The weather was chilly but I could feel sweat dripping down my back. The radio was buzzing in a language I couldn’t understand and the two men were both silent. Tony wasn’t talking either which made everything worse. Tony wasn’t the type to just shut up.

The man sitting next to me pulled out a phone and called a number. I tried not to make it obvious that I was looking, but the fact that I recognized it made my heart do jumping jacks. It was Arthur’s.

He wasn’t going to answer.

Arthur never answered his phone when you needed him.

Then I heard his voice, sounding like he was just about to tell a telemarketer that he’s not interested in whatever he’s selling.

“Yes, what is it?” That was everything he said. 

“I assume you’re aware that your employees are not as smooth as you thought?” The man asked and there was a small pause where I swear I could “hear” Arthur hold his breath. Just a moment.

“A man can dream," he said, sounding as natural as ever. It made me want to kick him in the teeth.

“What can I help you with?”

“How would you feel about a trip to Japan?” He asked.

“It’s a bit sudden,” Arthur said. “But how can I say no to such a request. I’ll call you when my plane lands, he said and hung up. The man sighed and shook his head.

“Your boss is very rude, he said. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to agree or not, but given the situation, all I could think was that Arthur was not rude. Arthur was an asshole and he knew quite well that he was gambling our lives just so he could pretend that he’s in charge.

I don’t know for how long we drove and I wasn’t sure where we were going either. The neon city lights were not breathtaking anymore, they were giving me a headache. We stopped in the end near a motel-type building. I noticed that there were a few cars parked there, but I couldn’t see anymore around. It was late at night and the parking lot was empty. I got pulled out of the car by one of the men and I felt my knees go weak for a second. I wasn’t going to fall and make a fool out of myself. We walked inside, right past the receptionist and up the stairs to the fifth floor. A woman was walking down the hall and she barely looked at us.

One of the men opened the door for us and just let us in. I thought about it for a second and wondered if someone could jump from the fifth floor and survive. That idea was quickly killed when I saw the barred windows. I didn’t know where I was, but it was certainly different than the beautiful hotels Arthur got me used to.

The door closed behind us and I grabbed Tony by the collar. “What the hell is going on?!”

“Oh, fucking please, he said, annoyed and slapped my hands away. “Don’t play dumb! You can’t seriously be this stupid.”

“Arthur is going to let us die.”

“No, he won’t,” Tony said and sat on the edge of the bed. “He’s just an asshole, but he’s not into letting people die. You can go to sleep. Arthur isn’t going to be here for at least a day, if he gets on a plane now, at least.”

“Fucking awesome,” I muttered and sat on the other bed. “They took our phones too, so we can’t even call for help. And have you seen the bars at the windows? What kind of hotel is this?”

“The type of place where you wake up in the bathroom, in a tub filled with ice and suspicious cuts on your body,” Tony said, searching his pockets. He pulled out a crumbled, half-empty pack of cigars. He lit one and fell on his back, next to me.

“Aren’t you afraid they might kill us?”

“I’m shitting my pants, but not because I think they’re going to kill us," he said and didn’t elaborate. I wasn’t sure I wanted him to.

Tony kicked his shoes off and tapped the ash from his cigar on the rug. In any other situation, I would’ve told him not to be such a prick, but the carpet seemed to be hosting more than its’ share of dirt and ash and dark suspicious, brown spots.

The door opened hours later and I had barely managed to somehow sleep. Tony was up, sitting on the edge of the bed and he looked over at the man that walked in. It was dark. Tony’s cigar lit his face for a brief moment.

Tony looked at me, briefly, then flipped his cigar on the floor. He thought for a second.

“What the fuck do you want?” He asked the man. Tony dared to smile at him.

I jumped when the man punched him in the jaw. Tony was expecting it; his body didn’t roll on the ground. He spat blood at the man’s feet.

“You can’t kill me,” Tony said, smiling again. There was blood on his teeth.

“No," the man said and grabbed Tony by the collar, dragging him on his feet. Tony didn’t flinch and that somehow worried me. The man punched him again, harder. In the face, in the stomach, he kicked his feet hard enough for Tony to fall. And then he kicked and I heard a crack.

The man kicked him in the stomach and Tony wheezed. He coughed. He threw up. I couldn’t talk and I couldn’t move.

I always thought that I could jump in a fight and stop it or help whoever it was that needed help. Now I was there, and I couldn’t move. I was sweating, breathing hard, I felt like I was going to faint.

