Freedom Earned Read online

  By the time we were finding our seats on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto, the buzz from the drinks was starting to wear off. Not enough, however, to make me rub my eyes in doubt when I thought for sure that the man who had just passed by the train window was the one I had seen following me when I first arrived in Tokyo to meet Jason. The man who had been driving by his apartment before our trip to Thailand, and the one who was likely responsible for bombing his place.

  Considering all we had recently gone through, I wasn’t about to take any chances.

  “Heads up,” I said, eyes darting among my friends. Prenie was a bit of a badass and could handle herself. Jason could street brawl, but his fiancée? Not likely to be much help in this situation. “Pren, can you…?”

  She nodded, already motioning them up and toward the break in the cars. “We’ll all take a bathroom break.”

  I wanted to laugh at the idea of the three of them locked in the bathroom and how any Japanese people who came across them would see it, but the situation was too serious. As they went, I spun in the direction the man had gone and charged through the door.

  There he was! Stumbling back and staring at me with wide eyes. A tall Japanese man with a slight mustache, one of his hands in the pocket of his long coat. Moving fast, I was on him, pinning him to the wall as my hand found his and slammed it against the wall.

  Something clattered to the floor, but it wasn’t a gun.

  “Who sent you?” I demanded.

  “You’re mistaken,” he muttered, breaths coming hard as I pushed a forearm up under his chin.

  “You’re with them, aren’t you?” Mind racing, I realized I didn’t know who ‘them’ was, so added, “With Sroy Wu?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Look at the badge.”

  “Badge?” I stared at him in confusion, only then noticing a small crowd gathered at the windows of the neighboring train cars. My eyes moved to the floor, where what he had dropped came into focus—a badge. “So, what is it?”

  “I’m not with them, I was sent to watch over you. See if there was a threat. Apparently, there was.”

  “Damn right, there was.” I slowly released him, taking a step back. “How do I know you’re who you say you are? Or that you’re not corrupt?”

  “I can only promise, and show you what information we’ve been able to gather.” He smoothed out his jacket, gave a slight bow to those watching, and motioned for me to follow as a message sounded saying we were about to depart. “Come, follow me.”

  “Actually, my friends are that way.”

  “Ah, yes.” He smiled wide. “This man Jason, what agency does he work for?”

  I chuckled, shaking my head. “No, you have it all wrong…” Except, did he? Mind racing, I started putting together what I knew about Jason. He studied Japanese in college, but with a minor in world affairs. After graduation, he went off to his teacher training, or so I thought. Could it have been CIA or something of the sort? Was there any chance his trip to Thailand had been part of some elaborate scheme to lure Sroy Wu and her companions out of hiding?

  Not a chance.

  “Leave us alone,” I said, turning to head back to my seat.

  “You’re in their sights, now,” the man replied. “Leaving you alone will never be an option. Not until they’re all caught.”

  I paused at the doorway. “Then do your job. Catch them.”

  With that, I strolled past the curious eyes, back through the other car and to the bathroom where my friends were huddled. Only, as the bathroom door opened and they emerged, a look of terror came over Sakura as her gaze moved over my shoulder and past me.

  “Down!” Jason grabbed me, pulling so that all four of us toppled into the bathroom as the door closed and a shot rang out.

  Glass shattered from the small window in the door. A man’s face appeared a second later, then his pistol a second after that. Before he could get his shot off, though, Jason was there, slamming the pistol up so the shot went wild.

  Shouting came from beyond our attacker, then two shots. I jumped up, opened the door, and saw our attacker on one knee, blood pooling around him, his pistol aimed at what was likely my new Japanese law-enforcement friend.

  I didn’t have a gun, but the luggage was stowed on a ledge to my right. Acting fast, I grabbed a smaller bag and a backpack. A heave sent the smaller bag into the air and over him, so that he looked up in confusion as he saw the movement. Before he had time to process it, I came in swinging, backpack slamming into the side of his head as I shouted, “Don’t shoot!” to anyone out there on my side, then pummeled into the attacker. Two well-placed punches to his kidney caused him to drop the pistol, but the man had pulled a knife.

  The knife fell, red blossoming from the attacker’s chest before I registered the sound of the pistol going off, or saw Prenie standing over the man. She shot once more, this time the sound very clear and loud, echoing in the small area between the train cars.

  As the man crumpled to the floor, she collapsed at my side, pulling me to her and asking if I was hurt.

