It was a good thing it was summer, otherwise Hikari would never have been able to get into the coat closet in her father’s office. A mink, left from God knows when, sent up dusty mothball scented clouds every now and then, and she was sure she was going to sneeze. She batted it out of her face.

“Hey!” Yerik shouted. “Keep your fuzzy little friend over there.”

“Shh! Do you want to get us both killed?”

Through the crack in the door, Hikari saw her father come into the office followed by Senator Angine. The Senator was dressed in a black suit with a black shirt and tie, the ultimate undertaker. Even in the warm room he looked cool, slimy almost, his soap opera doctor’s handsome face with its strong planes and angles, distorted somehow by something deep inside him, a permanent stain that oozed out of his sharp white grin. She wondered how everyone was duped by him, or maybe it was just the smell of money and power, a toxic cloud that altered judgment. It had worked on her father for sure, a man usually immune to such things.

The hairs on Yerik’s arm tickled her and she tried to concentrate.

“Would you like a drink?” her father asked.

“Certainly.” The Senator’s voice made Hikari think for some reason, of coal smoke.

Her father poured two neat whiskeys, offered a cigar which was declined, and they got down to business.

“Has Lissa Trent been located?” Angine asked.

“No, not yet.”

“And why is that?”

Congressman Suzuki looked uncharacteristically nervous. “We have reason to believe that the insurgents have picked her up.”

“Really?” Angine didn’t look surprised at all. “And what gives you that impression?”

Her father finished his whiskey and studied the bottom of the glass as though he wanted another one very badly.

Next to Hikari, Yerik jostled for viewing space. She discouraged him by inserting a stiletto heel into the small bones of the top of his foot.

Suzuki set down his glass and leaned back, rubbing his temples. “We were right on top of her. She had run and penned herself on a plateau. In five minutes someone would have been at the top, but they beat us to it. A helicopter picked her up.”

“How can you be certain it was the insurgents?”

“The blue light. The one you told us to look for.”

Angine cast a thoughtful glance out the window as though he were peering across the distance straight at Lissa Trent. “Gideon then,” he said.

Suzuki sighed, rose to his feet and faced out the window as if he were afraid to look Angine in the eye.

“Sir, if we knew where they were, we could perhaps infiltrate their lair. My brother’s men are willing to do whatever you ask. But we have no idea where they might be. The trail has gone cold.”

“How is your daughter Hikari?” Angine asked and she saw her father’s shoulders slump.

“She’s fine. A brilliant student, very dutiful and loyal.”

Angine chuckled. “I hear daughters are very good at fooling their fathers.” He stood and pushed in the chair. “I would suggest you keep an eye on her, just to be on the safe side, so to speak. Good day Congressman Suzuki, thank you for the whiskey. Next time you might offer me the better bottle. The one you keep in the back right corner. A 50 year Highland Park, I believe.”

Hikari’s father turned incredulous eyes to his liquor cabinet, where he did indeed hide such a bottle. In that moment when he wasn’t watching the Senator, Angine looked directly at the coat closet and waggled his fingers at her and Yerik in a perverted howdy-do. “I’ll be seeing you again soon,” he said, and Hikari knew he was talking to her and not her father.

He stopped with his hand on the door knob and turned to look over his shoulder. “I believe you have been loyal, Congressman, and so I will do you one favor. I suggest you take your daughter and get out of the city on August 20th. Maybe get some fresh country air.”

Hikari and Yerik waited, motionless and antsy, while her father consumed three more drinks and left the room after throwing his glass against the wall.

They fell out of the closet scratching unsatisfied itches and shaking the kinks out of cramped muscles.

Yerik rubbed his nose trying to get rid of mink fur. “Well, that went well, don’t you think?”

“Angine saw us. He knew we were here.”

“You’re just paranoid.”

“I am not. He freakin’ waved at me.” She wanted to curl back up in the mink, try to get rid of the chill the Senator’s gaze had given her.

“That was some weird shit, I’ll give you that. He really is up to something. What was that about the blue light?”

“I have no idea. Let’s get out of here before my dad comes back.”

Yerik glanced at the broken shards of glass. “Should we clean that up?”

“No, let’s just go back to the apartment.” She stood still a moment studying the broken glass, considering her father’s fear, the loss of his cool.

“Hey,” Yerik turned her around tilted her chin up with his long fingers. “I’m sorry. I guess you were right about him… and I’m sorry your dad’s all mixed up in this.”

She turned her head, afraid if she let him touch her she would feel too much, would start to cry. “Don’t worry about it. I just hope it’s not too late to do something.”