The Case of the Mad Scientist

Chapter 16: Break In and Break Out

Chapter 16: Break In and Break Out

Blaze was back to her old self after the shower. She dressed while I lay on the bed, calming down after watching her spend so long struggling. It didn’t help much that she calmly walked out into the room, toweling her damp, gorgeous, naked body down, then proceeded to don a fresh pair of panties and a bra that might have supported her some but was almost as transparent as that cling wrap stuff you buy in the store. From her suitcase, she pulled the kind of clothing you’d wear on a commando raid: black pants, black pull-over turtleneck and even black running shoes. I expected her to add a black ski mask with only eyeholes, and maybe a pair of black leather gloves, but I was disappointed.

Hell, I was disappointed to see that fine body disappear under all that clothing!

Anyway, we went down for dinner as the sun was nearing the mountains to the west. Blaze vetoed my suggestion of the American hamburger place across the street and picked instead an Italian restaurant not far off and in the direction of Koriyama Pharmaceutics. Have you ever tried pizza made by a Japanese chef? Don’t. The sight of sushi pizza almost put me off my feed.

Summer rains are not at all uncommon in Japan, and it looked as if we were in for some that evening to judge from the clouds that covered up the last of the sunset. The breeze had turned a bit cool, also. Well, a little bad weather doesn’t faze a hardboiled Private Dick like me. We walked down the street, noticing that most of the office building seemed to be closing down for the evening. A few bars were just beginning to wake up, but most of the taller buildings showed very little light. Which was fine with me. When we went in, I would be perfectly happy to find no one around.

The first few drops began as we neared the Koriyama Pharmaceutics building. I led Blaze down an alley and around to the back. There was a delivery dock and some windows, but no one in sight. Good.

I was looking at a window wondering how best to breach it, when the door on the loading dock opened and out came a security type uniform. At first he did not see us, which was good because it gave me

time to step over to where he was about to close the door behind him. Suddenly he realized someone was approaching and looked at me. His face was just beginning to register surprise when I slugged him. His head snapped back and he went down like a wet noodle.

I grabbed the door to keep it from closing, and then dragged him inside. When all three of us were through the door, I let it close. Our guard looked like he was out for the count, but to make sure I took the pair of handcuffs off his belt and locked his arms around a pipe. I was sure he had the key on him someplace, but with his arms pulled up like that, I didn’t think he could reach it.

Blaze was smiling to beat the band. “That was great!” she gushed. “One punch and he’s out!”

“Yeah, that’s the way it usually is,” I told her.

I pulled the guard’s weapon from its holster. It was some kind of 9mm brand I didn’t recognize. I handed it to Blaze. “Know how to shoot this?” I asked.

Her grin widened. “Yes, I can shoot pretty well.”

“Only use it if you have to,” I suggested.

The first floor was pretty much like any office building, except, of course, that all the signs were in those funny Japanese characters. After the first floor, we took out our flashlights and continued searching without turning on the room lights. On the third floor we hit pay dirt. There were several chemical laboratories, each filled with funny looking jars and pipes and small electronic instruments and stuff, none of which made any sense to me.

“How are we going to tell if Sorren has been here?” I asked as we went into the fourth lab.

“So far, there is no sign of him,” she said as she quickly looked through the room. “I have not seen any DNA sequencing equipment. They told me he would have to have that for his research.”

“And how would you know this kind of equipment?” I asked. Blaze, I knew, was not a research scientist.

“They showed me photos of the main types of sequencers. I haven’t seen one yet.”

We finished with that floor and then went up to the next. Two rooms were labs, the rest just office space with small cubicles and computer terminals.

“Could we hack into their computer system?” I wondered aloud.

“Not unless you can read Japanese. And know a lot more about computers than I think you do,” she said.

Well, there’s nothing wrong with not being able to read Japanese; lots of my friends can’t. Besides, I didn’t see her heading towards any of the computers either. All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

There were more offices and storerooms. The floor above held private offices, a couple of them rather large and fancy. But none of the machines Blaze was looking for.

So far we had been lucky. There was only that one guard and I took care of him easily. But we had been in the building for half an hour when our luck ran out. We were coming down a stairway when we heard voices and the pounding of feet below us.

“Quick, into here,” I told her, pointing to the nearest door. If they came upon us in the stairwell, it could be a nasty firefight. I assumed they were either police or more security guards. Perhaps the guard I slugged was supposed to check in periodically. Or maybe he woke up and sounded the alarm somehow. Either way, I didn’t want to wait around to find out.

As we hurried down a hallway, I wondered if they were smart enough to send men up both stairways - and maybe even the elevators.

They were.

This was a fine fix. We were on the third floor, with armed guards coming up the stairs at both ends of the hallway, and any second they could come bursting into view. What to do?

In the middle of the hall, right next to us, were two elevators. One, I noticed from the numbered floor indicator above it, was coming up. The second one was not lit. Would they stop at this floor? Maybe, maybe not. I pushed the down button and prayed that the unused elevator was on this floor. Prayers answered! The door immediately opened and we rushed in. I hit the button for the ground floor and offered another prayer that there would not be armed guards standing there, guns drawn and just waiting for us to emerge.

I pulled out Wilma and braced myself. Blaze took that 9mm auto in a two-handed grip and braced herself next to me.

The doors slowly opened. There were three guards standing there, all with drawn weapons. Shit! It flashed through my mind that I hadn’t told Blaze which ones to take out if there were more than one. Would be a waste of time if we both shot at the same man while his friends went untouched and free to blast away at us.

I should have pulled the trigger immediately. I don’t like guns pointed at me. They sometimes go off. Yeah, I should have downed them in rapid fire from Wilma. But I didn’t. Maybe it was because they did not fire immediately upon seeing me. Later, I figured out that they were not sure what to expect and had the normal reluctance of a rent-a-cop to shoot someone.

For a long second the tableau held, then I saw movement behind one of the men. A high-pitched cry rent the air and the man was falling forward. Behind him was a woman who had just rammed her foot into the back of his knee. Before he could hit the floor, she was on the second man, striking him with a side kick that knocked his gun out of his hand, followed up by a very fast second kick with the other foot that connected with the side of his head.

The third guard was just swinging his gun around towards her when I heard a shot and the gun went spinning out of his hand. I stepped out of the elevator and walked right up to the surprised man. He didn’t even make a move to defend himself as I closed on him. Since I was holding Wilma, I decided not to punch him. Instead I kicked him right between the legs, hard enough to lift his body off the floor. A terrible look came over his face and a weak whine escaped his lips. Then he was falling to the floor where he curled up into a ball and probably (if he was lucky) passed out from the pain. He wouldn’t be enjoying sex for a long time.

The woman who had saved our asses turned back to the first man and struck down on the back of his neck with a fist that put him out of action.

“Quickly, we must go!” she said.

It was at that point I recognized her as our driver, Aiko. For a slim teenager, she was pretty good with her fists and feet.

We dashed out the front door, crossed the street to where her car was parked, and dove in. A few seconds later, she was peeling rubber as we departed the scene.