9
True to hisword, Zero has a new board sent up for me within hours. This one is all black, from surface to wheels to bolts. I test it out tentatively, letting myself adjust to its weight and traction. It should be good for traveling at night.
I stay in the hotel room until it’s fully dark outside, inspecting the corners of the walls, searching for signs of hidden cameras or some other surveillance. Then I run a careful check on my account, in case Zero had indeed installed some kind of tracker on my system in addition to my black cuff.
To my surprise, I find nothing. Maybe Zero and Taylor are serious about giving me my privacy.
From the balcony, I can see the silver and blue overlays on the streets below, showcasing the area’s loyalty to Team Winter Dragons. The hotel is somewhere in the middle of Omotesando, a glittering, upscale district full of luxury shops housed insidegrand architecture. Silver and blue lights wrap around every tree. Purses and shoes on display in store windows sport bejeweled crests from the Phoenix Riders and Team Andromeda, celebrating the Final. Since I first arrived, another two top players have been announced for the closing ceremony, and now their images are being broadcast against the windows of Prada and Dior.
SHAHIRA BOULOUS of TURKEY | ANDROMEDA
ROSHAN AHMADI of UK | PHOENIX RIDERS
It occurs to me that Jax had brought me here in a state of unconsciousness. Now the Blackcoats are letting me step out the door unattended and fully alert.
I don’t quite believe it. I could easily go back on my word to them. But there’s not much I could do to them at this point—I don’t know where they are or anything incriminating about them.
Get into Hideo’s mind.That’s what the Blackcoats are asking of me. I look in the direction of Tokyo Dome, where enormous virtual symbols for the Phoenix Riders and Team Andromeda are already hovering in the night sky above the stadium, with a timer counting down the next twenty-four hours until the game happens. Hideo will be at the Final rematch tomorrow.
My thoughts wander back to Zero. I’d spent a moment running searches on the symbol on Sasuke’s sleeve, but no matches turned up. It doesn’t belong to any corporation I’ve ever heard of, nor does it resemble anything that might hint at what it is. It’s simply a series of polygons overlapping each other, as abstract as anything can be.
I quietly put a call out to Tremaine.
He answers almost immediately. “Hey!” he exclaims in my ear so loudly that I wince. An instant later, his virtual figure appears,and I see him walking on a crowded, brightly lit street, his hands buried in his pockets.
“A little quieter,” I reply. “I can hear you fine.”
“Where the hell are you?” Tremaine squints at me, trying to make sense of my surroundings. “Are you okay? The Riders are freaking out about you. Roshan even called me to see if I knew what was going on.”
“Where are you?” I ask.
“Someplace in Roppongi. Where areyou? I’ve been trying to track you down.”
His hurried voice makes my mind whirl. “Omotesando. Don’t track me. It’s too dangerous. I’ll come find you.”
“What do you mean, it’s too dangerous? I heard about gunfire in Shinjuku a couple of days ago. It was all over the news—they said some kind of madman opened fire. It’s unheard of in Japan, even in KabukichO. Two people were killed. I thought one of them could have been you. What happened?”
It already seems like years since I last talked to them in the bar. I bite my lip. “I’m okay,” I reply. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain when I see you.” I keep my voice low. “But first, I need you to look at something for me.”
Before Tremaine can answer, I send him the screenshot of young Sasuke in the room.
His bewildered voice now turns curious. “Who’s this?”
“Sasuke Tanaka, apparently, when he was young. See that symbol on his sleeve?”
“Yeah. What is it?”
“I have no idea. That’s what I need your help with.”
“You run a search on it yet?”
“Yeah. I turned up nothing.”
Tremaine pauses, and I imagine him studying the symbolwith a frown, trying to match it up with something. “Hmm,” he finally murmurs under his breath. “I’m not finding anything on it, either, not on a first try. But I think I know someone who can help. Where’d you get this screenshot?”
“That’s part of the long story.” I glance out my balcony, looking on as icons blink on across Tokyo’s landscape wherever my eyes sweep. “Tomorrow night, after the Final rematch. Let’s meet up with the others, and I’ll tell you what I know.”
“Hopefully I’ll have something for you by then.” He nods at me, and we disconnect.
