Chapter 90
The sushi bar Hiro directs us to is tucked down a narrow side street, a small, unassuming spot nestled between towering buildings. The neon lights glow faintly above the door, casting a soft red hue over the entrance. Inside, the atmosphere is quiet, intimate even, with dark wood paneling and soft lighting that highlights the sleek, minimalist décor. It's a far cry from the chaos we’ve been navigating.
We’re seated at a low wooden table. The restaurant is quiet, with only the soft hum of conversation around us. Hiro takes charge of ordering, pointing to nearly everything on the menu, especially for Wake. “One of everything for the big guy,” Hiro tells the waiter, grinning. “And a sampler boat for us. And sake. Lots of sake.”
Within a couple of minutes they start bringing out plates of fresh sushi made of fish, shellfish, squid, and things I can't readily identify. If Wake had a face that was prone to lighting up, he'd be beaming. Hiro gets to work explaining each dish to Wake as he tries them, while I start shifting through the box.
The first thing I pull out is a stack of old family photos, mostly of Felix Becker with his wife and son, Lio’s father, but there were plenty of pictures of Lio, as well. I pause on a photo of Lio as a child, smiling in a park with his parents.
“He cared more than his family thought,” Hiro says quietly.
I glance at Hiro. "These should go back to Lio," I say, pushing the photos toward him. "He deserves to have them."
Hiro nods, taking the pictures gently. "I’ll make sure he gets them back."
Next, I find an old leather satchel buried beneath the photos. My heart skips a beat as I open it and find a series of grainy black-and-white pictures. They show Felix Becker in what looks like an island setting—but what really catches my attention is that he’s not alone. The women he'd known as Coraline and Marina are there, too. My breath hitches in my throat as I hold the pictures closer, unable to believe what I’m seeing.
"Becker had a camera with him?" I mutter, half to myself.
Hiro leans over to get a better look. "It doesn’t surprise me. Enigma always had tech ahead of its time. What’s strange is that Becker managed to have one while supposedly marooned on an uninhabited island."
As I shuffle through the photos, I notice something strange—military-grade supplies scattered in the background of several shots. Felix, Coraline, and Marina don’t look like desperate castaways at all. In fact, they seem almost… relaxed. Enjoying themselves, even.
“Hiro,” I say, handing him a packet of documents that came with the photos. “You’re going to want to look at these.”
He takes them, his brow furrowed as he flips through the pages. Meanwhile, Wake is still fully engrossed in his sushi. He pauses between bites long enough to ask, “What does it say?”
I skim through the documents. My heart pounds as the words piece together a horrifying truth. “It outlines an initiative to draw out suspected unidentified beings by deliberately stranding soldiers at sea.”
Hiro nearly drops his glass of sake. “They sunk one of their own ships? On purpose?”
I nod, my stomach churning. “They rolled the dice, and it paid off. After a few hours, they picked up what survivors they could, but they waited to see what would happen to the ones who went missing. Some made it back, but about half a dozen died, and Felix Becker was assumed to be one of them… until a signal came through a week later.”
“A week?” Hiro asks, his eyes wide. “But Becker didn’t send his signal for months.”
I flip ahead in the document, scanning for more information. “It wasn’t Becker’s signal. It came from a crate that washed up on shore. After confirmation that someone had survived, they started sending supplies—periodically.”
“So Becker wouldn’t suspect it was coming from Headquarters,” Hiro says, shaking his head in disbelief. “He probably thought it was just more supplies from the ship.”
Wake swallows his food and finally looks up. “Why go through all the trouble of sabotaging your own men?”
I hesitate for a moment, piecing together the motivation. “They needed to confirm the identities of the unidentified beings. They knew something was out there. There’d been reports of strange activity for years—creatures, aliens, whatever they thought sirens were. But this was a lead they were willing to kill their own soldiers for.”
Hiro lets out a low whistle, knocking back the rest of his sake. “And the worst part? They were right. They found what they were looking for.” He sets the glass down hard. “Makes you wonder if Becker found out he’d been used, and that’s what really drove him to the edge. Imagine realizing you stabbed your pregnant girlfriend because you’d been manipulated.”
Wake picks up another piece of sushi and shrugs, as if it’s the most logical conclusion. “It makes me wonder if stabbing Anthozoa was the real reason for his mental decline.”
Hiro breaks the silence first. “Do you think it goes that deep? That Enigma, what, poisoned Becker? Drove him insane just to hide what they’d done?”
I think about it for a moment, my fingers tracing the edges of the documents. “To hide the existence of sirens? Maybe not. At that point, they didn’t know enough about them to care. But to hide the fact that they knowingly condemned a platoon of sailors to die? Absolutely. They would have buried Becker any way they could.”
Hiro nods thoughtfully. “Then why not literally bury him? Why let him walk around free, even after what he’d done?”
Wake answers this time, “Because Becker knew about the sabotage. He had leverage, and Enigma wasn’t willing to risk exposure. I’d wager there’s something worse in that box that Becker used as a bargaining chip.”
I glance up at Wake, surprised by the insight. “I thought you didn’t like subterfuge.”
His expression doesn’t change. “I don’t. But it doesn't mean that I don't understand it. Besides, this isn’t subterfuge—it’s strategy. Becker threatened to expose them, and they let him live.”
I nod slowly, realizing the parallels. “It’s basically what we’re trying to do now. Use what we know to force Enigma’s hand.”
Hiro leans back in his chair, his eyes narrowing. “But Becker kept this up for decades. Why did Enigma let him get away with it for so long?”
I think back to what Lio said about his grandfather never leaving Japan. “Maybe they didn’t. Lio thought his grandfather stayed here to keep an eye on something, but what if he's wrong? What if Becker wasn’t the one doing the watching?”
Wake speaks up again, his voice a low rumble. “Enigma was keeping him close, making sure he didn’t say too much.”
Hiro shakes his head in disbelief. “And his family never picked up on any of this? He really must've been a bastard if they never cared to even flip through his journal.”
“No,” I say, flipping through the papers again. “They can’t know. If they did, Enigma wouldn’t let them live with that knowledge unaccounted for.”
Hiro leans forward, his curiosity piqued. “What did you find?”
I slide a sheet of paper across the table, my heart racing. “It’s not just the existence of sirens they’re hiding.”
The paper shows a schematic, the outline of a massive submersible.
“They’re hiding war machines.”
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