili to watch the phones, Anabel, Vinnie, and Zhang head out with Asuka. Vinnie keeps an eye out for shadows and stays with the car for security's sake, but the whole process is quick and painless. By late morning, the four have found a suitable location; by mid-afternoon, Asuka has the keys. After that, Vinnie drives everybody to pick up air mattresses, sleeping bags, and cleaning supplies. Everything is ready to go before evening.