The shovel-faced man in black took a step toward him, but Patrick kept going toward the stairs to the underground walkway. He heard him give the car three loud raps with his palm, but he didn’t look back.
The stairs led to a walkway lined by coffee, lunch, and drinking places for the workers in the skyscrapers towering above. The girls were following along like little angels on their journey to a Disney ending. He hoped.
“I want to go on the pirates one and the world one,” Kiri said.
“We’re going on all of them,” Patrick assured her.
“Splash Mountain for me,” Jenna said.
“Can you swim?” Patrick teased her.
“You just saw us in the pool,” Jenna protested.
Kiri looked up at him. “It’s in a boat, Dad.”
The underground passageway was busy with people heading from Shinjuku Station to West Shinjuku. When they arrived inside the station’s busy open area, Patrick herded them to the ticket machines. A huge train map of Tokyo with each line in a different color spread across the wall above.
He didn’t know the kanji for Maihama, the Disney station, but knew roughly where it was. They had to transfer at Tokyo Station. He got three tickets and hurried them to the gate. He would redo the fare when they got off.
He looked behind for the first time, worried what he would find. All he saw was the fast flow of people through the station, some headed to the department stores above, some to other train lines, others just passing through the tunnels crisscrossing the station.
There was no man in black with an orange tie and no tall Asian guy in T-shirt and blazer.
Patrick went through the ticket gate first, followed by Jenna. He saw the sign for their platform, but Kiri gave a little shout. Patrick whipped around. The wicket had shut with Kiri outside and the ticket on the inside of the machine. How did she manage that?
He hurried back to the gate and waved Kiri toward the office at the side. He spoke to the guard in rapid-fire English. The guard nodded listlessly, frowned at Kiri, and waved her through.
“I’m sorry, poppa. I didn’t go through quick enough, and it shut.”
“It’s OK, baby, let’s go.”
They walked awkwardly through the dense crowd. Kiri and Jenna weren’t quite used to commuting, especially with heavy bags, and he stepped back to help them. They didn’t commute on their own yet. That’s why they needed Taiga.
When they got to the top of the escalator to their platform, the express train arrived, and Patrick fast-stepped the girls on and found a place by the door. He watched the doors close and ducked down to survey the platform through the window. The doors opened to let someone off or on in another car, then shut again, and the train took off.
Patrick pulled Jenna and Kiri close, positioned the bags at their feet, and then told the girls to enjoy the ride. “First ride of the day,” he whispered.
“Slowest ride of the day,” Jenna said. Kiri kicked her feet.
In the Disneyland hotel, they could stay hidden amid the families and he would have time to get the private jet arranged.
The tall Asian guy speaking perfect English maybe was from the support group. Did the group send him in Tim’s place? Why didn’t they let him know? Was that who had called him? They must have his number. Maybe he was going to contact him after he arrived at the hotel.
And where was Tim? Who was the guy from the swimming pool if he wasn’t one of Kosugi’s men? Someone else after their money from Nine Dragons? The other clients would not be so accommodating as Kosugi.
The train made its first stop. The doors opened, letting in a cool stream of air to the sun-warmed interior. The passenger sitting next to Kiri got up suddenly and hurried off. Kiri plopped down and patted the seat for Jenna, both of them so thin they could fit into one person’s space. He adjusted their masks and arranged the bags into a tight stack at their feet.
At the next stop, more passengers got off than on. He searched both directions and was startled to see the tall Asian guy in a T-shirt and blazer and white mask. Patrick averted his eyes but noticed him sending a message on his phone.
Immediately, Patrick got a message. “The network sent me.”
“What network?” Patrick wrote back.
“Support network.”
Patrick frowned.
“To help. Told to stay with you. Easier in the car.”
“Where’s Tim?” Patrick looked over at him. He was Asian, but maybe not Japanese, or he lived outside Japan for a long time. His blazer and T-shirt were designer brands and his cellphone a new, large model.
The text said: “Something happened.”
“What happened?”
“We’re not sure yet, but I’m here to be sure you’re all right.”
“Tim didn’t answer my calls.”
“I’m taking his place. We have a plan.”
“Poppa, are you OK?” Jenna tugged on his pant leg.
He smiled. “I’m fine. Just thinking.”
Kiri kicked her feet and whispered, “I have to pee.”
