Fuminori Nakamura - Evil and the Mask

Suddenly he began to shout. His mouth opened so wide I thought it would split and his bloodshot eyes bulged. In his exposed throat the thick veins stood out clearly.

“Quick! Everything will be forgiven. The gods and history are watching.”

He stretched his neck even more, staring at me. My hand clutching the knife was soaked with sweat. I saw my father, twitching and convulsing with hunger in that tiny room.

“I can’t.”

“What?”

His face contorted.

“I’m too tired,” I said. “Tired of this feeling.”

He looked at me, mouth sagging.

“What a weakling! You’ve already killed two people. I expected better of you.”

Gradually his expression regained its former blankness, as though something had passed. All that remained were the beads of sweat on his forehead. Once again his face revealed no emotion at all.

“You’re pathetic. Really. Here’s what will happen if you don’t. I’ll ruin that girl Kaori, and there’s no way you can stop me. I’ll keep her alive, but I’ll destroy her, and I’ll make you watch. I’ll finish what Father couldn’t. Perhaps that echo will alleviate my depression a little.”

He picked up his whiskey again. I took out my pen.

“I’ve recorded all of this. The whole conversation.”

He looked at me impassively.

“Since you’re the Number Two in the Kuki Group, that could make life difficult for you. That you’re helping JL, and all your crazy plans.”

He laughed softly.

“Were you just pretending to be drunk, coming up with a feeble trick like that? What a loser.”

From my bag I removed the bundle of documents and the compact disks.

“These contain proof of some of the things you’ve done so far. Even a recording of you killing your own daughter in this very room.”

“Yeah?”

“Your secret discussions with a certain politician. Your illegal exports of large numbers of weapons, including centrifuges that could be used to develop nuclear weapons and helicopters that can be converted for military use. Even proof that you killed two prostitutes.”

He regarded me with a bored expression.

“How did you get these?”

“Your own father was checking up on you the whole time. He always had reservations about you. He suspected that one day you’d be a danger to the Group.”

“That detective?”

“I can’t say. But your father had lots of other investigators apart from him. In terms of keeping tabs on people, he was way ahead of you. He compiled this material when you started going off the rails, as a threat to make you stop.”

“I got someone to search his room after he died, and there were no records.”

“He was careful.”

I gripped my knees to stop my hands shaking.

“People like you, until your evil takes over completely, you pile up one crime after another. It goes without saying there’s going to be a record.”

I glanced at the knife on the table.

“Now even if you shoot me or something, it won’t do you any good.”

I looked at my watch. It was five to one.

“These are copies. In fact, I made multiple copies, and at one A.M. a friend is going to send them all off to the metropolitan police, the public prosecutor, the newspapers and TV, foreign corporations whose interests are opposed to the Kuki Group, and to the shareholders of every company you own. The cops will be knocking on your door any day now. You’ll be caught and you can tell the police whatever you like, I don’t care anymore. I hope you fall into the arms of the law, into a media storm, into the frenzy you were just telling me about.”

To my surprise, he grinned.

“So the old man didn’t love me after all.”

The smile stayed on his face. Images of Father’s missing ear, of the farming village in the Philippines that was the trigger for his explosion of violence, floated through my mind. Mikihiko sighed.

“Not bad. But you don’t understand the first thing about me.”

He took another gulp of scotch.

“Those things don’t work on me. Do you really think I care about stuff like that? You’re a real disappointment.”

I took the explosive device out of my bag, the one that Ryosuke Ito had given me for safekeeping.

“This is cheap and simply made,” I said, “but it’ll blow away everything in this room. Now it’s switched on.”

I pressed the button on the cell phone that I’d modified and connected to the wiring. His face betrayed nothing.

“If you want to stay alive, it’s easy. All you have to do is turn off the phone. You’ve got thirty minutes.”

I got to my feet.

“I hope you get scared for your own life and turn this thing off. And think about all the people you’ve killed, all the people you were going to kill.”

He gave a short laugh.

“Scared for my life? You’re a cancer, aren’t you?”

“I was just playing my small part, while evil monsters like you and Shozo Kuki took the leads. All I did was tie Shozo’s malicious inquiries to your evil. And besides, Fumihiro Kuki is dead. My name is Shintani.”

I put on my gloves. I didn’t have any fingerprints, but I gathered up the knife and glass anyway, conscious that they might show palm prints. On the cell phone’s display the tiny numbers were counting down.

“You don’t understand a thing,” he said quietly. “That won’t affect someone as powerful as me.”

“That’s what you think.”

“You’re wrong.” He gave a sigh of exasperation. “Just suppose that the world really worked the way you want it to. You’d still never get me inside a courtroom. The status quo will never change, because that’s just how it is.”

He continued wearily.

“Nothing will touch me. Unfortunately. Nothing can touch me. In the end, nothing will change. I’ll just keep on living, just as I am now, whether I like it or not, wrapped in my own despair. And you will lose the girl.”

“You’ll never get your hands on Kaori,” I said.

Our eyes locked for a few seconds. My gaze wavered, but his dull eyes didn’t move. The timer on the bomb continued to count off the seconds.

“And while you’re scared for your own life,” I began, but he cut me off.

“You really don’t have a clue. Nothing will change. Nothing can change. That’s not what I want. Scared for my own life? What the hell are you talking about? Is that what you want?”

He was still lying deep in the sofa, wooden as ever, as though he was planning to sleep there. His face darkened.

“Are you telling me to cling to this ridiculous world? To life?”

He spoke lazily, sipping his drink.

“You must be joking.”

I turned and walked away without answering. I could feel his presence at my back, but nothing happened as I left the room. I went down the hall, putting on my mask and beanie. Opened the front door, closed it gently behind me, lit a cigarette and headed towards the elevator. Not a sound came from Mikihiko Kuki’s room.

“I THINK THE danger to Ms. Kaori has passed for the time being. They’ve started a full-scale manhunt for that JL suspect, so he’ll probably be caught before long. At the moment she’s at Konishi’s place, and her building has tight security, so even if the guy does turn up she’ll be safe.”

The detective took a mouthful of hot coffee. I’d offered him tea, but he’d opted for coffee as usual.

“Okay, what about the media?”

“They’ll handle it very carefully, because the dead man is Mikihiko Kuki, the second-in-command of the Kuki Group, and because he died while they were still checking whether the information they received was reliable.”