Free Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford Page A

American ’ being shouted as the last one was arrested and taken outside.
    ‘What the heck are we supposed to do with these two?’ the agent next to them shouted to a portly man in a dark brown suit. He looked older than the rest.
    ‘What … do we have here?’ The brown-suited man holstered his pistol and removed his hat, rubbing his balding forehead. ‘A little young for spies, I’d say.’
    Henry slowly opened his coat, showing his button. ‘I am Chinese.’
    ‘Jeezus, Ray, you collared a couple of Chinks by mistake. They were probably just working the kitchen. Nice job. Good thing you didn’t have to rough ’em up, they might have got the best of you.’
    ‘You leave them kids alone, they work for me!’ Oscar slipped past Sheldon and barged through the remaining crowd, heading for the agents nearest Henry. ‘I didn’t leave the South to come all the way up here and see people treated like that!’
    Everyone darted out of his way. All but two younger agents,who holstered their guns, freeing both hands to restrain the larger man; a third agent wrestled his way in with a set of handcuffs. Oscar shook his arms free and pitched his shoulder into one of the agents, almost knocking him over a table – sending martini glasses to the ground, where they shattered with soft pinging sounds, dotting the floor with broken glass that crunched under their feet.
    Sheldon did his best to keep things from getting even more out of hand. He managed to wedge himself between the agents and Oscar – saving Oscar from the agents or the agents from the angry black man, Henry wasn’t sure which. Sheldon backed his bandleader up once again as the agents shouted warnings but let them go. They’d already collared the Japanese they came for. There seemed to be little interest in busting up a gin joint, or its proprietor.
    ‘Why are you taking those people?’ Henry heard Keiko ask softly amid the fracas. The door that Mr Toyama had been taken out of slammed shut, cutting off the remaining light from the outside world.
    The brown-suited man put his hat back on, as if his job was finished and he was ready to go, ‘Collaborators, kid. Secretary of the Navy says there were Jap scouts working in Hawaii – all of them locals. That ain’t happening around here. Too many ships over in Bremerton, and parked right out there.’ He thumbed in the direction of Puget Sound.
    Henry stared at Keiko, wishing she could read his thoughts, hoping she would read his eyes. Please don’t say it. Don’t tell him that man, Mr Toyama, was your schoolteacher.
    ‘What’s going to happen to them?’ Keiko asked, the sound of concern in her small voice.
    ‘They can get the death penalty if they’re found guilty of treason, but they’ll probably just spend a few years in a nice safe jail cell.’
    ‘But he’s not a spy, he was—’
    ‘It’s almost dark, we have to go,’ Henry said, cutting her and the agent off, tugging at Keiko’s elbow. ‘We can’t be late, remember?’
    Her face was wrinkled with confusion and flushed with anger. ‘But—’
    ‘We have to go. Now.’ Henry urged her to the nearest exit. ‘Please …’
    A bulky agent stood aside to let them out the front door. Henry looked back and saw Sheldon guarding Oscar near the front of the stage, keeping him quiet. Sheldon looked back and waved, urging them to get home.
    Past rows of dark police cars, Henry and Keiko stood on the stoop of an apartment building across the street. They watched as uniformed officers dispersed the crowd. A white reporter from The Seattle Times took notes and pictures, the flashbulbs from his camera sporadically lighting up the front of the Black Elks Club. He’d take out a handkerchief to change the hot bulb, dropping the old bulb on the ground, stepping on it, grinding it into the pavement. The reporter shouted questions at the nearest officer, whose only reply was ‘No comment.’
    ‘I can’t watch this anymore,’ Keiko said, stalking