  “I’m good,” I assured her, watching as Jason and Sakura stared in shock and the Japanese law enforcement guy charged in. A quick check on the fallen attacker, a few words of mumbled Japanese from each side, and then the attacker was gone.

  “Call me Yoshihiro,” our new friend said. “Consider my job done.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “I know who this man is, and the organization he works for. You aren’t in the clear yet, but this is a start.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Jason asked, holding his shaken fiancée close.

  “Our vacation,” I said with a sigh. “We might not be able to get to it quite yet.”

  “Actually…” Yoshihiro eyed me, then the other three. “I can have agents waiting on the other side. Watching. Preparing.”

  “I don’t follow,” Prenie said, and Sakura gave Jason a line about wanting to go to his place and forget all about this.

  “Muri,” he replied in Japanese, meaning impossible. “They blew it up.”

  She stared in shock, then nodded, turned back to Yoshihiro and nodded at him.

  “Let me get this straight,” Prenie said, eyeing the man. “You want to use us as bait?”

  “I want you to enjoy your vacation, under surveillance, so that when they strike again, we can intervene.” Yoshihiro offered his best smile, although it was clearly forced. “How does that sound?”

  “Insane,” I replied, but turned to Prenie and the others. “But… better than being cooped up, yeah?”

  “Maybe this is the end of it,” Yoshihiro said. “Maybe they’ll redirect their attention elsewhere, realizing that you’re too well guarded. Too resilient. We can only hope.”

  The funny part was that I wasn’t sure which way he was leaning with that hope. It seemed from the way he said it that he hoped they would come, so that he could catch them.

  To our relief, though, we began our vacation, trying our best to ignore the team of Japanese agents with their eyes on us at all times. Even in the onsen, or hot springs, I noticed at least one agent come in with us. At least we had privacy at night.

  “Only two rooms left,” the clerk at the ryokan had said. Jason and Sakura had taken one, while Prenie and I shared a nervous glance before agreeing to take the last room available. We entered to find tatami floors with pullout mats and blankets to sleep on. We had arrived late at night, so it was past dinner. Not that it mattered, because we were exhausted.

  Not too exhausted, though. I went and washed up, putting on the yukata robe on my way out, earning myself an amused smile from Prenie when she saw it. She came over and decided I would be best without it, then told me to wait while she rinsed. What followed was everything I had hoped it would be—minus having to be careful of our respective injuries—and we were soon wrapped in each other’s arms, lying there in complete bliss.

  I thought sleep would never take me. Not with the threat of more attackers coming at any min
ute. But, sleep won out, and soon I was off to dreamland, seeing images of the two of us charging through hordes of enemy soldiers. We wore red bandanas and our bodies were slick with sweat, massive assault rifles dealing out justice.

  The sun streaming through the window woke me. My first thought was confusion at how my body could feel so much pain and yet be so relaxed and at ease at the same time. My hand reached out for Prenie, but she wasn’t there. I sat up with a jolt, glancing around, and then found her at the window, grinning my way.

  “Wakey, wakey,” she said, and then motioned me over. “Looks like we got a nice wakeup present.”

  Still not exactly alert, I stretched, pushed myself up, and walked over to the window. There in the streets were several police cars, an ambulance, and a news crew.

  My friend Yoshihiro was there, leading a handcuffed man away. At least two corpses lay on the ground.

  “What…” I started, but it was all clear, really. The attack had come as we slept, and it had been efficiently dealt with by our Japanese friends. Yoshihiro now had live prisoners, people to question and use to get back to the source.

  Maybe we would still be in trouble. I had no idea. What I did know, though, was that for the moment, we had struck a blow at the enemy.

  “Sad that you missed the action?” Prenie asked, taking my hand in hers.

  I laughed. “Wait, that wasn’t you last night? Because I was here for the action, where were—”

  She playfully hit me. “Quiet, you.” Her laughter comforted me.

  “As for out there,” I said, nodding back to the scene below. “Trust me, I was right where I wanted to be.”

  She snuggled up close to me. “So was I.”

  We didn’t have long before I would have to go back to Okinawa and report in, but for the moment, none of that mattered. Our new friend below glanced up, nodded at seeing us, and then we turned from the window, closing the blinds to get on with our day.

  Kyoto was waiting for us, after all.

  THE END

  About the Author

  J.D. Stone served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps doing signals intelligence and martial arts instruction. Now he resides in the Los Angeles area with his family, where he writes full time.

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