Cajun Justice Read online

  Chapter 35

  They walked the tiny streets for just one block before they arrived at a hotel.

  “What is this place?” Cain asked. “It looks like those pods from the movie The Matrix.”

  “This is a capsule hotel. It’s cheap.”

  “Yeah.” Cain scoffed as he looked around. “Herpes is cheap, too. Doesn’t mean I want any.”

  Tanaka didn’t seem to get Cain’s joke. “This is very popular in Japan. It’s our best option tonight. I’m so sorry. I should have looked at the clock so we didn’t miss the train.”

  “Well,” Cain said, “it’s just for one night. Plus, one of the reasons I came to Japan was to try different things. I’m dead tired from the jet lag. I’ll be asleep in no time.”

  Tanaka spoke with the clerk for a few moments, then used an automated vending machine to book rooms.

  “This receipt has your password on it. You will need it to access your capsule. Also, we must take off our shoes and wear these slippers.”

  Cain tried on the largest pair they had, and even though they were backless, his heels still stuck out by about three inches.

  Cain’s “room” reminded him of something from a sci-fi movie: each was part of a row of stacked pods just big enough for a body. Inside was a thin mattress, a folded sheet, and a pillow.

  Tanaka effortlessly climbed the ladder and slipped into the capsule. Cain, on the other hand, hit his head as he tried to enter the capsule.

  “This was not made for Americans!” Cain exclaimed.

  “See you in the morning,” Tanaka said.

  “It is the morning,” Cain replied.

  “Yes—you’re right. I meant sleep well.”

  “There’ll be no sleeping well in this thing, Tanaka. The only way I fit in this thing is to curl up in a ball. And the mattress is only about an inch thick to pad my two-hundred-pound body. After tonight, no more of these capsule hotels.”

  “It’s a deal. I promise. I probably won’t get very much sleep, either. It’s exciting that you’re finally here. I can’t wait to introduce you to everyone later today.”

  Cain rested his head on his backpack and closed his eyes. After tossing and turning for a bit, he eventually drifted off into a deep sleep.

  Chapter 36

  Cain opened his eyes but saw nothing. He was in complete darkness. He couldn’t even see his hands in front of his face. Panic started to set in. He rubbed his hands over his face, feeling the outline of his jaw, mouth, nose, and eyes. Where am I? The strong scent of pine wafted into his nostrils. He felt his heart against his chest, beating faster and stronger. Where the hell is this? He strained to remember.

  He stretched out his arms in each direction, mapping out his surroundings. My Zippo lighter, he thought. Yes! He fished for it in his backpack. He retrieved it, flipped open the brass lid, and lit the wick. The warm glow of the dancing flame produced enough light for Cain to see where he was. He was trapped inside a wooden box—a coffin.

  His casket crackled and warped as the red-hot fire raged, consuming the wood like a colony of starving termites. Cain’s body burned and the hair on his arms and face singed. “I’m burning alive!” he shouted in terror. He heard the faint sound of monks chanting in a foreign language. “Get me outta here!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “I’m in here!” He kicked and punched as hard as he could.

  The loud bang and the hallway light that poured into his small cell jolted him awake. He had busted open the capsule’s door.

  Cain crawled out as quickly as he could, gulping for fresh air. His heartbeat pulsated through his chest like a drum. Streams of sweat fell to the floor and puddled. He sighed. It was only a nightmare. Combat-breathe, he told himself. It was only a nightmare, he kept repeating. “I gotta get outta here,” he mumbled under his breath.

  Cain left his backpack in the capsule and traded his slippers for his boots. He tried to peek in Tanaka’s capsule, but the privacy curtain was drawn across the tiny window. How in the hell did Tanaka sleep through that?

  Cain dashed down the stairs to the ground-floor lobby. It was brightly lit. Everywhere he looked, fluorescent lights illuminated the hallways. It felt like a sterile hospital. The nightmare, coupled with the blinding lights, triggered another one of his stress-induced migraines. He rubbed his temples as he searched for the exit.

