CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Japan
In the meantime, Persephone was working on her plans. She needed to get her hands on both the poison and the method of delivery. The syringe was fairly straightforward: she just spent a couple of hours searching for syringe suppliers for diabetics on the Internet. But the poison was going to be more problematic. Tetrodotoxin, her poison of choice, is actually reasonably easy to get hold of but very difficult without anybody knowing. Before she got into any more research, Persephone realised she was going to have to be a little bit more anonymous. The government was paying far more attention to who was doing what on the Internet and she really couldn't come up with a good explanation why she would be researching poisons and poison delivery mechanisms should she be asked. Anonymity was pretty easy to achieve however, and all she needed was a laptop computer and the cash to buy coffee in the many free Wi-Fi hotspots that peppered Sydney's cafes. She needed to keep the laptop somewhere secure as well and certainly away from Isaac's prying eyes and she needed to make sure she never logged on at home with it.
Her local coffee shop seemed like a pretty good option and Vinh was more than happy to help such a good customer. He was also smart enough not to ask Persephone why she wanted to store this computer at his shop. Persephone was careful do not undertake the actual research at the local coffee shop and spent the next few days touring through the city drinking average cups of coffee and eating stale muffins at various locations, never staying in one for more than an hour or two while she undertook her research into how to obtain tetrodotoxin without anyone knowing she had it.
It would appear that in Japan, fugu was still a popular delicacy and was served in many restaurants throughout the country. Even though there's been quite a bit of work done to breed non-poisonous versions of the puffer fish, preparation and serving of this this is highly regulated and chefs have to undertake a three-year course in order to be licensed to prepare and serve fugu in their restaurants. The reason is that because the poison is so dangerous, they have to be absolutely certain to remove the liver and ovaries of the fish, which are the most poisonous parts, so as not to kill their customers. Persephone was not sure how she was going to get her hands on the poisonous part of the fugu, but it looked like Japan might be a good place to start. She just had to come up with a good plan to get to meet someone who could get her these fish so that she could turn them into injectable poison. If only she were a marine biologist, she could run a research project into the effects of tetrodotoxin and obtain the samples through that. Smacking herself literally in the head, she remembered that she had an old friend who was exactly that. Jane was currently living in Townsville and teaching at one of the world's leading universities for marine biology, James Cook University, and although Persephone hadn't seen her for years could be a great assistance for Persephone's scam.
When Jane was a young and enthusiastic undergraduate, she had become ‘involved’ with one of her tutors. That summer, as the festivities at the end of the academic year got into full swing, Jane invited her friend Persephone up to Townsville to take a break and join in the partying. Unfortunately Jane became pregnant and when she joyfully told her lover of their impending parenthood, the louse chose that moment to tell her that he was already married, had three young children and was not interested in fathering any more. Devastated, especially because her family was deeply religious and she had believed the louse when he had assured her he was single, Jane was suicidal. Persephone talked her into an abortion and to protect Jane’s reputation, they booked her into the clinic as Persephone Stone.
It was now Jane’s turn to help Persephone. Persephone called her friend in Townsville and told her that she was going on a trip to Japan and she needed to pass herself off as Jane. She explained that the job she was undertaking was unremarkable for a marine biologist, but would attract unnecessary attention should she try to take it on as a management consultant. She offered to tell her friend the details, but Jane quickly told Persephone she didn’t want to know. Jane, now married and the mother of a teenage boy, was happy just to be able to repay the favour from all those years ago.
Persephone explained that she would try to ensure that there were no fallout for Jane from the trip, but should she hear anything, then she was to let Persephone know and she would handle it. Persephone had no idea how she would do that, but reckoned she could work it out at the time, if it happened at all.
Jane was a similar height and build to Persephone and with a bit of effort, Persephone could easily make herself look just like Jane, right down to the frizzy brown hair and thick black-framed glasses that scientists seem to wear the world over. It should at least fool a Japanese scientist, for whom all Caucasian women look the same.
