Noi stared in disbelief as he watched Ma?l step out of the arrival gate. It had only been a couple of days, but he could hardly recognize him. Gone were the easy smile and kindly demeanor of the man he loved to tease. Ma?l exuded an air of barely contained violence and moved forward with the inexorability of a charging bull. In nearly 300 professional fights and a decade of criminal investigations, he had never felt this outrageous of a... this was beyond intimidation. If killing aura was a thing, this was it.

  Good thing he’s a friend, he thought as he hailed the westerner. Ma?l nodded slightly in acknowledgment, the corners of his lips twitching in a poor attempt at a smile, and covered the distance in a few steps.

  “Thanks, Noi. Where are they?”

  “They are in the back of a police van, just outside. You can talk to them, but you have to promise you aren’t going to do anything stupid.”

  “Relax. If they really are who they say, they are allies, not enemies.”

  “What do you mean? You don’t believe this shit about them being fans, right?” Noi said as he guided Ma?l out of the airport.

  “Kaori is a big star in Japan. A really big star. And the Japanese take fan clubs very seriously. Do they look like yakuza?”

  Noi paused. Ludicrous as their story sounded, they fit the profile, and he had not found yakuza tattoos on either one of them.

  “No,” he admitted with a sigh. Fans tracking a celebrity on the run across international borders? Japs are crazy!

  He opened the back door of the police van, letting Ma?l in, and stepped on board, closing the door behind them.

  “It’s soundproof,” he declared, loud enough to ensure the prisoners would hear.

  Hotaru and Ishiro were handcuffed to the benches, facing each other. Ishiro’s face paled and he clenched his teeth in expectation of the beating that would surely come. Hotaru looked at the large foreigner whose weight had caused the van to sink down on its suspension.

  So this is Ma?l, he thought. A feeling of dread rose in him as he noticed the sea of violence roiling under the man’s cold expression. Something happened to Kaori! He contained himself. Unless he was badly mistaken, they were on the same side, for now at least.

  Ma?l examined him in silence, taking in the details of his appearance. He smirked as he spotted the thick leather bracers on his forearms, and the Victorian-era waistcoat. His friend wore the ensemble of a modern dandy. Otakus, the both of them, for sure. He turned to Ishiro—he seemed close to panic.

  “What was Kaori’s role in Immortal Love and what did she wear?”

  Ishiro sneered, “Kaori didn’t play in Immortal Love. You’re confusing it with Immortal Longing, and she had a scene in a skin tight space suit, if that’s what you mean, but the rest of the time, she had a red shirt and—”

  “Fine. I’ll listen. Tell me who you are and what the fuck you’re doing here.”

  Ishiro stopped, just realizing it had been a test. A really simple one. Who didn’t know at least that much about Kaori?

  “Where is Kaori?” Hotaru demanded.

  “You guys have a website and a way to prove you’re really fans?”

  “Yes, we’ve been telling that guy since yesterday,” Ishiro said, pointing to Noi with his chin, “and he keeps asking all the wrong questions.”

  Noi didn’t react. He was could be bad cop. He just hoped Ma?l wouldn’t be worse cop.

  “This ‘guy’, like you say, is a Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Thai Police, and he’s going to help me rescue Kaori, so you will treat him with respect.”

  They seemed suitably impressed by the statement and Ishiro relaxed noticeably. They were safe. Ma?l turned to Hotaru and handed him his phone.

  “Show me who you are.”

  It didn’t take long. Hotaru pulled up KFC’s website, and within seconds, he had a photo of the both of them with a poster of Kaori, attending a movie premiere in Tokyo. They were easily recognizable. The photo’s EXIF data showed it had been taken 3 years ago.

  Ma?l nodded to Noi.

  “You can untie them. They work for me, now.”

  Ishiro made to protest, but Hotaru interrupted:

  “Where’s Kaori?”

  “She was kidnapped this morning. I'm going to rescue her and you guys are going to help me.”

  “Oroshi?”

  Ma?l stared at the man in surprise. Hotaru clearly knew more about the situation than he had expected.

  “Kind of. He was here, but the killer said she was taken by his father, Masamune.” Ma?l answered.

  “Masamune? But why would he—”

  Noi had found the keys to the handcuffs and was busy untying the two men. He stopped.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Hold on. Killer? What killer? Where is he?”

  With a sigh, Ma?l walked them through the events of the last day, skipping over the “irrelevant parts”. They didn’t need to know he had... It might have been better not to say anything, or to invent some kind of a story, but it wasn't in his nature to hide things and he was a lousy liar.

  “Are you telling me you left two corpses lying around with your fingerprints all over?”

  “No. They had everything ready to torch the place, so I used that.”

  Noi glared. Ma?l hadn’t hesitated in his answer. No matter how he looked at it, he'd just confessed to a double homicide. And starting a fire to cover the evidence. Hard for a police officer to ignore... He opened his mouth but Ma?l cut him off.

  “Are you going to arrest me for defending myself?”

  “No, but—” Noi marked a pause. It was self-defense, he had no doubt about it, but no court of Law would see it that way. Not after he executed the assassin and burned the house to erase his tracks. It was however the only practical choice, and assuming all the evidence had disappeared in the fire, no one could prove he'd done it. It was up to him.

  “They have Kaori. Is that fine with you?”

