Bullet Train (Assassins #2)

by Kōtarō Isaka

if people hear an explanation they want to believe it, and when someone important says with full confidence, Don’t worry, everything’s fine, people go along with it. When really, the important person has no plans to tell everyone else the whole truth.

the most important thing is to be one of the people who decide what people believe.’ But even if I explain this to you I doubt you’ll ever understand it. ‘It’s not politicians who control things. Bureaucrats and corporate leaders, they’re the ones who call the shots.

the person who has the most information and can use it to further their goals is the strongest.

The first step in gaining control over his classmates was to destabilise their sense of self-worth.

The next step was to get them to betray someone.

‘Why would you do that?’ ‘I found out what’s in it. Now I don’t really care about it any more. It’ll be more fun to watch the other people who want it fight over it. And I took the debit cards, so that should cause some problems for someone down the line.’

People call me the Pusher. This job doesn’t require any pushing. It’s like asking a shot-putter to run a marathon.

He recognises the number on the caller ID: it’s Momo, a fat woman who runs a hole-in-the-wall adult bookstore in Tokyo.

‘His name’s Nanao. Seven in his name, seven spots on a ladybug. He’s a cutie, I like him too.’

Nanao leans in for a closer look and then lets out a little yelp. The thing coiled inside isn’t a rope. It’s a snake. The mottled skin has a glutinous sheen. Nanao jerks backwards and falls on his ass. What’s a snake doing here?

‘When he gets here, you go into the bathroom. Make sure the male model sees you going into the bathroom.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Just do it,’ Nanao says urgently. ‘And then what?’ ‘I’ll tell you in the bathroom.’ ‘What do you mean, in the bathroom?’

I should never’ve left Wataru alone. Regret washes over him. Kimura had barely left the hospital in the month and a half since Wataru went into a coma.

If you think about the fact that all he’s doing is exhaling CO2 into the atmosphere, then you could say we’re being ecologically progressive. Killing Little Wataru Kimura isn’t a sin, no, it’s environmentalism.’ He cackles ostentatiously.

‘My point is that people act based on the influence of those around them. Human beings aren’t primarily motivated by reason but by instinct. So even when it looks like someone is acting of their own individual will, they’re always taking input from other people. They might think they have an independent, original existence, but once you put them on a graph they’re just another data point.

‘We’re not talking about some celebrity here. He’s the badass boss of a gang of badass criminals. You wouldn’t believe how much money he’s got, or how little he cares about rules and morals.’ Kimura had never met Minegishi, of course, and when he was still working he had never been hired by Minegishi directly. But in those bad old days, Yoshio Minegishi’s grip on the underworld was so tight that virtually any job could be traced back to him, or so people said.

but I think that they’re the morons for swallowing the notion that everything on TV and in the papers is automatically false. It’s so obvious that any source of information is a mix of truths and untruths, but everyone wants to say that one is better than another.’

The Prince looks genuinely doubtful. This adolescent boy with his silky hair and his graceful, slim body looks like the classic image of a hard-working honours student. He looks so squeaky clean it’s hard to picture him shoplifting or even sneaking a snack on the way home from school.

‘I’m going to Morioka to meet with Mr Minegishi. Did you know that once a month he goes to see his daughter from his mistress? There’s also a son from his wife, and that son is Minegishi’s heir, but apparently he’s stupid and selfish and basically useless. Maybe that’s why Minegishi dotes on his cute little daughter so much. She’s still just a little kid.’

Everyone has a weak point, no matter who they are, and usually it’s their family or their children.’

‘Anybody who thinks I’m just a little punk, I want to show them just how powerless they are against me. That’s what I mean when I say despair. I want them to realise just how meaningless their lives have been. I want them to give up completely.’

Or maybe call it aborting the mission. Forget about the bag, just give it to Tangerine and Lemon in exchange for your life. I bet they’d be satisfied as long as they got it back, and if Minegishi was planning something bigger then it won’t really matter that much whether or not we finish the job, right? We’ll forfeit the payment and apologise. It’ll probably be fine in the end.’

‘I’m talking about a worst-case scenario. All I’m saying is that if you get to the point that it looks like you’re totally stuck, you can pull out. The job most certainly does not come second. The job is priority number one. But, you know, sometimes you just can’t make it work.’

