Clocktower Read online

  “This can’t be allowed to continue!” Gabriel slammed a hand down on the bed where Johnny had sat, and gritted his teeth at his own powerlessness.

  “You’re not going to accomplish anything tonight,” Johnny said. “But I might. I’m close to something. They wouldn’t have sent those men after me if I wasn’t.”

  Gabriel seethed, but said nothing.

  “I need you to do me a favor,” Johnny said, coming to Gabriel’s side. “I need to get down to The Lugs. Someone’s waiting for me down there right now. Hopefully someone who can shed some light on what’s going on here. But in the meantime, I need you to keep your cool.”

  Gabriel took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “I know,” he said. “I know.”

  “I doubt any of them got a good look at you, but do you have any means of defending yourself just in case?” Johnny asked.

  Gabriel looked up at him, his face turning slightly red as he did. After a moment of thought, he reached around behind him and pulled out an old 1911 that had been tucked in his belt. He held it in hands, experimenting with the grip while testing the weight.

  “I’m ashamed to admit it,” he said, keeping his eyes on the weapon. “It’s against the law just to own one. But it was left to me by my grandfather on my mother’s side. To tell you the truth, I’m frightened of it. I’ve never even taken it out of its box until tonight.”

  Gabriel handed the pistol to Johnny, who inspected it carefully before giving it back. “It’s a fine weapon,” Johnny said. “Hopefully you won’t have to use it, but it gives me some measure of relief knowing you can protect yourself.”

  Outside, the pitter-patter of rain began to echo through the windows. Johnny looked out into the dark, and watched silent ripples expand on puddles lit only by moonlight. He would have to make his way down to The Lugs despite the worsening weather, and his enthusiasm at the prospect only lessened at the realization that he had left Pinion’s umbrella behind at The Wheel Bridge.

  “I don’t suppose you have any former students who work at the hotel, do you?” Johnny asked.

  “They’re all my former students,” Gabriel answered as he tucked his pistol back in his belt. “Why?”

  “I left my umbrella there.”

  Gabriel blinked at him. “Your umbrella?”

  “Well,” Johnny said. “It’s not really mine. I borrowed it from this shopkeep down on Flute. Nice guy, hell of a watch collection. I was hoping to return it to him, but it looks like that might be a pipe dream now.”

  Gabriel tapped a few thoughtful fingers on the table next to the bed. “Sounds like a nice guy. What kind of umbrella was it?” he asked.

  “That’s the thing,” Johnny said, turning from the window. “It was a bulky old green one with a wooden handle. No brand on it. Heavier than all hell for an umbrella. Anyway, do you think you could have it returned to him?”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Gabriel scratched at the back of his head, puzzled by the request. “Although I must confess, I’ve never heard of a watchmaker working off Flute Street. What’s the name of this shop?”

  “Pinion’s.”

  “Pinion’s?” Gabriel asked. “I’ve never heard of it, but I’ll do my best to make sure the umbrella is returned regardless.”

  “Thanks,” Johnny said. “What will you do now?”

  “I don’t know.” Gabriel shifted his weight. “I guess I’ll stay here for the night.” There was a long moment of unmoving silence before Gabriel took out a small notebook from his pocket and ripped out a sheet of paper.

  “Here’s my number,” he said, scribbling it down and passing the paper over to Johnny. “If something happens.”

  “I’ll try not to drag you down with me,” Johnny said. “But if I find out something that might help you out, I’ll give you a call.”

  *

  The two men parted at the back door. Johnny watched as Gabriel walked down the main hall and disappeared around the corner. Once he was out of sight, Johnny made his way to the front of the school, then flipped open his mobile phone.

  “Well, well. Look who’s not dead,” a voice that wasn’t Mutsumi Baba’s answered.

  “Jack?” Johnny lowered his eyebrows.

  “The one and only. You want to explain to me why you’re not here yet?”

  “I ran into a few bumps along the road,” Johnny said.

  “Did you kill them?”

