Read United States of Japan Online
Authors: Peter Tieryas
United States of Japan (7 page)
Koushou’s eyes brightened. “I want bodies.”
“What kind of bodies?”
“Dead ones. That was quite an experiment you did with that poor girl.”
Did he mean… “She was working for the George Washingtons.”
“They’re out for your head,” Koushou said. “I can give them to you if you’d like. There’s a large group of them who’ve left their haven in San Diego. All I want in exchange for their whereabouts are eight infected; dead, or preferably, frozen alive.”
“I only have one dead body and she’s been requisitioned by the Biologics Department.”
“There are other enemies of the state.”
“What will you do with them?”
“There’s a market for corpses that have been tortured to death by the Tokko. A novelty item, if you may. I’ll take samples of their blood and keep the virological data, which is useful too.”
“Useful for what?” Akiko asked.
“For connoisseurs who want to understand the intricacies of a gruesome execution. I assemble human-animal hybrids. I have quite a museum of them at another site. I’ve created literal mermaids and centaurs. They are fascinating specimens. But no surgery can compare to the acumen of a virus that can reshape the tapestry and genetic makeup of one of your victims.”
The inverted man was still crying, screaming at a high pitch. She had a sudden stabbing memory as she remembered the first person she’d tortured. He, too, couldn’t stop screaming. “Can you shut him up?” she asked Koushou, pinching the bridge of her nose to decrease the piercing sensation the memory evoked.
“Why? I would have thought you of the Tokko would appreciate this more than any other.”
“There’s nothing about this I appreciate,” she said, and reminded herself that the man she was thinking of died years ago during the interrogation she led. “You’re sadistic.”
“
I’m
sadistic? Hypocrisy is unbecoming in an agent of the Tokko.”
“We have nothing in common,” she angrily asserted, even though she knew they did. “You’re a disgusting–”
“Be careful of your words here. Military courtesy has its limits.”
“That’s why you’re not dead,” Akiko stated.
“We are all servants of the Emperor.”
“I doubt you are.”
“You know how many I killed in his name? You can be content wiping his ass. I won’t anymore.”
The man’s insatiable screams were causing him to spurt blood out his throat.
“Shut him up or I will,” Akiko warned, thinking back to her first subject. Two hours after she’d stopped torturing him, he was still screaming. She wanted to kill him, if only to silence him. Her superiors wouldn’t let her. Not until she got enough information. They kept on sending her back in.
“Even the Americans didn’t dare order me,” Koushou said. “You are excused.”
“I’m excused?” The tone of his voice reminded her of her superiors.
“You heard me.”
Akiko raised her viral gun and fired a shot at the man’s forehead, infecting him with the disease. His silence overwhelmed her with a feeling of relief.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?” Koushou raged. “Do you know how much he cost to retrofit?”
“There’s one body,” Akiko said. “I’ll give you seven more. Deal?”
“You’ve just signed your death warrant.”
“You’re a traitor who has misappropriated official equipment for your own selfish purpose. I’m placing you under arrest.”
“You know what they’ll do to you for arresting me? I have friends in Tokyo Command.”
Akiko pointed the gun at the woman in the three-sixty twist and fired.
“STOP IT!” Koushou roared, racing towards Akiko.
“Are you ready to talk for real?” Ben jumped in, seeing things were spinning out of control.
“Talk some sense into her,” Koushou demanded. “Tell her to stop!”
“Where can we find the George Washingtons?”
“They’re on their way here.”
“Why?”
“I told them you were here in case you weren’t cooperative. Looks like I was right.”
“How soon will they be here?”
“Soon.”
“I can arrange the bodies if–”
But, before Ben could finish, Akiko walked towards Koushou and grabbed the controller. Koushou glowered and spat in her face. His breath smelled like garlic.
“Agent Tsukino,” Ben called.
