Christopher Golde
Date: 15th February 2000 Location: Tokyo, Japan
“Where the hell are you,” said Jason into the telephone, as he walked out of the terminal at Tokyo International Airport? “Well stay put and I’ll be there as soon as I pick up my car.”
Jason was annoyed, but it wasn’t with Pietta, it was more because someone was playing with him and he didn’t like it one little bit. Looking along the sidewalk he saw his driver standing by his shiny black Mercedes, parked at the end of a long line of cars.
He walked up to the rear door as the driver opened it for him and he climbed in. As always, he travelled light with one hand-carry bag that had everything he required for travelling overnight, including his laptop, communications, a change of clothes, a book to read and basic toiletries. In almost every city in Asia, he owned an apartment, fully equipped, as if he lived there permanently.
Once the driver was behind the wheel, Jason talked to him in Japanese.
“Just take me to the garage, Tony.”
The driver nodded and pulled out into the constant flow of airport traffic. Tony was Japanese, but his grandfather had been Italian and to honour him, each first male in every family of his seven children had been named after his grandfather. It made him feel very continental and Tony liked that very much. One day, it was his intention also to have a son, and he too would be named Tony.
Jason sat in the back of the limousine and stared out at the open highway as they headed towards Tokyo. He was deep in thought, and they weren’t comforting thoughts.
‘I told Pietta to stay in Hong Kong till I got back, so what is she doing here?’
He had arrived back in Hong Kong that morning, expecting to find her at his apartment. When she was not there, he had called her cellular phone, only to find she was waiting for him in Tokyo. All she had said was, “You told me to come……” then Jason had cut her off fearing her phone might be tapped.
“Stay there, don’t leave your room, I’m coming,” he had told her.
“Second thoughts Tony, take me straight to the Hyatt Hotel and wait, I’ll get the car after.”
It was almost evening on a Saturday, so by Tokyo standards, the traffic was light. Jason looked out of the car window as they whizzed by the mid-level office windows, with people sitting at their desks. Weekend or no weekend, Tokyo only ever half stopped and many of the office towers were still at least fifty percent lit up. The highway had left the ground long ago and now wound its way like a snake through the city, with other highways passing overhead and underneath. Tokyo always reminded Jason of a big bowl of spaghetti, with its network of roads and highways, crisscrossing at all levels, sometimes five and six deep, winding their way around, and even passing through some buildings as they navigated the endless maze of giant skyscrapers.
Finally, Tony pulled the Benz up in front of the Hyatt Hotel. Jason alighted, bowed his head to the doorman, and entered the lobby, going straight to reception. He asked for the room of Miss Pietta Chong and after they had called to check if it was okay, gave him the number. He entered the glass elevators that centred the lobby and pushed the button for the sixth floor.
When Pietta opened the door, Jason just stood looking at her.
“You look fantastic,” he said, genuinely pleased to see her.
He always knew that to put her in a good mood, the first thing he must do was let her know how good she looked. He didn’t mind, it was never a lie. He then entered dropping his case and embracing her warmly. He pulled back and looked into her beautiful Asian features.
“What are you doing here,” he said softly, unable to wait any longer to ask.
He turned and closed the door then grabbed her around the waist and walked her to the centre of the room.
“You left a message with the manager at your apartment in Hong Kong,” she said defensively, “it said ‘can’t make it to Hong Kong meet you in Tokyo tomorrow, get a room at the Hyatt Hotel’, and here I am.”
He looked at her concerned. He knew he hadn’t left any such message, so who did and why?
Jason let go of her waist and walked to the window that looked into the street outside the main entrance of the hotel.
“This must be some sort of trap, especially after that ambush in China.”
“What did happen to you in China,” she asked, following him to the window? “Are you alright? Last we saw of you these gunmen were….”
“Yes I’m fine darl,” he interrupted, “I’ll tell you all about it after we get out of here.”
“Out of here,” she said surprised?
“We don’t want to be here; this is where they, whoever they are, want us to be.”
“Oh,” she said, sitting herself down on the edge of the bed, “so you think its Fujimo!”
Jason could hear the obvious fear in her voice.
“Would make sense, though I suspect he is using you as bait. If he had wanted to hurt you, he would have done that by now,” he said, reassuringly. “In China, when I refused his offer to do business with him, we were set upon by local thugs, now this concocted diversion to Japan, Fujimo’s hometown, I dare say we are right where he wants us to be.”
He looked at her sitting on the bed, head cast down.
“Come on,” he said, walking over and pulling her head to his stomach, “as I said, if they’re after anyone it’s me, so let’s just pack your things and we’ll get out of here and go somewhere safe, where we control the situation. Come on let’s go and don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”
She hugged him hard for a few seconds, then stood and went into the bedroom, where she took from the cupboard a suitcase and started packing clothes from the wardrobe. Jason went back to the window deep in thought.
