Joker Game

The door to the study unlocked without a sound.

Gamou slipped into the room from the small crack of the door, breathing quietly, observing the activities in his surroundings.

It was two o’clock late at night.

The only noise to be heard in the British Consul Estate seemed to be the soft sound of Graham’s snoring.

Everyone was in slumber.

No, the only person that would perhaps be lying on his mattress with his eyes still wide open would be the butler, Chou Dai-mei, struggling to keep his ears p.r.i.c.ked to listen closely to the sounds echoing in the estate.

However, it would be difficult even for him to tell whether Gamou had already stolen in, but even if he had discovered it, there was no need to get up and hinder him.

Chou Dai-mei was the “double agent” Gamou had recruited for this mission.

Finding a “double agent” on the opposing side is indispensable work for a spy.

And of course, organizations aware that they are targets of spies would take precautions of all kinds.

Similar to the practice of never hiring j.a.panese in the British Consul Estate; all of the servants in the estate were Chinese. The estate would absolutely refuse to offer employment to j.a.panese enthusiasts or those who carry a sense of approval towards j.a.pan. Expressions of disgust would be shown if a j.a.panese were to speak to them.

At first glance, there was no way of finding someone to become a double agent.

But shortly, just five days after Gamou had started carrying out his mission, he had “captured” the butler, Chou Dai-mei.

Considering humans, there are weaknesses.

Money, women, the love and hate towards their family, alcohol, luxuries, special hobbies, addictions, mistakes made in the past, inferiority complexes based on physique….

Anything. As long as they are human, there would be one or two things they wish to conceal from others, or incidents they do not wish to be made known to others. Even if it is simply a trivial matter, the aspect that is important is how the individual viewed the matter.

Using the case of Chou Dai-mei, his weakness was gambling.

He had not let this be known to his employer: in truth, back in the days when he was in Hong Kong, he had had an addiction to gambling, leaving behind countless debts.

Gamou, who had discovered about it, had disguised himself as a Chinese who had just arrived in j.a.pan, and approached Chou, inviting him to a highly covert underground casino. After arriving in j.a.pan, Chou had thought he had had overcome his gambling addiction completely, but his hand had started to itch again. The casino had little to gamble for, and Chou must have thought that a small bet would cause no harm then.

He had won the round of after he had placed a small bet, and lowered his guard.

Chou Dai-mei had been consumed by his ravenous desire, and regularly reported to the casino.

On the first day, he had won, and the second day was no exception.

On the third day however, he had lost with crushing defeat in a round where the stakes had been raised. The round that proceeded and the round after both yielded the same result. The luck he had during his consecutive wins seemed to have ceased its existence, leaving him to lose one round after another.

After he had come to his senses, he had already had a large mountain of debt, with no way of a paying it off.

Chou Dai-mei stood, dazed, and it was just then that someone had whispered lowly by his ear.

—You can’t pay up. Do you want to die?

His face paled as he hurriedly shook his head.

—Please help me find a way.

Chou had begged Gamou with tears in his eyes. Gamou had pretended to be in deep thought, before sighing with a helpless expression, and extracted a small bottle filled with liquid from his pocket.

“I heard that there are guards who take turns to be duty during the night at the British Consul Estate where you work, yes? Get the guard on duty that night to take this drug at my orders. It’s tasteless and odorless, no one will ever know about it when mixed into a drink.”

“But…”

“There is nothing to worry about, it’s just a common sleeping drug. I just need the money. If n.o.body makes a sound, then no one will get hurt.”

Gamou saw Chou Dai-mei hesistate, and had clapped his shoulder, smiling slightly.

“Besides, that money was earned by the English who were selling opium all over China. What harm would it do if we just spent it?”

…In the end, he had allowed Chou to think that he was a mere thief who would enter the estate just for the cash.

Had he known that he was helping a j.a.panese spy, being the man that had always held a burning hatred towards the j.a.panese, he would have never complied even in the face of death. Of course, he had never found out that, the worker from the tailor who had been playing chess with Graham, and the Chinese who had brought him to the casino, was in fact, the same person.

The basic principles of “recruitment” were sweets and a whip.

