Within: Chapter 2

    "Come here and sit on my lap, little boy," someone offered as he walk past.

    Aoshi paused briefly to consider the offer then moved on, threading through the packed crowd in a low rate club he had chosen that night.  Someone's hand caught onto his sleeve and drew him in away from his intended course.  Aoshi came face to face with a large man with thinning gray hair, completely decked out in leather and denim.  

    "Dance with me," the man said and pressed Aoshi close to him.  The man smelled of sweat and gasoline.  Aoshi pushed himself away.

    "Sorry, I don't dance."

    Aoshi tried to throw the man's grip off his arm but the man refused to let go.

    "I said dance with me." the man emphasized his request with a hard squeeze. Aoshi stared at the the man, unmoved and barely flinched.  Then Aoshi struck out, jabbing at the man's throat hard with his fist.  He smiled when he heard the muffled sound of something snap in the man's neck as he bowled over backwards, taking down a couple of people standing behind him as he did so. 

    "I don't know how, darling," Aoshi said softly.

    The man writhed on the floor, clutching his throat as he struggled to breathe.  A small circle of people had gathered to watch him but no one had offered to help.

    "Then maybe I can teach you?" A voice said into his ear as strong arms wound around him from behind, locking him into the embrace.

    Aoshi spun around slowly.  He nearly laughed out loud when he saw the elaborate tattoos that peeked  over the collar and cuffs of the shirt the man wore.  Must have been a yakuza underling of a modest ranking to be in a place like that.

    Aoshi leaned forward, taking in the scent of the man's cigarettes and cheap cologne.  He kissed the left ear lobe that had two diamond stud in them.

    "I don't think you know enough to teach me anything," Aoshi whispered, then bit down on the lower earring.  He bit down hard enough to rip out the stud and made the man howl out in pain.  Aoshi spat out the stud in his mouth and pushed himself away as the yakuza held his bleeding ear.  

    "You little shit!"

    Aoshi wiped the corner of his mouth where a smear of the yakuza's blood had been and shrugged.

    "Another time, baby," he said and pushed through another circle of men who had gathered around to watch the yakuza hold onto his bloodied ear.

    He was being followed, Aoshi knew.  He chuckled at the obviousness of it all.  A game that he had started to feel silly because of the predicable nature of it.  Men are stupid, he thought.  Same damn thing every single time.  Then he thought about a glass of wine to wash away the coppery taste in his mouth.    

    "Didn't you hear me when I told you to stop?" A voice roared behind him as firm hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him backwards toward them.  

    Aoshi felt himself being pressed between two muscular men as one looped his arm around his waist and picked him up.  Briefly Aoshi saw the yakuza with the bleeding ear lumbering after them with a smirk on his face.  Aoshi clawed at the thick arm that wounded tight around him.  All he successfully did was scratch the carrier and made him angrier.

    "I was gonna be nice to you when it's my turn but now I'll rip your little ass in two," Aoshi heard him say.  "Stay fucking still or I'll beat you for good measures before we even start."

    Aoshi was being carried through the dance floor and toward the back where the manager's office was.  Many people stared but no one seemed to be too concerned.  He didn't expect them to.

    After Kyrie left, I picked up his cell phone from the floor and tried it.  It still worked although the screen's cracked.  I searched through the history and found the log for calls received then phoned the person who had been Aoshi's tail.

    "Spencer-sama?" A meek voice whispered when the call was answered.

    "Not quite," I said.  "But Kyrie did go off to where ever you told him to go to.  Where did you say Aoshi was last seen?"

    "Who is this?" The meek voice had firmed into an angry, grown man's voice. 

    "Someone who's going to save Kyrie's ass after he goes in and try to save Aoshi's."

    Silence.

    "Unless you want to go into the club to extract them yourself."

    "I can't!" He said a little loud and too quick at the suggestion.  "It's insane.  Aoshi went into The Underground.  They won't even let me in through the door."

