Chapter 68

Monday, October 21st, 6:41 pm

Stretched across the microfiber cushions of the blue couch, I was lost in thought as I stared at the ceiling. It was surprisingly comfortable.

“Do you sleep on this?” I asked.

“I’ve never sat on it,” the room’s occupant said.

“How have you never sat on a couch that’s in your apartment?” I asked.

“Have you sat on all your furniture in your house?”

I glanced over at the table in the middle of the room—more specifically, at the person sitting at it, talking to me absentmindedly as the sound of a mouse click occasionally punctuated the silence that filled most of his side of the conversation.

Ryo Tanaka had been given a laptop loaded with single-player games that worked offline, and security reported that he spent almost all his time sitting in front of it.

By the sound of it, he almost seemed ... content. He hadn’t put up much of a fight. There hadn’t been any hunger strikes ... none of the reports suggested he was putting up a fight, except when his security made him shower.

The guy struck me as one of those people who were perfectly content to play games and simply exist, even if the only way to achieve his pure nirvana was to become a hostage.

Or maybe he was just cowed after I removed a finger.

“It’s not the same,” I said.

“Isn’t it?” Ryo asked.

“I don’t even know how many rooms are in my house,” I said. “I doubt I’ve even been in all of them. This is a two-bedroom apartment.”

“I like sitting at a table,” Ryo said, still not looking up from his computer.

I watched him from the couch for a few moments.

Like his father, Ryo Tanaka wasn’t a very formidable man. He had a slight build, wore coke-bottle prescription glasses, needed a haircut, and had a terrible acne problem. However, he also lacked Hiro’s tenacity and ambition. I’d have bet that his little stunt out in the woods of Norway was about as ambitious as he ever got in his life. I’d gotten the impression that he’d never done much to impress his father, and after being made to meet with me, he’d hoped to put all his chips on killing me off to make up for lost time in one fell swoop. His gamble hadn’t paid off, and after a brief bit of torture, he’d resigned himself to his fate and reverted to what I suspected was his default state of being.

That was fine by me. I didn’t care whether Ryo did anything with his life ... but only half paying attention to me was getting annoying.

I glanced at Chloe.

She walked over to Ryo, slammed the laptop shut, and held it in one hand as she backed away from the table.

“Hey!” Ryo protested, looking up at Chloe as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t care what you do ninety-nine percent of the time,” I said, “but when I’m talking to you, I want your attention.”

“Let me save my game!”

“No.”

Ryo glowered at me.

Jesus. Cut off the guy’s finger, and he’s a whimpering mess. Cut him off from his game, and he’s about ready to stage a revolution.

“Chloe, slam the laptop as hard as you can against the wall. You get a bonus if it’s in more than one piece after one hit.”

“Wait!” Ryo said as Chloe lifted the laptop, preparing to strike it against the wall. “Fine! Just ... I haven’t saved in four hours!”

“Rookie mistake,” I said, but gave a small shake of my head. She lowered her arm, leaving the laptop undamaged.

Ryo and I simply glowered at each other for a few strained moments, and then he said, “How do you know my sister isn’t playing you?”

I blinked at him.

Not only was I surprised that he’d been listening the entire time, but he’d just asked one hell of a question.

I’d come down to Ryo’s apartment to pick his brain about his sister, explaining how I wanted to turn her against the old man. It wasn’t that I expected him to be honest with me, but it would be a waste not to take advantage of having one of the people who knew Sachiko best at my beck and call.

So when he suggested that Sachiko could be playing me, I wasn’t about to take it at face value, but I’d be a fool to completely ignore it.

All this time, Sachiko had clearly struggled with some of Hiro’s actions. She had never challenged my accusations of Hiro being a cruel man. In fact, I could tell that they had upset her; it just wasn’t clear whether it was my accusations or the fact that she knew how much of a bastard he could be. All this time, I’d been assuming that she found a lot of Hiro’s actions disturbing.

What if it’d all been an act?

What if she’d known about that assassination attempt the day we met?

What if she’d willingly gone to the island to ingratiate herself with me?

Aw ... fuck.

I had to work really hard not to feel like a fool. It didn’t feel like she was trying to play me, but it wouldn’t have been the first time a woman had fooled me. Jess had been cheating on me. Helen had been a plant. Ashlee had been entangled with Tyler.

Jesus ... who could I trust?

I suddenly felt an odd sort of gratitude for Bobbi. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and in a weird way, I felt like I could trust her more than just about anyone.

Except Chloe.

And Erin. I could always trust Erin.

Fuck, if she ever stabbed me in the back, that might break me.

Feeling too vulnerable to keep lounging on Ryo’s couch, I shook my head to clear it as I sat up. Ryo was probably just fucking with me. Sachiko had given me no indication that she was some kind of evil mastermind, and nothing they’d talked about the day she visited even alluded to the possibility that Sachiko was playing me.

“Nah. Fuck that,” I said, deciding not to give him the benefit of letting him see how much that question had gotten to me. “My sister’s an actor. I’ve seen my share of fake tears. Sachiko’s playing it straight. She just wishes her dad loved you guys more. That and she probably hates how many evil things he does. Chances are better that you’re playing me right now by making me doubt your sister.”

“Would you blame me if I were?” Ryo said. “You cut off my finger.”

“You shot me out of a helicopter,” I retorted. “Can you blame me?”

He glowered.

I scowled.

“What about this?” I said. “You give me more than just the generic bullshit that I can find on Wikipedia, and—”

“You’ll let me go?” he asked.

“I’ll order you a pizza.”

Following my orders to the letter, Psalter and his men had made sure that Ryo Tanaka had nothing but cold, dry sandwiches for every meal. It’d been more of an off-hand comment made out of sheer frustration, but apparently, Psalter’s team took everything I said literally. He’d even gone as far as giving Ryo nothing but tap water to drink.

That had been over a month ago.

Ryo’s eyes lit up at that.

“I’ll even let you pick the toppings.”

My tone might have been too much like a parent’s for his liking. His countenance darkened a little, and he said, “One single pizza?”

“I can go the other direction,” I said. “How about nothing but cans of sardines?”

His complexion turned a little green.

“Yeah. Sachiko told me how much you hated fish. Bet you’ll eat it after a day or two if that’s all you’ve got.”

“Come on, man!” Ryo whined. “If I eat American bologna much longer, I’m going to do everything I can to make Zach shoot me in the head.”

Zach was one of Psalter’s men—a regular on rotation to watch over Ryo.

I sighed. Maybe he was onto something. I could threaten and coerce Ryo Tanaka all day long, but I had a feeling he knew that I didn’t have it in me to actually do any more bodily harm to him. That was a one-time thing to get his dad’s attention ... a decision I’d made in the heat of the moment. I’m not so sure I would have taken it back, but I wasn’t eager to repeat it.

And we both knew I wouldn’t kill him.

But if I started showing him some perks of working with me...

“Okay,” I said, fishing my phone out of my pocket. “Depending on what kind of good information you give me, we can deal.”

His eyes lit up again.

As I was about to say something, I looked at the time on my phone and noticed that it was approaching seven in the evening. I needed to get going.

“What about giving me a pizza as a sign of good faith?” Ryo asked.

I looked up at him, suddenly a lot less enthusiastic about getting him to talk.

Glancing at Chloe, I stood up and said, “Give your order to Chloe. She’ll make sure you get it.”

Ryo pounded his desk in jubilation and looked at my bodyguard. “One large bacon and pineapple pizza.”