“So…on Mama or the BMW.”
“Because of that, we need to first prepare a countermeasure. Of course, I’ve thought of one.”
“Tell me.”
“You have something to look forward to.”
“That again?” Juri made a tired look and frowned. “Can you stop acting so smug? It’s really off-putting. Don’t you see me as a partner?”
“You’re my only and best partner. Without you this next plan definitely won’t be successful. Or rather, it won’t be feasible. In a way, you’ll have to hustle more than me.”
My assurance of sorts seemed to improve her mood a bit. Her large eyes started glittering. At the same time, that light was colored with tension.
“What am I going to do?”
“You’ll put on an act.” I looked into her eyes. “It’s a big role. A very big role.”
—
The next day, Monday, I got out of bed following my routine. Although that didn’t mean I had slept well. I was excited thinking about finally reaching the big act, and just as I thought I was dozing off, I’d suddenly wake, over and over again. My head was a little heavy.
I washed my face, and while I was doing my regular exercises, Juri called out from the bed.
“You’re already awake?”
She seemed not to have slept well, either. Her eyes were red.
“Because I’ve got to go to work.”
“Work? On a big day like this?”
“Because it’s a big day. I can’t do anything that’s different from usual. On the chance they become suspicious later, it would be really bad if I took the day off.”
“Do you think you’d be suspected?”
“That…” In my pushup position, I shook my head side to side. “…should be unlikely.”
“In that case—”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Today is a Monday, no different from any other. So I’ll head out like usual, go to meetings, and craft business proposals. I don’t want to ruin that rhythm just for a game.”
I couldn’t tell whether she understood what I was saying, but Juri fell silent.
During breakfast, we made our last arrangements. I would go to work, but the plan would be executed after I came home. I didn’t plan to do overtime today.
Tedious tasks awaited me when I got to the office. I had to attend a promo planning session for the idol talent. The strategy was to double her up with a game character, but it was something every company was doing and there was nothing novel about it. They had requested my opinion and when I said exactly that, the place was instantly subdued. The guy who was nudging the meeting along asked if I had any ideas, then.
“How about we gather several similar-looking girls,” I threw out an idea that happened to pop into my head. “If you brought girls who were about the same build and had the same facial features and put makeup on them, they’ll look even more like each other. Line up ten of them with the same face, but only one of them is real. Well, which? You don’t enlighten them for a while. I think it’d become a hot subject.”
It’d probably become a hot subject, but it wouldn’t help sell the idol, someone opined. It’d follow the pattern of a stunt and that’d be it.
I didn’t object. The man was right. But his thinking was wrong in that idols were just a stunt. However, I stayed silent because my views on such a job being accepted or not didn’t matter.
When afternoon came, I secretly checked the internet. On the CPT Owners Club bulletin board, there was a new post from “Julie.” The site’s actual visitors were perhaps growing mistrustful of this new frequent poster.
Finally (Julie)
Hello. I heard back from my contact. They say this time they want to close the deal. They put in a whole bunch of conditions, even though I’ve been telling them that as long as I get my hands on the car I want, anything is all right. So anal. They made me wait so long that the number I want has changed!
Now it’s 4XXX and 7XXX.
Aaah, I want to hurry up and sign already.
I noted the numbers written there. It was probably Katsuragi’s wife’s cellphone number. With this I had collected almost all the components.
When I cut my internet connection, I saw Kozuka approaching from the front. I switched the screen to a proposal.
“What’s up?” Kozuka asked with a forced smile. It was his tell that he had bad news.
“I’m doing reasonably well. I’m getting fired up about my new project.” I’d be happy if he heard it as sarcasm. I said it with that intent. Kozuka scratched his head.
“It seems you’re not enthusiastic about the Yumi Kurihara promo.”
He must have heard from the staff at the meeting. I could imagine the details of the slander. “That’s not true. I’m trying my best to come up with ideas.”
“The idea to have ten similar-looking people isn’t bad, I agree.”
I smiled with just my mouth. He was flattering me out of pity, and that made me feel more miserable than angry. Since when had I become such a loser?
“You’re with me from three o’clock. I have a place I want you to visit with me.”
“Where would that be?”
“Nissei Automobile HQ.”
I stared back at Kozuka’s face. He was avoiding eye contact. “That’s strange, isn’t it? They pushed me out of the team, but they keep summoning me. What’s their deal?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. The attendance request list had your name on it, and that’s why I’m asking you.”
“On whose whim, I wonder? Can’t be Mr. Katsuragi’s.”
“Who knows. It seems Mr. Katsuragi will attend, too, so you can ask him.”
“Mr. Katsuragi? You’re kidding.”
“No, there’s no mistake—I assume. I just got the fax.”
Even so, I couldn’t help but think it was impossible. What was the man thinking? His daughter had been kidnapped, and with the ransom exchange looming, he had the nerve to casually attend a meeting? Or was he betting that it would take place earlier in the day than that anyway? Even so, I thought.
“What’ll you do? If you don’t want to, I won’t make you. There’s no problem with declining and saying that you have some other important business. They were the ones who pushed you off the team, after all.”
