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The Company
Time: Tuesday, July 23, 2013.
Place: Tokyo, Japan.
Last Event: Defeating eight sword-wielding goons in a nightclub basement.
After defeating the sword-toting Yakuza thugs, the Agents evaluate their situation. No one knows quite what to make of the bizarre attack until Anabel comments that the melee was almost certainly caught on video and will probably be circulated among the class of scum who enjoy gladiatorial matches – especially bouts involving deadly weapons. With that thought in mind, she decides to try to reason with the team's unseen host, and turns to the nearest camera to attempt to make a deal. She's promptly cut off by a voice booming over the PA system: "What business could I possibly have with you?" When she reveals that the group came to make an electronics deal, the speaker retorts, "I deal in many things, but not electronics . . . and now I'm tired of talking!"
While Anabel is having her shouted exchange with the man on the PA system, Klas, Lev, Paul, and Wen fan out to cover and listen at the room's four entrances. An instant after the unseen speaker ends his conversation with Anabel, Paul hears footfalls approaching – and worse, the sound of guns being cocked. Paul shouts a warning to the others. Jili and Anabel take this as a sign that it's time to leave, and rush over to the door that leads to the club's main floor, hoping to get it open. The others start tossing chairs and tables in front of the doorway near Paul, with the goal of slowing the next wave of attackers for long enough that Anabel and Jili can unlock the exit.
Jili being a whiz with electronic locks, it takes her mere seconds to get the door open. She and Anabel shout for their associates to follow. Unfortunately, a hulking goon at the top of the stairs hears them as well. When Anabel and Jili see the man-mountain, they realize that their options are to deal with him at once or have the door slammed in their faces before anyone can escape. They decide to go for it!
Anabel gambles that the security man doesn't know exactly who's coming and, being very near the main club floor, might want to avoid making a scene. She puts on her best scared face and runs at the goon, shouting that there are crazy, dangerous people chasing her. Jili follows Anabel's lead. This appears to work – the brute lets the women approach him, though he's clearly alert to possible trouble. As soon as Anabel and Jili reach the guard, they tackle and pummel him . . . to no appreciable effect.
Despite enjoying two-to-one odds, the women find themselves outmatched, even after Anabel pulls her knife. Jili ends up winded by a massive haymaker, while Anabel's 15-centimetre ceramic blade is outclassed by some 60 centimetres of metal flashlight baton. Fortunately, their allies are close behind. When the hulking bouncer sees five more people charging him – some of them waving knives – he beats a hasty retreat. The entire group manages to flee the basement before the gunmen behind them clear the makeshift barrier of furniture. Qoqa hears a few shots ring out as she slams the door behind her, but nobody is hit.
The Agents waste no time making their getaway. Anabel clears a path through the crowded nightclub by acting like she's a drunk partier on the verge of vomiting. This gets most of the team out the door and into the street uncontested. However, Klas – being a 188-centimetre-tall blond man – kind of stands out, and a couple of doormen move to intercept him. Klas slams right into one of the men, knocking him flying! When the other thug turns to jump on Klas' back, Paul emerges from the chaos and crushes the goon's knee with a vicious kick, thereby neutralizing the threat.
The Agents flee down the street with Lev in the lead, Anabel and Wen assisting the wounded Jili and Qoqa, and Klas and Paul bringing up the rear. Glancing over his shoulder, Klas sees two men leave the nightclub and try to hug the shadows in what he supposes is a lousy attempt to tail the team. He subtly signals this to Paul. The two of them wait until their shadows aren't looking, duck down an alleyway, and then jump their erstwhile pursuers as they rush past. Wen hears the scuffle and leads the rest of the group back to the alley, where they find Klas and Paul restraining two severely beaten goons.
Qoqa isn't injured nearly enough to miss an opportunity to interrogate captives. With Anabel lending a hand as interpreter, and Paul and Klas twisting body parts for emphasis, she asks some short, sharp questions:
Q: "Who's your boss?"
A: "Kenji Nakamura." (Who's indeed the person Asuka sent the Agents to meet.)
Q: "Is Nakamura running the club we just left?"
A: "Yes! He's there right now!"
Q: "What was 'the Octagon' about? Why men with swords?"
A: "Uh, I guess that's just one of those things the boss does to look badass."
Q: "Does Nakamura deal in high-tech electronics?"
A: "He has lots of deals going, but I've never heard anything about that."
Q: "What's the relationship between Kenji Nakamura and Toru Otaka?"
A: "Otaka was bad news, but now he's dead. That's all I know."
Once Qoqa is done, Anabel orders the men to take a message to their boss: "Contact us ASAP . . . or we'll return with backup and weapons." Then she whips out a pen and writes one of the secure email addresses that Sakata provided on one of the captives.
Before turning their prisoners loose to deliver their message, Paul and Anabel search them. In addition to the usual pocket contents – phones, wallets, keys, etc. – they find a couple of Glock 26 pistols tucked away in concealment holsters. The Agents relieve the men of their weapons. Qoqa takes advantage of this interlude to treat her gash and look at Jili's bruised ribs. Then the Agents send the thugs on their way and hastily leave the area themselves.
Back at the hotel, the group gathers in Anabel's room while she calls Sakata to report on the night's events. Sakata has no insights into the situation but suggests talking to Asuka, as she was the one who recommended that the Agents contact Nakamura. After only a few minutes speaking with Asuka, Anabel realizes that Asuka sent the team to Tokyo not to make an electronics deal, but to have them kill Nakamura! It's painfully obvious that Asuka assumed that the group would stir up trouble and then do what it does so well – and to Anabel, it's equally apparent that Asuka has snapped and has no idea how insane her scheme is.
Once Anabel has Sakata back on the phone, she informs him of Asuka's manipulation. Anabel warns Sakata that the girl may be a security risk to him and the entire Company. Sakata concurs, and says that he'll try to salvage the situation by speaking with Asuka and digging through what he has of Toru's files to turn up clues regarding the man's electronics interests. Anabel recommends that Sakata play on Asuka's infatuation with Klas to help with this, perhaps by suggesting that tonight's events almost got Klas killed. Sakata agrees to try, and ends the call by inviting the Agents to enjoy their upscale hotel at his expense.
The next two days pass without incident, though the Agents post watches and keep their captured handguns close, just in case. On Thursday evening, email arrives at the address that Anabel wrote on the Yakuza goon. It consists of a Tokyo address, which a quick lookup reveals corresponds to a warehouse. Jili takes one look at the headers and declares that it's an amateurish spoof that originated somewhere in Sweden. Everybody agrees that it's time for Anabel to call Sakata again.
Sakata listens to Anabel's report and then confirms that somebody used his computer to spoof email to the address the Agents told him to watch. He doesn't mince words: He suspects Asuka, and says that he'll deal with the situation at once. In the meantime, he recommends that the group change hotels, just in case Asuka foolishly passed that information along to the wrong people. Anabel thanks Sakata and hangs up.
The Agents clean their rooms carefully and then leave their hotel that evening. They check into another, equally nice one some distance away, where they wait for Sakata to contact them with whatever he manages to learn from Asuka and her father's old records. The call comes on Saturday evening. The first thing Sakata tells the group is that he sent Asuka off to Switzerland to spend some time with his wife, the Artist – and away from his base in Sweden. Then he informs them that he managed to track down Toru's shady electronics interests to a shell company in Seoul, and passes along the address of an office there.