Jason Rohan - The Sword of Kuromori

‘He did, sir. Details are as yet unclear, but it would appear that Harashima -san may have been involved.’

‘How can you be sure?’

‘Two police cars, one truck and two motorcycles were destroyed. We had a road closure for three hours.’

The senior man nodded. ‘Yes, that sounds like Harashima all right.’ He sighed and stood stiffly. ‘Do we know where the boy is now?’

‘He is hidden from us. His being gaijin makes him harder to track.’

The older man dabbed his forehead with a silk handkerchief. ‘What of the boy? Is it true?’

Miyamoto nodded. ‘Sato tested him. He has the Gift of Sight.’

‘And to think we had him in our hands.’

The man shuffled round to a small cage perched on a filing cabinet. Inside, a fluffy, toffee-coloured ball lay curled on the sawdust. ‘The father?’

‘Arrested yesterday afternoon. He doesn’t know anything. He was simply there to meet the boy at the airport.’

The older man reached into the cage and gently lifted out the hamster. It sat up sleepily in his palm. He tickled it beneath the chin and fed it a pumpkin seed. ‘What charges are you holding the father with?’

Miyamoto shrugged. ‘We’ll probably go with possession of drugs. No one ever questions that when it comes to gaijin . We can make it stick.’

The man carried the hamster to a sideboard opposite. A fish tank sat on top, but no water was inside.

‘So, here we are – a few days away and now this boy arrives . . . this boy who can see ,’ the older man said.

‘It doesn’t mean anything,’ Miyamoto ventured. ‘It doesn’t mean he is the one, does it, sir?’

The man lifted the lid from the fish tank and set it aside. ‘I don’t believe in prophecies,’ he said. ‘You’ve read Macbeth . Prophecies only come true when men act on them. Do nothing and who can say if anything will happen?’

‘But, sir, if there is any chance . . .?’

Something unfurled itself from within the tank, light reflecting from its tiny scales. The man dangled the hamster by one leg.

‘We have the boy’s father,’ he said. ‘Even if, by some miracle, the child is able to retrieve the sword, he will never be allowed to use it.’

There was a flash of movement, a piteous, muffled squeak and the hamster was gone, held in the jaws of the snake, which settled down to digest its meal.

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