    "Thank you."

    I hung up and went downstairs to take a cab to the night club I remember fondly as a site for at least three rape-murders I had investigated years ago.  

    "Good choice, Aoshi.  You'll definitely get your dose of abuse there."

    He was thrown unceremoniously onto the stripped mattress in the empty room behind the manager's office.  He rose to his knees and watched as the three men slammed the door behind them.  

    "You hurt our friend, little one.  How do you think you'd be able to make it up to him?" The man who had carried him said as he started to unbutton the cuffs on his shirt.

    "Maybe if you would play nice and open that sweet mouth and spread that nice legs of yours for us, we might not hurt you that bad," the second man suggested as he walked in closer.

    Aoshi smiled and ran the tip of his tongue over his upper lip.  He gestured toward the yakuza with the bleeding ear. "You want to ask him what happens when I have something I don't like in my mouth?"

    "You little fuck...." the yakuza growled.  "Take off his clothes and hold him down.  I'll teach this bitch a lesson or two about respect."

    Kyrie parked the BMW sideways with one of the tires on the curb in front of the club.  A beefy bouncer standing watch at the door looked at him disapprovingly when he got out of the car.

    "You can't park there," he said.  

    Kyrie's voice softened to silk and smiled.  "I will only be a minute."

    "You still can't park there," the bouncer said again, but with a little less conviction in his voice.

    Kyrie planted a kiss on the bouncer's mouth and ran his hands along the thick chest down to the man's crotch.

    "You watch my car and I'll tip you later," Kyrie whispered into his mouth.

    "Tip...?"

    Kyrie pressed the car keys into the bouncer's hands.  

    "I tip very well.  I've been told I'm quite generous."

    The bouncer smiled and tried to lean in for another kiss.  Kyrie moved back before their mouth could connect.

    "Later.  I'll be back later," Kyrie said and pushed his way into the night club.

     "Do you like that? You little shit?" the yakuza said between his breath as he thrust in deeper and harder.  "Fucking tease.  You came here looking to get fucked and you do this to me -- "

    Aoshi screamed.  The man who had carried him bit him on his left shoulder hard enough to draw blood.  

    "You should be used to this," the man said then licked at the trickles of blood that had beaded out of the teeth mark he had left.  "You've got plenty of scars."

    Pain that was painted in red and black fade in and out of of his vision.  He gasped when the yakuza suddenly pulled out of him.  The abrupt emptiness in him was instantly filled with a dull fire that had started to burn.  Aoshi was turned over on his belly and drawn up to his knees.  His knees were kicked apart and the emptiness was filled again, but it was by a different person.  This man felt thicker than the yakuza and the change made him shudder.

      "You like pain, eh?" the yakuza said.  "I have a lot of that to give you."

    The first flash of pain that felt like a knife cutting into his back surprised him.  After the second slash of fire burned into his lower back, he became aware that the yakuza was whipping him with a belt.  Pure instinct took over when he tried to pull away but his arms were held down tightly.

    "Bad, bad boy..." the yakuza laughed and another lash came down, cutting a straight line across his tail bone to his hip.

    "I was going to treat you really good.  Maybe even pay you,"  The next lash curled around and the end of it snapped at his belly.  "Why can't you --"

    Then there's no movement and silence.  The door had been slammed open.  There were sounds of someone protesting then the mattress shifted when that someone was thrown onto it and landed beside him.

    "We were here first," the yakuza growled.  "Go somewhere else."

    "But this is the only room," a deep, dry voice said.  "Pretty isn't he? I think he knows your boy too.  It's only fitting that we share the resources, ne?"

    Aoshi looked at the familiar blue eyes as the pretty blonde spoke his name.  For some reason, he could not make his mind work.  He couldn't remember who that blonde was, although he knew he should.  

    "We have to get out of here," the blonde told him as he tried to push off the man who was holding his arm down.  The men in the room were completely amused and they laughed.