Persephone would meet with a Japanese marine scientist to give her the documentation to give to the Japanese fish farmers. She could then visit the fugu farms and obtain the whole fish without raising suspicion. In this way there would be no paper trail for importation of poison into Australia. She undertook some research on how to extract the poison from the liver. It looked fairly straightforward for anyone with a basic understanding of high school chemistry, which she could vaguely recall from all those years ago in England. Most of the information on the internet about extracting the poison was all about how to remove it from the fish so that it was safe to eat; in Japan you had to undertake a three-year long course before you were let loose on unsuspecting diners who wanted to survive the experience. Given that her intentions were quite the opposite, she didn’t worry too much about whether the left-over fugu was edible after she had distilled the poison from the liver. Her plan was to process these livers in Japan, put the liquid into a perfume bottle, store it in her handbag and get it home that way, disguised as Eau de something.
After all this planning, pretty much every night Persephone would go to bed and her sleep would be interrupted by nightmares of mishandling puffer fish poison, being found out by mad Japanese fish farmers and drowned, injecting herself by mistake, being arrested wherever she went in Sydney by clones of Reg all while Isaac looked on laughing at her. Whilst she wasn't getting much sleep, the dreams had the effect of ensuring that she planned down to the finest possible detail she could think of, hopefully reducing the chances of being found out whilst she undertook this entirely new phase of her life.
She was trying to keep as much of this plan to herself, so with the things that Isaac had already taught her, she was confident that she could mock up some fake university ID. However, after a couple of failed attempts, she gave in and asked Isaac to get her some decent high quality ones. He supplied her a full set of ID in Jane's name and a couple of driver’s licenses in a couple of other names for good measure. He didn't ask what they were for and she didn't offer.
A nervous Persephone, masquerading as Dr Jane O'Mara was perspiring slightly as she struggled to get through the crowds at Sydney airport to board the JAL flight to Narita airport in Japan. The international terminal, looking slightly the worse for wear as it hadn't been upgraded since Sydney had hosted the Olympics in 2000, was definitely bursting at the seams as the ever more frantic tourists pushed at each other to get hold of their ‘bargains’ in the duty-free stores and then have to go through the whole rigmarole again as they needed to queue to get them after they had been through customs. Persephone watched them with disdain. She had far more important things on her mind than perfume or Scotch that looked to cost pretty much the same price as you could get them in a Sydney high street anyway. Remaining aloof from the bustling crowds of noisy sweaty families with screaming children; businessmen rushing to get whichever flight for which they were far too important to have been there on time; and backpackers who were totally zoned out and enjoying the whole process; Persephone found the way through the confusing maze to the business lounge for Japan Airlines.
She had treated herself to a business class seat, which turned out to have both pluses and minuses. During the ten hour flight she was forced to l
isten to a slimy “Importer/exporter, you know darling, a little bit of this and a little bit of that” tell her about how his whole life had been turned on its head when he recently married his Malaysian born wife, who happened to be 30 years younger than him. Persephone, not wanting to draw attention to herself in any way, refrain from stabbing the sleazy idiot through the heart when he started on the topic of threesomes and insisting that he give her all his contact details so that when they return to Sydney they could “Get together, relax in the hot tub with the missus, and see what comes up.” On the plus side, the selection of top-class sake led to a new passion for Persephone for Yonetsuru. According to the beautifully produced menu, “Yonetsuru has introduced two sake products of Junmai (fine) and Junmai Daiginjo (finest). The brewing of Yonetsuru, carefully performed by local workers with original skills, is based on harmony with nature and people. We are trying to brew soft and honest sake specific to the snow region.” Persephone was unsure as to how dishonest sake tasted, but the finest honest sake was fantastic, so fantastic that after the fourth one, even the sleazy prick with the hot tub was starting to look almost attractive.
The flight attendant arrived with fresh sake. “Dr O'Mara, can I get you some food?”
“Dr O'Mara, eh? What sort of doctor are you?” The obnoxious sleazy bastard was instantly hassling her again. Persephone was pretty drunk but not too drunk to spot an opportunity to get rid of the idiot.
“I'm an infectious diseases expert,” she smiled sweetly and leaned closer, “I'm heading to Tokyo to present at a conference about some of the more intractable diseases I encountered in my recent work in West Africa. It's quite incredible how many deadly viruses are still out there that no matter how many vaccinations you have we still can't cure you. Ever heard of Ebola? Nasty bastard. Lost a number of my staff as well as hundreds of patients.”