“No, I’ll come,” I said. “Seeing Mr. Katsuragi’s face wouldn’t be bad.”
I didn’t know how he took those words, but Kozuka grinned and smacked me on the back.
When it was past three in the afternoon, I headed towards the Nissei Automobile Tokyo headquarters with Kozuka and several of the new car campaign staff. Sugimoto was ignoring me. He must’ve been thinking, Why is this guy here?
Traffic was light, so we arrived earlier than planned. Sugimoto and the others started preparing in the meeting room, but I didn’t have anything to do. I left the room for a moment, bought instant coffee from the vending machine, and went to a smoking area that was lined with plants. Kozuka was there smoking a cigarette.
“Sugimoto and the others were saying that something’s the matter with Nissei,” he told me.
“Which means?”
“I guess you’d say it’s directionless. It’s losing focus, ever so subtly. It seems even the great Nissei is teetering thanks to the prolonged recession.”
I silently nodded, but I thought it might not be just the recession. What may have been teetering was Katsutoshi Katsuragi’s mental state.
When I was about to ask for specific examples, Kozuka trained his eyes behind me and his face stiffened. Just from that, I knew who was behind me. I turned around. Katsutoshi Katsuragi was standing there with one hand in his pocket.
13
“Sorry for bothering you at such a busy time.” Katsutoshi Katsuragi approached us. He looked sharp in a dark blue double-breasted suit. His smile was relaxed, too.
“No, it’s nothing at all.” Kozuka remained standing at attention.
“I had several things I wanted to check on
a plan from you that came up the other day. That’s why I suddenly had you come.”
“Then today’s meeting is by your instruction?”
“Well, yes. I become restless when something catches my attention.” Katsuragi looked at his wristwatch. “It’s almost time. Shall we?”
“Excuse me, but I brought him, too.” Kozuka looked at me.
Katsuragi faced me so I lowered my head. But then he immediately took his eyes off me. “What about him?” he asked Kozuka.
“No, there was an instruction in the document from your side that Sakuma should attend.”
“Hmm.” Katsuragi tilted his head. “I wonder why. I have no idea. The point person might have looked at an old list and automatically sent it. Well, it doesn’t matter. Let’s get to work,” he said, then started walking ahead.
Kozuka spoke close to my ear. “What do you want to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“It seems that Mr. Katsuragi doesn’t really have any business with you. Attending might just be unpleasant for you. You can just go back if you want.”
I did feel like splitting, but I didn’t say that out loud. “I came anyway, so I’ll at least listen. Anyway, even if I went back to the office, I don’t have any big project.”
No doubt hearing the poison in my voice, Kozuka nodded with a slightly irritated look.
I pretended to go to the bathroom and left Kozuka. I found a place with no prying eyes and took out my cellphone. I called Juri.
“Hello, what is it?” It might have been because she hadn’t thought that she would be contacted this soon, but she sounded puzzled.
“Change of plans. We’ll go through with it thirty minutes from now.”
“In thirty minutes? Wait a second, don’t tell me that suddenly.”
“Whether we do it in thirty minutes or five hours, what you’re doing won’t change.”
“I’m saying I need to prepare myself for it mentally.”
“That’s why I’m saying in thirty minutes. Finish preparing yourself mentally by then.”
“Wait. What should I do about the last part? Should I do it like how we were saying? If they don’t trust me, then what?”
“They’ll trust you. There’s no reason not to.”
When I said so confidently, Juri relented. I heard a big sigh. “It’s definitely going to be okay, right?”
“Don’t worry. I haven’t fumbled at this kind of game before.”
“Okay. If you’re that sure, I’m going to get ready. In thirty minutes.”
“Yup.”
“What are you going to do? You’re at the office, aren’t you?”
“I’m at your papa’s company. I have a meeting coming up with him.”
“Wha-”
“I’m leaving it all to you. All of this is hanging on your acting skills.”
Haah—a huge sigh. “I got it. I’ll try. But if it doesn’t seem like it’ll go well, I’ll stop immediately.”
“It’s okay. It’ll go well.”
I hung up and headed to the room where, in thirty minutes, the man I would confront with a different game was waiting.
The meeting was about a project using an internet camera. They would equip one to the announced new car and drive it around town. Customers thinking of buying the car could use the internet to see that video. The video wouldn’t merely show what lay beyond the windshield, but also the car’s interior, the dashboard, each mirror, and so on—everything the driver could see would be captured. If they clicked with a mouse, they could freely change the camera. They would be able to take a test drive without leaving home, so to speak. It wasn’t a bad idea, but it wasn’t fundamentally different from what informational programs on new cars did. True, it was significantly cheaper than my automobile park project.
“There are limits to the transmission rate, so conveying velocity will be a challenge, I think. What will be very relevant is what street to drive on, and making the scene overseas will certainly increase the appeal, we think.” It was just the staff from our company nodding at Sugimoto’s explanation. Of course, I didn’t nod.
Katsutoshi Katsuragi raised his hand. The tension rose instantly. “We’re not trying to introduce our car on a late-night program.”