The agent in her didn’t hear him. She stabbed the pointed edge into Koushou’s neck, blood splattering as it ruptured his esophagus. Koushou gasped, tried to speak, but his throat was being devoured by blood. He stumbled back and fell into the water, vermilion staining the pacific blue and billowing into corruption.
“Why did you do that?” Ben yelled, as he splashed his way towards them to examine Koushou’s livid corpse.
Akiko wiped the spit off her face. “He mocked the Emperor,” she said, not caring that it was a limp excuse.
“He is a war hero with connections to the cadre.”
“Was,” Akiko said. “He’s a traitor that deserved execution.”
“But–”
“Look around you! He’s insane.”
“How is this diff…” Ben was about to protest, but stopped himself.
“Finish what you were going to say.”
“Forget it.”
Akiko shoved Ben. “Everything I do is for the Emperor.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” she asked, though the question wasn’t solely pointed at Ben.
“I do.”
“I should bring you up on charges of negligence and cowardice.”
“For what?” Ben asked.
“You should have killed him the moment he questioned the divinity of our Emperor. And before that, you should have reported his behavior,” she stated, though she was really furious with herself for losing control again.
“Where do you think he developed this taste? He was a professional torturer in San Diego. This whole area is sanctioned by the USJ.”
“You called him a king. A
king!
There’s only one Emperor in the Empire. This
baka
is a civilian. I should have you charged for your treasonous suggestion. But I held my breath in the hopes that you knew what you were doing. It’s a wonder you’ve survived as long as you have.”
“I’m sorry. My figure of speech was–”
“Shut up, Ishimura. My jurisdiction transcends the USJ. My duty is to the Emperor. Do you have any issue with that?”
“No,
sir
. I’m very sorry.”
Akiko looked back at the living statues.
Ben, too, gazed at the monstrosities disguised as art. “I know it may be hard to believe, but he used to be a really gentle guy. He went crazy because they forced him to torture people, including his best friend, an officer they thought was spying for the GWs. Turned out they were wrong. The guy was innocent. But his brain and his testicles were carved out by then. Koushou was never the same.”
Akiko stared at Koushou’s body, ignoring her reflection in the shallow pool.
“I’m having this place shut down as soon we get out,” Akiko said.
“You can try.”
“What do you mean,
try?
”
“I’m not being disrespectful to you, but places like this are here to stay.”
“For you, it might be hard. Not for me. The commanders will listen,” Akiko affirmed.
“I hope so. What should we do about the Americans?”
“We need to contact General Wakana so we can get backup.”
Ben checked his portical. “No link.”
“How do we get out of here?”
“We hope that security doesn’t catch on, and go back the way we came.”
Akiko’s eyes went to a door beyond the altar. “What’s over there?”
“I don’t know.”
Akiko rushed into a narrow passage with doors on either side. They were locked and Akiko was about to use her gun to blast them open, but Ben stopped her. He used the digital key on his portical to unscramble the number lock. Inside the first door were two emaciated men who had been guillotined. They were surprisingly clean and well-groomed, though gaunt, their bones protruding from their taut flesh. When they entered the second room, it felt like a freezer. There were six people in a huddle, shaking in fear.
“You’re free to go!” Akiko ordered. When they didn’t comply, she fired her gun into the ceiling. “Get out of here!”
“Where do we go?” one asked.
“We signed a contract with Koushou.”
“He takes care of us.”
“Koushou’s dead,” Akiko answered. “Get out of here before I kill you too.”
That got them running. Ben had a pained expression on his face as he watched the bone-like structure of the prisoners stumbling to their egress.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him.
“These people.”
“We have eight more doors.”
Five of the rooms were packed with torture gear, from thumbscrews to iron maidens, pillories, cattle prods, racks,
jia gun, tean zu
, and breaking wheels to disrupt the lymphatic and circulatory systems. The equipment would have made even the most zealous heretic penitent, defying malleability by dying in a row of cedars and spruces. The final three rooms were mazes and Akiko presumed they were a way for Koushou to play with his victims.
“Not to rush you, but we should get going,” Ben said.
