Power and Empire

“It starts to rain, umbrella stands will sprout up all over the place,” Chavez said.

Adara had been right about Kabukichō. Touts ruled the narrow streets, venturing into the lighted streets from the shadows of their covered awnings only when someone promising walked past. On one, the clatter and ping of pachinko machines sounded above the nasal whine of shamisen music. On the next, men in white shirts and black bow ties beckoned anyone over eighteen into curtained “information centers” to the decades-old hits of Olivia Newton-John. Crowds of tourists made the place seemed slightly less sinister than it really was. Ten-foot-tall female robots waved their massive arms, and diminutive girls — many of whom spoke Korean — stood under strobing lights in skimpy costumes, handing out flyers that were written in characters Jack couldn’t understand.

It was like Vegas in code.

“We turn right here,” Chavez said, pointing east on the grimy side street past the Robot Restaurant. “It’s supposed to be a couple blocks up that way.”

“Let me look at that,” Adara said, moving closer to Chavez. “Ah, he was in the Golden Gai. This is making more sense by the minute.”

The Golden Gai, or Golden District, was roughly one large square block in size, bisected by narrow alleys and dozens of even narrower footpaths that cut between minuscule bars and cafés — most of which accommodated no more than seven or eight, and most of those regular patrons. The maze of ramshackle shanties with dim lights burning in the second-floor flats made it the perfect place to get lost. One sign read THE DOOR TO NARNIA; another proclaimed NO ENGLISH HERE!

The team split, with Ryan and Midas approaching the target address from the west while Adara and Ding walked parallel to circle around and come in from the east. Ryan and Midas slowed their pace, doing a little gawking while they gave the other team time to get ahead. American and European tourists roamed the shadowed alleys, staring into the tiny bars like they were visiting a human zoo. Ryan was just about to say something about it when he looked to his right and did a double take. Midas noticed and slowed to get a look himself.

“Is that—”

Jack nudged him forward. “Come on,” he said. “She’s probably working.”

At the split pine counter of a cramped place called the Jazz Bar sat Yukiko Monzaki. She glanced up at Jack when he passed, then just as quickly looked away.

“You think we burned her?” Chavez asked after Ryan filled him in on who they’d seen.

“Our guy doesn’t know what we look like,” Ryan said, still walking. “Or, for that matter, that we’re even after him.”

Two Asian men wearing light-colored golf jackets stepped out of a bar ahead, looked up and down the street, then turned down a small side alley to the left.

Ryan and Midas kept walking.

The sound of a sliding door and then a soft voice came from up the street behind them.

“Jack? What are you doing here?”

Ryan turned to find Yukiko standing in a pool of light beneath a red lantern outside the Jazz Bar.

Half a breath later, the door to the café in the middle of the block slid open and an Asian couple stepped into the street. It was the same door the two men had come out of earlier, between Yuki and Jack now. The man carried a leather satchel over his shoulder and was in the middle of lighting a cigarette. The burst of flame illuminated the face of Vincent Chen.

Ryan gave an involuntary start. Yuki took a half-step forward.

The woman with Chen shot a glance at Yuki and then back at Ryan and Midas before leaning in to whisper something. Chen looked up from his cigarette and hitched up the leather bag, walking toward Ryan. He made it two steps before darting left to disappear between two buildings where the earlier men had gone. The woman was right behind him. Three more men exited the same café before Ryan and Midas could follow. Amanda Salazar came out behind them.

“Chen and Kim Soo coming at you, mid-block,” Midas shouted into his mic. “Two more Asian males ahead of them. Could be together.”

The last man out after Chen attempted to draw a long hunting knife from his belt, but Yuki came up from behind and gave him a brutal chop to the forearm with an expandable baton. He dropped the knife but wheeled on her immediately, still very much in the fight. Amanda screamed like a banshee and ran directly at Midas, clawing at his face. The two men came at Ryan in unison.

It was relatively early and Kabukichō was just waking up, but the few people on the narrow street jumped back, not sure if they should run or pull out their phones and start filming.