Sleazy Bastard jumped back as if he'd been stung. He developed a sudden interest in the duty free section of the in-flight magazine and all discussions on threesomes in hot tubs were immediately discontinued. Persephone smiled sweetly at the flight attendant, “Another sake would be super thank you.”
Dr O'Mara settled back in her seat, and got on with reading a number of articles about Jane's area of interest, the puffer fish or fugu. She really needed to get into character and be able to at least have some sort of level of conversation with the contact at the university to establish her credentials. She assumed that the fish farmers would expect her to be an ignorant rude gaijin woman and would probably not be interested in having much of a conversation anyway but it would be good insurance should she come across anyone who might be at all suspicious. She had done a fair bit of research in the area before she left home and was fairly conversant with the types and habits of the puffer fish, but the articles that she had printed out to read on the flight were serious scientific papers and the language in them was both obscure and dry. Halfway through a paper entitled “Artificial propagation of nontoxic Takifugu obscurus cultured in pond”, the sake caught up with her and she nodded off. She was woken several hours later by a flight attendant tapping her gently on the shoulder. She was surprised to see as she opened her eyes, that the seat next to her was vacant. The flight attendant, noticing her expression, smiled.
“The gentleman did not want to disturb your sleep, so he asked to move, and we found him another seat. I hope you are not too upset Dr O'Mara.”
Persephone laughed. “Not at all, thank you. How long before we land?”
“About half an hour, can I offer you a light refreshment?”
Persephone gratefully accepted a pot of Japanese tea and went off and freshened up to get ready for the landing and her next set of challenges. She looked around carefully as she came out of the toilet dressed in a stylish but casual Harry Who black silk shirt and skinny jeans, but luckily Sleazy Bastard was nowhere to be seen.
Persephone had arranged to meet a researcher at the university in Shimonoseki, but as that was an 8½ hour train ride away from Tokyo she had arranged to spend the night in this city that she had never before visited. Sparing no expense, she had booked herself a room at the fabulous and famous Imperial Hotel and she planned to make the most of her short stay by enjoying being a tourist.
Leaving her small carry on bag with an incredibly helpful porter, Persephone took the long walk across the beautiful golden brown marble lobby. Sitting down opposite a young woman with a smile that looked like it could split her face, Persephone handed over her credit card and passport and asked her what she thought she could do with the rest of her afternoon.
She was rewarded with a polite and monotonous list of activities such as a guided tour of the Imperial Palace just adjacent to the hotel, that held little or no appeal to Persephone, she was trying hard to concentrate when the girl, noticing that the guest was not exactly leaping out of the chair with excitement, suddenly brightened up.
“Madam could go up the Skytree! Then Madam can have a look and see if anything that she sees from the sky is of interest. She can then come back here and I will organise.”
Persephone agreed and was given the necessary information to go and visit the Tokyo Skytree, which boasted the world's highest skywalk at 450m above Tokyo. After a bit of a wait in the queues that appeared to be a major part of the Tokyo experience, she found herself on the top deck.
Looking out over the city, surrounded by noisy and excited American tourists Persephone suddenly paused. What was she thinking? Did she reckon she was some sort of international vigilante, righting the wrongs of the world? What made the task she was about to undertake any less wrong than the things that Craig had done to his victims? Her feelings must have shown on her face, and as she was standing there, lost in her own fears, a friendly sounding voice broke through into her reverie.
“Are you okay? Have you lost something? Or someone?” Persephone opened her eyes to find a rather attractive, thirty-something man dressed in jeans and a grunge band T-shirt with untidy brown hair that fell almost to his shoulders, at least three days of stubble and piercing blue eyes that right now looking quite worried as he smiled gently at her. Persephone was really startled. She hadn't even realised she had had her eyes closed and was quite disoriented. Her normal poise deserted her and she mumbled something unintelligible, even to herself. This did nothing to calm the young man down and he reached out to put his hand on her arm. In her disordered state, without thinking, Persephone reacted immediately and violently throwing him to the floor. As she stood looking down at the prone man, she realised what an idiot she was being. The last thing she needed to do whilst in Japan was to draw attention to herself and publicly knocking someone down in one of Tokyo's most famous tourist attractions was right up there if she was looking for prizes for attention seeking. The man, who up until that point had been looking quite concerned, was now looking far more pissed off. She bent down to speak to him, just as he sat up. Their heads collided hard.
