“Papa!”
“There’s my Emma! Welcome to Japan! Look at you, you’ve gotten so big!!”
“I surpassed Charlotte last week!”
“That’s amazing!”
“Charlotte is the girl who sits next to her in class,” explained Agent Nicolas’ ex-wife Sarah as she caught up with their luggage in hand.
“Hey there, Sarah. Can I help you with those?”
“Sure, that would be a great help. You keeping up with your sobriety?”
“That’s the second thing you say?”
“So you aren’t...... Well, it seems like you really haven’t drank anything today, so let’s just leave it at that. At least we won’t have to remain in fear of being the target of randomly thrown knives, right?” replied Sarah sarcastically after sniffing his breath once.
By the time the luggage was stored in the trunk and everybody had piled into the car, the young lady was already rubbing her eyes sleepily from jet lag.
“Emma, should we head to the hotel first so that you can take a short nap?”
“......No need! Papa, papa, I want to see sakura! Mama bought me the sakura-colored figure of BG, and it’s so pretty!”
“Ahh, sadly, the sakura are no longer in bloom. Their season has already passed.” Nicolas shook his head while handling the steering wheel.
Sarah interrupted, “Are you sure there aren’t any still blooming somewhere? Sakura is a spring flower, isn’t it?”
“Nope, there are none left, I’m sorry to say. Here in Japan, there’s a thing called Cherry Blossom Front where the major news agencies report on the dates when the sakura open and goes into full bloom in each part of Japan. This morning I saw the report about how the sakura are now blooming in Hokkaido, which means all the sakura in Tokyo have already fallen by now.”
“Cherry Blossom Front? What’s that? Do the Japanese love flowers that much? Do they have a Tulip Front as well?”
“Nah, only sakura.”
“So weird.”
“......So I can’t see sakura?”
While somehow placating the now slightly sulky Emma, Nicolas headed toward a conveyor belt sushi store. For Americans, when Japan comes up in conversation, most of the time it’s “Mount Fuji,” “geisha,” “sushi,” or “samurai.” Lately, “superpower” has been creeping onto the list. But anyway, point was that as long as he was hitting any of those themes, then he couldn’t go wrong. That simple way of thinking was orthodox because of its simplicity, and it did not let Nicolas down here. Emma became thoroughly enraptured at the sight of plates of sushi coming and going on the conveyor belt, clearly having forgotten her disappointment from not getting to see sakura. Nicolas heaved a small sigh of relief.
At the same time, Sarah also looked like she was enjoying herself quite a bit as she continued making orders one after another.
“One spicy tuna roll please!”
“Sorry, miss, we don’t serve spicy tuna roll at our store. Um, no. No spicy tuna roll.”
“You don’t have it? Even though this is a sushi bar?”
A warm feeling welled up in Nicolas’ heart at the sight of Sarah being indignant. She had said that he hadn’t changed in the previous 8 years, but apparently she herself had not changed that much either. People don’t really change all that much when they grow older. It was a far cry from the flurry of change and growth that the young Emma was basking in.
When Emma headed to the restroom and left the two adults alone, Nicolas washed down a piece of salmon with a sip of tea and then broached the subject that had been on his mind. “What do you think about starting over again?”
“Starting over what?” returned Sarah in an indifferent tone while grabbing a plate of salmon roe battleship sushi.
“You know what I’m talking about. Us, I mean. When I’m sitting across from you like this, I’m reminded again that I really do love you.”
“I’m not sure I can say the same. I mean, I’m thankful that you’ve kept sending us child support, but it’s not like I can’t earn enough if I really put my mind to it. I can’t exactly let a dangerous man constantly drowned in alcohol to constantly remain in close proximity to Emma.”
Nicolas wanted to refute the part about him being dangerous, but there was nothing he could say in response to the comment about being drowned in alcohol. He raised both hands in a sign of surrender.
“OK, fair enough. I’ll be honest, then. I really want to be a part of Emma’s childhood.”
“What’re you going to do with your CIA work? They won’t let you live in America, will they? And us moving to Japan is absolutely out of the question.”
“So does that mean you’ll think about it if I get a post in America?”
“Nope. I have no intention of getting back together,” declared Sarah firmly. But then she took a look at Nicolas’ face and softened her tone. “But well, if you manage to stay sober for a whole year, then maybe I’ll give it a bit of thought. You are Emma’s hero, all right? Be an actual hero and get yourself back together.”
“......I’ll do my best.”