They scurried back into the lobby. Ben’s tense glances betrayed his anxiety. Akiko’s step was indignantly stiff, her hand on her weapon. “You still have your gun, right?” she confirmed with Ben.
“I’m not a very good shot,” Ben answered.
“If we come across any trouble, just point and fire.”
Ben fingers went to his holster. “If we get high enough for me to get a portical connection, I can actually help us.”
Two dogs were fornicating while a group of drunk patrons laughed. A woman carried the doll of a pink teddy bear that was almost the same size as her. Akiko and Ben climbed up the stairs to where they’d first met the eunuch.
“Why did Koushou release his contractors?” the eunuch asked.
Akiko raised her gun, about to fire, but Ben held her hand and gently pushed it down.
“He got bored with them and dismissed us,” Ben said to the eunuch. “Didn’t want to be disturbed.”
They exited into the fish store.
“What are you doing?” Ben demanded.
“Don’t ever touch me again,” Akiko warned.
“You going to kill everyone in your way?”
“You’re still alive. Does your portical work?”
Ben was about to call Wakana when someone seized him from behind. He elbowed the man, but the wall of muscle confronting him was barely affected by the blow. He was bulky, a steroidal bulge connected by valley-like veins.
“Let him go or I’ll shoot,” Akiko warned.
The man ignored her and was about to break Ben’s neck. She fired a bullet into his shoulder. The impact pushed him back and she charged forward to kick him in his gut. He huffed and winced backwards. She grabbed his arm and twisted it around his spine, stopping right before breaking it. He tried to break free and she broke his arm. He cried out in pain. She pushed him to the floor, pointing the gun at him. “Who are you working for?”
The man refused to answer.
She aimed her gun at his leg, fired right below his foot. “I won’t ask again. Who are you working for?”
He stayed mute. She fired a bullet into his calf and his skin ruptured. He roared in pain, tried to stand up, but she had her foot on his chest.
“I’m not going to kill you. But I’m a believer in the idea that if your leg causes you to sin, tear it off. I will make you a cripple for the rest of your life,” she said. “No legs, no arms. I’ll put a hole in your gut so that you can’t use the bathroom without pain. I’ll rip out both your eyes. I’ll put a bullet in your cheek so women will know you’re a–” A pool of piss formed around his waist that made her jump back. “That’s disgu–”
She felt something cold and round on the back of her head – a gun barrel. “Drop it,” a voice warned.
Akiko spun around, grabbing the gun and bashing it into the head of her opponent. The woman dropped to the ground. Three more rebels arrived and Akiko charged into them, kicking one in the groin, another in the head, and the final one in the side of his torso. They all fell. A dozen more arrived, wielding automatic guns and melee staffs.
Akiko was looking for an escape route when four of them slammed their electrically charged poles into her. She fell to the ground, the blows knocking her unconscious.
12:15PM
Akiko was in a meeting with her superior officers when she farted and tore a hole in her chair. The fart was so powerful, her commanding officers fell back. She wanted to deny it was her. But the gaseous quandary of trees wounded by the compunction of her flatulence left her embarrassed and her stomach wouldn’t stop growling. She didn’t know what to do, wondered what fate awaited her in her rise up the chain of command, when she woke and found herself in a cage. It was a tight space, more appropriate for an ape than a human. The lighting was dim and there were dozens of cages around her. They’d stripped her of her insignia and weapons.
“You’re finally up.”
“Ishimura? Where are we?” Akiko asked.
“The George Washingtons have taken us captive,” Ben replied. He was in the adjacent cage.
“How?”
“They were waiting for us. Their leader, Martha Washington, is furious with you.”
“Me?”
“I don’t doubt your integrity or your loyalty to the Emperor,” Ben said. “Just don’t provoke her or give her an excuse to make things worse. If you give them what they want, they’ll take it easier on you.”
“Are you suggesting I surrender to them?”
“Just suggesting you be thoughtful in your responses.”