“Ouch!” they both exclaimed simultaneously. There was a short pause and then they both started to laugh. This had the desired effect of dispersing the crowd that was starting to gather and it also calmed Persephone down.
“Perhaps we should start again” the man offered, “Hello, my name is Jim Clayton, to whom do I have the pleasure of their company?”
“Hello Jim, my name is Jane, Jane O'Mara. Pleased to meet you”
Persephone smiled and held her hand out. Jim tentatively reached forward and with a rueful smile, shook her hand.
“Lovely to meet you Jane. My, that's a firm handshake but at least I'm still standing.”
Persephone was at a bit of a loss what to do now. Jim however, wasn't. Dusting himself off, Jim suggested a cup of tea, revealing his English heritage in that very instant. Despite having herself been born in England, Persephone had spent years in Australia and had managed to shake off the English habit of drinking tea on all occasions. It was by now early evening so Persephone suggested that rather than tea perhaps she could buy
Jim a drink in recompense for knocking him over. Jim agreed with alacrity. After all, even if Jane was a little older than the women he normally sought out, she was in pretty good shape as she had just shown by throwing him to the floor seemingly without any effort at all. They quickly established that both of them were first-time visitors to Tokyo and therefore had absolutely no idea where best to go for a drink. Persephone suggested they go back to her hotel as they had several lovely bars there and Jim agreed telling her that he was staying not that far away from the Imperial at a cheaper establishment, as the Imperial hotel wasn't in his budget. After a token glance at the illuminated Tokyo skyline they re-entered the elevator, got back on the train and returned to the hotel. They chatted a bit on the train and Persephone learned that Jim was visiting Tokyo for a conference. It turned out, funnily enough, that Jim was an underwriter for a large UK-based insurance company and that they had sent him on this conference as a reward for a job well done. Jim was quite enjoying Tokyo, having arrived the day before, but he admitted he probably would have rather had a cash bonus. He could then have spent the money visiting some exotic location with beaches, bars and scantily clad women rather than having to put a suit on every day to listen to people crap on about the same stuff that he can hear in the office without leaving London. Persephone told him that she was a scientist visiting Japan as part of a research project, which she kept deliberately vague.
When they arrived at the hotel, Persephone sent Jim up to the mezzanine level and asked him to wait for her in the Imperial Bar which was apparently a bit of an icon. She hoped they didn't have any dress rules. Persephone then went up to her room and changed out of her tourist walking gear which had consisted of khaki slacks T-shirt and some very practical but hideously ugly walking boots and into a loose shift dress and a pair of Jimmy Choo sandals. She took her hair out of her ponytail, dabbed on a bit of eyeliner and mascara and finished it off with a slick of pale pink lip-gloss. She stopped for a minute to admire her reflection in the mirror, and then caught herself. Don't do anything stupid, she said to herself, just have a drink with the poor young man and send him on his way.
She walked into the bar, spotted Jim at a table in the corner and sashayed over to him. Sitting down next to him, she nodded to the barman who was rushing over to take their order. After his initial shock, having not recognised her, Jim grinned widely.
“Wow, you look amazing!”
Persephone smiled. “What can I get you to drink? I'm sure they can do anything your heart desires.”
The barman proffered the drinks menu to Jim and Persephone. Persephone waved it off and asked for a T10 Martini, naked with a twist of grapefruit. The barman smiled and nodded and looked questioningly at Jim, who ordered a beer. After a bit of debate about which of the local or international beers were to Jim's particular taste, Jim settled on Asahi which, whilst it wasn't very adventurous was at least familiar to him unlike the huge selection of other local beers that could have tasted like rubbish. As they waited for the drinks, Jim was at a bit of a loss for conversation topics. Persephone hadn't been at all excited about the intricacies of insurance underwriting and he certainly wasn't up to asking her questions about her work, which sounded incredibly complicated and only likely to expose him as being intellectually inferior. He tried a typical British approach which is to talk about the weather.
“So is it really hot in Sydney at the moment? It's bloody cold here.”
Luckily the drinks turned up, which saved Jim and Persephone from an excruciatingly boring conversation about how summer is hotter than winter. Jim quickly changed the subject, “So what exactly is an naked martini? Sounds quite exciting.”