“I’ll keep my expectations up,” returned Sarah while sounding like she had no expectations whatsoever. Honestly, even Nicolas himself was not confident.
However, this time, the 421st try, for Emma’s sake, I will finally...... was what Nicolas was thinking when it suddenly occurred to him that Emma was taking quite a while to get back. With a tinge of worry in his voice, he asked, “Hey, isn’t Emma taking a bit too long? Can you go check in on her? Maybe she’s gotten a stomachache or something.”
“Good point. I’ll go take a look,” nodded Sarah before heading into the girls’ restroom. Not long after, she came back out, accompanied by another woman of the unpleasant sort who had a tattoo on her neck and was wearing a leopard-print shirt. While looking around the store uneasily, Sarah handed what appeared to be a letter to Nicolas. The unpleasant woman gave Nicolas an unfathomable look before stepping out.
“For some reason, Emma wasn’t in the restroom. Oh, and that woman just now told me to pass this to you.”
“What......? Should I search the men’s restroom? Maybe she walked into the wrong one by accident......” Nicolas lowered his eyes to the letter with only half his attention, but his face color changed rapidly as he read through it. When he was done, he leapt up with enough force to almost flip over the stack of empty plates sitting on their table and dashed out of the store. His head swiveled around quickly, but the figure of the woman was already nowhere to be seen.
Agent Nicolas spewed a torrent of expletives that would be censored out on air and crushed the letter in his hand. The letter had read as follows:
“We have your daughter. If you want her back, bring the CIA’s list and 300 million yen in cash to the green-roofed warehouse south of Ariake Station at 1900 hours. Come alone. We are keeping an eye on you. Don’t tell anyone. Your daughter’s life is over the moment you blab.”
However, when Agent Nicolas calmed back down a bit, the stupidity oozing from the lines on the letter started to give him a headache.
First, the kidnappers mentioned “the CIA’s list,” but didn’t specify exactly what list they wanted. Second, they asked for 300 million yen, which was an amount that one would have to go to a bank teller to withdraw. However, it was already past 3pm, which meant that bank teller services were closed at all banks. Even the CIA did not keep 300 million yen just lying around at headquarters. It might have been possible to arrange an after hours withdrawal from a bank by using the CIA’s influence and authority, but to do so without telling anyone? All the conditions were impossible to grant. The whole message was nonsensical.
“Why did you run out in a hurry? What did the letter say?” asked Sarah worriedly while following him out of the store. Apparently she had taken a look at Agent Nicolas’ stiffened face and caught on that something very much out of the ordinary had happened.
Agent Nicolas grabbed Sarah’s shoulders, looked straight into her face, then said gravely, “I’ll escort you to your hotel. Go into your room, then lock the door. Under no circumstances should you take even one step out of that room until midnight. If you don’t hear back from me by midnight, then call the po—call the CIA and ask them to take you into custody. I’ll write the phone number down for you later.”
“That’s...... wait, what about Emma? Where’s Emma?”
“I can’t say. But trust me.”
“Trust you? I can’t do that.”
There was no hesitation in Sarah’s rebuff whatsoever. Surely that was the result of Agent Nicolas’ usual behavior, but this was no time to be squabbling.
“Have I ever betrayed you before? In any case—”
“If I could truly trust you, then I wouldn’t have divorced you. I was the one who brought Emma up. I’ll protect her myself.”
“————OK. I get it. You win. You can be the one to protect Emma. But just know that if you come along, then I’ll have to protect not only Emma but you as well. That might cause Emma to become exposed to more danger.”
Sarah fell silent for a few seconds, then bit her lip so hard that blood oozed out before wordlessly running toward their car in the parking lot. Agent Nicolas chucked a few 10,000 yen bills at the sushi store employees who were looking on from a distance and gave chase. Right now, time was of the essence.
After delivering Sarah to the hotel and making sure that she was secure, Agent Nicolas made a detour to a spot where he could check out the building where the CIA headquarters was located. Just as suspected, he spotted several suspicious-looking individuals hanging about all around. It would be impossible to deploy the CIA without alerting those guys.
Agent Nicolas weaved his car in and out of narrow, unoccupied streets to throw off any possible pursuers while thinking furiously. As a principle, America never negotiated with terrorists. Agent Nicolas was the same. The reason was that the moment terrorists think they can get anything as a result of whatever terrorist acts they were committing, then they would commit more terrorism while believing that they could get better terms from doing so. Even though Agent Nicolas was currently dealing with kidnappers and not terrorists, the same concept applied.