Tokyo Surprise Read Online Free PDF Page A

the window display.
    “It’s the new Starplayer,” he breathed, gazing at the sleek white machine. “It’s the new generation of video games – backwards and sideways compatibility, 200
gig of memory, touch screen and laser sensor interface, and full exclusive rights to the Star Knight franchise – and it’s not going to be sold in Europe for the next five
years .”
    “And even then there’s no way you’ll be able to afford one,” said Jessica wistfully.
    She wandered off to look at the other cool gadgets in the window, leaving Josh to sigh at the Starplayer. The power of its awesomeness sucked him in until there seemed to be nothing else in the
world but him and its shiny buttons.
    “Hey, Josh. Look at this!” Jessica said, bringing him back down to earth with a poke in the shoulder blades. “It’s Kiki. I think she’s on the news.” Josh
turned to look. In another window of the electronics shop, a collection of massive High Definition TV screens showed a serious-looking newsreader in a pink suit beside a photo of Kiki. “Look,
I found one with English...subtitles...” Jessica began, but trailed off as she read the translation of the kanji that was scrolling along the bottom of the screens.
    Bodyguard sustains several injuries. Authorities call for any witnesses to go to the police. Chiba Mikiko abducted in Tokyo.
    “Josh,” Jessica gasped. “Kiki’s been kidnapped!”

 

    Jessica rushed inside the shop and Josh followed. Now they could hear the newsreader’s voice – the shop manager had turned the volume up and most of the customers
were staring in disbelief at the TV screens.
    “In dramatic scenes in Minato Ward earlier today,” the newsreader’s subtitle read, “Chiba Mikiko’s loyal bodyguard stumbled into a police box, with several injuries
to his face and arms, and told officers that a masked thug broke into Chiba-san’s car and abducted the popular singer as they travelled from Tokyo Airport to her penthouse
apartment.”
    Josh and Jessica stared at each other. Josh thought of the friendly girl on the aeroplane and blinked hard – this couldn’t be happening! Jessica was wide-eyed and clutching her
shopping bag so hard her knuckles had turned white.
    “What can we do?” she asked. “Maybe we were the last to see her! Maybe we should talk to the police?”
    The newsreader cut to a live report of Kiki’s bodyguard making a speech outside her apartment building. Josh stared as the hulking, suited man appeared at the top of a flight of concrete
steps. He had a black eye and a large purple bruise spreading across his jaw.
    As he watched, Josh got the feeling that he knew those steps. In fact, the whole scene, the gleaming glass doors and polished silver railings of the building, was ringing a huge, loud bell in
Josh’s head.
    “I know that place!” he said. “That’s just round the corner from here. We could...” He wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence – what more could they do
there? But Jessica finished it for him.
    “Let’s go,” she said, heading for the door.
    As they reached the apartment building, Josh realized they weren’t the only ones who’d had the idea of going round to see what was going on. As they turned a corner
and the building came into sight, they nearly ran into a group of girls who were walking towards the steps chattering worriedly. A crowd had already gathered outside Kiki’s apartment.
    “How could they do this?” one of the girls wailed. “Who would want to hurt Kiki?”
    Josh and Jessica weaved through a group of teenagers holding up hastily scrawled banners saying We ♥ you Kiki and Give us back our Kiki and passed two women weeping hysterically on
each other’s shoulders.
    Police barriers surrounded the building’s entrance, where the bodyguard was appealing to a row of TV cameras.
    “We were prepared to deal with an incident of this nature,” he growled, “but we were taken by surprise on the road. Mikiko-sama