“I serve the true god, the Emperor.”
“And they serve a callous Western deity that died long ago. I know the drill. The only thing is, they still worship that God.”
“Their God failed them, which is why we’ve won. I will act in accordance with the dignity and responsibility that position bestows on me,” Akiko swore.
“I sometimes wonder about all of that. Gods, their commands, all the things people do in their names. Is any of it what they really want? Like San Diego. Would the Emperor really have wanted what we did to take place if he knew all the details?”
“If you continue with this talk, I will personally execute you once we get out of here.”
“
If
we get out of here. I’ve resigned myself to a slow, painful death. Unless you have some secret Tokko method of escape?”
“If I did, I would not take along a traitor like you,” she stated empathically.
“In the end, we’re both going to give them what they want. Believe me, I saw it in San Diego. The more you resist them, the more pleasure they’ll take in breaking you. Why fight it?”
“There’s honor in resistance.”
“Was there any honor in that woman you executed – that was yesterday, wasn’t it?” Ben asked.
“There is never honor for traitors.”
“You think you could have resisted?”
“Of course. I would rather die than betray the Empire.”
“You aren’t much good to the Empire dead.”
“You aren’t much good to the Empire alive,” Akiko said.
“I’m the most loyal servant the Empire has.”
“Not anymore.”
“I don’t need my loyalty questioned by you.”
“You think just because you turned in your parents, you’re beyond question? Do you know how many children turned their parents in last year alone?”
“I’m glad you value my sacrifice.”
Akiko was riled up. “I would remind you your superiors think you’re a liability, too cavalier with your tasks. You have no idea how many complaints you have against you about tardiness, absences, and inappropriate behavior.”
“I’ve never denied my work ethic or that I like to party.”
“Incompetence should be a capital crime,” Akiko said.
“Then me and three quarters of the Empire would be executed,” Ben muttered. “That’d probably make you happy, huh? But not really as you’d have no one left to persecute.”
“Bad fortune has made you bold.”
“This is more than a little bad fortune. Your careless behavior is going to get us killed tonight.”
“My careless behavior?”
“Koushou,” Ben said.
“I saved you up there.”
“And I’m grateful. But I think I would have preferred a quick snap of my neck to whatever torture they have in store for us.”
“You’re a coward,” Akiko angrily spat out.
“Whether I’m a coward or the bravest man alive, they’ll still break me.”
Akiko was frustrated at being caught and even more frustrated by Ben’s attitude to the situation. She was a member of Tokko, trained to resist any kind of torment.
“What do they want from me?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What do they want from you?”
“They didn’t seem that concerned about me.”
“Is General Mutsuraga with them?”
“Not that I saw. But they haven’t told me much. I have a feeling they were behind the bombing last night.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Martha Washington asked how I survived last night.”
“Were you able to get any messages out on your portical?”
“No,” Ben replied.
“Any ideas where we are?”
“None.”
The lights turned on and they heard footsteps coming their way. A Caucasian woman covered in tattoos of the American flag stomped forward. She was at least six foot seven, shaved bald, steely lines carved into her flesh, wearing green fatigues, and a black jacket made of wool. She was followed by a coterie of men and women of different ethnicities.
“You’re the one who killed Jenna,” she barked to Akiko.
“Who are you?”
“Martha Washington.”
Akiko had read the reports about the staggering prowess of Martha Washington. She had been shot with ten bullets in her chest during the SD uprisings, but she’d shrugged off the pain as though they’d just been pellets and killed her assailants. She was the third column of the Congress of the GWs who weren’t so much people as they were pillars of violence and pain. Bitterness jolted their dendrites full of daily rage so they could lead their people to survival.
“What happened to her?” Martha demanded.
Akiko answered, “She’s dead.”
Anger contorted Martha’s face. “I know that. How?”
“She died during interrogation.”
Martha held up Akiko’s gun. “Killed by this?”
Akiko nodded.
“She had nothing to do with any of this,” Martha said.