  “No, they’re alive.”

  “Good. Tell me where you are and stay put. I’ll come to you.” Jack gave a nasally snort as he spoke.

  “Where exactly are we going?” Johnny asked.

  “Oh-ho!” he laughed. “We’re going to the hospital, Johnny. I hope you’ve got your best suit on, because you’re about to steal a corpse.”

  Twenty-Fourth Movement

  Penitence

  Johnny didn’t have to wait long for Jack to arrive. Within a few short minutes of ending the call, he saw the outlines of a black BMW 6 Series turn in from the south. It stopped fifty yards short of the school gate and flashed its lights two times, signaling Johnny to come.

  He ran through the rain as quickly as he could, but was still soaked by the time he shut the passenger door and greeted his would-be partner.

  “The fuck happened to you?” Jack asked, his eyebrows raised at Johnny’s slew of cuts and bruises.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Johnny said. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  Jack shifted the car into drive and slowly began making his way through the back streets toward the hospital. Each house they passed was pitch black. It was as if the entirety of Sonnerie had disappeared for the night. The only visible light he could see was from the dial of the clocktower, partially obscured by passing flora and fabrication.

  “We’ve got a few minutes before we get to the hospital,” Jack said as he turned down another single-lane street. “So listen and listen good. You screw up and I ain’t bailing you out.”

  “Uh-huh.” Johnny leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath.

  “We’ve got two teams. You and me are hitting the hospital, and we’ve got two things to do. First, we need to get down to the morgue and pick up Mari Mishima’s body. Second, we need to break into Dr. Tonimura’s office and recover any notes or records she has regarding the autopsy. The only problem is, Madam Tonimura’s office is on the top floor, and the morgue is in the basement.”

  “So we split up, what’s the big deal?” Johnny asked.

  “Right. I’ll take the body, you take the office.”

  “I don’t want this one touching my body,” the voice of Mari Mishima objected. Johnny spun around to see her sitting directly behind him.

  “What?” Jack asked, alerted at Johnny’s sudden movement. “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” Johnny lied.

  “Don’t let him touch me, Mr. Tokisaki. Please.”

  Johnny opened his mouth to answer, but after a quick glance at Jack, he thought better of it.

  “I’ll get the body,” Johnny said. “You get Tonimura’s records.”

  “What? Who do you think is in charge here?” Jack looked over at him indignantly.

  “It’ll be more trouble for me trying to get through all those floors. Besides, I’ve already seen Mari’s body. I’ve been to the morgue, and know where she is. You’re one of Baba’s men, so if you get caught sneaking around, at least you have a way out. If I get caught up there, it’s game over.” Johnny kept his eyes on him, hoping he would accept the half-truth.

  Jack looked at him, then back at the road several times before finally shrugging. “Fine,” he said. “Grab the corpse and drop it in the trunk, then wait for me in the car. We’ll be in, out, and back in The Buckle before you know it.”

  “You said there were two teams. What else is going on?”

  “The twins,” Jack said. �
�They’re headed to the police station to recover the evidence from the killings. You saw that Hanekawa bitch, right? Damn girl gives me the creeps. Mamasama has no doubt that they will destroy all evidence of the school incident. We can’t let them do that.”

  Johnny furrowed his brow and looked back at Mari, who only shook her head. “Why would Mamasama give a damn about this?”

  “Hmph,” Jack snorted. “You sure got a lot of questions for a one-time gig. But since I’m feeling magnanimous, I’ll tell you. Mamasama? She has no love for Hanekawa, but it doesn’t stop there. The Mishima girl was under Mamasama’s employ. A Buckle girl is a protected girl, and the Sixth has a reputation to protect, you know? Nothing given by an Index comes without a price. Nothing taken from an Index comes without a penalty. Those are the rules.”

  “So it’s a power play,” Johnny said. “Mamasama gets evidence of Ayano’s misdeeds, and uses it as leverage to get something in return.”

