Escape (8)
When Saito Masaki received the report, he honestly thought he had misheard.
“What did you say?”
“Former Chairman Samara has disappeared from his house.”
For a moment, it didn’t make sense.
Why would he do that?
Whether escaping was physically possible or not, there was simply no reason for him to run. Based on the charges that had surfaced so far, a prison sentence was still out of reach. As long as he kept quiet, there was no risk of being taken back into custody.
On top of that, Chairman Samara was still fighting the lawsuit claiming his removal had been unlawful. That alone made it obvious he was aiming for a comeback.
So if he fled while out on bail, all of that would go up in smoke.
“When did he disappear?”
“We can’t say for sure. They say he was still there when he was hosting the people who’d come for his son’s wedding reception, but—”
Even if he had slipped out of the house unnoticed, he still couldn’t have gotten out of Japan. If he were caught again, he would not only be detained, but made a complete fool of himself as well.
Then why on earth would he do something this stupid? Is he trying to stage some kind of escape drama just to trigger an international incident?
At the moment, Samara’s existence was a major threat to Kionos.
Before his appointment, Kionos had been managed recklessly. After taking over as chairman, Samara investigated the misconduct of the board and the executives. Those who lacked ability were pushed out on that pretext, while those who were capable had their past buried and were put to work in key positions.
If he ever made that material public, half the current executives would be gone before the day was out.
And after more than a decade running Kionos, he knew every kind of fraud and rot inside the company.
Most importantly, even arresting and detaining him in the first place had been a farce.
To stop the merger between SPME and Kionos, they had to drive him off the board, but there was no legitimate way to do it.
So the Japanese government moved the prosecutors, and Saito seized the opening to carry out an internal coup.
There were no shortage of politicians and prosecutors implicated in it.
Just exposing that would inflict enormous damage.
And if the French government and even SPME got involved?
Then things would spiral completely out of control. One wrong move, and Japan’s barely revived semiconductor industry could collapse all over again.
Saito staggered and sank into his chair.
This isn’t the time.
He had to hold on at least until the Japanese government’s investment came through.
“The prosecutors and police are already tracing the escape route, so they’ll catch him soon.”
Saito shook his head.
“It won’t matter.”
“Excuse me?”
Samara had practically been his teacher. And he knew his teacher well.
He was not the kind of man who would throw his own safety aside and do something reckless without reason.
Which meant...
“By now, he’s already out of Japan.”
While the escape plan was being carried out, I stayed in Japan.
I was bored of sitting in the hotel all day, so I went sightseeing on my own.
What I noticed as I wandered around was that prices were cheaper than I’d expected.
The usual comparison points people use between countries, like a Starbucks Americano or a McDonald’s Big Mac, were roughly the same as in Korea, or maybe even a little cheaper.
For a country of Japan’s size and per-capita GDP, that was surprising.
It was because the Japanese economy had fallen into a long recession and been suffering from persistent deflation.
Even now, while the rest of the world was growing at high speed, Japan was still trapped in stagnation all by itself.
As company profits shrank, workers’ wages shrank. As wages shrank, prices fell. And as prices fell, company profits shrank again. It was a vicious cycle repeating itself over and over.
They had tried everything they could to revive it, but nothing had worked.
There were all sorts of reasons for Japan’s economic decline, from the burst of the bubble economy to its aging population, but the biggest reason was that the country had failed to transform its industries.
Even now, among developed nations, Japan was the slowest to undergo digital transformation.
For the time being, it was surviving on the assets and technological strength it had accumulated in the past, but even that was starting to hit its limit.
Hell, people were even warning that Korea might overtake it someday.
Unfortunately, that never happened.
Because later on, Korea would end up in a similar situation too. If we wanted to avoid that, we had to do better from now on.
After eating a bowl of ramen and heading back, I got a call from David.
“How did it go?”
I let out a sigh of relief.
“That’s a relief.”
“I told you. Japanese civil servants are surprisingly sloppy when it comes to doing their jobs.”
Getting Chairman Samara out was practically a military extraction operation. Under normal circumstances, it would have taken at least a few months to prepare. But I knew the escape route and the exact method. All I had to do was confirm whether my plan could actually get him out, so it ended much faster than it should have.
Still, there were variables.
Back when Chairman Samara escaped in the original timeline, security had not been nearly as tight as it was now. This time, the real problem had been getting him out of the house in the first place.
Luckily, that had been handled well.
It wasn’t one hundred percent over yet, but I’d say we’d succeeded about eighty percent of the way.
The fact that television and the internet were still quiet meant Japan’s investigators hadn’t noticed anything yet. As long as Chairman Samara had safely left Japan, I had no reason to stay there any longer.
That said, there was no need to rush, so I slept soundly and contacted the front desk the next day.
“I’ll be checking out. I’m heading to the airport, so please prepare a car.”
“Understood.”
I packed my bags and went down to the first floor.
Just as I was about to get into the car that had been prepared for me, a group of men blocked my way.
“Are you Han Miru?”
I jumped and said, “Jesus! You startled me. What is this about?”
“We need you to come with us for a moment.”
I looked them over.
“And if I say no?”
“Even if you go to the airport now, you won’t be leaving the country.”
“Really?”