“She helped your group kill loyal servants of the Emperor in Palos Verdes,” Akiko stated.
“What happens to someone shot by this?” Martha asked.
“They die a painful death.”
Martha raised up the gun and fired at Akiko. A bright arrow of green thrust into Akiko. She looked up indifferently and said, “If you all surrender now, I promise you a merciful death.”
“Why isn’t it working on you?” Martha asked.
“I’m vaccinated.”
Martha smiled. “I thought so. We have our own form of punishment for people like you. But I believe in a merciful God. If you beg for forgiveness and give me your Tokko access codes, I will grant you a quick death.”
Akiko snorted. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“Good.”
Three men opened the cage and pulled her out. She didn’t resist, maintained her composure, and marched proudly out.
“Bring the other one too,” Martha ordered.
“But he’s going after Mutsuraga–” one of the men was protesting.
“I know. Bring him anyway.”
12:55PM
They were in a warehouse with aisles full of crates. Akiko didn’t spot any familiar logos and there was nothing on the walls to indicate where they were. She saw people scowling at her. Like the guards, they were a mix of different races. Akiko tried to memorize each face so that she could have them arrested when she got out. None of them spoke or made any noise.
They came to a pit covered by a transparent plastic floor. There was a latch opening a part of it. Underneath the glass, millions of ants swarmed over each other, organic dots swirling in an insect hurricane. Akiko spotted multiple skulls inside, every strip of flesh carefully and meticulously harvested for consumption. The noise they made was an orchestra of chitin thoraxes pounding, grinding, and screeching against each other. It was eerily alien, distorted wavelengths of construction, mandibles and abdomens crunching organs. Spiracles devoured gases and the dorsal aortas pumped haemolymphs through their bodies. Their language was simple. Consume, consume, consume. They did not differentiate between race, sex, religion, culture, or beliefs.
“Tell them what they want to hear,” Ben said to her. “Their American God forces them to forgive anyone who is repentant.”
“We only forgive those who are truly penitent,” Martha said. “Not those who only pay lip service.”
“I’m not repentant,” Akiko said.
Martha nodded. “I’m glad you’re honest.” She pointed to the insects. “These ants are from what’s left of South America, specially bred and genetically manipulated by rebels who were fighting off the Empire. They called them ‘ant cannibals’ because they love the taste of humans.”
One of the guards grabbed Akiko from behind, restraining her hand. Another thrust a syringe into her arm. She tried to resist, but the other guards held her in place.
“How long do you think it takes them to eat a human?” Martha asked.
“I don’t know,” Akiko answered. Her muscles were tightening and she felt her foot losing mobility. She tried to move her arm, but it was stuck in place.
“It’s different for everyone. They don’t like the taste of some people and they love others. Everyone has their own flavor. Isn’t it bizarre to think these ants have no idea you’re a human being? They have no concept of life outside of their tiny ant existence. Ants are cruel. They take slaves and they war on each other. Normally, I would ask you questions. But I don’t think there’s any point.” She signaled the guards. “What is it that you like to say to your victims? ‘If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off’?”
“Wait!” Ben shouted. “Spare her and I’ll give you anything you want.”
“Stay out of this, Ishimura!” Akiko yelled.
“They’re going to feed you to ants!”
“I’m not afraid of ants.”
“I’m amazed by the medical capabilities in the
Dai Nippon Teikoku
,” Martha Washington said. “They can cure anything. But when I think of the price… How many patients were butchered and given every type of disease imaginable? But it’s only because of everything the doctors learned from those deaths that the Empire can heal anything. Does that justify it? Millions were saved, are still being saved, but tens of thousands faced the most horrific deaths. I wouldn’t be able to live with that kind of decision.”
“That’s because you’re weak,” Akiko stated.
“If you call having a conscience weak, I’m guilty. Drop her hand in!” Martha shouted.
