Excerpt: Working Title - Cold Ghost

Prologue:

Terashima had known that this was coming. They could only hold of the Hanaoka group for so long, but he had hoped that Suzuki would have been fooled by the old “Naha” gambit for a while longer. At least Tonbo was probably out of danger by now.

He sighed and took a long drag on his cigarette. Damn it. He could hear Suzuki raging at Inoue, his lieutenant. The man was like a fire, no control, no finesse, only explosions. In his peripheral vision, he could see young Miki flinching – the boy wasn’t shy or easily cowed, but he obviously knew what Suzuki’s arrival meant for all of them.

Terashima waved his arm lazily in Miki’s general direction.

“Let them in. Go on, we’d better get this over with then,” he sighed, expelling smoke slowly.

As Miki opened up the door, Suzuki and his men burst through, forcing the door to swing back and forth and bat the younger man into the wall. Miki stumbled to his knees, blood dripping slowly from his face. Terashima flicked his eyes over Suzuki, not even standing.

“Can I help you Suzuki-san?” Terashima said calmly, leaning back in his chair and fingers linked together.

Suzuki pointed at him, brandishing his index finger like a weapon.

“YOU! Where the hell is Ohno?”

“Last I heard, he asked for a week off. He’s on holiday, but the silly boy didn’t leave an address or number.” Terashima shrugged his shoulders, keeping eye contact on Suzuki’s purpling face. “Miki, did Ohno leave a phone number? Say where he was going to?”

Miki had one hand clapped to his nose, his voice muffled.

“I dunno bozz. I dink he zaid maybe Okinawa, he banted to zee da zea.”

Terashima nodded his head and spread his hands.

“You see, Suzuki-san? He’s on holiday. There’s simply nothing to be done about it.”

Then something happened that chilled Terashima to the bone. Suzuki did not shout. Suzuki did not threaten him with a gun, nor did he swear that he would make him pay. Suzuki did not proceed to trash his office.

He just started laugh, free and wild. Even his own men were sneaking odd looks at him.

Then he jumped forward, and slammed both palms down on Terashima’s desk, a sinister grin still plastered to his face.

“You’re still clinging on to the old “Naha” trick? Hell Terashima, Old Man Hanaoka has socks as old as that one. You and I both know that Ohno is no-where near Okinawa, unless he’s taken the slow boat to Seoul. You don’t want me to know where Ohno has gone to? Fine, I can cope with that, I’m sure he’ll bring me back a nice souvenir. Providing that Yoshida doesn’t get a hold of him first, and we both know that the Yoshida captain doesn’t like to be kept waiting; especially when it involves their property.”

Terashima would not swallow. He would not bat his eyes. He would not react.

“Yes. We all know what will happen when Yoshida finds him. And Yoshida will find him, it’s only a matter of time before he realises that he’s skipped the country. He’s got a lot of international contacts. So let me find him first, Terashima.”

Terashima would not make eye contact.

“You got anything to say for yourself?”

“Ohno has told me nothing.”

“You’ve said that already. Tell me something that you do know.”

Terashima sighed, and looked up. The manic grin was gone, but the grimness was still there.

“I know a guy at Narita, he works for British Airways. I introduced him to Ohno a long time ago, when he was just starting out. He still does a lot of paperwork for us. Perhaps he and Ohno are still friends…”

“And you can introduce me to him?”

“Yes.”

“Then now we are getting somewhere.”