“Actually, it's a polite way of saying chilled neat gin.” Persephone grinned, “I only really like it made with Tanqueray T10 and it's a bit of an indulgence for me, but I reckon it's a bit of a special occasion.”
“What's the occasion?” Jim seemed very interested. Persephone suddenly realised her mouth had run away with her again as she was thinking about the task she had in hand to find and collect the tetrodotoxin. She had to think of something quickly but the best she could come up with was a confused rambling about it not being every day that you meet such a good-looking man, knock him over, and get to buy him a beer afterwards. Jim was flattered and responded to this casual flirting by leaning closer, putting his hand on Persephone's arm and saying, “See, look what I can do now without getting decked. You must be getting used to me.” Persephone laughed and made a sudden feint at Jim. Jim jerked back in his seat, laughing as well. This is better thought Persephone, and he really is rather cute, I've always been a sucker for blue-eyed boys.
They both relaxed, and after what seemed like no time at all Persephone looked at her glass, which was suddenly empty. As if by magic, the barman appeared at her elbow. She raised an eyebrow at Jim, who nodded and shrugged so she turned round and ordered another round. After her second martini and a light-hearted conversation about growing up in England and how different it was living in Australia, Persephone realised how hungry she was. She had a bit of a decision to make. She could call a halt to this and retire to her room and get ready for the next day, but the buzz she was feeling was contributing to her increasing attraction to Jim and her decreasing ability to do the sensible thing (not that doing the sensible thing was normally a part of her repertoire anyway).
“I'm feeling pretty hungry right now, I realise I'm being a bit forward, but do you fancy some dinner?” Persephone smiled at Jim, who readily agreed, “My shout of course.”
There were several restaurants at the hotel and neither of them felt like going out again so after a bit of debate they settled on one of the Japanese-style restaurants and enjoyed a fabulous dinner of sashimi and Kagoshima Kurobuta Pork chops that proved that good Japanese cuisine is a bit more than just sushi and miso soup. Dinner ended far too quickly for Persephone so she suggested a nightcap. Jim agreed and asked her if she wanted to have the nightcap in her room. Persephone finally got a hold of her senses, smiled and letting him down gently, suggested they go back to the bar and have a cocktail there. Jim looked a bit disconsolate but shrugged and acquiesced. At the bar, Persephone ordered herself a drink and told Jim she just needed to duck out and powder her nose, leaving Jim to order something for himself and to find a table. When she came back she found Jim sitting at the same table with an Asahi and another Tanqueray martini. She was feeling fairly drunk already, and wasn't really up to another bucket of gin, but this was going to be her last drink for the night and it would certainly ensure she would sleep well.
Persephone relaxed, feeling full and more than a little bit drunk. Jim was good company, and while he was certainly rootable, she was determined to keep her Japan trip as low-key as possible, and sleeping with Jim wasn’t the most discreet thing she could do. After a few minutes however, Persephone found herself feeling very woozy and quite disoriented. She leaned across to Jim and started trying to say to him that she'd had enough to drink and was going to go to bed now. Jim smiled and nodded and agreed with her. Helping her up from the table, Jim held her firmly around the waist and walked her towards the lifts. Inside her head, Persephone was shouting to herself, “No, stop doing this, I'm going to bed on my own now.” But no words came out. Jim asked her which room she was staying in but Persephone was unable to answer him, and she couldn't provide any resistance when he reached inside her bag and took out the little card that had her room key in with her room number written on.
Persephone woke up the next morning feeling hung over and sore. She opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling, and realised that there was something very badly wrong. She closed her eyes again and then opened them. Why did she hurt so much? She certainly had hangovers before, but this was different. Sure, her head hurt and her mouth felt like someone had tipped in most of Bondi Beach, but the rest of her felt like she just done ten rounds with Muhammad Ali. A sudden wave of nausea came over her and she made a dash for the bathroom, barely making it
in time. She lay on the ground beside the toilet, naked and cold. What was going on? She tried to think back about what had happened last night and suddenly realised that she had no idea and couldn't remember a thing. She was instantly very frightened and this brought on another bout of vomiting. She retched and retched until she had nothing more to bring up. Pulling herself slowly to her feet, she staggered over to the wash basin where through a veil of tears she saw herself in the bathroom mirror. The sight of her naked body covered in bruises, scratch marks and, yes she wasn't mistaken, bite marks, sent another wave of nausea through her whole body. Terrified to even know the answer, she gently touched herself between her legs. Recoiling at the pain, she realised she couldn’t deny what had happened. The problem was that she had no idea about anything that had occurred the previous night. She threw up again, but only a trickle of yellow bile ran into the basin. She sobbed.