Akiko had lost control of the muscles in her body, though her face could still move. The two guards opened the hatch in the glass floor, bent her knee, and dropped her arm into the pit of ants. Even though she couldn’t move her hand, she could feel the ants swarming it. Their mandibles probed and bit. Little spurts of pain amplified, and the sporadic bites became a concentrated paroxysm of agony. The pain became unbearable as her fingers were eaten. They tore through the skin, pierced the muscles, the tendons, and the ligaments.
“How does it feel?” Martha asked.
Akiko wanted to slam her fists on the ground, writhe and free her hand. But it was locked in place and she could feel them slithering up to her wrist. She didn’t want to look down and see what was happening, but her eyes tugged in their direction. She was horrified to see a black mass where her fingers had been and she spotted nails being carried off, two of which were colored red. She felt faint. Next to Martha was her niece Jenna, mutated and full of viruses bulging from her face.
“How many have you killed?” Jenna demanded.
She didn’t remember anymore. Was it fourteen, or was it fifteen including Koushou?
“Not enough,” Akiko replied.
“Why did you kill them?”
“In service of the Empire.”
“Did they all need to die?”
Akiko hesitated to answer.
“Why did you kill them?” Jenna asked furiously.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know or you don’t want to say?”
“They were traitors!”
“How do you know?”
“I had evidence on each of them.”
“Me too?”
Akiko sighed. “I didn’t want to kill you. I thought it was enough to question you, but Command insisted.”
“So you followed blindly?”
“It’s sacrilege to say anything negative about our god!”
“What if it’s the truth?”
“What truth?”
“That your god can’t have children, or that your god will die.”
“Gods can’t die.”
“You’ve nearly killed the idea of our God. But you don’t really care about any of that. The only thing you fear is your own–”
“What are you blabbering about?” Martha asked Akiko.
Akiko’s hand had been removed from the ant pit. She did not look at it.
“Are you repentant?”
Akiko glowered. “I will die for the Emperor.”
“You would like that, wouldn’t you? But I won’t give you that honor. You will be judged by the same measure you judge others,” Martha said. “Put her left hand in.”
The memory of her mother came back to Akiko. Her mother used to wait for her late at night as she studied for her exams, cooking her bread rolls and tea to help her stay up. Her mother thought she was working so hard to get into the Yamamoto Music School in Oahu, but secretly, she’d been working to get into the Berkeley Military Academy, despising the hours she was forced to play the violin. Right before she slept, her mother used to bring in olive oil and massage her fingers. Akiko thought it was a waste of time. But Mother always insisted.
“Not my other hand,” Akiko said to Martha.
“What?”
“Don’t put my other hand in.”
“Why not?”
“Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with? You’re all nothing but cowardly traitors and when the army comes for you, they’ll do far worse than anything you can do to me. You’ll grovel and beg for your pathetic lives and they’ll rip you–”
But as she went on, none of them seemed angry or even bothered by her words. Instead, a vicious glee shone on their faces. Akiko recognized it. They knew they were breaking her down, making her nasty and – worse – desperate.
She couldn’t resist the guard putting her hand down into the ant pit. She felt the ants throng her hand. They ate ravenously, thousands piling on top. The smell of her skin was making them greedy. The pain flared and she felt sweat break out over her body. She kept on thinking about her mother washing her hands every evening. She felt ashamed to admit she couldn’t remember a single song on the violin. The pinches were getting more aggressive as the ants cleaved at her fingers.
“Stop,” Akiko said. “Please stop!”
“Are you repentant?”
Akiko hesitated.
“Are you repentant?” Martha repeated.
Akiko shook her head. She was Tokko, special police for the Empire. She couldn’t give into–
“Drop her arm deeper,” Martha ordered.
“No. Please no.”
“You’ve never asked yourself what the tortured actually feel, have you? You’ve been trained, been drowned maybe. But that doesn’t count because you know it isn’t permanent. I’m going to make sure you never torture anyone with your own hands ever again.”
“Please, my mother–”
“Don’t talk about your mother here! What about Jenna’s mother and father? They can’t even see her body!”
