Tokyo Ink (Gay SF Erotica)

to help you.”
    “No,” Gabe agreed. “But he’ll help himself. You’re going to hand him enough information on Iyashii to do some serious damage to the company.”
    “Why would I do that?” It was difficult reading Gabe’s face in the shadows, and the dancer’s expression seldom gave anything away.
    And any moments of revelation were suspect.
    “One, you’ll do it for protection -- for both of us.” Gabe’s answer was matter-of-fact, like he’d been asked to name Jupiter’s moons or calculate the distance of Saturn’s orbit. “Two, you’ll do it to bring Iyashii down. Feed Valnyk what you want to get what you want. You want Shimizu closed down? Valnyk can do that.”
    “And open up his own facility,” Tetsu offered. “No thanks.”
    Gabe shrugged. “Then go back to your safe room.”
    He turned, using his dancer’s grace to slip away from Tetsu’s grasp. By the time Tetsu realized he was grabbing at shadows, Gabe was at the mouth of the alley, stepping into the daylight of the open street. Tetsu followed. He might be going to his death. He knew that. If he presented himself to Valnyk and then turned the man down because the cost was too high, the bastard would hand deliver him and Gabe to Iyashii.
    Well, maybe not Gabe. Tetsu still didn’t have that figured out, especially with the way Gabe was walking straight up to the front door of ValCo's Japanese headquarters. The dancer turned, gestured briefly in Tetsu’s direction while he said something to the guard stationed out front and then entered the building.
    Tetsu crossed the street slowly, watching the guard on the door as he went. He knew the stance, guessed the caliber and fit of the man’s weapon by the way he held his hand close to his side. If Tetsu turned now and walked away, would the guard follow him?
    It wasn't the guard who mattered. It was Gabe, and what he knew about the Code.
    Tetsu stepped onto the curb. He held his hands palms forward, arms slightly out. The doorman was quick and efficient. What looked like a superficial pat to Tetsu’s sides served to disarm him of the gun and the belt with its explosives.
    Gabe was waiting at the elevators. Another guard tried to stop Tetsu. The man put a hand on Tetsu’s shoulder and reached into the pocket that held Tetsu’s mobile, but Gabe cut the inspection short.
    They were in the tallest building still standing from the Old Tokyo quakes, thirty-two stories and all of it owned by ValCo. Valnyk’s office was somewhere near the top. No one outside the company knew for sure because the last ten floors were unnumbered on the elevator panel, and the buttons were re-programmed weekly -- at least that was what Tetsu had heard from his sources. Looking at the panel, he noted twelve unnumbered buttons. Close enough.
    He tried to get a sense of how long it took to pass each floor so that he’d have an idea of where they were if the need to escape arose. But Gabe had moved up close, body to body, and placed his hand on Tetsu’s chest.
    “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
    Gabe moved to kiss Tetsu but Tetsu turned his head to the side. “I don’t know why security is giving you a free pass, but you can only guess how a man like Valnyk will react.”
    “I was the mole -- not what you had put on my skin. Me.”
    Tetsu jerked his head in Gabe’s direction, felt his mouth go slack and snapped it shut. His hand went instinctively to where his gun should have been. He dropped his hand to the side. “For what?”
    Gabe shrugged. “Whatever. I pick my own targets. Magnus and I have an understanding. Originally, I was hoping for someone in logistics or security. Someone like you.” Here he offered the slightest of smiles, the pained wince that accompanied it only a little conciliatory. “I settled for Mikio-san.”
    Out of everything Gabe had said, one thing struck Tetsu hard. He had called Valnyk “Magnus.” He looked at the lights above the elevator doors. They’d cleared the twentieth floor already. They could be stopping any second. He knew what he wanted to ask Gabe. And he knew why he needed to ask. But he had no right.
    He felt another floor go by. Even if he had no right, he needed to know what they were walking into. “That doesn’t mean --”
    “Magnus will do what I want in this, trust me.”
    He had his hand against Tetsu’s chest, the warmth of his palm radiating through the fabric to heat the skin. But, from there, ice spread across Tetsu’s flesh. He felt…