433
“In the city? Wasn’t I supposed to be going somewhere far away?”
“Yes, of course you will be going far away,” Tamaru said slowly, as if spelling
things out for her. “But first we have to get you ready—change your name and your
face. And this was a particularly tough job: you must be all keyed up. Nothing good
can come of running around crazily at a time like this. Hide out in the safe house for a
while. You’ll be fine. We’ll provide all the support you need.”
“Where is this ‘safe house’?”
“In the Koenji neighborhood. Maybe twenty minutes from where you are now.”
Koenji
, Aomame thought, tapping her nails against her teeth. She knew it was
somewhere west of the downtown area, but she had never set foot there.
Tamaru told her the address and the name of the condo. As usual, she took no
notes but engraved it on her brain.
“On the south side of Koenji Station. Near Ring Road 7. Apartment 303. Press
2831 to unlock the front door.”
Tamaru paused while Aomame repeated “303” and “2831” to herself.
“The key is taped to the bottom of the doormat. The apartment has everything
you’ll need for now, so you shouldn’t have to go out for a while. I’ll make contact
from my end. I’ll ring the phone three times, hang up, and call again twenty seconds
later. We’d like to avoid having you call.”
“I see,” Aomame said.
“Were his men tough?” Tamaru asked.
“There were two of them, and both seemed pretty tough. I had some scary
moments. But they’re no pros. They can’t touch you.”
“There aren’t too many people like me.”
“Too many Tamarus could be a problem.”
“Could be,” Tamaru said.
. . .
Carrying her bags, Aomame headed for the station’s taxi stand, where she
encountered another long line. Subway operations had still not returned to normal, it
seemed. She had no choice but to take her place in line.
Joining the many other annoyed-looking commuters and patiently waiting her turn,
Aomame mentally repeated the safe house address, the name of the building and
apartment number, the code for unlocking the front door, and Tamaru’s phone
number. She was like an ascetic sitting on a rock on a mountaintop, intoning his
precious mantra. Aomame had always had confidence in her powers of memory. She
could easily memorize those few bits of information. But these figures were now a
lifeline. If she forgot even one of them in this situation, it could put her survival in
jeopardy. She had to make sure they were engraved on her brain.
By the time Aomame finally got a taxi, a full hour had passed since she had left
Leader’s corpse in the hotel room. So far, it was taking her twice as long as she had
planned—a delay that the Little People had caused, no doubt.
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