Night fell. Hajiri knew by the slowing of their steps and their thinning conversation rather than the rising of the moon. The only light down here was a pull chain lamp above the door, which had remained locked the whole afternoon.
The teen attempted to relay the little info he'd gathered. The leader went to sleep on one of the couches in the cockpit, however, they intended to drive through the night. By the silence above them, and considering there were two large couches upstairs, it wasn't unlikely that there were others that had gone to sleep.
The original crew had kept a stash of firearms under a latch in the forecastle, to which Hajiri still retained the key. It wasn't enough for every captive, but it was more than the criminals had, and that was plenty.
Anxious to escape, Hajiri began to plead for their cooperation. He needed everyone. Their hesitation was just as much of a restraint as the tape that held them.
"Can I at least get a headcount?" He asked, "Because it's now or never, my friends."
"How can we trust you?" A girl with overgrown bangs piped up.
"What do I have to lose?" Hajiri raised, "Tell me, and I'll swear on that."
"He doesn't deserve to live," One muttered under her breath, piercing anger in her eyes, arms covered in bruises.
"I'll turn myself in the moment we land," He promised. "And I'll spend the rest of my life rotting in jail and miserable and deserving every second of it."
"You swear?" She pressed, leaning into the light.
"I swear, but we've gotta live to see it. And we've gotta act now." Time was ticking.
"How are we going to get through the door?" The older boy asked.
"We'll start by getting these cuffs off," Hajiri began to bite at the string around his neck, obscured beneath his shirt. "Come here, show me your hands."
He pulled out a key at the end of the wire, and leaning over, began to sever the tape around the boy's wrists. It was a painstaking process, but neither party complained. Eventually the tape was cut, and Hajiri passed the key to the kid to cut his in return.
"Everyone else's first." He asserted.
"Alright, alright," The teen complied, "Be quick."
"The name's Julian, by the way." He whispered, turning to cut the youngest girl's restraints.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Hajiri accepted his proclamation of trust with open arms. "I'm Hajiri Kojima."
YOU ARE READING
Detective Hajiri; Volume One
Mystery / Thriller"He wasn't young." "Seventeen is young, Kojima." "No it's not," The detective stated, matter-of-factly, now turned away from the scene. Moonlight traced a silver line across his features, lighting only his narrowed eyes. "They recruit them young. Mu...
