“Remarkable, thanks.”
“Then next is makeup. Let’s go to the first floor.” She sounded almost gleeful.
I waited in the tea lounge drinking coffee while Juri finished choosing. I wasn’t sure about leaving her alone, but it wasn’t like my presence would help. I had to take her word that compared to Shibuya, the chances of her running into someone she knew in Ginza were zero.
After about half an hour, she came back. When I saw her face, my eyes opened wide.
“You did your makeup?”
“Well, yeah, while I was at it,” she said, sitting down across from me. The waitress came, so Juri ordered milk tea.
“You didn’t have the staff do your makeup, did you?”
“Why would I? I just borrowed a mirror and did it myself. It’s okay. In a place like that, no one’s looking at other people. Everyone’s just concerned with the face reflected in the mirror in front of them.”
“Give me a break. I’m already worried as it is that they saw your face at the convenience store and the family restaurant.”
“I’m saying it’s okay.” She took her cigarettes out of her handbag, but noticing the seats were non-smoking, returned the pack with an irritated look.
The milk tea came. I watched her face casually as she brought the cup to her mouth. Her makeup wasn’t very thick and leveraged the fine texture of her skin. She had underscored her well-formed eyes and nose, and her face looked more vivid than before.
“What are you staring at me for? Are you still worried?”
“No, not really.” I averted my eyes. “I have another item to shop for.”
“What is it this time?”
“It’s necessary for the game.”
We got in another taxi and I directed it to Akihabara. In the car, I handed Juri five ten-thousand-yen bills.
“What’s this?”
“Cash for shopping. Go and buy it for me.”
“Well, I don’t even know what I’m buying.”
“When the time comes, I’ll tell you. Do as I say.”
Juri became sulky again, but I didn’t want the driver to hear.
We went down Showa Road and then got off. The place was crowded on Saturdays. It was convenient for us since we didn’t want to be seen. Even so, Juri wore a hat that nearly covered her eyes.
I went into an alley, away from a street that was lined with famous electronics stores. There were still a great number of people, but the atmosphere was somehow different. Many of the stores were meant for enthusiasts.
My eyes immediately settled on a man. He was swarthy and bearded—an Iranian.
“Go to that man and ask him if he has a burner,” I said in Juri’s ear.
“A burner?”
“A burner phone. It’s a cell with a fake name.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “I’ve heard of those.”
“Any maker will do. I think fifty thousand should be enough. Pay upfront. After that, he’ll tell you to come with him, so do as he says and follow him. I’ll wait around here.”
“You’re not coming with me?”
“If he mistakes it for a police bust, that’ll suck. I’m having you go buy it in the first place to avoid that. It might be a little scary, but try your best.”
Juri looked anxious for a moment, but soon nodded firmly.
“Okay. I’ll go.” She started walking toward the man.
I watched from a distance as she talked to the Iranian. He didn’t seem all that surprised that a young woman had come to him. It was rumored among some ladies that you could buy a burner here. A woman who’d actually done so had told me.
Just as I thought, they started walking. They turned at a corner. Juri didn’t look around at me. Way to go.
The guy with the goods would be waiting in a car. It was so they could beat a hasty retreat if it looked like a bust.
After about fifteen minutes, Juri came back. I felt relieved.
“Mission complete,” she said. She held up a small paper bag. “I even got a souvenir.”
“A souvenir?”
“A telephone card. They said it’s infinite. It has fifty points right now, but once it gets to zero, apparently it resets.”
I chuckled. “Like you’d ever use a public phone.”
“Well, I don’t have a cellphone right now.” Juri fluttered the card in the air.
Juiced telephone cards must have been the Iranian gentlemen’s main product line until recently. But with the spread of cellphones, the cards stopped selling, so they’d settled on burner phones as a replacement.
“Those guys’ Japanese is good,” Juri marveled. “I wonder how they learn it.”
“People get serious when they need to survive. The same goes for whoever juiced that telephone card. Desperation. The NTT corporation isn’t so desperate, so it’ll be had every time.”
“So to bust them, the police will have to get serious and learn their language.”
“That’s how it is.”
I abruptly stopped walking. Juri, who had been clinging to my arm, pitched forward.
“What? Don’t stop suddenly.”
“I thought of a good way.” I grinned. “Our game begins.”
We went back to the condo by taxi, and I resumed our preparations. When I finally put my laptop in my bag, I was ready.
“I’ll be calling you. I might sound like a broken record, but don’t ever enter the hotel through the front.”
“Enough, I know.”
I was being persistent because I had my doubts, but I refrained from saying so and left. My wristwatch was pointing to three in the afternoon.
I took a cab and arrived at Hotel Gardens in just a few minutes. I got out at the front entrance and headed to the front desk. I was wearing a shirt and necktie under a dark gray suit. I was pretending to be a businessman who’d given up his weekend to come to Tokyo. In fact, the fake number I’d given had a Nagoya area code.
I wrote my fake name and fake address along with it on the lodging card, deposited fifty thousand yen, and finished the check-in formalities. The person at the front desk was looking down at the counter the whole time, but I did my best not to raise my face just in case.
My key card was for room number 1526. I declined having the bellboy guide me and went into the elevator.
When I got into the room, I immediately opened the window-curtains. Diagonally to the lower left, I could see the Hakozaki Metropolitan Expressway Junction. I took the binoculars out from the bag and quickly focused them. A dark blue domestic car coming from the Ginza district went by within my field of vision.
First test cleared. I breathed out in relief. I’d stayed at this hotel once in the past and knew that I could see the junction. Naturally, at that time, I hadn’t thought of any use for the view.
I took the phone and called home. It rang three times, and the answering machine message came on. I waited for the tone and opened my mouth.
“It’s room 1526. When you come in, knock.” Saying just that, I hung up. Juri would hear the message and immediately get going. I’d told her to use a taxi but to get off at Suitengu-mae on the Hanzomon subway line. From there, she could go underground and enter the hotel that way. Its B2 level was linked to the subway station. She could even use the elevator to go directly to the guest floors. In other words, she could completely bypass the front desk and lobby where people tended to be.
I took off my jacket, removed my tie, and started on the next part. I put the video camera on the tripod and set it at the window. Staring at the LCD screen, I adjusted the camera’s angle and zoom. Now it could capture all of the cars coming from the Ginza district.
Then I took out my laptop. Using a cord I’d brought, I connected it to the jack by the desk. To comply with the needs of businessmen, in addition to the internal phone, the hotel offered a normal line that could connect to the internet. That was also something I had found out on my previous visit.