Brothers in Arms

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Mai hurried away as the kitchen began to burn. Flames were already leaping over the surfaces and would soon start capering up the walls to the ceiling. It was the signal Drake needed, in more ways than one.

The unspoken possibility had lurked like a disgruntled poltergeist between them all day. The chance that the teams might become separated, forced to go on alone. Mai and Smyth would have to continue as if the worst had happened, whilst hoping for the best. Same for Drake and Romero. There was no other way.

She followed Smyth to the rear of the building. The marine grunted. “Thought you might like to see something I found earlier.” He pointed to the floor.

Mai’s eyes followed his fingers. The rough frame of a trapdoor lay beneath a hastily upended bed. The door was closed.

“Thoughts?” Mai’s mind worked overtime, never stopping evaluating their situation.

“Don’t look like anyone made it down there.” Smyth kicked at the dust that coated the frame. “They’re waiting for us outside. We no longer have the element of surprise. I’d say—” Smyth stamped lightly on the frame, watching it judder. “Take our chances.”

“And hope it’s not a basement? A torture chamber? A storage room?”

“Sure. Ya got a better idea?”

Mai glanced up at the darkened windows. It wouldn’t be long before someone seized the guards’ attention and forced them back into shape. They might yet attack, despite the flames.

“Damn.” She bent with Smyth and together they hauled the door upward. Cold, fresh air washed past their noses.

“Good sign,” said Smyth, lowering his body down first. Mai took a moment to improvise two torches out of hardy bed sheets and shattered table legs, and hopped onto the ladder.

Hungry flames ate away the darkness to reveal a room no larger than the kitchen upstairs. Ripped apart boxes were strewn across the floor. Mai almost started straight back up the ladder before she saw Smyth gesticulating toward a corner.

“Breeze’s coming from that way.” The marine hurried over. Mai clung to the rungs, holding the flames away from her face. There was a sudden crash from upstairs.

“Fire’s spreading,” she said. She jumped down. Smyth turned, a look of cheeriness on his face.

“A tunnel.”

“Stop smiling, Smyth. It doesn’t suit you.”

Quickly, they traversed the short tunnel, Mai handing over the second torch and gripping hers as long as she was able. It turned out to be just long enough. A solid rock wall soon faced them, the only way up a well-made wooden ladder.

“From the direction I’d say it’s going to bring us out in the lab.” Mai sighed. “At one time this could have been a way to transport patients unseen, or get the guards in and out during a typhoon. Crafty Devils, these Koreans.”

Smyth studied the Japanese agent for a moment. “Still trust your friend, Hibiki?”

“Do you trust Romero?”

“It isn’t the same.”

“Are you sure? What exactly do you know about Hibiki and I?”

Smyth’s face twisted back to its customary scowl. Mai smiled at his back. “That’s what I thought you knew.”

The marine scrambled up the ladder. Mai listened but heard no sounds of pursuit. In another half second, she was directly below Smyth as he inched open the trapdoor. Mai recognized the shadowy room immediately. It was the same room she had hidden in earlier, listening to the conversations of the doctors.

“Slowly.” She hissed. “This room was clear earlier.”

Smyth eased up the door until he could clamber out. Then he was up with a quick cat-like movement, weapon ready. Mai writhed her body after him with a fluid grace any middle-eastern belly dancer would have been proud of.

They crouched in darkness, listening.

Then, from behind them a voice whispered. “Don’t shoot.”

Mai recognized the voice. Quickly she stayed Smyth’s hand. “Hibiki?”

“I saw you earlier, Mai. I have been here for some hours, hoping you might return.”

“Ya got fuckin’ lucky there, bro,” Smyth sputtered. “In more ways than one.”

“Or we Japanese are better than you allow,” Hibiki said without inflection. “But Mai. What are you doing here?”

“Long story that started with a message. From you.”

“Ah. I was not sure it got out.”

“It got out alright.” Smyth hissed, with one eye on the half-open door. “To half the world’s intelligence agencies.”

Mai hung her head. “I must apologize. He is not with me.” She looked up. “Not for long, at least. Hibiki—” she said insistently. “Dai. What is going on here?”

“I don’t have long,” Hibiki said. “They will soon miss me. But the truth is — I don’t know. Not exactly. It is a long-term op. Very long term. Worth keeping my cover for.” The Japanese agent hesitated. “Do you see?”

“I see,” Mai said instantly. Inwardly, she worried about the fervent light in her old friend’s eyes. “Dai, listen to me. Are you alright? This has already been a long op.”

“Nothing like yours.” Hibiki hit back. “When you took down the Fuchu triad. That was legendary, Kitano. Legendary.”

“I know,” Mai said. She didn’t need to brag. “But this…it worries me. More importantly the endgame worries me.”

“More reason for me to stay in.” Hibiki nodded. “Until we know.”

“What do you know?” Smyth asked, shifting position.

“The patients arrive by warship.” Hibiki flicked his eyes in the direction of the harbor. “They are collected en masse in North Korea, but originate from Europe. I believe they have an abduction chain that stretches from Germany to Russia and through China. I have heard all the places mentioned, and more.”

“Quite an operation.” Mai mused, then looked hard at Hibiki. “And quite a coup. For the agent who takes it down.”

“Naturally.” Hibiki inclined his head.

“Tell me more about the patients.”

“It’s not good for them. They are already broken — most of them. Men and women from the streets. But the transformation is breathtaking. I have seen a down-and-out slob of an east-European, a broken-down wreck, turned into a fine American in months. The accent smooth with a Yankee twang—” Hibiki now couldn’t resist goading Smyth a little, it seemed. “Fit. Strong. Confident. Assured. And terribly obnoxious. The process must include a form of advanced brainwashing, I’m sure.”

“But then what happens to them?” Mai asked.

“Six months later…they’re gone. I don’t know to where.”

“Is it always Americans?”

“No. But mostly.”

“Answer’s fuckin’ obvious.” Smyth swore. “They’re gone to America.”

“They would fit right in.” Hibiki raised an eyebrow in the dark.

Mai pursed her lips. “It seems a bit of overkill. Most people fit in America. It’s a country of many cultures.”

“It is,” Hibiki said. “There is an angle somewhere. And a new operation has started from this end. I mentioned the American senator in my message. Something is happening right now.”

“You need to learn more,” Mai said to him. “You need to stay in the craziness. You need… to take risks.”

“Agreed.”

“We’re going nowhere.” Mai indicated the island. “We’ll be around until you’re ready to leave.”

“They will be hunting you, Mai.”

The Japanese agent and the marine turned, smiled and spoke in unison.

“I hope so.”