Skinhead and Tattoo Man returned to their guard duties outside, leaving only seven people in the warehouse, not counting Agent Nicolas. Sitting in a chair right next to the only door was the woman he saw earlier at the sushi restaurant. Standing next to her was a man wearing a nice-looking suit. The middle-aged man sitting on the biggest sofa with his arms crossed who was glaring at Agent Nicolas with the razor-sharp eyes of a carnivore was most likely the boss of Tadokoro-gumi. The two men with bulging muscles standing behind him were probably his bodyguards. One of them was holding a katana, while the other—for some reason—had a silver-colored spear.
Then at the very far end of the warehouse, gagged and bound to a chair, was none other than Emma herself. The last guy was standing at her back fiddling with a knife.
“Emma! Don’t worry, Papa’s come to save you!”
Due to the gag in her mouth, Emma was only capable of responding with muffled grunts. However, her tear-streaked face practically beamed with happiness. Overwhelming relief washed over Agent Nicolas, but he braced himself. He had confirmed that his daughter was still safe and sound, which meant the only thing left to do was to pound these shitty kidnappers into the ground and save her.
“Show us the money and the list,” said the boss in a grave tone.
“Let my daughter go first.”
“Show us. The money. And the list.”
Agent Nicolas tried to negotiate without actually expecting it to work. Sure enough, the boss merely repeated his words in an even lower tone, leaving Agent Nicolas no choice but to reluctantly open up the trunk case. But after keeping it open for 2 to 3 seconds—enough time to show the stacks and stacks of bills packed inside—he closed it right back up before one of the approaching guards got close enough to take a better look.
The inside of the case was actually only filled with stacks of newspaper clippings topped by a single ten thousand yen bill each. This was something that would be seen through immediately upon inspection. To move matters along, Agent Nicolas impudently said to the displeased-looking boss, “As I told your lackey outside, I’m the only person who knows the code to unlock this case. The case itself is made of titanium alloy, so you wouldn’t be able to force it open even if you throw a high-explosive bomb at it. This is my hostage.”
Of course, that was a lie. The truth was that the case was made up of common aluminium. However, his identity as a CIA agent, when coupled with his confident attitude, lent a lot of credence to his claim.
Among the slightly flustered yakuza members, only the boss looked completely unfazed. After taking a long look at Agent Nicolas, he then simply said, “Cut off one of his daughter’s pinkies.”
“Gotcha, boss.”
“......No, don’t! Hold on!” blurted out Agent Nicolas as he saw the man behind Emma re-adjust his grip on his knife.
The boss smiled viciously. “Tell us your code, then.”
Agent Nicolas made a face filled with bitterness and distress. All right, here goes.
“Ok, ok. Then let’s do it like this. I’ll write down the code. All of you fall back against the wall. Then I’ll fold the piece of paper—” While continuing his explanation, Agent Nicolas tore off a page from one of the magazines lying on top of a table, then reached for the ballpoint pen tucked into his chest pocket. “—and stick it to the opposite wall from where you guys are. That’s how we’ll exchange Emma and the code. You got it? So now I’ll use this ballpoint pen—”
Agent Nicolas brandished his pen, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room.
“—and I’ll do this!”
When Agent Nicolas pressed a button on the ballpoint pen, pure red Tabasco sauce shot out with the velocity of a water gun, landing bullseye on the eyes of the yakuza positioned behind Emma. It was a complete surprise attack.
“What is—my eyes—MY EYEESSS!! AHHHHHHH!!”
Knife Man’s scream caused everyone’s attention to stray, after which was just Agent Nicolas’ one-man show. He lashed out with the case, clinched flying kicks, threw scissors, then threw more punches with the case. The lookouts who rushed in due to the commotion were also summarily rendered unconscious.
The boss kept backing off while firing a pistol non-stop, but not a single shot came even close to grazing Agent Nicolas. The latter calmly counted the number of shots, then moved in to finish the job with a case to the face.
The possession of firearms was extremely strict in Japan, which meant that even yakuza bosses had extremely limited opportunity to practice shooting with live rounds. There was data that showed that when an untrained person fires wildly from a distance of 3 meters away, chances were high that not even a single shot would land. In such a situation, the proper way to use the pistol would be to close the distance first before shooting. In other words, the moment the boss started backing off, he had already thrown away any chance he had at hitting his target.
