Woken Furies Read Online Free

of interest that I thought you might like to resolve.”
    A frigid silence.
    “That’s sometime tonight I’d like you to resolve it,” I said gently.
    There was a hiss of indrawn breath at the other end of the line. “Kovacssan, you are making a mistake.”
    “Really?”
    “It would be unwise to involve us in your affairs.”
    “I’m not the one doing the involving. Currently I’m standing in a warehouse looking at an empty space where some equipment of mine used to be. I have it on pretty good authority the reason it’s gone is that you took it.”
    More silence. Conversations with the yakuza are invariably punctuated with long pauses, during which you’re supposed to reflect and listen carefully to what’s not being said.
    I wasn’t in the mood for it. My wound ached.
    “I’m told you’ll be finished in about six hours. I can live with that. But I want your word that at the end of that time the equipment will be back here and in working order, ready for me to use. I want your word.”
    “Hirayasu Yukio is the person to—”
    “Yukio is a
chimp.
Let us deal honestly with each other in this. Yukio’s only job here is to make sure I don’t slaughter our mutual service provider. Which, incidentally, is something he’s not doing well. I was already short on patience when I arrived, and I don’t expect to replenish my stock anytime soon. I’m not interested in Yukio. I want
your
word.”
    “And if I do not give it?”
    “Then a couple of your front offices are going to end up looking like the inside of the citadel tonight. You can have
my
word on that.”
    Quiet. Then: “We do not negotiate with terrorists.”
    “Oh
please.
What are you, making speeches? I thought I was dealing at executive level. Am I going to have to do some damage here?”
    Another kind of silence. The voice on the other end of the line seemed to have thought of something else.
    “Is Hirayasu Yukio harmed?”
    “Not so’s you’d notice.” I looked down coldly at the yakuza. He’d mastered breathing again and was beginning to sit up. Beads of sweat gleamed at the borders of his tattoo. “But all that can change. It’s in your hands.”
    “Very well.” Barely a handful of seconds before the response. By yakuza standards, it was unseemly haste. “My name is Tanaseda. You have my word, Kovacs-san, that the equipment you require will be in place and available to you at the time you specify. In addition, you will be paid for your trouble.”
    “Thank you. That—”
    “I have not finished. You further have my word that if you commit any acts of violence against my personnel, I shall issue a global writ for your capture and subsequent execution. I am talking about a very unpleasant Real Death. Is that understood?”
    “It seems fair. But I think you’d better tell the
chimp
to behave himself. He seems to have delusions of competence.”
    “Let me speak to him.”
    Yukio Hirayasu was sitting by now, hunched over on the evercrete, wheezing breathily. I hissed at him and tossed him the phone. He caught it awkwardly, one-handed, still massaging his throat with the other.
    “Your
sempai
wants a word.”
    He glared up at me out of tear-smeared, hating eyes, but he put the phone to his ear. Compressed Japanese syllables trickled out of it, like someone riffing on a ruptured gas cylinder. He stiffened, and his head lowered. His answers ran bitten off and monosyllabic. The word
yes
featured a lot. One thing you’ve got to hand to the yakuza—they do discipline in the ranks like no one else.
    The one-sided conversation ended and Yukio held the phone out to me, not meeting my eye. I took it.
    “This matter is resolved,” said Tanaseda in my ear. “Please arrange to be elsewhere for the remainder of the night. You may return six hours from now when the equipment and your compensation will both be waiting for you. We will not speak again. This. Confusion. Has been most regrettable.”
    He didn’t sound that upset.
    “You