Persephone was tough, or at least she had always thought so, but this was almost more than she could bear. It was terrible to realise that she had been raped, but even worse to have no memory of it. Taking stock of her situation in an attempt to get her emotions under control, she tried to work out how she could be in this state. Hang on, she thought, I’m sure that date rape drugs cause amnesia. She got out her laptop and sitting on the bed, looked up ‘rape’ and ‘amnesia’ on the web. Sure enough, Rohypnol appeared to fit her symptoms. She read further.
“One of the most disturbing effects of Rohypnol is that it can cause complete or partial "anterograde" amnesia (absence of memory for the events that occur after it is ingested). This means that you may not be able to remember what was done to you while you were under the influence of the drug, which may have been for a significant period of time. This "amnestic" effect is especially likely when Rohypnol is ingested with alcohol.”
Oh God! What happened to me? She racked her brain, but couldn’t remember a thing. “Think hard Persephone,” she told herself firmly out loud, “what is the last thing you remember?” She tried hard, but this was only hurting her already sore head. She was now sure that she had been drugged with either Rohypnol or something very like it. Temporarily giving up, she decided that a shower and some breakfast could only help. Dragging her bruised and battered body into the shower, Persephone washed off any traces her attacker may have left. As she was doing this, she realised that she was removing any possibility of obtaining help from the Police to track down and catch her rapist. The problem for Persephone was that she was here in Japan under a false name with false papers and was trying to get in and out ‘under the radar’. A rapist attacking an Australian visiting scientist in a top Tokyo hotel did not fit that bill in the slightest, so she was going to have to forego police help in any case. She was furious. Of course she had walked into this situation - but she didn’t deserve to be raped!
She suddenly stopped. Maybe she did deserve this. She was in the country to obtain a deadly and undetectable poison in order to kill a total stranger who hadn’t done anything to harm her (even though he had killed at least two people that she knew about to date). How could she complain about this sort of treatment when she was planning on doing much worse? Maybe this is what those hippy people meant when they talked about karma? She shook herself. This was getting her nowhere and she didn’t believe in that crap anyway. It was just an unfortunate coincidence, and one she had to get to the bottom of so that she could finish her mission in Japan and get back to Australia to wrap up the job with Craig. She finished her shower, found herself a long sleeved shirt and pants that covered all the marks left by her attacker and gingerly went to breakfast. Maybe some food would help being her memory back. The articles on Rohypnol on the Internet were inconclusive about memory return so she was not hopeful, but maybe her loss of memory about pretty much everything that had happened the previous day would abate a little, giving her some clues about who she had been with prior to being given the drugs.
She went into the breakfast restaurant and was greeted by the duty manager. “Good morning Dr O’Mara, how are you today? Did you enjoy your visit to the Skytree yesterday?”
Persephone was startled as she still had no memory of the prior day’s events, but recovered quickly. “Yes, thank you, it was marvellous. Did you see me when I returned from my trip?”
“Actually, Dr O’Mara, it was my sister the concierge who recommended that you go. I was just wondering if it was a good recommendation.”
Persephone replied that she was happy with his sister’s choice and asked if they had a brochure on the Skytree that she could peruse during breakfast. Perhaps that would help bring back memories for her, she thought. The restaurant manager dutifully brought one over, not worrying about why she wanted a brochure when she had already seen the real thing – Gaijins are strange and he had learned not to bother to question their habits.
