Released – Chapter 34

Everyone pours out of buildings to the streets, reuniting with loved ones, looking for people they can’t find, and trading stories of what fell over inside. Kentaro and I run for Sakai building and meet everyone on the sidewalk.

“Are you okay?” Jiro grabs me and hugs me tight, his body tense with worry. The last earthquake was something we both barely lived through, and I’ll never think of the earth shaking again without picturing the crumbling theater and Tadao Matsuda’s headless body.

“I’m fine. Just my hip is bruised. Kentaro tell them.” I wave to him, but he shakes his head.

“We should wait to go inside.” He turns around and scans the crowd on the sidewalks. “I don’t trust the streets right now.”

The building is cleared for re-entry, and once everyone is in our apartment, Kentaro asks for my tablet, and I pluck it from my bag and hand it over.

“Kazuo and Sachi Uchiyama —” he starts but I immediately cut him off with my outstretched hand.

Wait a second here. What is this… thing… on my bag strap?

Everyone but Beni and Mariko stop talking. I don’t silence them because they’re chatting about going to the theater tomorrow to catch a movie. A millimeter-thin piece of flat plastic is stuck to the inside of the strap of my bag. It could be the remnants of a price tag, but I’ve had this bag now for two years.

Sakai peers over my shoulder, and his eyes narrow.

Shit. This is a bug.

I immediately know how long this has been here, since the day of Helena’s poisoning when Kazuo bumped into me outside Café les pivoines. I remember he grabbed me by my shoulders and looked into my eyes for a moment, no doubt distracting me from his hand planting the bug. I always sling my bag over one shoulder and carry it across my body so he had access to this part of the strap. Wow. He must have poisoned Helena, met up with Risa at Café les pivoines, planted the bug, heard everything of us finding Helena, and then went to Ku 2 to spy on us.

Sakai pulls the bug off my bag and holds it up in the light while Jiro, Usagi, and Kentaro peer into it.

“Huh,” Jiro says. His eyes are focused far out in space before he blushes slightly around his temples. Jiro is very rarely embarrassed by anything, but now Kazuo has heard everything of our lives together. My bag is with me everywhere, even in the bedroom where I’m intimate with Jiro. I tell him things in bed late at night I would tell no other person.

Sakai takes the bug over to the bathroom, drops it in the toilet, and flushes it away.

“Do you think there are any more?” he asks when he comes back out.

“No. At least I don’t think so?”

“That’s not very reassuring.” He crosses his arms, and I try to recall all of the random places or contact with strangers I’ve had which is not much since I spend a lot of time here. Kazuo never got close to me at the casino, so no opportunity there. My bag goes with me everywhere unless I’m popping across the street. I haven’t worn a coat in months (too hot). I haven’t taken off my shoes in public places (no okiya visits). I’ve worn plenty of clothes, but they’ve all been washed frequently, and I doubt the bug would survive in the auto-hamper.

I dump my bag out on the couch and inspect everything in it. Every item looks normal. Then I turn my bag inside out and inspect it.

“I think we’re okay.”

“Regardless, I’ll get someone to come in later and sweep everyone’s apartments. Kentaro?”

“Right,” he says, watching me sink onto the couch. My hip hurts. I’m starving, tired, and sweaty from running and climbing. I’m a mess. “Kazuo and Sachi Uchiyama. My second half-cousins. They’re on the family tree over here.” He points on the tablet and everyone but me leans in. Even Mariko and Beni are paying attention now.

Jiro gets his tablet and accesses the GDB. “They’re twenty-five-years old? There’s no data on them for the past twelve years! Even their photos don’t look right.” Jiro tips his tablet to me to show me Kazuo and Sachi side-by-side, thirteen-years old. They’re both young and innocent, though Sachi’s expression is vacant of personality. Kazuo has a small smile, a twinkle in his eye. He’s a charmer, I’m sure.

“The missing waitress,” Kentaro says, pointing to Sachi. “I haven’t seen these two in almost fifteen years. I thought Sachi looked familiar but couldn’t place her. Ah, well, they’re sort of legendary in my family for being smart and dangerous. They work together as a team because they figured out a long time ago they could get away with anything by doing deeds in pairs. They often cover for each other.”

“And we can’t track them?” Jiro asks. He’s despondent — technology has finally failed him for the first time ever.

“You mean tracking their transactions? Don’t bother. You’ll never find them that way. They’re ghosts in the machine. Kazuo was always especially good with computers. He’s been hacking the GDB for at least ten years now. Besides their official birth records, these two don’t really exist. They’ve been living under pseudonyms by re-keying their palm prints to either the deceased or people they make up. They steal tablets and identities like little kids steal candy from stores. It’s no big deal to them.”