There wasn’t a sympathetic face in the whole crowd.
“She’s losing a lot of blood,” someone said.
“Patch her up.”
They took out her right hand. It was a skeleton stripped of meat from the elbow down. Akiko’s breath tightened. Her chest felt compressed. She started hyperventilating. A man had a short axe ready and placed her arm against the ground.
“W-w-what are you d-d-doing?” Akiko demanded in stutters. “W-w-what are y-y-y-you doing? S-s-stop! S-stop!”
They did not stop.
10:55PM
When she woke, she found herself in a bed. She looked at her arms and saw only two bandaged stumps. She would have started screaming if she didn’t feel numb with shock. It was too difficult to wrap her mind around what she’d suffered.
“Evening.”
It was Ben, leaning on the wall across from her, his face bruised up.
Her eyes hardened. “How are we alive?” she asked. “Why didn’t they kill me?”
“They thought letting you live with the humiliation of this would be a worse punishment than death.”
She closed her eyes and did her best to murder her tears before they could betray her.
“They made a mistake,” she said, shaking. “I’m going to kill every one of them personally and have their limbs torn off and fed to animals.”
“That’s one way of taking revenge.”
“What would you do?” she demanded, tired of his glib tone.
“I don’t know. I can’t even think about it.”
“I can get prosthetics and a gun arm with surgery, go after them before it’s too late.”
“That’ll take time and they’ll be gone by then.”
She shook her head. “Not if I just get a gun arm. It only takes a day or two and they do it all the time in Vietnam.” She checked her surroundings. “Where are we?”
“In the Anaheim County Hospital. The doctor wanted to contact your family to let them know, but they couldn’t find any–”
“No,” Akiko cut in. The memory of the night she had to tell her parents what happened to her brother came back to her. How could she explain that he’d been driven by misguided fervor to do the unthinkable? “My parents can’t know.”
“But–”
“I said, no,” Akiko snapped.
“Do you have a friend or a loved one we can contact instead?”
Akiko thought of Hideyoshi, the fact that she could never touch him again with her own hands. “I’ll contact him later… What happened to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your hands are still in place,” Akiko said, as both accusation and verdict.
“They gave me a good beating, so I told them everything they wanted to know.”
“You idiot!”
Ben didn’t deny it. “I have to stay alive. I still have a long road ahead of me and I have a promise to keep.”
“What promise?”
“I’ll have to tell you some other time.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“After Mutsuraga.”
“You saw him?” Akiko asked.
“No. But I told them the truth about him.”
“What truth?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Ben said.
“Does anything matter to you?”
“Of course,” Ben replied. “A lot of people died for nothing in San Diego. General Wakana was one of the few who tried to stop it.”
“General Wakana? How was he involved?”
“It was almost ten years ago. He arrived after one of the Washingtons killed a colonel. Tried to salvage things. But he had no chance. Like you said, maybe it’s a skewed circle and I’m just playing my part. In a few days, it won’t matter.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll see. Goodbye, Agent Tsukino.”
“Don’t do anything dumb.”
“I always do.”
He left.
Akiko was flustered and wanted to interrogate Ishimura. But she wasn’t in any condition to try.
On the hospital radio, which was playing in every room, she heard an orchestra. The violinist impeccably raced down the strings, staccatos clashing. She reflected on her own life and its melodies sounded hollow and empty to her. She wanted to shut the station off, became angered thinking of the people she’d tortured. She suppressed the tears trying to broach her eyes. Crying was for the weak and she would not give in.
You chose this life
.
Your only regret should be that you didn’t die for the Emperor. You’re the modern samurai. There’s nothing you should be ashamed of
.
I’m going to kill those GWs or die in the attempt.
Still, she wished she didn’t have the kind of job where she felt the need to lie to her mother. That way, maybe she could have stopped the trembling in the arms that were no longer there.
TEN YEARS PREVIOUSLY
SAN DIEGO
July 2, 1978
8:05am