After knocking everyone out and tying them up tightly, Agent Nicolas undid the bindings on his daughter and gave her a fierce bear hug.
“Papa! I believed you would come for me! I belie—u, uuu, waaaahhhhhhhh......!”
“Everything’s all right now. Everything’s all right. I’m sorry for letting you go through such a scary experience. Everything’s all right now.”
Eventually, Emma cried herself to sleep. Agent Nicolas called the fretting Sarah to tell her they were both safe, then called the police.
Kidnapping. Coercion. Discharge of a firearm. Tadokoro-gumi was disbanded as of that day.
Just as Agent Nicolas was about to leave the warehouse with Emma on his back, a thought gave him pause. Yakuza using guns and katanas was understandable. But then what was with that spear?
Out of sheer curiosity, he went over and poked the spear lying on the ground with his toe. After rolling it over a few times, he bent down to investigate it further. The silver-colored spear looked brand new. However, a closer look revealed that it wasn’t so much a spear as it was a spear-shaped machine of some sort, as evidenced by several cryptic-looking bumps and buttons that lined its length.
And right in the middle of the grip was the crest of a sun.
Agent Nicolas was so familiar with that crest that he had even seen it in his dreams before. It was the exact same design that had decorated the masks worn by BG and FK.
The espers’ sun crest was frequently used among the occult manias in the city, to the point where it was almost a sign of all goods of that nature. However, would the yakuza actually buy into the fad so much as to make a toy spear decorated with this crest and swing it around?
After a slight moment of hesitation, Agent Nicolas decided to take the spear back with him. After all that he had gone through to find a lead on the espers, and yet to still come up empty-handed, he knew how low the chances were of something that he randomly picked up from a bunch of yakuza turning out to be anything significant. But well, just in case, right?
Agent Nicolas chucked the spear into the trunk of his car, then gently settled the still sleeping Emma in the shotgun seat. Police cars passed right by just as he drove away from the crime scene. Surely their questioning and reporting to his superiors at the CIA could wait till tomorrow. For now, he wanted to get back to the hotel as soon as possible to put Sarah’s mind to rest, and then he wanted to drift off into sleep while gazing upon Emma’s sleeping face.
It had been a long, long day indeed.
⚔
Three months after the kidnapping incident, Nicolas Stallone was no longer a CIA agent anymore. He had returned to America, and was giving it his best trying to get back together with his wife. Every day that he got to spend together with his family made him ever more grateful for having regained what he had lost all those years ago.
However, the man Nicolas Stallone had not been fired. In fact, it was with the greatest of regrets that his previous workplace finally allowed him to go.
The silver spear that he had picked up at the end turned out to be an enormous windfall. Detailed analysis revealed that it was packed full of technology and mechanisms beyond what was possible with humanity’s current level of technological prowess. Nicolas, who had been on the cusp of being demoted, found himself in the center of a storm of acclamation and praise. Unfortunately, the spear was missing whatever fuel it ran on and thus could not be activated, but there was no doubt that this was an extremely important piece of evidence related to the espers or to some other supernatural existence. The yakuza who was wielding it only had “I bought it at a street stall” to say, and the seller was never determined.
Despite all efforts to make Agent Nicolas stay, including terms so good that they had never been and never again will be heard in CIA history, he still firmly chose to stay with his family instead. And good thing he did, too, for the silver spear suddenly vanished three days after its importance was recognized.
The details of the before and the after of the seemingly impossible disappearance from under heavy security reminded Nicolas of the spy who had burrowed into CIA headquarters and similarly made his escape after being captured. However, there was no way to prove the relatedness of the two incidents.
Predictably, CIA headquarters erupted into absolute pandemonium. What Nicolas later heard about how the staff had been wailing and running around in complete bewilderment made him feel thankful that he hadn’t been there when it happened.
As Nicolas settled into the rocking chair in his living room and enjoyed the cup of coffee that his wife had brewed while reading the morning paper, the sound of a letter falling into their door’s letterbox rang out. Immediately, Emma got up from playing around with dismantling a clock and cheerfully dashed over to retrieve it.
Nicolas smiled gently, finding even the most trivial facets of ordinary life precious and dear.
Emma soon came back with the letter in hand. She clambered onto Nicolas’ lap, then read aloud the sender’s name.
“It says that this letter is from Sri Jayawardanacafe Latte! What a weird name, don’t you think, Papa?”