He kicked Tony again, with so much force that he moved his body. I grabbed the lamp sitting on the nightstand and threw it into the man, right in his head. The man turned towards him. I could tell he wanted to walk towards me, but he stopped abruptly. Tony grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him hard enough to make him lose his balance. Tony got up, his face bloody and angry.

“Lost interest, pretty?” He asked and punched the guy. It wasn’t an elegant punch. It was a back alley punch that threw the guy off his feet. Tony cracked his neck.

He grabbed the guy, hoisted him up, and butt-headed him. The man shouted. It was loud, urgent and the door opened.

A gun was pointed at Tony. He dropped the guy and smiled a bloody smile.

“What? Are you gonna shoot me?” He spat.

The man got up, punched Tony hard in the stomach, and left.

“Jesus fuck.” Tony sat back on the bed. He placed his palms on each side of the nose, and before I had the change to ask him if he was ok, he told me to count to three. I did. When I reached two, Tony snapped his nose back into place and groaned in pain.

“Jesus fuck,” I said and walked to him. “Are you hurt?”

“Are you stupid?”

I bought him water and helped him clean up. He decided that he had a broken rib.

“Next time,” Tony said. “Keep your mouth shut.”

“Next time?”

“Until Arthur comes," he said. “Just shut up if you don’t want to get your ass kicked.”

“Jesus. Fuck.”

I didn’t sleep all night. No sounds were coming from the outside as if the hotel itself was placed in an area with no traffic whatsoever. It seemed unreal, the way hours dissolved as if they were nothing but mere minutes. And other times, time stretched and stretched and appeared like the day wasn’t going to come anymore. The room was suffocating and the more I was there the more I could smell the nicotine and old vomit that were part of the rooms just as much as the ugly, old, wallpaper.

Tony would fall asleep and wake up every couple of hours to drink water and smoke. He wasn’t in the mood to talk and neither was I.

All I had to do was survive the day. Maybe Arthur was going to arrive sooner than Tony said. He could. He probably had his private plane.

When the first rays of sun finally made their way into the horrid hotel room, as if on cue, the door opened. One of the men from the night before walked in, looking as awake and bright, wearing a black suit and carrying an oily bag from McDonald's. He left it next to the TV and left, without saying anything. At least he wasn’t going to kill us. Not now.

There was coffee too, in the greasy bag. I drank it, pacing around the room.

The day passed.

This time, I heard the door unlock. I thought about what Tony said and I wasn’t sure if I could let him take a beating again. The same man walked in and Tony’s blank expression changed into something arrogant and I knew now it was because he wanted to taunt the stranger.

“Oh, look, our princess is back," he said.

I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath. I tackled the man. Tony cursed loudly.

I felt the first punch in my stomach. The second one in the jaw. Then my head hit something hard. Once. Twice. I tasted blood, then nothing.

I woke up with a hand gently shaking me and someone slapping my cheek repeatedly.

“Hey.” Tony’s voice. I calmed down. “Do you know where you are?”

“Japan,” I said, bitterly. “Kidnapped.”

“Do you know your name?” He asked again.

“Yeah.” I tried sitting up. He pushed me back down. “Tristan. My name is Tristan. I’m ok… I just have a horrible headache.”

“You might have a concussion," he said. “That guy almost smashed your head like a pumpkin.”

“Are you ok?” I asked.

“Yeah. Are you?”

“Living the dream,” I said and threw up.

It was day again and the man in the dark suit walked in with no bag in his hands. Another man, different from the two that kidnapped us was waiting next to the door. He looked like he could break us over his knee like a bunch of twigs. It was the first time seeing him in daylight.

“Follow me, please.” The man in the dark suit said and Tony got up from the bed and crossed his arms. We followed him and the other strange man down the hallway, down the stairs and down the stairs again until we reached some sort of cellar. There was a table there, made of wood and chair and surprisingly strong lights.

“And here I thought you were all waiting for me.” Arthur was sitting at the table. He wasn’t wearing glasses, his hair was a bit shorter and, from what I could tell, there was no more dye in it. He was dressed in all black and had the audacity to fucking smile. I thought I was going to punch him in the face if I saw any sign of smugness on him.

Arthur wasn’t sporting just a sign of smugness, he was lathered in it. He looked at Tony, then at me. His jaw locked, but his expression was the same.

Next to him was another familiar face.

Elsie had her hair pulled back, dressed in a sharp burgundy suit, legs crossed, right next to Arthur. I wasn’t jealous that he bought her, of all people, but I was curious as to why.