    "Fine, fine.  I've not had a blonde in awhile anyway," the yakuza said.

    The man who had been raping Aoshi pulled out.  He'd lost most of his erection then with the commotion.

    "Aoshi...? Where are you? Please, I can't do this without you..."

    Aoshi stared at the blonde blankly, uncertain why the blue eyes were rimmed with tears.  He forgot all of his pains and stared at the shimmering blue eyes until the blonde was wrenched away from his side and thrown onto his back.  Aoshi's arms were freed.  The man who had held him moved to explore the new toy instead.

    "Aoshi! Please!" 

    Aoshi crawled forward for a few feet before a hand in his hair dragged him back.

    "Let's not ruin their introduction," the yakuza said into his ear and slipped the belt around his throat.  "I'm sure some time during the night, you will get to play with your friend."

    When I got there, it had been nearly an hour after Kyrie received the call and stormed out.  I was not certain if I should be anxious or relieved when I saw Kyrie's BMW parked badly in front of the club.  When I tried to enter the club, the bouncer at the door blocked the door by standing in middle of it.

    "You don't look like you belong here," he said.  "Go home."

    "What? I don't dress sexy enough for this classy  place?"

    "Listen Mr. three-piece-suit, you don't want me to put you out."

    "No?" I said.  I reached out and grabbed him by his throat and squeezed.  At first he tried to tear my hand off his neck but when he realized he couldn't, he tried to kick me.  His over-built thick legs didn't have the reach he had hoped.  As his face was turning into a darker shade of red, he tried to hit me with his fist.  I squeezed on his carotid arteries even harder and he seemed to lose his fighting spirit abruptly.

    "I'm looking for the blonde who came in that BMW," I said.

    "Don't...know..." he rasped.  

    "You have about ten more seconds before you pass out. And after you pass out, I keep my thumb and forefinger over your arteries, I'll make you into a bigger retard than you are now.  You'll be shitting in diapers and drooling from the corner of your mouth for the rest of your fucking life."

    His dark red face was turning purple and finally, he pointed at the doorway.  He crumpled into a pile on the concrete when I released him.  

    "Thanks," I said and went into the smoke-filled night club that reeked of rancid sex and sweat.

    I barely made it through half of the club when someone tapped me on the shoulder.  I turned to look at three very big and very angry bouncers wearing sleeveless tee-shirts which bore the club logo and their names.

    "You the one who fucked with our doorman?" The bouncer with the name "Toma" in the faded stencil asked.

    "I suppose that's a no-no."

    "We need to have a talk with you outside, wise ass."

    "We won't need to go outside," I said and fished out my badge from my pocket.  I gave it to Toma to look at.  The three stared at it hard for awhile before it was handed back to me.

    "A commissioner 'eh? Should you be seen in a hole like this?" Toma said.  "And if you would've just shown the doorman the badge, he would have let you in."

    I shrugged.    

    "What do you want anyway?"

    "I'm not here on police business, if that's what you are getting antsy about.  I'm looking for two young men who would most likely be here in the last hour.  One of them has a car parked out by the curb."

    "They could be anywhere or left with somebody already."

    "Not if blondie could help it," I said.  "The one with the car came to take the first one home.  Since the car's still out front, then it means both of them are still here."

    "Are they good looking?"

    "Quite."

    The two bouncers behind Toma stepped forward and said something to Toma in his ear.  Toma frowned, then looked angry.

    "Shit," Toma said to them.  "Didn't I fucking tell you to lock the back? Now we'll have another fucking raid that'll shut us down for another month."

    "Get the boys to me and I'll pretend it didn't happen here," I said.

    The three looked at each other then Toma finally sighed and said.  "We can't go back there with you. But, check the back side of the club.  Go through the manager's office.  There's a room back there -- "

    "The storage room."

    "You've been here before?"

