Whispers of the Dead (Miraibanashi, #1)

  WHISPERS OF THE DEAD

  JAMES LITHERLAND

  www.OutpostStories.com

  Copyright 2015 James Litherland

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover design by James Litherland

  Disclaimer: As should be obvious, this book is a complete work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or things is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1 | Complete Disaster

  Chapter 2 | The Morning After

  Chapter 3 | City of Ghosts

  Chapter 4 | Paths of the Past

  Chapter 5 | A Sea of Strange Faces

  Chapter 6 | The Belly of the Beast

  Chapter 7 | Locked In

  Chapter 8 | Chosen Course

  Chapter 9 | Apparitions at Night

  Chapter 10 | Indebted

  Chapter 11 | Problem Professor

  Chapter 12 | Testing and Trusting

  Chapter 13 | A Revealing Rendezvous

  Chapter 14 | Free Day

  Chapter 15 | On a Wing and a Prayer

  Chapter 16 | A Difficult Decision

  Notes on Names and Terminology

  Don’t Miss My Next Book

  Also By James Litherland

  About the Author

  Dedication

  To God be the Glory

  (and all criticism should be directed to the author.)

  Chapter 1

  Complete Disaster

  New Osaka at night

  ROSHIKE STOOD UNFLINCHING as a great gust of wind blew a sheet of water beneath the overhang where they sheltered from the rain. The spray only spattered against the bulky black raincoat Teresa was wearing before running down to drip into the puddle on the ground, but he was swiftly getting soaked. At least the expensive slicker was keeping her warm and dry, well-protected from the weather. She would also be almost invisible—if her pale skin didn’t reflect what little light there was, her auburn hair didn’t shine with its own luster, and her white teeth didn’t gleam as she gave him an encouraging smile. She looked every bit the elite citizen she was.

  The two-story building they were using for cover was dark at that late hour, like most of the others here, and the thick ceiling of clouds obscured moon and stars. Though tall posts dotted this Batsu controlled section of the city, shining with light at night, their glow was mostly muted by the downpour. And no citizens seemed to be braving this weather, other than Teresa.

  Only in her company was Roshike even allowed to be here, since she was still technically a citizen—but since she was also wanted by the enforcers, that wouldn’t help him. The Batsu would always find or make a loophole in their laws to let them do what it was they wanted to do. So he and Teresa needed to avoid getting caught in the first place.

  These were the perfect conditions for the job he had to do, and they’d planned things out as well as they could in advance. Nevertheless, he felt uneasy. Glancing over her shoulder, he could see one corner of the dark hulk that was their target. The concrete edifice that served as Batsu headquarters here, and for all of Kansai, was three stories tall and occupied one whole block at the center of New Osaka. It was the biggest building around.

  Only in the surrounding sections of Old Osaka did you find the odd towering and tottering monument to ages past, when people built tall. Desperate people sometimes stayed in those abandoned structures, even knowing that Batsu engineers occasionally demolished one of those ruins without warning. Or any apparent regard for who might be inside.

  But for all their activity, New Osaka had grown only a few dozen blocks from its beginning with the one original building at its center. Over three generations of reconstruction and that was all they had accomplished. Why was the rebuilding proceeding so slowly? That was one of the many questions Roshike had—hoping to find some answers was one of the reasons he’d agreed to this job.

  Though mainly he was doing this because Teresa was his employer. Returning his gaze to her, he noticed the way her bright blue eyes seemed to glow within the wide hood of her raincoat. He’d resisted the idea of her playing any role at all in this operation—because of the risk involved—but at least her part in the plan didn’t require her to remain unnoticed. Quite the opposite.

  Teresa had gotten her way as usual, but he’d devised a plan which wouldn’t put her in a lot of peril. He hoped. Working as a hakken-ya, he helped people deal with problems no one else could or would, but there were also some things Roshike refused to do, and he’d let her know upfront what those were. To her credit, Teresa had never asked him to violate his conscience, but tonight she’d convinced him to go against his better judgment. And not simply by pointing out that he worked for her. She was also a couple centimeters taller than him and had an air of authority about her that seemed to come naturally. But then she’d been brought up to privilege.

  Probably all they had in common was that they had both run away from their own people. Though he’d never really belonged anywhere, if Roshike did have ‘a people’ it would be the Kyoushi, and he’d left them several years ago. But without a doubt Teresa belonged to the Batsu elite, even if she had run away and renounced all they stood for. If she acted superior, it was how she’d been raised.

  Most of what she’d hired him to do had been to hide her from the enforcers who wanted to find her and bring her back to the Batsu. And with all his experience avoiding their attention himself, he’d kept her safe. Of course he didn’t like letting her put herself in harm’s way. But it was her call.

  Taking a deep breath, he met her smile with one of his own. “You’re sure you want to do this? I can manage on my own, you know.” Roshike took risks for her all the time, though none before had been as challenging. But it was what she paid him to do.

  Her smile turned to a thin line, her irises glittering like ice as she glared at him. “I thought we’d discussed this already. My part is small enough, and it makes everything that much easier for you, and you promised I could help this time.”

