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The Company
Time: Sunday, December 25, 2011 (morning).
Place: Yokohama Chinatown, Japan.
Last Event: Altering the SWAT van at Victor's chop shop.
With everyone healed enough to return to work, the captured SWAT van ready to roll, and the team's gear packed, the Agents decide that it's time to hit the road – there's no reason to stay in Tokyo. Being tracked is an issue, though. Jili is certain that the vehicle is clean, but there's the matter of cell phones: If they have to be left switched off, why risk carrying them? To this end, Vinnie collects all the phones but the one stolen from the TMPD (formerly Toru's) and Asuka's brand-new, never-used one, and proceeds to annihilate them in a variety of creative ways in Victor's machine shop.
After that, everybody piles into the van, with Vinnie at the wheel and Wen sitting in the passenger seat as navigator and lookout. The squad's destination, chosen essentially at random, is Joetsu. The four-hour drive goes well, and sees the Agents rolling into the snowy skiing town by mid afternoon. On arrival, Vinnie warns that the gas gauge is low. A quick check reveals that the team's cash supply isn't great, either. It's time to risk a visit to an ATM with one of the Company's bank cards; hopefully, Chaturvedi did a good job setting up the anonymous accounts.
To avoid advertising that the van is full of people, the group decides to handle the cash run stealthily. Vinnie pulls up in an area with few observers and lets Wen sneak out through the underside hatch to make her way to an ATM. This comes off without a hitch, and Wen withdraws her card's maximum daily amount, which is more than enough to keep the Agents in food and fuel for a while. Shortly thereafter, Vinnie picks up Wen by stopping near her hiding place and letting her crawl back aboard via the hatch.
Everybody agrees that while sleeping in real beds would be nice, a courier van rolling up to a hotel and unloading 11 people would be dangerously irregular. Consequently, the plan is to find a spot where parking the vehicle overnight won't look too questionable, and then to deal with sleeping in shifts on the benches and floor. Vinnie finds a good place to park and pulls in, making sure to stop over a drain so that people can open the floor hatch to relieve themselves. After that, it's time to get some rest.
Needless to say, the sleeping arrangements are uncomfortable. Paul and Qoqa get a terrible night's sleep, and Zhang simply can't sleep. Everybody gets up on Monday feeling achy, itchy, and grumpy. Except for Hamid, that is, whose wounds earned him a night on the stretcher – he wakes up feeling a bit better. The first order of business is to buy food and toiletries. To avoid revealing the presence of a large group of people in the van, Wen is sent out to do this alone, and shops entirely at vending machines.
On Wen's return, the Agents and Asuka eat and clean up a bit. As they do, they discuss the day's plans. The reluctant agreement is to drive to another town and spend another night in the van, and to keep doing this for a while to let the trail get as cold as possible. However, it may be that the Company can arrange some sort of alternative – and the group wants the latest news from Asuka's legal team in any event – so Anabel calls Chaturvedi on a prepaid phone that Wen brought back. Unfortunately, the handler doesn't pick up, so she has to leave a message.
Just before Vinnie starts the engine to get back on the road, however, Toru's phone rings. Anabel puts it on speaker but does all the talking, once again posing as Asuka. The voice on the other end – possibly Sakata – sounds unhappy. The man states that he knows that he isn't dealing with Asuka alone and that he's quite aware that the Tokyo blasts had nothing to do with gas mains. He then launches into lecture about how he would need truly excellent reasons to continue to deal with people who attract gunmen, firebombs, and air strikes.
Anabel admits that the team has drawn bullets, bombs, and missiles, and informs the man on the phone that he has left out VX-laced envelopes and contact-poison cologne. She then points out that despite all this firepower – some of it high-tech and costly, all of it clearly the work of powerful national intelligence services – her squad is alive. More important, Asuka is alive. She tells him straight out that sooner or later, the assassins will find him, and that her people can provide him with the same protection they've given Asuka. After a long pause, the voice says, "Okay, be in Kyoto by 18:00 today. I'll call you there." Then he hangs up.
Vinnie does some quick calculations and announces that he can get everyone to Kyoto by 16:00 at the latest, but not without stopping to refuel along the way. The team has little choice but to agree to this plan, after which Vinnie pulls out onto the highway. He and Wen handle gassing up without incident – they don't look like typical security van crew, but then the filling station is mostly automated. The drive is uneventful, and Vinnie reaches Kyoto with a couple of hours to spare. Surprisingly, Chaturvedi doesn't call back during the trip.
Since the Agents have two hours of breathing room, they send Wen out on another supply run. She picks up more food and toiletries, allowing everybody to sponge off and stoke up, at least. Those with experience sleeping in foxholes and APCs even manage to get a bit of shuteye. At 18:00 sharp, Toru's phone rings. It's the same voice as the last two times, once again with orders: "Go to Kinkaku-ji and act like the other tourists. If I like what I see, then I'll call you again there." Before Anabel can reply, the call ends.
