“Nah, just counting how many guys there are still alive in this world who can get away with calling me a bitch. I’m at two, maybe three.”
Drake gauged the space around him. “Am I one of them?”
“You’re still standing aren’t you?”
Hibiki caught their attention. “Look. You can’t just blast in and out of there. It has to be done a certain way.”
“Your way?” Alicia asked. “Pussy style?”
“Let me give you an example.” Hibiki frowned. “The way you guys charged that arms bazaar. Remember? Using the Light Brigade method. Though successful, what has that wrought upon you?”
Drake pursed his lips. “You mean this Ramses bloke? He’s a myth. I can’t see there being any kind of real terrorist royalty.”
“Well, believe me when I say that there is, and that the threat is very real. But that’s not our problem. Your brazen attack has caused you complicated issues down the line. You simply can’t defeat all the Yakuza. So what do you do?”
“Do have a plan?” Alicia looked confused.
“Denial is everything.” Hibiki said. “You can’t have an organization like the Yakuza hunting you for the rest of your life, ergo they can’t know for sure that it was you. For starters, your careers would be over. No security force in the world would touch you. So, you can’t kill them all. The cops are infiltrated. The building is impregnable. What do you do?”
“Hang on whilst I pour a bloody rum.” Drake made a show of heading for the mini bar. “ ‘Cause this round of question time is giving me a headache.”
“Okay, okay. There’s this. I think Yorgi, with his bespoke skills, could probably break in. Alone. But he could never get Mai out. And he couldn’t locate her on his own so he’d be forced to take somebody with him. Which wouldn’t work because the Yakuza are already watching all of you. That leaves us with many problems, the first of which is to actually locate Mai. I know only one way to achieve this.”
“Spill.” Dahl looked threatening.
“Send in a girl.”
Everyone blinked. Drake and Dahl looked at Alicia as the Englishwoman looked straight at Yorgi.
“What?”
“Of course, every structure has a weakness, even a seemingly indestructible brick wall. The Yakuza are primarily young males. They admit girls to their compound, and their HQ, every day.”
“But aren’t they… Japanese girls?” Dahl asked.
Alicia glanced at Yorgi. “Damn, looks like you’re off the hook.”
Hibiki nodded. “Yes, primarily. Of course, this is a HQ and they admit prisoners too, most of whom leave in body bags without being seen.” He blinked. “Somehow. Now, in Yakuza-run Kobe a foreign woman would stand out like a forest fire. Only a Japanese woman would be able to infiltrate unnoticed.”
Drake saw now where this was all headed. “No way, pal. I mean, shit, how would you explain it to Mai? She’d fucking kill you.”
“Like I said before — if you have any other suggestions. ?”
“Impossible.” Dahl turned away. “After all she has been through? I won’t allow it.”
Alicia stared at Hibiki with shocked eyes. “Are you mad?”
The cop took a step back. “Well, I expected an objection but not quite so much.”
Drake waved a hand at Grace. “She’s a seventeen-year-old kid and only here because we couldn’t lock her up back in bloody DC. She stays in the room, Hibiki.”
Grace looked slightly affronted. “Hey, I handled myself okay for… a lot of years. I think.”
“Ah, now I see. No, I wasn’t referring to Grace. The Japanese woman I propose we send into the Yakuza stronghold is Chika, Mai’s sister.”
For a second Drake froze as he tried to compute. Though not as radical as sending in Grace, Hibiki’s suggestion still drifted as close to the edge as anyone would surely like to sail.
“Mai’s sister?” Alicia repeated. “Dude, you have a death wish.” It was a statement of fact.
“If we can’t get her out of there soon she’s dead.” Hibiki’s voice was edged with deep stress. “And there’s no other way to find out where they’re keeping her in such a large building. The girls will at least have some free run.”
Alicia eyed him closely. “You do know what you’re asking of your girlfriend then?”
“Fuck.” Hibiki walked to the nearest chair and threw himself in it. “Of course I know. It’s… it’s the only way. And even then it’s practically suicide.”
“You’re a cop,” Yorgi said. “Do you not know girl you can use?”
“Not a girl I would trust with Mai’s life,” Hibiki moaned. “The only person I’d truly trust to get in and save Mai is Mai herself.”
“All right, well I have to ask,” Dahl said. “What was Chika’s reaction?”
Hibiki squirmed a little. “I haven’t asked her yet.”
Alicia groaned and turned to Yorgi. “And we’re back to you and those delicate cheekbones. Think you could fit in a size ten?”
The Russian glared, but Hibiki spoke up strongly. “No. No, this will work. I’m sure of it. I have a way, I think, of getting us all in. We would assume all the risk, and the rescue. Chika would only mark her position.”
“Wait, you said it was impregnable,” Dahl pointed out.
“It is,” Hibiki said. “Nobody has ever broken in, nobody has ever broken out. No team could enter that building without being seen. But there’s another way. A cleverer way.”
“What way?” Drake was intrigued, despite everything.
“Well, it was the American White House that gave me the idea…”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Chika Kitano was a survivor, a fighter. Though young, she still remembered the day the bad men took her sister, the agony etched in her parents’ faces and eyes, the way they aged ten years overnight. Though far wiser now, she still felt a touch of hatred for them. Growing up hadn’t been easy for her — she had waged a constant war against hunger, poverty and perverted old men. She had resisted education until she finally realized it was her way out — not the only way but the best way.
Finally, settling into her life as well as a hand fits into a glove, reunited with her sister and not knowing nor caring where her parents were, the older Chika Kitano had landed a great job. Then Dmitry Kovalenko struck, the Blood King kidnapping her and forcing Mai to hand over some dusty old relic for her return, which even then was achieved only by Mai’s abilities. Another month, another job, and her résumé was starting to look like a scribble pad. Though Kovalenko’s men had treated her fine she still harbored the fears the episode had given rise to. But fear could be overcome and Chika had not forgotten her roots, nor the trials she overcame there.
Always, a fighter.
Then Dai Hibiki entered her life and, though some part of her craved the security such a man offered, she initially pushed him away, fearing she would lose her own fighter’s instinct by depending on another. But, through tentative months, she came to understand that together the two of them strengthened each other. Their relationship shored up their inner drive and together made them incredibly durable.
Chika thought there might be nothing on earth that could defeat the two of them.
But when Dai Hibiki came through the door the look on his face instantly told her that there was.
Torn again, shredded, she listened to his story; to the consequences of Mai’s old actions, her new activities in murdering Hayami, humiliating Hikaru, the Yakuza and even helping to prevent the Pythians from unleashing the Pandora plague. Though a fighter, Chika found herself almost defeated. Mai? Oh, Mai…
Unable to speak, battling her inner fears, doubts and old memories, she knew that there was only one way to get through this. To be as one. Both her and Hibiki. Together.