“I’m on a stakeout right now, but I’d be willing to meet up with you at four thirty p.m. Meet me at—”
“We gotta meet up earlier,” Cain insisted. “I’ll buy you breakfast. A good old-fashioned American breakfast, not fish and salad.”
“No can do,” Champ responded. “I’m tied up until then. Meet me at the pachinko club next to the Yokosuka Chuo Station.”
“What’s the name of it?”
“You read Japanese?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought,” Champ said with mild annoyance. “It’s in Yokosuka—by the navy base. If you can’t find it, you’ll never find your sister. Oh, and one last thing.”
“Yes?”
“Come alone,” Champ instructed.
“I am alone,” Cain replied.
Chapter 63
Cain’s fatigue had caught up with him. He hadn’t slept since Saturday night. He strained to keep his eyes open, and when they were, his vision blurred more and more. He folded his arms on top of his desk and rested his head on them. He fell into a deep sleep.
Cain shot awake when Tanaka shook his shoulders. It took Cain a few seconds to recall where he was. “I can’t believe you were able to sneak up on me like that, Tanaka. I must be slipping.”
“Cain-san, you look exhausted. Let me get you something to drink.”
Cain’s heart raced and his breathing matched that rapid pace.
“What time is it?”
“It’s five o’clock,” Tanaka answered as he headed to the break room, presumably to buy Cain a coffee from the vending machine.
Cain had been asleep for only a few hours, but it felt like half the day. He stood. “I’m late. I’ve gotta go.”
Tanaka handed him the hot can of Suntory Boss coffee as Cain was leaving the office.
Cain popped the top and guzzled the coffee while Tanaka looked on with wide eyes.
“Thank you,” Cain said, and tossed the can into the recycle bin. “Call me if you need anything.” He left the office and sprinted across the empty parking lot toward Umiko’s scooter. It dawned on him that it was five in the morning, not in the evening. When he stopped at Umiko’s robin’s-egg-blue scooter, which looked more pronounced when sparkling in the sunrays, he heard her voice in his head telling him to take care of himself first, that he can’t help Bonnie if he’s not healthy. He thought, She’s right. The wind picked up and he suddenly caught a musty whiff of himself. I need to shower and get a fresh pair of clothes. I smell like sweat, BO, Zen retreat, Chinatown, and Tokyo Bay all bottled up.
Cain rode to his apartment, showered, shaved his several days of stubble, and threw on a pair of cargo pants and a button-up short-sleeve shirt. He stood at his balcony door and overlooked Yokohama Bay. He could see the iconic Ferris wheel and tons of commuters starting their workday. The conversation with Champ Albright kept replaying itself in his mind. I am alone, he’d told Champ. But now Cain realized that while it was his fight, he still had a shipmate who could help. He grabbed his phone and called Chief Alvarez.
“Hurricane! It’s great to hear from you. What’s cooking?”
Cain skipped the pleasantries. “My sister, Bonnie, has been kidnapped by some Japanese criminals,” he said. “They don’t want ransom. They want to punish her for what I did.”
“How can I help?”
“I’m meeting a reporter with the Stars and Stripes this afternoon.”
“Who is it?” Chief Alvarez asked. “I might know ’em.”
“Champ Albright. You know him?”
“Yeah, I know him. He’s a weasel, but he’s well connected. He’s got a Japanese wife and he speaks the language. He’s a strange cat, though.”
“That’s ironic,” Cain said. “He goes by the nickname Cat. Look, I don’t know how else to say this…”
“Just shoot it straight and level, Hurricane, like you always have.”
“I don’t want to involve you. That’s the last thing I wanna do. You still have your career ahead of you, and you’re drawing closer to either getting promoted to senior chief or retirement. But you remember those expeditionary bags the navy used to give us when we were flying on deployments?”
“Affirm.”
“Where could I procure one of those?”
“Um, hmm. I think I’m smelling what you’re stepping in. Meet me at the bar on the southwest corner of Shiyakushomae Park in Yokosuka. I’ll have one for you.”
“I see the chiefs still run the navy,” Cain said.
Alvarez shouted the navy’s battle cry: “Hooyah!”
Chapter 64
Cain recognized Yokosuka from a distance. As he crossed the bridge that merged the toll road with Highway 16, he could see both the Japanese and American