    "Three times gentleman," I said and turned go toward the office.  "Came here for two bodies in that same goddamn room.  After I leave, lock the back."

    Someone was crying and screaming, although he could not understand why he was.  There was a constant pounding in his belly, as if something was trying to spear through him completely and make its way out from his mouth.  

    "You have very nice friends, Aoshi," the person who was moving inside him said into his ear.

    Aoshi squeezed his eyes shut.  He could not bear to watch the pretty blonde cry.  If he could find enough strength to move his arms, he would cover his ears with his hands.  He hated the way the blonde said his name.  

      A loud bang resounded in the small room.  The man who had been raping him pulled away and turned in time to be kicked in the face by someone he could not recognize.  The blonde called out a name that he vaguely knew but couldn't match with anything in his memory.  Aoshi slumped forward, the ache in his belly started to worsen.  He wanted to vomit then, but there was nothing in his stomach to throw up.  From his side, he watched a tall man in a dark blue suit fought the men that had brought him and the blonde into that room.  

    Aoshi watched with a peculiar fascination as the blue suit casually handled the men in a fluid but brutal manner.  The yakuza with the bleeding ear charged at the blue suit with a knife.  Blue suit side-stepped and caught the knife welding hand.  Even before the yakuza could react, blue suit brought down his foot on the side of the knee.  A sickening crack followed by a scream filled the room.  Another one charged him and blue suit brought the heel of his hand up and broke his nose.  Another one he had rammed his head through the plate glass of the door, and left him there.  

    Aoshi looked away from the fight and looked to the blonde quivering in the corner of the room.  He was trying to get dressed but his hands were shaking hard.  For some reason, Aoshi felt compelled to go over and tell the blonde everything will be fine and not to be scared anymore.  Then he remembered Ian face and kind eyes as he said the same words to him when he woke from nightmares shaking and crying.  But who the hell is Ian...?  

   I gave Kyrie my jacket and went over to where Aoshi laid.  His eyes were wide open and glassy, almost as if he was drugged.  He looked at me, but I don't think he saw me.  I crouched down and checked for his pulse first to make sure he was still alive.  When I was certain he was, I slapped him.  My hand left an angry red mark on the side of his face, but he didn't react to it.  His head lolled to the side like a lifeless doll.  I became angrier and I wanted to hit him again,  I settled for cursing as I picked up his clothes that had been scattered all over the room and dressed him.  His shirt had been torn free of most its buttons and his belt was wound loosely around his neck.

    Aoshi had been raped but he wasn't bleeding.  There were several bite marks, some were already purpling, along his shoulder and leg.  When I tried to put on his shirt, I discovered dark pink welts along the back with some of it reaching around to his lower belly and hips.       

    "We'll see to it that you got out to your car, but that's it," a voice said behind me.  

    I threw a glance over my shoulder and saw Toma standing by the doorway with his boys.  I didn't answer them and looked back to Aoshi.  Dressing a lifeless adult was more difficult than I thought.

    "No cops," he added.

    "Whatever," I said and zipped up Aoshi's pants but the button was missing.  I scooped him up in my arms and gestured for Kyrie to follow.  Kyrie did what he could from his torn clothing and gathered my jacket close to his body.  He looked like a homeless child from one of the Dickens novel. 

   "I have your word that there will be no cops?" Toma said again, he and his friends remained at the doorway.

   "On the condition that these assholes are taken care of properly after they wake up," I said and nodded toward the scatterings of men lying in the corners of the room.

   Toma looked at them and smiled.  "I think you took care of them pretty well already, but consider it done."

   Two of the men lead the way and one remained behind us.  Kyrie clung onto my arm and held himself as close as he possibly could while we walked.  The club patrons stared mostly.  Some made interesting suggestions to Kyrie or possibly Aoshi.  Then one reached out to grab at Kyrie's arm.  Toma caught the hand and jerked the owner of the hand out of his seat and sent him stumbling onto the floor after he backhanded him.  For a special touch, Toma kicked him as the guy laid sprawled on the floor while he was frantically wiping at his bloodied nose.  Then there were no more snide remarks or probing hands from the club goers.  The crowd parted a wide path for us all the way through to the main doorway.

