Revealed – Chapter 25

Sakai stares at the ceiling, letting Lucy’s light breathing lull him into a sleep-inducing trance. If he ever slept, which he doesn’t anymore. He closes his eyes and sees Jiro’s disappointed face as the car pulled away from the curb this afternoon. Sakai screwed that up again. How is he ever going to win back Jiro’s trust at this rate? Because the family trusts him now, but the situation is reversed, and Sakai has become the unreliable one.

Lucy inhales and rolls over, the bed shaking with her sudden movement. Sakai withdraws his arm from around her and lies back into his spot, glancing over at the clock projection on the wall. Two-seventeen AM. He should be asleep.

His tablet on the charge spot on the table bursts into awake mode, vibrating and dancing around so violently it falls to the floor with a crash. Lucy, asleep until now, bolts upright in bed.

“Earthquake,” she croaks, as the bed begins to shake and the building around them erupts into chaos, warning klaxons blaring in the previously silent night.

The emergency lights flood Lucy’s bedroom, flickering in a strobe-like vibration only meant for nightclubs. Sakai grabs Lucy around the waist and hauls her to the bedroom doorway, sliding the door open, and pushing her against the jamb. One of Lucy’s favorite paintings jumps from the wall and crashes into a spot they just occupied.

“How long?” Lucy yells over the rumbling.

“Twenty seconds now!” One of her staff members is in the doorway opposite the living room, holding on to the wall with one hand and accessing her tablet with the other. “It’s not a big one —” Her voice is suddenly loud as the quake comes to an abrupt halt and the klaxons are silenced.

Everyone freezes for a whole breath.

Lucy clears her throat and pushes her hair from her face, ungluing her body from the doorframe. Sakai scans her from head to toes. She’s fine. No cuts or scrapes. “I’m okay though I think my heart may have stopped.” She squeezes his arm.

“Mine too.” He’s also glad they never sleep in the nude.

The apartment’s outer door slides open and more staff members enter. “Reports are coming in from all over the city.”

One woman dressed in pajamas pairs her tablet with Lucy’s projection table and pulls up the 3D map. Red, yellow, blue, and green dots blink on in all the wards, indicating fires, collapses, water, or dome damage. Lucy sighs and walks towards the map to begin calling out emergency services to the areas most affected.

Sakai, though, returns to the bedroom and picks his tablet up off the floor. It had come online just as the quake started, the city-wide alert happening almost instantaneously thanks to the advanced technology of Nishikyō Geological. Sakai silences news alerts from NNS and requests a video call with his brother.

“Koichi,” he says with a heavy and relieved sigh, “I’m glad you’re all right.” The two brothers smile and nod to each other over their tablets. It’s good to not just know his family is safe, but to see them safe as well. “Give me a status report.”

“Mariko is handling incoming calls from our neighborhood. Looks like there are some sidewalks cracked, a few fire plugs are loose, and there’s a huge hole in the street down the block from the dōjō. Section 23H.”

“How did that happen?”

“Manhole explosion.” Koichi shrugs. “The damage is too big for us to fix on our own. You’ll have to call the location in to Administration.”

“Just a minute.” Sakai moves Koichi to the background and pulls up the city alert system, finds the block where the explosion took place, and adds it to the queue for responders. He pauses for a moment to listen to the voices in the other room, straining to hear if Ku 9 is mentioned. Sanaa would have been at home in bed. At least he hopes so.

“Okay, I’m back. Sanaa?”

Koichi’s face twitches in a quick smile, the scar along his jaw twisting. “Jiro’s already been in contact with her. She’s fine.”

“All right.” His heart slows its death march to a normal panicked pace. “I’m going to head to Ku 6 shortly. I should be there before five.”

“How will you get here? I’m sure the transitway is closed.”

“I’ll take a car to the footpaths outside of Ku 2, walk around the hospital and then try to get a car the rest of the way in. Most people will be at home, so I shouldn’t have any problems finding a cab, but the tunnels in and out of Ku 2 will be a nightmare.”

“Right. Call if you need a car to come get you.”

“See you soon.”

He turns off his tablet, slips it into his bag, ties back his hair and gets into his Nishikyō grays. Taking a deep breath, he centers himself and calms his internal systems. Now comes the hard part, getting out of Lucy’s bedroom without letting any of the people out there know he was here. Lucy and her aide are fine, and her closest staff knows the two are dating, but Sakai’s ears pick up the distinct voice of Anil Zaccharia, the head of NEMA, Nishikyō Emergency Management Agency. His pitch perfect Japanese, never mumbled and always using the most direct verb forms, is louder than anyone else’s in the adjacent room.

Sakai presses himself to the wall and waits for his opening. Gently sliding the door the whole way open, he peeks into the main room and finds everyone clustered over a tablet talking to emergency personnel in Ku 5. Sakai slinks around the doorjamb, staying in the shadows, and walks straight out the door without alerting anyone to his presence.

Outside the apartment, he nods to the usual guards.

“Any idea which streets are open?” he asks the bigger guy. He wasn’t on duty earlier so perhaps he’s more aware of the situation outside.

“I’d get a car at Central Avenue. It’s clear all the way to Ku 2.”

“Thanks,” he says, waving to them and heading to the stairs.

The guard is right, and Sakai manages to hail a cab on Central Avenue and make his way to the footpaths within fifteen minutes of having left Lucy’s Ku 1 apartment. Stopping at a twenty-four hour convenience store, he purchases a caffeine drink and walks the footpaths around Ku 2 to Ku 6 for another hour. The city is quiet despite the number of ambulances lined up in the tunnels to get to Ku 6. Their emergency lights are on but the sirens are off, creating a dance of lights bouncing off the buildings around the four-story footpaths. Sakai hails a cab and makes it home in another thirty minutes.

He spends his early morning around the neighborhood, cutting off water to broken fire plugs, righting toppled over furniture, and staring into the giant hole down the street from the dōjō. By eight, the transitway is up and running again so he downs another caffeine drink and heads to Ku 9 to pick up Sanaa.

When she reaches the dōjō, he’s happy she’s in one piece.

“I’m relieved you’re here. I was worried and wondered if I should message you. Ku 9 looks undamaged,” he says as he gestures out the window. “I saw a few sidewalk cracks but overall it looks good. Looks cleaner, too.”

“Oh, that’s because a water main broke and washed everything away. It was terrifying, actually.” She shivers as she opens her breakfast bento and takes a sip of coffee. Sakai doubts she knows how to swim. “They fixed it pretty quickly, though. How is rest of the city?”

“Mainly structural damage. There’s a huge hole down the street from the Itō dōjō. Only a few reported deaths which is good, but the earthquake has a lot of people rattled. Colonization efforts will be hastened. This part of the world is in sharp decline, and we don’t expect it to stay stable long.”

He takes a deep breath, looking out the window at his city. Soon, it won’t be his anymore.

“This has been your home for a long time. I know it must hurt to see it falling apart.” Sidling up to him, Sanaa places her arm around his waist. The sudden, unexpected contact cracks his face into a smile, and he squeezes her back. They rarely touch or hug, but the comfort of her love is enough to melt him… and make him feel guilty at the same time.

“You’re a good kid. Your parents would be proud of you.”

If only her mother were here to witness Sanaa grow into this beautiful and confident young woman. He misses Junko a little more every day.