So they’d finally caught on.
I lifted the plane ticket in my hand.
“Fine by me, but will you reissue my ticket?”
I got into the car with the men and headed to the Tokyo District Prosecutors Office.
I’d been told it was an interview room, but it felt more like an interrogation room.
Since this was a voluntary accompaniment rather than an arrest, they didn’t take my phone, passport, or any of my belongings. I spent a while waiting on my phone before a familiar face walked in.
Prosecutor Yoshine Kentaro.
He stared at me and asked sharply, “Where is Thierry Samara right now?”
I answered as if it were obvious. “He’s under house arrest, so he should be at home.”
His expression darkened.
“I’m asking because he isn’t at home.”
I put on a startled face.
“Oh! Really? Then where did he go?”
“I think you already know that.”
You could call it a prosecutor’s intuition.
He seemed convinced I’d been involved in the escape.
Well, that was true enough.
But I had only entered the country and met with Chairman Samara. They could suspect me all they wanted, but they had no evidence.
I practically bounced in my seat. “How would I know that?”
“You didn’t help him escape?”
“Me? I’ve been at the hotel the whole time. Besides, there was police security and CCTV everywhere—how exactly would Chairman Samara have gotten out of the house? It’s not like he dug a tunnel.”
“He hid inside an audio equipment case and slipped out.”
“Oh! So that’s how it was done.”
They must have analyzed the CCTV as soon as they realized he was missing.
That was why we’d held the party. It had been a fairly large gathering, with relatives and acquaintances attending, so they’d hired a band, and the band had brought its own sound equipment.
Cases used to transport sound gear were big enough for a person to fit inside.
Chairman Samara had hidden in one of them and slipped out with the band when they left.
I shrugged. “But if Chairman Samara is gone, shouldn’t the investigative agencies be the ones looking for him? Why are you asking me?”
It wasn’t as if they’d dragged me in and expected me to prove my own innocence.
“You really don’t know?”
“No. I don’t know anything.”
Then Prosecutor Yoshine slammed both hands on the table and roared, “Don’t lie to me! Where did you hide Samara!?”
It was the same in English, and yet somehow it sounded like his politeness had been stripped away and replaced with something rougher.
Wasn’t he the polite type?
Still, there was a reason he was that agitated.
By leading this investigation, he had risen overnight as a star prosecutor. Later, he would enter politics, become Chief Cabinet Secretary, and even be talked about as a future prime minister.
But that would only happen if he avoided taking the fall for Chairman Samara’s escape.
Originally, he would have been promoted next year, handed this case off to someone else, and transferred to the Special Investigation Department, which would have let him avoid the blame.
But because the escape happened earlier than expected, he was now the one who had to shoulder everything.
If he failed to catch Chairman Samara, his career would be finished right here. No prosecutor who made a blunder that huge would be given another chance.
Not only would he have to give up his post, but his political future would be ruined too.
It was a little unfortunate, I supposed... but what could I do? It wasn’t my problem to worry about.
I laughed in disbelief. “You really think I hid Chairman Samara somewhere in Japan?”
“Then you didn’t?”
His thinking seemed trapped entirely within Japan. At times like this, he needed to think a little more globally.
“Think about it. If he were hiding somewhere inside Japan, he’d get caught sooner or later. Then he’d be rearrested for violating his bail conditions, and public opinion would get even worse.”
“So?”
“If the escape was real, wouldn’t he have fled overseas?”
At that, Prosecutor Yoshine’s face twisted.
If Samara were hiding somewhere in Japan, there was still a chance he could be found. But if he’d left the country? Then even that tiny possibility disappeared.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Do you think he could get through airport or port inspection?”
Well, I couldn’t blame him for thinking that way.
Japan was a developed country, and its entry and exit procedures were extremely strict.
In fact, before Chairman Samara actually escaped, nobody had imagined he could slip out by taking a plane in secret.
Just then, an aide came in and spoke to him urgently. I could hear the words, but since they were in Japanese, I didn’t understand a thing.
Prosecutor Yoshine’s eyes went wide and he shouted, “Scheiße!”
That much, I understood.
Far away in Amman, the capital of Jordan, a press conference was being held. Chairman Samara’s wife had called the reporters together, saying she had a major announcement to make.
She had avoided interviews out of concern that even speaking to the press might cause trouble for her husband, who was still trapped in Japan. So when she suddenly announced a press conference, local and foreign correspondents came swarming in like a storm cloud.
Japanese reporters were among them too.
“A sudden emergency press conference?”
“What on earth is this about?”
“Did Chairman Samara agree to this?”
“I wonder how the Japanese government will respond.”
The reporters gathered in the conference room waited, all of them curious about what announcement was coming.
After a short while, Chairman Samara’s wife appeared. But she wasn’t alone. A middle-aged man stood beside her.
At first, the reporters couldn’t recognize him.
Compared with the last time he had been seen, he looked noticeably gaunt.
But their hesitation lasted only a moment.
Once they realized who it was, the reporters were stunned.
“What the—”
“No way...”
“That can’t be real!”
The man who had appeared was Thierry Samara.
The former chairman of Kionos, who everyone thought was still trapped in Japan, had shown up in Jordan, roughly ten thousand kilometers away!