“Now let me think,” he said softly, under his breath, “They know we are here. They expect me to realize it’s a trap. They expect us to leave. They probably watched me come in and they will wait for us to come out. The lobby is crowded and Tony is looking after the car. I guess all we have to do is lose them.”
Jason first went to the hotel phone and called reception.
“Miss Chong is checking out, could you please send someone for her bags.”
He then got out his cellular, took it apart and put in a sim card from his wallet. He dialled.
“Tony, listen carefully.”
After he had given Tony his instructions, he helped Pietta complete her packing and soon there was a ring at the door.
The porter took Pietta’s bags to the lobby with instructions to put them in Jason’s car immediately. Jason and Pietta, on getting to the lobby, went to the reception. Pietta excused herself on the way there and went to the ladies room. Jason paid Pietta’s bill with his credit card and thanked the cashier with a bow, he then went to the centre of the lobby with his bag and waited.
He put on his sunglasses and carefully studied each and every face in the lobby. There were quite a few in the area, as it was a Saturday night and many people were dressed for a night on the town, or for dining at some of the hotel's fine restaurants.
After a glance at his watch, he looked in the direction of the restrooms. He walked to the Hotel entrance and saw Tony waiting by the car door patiently, all packed ready to go. He waived to Tony, indicating with his index finger in the air that they would be there shortly. He looked at his watch again and walked towards the area where the restrooms were located.
Once out of sight of the lobby, he looked around. No-one was within visual. A woman came out of the ladies room and walked past him. When she was gone he went in the opposite direction to the lobby, past the restrooms, to a door that had a picture of stars on it. Opening that door he was greeted by Pietta, her relief at seeing him was obvious. He smiled but didn’t stop.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said, as he took off down the stairs. He held her hand and she followed. At the bottom of the first flight, there was a door with a bolt. The words were in Japanese but the background was bright red. He turned to her.
“Fire exit!”
He pushed the large bolted lock to one side unclipping the lock and pushed the door open.
“Unfortunately, it will probably trigger a fire alarm somewhere, so let’s get going,” he said, pushing the door open.
They were immediately hit in the face with a blast of outside air. Jason pulled her through the door and they found themselves in an alleyway next to the hotel. He glanced each way, trying not to look too suspicious, then walked off, leading her away from the front of the hotel, and into a side entrance of a shopping mall.
Outside the front of the hotel, Tony looked at his watch saw that five minutes had passed then got into the black Mercedes, started the engine and pulled out into the Saturday night traffic of Tokyo.
The mall that they had walked into bustled with people pouring into restaurants, bars, and popular gaming rooms. As they walked Jason smiled at Pietta reassuringly and he was pleased to see that she seemed a little more relaxed. As he looked at her, his trained eye also scanned each face in the crowd, looking for matches with all those he had stored in his photographic memory from the hotel lobby.
“It is fortunate that the garage where I keep my car is not that far from the Hyatt,” he said in her ear as they walked.
After about ten minutes of walking, they arrived at a building obviously built with the sole purpose of storing cars. At an office at the front of the building, Jason spoke to a man and showed him a plastic card. The attendant swiped the card then pushed some buttons on a control panel in front of him.
In Tokyo, where space was a prime commodity, there were many buildings like these, where cars were parked in little compartments, horizontally ten deep and vertically fifty high. Jason heard the electric motors of the giant car lift, as it found his car and like a giant Rubix cube made its manoeuvres to bring it to the front. Then once that movement had ceased the giant rotary lift came to life and cars in little cages moved mechanically past the entrance, which was open to the street. Finally, Jason saw his shiny red Ferrari Spider come into sight and it stopped right at the entrance ready to be unloaded. The attendant smiled, grabbed the keys out of a box and jumped eagerly into the sports car, started the motor with the familiar Ferrari roar and inched it forward into the street.
Jason thanked the attendant with a polite bow of the head and opened the passenger door for Pietta. Once behind the wheel, he relaxed and smiled at her.
“Now we’re safe,” he said, with a cheeky grin.
She looked at him, also now smiling. She adored the mischievous boy he would become when he played with his toys.
The red Ferrari 360 Spider pulled out into the night like a tiger on the prowl and disappeared with a purr into the traffic.
Jason pulled the car up outside one of his favourite Tokyo clubs. They always kept a parking space near the front for guests like Jason and after he had glided into it, he got out of the car, opened Pietta’s door for her, then went over and spoke to the doorman leaving him the key.
Pietta had never been to a club in Tokyo before and had no idea what to expect. As they entered, they were greeted with a chorus of greetings in Japanese and escorted to a private area at the rear of the dimly lit club. To Pietta, there seemed to be more staff than guests. Once they were seated on the plush sofa type seat in the booth, two stunning girls, one Asian and one blonde Caucasian came and spoke to Jason. He spoke in Japanese, but she at least knew he ordered drinks and food.