He sighs and sets down the tablet. “They’re skilled assassins, both trained in weaponry. Sachi is heartless. Kazuo? I’m not sure. He’s curious, used to poke the fish in the pond at Shōfū-an, take apart tablets and see how they worked. Stuff like that. Sachi used to beat other kids up.”

I glance up and Kentaro is watching me, a little sad, a little pitying, but overall concerned.

“Kentaro,” Sakai asks, his hand on his chin, “how do you know so much about them?”

He smiles sadly. “Eavesdrop on enough meetings, enough private conversations, and whisperings at family gatherings, and you can learn anything. Besides, I’ve sat in on official meetings where someone has come to my father asking how to contact the twins for their services. We’ve always flat-out denied their existence.”

“Well, I think with the combination of Risa, her parents, Emiko Matsuda, and these twins, it’s pretty evident your father is up to something.”

“I’m not denying it, but I bet Emiko is the biggest offender here. She’s only twenty-eight and now a widow. She’s probably still upset you killed her husband, even though I know for sure the two of them never consummated their marriage.” His whole body shakes. “Gross.”

I try not to think of my mother. Too late.

I’m detached from this conversation, panic welling in my chest like a teapot about to boil. Nothing is going well, I’m injured, and I just want to lie down and fall asleep for a million years, but I can’t. I’ll never sleep peacefully again wondering if these twins are right outside my door.

“Everyone, I need a minute.” Getting up from the couch, I head straight to the bedroom, closing the door behind me and turning on the light.

I get exactly two minutes to freak out. That’s it. That’s all I’ll allow.

Oh my gods, my entire life has been invaded! When I look at our bedroom, I can picture Jiro and me in bed, on the rare nights when we’re both home and not already asleep, and we’re either talking or being intimate with each other, and my damned bag is sitting right there on the floor or on the chair at the foot of the bed.

I like privacy. I like that there are things I’ve only ever told Jiro, things I’ve only ever done with him, that nobody knows about. Just us. Now it’s all tainted and corrupt. Some stranger who has caused harm to my family has heard my secrets. He’s probably been working across the street because he comes to spy on me.

The hair on the back of my neck stands up, and I rub it before scanning the room. Does anything look out of place? Kentaro said Kazuo hacks the GDB. What if he hacked me? Hacked my palm print and allowed himself access to my apartment. What if he managed to get past security downstairs? Are there cameras here? I need my privacy. Need it.

I work my way methodically from right to left across the room, starting at the door. There’s not much left here I haven’t packed, but I pick up every knickknack, every piece of paper, every last framed photo and examine them until Jiro opens the door a minute later. He gave me two and a half minutes.

“Sanaa,” he says, closing the door behind him on the voices in the living room, “what are you doing?”

“What if he was here? In our private space? Planting listening devices or cameras? What if he’s seen you and me together?” I’m starting to feel frantic, picking up everything. Everything is suspicious. “I didn’t want this. I wanted a little space, just this little room that was ours and no one else’s, and I feel sick thinking of the things I said to you and he heard.”

“Like what? Come on. Tell me now.”

“No! No. It’s done. How can I ever open up again and not think I’m being overheard?”

“Sanaa…” Jiro comes to me as I’m tearing apart our desk and wraps his arms around my chest, pinning mine down. “You can’t let them have power over us. This is just another way of controlling you. Kazuo and whoever has hired him are trying to show us they can get to us —”

“They can!”

“They can’t. Nothing I’ve said to you in here I wouldn’t say in public.”

I burst into a laugh that dissolves into tears. Why? Why did they have to take my privacy from me? It was the only thing I had left. The only thing that was mine.

“I’d even have sex with you in public, Sanaa.”

“Well, I certainly would not. You’d be out there doing it alone.”

“Now, where’s the fun in that?” He presses his cheek into mine, and against my better judgement, I relax a little. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of anything you’ve said in here. You’ve always been honest and loving.”

“It feels cheap knowing I’ve shared those things with someone else.”

“Well, it’s not like you did it willingly. Try to be calm.”

I’m wound up so tight, I could explode at any moment.

There’s a soft knock on the door, and I sniff up my tears and turn myself into him. I’m safe at home. I’m safe at home. “I’m safe at home” is my new mantra. I’m beginning to hate mantras.

“Come in,” Jiro says, and Sakai opens the door. He sees us, Jiro’s arms around me, the knickknacks in my hand, and nods.

“No sign of them, and with the earthquake, the whole city is in chaos. Now we wait. Again.”