Fox put his hand to his mouth to cover a yawn. “It’s been rough the past few days. Katori said you’d contact me. I just wasn’t expecting you to crash the party.”
“And I wasn’t expecting you to be a guest. You’re a fugitive from the law for murdering Katori. A single gunshot to the back of his head. Your fingerprints were found all over the murder weapon.”
“Yeah, so I’ve been told.”
“Welcome to my life. I’ve been dodging Tanaka for days.”
Fox got out the car and his shoe sunk slightly into the mud. He saw that the whole terrain was like this, no thanks to the rain. To his right, he saw the driveway that was carved out of the woods, with tall pine trees on either side. In front of him was a single-storied house, whose exterior consisted mostly of stone and pine wood. Rain water dripped from the edges of the sloped roof into the underbrush that surrounded the sides. The clearing in front of the house was large enough to accommodate about six vehicles. The smell of damp wood filled the air.
“Where are we?” Fox followed Sato towards the side door.
Sato scraped the mud off his shoes on the iron doormat. “We’re about two hundred kilometers outside of Tokyo.” Fox walked up to the side porch, scraped his shoes and followed Sato inside.
The entrance led them to the kitchen. At first, Fox looked towards the sink. There were no dishes either inside it or in the dish tray beside it. The kitchen table was wiped down clean, with the table mats in the center under a napkin holder. Along the back wall were the stove and oven, along with a small rack of carving knives, a toaster and coffee maker. “So how long are the owners gone for?”
Sato walked over to the counter and grabbed the kettle and pulled it under the tap to fill it. Then he placed it on the stove and turned it on. “For the rest of the month.” Sato walked over to a cupboard and opened the door. “There’s just regular tea here, hope that’s all right.”
“I can use some coffee instead.” Fox sat down at the table and dropped his head into his hands.
“Actually, yes. I’ll make some.”
As Sato prepared the coffee, Fox’s head got heavy. Last night’s events kept coming back to him. He was compromised and was wanted for Katori’s death. The Boeisho would now step up their search for both Walsh and Dobbs. Hopefully Parris and Levickis managed to keep their cover. For now, his only ally was the man who brought over a steaming coffee mug and set it down on the table. God, there was something from the night before, in the nightclub. He still couldn’t place it, but it bothered him.
“Here’s your cup of Joel,” said Sato.
“That’s Joe.” Fox smiled as he took the mug.
Sato smiled too, as he walked out of the kitchen into the adjoining room. “I’ll be right back. I have to show you something.”
Fox took a sip of the piping hot drink. “How long were you and Katori planning on hiding out from the Boeisho?”
“Until we gathered enough evidence to expose Tanaka,” said Sato loudly from the other room. “Now you have to do the same.”
“I don’t plan on hiding from anyone. We both don’t have time for that.”
Sato reentered the kitchen with a laptop computer. He placed it on the kitchen table and turned it on. “As Katori might’ve told you, you’ve stepped in the middle of a battle. You know the truth about Marx, Tanaka, Hashimoto, and The Promise. You ought to know about some members of Ares. I believe this has been your Holy Grail for quite some time.”
No way, you’ve got to be kidding me. Fox put down his mug and nearly stood in excitement.
“It’s not a complete list of the entire organization, just the October Cell.” Sato spun the laptop around to face Fox. “Do you recognize any of them?”
Fox gazed at the head shots of six men as he took another sip. “Sure I do. That’s the October Man and these are his henchmen. They’re the ones who jumped me last night.”
“And they’re vengeful. Marx stole Ares’s most powerful weapon, one that could sell for billions on the black market. Your October Man is personally handling the task of getting it back. They’ve already killed Valerik and they came very close to doing the same to you. But they’ll gladly come after both of us, since they know that we possess information that could seriously compromise their efforts and severely damage their organization.”
“Is that all? Where’s the rest of this evidence?”
“Right in front of you.” Sato pointed to the laptop. “On the same disk is a list of more people involved in their network. In addition, there’s a list of all of their contacts, hideouts, warehouses, and everything you need to know about any improvements their scientists made to Pandora since the moment they got a hold of it.”
“Let me guess. Valerik, being the double-agent he was, stole this information and gave it to Hashimoto. Now you stole it with hopes of passing it on to the Boeisho.” Fox quickly scrolled down the list of profiles.
“But then my team had to improvise when we found out that Tanaka wasn’t on our side anymore.”
Fox glanced at Sato. “You said that Ares made improvements to Pandora. What are we talking about?”
“It’s more potent. But Ares was also trying to figure out a way of destroying it.”
“Have they been successful?”
“No, not yet,” said Sato. ”Once it’s released, there’s no direct way of neutralizing it. However, it can only survive if it’s allowed to feed on its nutritional supplement or any living being. Take those away and you reduce its fecundity.”
“That I already know. But once Pandora’s released, where does the cult plan to escape?”
“There’s a bunker on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Its exact coordinates are on file.”
Fox raised an eyebrow at Sato as he continued to scroll through the profiles. “The bunker’s been in existence since the Cold War where members of the former Soviet Government could escape in the event of a nuclear war. It’s one of many that were built. The idea of its location was to be difficult for an enemy to locate. My guess is that The Promise would’ve been on their way had it not been for what Katori and I know.”
There was still something that weighed heavily in the back of Fox’s mind. What the hell was it? Something about last night wasn’t right. Fox was distracted enough that he decided to close the laptop and get up. “We can’t stay here. It’s time to come out of hiding.”
“And go where? You can’t contact your people. Everyone’s looking for you.”
“As I told you before, I have other partners over here. I’ll pass the info to them. What you just showed me, can help clear my name.” Fox walked over to the door with the laptop and with Sato behind him, when he figured out what bothered him. Oh my gosh, yes, of course, that’s it.
“Concerning Katori, you have my condolences. You both did the right thing choosing to go your separate ways. Who knows if we’d have met if you hadn’t.”
Sato closed and locked the door and turned to Fox. “It was the best thing to do.”
“Of course.” Just as I thought. And this confirms it.
They came up to the car where Sato unlocked the passenger door for Fox. While his back was still turned, Fox drew his Sig. His arm was stretched out with the base of Sato’s neck in his sights. “Keep your hands up where I can see them and turn around slowly.”
Sato hesitated. “What are you doing?”
“Do it!” Sato’s hands went up and he slowly turned around to face Fox.
“The next time you show up at a nightclub, you might not want to use a weapon you took from one of your victims.”
Sato chuckled. “What do you mean-”
“The Micro-Uzi you’re carrying. You showed it off last night. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I noticed that the October Cell members carried the same weapons. And I’m willing to bet that you were among the group that ambushed Katori and his kidnappers. Tell me, was it you who pulled the trigger? Did you kill Katori?”
Sato didn’t answer.
Fox’s eyes narrowed as he took a step closer to Sato. “Did Marx give you the honor of replacing Sato because you’re the one who killed him, too?” Sato remained silent, but a smile slowly grew.
“You don’t have to answer. This was the perfect back-up plan Marx had. Just in case I got away, you show up. Had her plan worked, she would have gotten rid of Ares and misdirected us all at once.”
“I must commend you on your hunches.”
“I’m flattered. Take out your gun, and slowly, because I will shoot you if I have to.”
Sato took his Micro-Uzi out by the barrel, and held it in front of him with the handle pointed downwards.