“One more stop and we switch trains. Can you wait?”
Kiri wiggled on the bench and nodded. Jenna patted her and advised her to think of something else. Patrick put his phone away.
The train pulled into Tokyo Station and Patrick gathered their bags, letting the other passengers jackrabbit off wherever they were going. The Asian guy at the other end of the train car got off slowly, checking his phone.
And that’s when Patrick saw the man in the orange tie, the one outside the hotel, from the pool. He couldn’t see his shovel-shaped face below his black mask, but it was him.
Of course it would have been easy for them to catch up on the way to the station and to stay hidden in the throngs of commuters and the crush of people on the train.
“Can we hurry a little?” Kiri said. “I really have to pee.”
“It’s just downstairs. Let’s be careful on the escalator.”
The two-story escalator down to the central walkway of the station moved at a slow pace. Patrick steadied the bags with one hand and held Kiri’s arm with the other. Jenna was behind her. Several people behind Jenna stood the shovel-faced guy and several steps above him was the guy replacing Tim. Had they seen each other? If he was going to lose them anywhere, it would be in the crowds of Tokyo Station.
Patrick patted Kiri’s shoulder. “We’ll be there in a minute, sweetie.” She put her hand on his and he felt the familiar circuit connect.
When they got to the ground floor, Kiri started dancing. Patrick didn’t bother to look back at the two men. He scanned the overhead signs, dozens of them, for a female figure in red and a male figure in blue. An arrow mercifully pointed the way.
The crowd flowed around them as they hurried past bento shops, souvenir stands, and chain restaurants to the side hall where the toilets were. Patrick wanted to drag all three of them into the diaper changing and handicapped toilet, but it was occupied. Kiri was close to losing it.
Patrick leaned down. “Jenna, can you take your sister inside?”
“Sure. I need to go too.”
“Yes. But hurry, OK? And don’t talk to anyone. Come right back out.”
They scampered to the entrance and Patrick watched them dart around the wall to the interior where he couldn’t see.
Patrick rebalanced the bags by a row of lockers and scanned the fast-moving crowd for the support group guy and the shovel-faced man in black. Not seeing them made him more nervous.
He peered into the toilet and drew a concerned stare from a woman coming out. Patrick stepped to the side, trying to appear innocent. He needed a piss himself but he’d have to put it off. What he really needed was Miyuki.
If he could dodge the two guys and get to the hotel at Disneyland, they’d have time to talk after the girls were worn out from the rides. He could arrange the private jet, and together they’d decide what to do and how to do it. Even a temporary fix would be better than nothing.
Plus he had his backup plan for Nine Dragons.
All of that depended on shaking the two guys trailing him.
He stood by the women’s toilet again, drawing glances from women coming out, and resigned himself to waiting a little longer. He searched the crowd but saw nothing unusual. After Wyoming, Tokyo was exhausting. So many people in constant motion, too many to consider. He wondered if this would be the last day he’d ever see the place.
A tiled wall blocked the view inside. He moved to the side, wondering whether he should call in to them. The handicapped toilet was still in use, or broken. Patrick left the bags and walked closer to the entrance of the women’s toilet to peer in.
A businesswoman with a briefcase and a navy blue trench coat over her arm came out and stopped in front of him. “Can I help you?” she said in curt English.
“Oh, you speak English. Yes, actually. My two daughters are in there. They’ve been in there for a long time. My wife’s not here and…”
She scrutinized the toilet, Patrick, and the bags. “What are their names?”
“Jenna and Kiri.”
“Do they speak Japanese?”
“Yes.”
She frowned at him, reset her bag on her shoulder, and marched inside. In a few minutes, she returned, frowning more deeply and shaking her head. “They went in when?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Kiri and Jenna?”
“Yes.” Didn’t she trust him to know his own daughters’ names?
The woman went back in again.
Patrick walked over and kicked the bags, then went close to the entrance again.
Two young women, with shopping bags crooked over their elbows, came out, surprised at him trying to peek inside. They started whispering.
Patrick pointed inside. “Musume,” he said, knowing the word for “daughter” better than any other in Japanese.
Patrick felt a tap on his shoulder from behind. He turned to see the woman in the trench coat.
“There’s another exit.” She pointed around the corner.
Patrick walked to the side and stared down the busy passageway at the other exit to the women’s toilet.