Released – Chapter 21

Having access to real-time video is a life-changing experience already. Being able to sit in 3B, call up any camera in the city, and witness what’s going on there right now is powerful. I’m like a god surveying my people. Much better than looking at feeds from days or weeks ago.

I’ve been here a lot lately, with Jiro as well but mostly with Usagi. I’ve spent many afternoons sifting through video feeds, watching Minamoto, Maeda, anyone still affiliated with Taira, and then, most recently, all the minor clans that we’ve visited and secured their allegiance. But never before have I come here to spy on my own family or friends. A long time ago, I followed Sakai once via the video surveillance, felt guilty about it, and didn’t do it again.

Now that my tablet is logged into the system under Sakai’s access, I can call up the feeds for the area around where Helena has been working the past few weeks and see what happened only a few hours ago. I find three cameras across and down the street from the onsen and point the time code at one-fifty-five this afternoon. Helena is always prompt, never late for anything. If her schedule is nine to five then she shows up at eight-fifty-five and leaves at five-oh-five. Much like me, she wants to be on time for things. Today she was working eight to two so we could spend the afternoon together.

Jiro and I sit and observe her every movement, our eyes trained on the screen. Like clockwork, Helena emerges from the building at six minutes past two. She stops on the sidewalk and quickly chats with another woman who is leaving at the same time. They’re laughing, and Helena’s hands gesture wildly like they always do. She doubles over in laughter about something, and they walk away from each other with a wave.

Helena crosses the street and walks half a block to a café on the next corner.

My heart sinks, deep down to my stomach, as Helena walks up to the coffee bar, smiles and chats with the woman taking her order. While Helena takes her tablet out to pay, she doesn’t notice the woman turn to the man who is making coffee and nod.

It’s a knowing nod. Everything about her body language is wrong. She is intent on Helena, alert, not casual. The man pouring her coffee turns and waves his hand over the open cup before securing a lid on top. I’m sure he just dropped something in Helena’s drink.

“That’s it,” Jiro says. “This man here making the coffee had this poison ready for Helena before she even walked in the door.“

I pause the video on Helena’s smiling face as she turns to walk out of the café with the cup of coffee in her hand. I want to puke.

“Who are these people? Have you seen them before?”

“I’m not sure.” Jiro’s expression is dark, narrowing his eyes and concentrating on every detail in the frame. “No, I’ve never seen them before. Let’s try to get a good shot of their faces and run them through the facial recognition software.”

He scrubs the video back and forth, zooming in and out. This man and woman must be professionals because they were aware of the cameras and never turned their face directly to them.

“Here, you try. This is frustrating.” He sighs and hands the tablet to me, and I take it with a smile. I’m still better at working with the computers in 3B than Jiro.

After a few minutes, I manage to capture a couple of acceptable shots of both the man and woman, but the software comes up with nothing.

“Zero matches.” Jiro sets the tablet down on the table and turns to me. “But it’s safe to say that we have new adversaries.” He reaches over and grabs my icy cold hand, trying to warm my fingers between both of his.

“What if they can’t fix Helena? What happens if I lose my best friend in the midst of all of this?”

My fault, my fault. Risa said my friends didn’t deserve to be treated the way they are because of me. What about Miko? What about my aunts?

“I know what you’re thinking. It’s not your fault this happened.”

I disengage from his hand, get up, and start pacing. “Seriously, how do you do that? Am I really that predictable?”

“Only to me,” he says, standing up to face me. “Though you surprise me often. I love surprises.”

“I like happy surprises. Today was full of bad ones. You should have heard the grilling I got from Lucy before finding Helena. Poor Helena.”

How sick is she?

“I know you’re worried about Helena. We all are. But Mark and Lucy are taking good care of her. They’ll find the best doctors for her. Try to put this out of your mind so you can sleep tonight.” He grabs our bags and swords and hoists them onto his shoulder.

“I can’t. I can’t deal with this kind of stress. Risa is after us somehow. I’m not sure how she managed to hire assassins, but she did.”

“She’s working with someone,” he says, taking me by the elbow. “That girl is too stupid to do anything on her own.”

“She is kind of clueless, come to think of it.” My feet stop. “Ugh, Jiro. I don’t know what to do.”

“I do. We’ll go home and try to get some rest. Tomorrow, we’ll try to figure this out.”

“You’ll be home tomorrow?” My voice has a hopeful lilt to it. His lips fall into a frown.

Most mornings, I wake up, and Jiro is already showered, dressed, and gone. Some nights if he’s home before bed, we brush our teeth side by side in the bathroom and chat about our days. I’ve missed him lately. With our jam-packed schedules, I only see him for short spurts each day.

He leads me to the door. “I’ll be home. Come.”

My life is in danger again. The lives of everyone I love are in danger again. I feel like we just got off this train and now we’re back on again.