   I situated Aoshi in the backseat while the bouncer at the door tried to kiss Kyrie.  Instead, Kyrie hit him and grabbed the car key out of his hand.  Kyrie gave me the car keys and slid in beside Aoshi.

   "You okay?" I asked him.  It had occurred to me then I had not asked him this earlier.

   He nodded and leaned over and kissed me.

   "Thank you for coming after me...I couldn't--"

   I pressed my index finger over his mouth and hushed him.

   "I am still very angry," I said.  "Don't try to talk to me for awhile."

   He nodded and sank back into the plush leather seat and held Aoshi to him.  I lit up a cigarette before I placed the key into the ignition and drove out of that godforsaken place.

    Although we had entered through the private entrance in the garage, we were seen by several stunned hotel guests.  Aoshi looked like a lifeless doll in my arms, and Kyrie walked beside me as he held together his torn shirt with his hands.  When a middle aged woman wrapped in fur contemplated out loud if she should call the police, Kyrie cursed and told her to mind her own business.  There was something inexplicably sexy about the way he did that and it made me smile. 

    We went up to Aoshi's room and Kyrie bathed him while I returned to my room for a shower and put on a different suit.  When I came back to Aoshi's room, he had fallen asleep and neatly tucked into the bed.  I smoked and drank whiskey while I waited for Kyrie to return from his room.  He came back in a blue tee-shirt that had white letters "NYPD" across the chest and a pair of jeans with fashionably placed rips at the knee.  In the modest outfit, he suddenly looked like a fifteen year-old boy.  

    I offered him whiskey.  He shook his head and asked for the rest of my half-smoked cigarette.  I gave it to him.

    "Thank you for coming after me," he said after he took a couple of drags.  

    "You shouldn't smoke," I said and drained the rest of the whiskey that was in my tumbler.  "It'll kill you."

    He smiled and tapped the ashes into the glass ashtray next to me.

    "Were you hurt?"

    "Just my pride, I think," he said.  "Sex never bothered me. Even that kind with the smelly, oily men.  I was more concerned about Aoshi.  They hurt him pretty bad."

    I nodded.   

    "Are you planning to take Aoshi back to Okinawa and raise him in your closet?"

    "Might have a problem with that," I said.  "I didn't put down a pet deposit when I rented the place."

    "What do you want to do?"

    I shrugged.

    "I didn't realize I was suppose to do anything," I said.

    "But you are going to."

    "I didn't think I exuded kindness from my personality," I said.  "I still have the same answer...or rather, lack of answer for you.  I can't help him.  I don't think anyone can help him.  His monster lives inside his head."

    Kyrie took a seat on the arm of the chair across from me and drew up his knees to his chest.  He wrapped his arms around his knees and pressed his forehead against them.  He looked like he was crying, but he wasn't.  I got up and fetched myself another glass of whiskey.

    "If you let this get to you, you'll be useless to him," I said and walked to him.  "He's no longer able to take care of himself, especially with Ian about to leave him."

    He didn't answer.  I stroked his hair and he leaned in against me when I did so.

    "I'll bring him down to Okinawa with me after I make appropriate arrangements there.  He most likely won't leave Tokyo willingly until he felt you could run things completely on your own.  Could you?"

    He looked up at me.  He had the most tragic look in his eyes that reminded me of an abused kitten.  

    "For him, I will," he said.  "You will take him with you...?"

    "Not immediately," I said and smiled.  I had hoped to diffuse some of the sadness that framed Kyrie's eyes with my uncertain promises.  It did, although he seemed to be as skeptical as I was with my ability to remedy what was plaguing Aoshi.  "He's left me twice after I offered him to stay with me back when he was involved with Kanryu.  He will leave again if he refuse to sever the ties to Kanryu that imprisoned him here."

