Wildcard (Warcross #2)(25)

SHAHIRA BOULOUS of TURKEY | ANDROMEDA

ROSHAN AHMADI of UK | PHOENIX RIDERS

It occurs to me that Jax had brought me here in a state of unconsciousness. Now the Blackcoats are letting me step out the door unattended and fully alert.

I don’t quite believe it. I could easily go back on my word to them. But there’s not much I could do to them at this point—I don’t know where they are or anything incriminating about them.

Get into Hideo’s mind. That’s what the Blackcoats are asking of me. I look in the direction of Tokyo Dome, where enormous virtual symbols for the Phoenix Riders and Team Andromeda are already hovering in the night sky above the stadium, with a timer counting down the next twenty-four hours until the game happens. Hideo will be at the Final rematch tomorrow.

My thoughts wander back to Zero. I’d spent a moment running searches on the symbol on Sasuke’s sleeve, but no matches turned up. It doesn’t belong to any corporation I’ve ever heard of, nor does it resemble anything that might hint at what it is. It’s simply a series of polygons overlapping each other, as abstract as anything can be.

I quietly put a call out to Tremaine.

He answers almost immediately. “Hey!” he exclaims in my ear so loudly that I wince. An instant later, his virtual figure appears, and I see him walking on a crowded, brightly lit street, his hands buried in his pockets.

“A little quieter,” I reply. “I can hear you fine.”

“Where the hell are you?” Tremaine squints at me, trying to make sense of my surroundings. “Are you okay? The Riders are freaking out about you. Roshan even called me to see if I knew what was going on.”

“Where are you?” I ask.

“Someplace in Roppongi. Where are you? I’ve been trying to track you down.”

His hurried voice makes my mind whirl. “Omotesando. Don’t track me. It’s too dangerous. I’ll come find you.”

“What do you mean, it’s too dangerous? I heard about gunfire in Shinjuku a couple of days ago. It was all over the news—they said some kind of madman opened fire. It’s unheard of in Japan, even in Kabukichō. Two people were killed. I thought one of them could have been you. What happened?”

It already seems like years since I last talked to them in the bar. I bite my lip. “I’m okay,” I reply. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain when I see you.” I keep my voice low. “But first, I need you to look at something for me.”

Before Tremaine can answer, I send him the screenshot of young Sasuke in the room.

His bewildered voice now turns curious. “Who’s this?”

“Sasuke Tanaka, apparently, when he was young. See that symbol on his sleeve?”

“Yeah. What is it?”

“I have no idea. That’s what I need your help with.”

“You run a search on it yet?”

“Yeah. I turned up nothing.”

Tremaine pauses, and I imagine him studying the symbol with a frown, trying to match it up with something. “Hmm,” he finally murmurs under his breath. “I’m not finding anything on it, either, not on a first try. But I think I know someone who can help. Where’d you get this screenshot?”

“That’s part of the long story.” I glance out my balcony, looking on as icons blink on across Tokyo’s landscape wherever my eyes sweep. “Tomorrow night, after the Final rematch. Let’s meet up with the others, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

“Hopefully I’ll have something for you by then.” He nods at me, and we disconnect.

The paranoia hits me instantly. What if Zero had overheard my conversation with Tremaine? I haven’t forgotten what happened to me the last time I was out in public alone just a few short days ago. Now I’m sitting safely in a hotel room, but I still can’t ignore the feeling that someone might burst in at any moment.

Concentrate.

I am about to place another call, this time to the Phoenix Riders—when a movement out near my balcony makes me freeze. I crane my neck, eyes searching for a moment, until I see that someone has emerged onto the balcony of Jax’s suite next to mine.

It’s Zero.

The glow from the city sprawl below outlines his shape in dim light. He stares out at the landscape for a moment, his eyes sweeping slowly toward my room. I want to turn my gaze away, in case he can see me watching him.

A voice says his name, and Zero turns as Jax joins him on the balcony. I hold my breath, looking on as she stops before him. She’s fiddling with her gun again, just as she’d done when she was with me, taking out its cartridge and clicking a new one into place, her movements subtle and efficient. It’s as if the habit comforts her.

As I look on, Jax takes a step closer to Zero so that she is nearly touching him, and then she says something to him that I can’t hear.

Something softens in his expression. He leans toward her and closes his eyes, then murmurs something into her ear. Whatever it is, it makes her shift slightly in his direction. They don’t touch. All they do is stay that way, locked in a subtle embrace, sharing something that makes me think of the way Hideo used to pull me to him.

He follows her back inside, and then the two are gone.

I find myself breathing again, my cheeks flushing slightly at the scene. There’s an undeniable familiarity between them.