Munching her way through a thoroughly western breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage and tomato, Persephone flicked through the brochure. It was when she got to the pictures of the highest skywalk that she suddenly remembered her ‘confrontation’ with the man. Now what was his name? She thought really hard, but her mind was a complete blank. In complete frustration she pounded the table with her fist. The restaurant manager came hurrying over, and asked if there was a problem with the food. Persephone, embarrassed, apologised and told him no, the food was super but could she please sign her bill as she needed to check out of the hotel shortly. He brought the bill back with alacrity, pleased to have the angry woman out of his restaurant. Persephone signed it and went back to her room. As she got in the lift and retrieved her room key from her handbag it suddenly hit her. “Jim!” She shouted out loud, startling the elderly lady and her companion who had just got in the lift with her. “Sorry about that,” she grinned at the elderly lady, “Just remembered his name.”
Ignoring the pursed lips of her lift companion, she got out of the lift on her floor. She was elated for a brief moment until she tried to remember his surname or anything else about him, and drew another blank. “Jim, Jim something, Jim something,” she muttered to herself as she wandered along to her room, “Jim Carter, Jimmy Carter…what was the bastard called?” She reached her room door, leaned her forehead against it and gently banged her head on the smooth wooden surface. Unfortunately, this only added to the pain that was rapidly spreading through her body as she stiffened up. She put this card in the slot to open the door and went inside. Frustrated at her inability to remember anything useful, she decided to do some packing as he had a train to catch. She picked up a shirt from the floor, noticing that the buttons had been torn off, and she caught a sob in her throat.
“Come on Persephone, get a grip. You're here to avenge the victims of that bastard at that insurance company, not to loaf around feeling sorry for yourself. You are Dr Jane O'Mara - fish specialist to the stars.” Suddenly an image came to her of her standing in a crowd shaking a man's hand. What was he saying to her? She tried really hard to remember but the harder she tried the more the image slipped away. Giving up, she turned to her suitcase and started putting clothes into it. That was all it needed, as she suddenly remembered. Jim Clayton, that was his name! She grabbed the pad from the desk in the room and wrote the name down, as she really didn't want to forget it again. She put the pad back on the table, looked at his name and picked up the pen again. Using it like a knife, she pounded it into the pad again and again, the nib piercing the paper, shredding it and obliterating his name until the pen broke.
“You bastard! How dare you!” Persephone realised she was screaming over and over again. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she found a sheet of paper at the bottom of the pad that still had enough room to write his name again. Taking a deep breath, she carefully wrote then folded the paper and put it into her wallet. She then calmly finished her packing, went downstairs and checked out of the hotel. She had a long train journey ahead of her to get to Shimonoseki, but she still had some unfinished business before she boarded in thre
e hours. Bits and pieces of the previous afternoon were coming back to her and she remembered Jim telling her that he was an insurance underwriter and he was attending a conference in Tokyo. There can't be that many insurance underwriting conferences in Tokyo at the moment she thought, and sitting in the lobby at the Imperial hotel she got out her notebook computer and did a bit of searching. Sure enough, there was a conference on at the Ochanomizu Conference Centre, which was less than 10 minutes away in a taxi. She spoke to the concierge who wrote a card for her to give to a taxi driver to get her to the conference centre. Leaving her bag with him, she went outside and got into a taxi, giving him the card, figuring out she'd come up with a plan along the way.
As she got closer and closer to the conference centre she got more and more angry. How could he do that to her! He was going to pay! At her destination she jumped out of the taxi, almost forgetting to pay him, she was in so much of a hurry to get in and confront Jim. Realising her mistake she quickly stopped, paid the taxi driver, and slightly more calmly, walked inside. Whatever was scheduled for that conference today obviously hadn't quite started as the hall was full of people milling around looking at ring bound folders and calling out to people in other groups who appeared to be long lost friends. Trying to keep a low profile, which was difficult because it would appear that insurance underwriters were predominantly male, Persephone circled the room looking for her attacker. She was struggling a bit, partly because her memory was still pretty hazy, including what he actually looked like, but also because she was in a significant amount of pain and her head was throbbing as if it would burst. On her third circuit of the room and just as she was about to give it all up as a bad job she spotted someone who looked familiar. She lined up, and started to move a little closer then stopped. Hang on a sec, she said to herself, what do I plan on doing now? She kicked herself. She had completely forgotten what she was in Japan for! Thinking quickly she realised that she was in no position to exact any sort of retribution on Jim right now, so she was going to have to plan something for a later date. Having now found him however, she needed to get a bit more information so that she could track him down later. That should be pretty easy she thought to herself. She found the conference registration desk and sure enough the helpful young lady behind the desk was very happy to give Persephone copy of the list of registrants at the conference, which was very useful as it contained not only their names and titles but also the companies for whom they worked. Happy with her discovery, Persephone quietly left the conference, went back to the hotel, picked up a suitcase, caught a cab to Shinogawa station and boarded the train to Shimonoseki. She now had a bit over eight hours to get her head back on the job she was here to do. She also had plenty of time to plan her revenge on Jim Clayton.
