Milton finished and tested the ties; they were good. “I want you to listen to me very carefully,” he said to her. “You’re not near anyone who would be able to hear you if you called out, so I’m prepared to leave you like this. But that’s only if you’re quiet. If you make a nuisance, we will use a gag. Do you understand?”

The indignity of her situation had turned her fear into anger. “He’ll kill you. You’re dead men. Both of you.”

Milton added a little steel to his voice. “Last chance. Will you be quiet, or do I tape your mouth shut?”

She stewed for a moment, tension written in the stiffness of her posture. “I’ll be quiet.”

“Good. Now—I’m going to blindfold you.”

Hachirō handed him an empty hessian rice sack and Milton pulled it over the woman’s head. He nodded to the older man and pushed his mask back so that it was resting against the crown of his head. He took Natsuki’s phone from the armband and powered it up. It had a fingerprint reader and, before she could protest, he isolated her index finger with his left hand and pressed the phone against it. The screen woke. Milton opened the settings and used her finger again to disable the autolock. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to translate the messages that had been sent to Natsuki, so he gave the phone to Hachirō, who scrolled through them until he had located one from her brother. Milton transferred the number into his own phone and then powered hers down again.

He double-checked that the ties were secure and went to stand with Hachirō in the alleyway. Hachirō removed his mask so that they could speak freely.

“So, what next?” he asked.

“I need to call Furokawa.”

96

Milton took out his phone and entered Satoshi Furokawa’s number.

The call was answered by a man speaking Japanese.

“Hello, Satoshi,” Milton said.

Milton had watched interviews with him on YouTube and knew that he spoke excellent English.

“Who is this?”

“You can call me Eric.”

“How did you get this number?”

“It was on your sister’s phone. Please listen carefully, Satoshi. I have Natsuki with me. She was running in Yoyogi Park this morning, the same as she always does. I don’t have any interest in hurting her. You can have her back, but we need to agree to the terms before I let her go.”

“Who are you?”

“I told you—you can call me Eric.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“I do.”

“And still you would do something like this? Do you know how stupid that is?”