Consensus among the Agents is that the Golden Pavilion qualifies as neutral ground. If CIA, MSS, or other spooks have tracked the group this far (unlikely), or if Sakata is in cahoots with such operators (possible), they probably won't strike at a historical site crawling with tourists. It seems to be worth the gamble. Thus, Vinnie gets the green light to drive over there.
On reaching the busy parking lot, Vinnie stops the van between two tour buses for just long enough to let out everyone but Hamid, who's still sufficiently injured to pull light duties. Anabel, Lev, and Paul pack concealed pistols; Qoqa hides a knife in her clothes; and Jili, Klas, Wen, and Zhang go unarmed. Everybody wears a tactical radio, and Anabel also brings Toru's phone. The eight Agents surround Asuka as they stroll onto the temple grounds. Once they've disembarked, Vinnie pulls across the parking lot and parks out of sight behind another bus, where he and Hamid wait with their own radios switched on.
After a short time, Toru's phone rings. Anabel answers immediately. The voice at the other end opens with "I can see that I'm not speaking with Asuka," and then proceeds to spell out a rather strange plan: The group is to demonstrate its skills by remaining on the temple grounds after closing time, eluding the guards and staying out of view of the security cameras. If this goes flawlessly, there will be another call after midnight to arrange a meeting. Once again, the caller hangs up as soon as he's done speaking.
The eight Agents on the temple grounds decide to play along. They update Hamid and Vinnie on the situation by radio. Vinnie says that a bank courier van will look ridiculously suspicious parked in an empty parking lot, so he'll circle as close as possible on nearby roads, with Hamid standing by on the radio. Then he beats the closing-time rush and gets driving.
Back at Kinkaku-ji, the Agents on foot corral Asuka and head to a gift shop. As they know they're in for a long, cold wait, they buy souvenir sweaters, obtain rain ponchos from vending machines, and so on, and dress as warmly as possible under the circumstances. Then they resume playing tourist, hiding in the crowd while they scope out the locations of cameras and get a feel for the number and training of the place's watchmen. Just before closing time, they steal into the trees and duck out of sight.
The next few hours are uncomfortable but uneventful; it's almost trivial for trained operators to elude "guards" whose main jobs are finding lost kids and keeping tourists in designated areas. The only challenge is watching out for Asuka, who isn't exactly an expert on the finer points of stealth. A few watchmen do get close enough that the Agents can smell their cigarettes, but that's as risky as it gets. Qoqa even shows off a bit – when one of the men flicks a smoldering butt in her general direction, she snatches it out of the air and takes a puff. Wen, hungry as always, pilfers some half-eaten food from a trash bin . . . which earns a disapproving glare from Qoqa. Apparently, used cigarettes are fine, but not used food.
In the wee hours of December 27, Toru's phone vibrates in Anabel's pocket. The voice at the other end says that he's willing to meet with the group, and instructs them to get to a specific spot at the edge of the temple grounds, where they'll find a ride waiting. Jili radios this in to Hamid, who says that Vinnie will get into position to follow the pickup vehicle. Then the Agents hidden among the trees move stealthily toward their rendezvous spot, hustling Asuka along as quietly as possible and making sure she keeps her head down.
Before long, the Agents can see a dirty white delivery truck idling at the side of the road that bounds the historical site, perhaps a dozen metres away. Peering through the bushes, Klas and Wen can just barely make out the group's van approximately 100 metres behind it. A quick radio call to Hamid confirms that he and Vinnie are stopped some distance away, keeping an eye on the white truck via low-light television. Since there's little else to do but proceed as planned, the three with pistols – Anabel, Lev, and Paul – move up to make contact.
On reaching the truck, Anabel peers into the cab, letting whoever is inside get a good look at her. She sees two men with ski masks, who acknowledge her and motion for her to go to the rear of the vehicle. At the back, three more masked men greet Anabel, Lev, and Paul. They aren't obviously armed, but who knows? In Japanese and then English, they deliver a message: "The boss says to trust us and get in, or to go your own way and you'll never see us again. He told us not to negotiate." Anabel faces the trees and gestures for the others to join her.
Before long, Asuka and her eight escorts are shut in the rear of a large, basically empty delivery truck with three men in ski masks. There are no windows back there, and the only light comes from a dim red LED lamp on the ceiling. The seats, such as they are, consist of old packing crates. As the vehicle lurches onto the road, Jili hisses to the others that the radios are down, almost certainly jammed. Back in the team's van, Hamid notices the same thing about the radios and warns Vinnie. Vinnie nods and pulls out behind the truck, following at a safe distance with the headlights off and the low-light surveillance camera set to maximum magnification.
It's a 30-minute drive, almost all of it headed directly out of the city. Vinnie tails the truck the entire way, apparently undetected. Eventually, the truck turns off the road and passes through a gate onto a private wooded property. Vinnie rolls past the end of the driveway and pulls over a short distance down the highway. He and Hamid do their best to camouflage the van and then sneak back on foot, keeping to the shadows in the ditch.