Grasping the weaknesses of others, then turning them into conditions of exchange in order to request them to carry out negligible tasks.

To bring oneself to steal would be impossible, but if they were to inform the other of the period of time in which they can break into the house, it would be fine. Slipping poison into food would also be out of the question, but if one were to simply add in a sleeping drug, it would be acceptable. Not being able to bring oneself to kill, but if they were to just stand aside, refusing to save them, that would be of no concern…

What is important is the balance between pressure and reward.

The level in which humans are able to be ignorant of their conscience to do the unpleasant vary with each person.

The key is to see through the thoughts of others.

There is no set of basic instructions to follow. In spy missions, it is crucial to be able to adapt and improvise accordingly to situations and others.

This case was no exception, Gamou had relentlessly questions about where the amount of cash and where it had been placed in order to give Chou a sense of rea.s.surance.

And on the other hand, he had only requested him to drug the drinks of the guards, and nothing more.

—The money’s placed in a safe in the study. Even if the guards are asleep, it would require a key, which Graham carries with him, to enter the room. The safe is made with st.u.r.dy materials, he probably wouldn’t be able to get to the money.

Chou Dai-mei could convince himself like so.

—I’m not considered as an accomplice.

Gamou knew clearly that Chou would be struggling to rea.s.sure himself this way.

By simply giving the other a reason they could force themselves to accept, there would be no difficulty in directing him to handle tasks.

Gamou had just confirmed that the guards were in deep sleep.

As they had agreed, Chou Dai-mei had already drugged the guards’ drinks.

When morning comes, Chou would perhaps be confused when he had found out that no cash has been stolen.

Due to time constraints, the casino Gamou had brought him to was a fake that had been temporarily set up, as were the betting rounds. Once Chou Dai-mei’s gambling addiction wears off, suspicion would arise, but seeing that he had personally allowed the guards to take the sleeping drug, and even if he were to grow suspicious it was probably that he would not dare to speak of it.

It was after a while before Gamou had started to slowly carry out the plan.

The door was closed, and the study was completely engulfed in darkness. Even without light, he was not worried about the plan being affected.

He had already memorized the placement of the objects in the study.

The sofa, drawers, shelves, items placed on the shelves, the desk, photo frames, the clock, the desk lamp…their respective positions and distances between each other, and even the change in thickness of the carpet, Gamou was able to clearly picture them in his mind.

He cautiously shifted his footsteps, avoiding kicking over the umbrella stand by the door.

Gamou extended his fingers slightly, and came into contact with the solid feeling of a metallic object.

It was a safe.

The shape of the safe he had confirmed earlier during the day surfaced in his thoughts.

One metre in both length and width, with a depth of eighty centimetres.

This is the st.u.r.dy and fire-proof British-made safe, a safe from the well-known brand “Chubbsafes”. [1] The steel front of the safe had been stamped with the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom with a five-centimetre-thick steel door. If one were to use something besides the correct key to open the lever tumbler lock, the detector mechanism would be activated, jamming the latch of the door. Once the mechanism has been activated, the door could not be opened immediately even when using the correct key, so that the owner of the safe would be able to tell whether someone had been attempting to open it—a very intricate design. There are a total of eight levers, and is not a lock a common thief would be able to handle. [2]

Gamou had heard from Chou Dai-mei, the butler, that once evening has fallen, the money in the estate would be put into the safe. The list of ciphers used for communication between the British emba.s.sy and the country itself should also be in there.

Gamou had the sudden urge to challenge the safe.

But the purpose of the mission had not been to acquire the list of ciphers.

Gamou reluctantly stroked the surface of the safe, and continued. He turned to his right, using the corner of the room as the starting point, and accurately took three steps. He raised his hand to the same level as his face.

He had worn gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, and his fingers had touched a frame of a painting just then.

That was an oil painting of around size 15 [3], which displayed several horses grazing with lowered heads.

Gamou carefully removed the painting from the wall, and set it on the floor.

He felt around the wall, and his fingertips had found an area that had been faintly raised.

In the darkness, Gamou could not help but curl the corners of his lips slightly.

—Up to now, everything’s just as I thought.