Cajun Justice(46)

“What about Tanaka’s dad? He’s an inspector with the Tokyo police.”

“I already thought about that. I’ve gotta tread lightly. I don’t wanna put any more tension between Tanaka and his dad. You know: the whole thing about Tanaka being yanked out of America and brought back to Japan.”

Bonnie nodded. “I met an American journalist several months back who knows a ton about Japanese culture and crime. He works for the military newspaper—the American Flag or something like that—”

“The Stars and Stripes?”

“Yes! That’s it. He’s also married to a Japanese woman and speaks really good Japanese.”

“That’s great,” Cain said. “What’s his name and number?”

“His name is Champ Albright the Third. I have his contact information somewhere at my apartment.”

“It’d be nice to meet another American here.”

“What are you gonna do?” she asked, looking very concerned.

“I took on this job knowing the risks. It’s my problem to deal with, not yours.”

“There’s no dealing with the yakuza, Cain. You’re a gaijin.”

“That’s right,” he said, and grinned. “I’m a barbarian.”

“An outsider. And it’s not funny.” She pointed her finger at him and shook it. “They won’t think twice about hurting you if you get in their way.”





Chapter 39



The security department’s small break room had a coffee machine and a rice cooker on the countertop. One lone vending machine with flashy lights was situated in the corner. A calendar with a dozen pictures of Mount Fuji was tacked to the white wall.

Cain pulled Tanaka aside. “Can I count on you to translate for me?”

“I can, but they all speak English.”

“They told me they spoke very little English.”

“If a Japanese person cannot speak perfect English, they say they cannot speak it.”

“English is my mother tongue and I don’t speak it perfectly. I’m a product of the Louisiana public school system. Have a seat, Tanaka. I’ll speak to everyone in English.”

“Very well.” Tanaka bowed his head and gathered the three security guards and the driver before he took his seat.

Cain began the meeting promptly at 8:00 a.m. “Gentlemen, what is our greatest threat?”

Cain watched the men look at one another. Tanaka spoke up. “An employee who was laid off by the company and is now angry.”

“Hai.” The other guards agreed and nodded their heads in unison.

“That is certainly a threat,” Cain said. “But our greatest threat is the unknown—the one thing we cannot predict. That is what we must train for.”

“How do we train for the unknown?” Tanaka asked.

“Great question. My father had a good friend named Frank Rogers, who was an old crusty flight instructor. He was known for telling his students, ‘In der Nott frisst der Teufel Fliegen.’ That’s German for ‘In an emergency, even the Devil eats flies.’ We are in an emergency situation. We are a global automotive company with over 135,000 employees. Our cars are sold in more than one hundred countries. Yet as a security staff, we are understaffed and undertrained. We’re going to have to make some sacrifices until we get some backup. I’m increasing our shifts from eight to twelve hours.”

Everyone looked on with great focus. Then one of the security guards raised his hand.

“Speak freely,” Cain said.

“Will we get overtime for this?”

“I’m working on that. I just have to find the right person to discuss this with.”

“That will be Umiko-san,” Tanaka said. “She is the executive assistant to Sato-san. She can usually cut through a lot of typical Japanese bureaucracy.”

Perfect! Cain thought. He had hoped to find an excuse to see Umiko again. “I’ll talk to her as soon as this meeting is over.” He turned his attention back to the entire group. “So, we’re going to increase our work hours, and we’ll need to find and hire three additional security guards.”

The oldest security guard finally overcame what seemed like hesitation to ask a question. “Cain-san, Japan is very safe. Why do we need more guards?”

“Because I’m adding Mr. Sato’s house under our protection umbrella. Our team is going to start watching it, too.”

“He lives in a very nice neighborhood. Very expensive. Very safe,” the guard replied, clearly thinking the gaijin was overreacting.

Cain kept the yakuza threat to himself. He didn’t want to spook his security guards until he had learned more. “We also need to update our equipment. No more black-and-white CCTVs. We need color cameras, and a pan-and-zoom feature. We need earpieces for our handheld radios.” He looked one of the security guards directly in the eye. “And no more reading hentai on the job!”

The three security guards sat quietly in their chairs. “Are there any questions?”

Nobody said anything. “Now is the time to ask any questions, because we’re about to stomp on the gas and go full speed ahead. We all need to be operating on the same eight cylinders. Or, in the case of Japan, on all four cylinders.” Cain smiled but noticed that nobody got his joke. “Complacency kills, gentlemen. We’re going to start asking ourselves every day: ‘How would I attack Sato-san in this scenario?’ And we’re going to start training in self-defense. We’re not talking about doing katas and swinging nunchucks here. I’m going to teach you the skills I learned at the Secret Service and in the navy. I’m talking about being able to put a suspect on the ground quickly while the other team members cover and evacuate our protectee. That’s cover and evacuate. That will be our MO.”