The Prince thinks about his own grandmother, recently passed. His family isn’t close with their relatives, and his other three grandparents had all passed away in the first few years of his life, so his father’s mother was really the only elderly family member he had. She was just as clueless as the rest as far as the Prince was concerned.

People want to act of their own free will, but in the end they just surrender to someone else’s control.

lower an opponent’s defences with a mask of innocence.

‘If I had to say how I’m feeling in six words, it’d be Daddy, Santa Claus is real!

The Prince feels proud of himself. I made someone who was already on the verge of death feel even more hopeless, he thinks. Not everyone can do that.

If someone turns to violence after a thoughtful consideration of who they are as a person, that would be fascinating, but someone who just lashes out is empty, nothing more than a paper cut-out.

People make decisions based on instinct, not intellect. Physical response is a lever for emotional control.

‘Actually, sir, it’s basically full.’ Tangerine lies without hesitation. He doesn’t think there’s any way Minegishi could now how many people are on the train. ‘It’s not full. I locked down most of the seats.’ ‘You locked . . .?’ ‘Once I knew which train you would be on with my son I bought all the available seats.’

The train must be cursed. It’s too dangerous! Get out and don’t look back.’ Nanao smiles bitterly. ‘The train is fine, it’s me that’s cursed.’

‘You’re staying with me, Ladybug.’ ‘Sorry. I’m getting off. Off this job, off this train. Your bag is in the crew room and the woman who did Minegishi’s son is in the multi-purpose room after the green car. You can explain everything to Minegishi.’

A line from a book echoes in his mind. We perished, each alone. We spent so much time together. But at the end, we’re all alone.

‘You know which one used to be there?’ ‘I know.’ Tangerine swoops in and grabs the Prince by the lapel of his blazer. ‘Because it’s stuck to you right here.’ He lets go just as suddenly. The Prince stands rooted to the spot. ‘Look. This is the Diesel. The mean old Diesel.’ There on Tangerine’s finger is a black train with a square face.

‘Are you familiar with article 41 of the criminal code?’ ‘Huh?’ ‘Article 41 says that people under fourteen don’t get sentenced for crimes. Did you know that? But once you turn fourteen you can be punished like anyone else.’

Saying it’s wrong to kill is an expression of an adult dream.

That’s how it is with most laws. They’re just symbols, designed to make people feel better.’

‘I’m impressed you knew. If you pull the trigger on that thing, it explodes. I don’t think it would kill you, but it would injure you pretty badly.’

Doesn’t make sense. Nothing on this whole trip has made any sense, and this least of all. A couple of retirees with guns, interrogating a school student.

The Prince is used to people and animals behaving exactly as he wants them to.

inwardly he’s grinning ear to ear. He remembers the uncomprehending terror on the little boy’s face, that moment he shoved him out into space.

‘My wife died, though it was a long time ago now.’ Suzuki looks away. This must be the reason why Nanao could never detect any light in his eyes. ‘Actually, she was murdered.’

The gun. Nanao wants the gun. The Prince’s heart does a little leap. He got the gun in the backpack from Tangerine, and it’s no ordinary gun. It’s rigged to explode when someone pulls the trigger, injuring them in the process. An exploding booby-trap gun. And Nanao doesn’t know that, which is why he wants to use it. I should let him, thinks the Prince with glee.

That’s when he notices the digital ticker on the wall over the door. Text slides by: Shigeru to Shigeru. Wataru is safe. Intruder is dead.

‘No, I mean are you serious that Wataru woke up?’

There’s a burly man standing at the front of the Hayate. Craggy dinosaur face and a body like a rugby player. Minegishi, no doubt about it. He’s surrounded by men in black suits.

‘Hey now, no rough stuff!’ It’s a woman in a black pinstriped suit, looking daggers at him. ‘Maria.’ Nanao exhales, bewildered. ‘What are you – how – here –’ ‘Relax, it’s really me. Not a ghost.’

‘The conductor?’ ‘What about the conductor?’ ‘Wasn’t there something about the Hornet maybe being two people?’ ‘Yeah, maybe a solo or maybe a duo.’

‘That’s what everyone does when they’re out of good ideas. They revisit their past successes.’

Kimura, the man who was with the schoolkid, was discovered in the toilet still alive. He was rushed to the hospital where his condition was stabilised.