Meanwhile, the Agents in the truck feel the vehicle come to a halt. When the back gate slides up, they find themselves looking out onto a meticulously maintained property decorated with topiaries and lots of bizarre sculpture in steel, stone, and poured concrete. The five masked men politely escort their passengers to a decidedly futuristic-looking home made almost entirely of concrete and glass. At the front entrance, one of them has to provide a voiceprint, a fingerprint, and a numeric code, whereupon locks unlatch with five audible clicks. As the group walks inside, they can't help but notice that the door itself is very thick and very solid.
Inside the house, the Agents are greeted not by armed thugs but by a tidy, pretty middle-aged Japanese woman, who bows and addresses the group in excellent English. Anabel makes a point of trying to identify the woman's speech patterns and concludes that they're consistent with educated usage on the Pacific coast of the United States. The woman at no point identifies herself, and politely requests that her guests likewise stay anonymous, explaining that giving names means taking unnecessary risks. She invites her visitors into a large room with a hearth and yet more freaky sculpture, shows them where to wash up, and then leaves them with her five associates, who reappear – unmasked, and looking more like geeks than heavies – bearing excellent tea and food. Apparently, one of them is a qualified chef.
While all of this is going on, Hamid and Vinnie skulk around in the dark at the edge of the property. They still cannot establish radio contact with others – and owing to the dense screen of trees surrounding the area, it's impossible to get a visual. Vinnie briefly entertains thoughts of sneaking onto the premises, but Hamid points to a camera and warns him off. According to Hamid, the place sports a costly security system ("this week's model") and is almost certainly protected in depth. Thus, the two of them decide to lurk outside in the cold.
Back in the house, a well-dressed middle-aged man eventually joins the party. Asuka identifies him as Sakata, and of course he recognizes Asuka. Sakata acknowledges Asuka and then makes clear that this place isn't his home, but that of his lady friend, who shall remain nameless. After that, he gets down to business: "You went through a lot to get here, you have done well to protect Asuka, and you have proven yourselves to me. But why have you sought me out?"
Anabel spells things out as plainly as possible. She explains that the United States and China are both after Sakata, and that with their essentially bottomless resources, finding him isn't a matter of "if," but "when." She goes on to state that she represents backers who seek a more just alternative than the CIA or MSS, and who have the resources to protect him. Asuka interrupts at this stage to agree vigorously. When Asuka stops chattering, Anabel concludes that her people are offering Sakata cover and security in return for his unique skills.
Sakata muses out loud that it would be good to be able to resume his life and his work, even if he must do so under a new identity, but rephrases his earlier question: "Why would you want to protect me?" Anabel explains that denying China and the United States access to him would be reward enough in itself, and that using Sakata's knowledge for justice would be a bonus. This leads Sakata to ask a new question: "What is it that you think I can do, exactly?"
The Agents exchange glances, and then Anabel speaks up. "We know that you have a way to predict financial market activity, which the world's superpowers regard as reliable enough to consider a strategic economic weapon." Sakata raises an eyebrow and then calmly explains that he has no more insight into what the markets will do than the next econometrician, and that what his enemies are after is something else again. Namely, he can make the markets do his bidding!
Pressed on this last point, Sakata is refreshingly forthright. He explains that his field is less econometrics than computer science. Some years ago, he developed a mixed hardware-software solution for the CIA, which the Agency helped him embed in major banks and stock exchanges the world over. When he and the CIA had a falling out, the Chinese MSS stepped in to keep him alive and back his work. Ultimately, the Chinese, too, took issue with his methods . . . whereupon he walked away with the only working "key," destroyed his records, went to ground with Yakuza assistance, and faked his own death. Sakata boasts that neither the Americans nor the Chinese know exactly how his system works – it's highly distributed, and not a unique black box or a discrete piece of code – and that the two nations would have to share deep intelligence to shut down what they helped him to create and implement.
As far as the Agents can tell, Sakata is telling the truth. They reply by explaining that whatever Sakata can do, their backers would use the tool not to get rich or to crash the economies of nations they dislike, but to make the world a better place. In return for his support in this matter, they could give him back a life with purpose. Sakata seems intrigued, mumbling that if they could keep him and his wife safe, he might just consider such an offer. However, he warns that he would need serious support to activate his system, especially if the aim is not to get caught in the act.
The Agents reiterate that support is what they're here to offer, but also that they need to know all the details to be of any help. In particular, they ask Sakata to explain why he was associated with a Yakuza boss for some time. Sakata claims that he was little more than an investment counselor to Toru – albeit a shady one – and was using Toru's money to make the crime lord wealthy while skimming off enough to continue his own research in secret. Unfortunately, he learned that Toru's greed also led the man to sell intelligence on East Asian criminal ventures to the CIA. It's when he saw how close he was to being found out by the CIA that he faked his own death.
This, too, rings basically true. At least, neither Anabel's instincts as a social engineer nor Qoqa's long experience as an interrogator pick up on any signs of deceit. The Agents exchange glances and silent signals, and then propose a course of action: Another faked death, this one elaborate and professional enough to convince even the CIA and MSS that Sakata is really, truly dead – and with him, his research.