  Roshike sighed and nodded. She had extracted that commitment from him, and now he was bound by it. And this would be her first time fighting back—he didn’t know what her life among the Batsu had been like or why she’d run from them, but he could not deny her the opportunity to stand up for herself. Even in this small way.

  Still she continued to argue her point. “This is our best opportunity. You said I got everything you need and that the plan is sound. And you’ve got to admit tonight’s weather is perfect for our purpose. So why are we waiting?”

  “We shouldn’t rush this, but you’re right.” She hadn’t balked at buying the equipment for this job, though it had cost dearly. And he didn’t know how much she’d paid for the intelligence she’d acquired. Or where she’d gotten it. That might explain some of his uneasiness—he didn’t know how reliable that information would be. He was used to things going wrong on a job, but this time was different. Teresa was there. “Tonight’s the night to do this. Remember though, no plan ever plays out exactly how you expect it to. Which is why I’d feel much more comfortable if you’d let me take the risks while you wait somewhere safe.”

  She scowled at him. “This isn’t about either of us being comfortable, it’s about doing what needs to be done. You said you could use my help, Ro. And it’s not like my part in this is that difficult.” No, not difficult. But dangerous.

  He didn’t care for her calling him Ro, or for his position either, unable to just tell her no—that she couldn’t do this. And since he couldn’t stop her, he wanted to review her part in the plan again. But he could see by the gl
int in her eye it wouldn’t be a welcome suggestion. And it was true they’d never get a better chance to do this. “Then if you’re ready, let’s go.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Teresa turned and walked from under the overhang into the night. Roshike followed, ducking low and staying right behind her, matching her pace precisely so that in the dark he’d seem nothing but a shadow. That would do for the moment, when he was only worried about somebody looking out one of the windows. Striding swiftly along the sidewalk, Teresa rounded the corner of the building and angled across the street toward the Batsu headquarters. Straight for the only entrance.

  As she approached, Roshike slipped under the back of her raincoat and crouched low, scuttling behind her, hidden by the bulky slicker from the eyes of the guards who would come to the door. He also appreciated the temporary shelter it afforded from the downpour. Though the driving rain had already soaked him through and the water from his sopping wet hair ran down his ponytail as if it were pouring from a faucet.

  He knew when she reached the door, and soon he heard her thumping on the glass. Batsu guards would leave the security station and cross the lobby to see who had come knocking. In the middle of the night and in this weather, probably an informer.

  Roshike heard the dull clack as she slapped the screen in her hand against the glass to show her pass to a guard who must’ve come to the other side of the door. She had the highest quality forged identification her money could buy, but no fake would stand up to a proper check. They had to hope the guards wouldn’t be that thorough, not with somebody who looked like her. Even an enforcer would likely give her the benefit of the doubt.

  This was one reason Teresa’s participation was useful, even if he didn’t like it. With her they likely wouldn’t take the trouble to scan the identification displayed on her screen, not before they were ready to take her report. They should let her in, and him with her, all unknowing. If not, if they sounded the alarm, the two of them should be able to escape easily enough, especially in this weather.

  Fortunately, the Batsu treated the mikkokusha in a decidedly low-tech fashion, requiring the eyes-and-ears to make their reports in person instead of through a screen. So spies showing up in the dead of night wouldn’t be an unusual phenomenon. Particularly as many wouldn’t want to be seen.

  Everybody knew there were informants at every level of society, including among the elites, because anybody might come across choice bits of information to sell to the Batsu. Non-citizens wouldn’t care about being seen by the citizens of New Osaka, but the guards would subject them to much closer scrutiny. An elite citizen, though, would be treated differently.

  And while her identification might be fake, Teresa didn’t just look like an elite with those fair foreign features. Everything about her, how she spoke, her expressions, even the way she carried herself—all announced she was somebody who should be deferred to.

  Hence the plan they’d hatched. Roshike waited with careful focus until the door finally opened with a whoosh as it was pulled inward. Accepted for the moment as who she appeared to be, Teresa walked into the headquarters building with him hiding beneath her coat.

  As she strode forward across the lobby’s carpet, Roshike moved with her, matching her steady pace. He could hear the stiff steps of a guard leading her, but he also felt the presence of a second guard falling away behind them, the man who would be closing the door. Just what they’d expected.

  Teresa kept walking, while Roshike rolled backward, out from under her raincoat to come silently to his feet behind a guard who was indeed about to shut and lock their only way out. Roshike wrapped an arm around the man’s neck to catch his throat in a triangle choke. After several seconds without getting any oxygen to his brain, the guard slipped into unconsciousness and slumped down. Roshike lowered him softly to the carpet, then moved swiftly to finish what the man had begun. But as he closed the door, Roshike put a magnetic strip over the lock. It would keep it from engaging and fool the sensor.

  He turned just as the guard who had been guiding Teresa across the lobby happened to look back. She reacted right away, her hands flying toward the man’s face, forcing him to flinch and try to grab her wrists. Roshike dived off to the side and out of the man’s field of vision, hoping it all happened too fast for the guard to process properly, then rolled across the carpet back toward Teresa.