  The law was never meant to protect criminals from their victims, yet that's precisely what would happen in practice. Followed to the letter, it would have Ma?l in jail while Kaori...

  “No. No, I’m not.” He sighed. “Do you know where they are holding her? I can call in some favors and get a special forces team by tonight.”

  “Hiroaki said she was being smuggled back to Japan. She’s probably on her way already.”

  “Then there’s not much we can do here.” Now that he had decided to get involved, Noi felt a little let down. When it came down to it, saving people from criminals was the reason why he became a cop in the first place. Climbing the career ladder was all fine, but he did miss the action. He wasn't built for sitting around while other men fought.

  “Do you guys know where Masamune would keep Kaori?” Ma?l asked.

  Ishiro shook his head. He had a hard time adjusting. He wanted to rescue Kaori, no matter what, but the reality of the situation hadn’t hit home until just now. This gaijin, standing just a few feet from him, coldly admitted to killing two men the day before. Ma?l would have to kill many more to save Kaori, with his help. Many times before Ishiro had sworn to himself he'd do anything for Kaori, but this was no longer just a fantasy. Now, he had to kill actual people, or at least help Ma?l kill them. Could he do it?

  Hotaru answered without hesitation.

  “Not yet. I just found out about Masamune’s link with the yakuza a couple of days ago and it’s not an obvious one, far from it. I’ve got a few people trying to dig up intel on his organizations, but all I have so far are a few business addresses and a family home in Tokyo. I can already tell you there’s no way he’d ever hold Kaori in Tokyo. She’s far too recognizable for that. Wherever she is, it won’t be in a major city. I'll try and dig up any remote estate he or his companies might own, but it'll take a while.”

  Noi looked at him with renewed interest—“no” and “not yet” were two very different answers—but Ma?l interrupted before he had a chance to ask:

  “How far are you willing to go to save Kaori?”

  “To the death, of course!” Hotaru and Ishiro answered as one.

  Ma?l bowed.

  “Good. You’ll work with me. Let’s get out of here. You guys need to return to Japan, and I need to find a way to go back as well.”

  “I have a private plane here. You can fly back with us.” Ishiro said. “Just need a few hours to file flight plans.”

  Noi’s jaw dropped. “You have a… What?”

  Ma?l thought for a while, considering. It was the fastest way, but what then? Stick to the plan.

  “Thanks, but I can’t. If I pass immigration in Japan, Oroshi will know that I’m still alive and we will be arrested before we even come out of the airport. Also, Noi and I are going to hit yakuza installations here in Bangkok tonight to get some intel.”

  “Time out! What—” Noi said.

  “You said you have standing orders to clean up foreign criminal organizations, correct?”

  “Sure, but—”

  “Then get your men. Masamune’s guys here in Bangkok are involved in sex trafficking. They recruit poor girls from Isan as cheap prostitutes for the Japanese market. There’s a warehouse not far from the airport with about 20 girls waiting to be smuggled to Japan over the weekend. We have to hit them now.”

  Noi looked pensive. The news was hardly a surprise. Thailand supplied prostitutes to quite a few countries around the world, and while sex trafficking had been significantly curtailed during the reign of King Bhumibol, smaller scale operations were almost impossible to stop.

  “Even so, do you have any evidence that we can use? Because without it, I'm fucked if I organize a raid to arrest them. I guarantee they have better connections than little old me.”

  “Are sex slaves not enough evidence to arrest people in Thailand?”

  “Do they even know they are sex slaves? If they don't testify, I'm fucked! That’s what makes stopping the sex trafficking so difficult. They recruit girls and promise them the moon overseas. They give money to the families and to the girls, and these girls are all excited about a chance not to work the rice fields. They WANT to go. If we arrest them here, there is no victim and no crime: it’s not illegal to recruit girls and they only find out the truth when they arrive in—”

  “Hiroaki says the Oyabun like to sample the merchandise and he likes it rough. Some of these girls will talk if you can protect their families back home.”

  Noi nodded in agreement. Striking without a warrant could be disastrous for his career and he didn't fancy himself a martyr. With evidence however, it was a different matter entirely, and a chance to clean house. High risk, high reward. He didn't get to where he was by playing it safe.

  Ma?l turned back to Hotaru and Ishiro:

  “Now, you guys need to get going. I’ll be in Japan in two days and I have things I need you guys to prepare before I arrive.”

  “Didn’t you say you couldn’t get into Japan?” Hotaru asked.

  “Not by plane, no.”

  “Ships will be the same. Takes a week at best, and every port of entry will have you go through immigration the exact same way. No offense, but you stand out.”

  “I have a—," Ma?l paused. His “plan” wasn't much of a plan at all. Whatever. It would have to do. One thing at a time. “I'll work it out and contact you to arrange a pick up point. I'm going to need transportation in Japan.”

  “We'll take care of that. Send me everything you find about their organization after the raid tonight and all the clues you got from that Hiroaki guy.” Hotaru replied. “By the way, where did you hide the Asahi? No one's been able to find it yet.”

  Ma?l smiled as he remembered Kaori's efforts to hide the ship. “I'll give you the GPS coordinates. Anything else? How are you on money?”

  “Thanks, but we will manage.” A grin appeared on Ishiro's face. Money was never an issue.

  “They have a private jet, you big dummy” Noi said. “Let's go. If you want to pull off a raid tonight, we need to leave now.”