At the front, not too far from them, a man in a suit and tie sat in front of a huge karaoke screen crooning in Japanese, while behind him, images of a couple kissing on the beach slowly faded as the sun went down somewhere in the tropics.
Once the two girls were gone, he turned to Pietta.
“You okay now,” he asked, genuinely concerned?
“I’m okay,” she replied. “I’m always okay when I’ve got you around. Do you think we lost anyone that was following us?”
“Pretty sure, but as big a city as Tokyo is, for someone like Fujimo, it is small, so we are still in danger I would suspect. That’s why I came here, it costs a fortune to be a member and they won’t let in anybody they don’t know.”
“Good,” she said, relieved.
“We need to talk,” he said, moving closer to her.
She looked at him worried.
“Nothing to worry about,” he reassured her, “it’s just about what happened to me in China.”
She again looked relieved.
“Yes I would like to know, I was so worried about you.”
A girl returned with their drinks then left.
“Well to start with,” he continued, “when we got separated, I got shot in the side by one of Fujimo’s thugs.”
He lifted his shirt and leaned to one side, so she could see the still fresh injury. She gasped with horror.
“My god Jason, are you okay?”
He could see a tear in her eye.
“I’m okay,” he said, lowering his shirt and grabbing her hand. “An old man with an ox and cart rescued me and took me to a doctor. I’m all better now.”
As she sat listening intently, he told her about his journey to Tibet and the meeting with the monks. He told her about what he discovered at the ‘Temple of Light’ and her eyes opened wide.
“So now you’ll perhaps understand, why I’m going to ask you to do what I am about to ask you to do,” he said, looking directly into her wide beautiful brown eyes.
“I need some time to look into this more. Business has been good to me and I enjoy doing what we do, but I feel there is something much more important I have to do now.”
She listened breathlessly, wondering what it was he was about to ask.
“I am resigning as head of Intertrade and I want……”
Jason’s phone, which was sitting on the table, began to ring and they both looked at it. Jason looked up at Pietta.
“Sorry, I have to answer this, it is an emergency number and only my driver Tony and our head office in Australia have it.”
She smiled.
“Of course, go ahead,” she said.
Jason picked up the phone looking at its face. ‘Redirected number’ was all it read.
He pushed the answer button and put it to his ear.
“Hello.”
There was a pause before he answered.
“Who is this?”
“Nigel who…How did you get…? Okay, okay, I’m listening.”
He listened and his face darkened.
“How do I know this is not a ….? Okay, okay, that’s fair enough; I believe you…thank you.”
Jason put down the phone slowly, looking at it with a thoughtful look on his face.
“We have to get out of here now,” he said, earnestly!
He looked up to the front of the room. Another singer was now belting out a Japanese version of an Elvis Presley song. Jason stood and held out his hand to Pietta. She looked at him worried again but took his hand and stood.
As they walked towards the entrance Jason got behind her and said softly near her ear.
“I’m not worried inside the club, but when we get to the entrance, let me go out by myself, get the car, then I will pull up right in front of the door and rev the engine. I want you to run out and jump in. Got it!”
She just nodded.
As they came to the front door he said.
“Okay, wait here till you hear the car rev loud.”
At that Jason went out through the front door. First, he spoke to the doorman, got his keys and put a sizeable tip discreetly into the palm of his hand. He then walked across to the Ferrari, parked less than twenty paces from the door. As he walked his eyes purveyed every inch of the street, looking at every face and in every car until finally, he came to a large black four-wheel-drive parked on the opposite side of the road about one more block away. Jason climbed into the driver’s seat of the Ferrari and immediately looked in the rear vision mirror. The four-wheel-drive was pulling out from the curb. He wasted no time starting his engine and accelerating up to the front door. He revved the motor loud and the giant Ferrari 3.6 litre V8 engine screamed.
The doorman swung back the door to the club. In his mirror, Jason saw the sinister black wagon accelerate towards him. Pietta ran from the open door of the club, as Jason leaned over and pushed open the passenger door of the Ferrari. Pietta jumped in.
“Quick close the door,” is all he yelled and before it was completely closed the Ferrari leapt out of the gutter on to the road. He looked again. The black four-wheel-drive was now only feet from their tail and he could see a large barrel coming out of the passenger window, as it began to veer out to overtake. Jason smiled and pushed his foot down on the accelerator smoothly.
“Buckle up darl and hold on.”
The Ferrari’s wheels bit into the bitumen and Jason watched the four-wheel-drive start to drop away in his mirror as if they had suddenly stopped. The driver of the black wagon was stunned, as the red Ferrari just accelerated away from him and he was left sitting out on the other side of the road.
