[Thomas Caine #1] Tokyo Black by Andrew Warren Read Free Book Online Page B

stillness could unnerve her, as though he were dead inside. Then he would touch her face, or stroke her hair, or make some other human gesture. She would laugh and smile, no longer able to see the shadow that had so unnerved her, as if it were an optical illusion.
    She nodded, not sure why, but feeling it was the appropriate response to seeing a living man she’d believed to be dead for so long.
    “Well…,” she said.
    “I knew someone would come,” he said, his voice soft, but sharp, like a paper-thin knife, “but I didn’t expect it to be you.”
    Rebecca bit her lip. “Who did you expect?”
    Caine shrugged. “Anyone but you.”
    “You’re supposed to be dead.”
    He smirked. “You sound disappointed.”
    Rebecca dug a plastic band from her purse. She pulled back her hair, heavy and damp with sweat, tying it into a loose ponytail.
    Caine watched like a cat watches birds play on the other side of a window.
    “Your hair is longer,” he said.
    Rebecca’s face flushed. The two sets of bars cut the man before her into disjointed slivers, like reflections in a house of mirrors.
    “My hair is longer?” Her voice rose to a strangled shout. “All these years, that’s all you can say? I wake up, and you’re gone. I mean, disappeared, completely out of my life. And now … Tom, what the hell happened to you?”
    Caine paused, then looked away. A muscle in his neck quivered. “That’s not my name anymore. I don’t know why you’re here, but you should leave.”
    “No, Tom, that is your name. That’s why I’m here. You’re why I’m here.” Rebecca’s slim, porcelain hand gripped a metal bar. “Mark Waters was the asshole you were pretending to be. A drug dealer, who traded guns for heroin to terrorists. Is that who you are now? Is that who you decided to be?”
    “No, that’s who the United States government decided I should be. It served their interests, and I paid the price. Trust me, they got the better end of the deal.”
    Rebecca had to force herself not to step back from the bars. His voice—cold and raw with hatred—was like a blade of icy steel stabbing at her. She shivered, despite the intense heat.
    Caine smirked again. “Now, I serve my own interests. I’ve earned that. So how about you drop the jilted lover act and tell me what it is you want?”
    “I want the truth, damn it!”
    Caine chuckled. “Then you may need to reconsider your career path.”
    “Fine. Screw the truth then. I’ll just assume you are what your file says you are. A traitor and a disgrace.”
    “And dead. Let’s not forget that.”
    “Well, if you’re not interested in debating the truth, neither am I. Besides, I don’t think it will be too long before the facts reconcile themselves. People don’t last long in here. The locals call this place ‘The Big Tiger.’ Know why?”
    Caine didn’t answer.
    Rebecca finally felt like the conversation was on equal footing. She took a step closer. “Because it eats men alive.”
    Caine held up the manila folder in his hands. “And this is what, exactly? My ticket out of here? A favor I do for you, in exchange for my freedom?”
    She nodded. “I can fill you in on the details later, but the elevator pitch is in there. Arinori Kusaka is a prominent Japanese businessman with fingers in every technological pie there is. Works with all the major Chinese factories and has close ties to many government officials. He’s also a CIA asset, whose intelligence has been instrumental in thwarting several industrial espionage and cyber-terrorism attacks sponsored by the Chinese government.”
    Caine flipped through the dossier, scanning the photos and reports in the folder with a lazy detachment. “You want me to take him to a hostess club?”
    Rebecca ignored him. “Kusaka claims he has knowledge of an imminent terrorist attack that will take place on US soil within the next seven days.”
    “Well, good thing you’re all such close friends then,” he said without looking