Lady Joker, Volume 1 by Kaoru Takamura (lightest ebook reader .txt) 📕

put the list back in the drawer. Since there was no way he could concentrate now he gave up on his draft, and saved and closed the file. Then, from his drawer he took out a pencil that did not get much use these days, and started to sharpen it with a Higo no Kami pocket knife. This is what Negoro did whenever he was waiting for something. Tabe, at his desk, was talking on the direct line. “Has there been any broadcast yet? What are the other papers doing?”

Just as Negoro had started sharpening a second pencil, the phone rang for the umpteenth time, and Negoro froze, his hand still on the Higo no Kami. He checked the clock on the wall. 12:18 a.m.

Tabe picked up the receiver, his body bent forward as he stooped over the computer and his forehead shining.

“I see—got it. Let me know the details ASAP. I’m calling the Metro chief.” He nodded once and straightened himself as he put down the receiver, but he hesitated before letting the next words escape from his mouth. “Kidnapping. They’ve got the president of Hinode Beer—!”

His voice was not all that loud, but it reached every corner of the 1,300-square meter office in a flash, and for a second or two, it seemed as if time had stopped on the whole floor.

Then, Takano the rim editor’s bellow rumbled through the office. “The president of Hinode Beer has been kidnapped! Hinode’s president! Kidnapped!” His shouting was drowned out by the hum of voices erupting all at once, chairs scraping the floor as the reporters got to their feet, and footsteps rushing toward Metro.

“Well, the election’s a bust,” the Political slot editor nearby huffed, looking up at the ceiling.

“Hinode Beer? You sure it’s Hinode Beer?” yelled the Finance slot editor as he raced over.

“What do we do for space? How many columns should we keep open for now?” This from the layout editor as he came running.

“If it really is a kidnapping, I’m sure they’ll force a news embargo on us—” That was the voice of the acting deputy managing editor.

A throng had formed in a matter of seconds. In its middle, Tabe rapidly launched into a short summary of the situation at hand. MPD’s Public Information Division had already put a call out to the chief reporters from each newspaper, and Sugano was on his way there now. It seemed to be a given that a temporary embargo would be requested—that much they knew. Everyone turned to look at the clock at once. If the news embargo were issued, all reporting activities would be shut down. Even if talks over the details of the embargo with the publishing managers dragged on, there was a finite limit to how much time they had. Until the embargo officially would take effect, they had one or two hours, tops. In any case, gathering news was a race against time.

As if to signal the start of a hundred-meter race, the crowd that had gathered dispersed in all directions.

“Get all staff who’s available back here now!” Tabe cried out. “Doi, Harada—you guys first look for anyone with a family member who works for Hinode. Negoro, I need you to work on the assignment chart. Yoshida, you get everyone from the photo section over here. And find any material we have on Hinode—everything we’ve got in the archives! Also get anything on the beer manufacturers’ labor union. Arai-san, you’re in charge of the financial side and the liquor industry!”

“Ah!” From the Business desk, Arai cried out hysterically. “Hinode has a shareholders’ meeting at the end of March—”

“Then we’d better interview shareholders too! Be sure not to let on about the incident, keep the conversation on the economy and the industry and so forth.”

Negoro was busy paging each reserve reporter who could be called back to the office, one by one, as he turned over a commemorative poster from the 100th anniversary of the newspaper and spread it on the Reserve desk to start creating the assignment chart.

Behind him, the rim editor Takano was on the direct line with the press box, furiously scribbling on his notepad. As soon as the call ended he read these aloud in a voice that reverberated across the floor.

“The name of the victim, Kyosuke Shiroyama. Fifty-eight years old. President of Hinode Beer. At approximately 10:05 p.m. on the twenty-third, after returning in a company car to his residence at 2-16 Sanno, he was ambushed and abducted by a person or persons who had been lying in waiting inside the front gate. In the shrubs of the front yard, a crumpled letter has been found that appears to have been left by the perp. It said, ‘We have your president.’ The case is being treated as abduction and unlawful confinement. As of now, 12:20 a.m., there has been no contact from the perp. The name of the president’s driver is Tatsuo Yamazaki. Sixty years old. Employed by the company for twenty years. The next briefing will be at 2 a.m.—that’s all that’s been released to the press for now!”

Negoro picked up the receiver of the direct line.

“Yes, Sugano speaking!” he shouted. He sounded like a different man than he’d been half an hour ago.

“Do you have somewhere you want me to send the reserve reporters?” Negoro asked.

“I need you to follow up with the Hinode executives. Not one of them is returning our calls. Have them try going directly to their homes, knocking on doors.”

Negoro hung up and called out to Yoshida, who had just run back from the archives. “Can you look up the names and addresses of Hinode executives?”

The clock read half past midnight. As Negoro conveyed Sugano’s instructions to the reserve reporters responding to his page, he was also working on the assignment chart with Tabe. On the reverse side of the poster, first he wrote out the headings in large characters, ten centimeters square, and then added names of the reporters. Excluding the reporters on the MPD