Arriving at her destination, Persephone headed off to the Shimonoseki Academy of Marine Science to meet Professor Harumi Nakada, with whom she had been exchanging emails in the prior weeks. She was pleasantly surprised when Professor Harumi turned out to be a slim elegant woman who looked about 35 years old and who welcomed her in fluent English with a distinctive American accent.
“Hello Dr O’Mara! I am delighted to meet you in person – can I take your bag? Let’s go to the staff cafeteria and have some tea or coffee – whatever you would like.”
Persephone was pleased that she didn’t have to worry about the language barrier, but was keen not to make Harumi her new best buddy – she was hoping to make this visit as inconspicuous as possible.
“Please call me Jane – I am also very pleased to meet you. A coffee would be great.”
Both women took the five-minute walk to a very pleasant café with a beautiful garden filled with small fruit trees overlooking benches with foldaway chairs. Harumi, as she also insisted on being called, ordered coffees and brought them over.
“I developed a real taste for coffee when I was studying in the US and luckily there are a couple of Starbucks in Shimonseki now. I managed to persuade one of the baristas from the one in Daimaru to open this café here in the University and now we can all satisfy our new-found caffeine addiction in the gardens. I hope you like it.”
Persephone thought that the coffee was dreadful and was still in considerable pain, but summoned an appreciative smile and thanked Harumi profusely for her foresight and taste. She was aware of the Asian custom of not leaping straight into business, but if Harumi had lived and worked in the US, then maybe it wouldn’t offend her if she got straight into her business for being there.
“Harumi, it’s great to meet you and I really wish I had more time to visit your amazing facilities here, but I can only stay in Shimonoseki for a day before I have to get back to Townsville – perhaps when I visit next time you can tell me more about your research here and your amazing breakthrough in understanding of the metabolism of the Takifugu genus. I know I am being incredibly rude, but could you please provide me with a letter of introduction to your source of Takifugu so that I can set up a similar arrangement directly with them for JCU?”
Harumi looked very taken aback, and was clearly annoyed at this approach, so Persephone softened it with a vague promise that should she get this arrangement in place then there would of course be appropriate commissions paid to Harumi for the introductions. Slightly mollified, and knowing how badly mannered all gaijin are anyway, Harumi agreed. Persephone made a note to send a donation from JCU of a few thousand dollars to Harumi when she returned. She was pretty sure that Harumi would be happy to pocket the money and not pass it on. It would also help to keep Harumi’s mouth shut about her visit as well.
Armed with authentic official letters of introduction, Persephone went off to the fugu farm and after some negotiation on price, secured a couple of whole fugu, still intact with the poisonous livers in place. Persephone took the fish, her letter of introduction and her bags, boarded the train back to Tokyo and finally relaxed.
As she had read in her research, it turned out that it was far more difficult to safely extract the edible bits of the puffer fish from the poisonous bits than it was to extract the tetrodotoxin poison from the puffer fish. Simply put, you simply soak the relevant organs in water, heat it up a bit, mix it with a weak acid, filter and ‘serve’. Back at her hotel room in Tokyo, Persephone was taking no chances. She was extremely careful as she used gloves, safety goggles and a plastic apron, thus protecting herself as she slowly distilled the poison.
Left with a small amount of clear liquid, Persephone poured it into a sterilised bottle that had previously contained Bulgari Pour Femme. The bottle was looking a bit old and battered so it would be easy to pass off as one she already owned and Customs in Sydney would not be interested. Armed with this deadly poison, and despite her bruises and aching body, Persephone slept like a baby in her luxurious hotel room then flew back to Sydney the following day. This trip, all she had to deal with was a hung-over Australian banker who couldn’t even summon the energy to flirt with her, although he did make a half-hearted and unsuccessful attempt to get her phone number as they were landing in Sydney.