  The automatic doors slid open as he approached. This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder. He crossed the narrow street and walked along the sidewalk. Mere hours earlier, the place had buzzed with pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, and cars—all in an orderly fashion, though. But now, at a little past three o’clock in the morning, the city resembled a ghost town whose people had evacuated and forgotten to turn off the lights. Neon lights flashed in every direction. Who is paying the electric bill for an abandoned city? Cain looked in every direction. He didn’t see a single person walking. It was eerily quiet until the sound of a car rolling over loose gravel echoed between the buildings. The black Toyota sedan taxi cruised by slowly. The driver, clad in a white dress shirt and white gloves, gripped the steering wheel in a perfect three and nine position. He looked like a ghost passing in the night. He never even turned to look at Cain.

  The railroad tracks lay to the left in the distance, but the trains were stopped and completely powered down. A cool breeze materialized from nowhere and blew lightly. It felt good against Cain’s sweaty forehead. The early-morning wind jostled the red paper lanterns hanging outside various restaurants along the corridor of closed shops and boutiques.

  Cain continued exploring this strange land. He approached the only business that appeared open. A wooden sign was propped up on the sidewalk, in front of the door. Cain couldn’t read any of the Japanese, but a little of the writing was in English. The sign said SOAPLAND and had a picture of a geisha bathing a man who was sitting in a large wooden tub. Below it, in all capital letters: NO FOREIGNERS!

  Cain peeked into the window of the glass door. A thin Asian woman was standing inside. She was dressed in a kimono and had her hair pulled up in a bun. She was escorting a Japanese man to one of the closed rooms in the back. “This ain’t the place for me,” Cain muttered under his breath, and continued walking.

  I’ve traveled all over the world, yet this place feels the most alien—with its flashing lights, advertisements, strange food, difficult language, and a culture still gripping its origins. Despite Bonnie, Cain felt alone in Japan. The irony, he thought. To be one person in a sea of many millions, but to still feel like an outsider.

  Chapter 37

  He walked back to the capsule hotel. Tanaka’s curtain was still drawn. Cain knocked on his door, which looked like the door of an American washing machine. Cain pounded louder with the bottom of his fist until Tanaka finally answered.

  “Is everything okay, Mr. Cain-san?” Tanaka asked, wiping the drool from his mouth.

  “I’m fine. I’m just ready to start work.”

  Tanaka used his fingertips to wipe the crud out of his eyes and then studied his watch. “It’s only four o’clock, sir. We can sleep for another two hours.”

  “Plenty of time to sleep when we’re dead.” Cain realized the irony as soon as he said that. “I was hired because we have a lot of work ahead of us. Lives are in danger. Let’s get an early start today.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Tanaka and Cain used the shower facilities at the hotel and then caught a series of connecting trains that eventually stopped near the automotive company’s headquarters, which were in an industrial area of Yokohama—near the seaport. This location had been chosen for strategic purposes, and the company had been able to buy much more land for a cheaper price than what they could have purchased it for in Tokyo.

  An overweight security guard in his fifties sprang to life when he realized that his new American boss had arrived. Cain extended his hand. “Good morning. My name is Cain Lemaire. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  The security guard’s face turned red. “Sor
ry. No English.” He ceremonially bowed to Cain.

  Cain turned to Tanaka. “Please tell him I said it’s a pleasure to meet him, and I look forward to working with him. I’ll have lots of questions for him, but later. I like to just observe things on the first day.”

  “Okay,” Tanaka said, and spoke in Japanese for what seemed like a much longer time than necessary given what Tanaka was translating. Tanaka and the security guard continued a back-and-forth conversation. Cain looked on with slight suspicion—he was always a little skeptical during his world travels that his words and tone were being translated appropriately. Cain knew that Tanaka was the security guard’s supervisor but was impressed by how much reverence the much younger Tanaka still showed his elder.

  “Where do you keep your employee records?” Cain asked Tanaka as they left.

  “Employee records?” Tanaka asked.