  Trying to keep her fingernails from his face was also keeping the man’s hands occupied and unable to grab his screen to summon help. Which gave Roshike the chance he needed to get behind the guard and reach around the man’s throat to cut off his air. Just the same as he’d done with the other one.

  This time after the man had lost consciousness, Roshike immediately started sliding his body backward across the carpet toward the security station. “Come on.”

  Free from the guard’s grip, Teresa darted across the lobby and behind the desk serving as the security station, massaging her wrists as she went. Looking back over his shoulder as he followed, dragging the dead weight of the unconscious guard, Roshike saw her start to study the screen which supposedly controlled some but not all of the building’s defenses. According to the intelligence she’d bought. So far that information had been correct, but it was too soon to say it was reliable.

  Pulling the man behind the desk, Roshike then took the guard’s thumb in one hand and the screen from the uniform’s shirt pocket with the other. Roshike used the man’s print to unlock the screen and started scrolling through the options. “The individual screens seem to be connected to a central server somewhere close by. That must be the room on the third floor marked on the plans.” That intelligence she’d bought had included blueprints for the building which showed where the server room was located. And that was where he had to go. Considering what he’d have to do to get there, he hoped he’d be able to get what they’d come for.

  Teresa nodded brusquely. “Just as we thought. See, it’s all going according to plan. Now, hurry up and lift him enough to stretch his arm over here, so I can use his thumb to unlock this screen and get access to the security controls.”

  Roshike raised the fellow half up off the ground and gave the limp hand over to Teresa. “Before you begin messing around with their system though, I want you to assume your role.”

  She nodded, and as soon as she had pressed the man’s thumb to the screen to unlock it, she started helping Roshike strip the guard’s uniform off him. It was unlikely anybody else would be visiting here tonight, but if anyone did come to the door, or any of the workers still in the building wandered down into the lobby, everything needed to appear as normal as possible. Usually there would be two guards on duty—though Teresa dressed up as one ought to be sufficiently convincing. At least long enough for Roshike to do what he’d come to do.

  Leaving her to shed her damp raincoat and don the guard’s uniform, he ran back across the lobby to where he had left the other man unconscious on the floor in front of the door, which now looked locked even though it wasn’t. But if anyone saw one of the guards lying there dead to the world, it would spoil the effect. Roshike reached under the man’s shoulders to grab him by the armpits and start dragging him back toward the security station. Both guards would have to be bound and gagged, and stuffed out of sight, too. Since they wouldn’t remain out much longer. It would be up to Teresa then to stay here to handle any problems that arose on this end.

  Leaving her here alone and on her own while he did his part of the job would be another cause of his unprecedented discomfort. It would require quite a lot of time to do what he had to do, and that meant more chance something would go wrong. Still she’d insisted on playing her part.

  By the time he’d lugged the second guard back behind the desk, Teresa had assumed the guise of a guard and was able to help him bind the hands and feet of both men and gag them and shove them into a utility closet. Only then did he take his first good look at her in that uniform. She looked good in the dark blue tunic and slacks, but she did in whate
ver she wore. And between the bulk added by her regular clothes underneath and her height, she ought to pass as a guard well enough. “You’ll do.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him and frowned. “I’ll lock down the elevators once you’ve gone, and I can make it look like a system error. At this hour, they shouldn’t be moving between floors very often anyway, and they’d probably take the stairs when they do, but now they’ll have to, which would mean turning off the motion detectors in the stairwell. Which I can’t do from here.”

  Trading one problem for another, as he’d then have to deal with guards on the stairs. But then he would have to handle them if and when the system was alerted to his intrusion. “I can take care of myself whatever happens. I want you to sit tight. Unless there’s trouble, then I want you to run.”

  She gave him a level look, and he could tell she wasn’t happy with him. “Thank you for the advice. But whatever happens, I expect you to do what I’ve hired you to do.”

  Roshike shrugged. “If you hire an expert, then you should expect expert advice.” And she ought to listen to it. But over the past couple years, most of his work had been for her, and they’d had plenty of time to get to know each other. And he hadn’t seen any evidence that she’d do anything but what she’d set her mind to do. She’d clearly decided what that would be, and he was just an employee.

  As tempting as it was to keep staring into those blue eyes, he didn’t have the time or inclination for a contest of wills. Instead, he turned away from her and stalked across to the door to the stairwell, still uneasy. Everything had gone smoothly so far, true, but the job was far from over.

  He opened one of the pouches on his belt to get the shadow screen Teresa’s bits had bought. These things were terribly expensive, but the job wouldn’t have been possible without one. Roshike held it in his hand and set it scanning for other screens in the area, to find the registration with the highest access level he could copy. Then he set his screen to temporarily take that other screen’s spot in the network and unlocked the door to the stairwell. With a deep breath he turned the handle and stepped through—not forgetting to slap another of the magnetic strips over the lock. He always liked to make sure he had a way out.