Mason Gruber was in no hurry. Or at least, that was what he kept trying to tell himself.
He had been watching Tetsu Sakae for some time, following his movements from a distance, waiting for the right moment to approach. His palms were damp, and he wiped them discreetly against the side of his clothes, as if he were only smoothing out the fabric.
Fuck. Get a grip, Mason. The last thing he needed was to draw attention before he'd even started.
A man in that position rarely survived by being careless. Tetsu wasn't just the person in charge of organizing the castle's security. In another life, he had held a very different position, and a far more dangerous one.
A sō-honbuchō.
Mason found him near one of the side passages, set apart for a moment from the main bustle. There was nothing special about that corner, except that it offered enough privacy for a short conversation. That was something, at least.
He approached without any show of urgency, with the easy step of a man who had nothing to hide.
"Tetsu Sakae?"
The man turned his face. His gaze traveled over Mason from head to toe, with the automatic attention of someone who had spent his life sizing up strangers.
"Yes. Who are you?"
Mason smiled faintly and let the irony seep into his voice.
"That depends. Should I still call you sō-honbuchō, or did that title stay behind?"
The change in Tetsu's expression was small, almost nothing, but immediate. A muscle near his eye tightened and then relaxed.
For a moment, he didn't answer. His eyes stayed fixed on Mason's face, as if searching it for something he might have seen before.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I imagine it isn't a subject you often discuss around here."
Mason kept his hands where they could be seen and his posture loose. He didn't look threatening. He didn't look intimidated either, and that, he knew, was the hardest part to act.
"I want to talk to you."
"About what?"
"About certain particulars related to the Yakuza."
This time, Tetsu couldn't hide all of it. It was only a slower blink, a jaw that locked for half a second, but Mason saw it.
Tetsu looked at him again.
"Mason Gruber," he said, pronouncing the name slowly, like someone tasting an unfamiliar food. "Is that your name?"
"It is."
"Curious."
"I thought so too."
"You know that certain things remain," Tetsu went on. "A face, sometimes. A name. A memory that shouldn't have survived the crossing."
The silence that followed wasn't comfortable. Tetsu seemed to be reconsidering the whole conversation, and Mason, on the other side, was doing his own math: how much could he reveal without ruining the operation?
"You've been looking for me for some time," said Tetsu.
Mason tilted his head.
"So I'm not the only one interested in finding a few things out."
"Who sent you?"
Shit. This was the moment to lie with conviction, and he had never been good at it.
"No one. I'm here because I want answers. And I get the feeling you do too."
Tetsu didn't answer right away.
Mason took a small step back, making it clear he was willing to move somewhere else.
"We can talk somewhere else. No audience, no unnecessary questions."
"You expect me to accept a meeting like this, for no reason at all? Look at you. You look like some peace-and-love kid, the crystals type."
"No. I expect you to agree to talk to someone who knows who you are. I'm sure you've been kidnapped, threatened with a knife, with a gun, and even locked in places you didn't know if you'd ever get out of."
The sentence hit its mark.
Tetsu stood still for a few seconds. When he looked at Mason again, there was something else in his face. He was no longer just trying to identify him. He was trying to understand how much this man knew, and from where.
"When?"
Mason smiled again, and this time the smile came out almost sincere.
"How about now?"
Tetsu took the lead.
Mason followed him down the side passage, keeping a comfortable distance. He didn't need to look back, or to either side, to know he was being watched. Tetsu's attention was almost palpable, like the heat you feel on your back when you walk past a bonfire.
All right. One foot in front of the other. It's going to be fine.
He tried to find the rhythm of the walk, neither hurried nor dragging his feet.
It felt like a scene from a cop movie. The dangerous guy walked ahead, the informant trailed behind, and somewhere there was someone waiting for their cue to step in.
There was just one small problem.
He wasn't the cop.
Damn it. In the movies, the guy who made that kind of invitation usually got shot or found out, too late, that he'd been followed from the start.
Mason cast a sideways glance at Tetsu.
"It's nice to have some fun in another world, don't you think?"
Tetsu turned his face only slightly.
"Is this the time for jokes?"
Mason let out a short laugh, more nervous than he would have liked.
Tetsu didn't find it funny at all. He was too busy trying to work out what kind of conversation this man wanted to have with him. The name Mason Gruber was not a coincidence he could ignore. If the synchronicity between the journeys truly preserved certain particulars, perhaps this man was the missing clue to finding the person he was looking for.