  “Yes. You told me a lot of employees lost their jobs and their life savings. Each one of them is a potential threat to the CEO. Money and revenge are a motive to murder. I want to see each of their files.”

  “They’ll be in Japanese.”

  “Have ’em translated. In the meantime, I’ll look at their official photos. A picture is worth a thousand words. Also, are there any physical fitness requirements for security staff here?”

  “Fitness is encouraged but not required.”

  “The first overweight Japanese person I’ve seen in this country, and he’s on our security detail? He’ll have a heart attack if he has to get into a fight.”

  Several hours later, when it was a more reasonable time for employees to start arriving for work, Tanaka approached Cain.

  “Sato-san has arrived,” Tanaka said. “I’ll take you to his office.”

  “How does he get to work?” Cain asked.

  “Morita-san is his driver.”

  “Is Morita-san part of our security detail?”

  “No,” Tanaka replied.

  “He needs to be if he’s going to drive our principal. I’ll make sure he receives specialized training in counter-ambush driving.”

  When they entered the reception area of the CEO’s office, Cain noticed a beautiful Japanese woman sitting behind a desk. He extended his hand and she stood.

  “My name is Cain Lemaire.”

  “Hello, my name is Tamura.”

  “Is that your last name?” Cain asked.

  “It is my family name. My given name is Umiko.”

  “U-mi-ko,” he repeated slowly.

  “Hai,” she said.

  “That’s a beautiful name,” Cain told her.

  “Thank you.” Her pale face showed a hint of a blush.

  “What does it mean?”

  “It means ‘the sea.’”

  “Are you pulling my leg?”

  “I’m sorry?” She was confused by the American idiom.

  “My name also means ‘the sea,’ but in French.”

  “I know.” She smiled. “I studied French in high school.”

  “Enchanté,” Cain said.

  “Enchantée,” she replied. “Monsieur Sato is expecting you.” She opened the door to Mr. Sato’s office and led Tanaka and Cain into the room. She stayed there to scribble notes on a legal pad.

  “Welcome to Japan, Mr. Cain.” As a prominent business leader of an international company, Koichi Sato was familiar with Western culture. He shook Cain’s hand.

  “Thank you, sir. It’s an honor to be here. Thank you for this opportunity.”

  “It is our honor,” Sato replied. “Bonnie-san was my English teacher, and she highly recommended you.”

  Cain chuckled. “She’s done a great job, because your English is excellent.”

  Mr. Sato shook his head to show humility and dismiss the compliment.

  “I’m serious, sir. Your English is fantastic, and you couldn’t find a better English teacher than her. You’re in good hands.”

  “That’s funny,” he said. “She said the exact same thing to me about you. That I’d be in good hands.”

  Cain smiled. “We don’t look alike, but we’re twins.”

  Mr. Sato looked around the room at his employees. “I’d like to talk to Cain-san privately, please.”

  Tanaka and Umiko looked caught off guard. They glanced at each other, stood, bowed, and then exited the room by walking backward.

  Mr. Sato leaned forward, moving closer to Cain. “Now I can talk more openly about the threat I face.”

  “The threat we face,” Cain said before Mr. Sato continued. “When I took this job, your threats became my threats. We’re in this together.”

  Chapter 38

  Cain exited Mr. Sato’s office about fifteen minutes later. Tanaka and Umiko were standing in the lobby, waiting impatiently.

  Cain sighed. He had learned more in that meeting than he had anticipated. He turned to Umiko. “It was nice meeting you. I look forward to working with you more.”

  “Me, too,” Umiko replied with a smile that showed off her perfect teeth. “Maybe my Français and English will get better.” She giggled and placed her hand over her mouth.

  Cain smiled. “Your English and French are better than mine.”

  “Merci,” she said.

  “De rien,” he replied.

  Cain and Tanaka left the CEO’s office quarters and headed back to the security office.

  From his desk’s landline, Cain called Bonnie.

  “How’s your first day at the office going?” she asked.

  “I can already tell I’m going to have to make some changes.”