I was slightly surprised by his remark. It seemed Katsuragi shared my impression.
“We don’t want to just show a cool video. That’s unnecessary. The information we want to communicate to buying customers is the new car’s excellent cost performance. We don’t want to make a buzz of it, we want to convey an accurate feeling of driving it. So it’s meaningless if it’s not a street that the general public needs to drive on. If you show them images of it driving through Australia or California, that’s not helpful to the customers at all.”
It was annoying, but I agreed with his opinion. When I peeked a look at Sugimoto and Kozuka, they were exchanging troubled looks. Perhaps they were going to make the location Australia.
I glanced at the clock. Since calling Juri, twenty-seven minutes had passed.
Then the seconds hand made three laps around the face of the clock. I examined Katsutoshi Katsuragi’s expression. There was no apparent change in it. It looked as though he were focusing his concentration on this boring meeting.
Finally, that straight face clouded over in an instant. Katsuragi put his hand in the inner pocket of his suit. It was as I thought. The guy hadn’t turned off his cellphone.
“Excuse me for a second,” he said and exited the room.
The meeting was on hold. The EVP leaving his seat to take a call is so unusual, the guys from Nissei Auto were murmuring.
Soon, Katsuragi returned and whispered something into the ear of one of his subordinates. When the latter nodded, Katsuragi left the room again without saying a word to us.
“Um, Katsuragi has left on urgent business. However, he asked that we continue this meeting.”
“But without Mr. Katsuragi, is there any point in going on?”
“We’re familiar with his general position.”
“Is that right.” Kozuka put on a sour face, which was unusual. You couldn’t blame him when the person who’d called the meeting had up and left.
I brought my face towards Kozuka. “President, I’m going back to the office. It seems that me being here for any longer is meaningless.”
Kozuka nodded yes. He probably didn’t have the time to be concerned about me.
When I left the room, I was seized by a desire to go to the parking lot. There was no mistaking that around now, Katsutoshi Katsuragi was hurriedly turning on his Mercedes’ engine in the executive parking space. But then, having someone witness me watching him was too big of a risk. I decided to be patient and headed to the front entrance.
I hailed a taxi outside Nissei Automobile’s headquarters and decided to return to Aoyama for the time being. However, near the office, I got off and immediately hailed a different taxi. I told the driver to head toward Asakusa. I looked at the clock.
Juri would first have called home. There, Katsuragi’s wife had been on standby. What kinds of things had she said to Juri, who wasn’t really her daughter? There were detectives next to her, so Mrs. Katsuragi might have at least spoken with a tone of worry. In her heart, she was surely cursing a development that was costing them three hundred million yen.
Juri would have instructed her to immediately load the money and depart. No details as to the destination—we’d decided that the instructions would be to ‘head west on road X’ and so on.
Juri had also called Katsutoshi Katsuragi. I was there. Her instructions to him were succinct: fetch a cardboard box and tape and be ready to leave in his Mercedes on a moment’s notice.
I called Juri.
“Hello, it’s me.” Juri’s voice sounded bubbly to me.
“How was it?”
“I did everything just like you said. Mama will get to Shinjuku soon.”
“Good, next step then. I’m already heading there.”
; “Got it.” She hung up.
Putting away my cellphone, I imagined Katsuragi’s wife’s BMW pulling up to City Hall. Juri would be calling Katsutoshi Katsuragi and giving him directions to head there too.
There would probably be a police tail on the BMW. And almost certainly, there was a transmitter or bug on the car or wife. What we had to do first was to remove those devices. In order to do that, we had to trade the driver and car.
On the next call Juri would instruct them to move the ransom from the suitcase to the cardboard box. Then, Katsutoshi Katsuragi would transport the cash in his Mercedes. With that, all the troublesome devices would be gone.
When I had told Juri this plan, she had frowned.
“Even if you change the car and driver, it’s over if they just transfer the transmitter or bug.”
I shook my head immediately. “They wouldn’t do that.”
“How do you know for sure?”
“Because they can’t be seen doing it. Your parents aren’t the police. There’s no way they could secretly transfer the equipment without catching anyone’s attention.”
“But we won’t be there.”
“And how would they know that?”
“Oh…right.”
“The culprits might be watching from somewhere—so long as we make them think so, the game continues to our advantage. You could say this is poker.”
As my body swayed in the cab, I prayed for Juri to execute her several procedures successfully. Our opponents believed she was being made to call. That she was acting independently was probably something they wouldn’t even dream of. That alone had the effect of a straight flush.
I got out of the taxi as we approached Komagata bridge. From here I would go on foot. I sorted through the plan in my head as I walked. It’s okay, it’ll go well.
A skyscraper stood facing the expressway. It was the building of a certain beer company. I took the elevator to the top floor. It had an observation deck that doubled as a beer hall. I bought a meal ticket for a draft beer at the entrance.
The place had a U-shaped counter with seats that faced the window. There were several guests. I settled down at the left corner. I took out my binoculars and focused them on the expressway. That wasn’t unusual for the guests here, so no one paid any attention. Or rather, they weren’t looking anywhere except out the window, and the staff could only see the guests’ backs.