Free The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark by Orest Stelmach Page B

to talk to you.”
    Nadia leaned in close to Johnny so they both could listen without using the speakerphone. “Hello?” she said.
    “Is your cousin with you?” Nakamura said.
    Nadia took her time answering. “Maybe.”
    “Ask him what Dr. Arkady used to give him when he was done with treatments.”
    Nadia glanced at Johnny. Johnny shrugged and nodded. Nadia repeated the question to Bobby.
    “Marzipan,” Bobby said.
    Nadia repeated his answer into the phone.
    “You brought the locket?” Nakamura said.
    Johnny glanced at Bobby. The locket was in its original place, hanging on a necklace around his neck, hidden beneath his turtleneck. Nadia had told Johnny that they’d photocopied the engravings and left copies at home and in a sealed envelope with the professor from Columbia. She’d given him instructions to disseminate the contents of the envelope to the scientific press if she and Bobby suffered fatal accidents during their trip or disappeared. If the second locket did contain the rest of the formula, she wanted the world to know about it.
    “Yes,” Nadia said. “We brought the locket. Are you going to bring yours?”
    “Put Mr. Johnny Tanner back on the phone.”
    Johnny leaned in. “I’m here.”
    “Tomorrow. Ten-thirty a.m. There’s a hot springs resort called Higashiyama Onsen. It’s in a town called Aizuwakamatsu. It’s a three-hour train ride from Tokyo. Three and a half hours by bus. There’s a café near the lobby. Tell the maître d’ you’re waiting for me. He’ll get me.”
    “Why do we need to go there? Why can’t we just stay in Tokyo?”
    “Because I am not in Tokyo anymore.”
    “Why did you leave Tokyo?”
    “Because I’m a working man,” Nakamura said. “The nuclear reactors in Fukushima prefecture are located in Okuma and Futaba. Okuma and Futaba are at the epicenter of the twenty-kilometer Zone of Exclusion. Radiation levels are severe. No humans are allowed in the Zone. They are ghost towns. Aizuwakamatsu contains the largest settlement of refugees from Okuma. That is why I will be there. And that is where Genesis II will be.”

CHAPTER 14

    N ADIA STARED OUT the window of the Aizu loop bus. Water gathered steam down a river and plunged over rocks. It pooled in a basin and rolled slowly along flat terrain. Then it fell in shining twenty-foot-long sheets to another tier. The process repeated itself along four successive drops to the bottom of the waterfall. From there fury turned to foam that gradually merged into a gentle stream.
    She’d left the hotel with Bobby and Johnny at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. They’d taken a bullet train along the Tohoku-Shinkansen line from Tokyo to Koriyama Station and transferred to a regular one along the Banetsu-sai line. The trip to Aizuwakamatsu took a little more than three hours. The Aizu loop bus took an additional fifteen minutes. It dropped them off at Ryokan Higashino at 10:55 a.m.
    An air of tranquility engulfed Nadia when she stepped off the bus. Nakamura was a genius. He’d chosen a perfect location for the meet. A hot springs resort. A place of reflection and contemplation that would defuse tension.
    A ryokan was a traditional Japanese inn, Nadia learned. This one looked tired and run down. Some of the wood shingles needed repair. A woman in a blue kimono with a red sash across her midsection greeted the three of them in an entrance area. Johnny said a few words in Japanese that ended with “Nakamura-san.” The woman bowed and said something to Johnny, who returned the bow and smiled.
    They took their shoes off and followed the woman down a maze of corridors to a steel door. The woman opened the door, bowed, and stepped aside. Nadia followed Johnny and Bobby into another corridor with rooms on each side and another door at the end. A second woman in a kimono placed three small canvas bags on the floor.
    She slammed the door shut behind them. Darkness enveloped them.
    Nadia rushed forward and tried to open it. The