Jason could see that as the pursuing vehicle swerved back to the right side of the road, the steel barrel was retracted back into the car. The four-wheel-drive responded quickly under the might of its big eight-cylinder engine but the Ferrari slipped around the next corner as if stuck to a set of rails. The four-wheel-drive lumbered around the same corner, wheels screeching and swaying dramatically across both sides of the road, the driver fighting to keep control.
Jason looked ahead and saw the cars in front of him were stopped at a red light at the next intersection, about fifty yards away. In his rear vision mirror, he could see the four-wheel-drive balance itself, after sliding around the previous corner and accelerate towards them.
“No choice,” said Jason, and pulled the sports car out to overtake the stationary traffic. He slowed dramatically at the red light and when he saw it was clear, accelerated across the intersection. The four-wheel-drive did not slow at all and wildly pulled out to overtake, almost slamming into Jason’s tail as they hammered into the intersection blindly.
“They’re obviously not too concerned about road safety,” Jason quipped, as he approached the cars travelling slowly in front of him.
Without slowing this time, Jason swung the Ferrari wildly out and passed the two cars, overtaking them in a flash, then took a hard left at the next intersection. In his mirror, he saw the black wagon do the same, but instead of a clean manoeuvre, one of the overtaken cars was forced off the road by the pursuing vehicle and crashed into a parked car, as the black four-wheel-drive veered left around the corner.
“They’re persistent,” Jason said, glancing at Pietta who was white as a sheet and hanging onto the door handle for her life.
The Ferrari sped past two more cars, just missing an oncoming vehicle, with the black car now sitting only a car length behind them. Once again, Jason saw something long protrude from the passenger side window and just as he swung the Ferrari into another left corner he heard a ‘zing, smack’ and a hole appeared in the rear window of the Ferrari.
“Damn,” he yelled, “are you okay Pietta?”
He looked at her pinned to the sports seat of the Ferrari, she grimaced but nodded.
“Okay that’s enough, we’re outta here”
Jason looked in his mirror to see the four-wheel-drive swing wildly around the last corner and pushed down on his accelerator.
“Corners are their weakness and our strength,” he said, under his breath.
He then swung right and the sports car responded without deviation. The black wagon, smoke erupting from its’ tyres, took the same bend wildly, cutting the corner and hitting the gutter. Jason swung the Ferrari left around the next corner, then accelerated, but it was short-lived as this street was much narrower and two cars were in front of him and another coming towards them. There was nowhere to go.
The black four-wheel-drive came round the corner behind them sideways and balanced up, lurching to within two car lengths of the Ferrari. Jason took a break presented to him as the car went past in the opposite direction and accelerated to the opposite side of the road. The attackers followed blindly, now almost on his tail. The Ferrari accelerated and started to pull away still on the wrong side of the road.
Then, fifty yards ahead, Jason saw it.
“Oh-oh,” he said.
Pietta saw it too. She sank into her seat as far as she could.
A large semi-trailer was backing out across the roadway ahead and there were no off streets to be seen. The car Jason was still overtaking, slowed quickly, leaving them out by themselves on the opposite side of the road, going far too fast to stop in time The four-wheel-drive was still on their tail, now only inches from Jason’s car.
As the semi came fully across the roadway, Jason could now see the cabin of the truck coming into view. The driver of the truck saw both cars approaching at collision speed and froze, leaving its trailer blocking the whole road. His wide eyes were the last thing Jason saw before he accelerated and aimed for the centre of its body.
Jason had only guessed he would fit, but fortunately, he had been correct. The height of the Ferrari was four feet one inch. The height to the undercarriage of the truck at its load-carrying centre was four feet four inches. The height of the URV was six-foot, give or take an inch.
Just after Jason’s Ferrari disappeared under the trailer and emerged like a bullet, unscathed from the other side, the URV slammed into the fully loaded centre of the truck at more than one hundred kilometres per hour. In Jason’s rearview mirror he saw a fireball rise into the air at least fifty feet. Jason noticed that the Ferrari had lost its passenger-side mirror, which must have been sheared off by something on the undercarriage of the truck.
Quickly he slowed the sports car and cruised down the street at a normal speed. He looked at Pietta. She had no colour and was almost level with the bottom of the seat. He doubted she would be able to see over the dash from where she was.
“It’s over darl,” he said, smiling and trying to reassure her she was now safe, by offering her his free hand and putting it on her leg. “I don’t think we should stick around, let’s go somewhere safe.”
Pietta rose up out of her seat and looked out the front window, then the back window, then at Jason. She grabbed his hand and wept.
Let those who read this verse consider it profoundly,
Let the profane and ignorant herd keep away;
And far away all Astrologers, idiots and barbarians,
May he who does otherwise be subject to the sacred rite.
Nostradamus Century VI .100
Chapter forty five
The Partner