Ocean Blue (Sea Lab Book 1)

CHAPTER 23

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

A few lights brightened the lobby, allowing the security guards a dim passage through the halls and side rooms. Takeshi Ishikawa strolled past a night watchman on the ground level of the high-rise and entered an elevator. His destination was an office on the twentieth floor where he owed a report to the man behind the scenes, the one who orchestrated the operations in Tahiti and The Bahamas. While waiting for the elevator doors to close, Ishikawa stared into the three-story atrium. The daytime employees had already gone for the evening, leaving behind floors of empty cubicles, offices and meeting rooms.

Too many people filled these corridors between the hours of nine to five. He preferred the peaceful calm that came with the night. He hated the looks he got from the staff when he showed his face during the day. Their eyes were always on him, as if they could sense his dark side, the part of him that could snap their necks with a flick of his big hands.

He watched the elevator doors close and prepared himself for the meeting with his superior. Ishikawa stood three inches taller than his employer and outweighed him by a hundred pounds. He feared no one on Earth, but there was something different about the mysterious businessman he gave his allegiance to.

Something sinister lurked in his veins. Ishikawa imagined if the venom had an odor, it would have a vile and putrid stench. It was a metaphor for what lay at the heart of the man. To the average person, his boss appeared to be nothing more than a wealthy CEO with an excellent taste for designer suits and beautiful women, but to those in his inner circle, he was a man without a soul, a cold and devious taskmaster. But he wasn't always like that.

Something changed him.

The hum of the elevator ceased at the top floor, and a bell chimed. Then the doors parted and gave a view to a darkened lobby with an empty desk in the far corner. Past the neat workstation, a mahogany paneled door with a gold thumb-levered handle, stood like a gateway to some lonely and foreboding place.

Ishikawa strode across the ceramic tiled floor, his hard-heeled shoes clacking on the polished surface. At the door, he tapped three times. His knuckles echoed through the sturdy frame and rang out in the expansive atrium.

"Come in," said a voice from the other side of the door.

Ishikawa paused, contemplating. The news he bore was both good and bad. He only hoped the former would outweigh the latter.

He gripped the door handle, pressed the thumb lever and entered.

The office opened up wider than the lobby, the back wall lined with a set of dark stained bookcases. In front of the vast volumes of encyclopedias and various archives from around the world sat an enormous desk, also made of reddish-brown mahogany. On it rested a single lamp with a gold hood, pointed down. Its soft light angled toward a pair of guest chairs on the other side of the desk. Ishikawa strode across the floor and took a seat in a chair.

The lamp illuminated his figure in the otherwise dark room. To his right, tall windows loomed. A glare from the moon shone through the dark tint and cast the room in an eerie light—and in his mind—he heard the howl of a bloodthirsty wolf. He knew the predator was ready for a report.

Across from Ishikawa sat his employer with his back turned. The crest of a leather chair blocked sight of his head. He was doing something, shuffling paper on the credenza behind his desk. Without a word, he spun gracefully. With light shining in Ishikawa's eyes, he saw a familiar outline of the man's body with a piercing gaze cloaked in the shadows.