    "How...?"

    "Others would have to snip the strings for him," I said.

    He didn't understand what I was saying but he wisely kept the question to himself and nodded.  He wounded his arms around my waist and pressed his face against my side.

    "I wish I had met you under a different circumstance," he said.  His warm breath felt like velvet as he spoke.

    "Your father would never stand for my type, darling," I said.  "Have you abandoned him and your family completely?"

    "I don't know," he said after a few moments of contemplation.  "Right now, Aoshi needs me more than my father does."

    I bent down and kissed him on his forehead.  

    "So he does," I smiled, then kissed him on his mouth.

    I left for Okinawa in the early morning through an arranged flight from the Takeda private jet pool.  The pilot was not too happy when Kyrie called him a little after midnight to tell him he had to come in on his day off to fly me to Naha airport.  I told him I would return in two days, after I complete the recent court case and decide what to do with Aoshi then.  Kyrie only nodded and said an apology in his uncharacteristically soft voice.  I was not certain why he said he was sorry but I didn't ask.  I was already twenty minutes late.

    Kyrie phoned me on my cell later that day to tell me that Aoshi was back to his usual self the next morning with no obvious recollection of what had transpired less than twelve hours ago.  He didn't even question the marks left on his body or mysterious pains he must have had.

    "I told him you would come for him the day after," Kyrie said.  "He only looked at me like I'm from another planet."

    "He looks at me like that all the time."

    "Then he said he's planning to leave for Germany with Ian tomorrow afternoon."

    "For what?"

    "He didn't give me the full detail but there seemed to be a problem with one of the former clients in Berlin he had broken ties with.  They were...well, threatening the company because Aoshi pulled the finances on them completely."

    "It's his money and his prerogative, why is he going down there to talk about this?"

    "That group...sent my father a bad letter."

    "Bad letter?"

    "They told my father to take me back within the next week before they take me and do some...things to me before sending my body to him in several packages.  A copy of the letter's been sent to a major newspaper in London. The letter was kept from being printed by father's pressure, but I am not sure how long this could be kept before someone leaks this out in a paper outside England."

    "They targeted you because...?"

    "Because it's common knowledge that I was the reason why Aoshi went legit and cut ties with the shadier investments.  So if I were to be removed from the picture, perhaps Aoshi would return the things to the way it was."

    "Perhaps, but I doubt Aoshi would deal with an organization who would involve family with the business."

    "It doesn't matter," he said.  "He's there to settle everything, he said."

    "How long would he be gone?"

    "Tomorrow night.  I don't think he's going to do much sight-seeing right after the meeting."

    "Will you be fine?"

    "The best bodyguards money can buy," he said.  "I do wish you are here though."

    "I would like nothing more than be there to guard your body," I said.  "But after three years of investigation and twenty million yen thrown into this case, walking out on it on the last day would make some important people very angry with me."

    "I know.  I know.  I just wished..." Then he had nothing more to add to it.  Instead, he said his good-bye and promised he would call me next day after the trial to confirm my flight time.  I returned to the courtroom thinking about Aoshi and Germany and the letter that was sent to Kyrie's father.  I was so immersed in the thought and an odd feeing that rose from it that I didn't catch much of anything through the trial for the rest of that afternoon.

    I was already seated in the courtroom the next morning when my cell phone vibrated against my pocket.  The prosecutor looked at me impatiently when I fished it out of my pocket and looked at the screen name.  It was Kyrie's number.  I told the prosecutor to begin then excused myself to answer the phone outside.

    "Ian's dead," Kyrie said in a small voice.  He had been crying and his voice was broken as he spoke.  "They killed Ian."

    "Is Aoshi hurt?"

    "I don't know.  He called and said Ian died protecting him then hung up.  I don't know what's going on."

