The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 24

Nadia sat down beside Johnny at a corner table in the hotel restaurant. A busboy brought them a tray containing two damp hand towels. Nadia unrolled hers and used it to wipe her hands. Johnny applied his towel to his face, as she’d seen other men do at Japanese restaurants. He breathed into the towel for a moment before wiping his hands clean.

Nadia turned her cell phone to vibrate and placed it on the table beside her. “Whoever answered Bobby’s phone had a bit of an accent, but all he said was hello. It wasn’t enough for me to place it.”

“But he wasn’t an American,” Johnny said.

“I don’t think so. I asked who he was but he hung up. I tried calling two more times but there was no answer.”

“What do you make of that?”

“Either the Russians have him and they don’t want to talk, or someone else has his phone.”

“It might have fallen out of his pocket.”

“I hope so.”

“Let me give it a shot,” Johnny said. He reached out for her to hand him the phone.

“How is that going to be any different?”

“It’s not. But it’s like opening a jar or something. When your friend or loved one can’t do it, you always think you’ll have a better shot.”

“The problem is, Charles Atlas, we’re not trying to open a jar.”

A waiter interrupted them. They ordered bottled water, green tea, and a massive assortment of sushi. Shrimp tempura and grilled chicken skewers to start.

Johnny placed the call after the waiter left.

Someone answered. Nadia could barely hear his voice but it sounded like a man. Was it the same man who’d answered when she’d first called?

“Hello,” Johnny said. He stared at Nadia as he spoke. “The phone in your hands belongs to a friend of mine, Bobby Kungenook. Would you please tell me who you are and how you got his phone?”

Johnny listened. A frown spread on his face. He pulled the phone from his ear. The sound of laughter emanated from the earpiece. He pressed the phone back to his ear.

“Don’t hang up,” Johnny said. He repeated his hello a couple more times, then shook his head and ended the call.

“Who was it?” Nadia said. “What did he say?”

“It was a kid.”

“A kid? What do you mean it was a kid?”

“Some Japanese kid. Great English, but you could hear his accent when it came to pronounce an L. It sounded just a bit like an R. The Japanese can’t pronounce the L.”

“What did he say?”

“He said ‘Godzilla’s fathers are under arrest.’”

Nadia tried to make sense of the words. “What is that supposed to mean? Is that a reference to Bobby?”

Johnny started to chuckle but stopped himself. “No. It’s a reference to the movie. The original Godzilla is very famous in Japan. It was made here in 1954. Legend has it the producer and director were arrested when they were overheard plotting the story on top of a Tokyo skyscraper. People thought they were terrorists planning to destroy the city. Later, people said it was a miracle the film got made given Godzilla’s parents were arrested.”

“So what does this mean? Is it code for something?”

Johnny gave her a sympathetic smile. “The phone fell out of Bobby’s pant pocket and some kid found it. That’s all it means. The kid probably knows some basic English. He’s with his friends — that would account for the laughter in the background.”

Nadia imagined a kid finding a phone on the road. “If the phone fell out of his pocket and a kid found it, the truck couldn’t have been in the Zone, and it couldn’t have been on a highway. They had to have pulled off the road. To a rest stop or something like that.”

Nadia’s phone rang. She glanced at the screen. Looked up at Johnny. “It’s Bobby’s phone.”

Johnny shrugged.

Nadia answered it. “Hello?”

Complete silence.

“Hello?” Nadia said. She could hear frustration creeping into her voice. “Would you please tell me where you found this phone?”

A few seconds of silence followed, and then she heard the same kid’s voice. “The oxygen destroyer must not be used!”

“That’s a line from the movie,” Johnny said. “Hang up.”

Laughter poured from the speaker. It sounded as though a room full of kids had exploded.

“Please,” Nadia said. “I’m begging you. Tell me where you found this phone. A boy’s life is at stake.” She waited for an answer.

“Later, Miss Lady,” the kid said, and hung up.

“He’s just a kid,” Johnny said. “He probably wasn’t listening to you, and even if he was, just because he knew the line in a movie doesn’t mean he understood your question.”

“You’re right.”