She didn’t smile at me, not in the slightest.

“Sit,” Arthur said and gestured in front of him. We did. He was still smiling and it didn’t reach his eyes. His eyes were cold and I felt how utterly pissed he was.

The man in the suit sat down too. The egg was placed in the center of the table and Arthur looked at it. His nostrils flared and he clenched his teeth for a moment, before putting the mask back on. He lifted his eyes and looked at the man in black.

“I thought we discussed that my employees are going to be treated nicely.” Arthur sounded caustic, low. It sounded like a promise of death.

“Ryo, they look horrible, I thought we had a deal.”

The man flinched just a tiny bit, but it was enough to please Arthur.

“Ryo.” He tapped the table with his index before turning towards the man standing next to the door. “Shin.” He pointed at him. “Your colleague, Takumi. Your employee, Mr. Yuudai. Please, don’t think I came here unprepared.” He smiled sharply and leaned over the table. “Don’t be so tense, Ryo, you’re the one with the upper hand. Isn’t your boss going to come here, after all the effort I put in coming? You should call him. Ask him about Ayame.”

The man got up and left the room. Arthur smiled and whispered something to Elsie. She took her phone out, went through it for a couple of seconds before turning it towards Arthur. He nodded. I felt like he wasn’t even paying attention to me or Tony.

I was watching something from a world I was not part of. Ryo walked back into the room and sat down. “Mr. Yuudai is arriving soon," he said. Arthur nodded. He didn’t say anything else until the door opened.

Mr. Yuudai was a tall man, handsome, and well put together. He was wearing sunglasses when he walked in and took them off only after he sat down.

“Hello, Arthur," he said and the lack of politeness made me think he saw Arthur as a kid.

“Mr. Yuudai.” Arthur smiled widely. “Pleasure to see you in person.”

I felt like he made a point in saying the last part of his sentence. “How are you?”

“I’m not here to chit-chat," the man said. Arthur’s expression did not change.

“Of course not. You’re here to negotiate? Not quite sure what, you have your Faberge egg back, and my beautiful replica, I might add.”

“Wonderful replica,” Yuudai said. “If I didn’t know any better…”

“That was the idea.” Arthur cut him off and I felt my shirt sticking to my sweaty body. “I’ll be honest with you, Mr. Yuudai, I feel like I tried to keep this polite. I was willing to leave the eggs here and leave with my associate; water under the bridge.”

“Allow me to stop you right there," he said and the man next to the door pulled his gun. Arthur’s smiled became ridiculously big.

He was glowing. I didn’t get it. “Oh, no, no, no, Mr. Yundai.” He laughed. “Let’s not.”

“Don’t think I didn’t understand you threatening my daughter.”

“Oh, Ayame, yes. Fifteen?” He placed his palms on the table. “Oh yes, truly I did. Do you want to hear more? Let’s see. You have two daughters, Ayame is the oldest, she’s fifteen, studied for two years in England, came back this summer, how lovely. And then you have Kumiko, a lovely lady, I have to say. She’s twelve at the moment, wants to go to Yale. Your wife lives in Kioto, right? Because of her law business. Or maybe because you’ve been having problems. You’re not divorced, of course, but she can’t stand living here anymore. I can go on, do you want me to give you more details. I have all the addresses written down.”

“You can’t intimidate me.”

“But I can.” Arthur’s expression went blank. Elsie, without missing a beat, turned her phone towards Yuudai. I’ve never seen a man turn that pale that quickly.

“I want the egg,” Arthur said and pushed the egg off the table. “The real one.”

Yuudai looked at the goon next to the door and nodded. The man returned minutes later with the Egg. Arthur took it, inspected it closely for a few minutes before nodding.

“Mr. Yuudai," he said. “I’m very aware of who you are, and I’m impressed. Quite the organization you have. But I want you to remember who I am, before trying to blackmail me in any way.” He smiled. “I think we both agree that it’s better if you don’t try this again.”

He walked out and I didn’t know what to do to stay closer to him. It was my safest bet.

We got into a car, a rented, orange Chevy, and drove off.

“Are you ok?” He asked us. Tony flipped him off and I nodded. Arthur looked like he could murder someone with his own hands.

“Call them.” He told Elsie and she put the phone in her ear. She waited a couple of seconds.

“It’s done," she said. “It went marvelous.” Pause. She checked her nails. “I guess that’s fine, just don’t do anything permanent.” She hung up and turned the radio on.

“No,” Arthur said, looking at her. He looked at me, then at Tony. “Make it permanent.”