    "You stay where you are.  These people might be making their move now that they've killed.  Send some people there and find out where Aoshi is and bring him back."

    He sniffled and might have said "yes" before he hung up.  I called Okita before I returned to the courtroom to resume the case.

    "Von Erich's killed in Berlin not too long ago," I said.  "Aoshi's missing.  It might have been a hit on Aoshi gone wrong.  Can you see if you can get some information from your friends over at Interpol and wring out some information?"

    "Berlin? That's not quite next door to Scotland Yard.  It might take a while.  Well, it depends on how well Berlin police work with Interpol."

    "Do what you can."

    "Of course."

    I came back to Tokyo as soon as I could.  In spite of my warning not to leave where he was staying at, Kyrie came to Narita to meet with me.  He looked tired and as if he had just stopped crying a few minutes ago.  I held him for a few moments while the people looked at us through three bodyguards in dark suits that had formed a circle around us.

    "Any word from him?"

    He shook his head.

    "We'll find him," I said.

    He nodded and we left Narita in a limo.  We didn't go to Shinagawa this time.  We were driven to the Takeda mansion instead.  I knew why Kyrie had relocated.  Compared to a hotel which had public access and perhaps only one policeman or a couple of unarmed security guards on duty, Takeda mansion's a fortress.  Kyrie has the freedom to post as many armed men as he like on the property plus there would be full Close-Circuit TV coverage on every inch of the house.  When I had been in the mansion with Okita to interview Kiros, I took note of the the thick bullet-proof windows and two full armories.  There would probably be secret passages where Kyrie could slip out of if someone had managed to slip through human and mechanical detection.  

    "How do you feel?" I asked him and pulled him into my lap after I took a seat in front of a gas-operated fireplace.  

    The maids took my suitcase and were unpacking it for me.  Kyrie had re-hired most of the housing staff Kiros had fired since they were already familiar with the usual procedures and knew how to deal with emergencies unique to the business.  I did not see Nakamura.    

    "Tired," he said with a weak smile. 

    "Were there any witnesses to the incident?"

    "Only one," he said.  "The guards that survived the shooting said the meeting ended on a final but not mutually agreeable note.  Aoshi had threatened absolute retaliation instead of giving into the blackmail.  Supposedly the leader of the organization consented to backing off completely and both wash their hands of each other.  When Aoshi and Ian was about to get into the car to leave, several group members, either acting on their own or on orders, charged them with shotguns and tried to take Aoshi."

    "Did they take Aoshi?"

    "No.  Our men killed the group that ambushed them in the parking lot.  Though the surviving guard was the only one that lived through the shooting.  We lost five men.  There were still live fire being exchanged when they were down to one wounded guard and Aoshi and Ian.  They were starting to get into the car when Ian took a sniper bullet.  The guard said Aoshi just froze.  He was covered in Ian's blood with the body in his arms.  He couldn't remember much of what happened after that really.  He said he was just in a panic to leave because he saw the front gate's being closed."

    "Then what became of Aoshi after that?"

    "No one knew.  The guard said he just drove as fast as he could, taking any road he could find to shake the pursuing vehicles.  Then when he they did lose the tails, Aoshi told our man to drive to a hospital.  He did and when he got there, Aoshi gave him a stack of cash and my number, then left him standing by the curb.  Aoshi drove off in the car with Ian's body in the backseat."

    "No one's seen him since."

    "No.  I have people there looking, but they can't find him,"  he said.  "What do you think he would do?"

    "He's going to want to bury Ian somewhere that meant something to him or both of them.  Have you sent someone to Ian's birth home for leads?"

    "I can find out where it is."

    "Then I think he's going to want to even the score before he's willing to leave," I said.  "We probably won't find him until he wants to be found."

    We were quiet again.  Kyrie pressed his face against my chest and sighed into it.

    "Saitoh, can I ask you to stay with me tonight?"

    I stroked his hair and whispered to him that I would. 

END PART 2  08122002