  “What kind of changes?”

  “I’ve got a lot more work ahead of me than I originally thought. But I’m so jet-lagged right now I gotta be careful about making any major policy changes. Security here has been too complacent for waaaay too long. Security cameras are in black and white, one of my officers is retired on duty and on the verge of a heart attack, and there’s another one who looks at cartoon porn all day!”

  “Hentai,” Bonnie said.

  “What?”

  “Hentai. It’s what the Japanese call anime porn. It’s very popular here—you’ll even see men reading it at the 7-Eleven.”

  “In the States, the police would get dispatched if a man was caught looking at pictures of a man having sex with a schoolgirl. Look, I understand there are cultural differences, and I’m trying to keep an open mind. But some things are just way too weird for me to accept.”

  “Like what else?”

  “Like the fact that I can get a coffee, a bag of potato chips, an ice-cream cone, and a pair of ladies’ underwear all from the same vending machine!”

  Bonnie started laughing uncontrollably. “It is a little weird.”

  “A little? It’s creepy!”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that one. We can talk more about some of these cultural differences over drinks.”

  “I look forward to that conversation. Anyway, I’ve called a mandatory meeting for tomorrow.”

  “That’ll make their day. The Japanese love meetings.”

  “Well, they’re not going to like this one,” Cain said.

  “Oh?”

  “I’m going to lay down the law.”

  “Well, that’s why Mr. Sato hired you and nobody else.”

  “Sounds like he hired me because of you,” Cain said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Doesn’t sound like Mr. Sato needed any more English lessons.”

  “I teach more than just language. I also teach international cultural norms and other important things a leader who’s doing business all over the world should know.”

  “I’d like to get together with you as soon as possible, though.”

  “You’re already itching to buy my meal at the most expensive sushi restaurant in Yokohama?”

  Cain chuckled. “Well, not the most expensive one. I haven’t gotten my first paycheck yet. But I need to ask you about some things.”

  “Sounds serious. Is everything okay?”

&
nbsp; “Let’s talk in person.”

  “Okay. Let’s meet at the Yokohama Station at six tonight. How about the west entrance, in front of Tully’s coffee shop?”

  “Tully’s coffee shop. West entrance. Eighteen hundred. See you there.”

  Cain hung up the phone and called Tanaka into his office. “Please let the guys know we’re going to have an all-hands tomorrow at oh seven hundred hours.”

  “All-hands?”

  “It’s a navy term. It’s a meeting for everyone on the security detail.”

  “Okay, boss. What’s the dress code?”

  “Normal working attire.”

  “Hai. What would you like served at the meeting?”

  “Huh?” Cain asked.

  “Tea, water, Coca-Cola? Maybe something—”

  “Tanaka-san, this is a work meeting, not a social gathering.”

  “Hai.” Tanaka bowed. “But it is customary to—”

  “I want everyone’s mind focused on the business of protecting Sato-san and this company,” Cain interrupted. “Not on what beverage is going to be served.”

  “Hai. I will let everyone know.” Before Tanaka walked off, he asked, “Do you want Morita-san there?”

  “Absolutely,” Cain replied. “As the driver, he has a very important role.”

  “Okay, but he will be driving Sato-san during that time.”

  “Okay. Slide the meeting to the right one hour. Let’s meet at eight.”

  For the rest of the day, Cain studied translated personnel records and walked around the complex to inspect security vulnerabilities. He looked at his watch. Ah, I’ve lost track of time. I’ve gotta rush to meet Bonnie.

  He’d learned that the main Yokohama train station was the fifth busiest train station in the world. The compound was a massive labyrinth that accommodated over two million passengers per day with trains, buses, taxis, restaurants, and even high-end shopping. It was Cain’s first time taking the Japanese train by himself, but thankfully the tourist signs were printed in English.

  Cain spotted Bonnie with ease. She was a blonde and taller than the average Japanese person, but it also helped that she was wearing a red dress in a sea of black and gray clothing. She was standing in front of Tully’s coffee shop, waiting for him.