  “Hey, you catch on quick!” Jack said. “I don’t really give a shit about the politics myself, but Mamasama tells me that it’ll be my turn soon enough.”

  Johnny looked over at him, scrutinizing his every feature. He may have been heir to one of the twelve most powerful people in Sonnerie, but all Johnny could see in front of him was a whitehead-ridden brat with a tattoo and a big chip on his shoulder. He had no idea what Mamasama had seen in Jack, nor did he much care to find out.

  “What is she planning to do with Mari’s body?” Johnny asked suddenly.

  “Hell if I know,” Jack said. “It’s too bad, though. A little cutie like that? I should’ve taken her when I had the chance.”

  Johnny balled up one fist, and set the other on his lap. He stared at Jack, who kept his eyes on the road. “She was just a kid,” he said.

  “A kid with a nice pair of tits. You really do have to get them while they’re young and supple like that. Before their cunts get all stretched out from fucking half of Sonnerie’s elite.” Jack chortled, and it took everything in Johnny’s power to keep his fist from plowing into Jack Amano’s right temple.

  “It’s okay, Mr. Tokisaki,” Mari said from behind. “I’m used to being talked about like that.”

  Johnny looked at her downcast guise and shook his head. There was nothing he could say to her. Not with Jack in the car.

  “We’re almost there,” Jack said, straightening up. “Are you ready?”

  Johnny kept his eyes on Mari. “Yeah,” he said. “Leave it to me.”

  The rain had weakened to a light drizzle by the time they arrived at the hospital. Jack parked the car as close as he could to the rear entrance. When they were satisfied that no one was nearby, they got out and circled around to the trunk, where Jack pulled out a small duffle bag containing a white medical coat and a light blue mask.

  “Put this on,” he said. “The trick is to look like you belong here. Walk around like you own the place, and they’ll all believe that you do.”

  Johnny put on the coat and mask, then felt something flexible and plastic in one of his pockets. He pulled it out, revealing a badge and a picture.

  “Dr. No?” he read the name on the badge out loud. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “Dr. No is a respectable medical professional here in Sonnerie, didn’t you know?” Jack gave him a toothy grin. “He specializes in urology.”

  Johnny examined the picture on the badge of a middle-aged, square-faced man with crow’s feet and a fat lower lip. “I don’t even look anything like this guy,” he said.

  “Yeah, well, just don’t give someone cause to look at it. It’d be more noticeable if you didn’t have a badge at all. Besides, that’s why you have the mask.”

  “Where’s yours?” Johnny asked. “You’re not going in looking like that, are you?” He pointed at Jack’s ripped black jeans and leather jacket.

  “Oh, it’s right here,” he said, pulling out a small, white sticker with the word “VISITOR” written in bold print on it. “Like I said, walk around like you belong there, and no one will question it.”

  Jack slammed the trunk shut, then looked over at the entrance to the hospital. “I’ll go first,” he said. “Bring the stiff back here and put her in the trunk, then sit tight and wait for me. If you get caught, then that’s it. Deals off. You go downstairs and everyone forgets the name Johnny Tokisaki for the rest of eternity. Got it?”

  “Right,” Johnny said. He did one final check of his person, then gave the wooden grip of his pistol a tight squeeze. It was time.

  “I’ll go in first,” Jack said. “Don’t fuck this up.”

  Johnny nodded, and watched as Jack made his way through the large glass doors. He gave one last look at Johnny before disappearing down the hall, leaving him alone in the parking lot.

  “I don’t like him,” Mari said, folding her arms across her chest.

  “Yeah, well, neither do I. But you can’t always choose who you work with,” Johnny said. He turned to her and studied the vaguely perplexed expression on her face. “You sticking around?” he asked.

  Mari shrugged. “It’s like I told you, I can’t really control when I come and go. But I’d like to go with you, if that’s alright. I want to see it for myself.”

  “Your body?” he asked.