Their eyes met for an instant.
Tetsu turned his attention back to the path.
The way to the back of the castle wasn't long, but it meant crossing a narrow passage between the service buildings. The movement faded as they moved away from the main halls. Here, the smell of burning wood and ash began to overpower the perfumes and the aromas from the kitchen, and the noise of voices gave way to the distant crackle of some fire.
When they reached the area of the ovens, Mason slowed his pace. A few piles of firewood were stacked against the stone wall. Farther along, one of the ovens still held the heat of its last use, and a worker crossed the courtyard carrying a basket, paying the two men no attention whatsoever.
Mason followed the movement with his eyes.
It was better than an empty corridor. A place of work didn't stir up as much curiosity as two men standing in an isolated corner.
"So," said Tetsu, interrupting his thoughts, "I don't give a damn about what you know about me."
Mason turned toward him.
"You don't?"
"I know who you are. Astra."
Mason's smile lost a little of its ease.
Tetsu continued:
"Mason Gruber. The same name you used before the crossing. The same synchronicity that made me pay attention to you."
Mason said nothing. He felt his throat go dry.
"You went looking for Josh Smith and Spencer Walker," Tetsu pressed on. "It wasn't hard to see you were after someone."
This time, Mason couldn't hide his surprise. It crossed his face before he could stop it.
Tetsu noticed, of course.
"I need to find Josh Smith."
The name came out with a firmness that didn't fit simple curiosity. There was something deeper behind that search, an insistence Mason still couldn't fully understand and that, precisely for that reason, unsettled him.
"Is he here?" Tetsu asked.
Before Mason could answer, a voice rose behind him.
"Looking for me?"
Tetsu spun around at once.
Two men had come close without him noticing, and that, in itself, said a lot about how distracted he had been. One of them stayed a little back, watching the scene in silence. The other stepped forward just enough to be seen.
"Then you don't have to look anymore."
Tetsu opened his mouth, but didn't manage to say anything.
"Hey, say something! I'm right here."
Damián picked up the iron poker that was leaning against the structure of one of the ovens and struck Tetsu on the head.
It was quick. Tetsu lost his balance, tried to step aside, but his legs couldn't hold his own weight. He fell before he could reach either of them.
For a few seconds, no one said anything. All that could be heard was the low crackle of the oven.
Damián looked at the unconscious body, then at the poker in his own hand.
"This always works."
Tetsu came to slowly.
The first sensation was a throbbing pain in his head, as if someone were swinging a hammer inside his skull. He tried to move and realized at once that his arms were bound behind his back. His legs, too. The effort made the pain worse, and he let out a breath through his teeth.
Blood was running down the side of his head, warm, reaching his temple and sliding down his face.
He blinked a few times, trying to get his eyes used to the dim light. A closed room, with thick walls. The smell of ash was still there, fainter.
Damián was sitting across from him, watching him with an almost irritating calm.
"Hi, Tetsu. Surprised?"
The man raised his face. His gaze met Damián's and changed on the spot. Rage rose in his eyes, intense, unchecked. His jaw clenched so hard that the muscles of his face stood out beneath the skin.
Damián tilted his head slightly.
"Don't look at me like that. Your day hasn't gotten hard yet, but it can, if you don't answer the way I want."
He paused briefly, as if giving Tetsu the time he needed to understand the situation.
"You know and understand how this works. And it doesn't matter where we are."
Tetsu didn't answer. He kept staring at him, teeth clenched, wearing a hostility he made no effort to hide.
"I want to hear your story, Tetsu. What did you do after I killed you?"
Damián leaned forward a little. A faint smile appeared on his lips, but there was nothing friendly in it.
He let the silence drag on for a few seconds.
"So let's start at the beginning."
He raised a finger.
"First: what are you doing here? How did you end up in this world, and why did you take that security position?"
A second finger.
"Second: why are you after me? You've spent all this time looking for Josh Smith. I want to know what led you to it."
Damián studied Tetsu's expression before continuing.
"And finally, the most interesting question."
The smile faded.
"Who else is looking for me?"
Tetsu stayed still. Only his jaw tightened again, slowly, like an answer he was still refusing to give.
Damián leaned back in the chair.
"See? It's not that complicated. Just three questions."