Johnny reached out and put his palm on her hand. “You need to relax. We need to eat. Then we can try again. Maybe we’ll catch him in a different set of circumstances. Maybe his girlfriend will pick up or something.”

He pulled his hand away, and much to Nadia’s surprise, she found herself wishing it was still there.

The waiter brought them their beverages.

Nadia sipped her green tea. “I watched the local news in my room.”

“I did, too. If you can’t understand a word, how could you be sure it was local?”

“All the people in the stories were Japanese.”

“Good thinking. Very you. I watched the local news, too. Couldn’t understand much more than a word here or there.”

“I didn’t see any stories about malfeasance in Fukushima.”

Johnny raised an eyebrow. “Malfeasance?”

Nadia shrugged. “And I did a thorough search on the web. Nothing there either.”

Johnny nodded, then turned solemn. “Nakamura,” he said.

Nadia bowed her head and stared into her tea. “Tragic.”

“This formula is taking lives.”

“It was doing that even before we were sure there was a formula.”

“You mean we’re sure now?”

“Hardly,” Nadia said.

During her first trip to Ukraine, she’d risked her life in pursuit of a treasure that would have allowed her to pay off a mobster who believed she owed him. Her second trip to Ukraine had also put her in mortal danger, but that was to save Bobby from a lifetime jail sentence. Now, the prospect that Bobby, Johnny, and she were all risking their lives for nothing turned her stomach. Her greatest fear wasn’t the danger. Her adrenaline served as anesthetic to the risk. Her greatest fear was that it was all for naught, for reasons that were beyond her understanding at the moment.

“If we don’t hear from Bobby tonight,” Johnny said, “we have to consider our options.”

“You mean we have options?”

Johnny picked from a bowl of salty-looking snacks. “Only bad ones. We could go to the embassy and tell them the truth, or some version of it. They would get the local authorities involved. They could check with passport control. The driver must have a Russian name. Probably came in through Narita. How many Russians can possibly have entered the country recently?”

“That will take forever and get us nowhere. By the time we’re interrogated and the system starts rolling, Bobby will either be dead or long gone.”

“Alternatively, we can search by ourselves. We could hire a detective. I know it’s no fun to hear and I’m not trying to get you upset, but he could check hospitals. And presumably he’d have contacts with the police. He could see if there have been any reports about an American boy fitting Bobby’s description.”

“Usually there’s at least one good ‘bad option.’”

“Yeah,” Johnny said. “In this case they both suck.”

“That they do.” Nadia caught Johnny’s eye. “I want to thank you for what you did back there in the Zone.”

Johnny waved his hand as though what he’d done was nothing.

Nadia caught his hand mid-air. His eyes widened.

“Don’t underplay it,” she said. “You put your life on the line for Bobby. For me. Words can’t even begin to cover the debt I owe you.”

“No worries. That’s why I came along. Fortunately, I had some help from our mystery angel, or things might not have worked out so well.”

“He does remain a mystery. Whatever happens tonight and tomorrow, though, I want us to have an understanding.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re on that flight back to Newark on Saturday.”

Johnny frowned. Let their hands fall to the table. “And leave you here alone? With Bobby missing? There is simply no way—”

“Yes way. Your boss gave you a week on the spur of the moment. Your colleague took over your cases. You told me yourself it was a stretch to get that week. You promised when you booked the trip that you wouldn’t let it cost you your job.”

“Yeah, but I never imagined things would go down like this. I can’t leave. It doesn’t matter… It doesn’t matter what happens…”

Nadia squeezed his hand. “I cannot let you lose your job—”

Her phone rang again. She spoke immediately for fear the kid on the other end of the line would end the call. “Don’t hang up. I need to know where you found this phone. Please. It’s very important. Do you speak English? Can you understand me?”

A light static buzzed in the background. There had been no such noise during her previous calls. Something was off. Something was different. Nadia pulled the phone from her ear and glanced at the number from which the call was originating.

It wasn’t Bobby’s phone.

Then a voice sounded. As soon as she recognized it a wave of joy swept through her.

“My English isn’t as good as my hockey,” Bobby said. “But yeah, Auntie. I can understand you.”