  Mari nodded. “Who knows? Maybe something will happen if I touch it, right? Maybe I’ll just wake up, and this’ll all have been a bad dream. What do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Johnny sighed. “I don’t have much experience with mechanically augmented corpses. And even less experience with said corpses’ disembodied spirits.”

  “You’re not really good at reassuring a girl, are you?”

  Johnny couldn’t help but grin at the jab. “I hate hospitals,” he said as they approached the doors. “Let’s just get you in there and see what happens.”

  *

  To his tacit dismay, the hospital was abuzz with activity. He kept his eyes forward and brow furrowed so as not to draw attention, though even if he hadn’t, most of the hospital staff seemed to be in such a rush that his presence would have gone unnoticed either way. It was only when he reached the main hall that he understood why. An ambulance had just brought in three victims of a car accident, and they were in critical condition.

  “You must have really given it to those guys,” Mari said.

  Johnny ignored her and continued on. He got to the main elevators just as a large group had disembarked, sliding in just as the doors had started to close. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, however, a hand shot through the narrow gap in the closing doors, forcing them open again.

  “Excuse me,” a voice said, boarding the elevator and taking a spot in the corner across from Johnny. He was a shorter, graying-haired man with a broad mustache and the thickest square glasses Johnny had ever seen. In his hands he had a clipboard filled with medical data, and he immediately went about tapping his pen against the wood in between ticking boxes on charts.

  Johnny’s heart skipped a beat. In reality, he was here in Sonnerie, in an elevator going down to the morgue. But in his mind, he was in his dreams again. The hospital from five years ago. He looked down in his hands and saw a bouquet of red roses. His white lab coat was gone. His breathing became staggered and shallow.

  “Mr. Tokisaki?” He heard Mari’s voice, but he couldn’t see her anymore. Tap, tap, tap, the pen sounded against the clipboard’s wooden frame. Tap, tap, tap, swish—the sound of the doctor’s pen ticking another box. Johnny watched his hands. His small, wrinkled hands as they went back and forth through two-dimensional mountains of data. Tap, tap, tap, it said again.

  “Mr. Tokisaki, what’s wrong?” He heard Mari’s voice again, but it had grown distant. Tap, tap, tap, he heard again. How long had he been in this elevator? He looked down at the roses in his hand, whose petals had withered and blackened, and dropped them to the floor.

 
“Stop,” Johnny whispered. His throat was bone dry. Tap, tap, tap. The doctor flipped another page. A cause of death certificate. Johnny stepped forward and peered down at the name. He could barely see straight. Consciousness itself seemed to be slipping away. But he could still make out the page he saw before him, and the name. His wife’s name: Hana Tokisaki.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  Primary cause of death: Severe bleeding.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  Pregnant at time of death: YES.

  A single tear welled up in his eye. “It’s your fault,” he whispered. “It’s your fault. It’s your fault, it’s your fault, it’s your fault.”

  Johnny reached into his jacket, and ripped his .38 from its holster, but just as the last thread of sanity in his mind was laid bare, he felt a hand strike his face with such force that the mirage before him instantly evaporated, leaving him back in Sonnerie Hospital. The elevator door was open, and the other occupant had gone, leaving him alone with Mari at his side.

  “What happened?” he yelled. “Where’d the other guy go?”

  “What other guy, Mr. Tokisaki? There’s no one else here. It’s just us,” Mari exclaimed.

  “That’s not true,” he insisted. “There was a doctor standing right there. He had a clipboard. He was writing notes.”

  “Okay, okay,” she said, coming to his side. “Mr. Tokisaki, just put the gun away, okay? You’re scaring me.”

  Johnny looked down at the pistol in his shaking hand. His finger was still wrapped around the trigger, and even after he had holstered his weapon, his digit remained bent, as if it could not return to normal.

  “You’re pale as a ghost,” Mari said. “Who did you see?”

  “No one,” Johnny said, taking off the surgical mask and taking a few deep breaths. His stomach was beginning to turn in on itself again, and he closed his eyes and let the moment pass until he was fully in control.