Bushido: Chapter 2

I decided to mix myself a drink, since I was back in my hotel. I liked Bloody Maries so that’s what I mixed myself.  While I drank my Bloody Mary, I started thinking about how I found out that my first official hit would be Carlos.

I work for some NSA black-ops agency called the Covert Operations Force. They’re similar to the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). We have one major difference other than never being able to decide if we should be black-ops or our own company. That difference is that we do all the dirty work that even they wouldn’t do. We play a hell of a lot rougher than most agencies.

My first assignment was to find out who this drug-dealer was in the Bay Area. It ended up being my former mentor. His name was Carlos. He went by Okami though. It’s Japanese roughly for wolf. 

I had a lead already. Some of his more hated goons hang out at a restaurant called Benihana. It was located in Cupertino, California. I contacted one of his goons, Eddie Leone. Luckily, Eddie hated Okami.

Benihana was a Japanese steak-house I used to hear a lot about when I was living in San Francisco. When I went inside, I all but fell in love with it. I guess I hated the fact that I loved it because it seemed like there feeling that of corruption in there.

There was a samurai standing right by the door and I was told to meet Eddie due to the information he claimed to have had. I needed to gain my cool, so before I walked inside, I lit myself a cigarette. I hated smoking when I was a kid, so I don’t know what the hell happened to me. After a couple minutes, I took my last drag, threw the cancer stick on the floor, and stomped it with my steel-toe boots.

I asked the hostess if my “friend” arrived.

“And your name please?” she asked with politeness.

“My name is Ryan Flowers.”

She looked through her reservations list. She couldn’t seem to find it. “I’m sorry sir. Your name doesn’t appear to be on here.”

“Try Eddie Leone.”

The lightbulb turned on. “Aha. Yes, your friend has arrived. He wants me to bring into the private dining room. Right this way, please.”

I followed her to this closed-in room. It really felt like I was back in Japan, complete with samurai armor on display. The only major difference was that there were chairs in this room. Eddie Leone was there at the end of the table. He wore this gray pin-striped suit with a black shirt. He had his brown hair in a pompadour. His blue eyes were masked in coke-bottle glasses.

“Your waiter will be here in a moment to take your beverage order,” said the hostess. Leone nodded and she left.

“Wow, I never expected that Eddie Leone would be Buddy Holly,” I remarked.

He laughed. “That’s a good one. I don’t get that too much surprisingly.”

“Yeah well, I need that information as soon as possible,” I demanded. “Let’s forget about all the formality crap and get to business.”

His expression darkened. “All I know is that you called me. You threatened me. I don’t appreciate that. Now, if treat me in a civilized manner, I will gladly answer any questions you might have about Okami.”

“My job is to get information. I don’t give a damn about formalities. Now, you give me what I need to know, or I’ll beat it out of you.”

He kept looking at me silently. There was no way of breaking him just by being firm.

“I’m not mad,” I told him. “I really am not mad. I just don’t any other way of getting the scoop on Okami.”

Just then, the waiter walks in holding his notepad. “My name is Ben and I will be your server this evening. Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I’ll take a Bloody Mary.” I turned to Eddie. “Anything for you?”

“I’ll just take some ice water with lemon please.”

“One Bloody Mary and one ice water with lemon?” he said writing it on his tab. “Coming right up.”

The waiter left. It was time to get down to business. I got some cuffs from my leather jacket. “Well, let’s get back the matter at hand, Eddie.” I cuffed him up to the chair. “Now, I’m not stupid. Why would you come alone? Where’s the other guy?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

It was pretty damn obvious he was lying. “Oh please. I’ve seen enough mobster flicks. There’s always that denial and it turns out to be a whole bunch of crap. Where the hell is he, in the samurai armor? Don’t play all your Godfather, Al Capone games with me. I’m not in the mood to play them.”

I pulled a gun with a silencer attached to it out of my coat and pointed to the armor. I started to pull the trigger. I was teasing Eddie. “Is he in the suit of armor?”

Because of his lack of an answer to my question I shot the suit of armor. The armor dodged the bullet in a fear-induced panic. “Take off the helmet and the mask,” I commanded the guy in the armor. He obeyed and he looked like a chubby version of Eddie. “So, Italians do have big families.” I motioned for the chubby guy to come to me. “Drop the katana and tachi.” He obeyed. “Now get the hell out of here.” He ran his ass out of there, and I turned to Eddie. “Now, are you willing to talk?”

“You’re good, Flowers. You’re pretty tough. I like that,” he remarked. “You’re smart, too.”

“I’m just not oblivious. Now, tell me what I want know.”

“What do you want to know about Okami?” he asked.

“Tell me his name. I want to who is he is,” I said. “Don’t give me any sugar-coated truths either. I want to know how to take him out.”

“That won’t be easy,” he said. “They say that he’s a neo-samurai.”

I gently took off his glasses and put them to side. Then violently, I grabbed his head and smashed his face on the table. There was a scream of pain. Blood gushed out of his nose. He started to scream. “I swear to God, he’s kind of like Bill from the…”

I smashed his face in again. “Like in Kill Bill? I don’t buy that.”

“His name‘s Chikuma Takahashi!” I let go him gently and uncuffed him.

“Is he a biker?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, you know him?”

“When I was living in Japan, he was the first person I talked to. He was my mentor.”

“It must be pretty tough, huh?” he asked. I nodded. “You seem to be taking it pretty easily.”

“I may be hurt, but I am in no way surprised.”

“Why aren’t you surprised?” he asked. He seemed pretty curious.

“Well, I came back here to California to visit some family, and I asked Chikuma if he wanted to come. Now, you have to understand that I moved to Japan when I was a teenager because my dad got transferred down there. Anyway, he wanted to come. He came, and he started hanging out in Little Italy back in San Francisco. He met with Bruno Bianchi, and the rest is history.”

Eddie nodded as if finally understanding.

By then, the waiter came with our drinks and when he saw Eddie’s face, he was surprised, but he didn’t say anything. I really wouldn’t have cared if he did. I skimmed through the menu. “Are you gentlemen ready to order?”

“My friend here will have a bento box and shit-load of napkins while I’ll take a light combo, filet mignon and scallops.”

Writing it down on his pad he replied, “Coming right up.” He then walked away. 

“Are you going to hit Chikuma?” Eddie asked.

“Well, it’s my job. The pay’s great and I decided to take the job. I can’t bail out just because he was once a great mentor,” I replied partially trying to convince myself.

He seemed confused. “But why can’t you leave? You are as tough as nails. Nobody’s going to mess with you?”

“That’s not it at all. I have thing about finishing what you start. I started the job. Besides, I can’t look at the situation of our former alliance. It would get me too emotionally irrational. I can’t allow that,” I explained.

After thinking about the situation over and over, you start to let your emotion get involved. That’s partially why I wasn’t sure if I wanted to walk into that bar…