Lady Joker, Volume 1, Kaoru Takamura [best affordable ebook reader TXT] 📗

“Lady Joker” and by the Okada Association on the other. For now, they were trying to move toward the extortionists while holding off Okada, but reaching their destination would require them to pass constantly through the board’s indeterminate checkpoints. It would come down to whether they could deceive the executives in order to engineer a consensus. More than just a gambit to avoid being the target of a later investigation, they needed to take into consideration the delicate situation brought on by their scandal from 1990, so that in the end they would be able to keep one hand free to negotiate with the Okada Association.

Moreover, Kurata, the man laying each piece in place, was in just as delicate a position, and it was clear to Shiroyama that he was wavering between either a full-scale confrontation or a compromise with Okada. Kurata had never revealed his hand to Shiroyama in this way before, and that in itself was a vivid indication of the change in him. This revelation had struck Shiroyama a month ago, the night after he was released, and now it was certain Kurata was not entirely his former self. The fact that Shiroyama had no choice but to entrust everything to him exposed his supreme vulnerability.

Shiroyama had a busy schedule for the rest of the day, but he spoke with Shirai on the phone and solicited his opinion about consulting the board.

“Kurata has convinced you, hasn’t he?” Shirai said.

“You’re a step ahead,” Shiroyama said. “My point is, I’m not sure how this will play out. And it doesn’t help that you refuse to disclose the name of the thief who stole the meeting minutes.”

“I expect the thief will confess to you directly. More importantly, I fully understand the thorny position Kurata is in. The truth is, most of the executives—myself included—never thought the criminals would actually make contact, and the matter with Okada makes for a problem situation, not to mention our stock . . .”

“What about our stock?”

“Kurata has been nervous about it, but I’m about to meet with someone from a brokerage house, so I’ll report back later with what I learn. In any case, let’s hope Kurata knows what he’s doing. I’ll do my best to get carte blanche from as many executives as possible too.”

Following this conversation, Shiroyama inferred that Shirai had decided to leave everything up to Kurata, the better to observe what would unfold from the sidelines. That was no doubt the wisest course of action.

At seven o’clock that evening, when the impromptu board meeting convened behind closed doors in the thirtieth-floor conference room, fifteen of the twenty-eight internal board members, including Shirai, were absent but had given carte blanche, leaving thirteen members in attendance. Sugihara was nowhere in sight. Everyone other than Shiroyama and Kurata looked aloof, as if the issue did not concern them. Perhaps the name “Lady Joker” had deprived the proceedings of a sense of reality, for the mood of the room felt as if they were stuck dealing with an annoying prank.

Shiroyama began his remarks, stating that he wished to consult the board as to whether it would be right, as previously agreed, to take out an advertisement in accordance with the criminals’ demand without reporting it to the police, but before he finished speaking, the board members around the oval table began to look ill at ease. Sakakibara, the corporate secretary and executive director of general affairs, raised his hand and declared, “It’s been three weeks since the board agreed to that resolution, and the circumstances in which we find ourselves continue to shift. I think it’s necessary to assess the situation once again.”

Several voices chimed in their agreement.

Sakakibara went on, “There have been pervasive rumors over the past month that Hinode has connections to the underworld, and that the company has already made a backroom deal and paid off the criminals. We can’t deny that’s an understandable response. If we were to accommodate the criminals’ demand, and if word ever got out about it, the damage to the Hinode brand would be immeasurable.”

In terms of the market effect on their corporate image, the board had already determined that whatever harm might befall their products outweighed any advantage they would gain by refusing the criminals’ demand. The projected losses amounted to over a hundred billion yen. But a month without incident had been enough to lull the group’s mindset.

“My position is that we should defer to the results of the risk assessment from our previous meeting.” This was Shiroyama’s only response.

Taking the opportunity to lay out a far more fundamental doubt, Otani, managing director of the pharmaceutical business division, spoke up. “What I want to know is whether this Lady Joker or whoever they are merits our gathering together like this and debating how to deal with them. A demand such as this is utterly ridiculous. It amounts to a blank check.”

Shiroyama reminded him that the criminals were demanding a ransom of two billion yen, but Otani rejected this. “They only ask if we’re ready to pay—they didn’t specify an amount. It doesn’t sit right with me.”

Shiroyama had to admit that Otani was right. He loathed Lady Joker for not specifying the amount in their letter, but all he could do was reiterate that the criminals had indeed told him two billion. A hushed yet noncommittal bafflement fell over the oval table.

Over the last month, there had been whispers among the board members about the tape from 1990 that had been reported in the newspapers after the incident, particularly the details of how the student who had left in the middle of his employee interview had been intimately involved with the daughter of Takeo Sugihara, as well as the fact that they had heard board meeting minutes from 1947 had gone missing. Obviously, the cause for the board members’ ambivalence—more than the strange name, “Lady Joker”—was the scandal involving his family, which clung to the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Kurata, according to plan, made a