Adrian had to admit something.
For the first time in a long while, he was actually enjoying himself.
The journey toward Kanazawa had been surprisingly pleasant.
And a large part of that was because of Naomi.
She was beautiful, intelligent, and possessed a sharp sense of humor that made their conversations far more entertaining than Adrian had expected. She also seemed perfectly comfortable flirting with him, and Adrian—having spent the last month deliberately isolating himself from almost everyone—wasn't exactly going to complain.
More importantly, his Clown intuition remained silent.
No warning.
No sudden sense of danger.
Nothing.
That was enough for Adrian to relax.
He still kept his secrets close, but he allowed himself to behave like an ordinary traveler.
They talked.
They laughed.
They argued about food.
They exchanged stories about their lives, though Adrian was careful about how much of his own past he revealed.
Naomi, however, was becoming increasingly curious.
At first, she had thought Adrian was simply another foreign tourist.
A strange one, perhaps, but still a tourist.
Then the coincidences began.
The first had been easy to dismiss.
Adrian had somehow managed to find a small restaurant serving a particular tea she liked.
She hadn't told him she liked it.
He had simply looked at the menu and ordered it.
"How did you know?" Naomi had asked.
Adrian had smiled.
"Lucky guess."
She had believed him.
The second time, he somehow found a particular brand of sweets she had mentioned only once during a conversation.
The third time, he took them down a street where a shop happened to be selling an item she had been searching for.
Then it happened again.
And again.
By the eighth time, Naomi stopped believing in coincidence.
She began watching him.
Carefully.
Adrian noticed.
Of course he noticed.
He simply didn't say anything.
There were little things about Naomi that didn't fit.
Her posture.
The way she constantly observed the people around them.
The way she occasionally checked exits whenever they entered a building.
The way her questions were always casual but somehow managed to extract information.
She wasn't behaving like an ordinary travel guide.
Adrian had spent enough time around dangerous people to recognize someone who knew how to remain alert.
But his Clown intuition still gave him nothing.
That was interesting.
Very interesting.
Either she's harmless...
Or she's very good.
Adrian decided not to investigate.
Not yet.
Sometimes it was better to let people believe they were hiding something.
Naomi had reached a similar conclusion about him.
Adrian wasn't a normal traveler.
She had originally been assigned to determine whether he was a foreign spy.
That seemed simple enough.
But the more time she spent with him, the more complicated the answer became.
A spy should have contacts.
Adrian seemed to have them.
A spy should have money.
Adrian somehow kept finding more.
A spy should know where he was going.
Adrian certainly did.
But there was something strange about the way he navigated.
He would enter an unfamiliar place, look around for a few seconds, and then choose a direction with absolute confidence.
He never appeared lost.
Not once.
It was as though he already knew where he needed to go.
And then there was the luck.
Naomi had deliberately tested him.
She mentioned something she liked.
Adrian remembered.
She mentioned a place she wanted to visit.
Somehow, they ended up there.
She complained about something being difficult to find.
The next day, Adrian somehow found it.
Eight times.
Eight.
There was no intelligence network capable of explaining that.
At least, not one Naomi knew about.
Her suspicion slowly changed.
He isn't simply a spy.
He's connected to something.
She had no idea what.
And that frightened her.
That evening, they stopped at a small restaurant.
Naomi sat opposite Adrian, studying him while pretending to be interested in her food.
Adrian noticed.
He took a sip of tea.
"You're staring."
Naomi smiled.
"Am I?"
"Yes."
"Maybe I'm interested."
"That's usually where the trouble begins."
She laughed.
"You think I'm trouble?"
"I think beautiful women are generally trouble."
"That's sexist."
"It's experience."
"How many beautiful women have caused you trouble?"
Adrian paused.
"Enough."
Naomi smiled.
"You really don't talk much about your past."
"Neither do you."
Her smile froze for half a second.
Adrian noticed.
There it was.
A tiny reaction.
Interesting.
Naomi recovered immediately.
"I suppose we're both private."
"Perhaps."
Adrian leaned back.
Neither of them said anything for several seconds.
Then Naomi smiled again.
"So, Adrian, what exactly are you looking for in Kanazawa?"
There it was.
The question he'd been expecting.
He didn't answer immediately.
"Why do you ask?"
"Curiosity."
"That's dangerous."
"Why?"
"Curious people tend to discover things they shouldn't."
Naomi laughed.
"Are you threatening me?"
"Absolutely not."
Adrian smiled.
"I'm warning you."
She studied him.
Then laughed again.
"You're strange."
"So I've been told."
Later that night, Naomi stood alone in her room.
She had made her decision.
Tomorrow they would arrive in Kanazawa.
And once they did, she would have very little time.
Captain Ogun's territory was not somewhere she wanted to return empty-handed.
She needed information.
Something she could report.
Anything that explained Adrian.
She had initially planned to use her mutant ability immediately.
Her power was useful.
With physical intimacy, she could read another person's thoughts.
A kiss could reveal surface thoughts.
Greater intimacy allowed her to reach deeper.
It was the perfect ability for a honey trap.
And Adrian was certainly attractive enough that the task wouldn't be unpleasant.
But now she hesitated.
Because she wasn't sure what she would find.
There was something unsettling about him.
Not fear.
Something else.
The feeling that Adrian was always three steps ahead without appearing to move.
She had seen him look at her several times.
Almost as though he knew she was hiding something.
Yet he never confronted her.
That was perhaps the most disturbing part.
If Adrian knew...
Why hadn't he said anything?
Across the corridor, Adrian sat beside the window in his room.
He lit a cigarette.
Smoke slowly filled the room.
He stared through the glass at the dark landscape passing outside.
Naomi.
There was something strange about her.
He couldn't identify it.
But he had learned not to ignore his instincts.
His Clown intuition had been silent around her.
That meant she probably wasn't immediately dangerous.
But intuition wasn't the same thing as knowledge.
And Adrian knew one thing for certain:
Naomi was asking too many questions.
He smiled faintly.
"Maybe I'm finally getting paranoid."
He took another drag.
Then laughed quietly.
"After everything that's happened, that would probably be healthy."
He had no intention of confronting her.
If she wanted to play a game, he could play along.
Sometimes the best way to discover someone's secret was to let them believe you hadn't noticed anything.
The next morning, the train would finally reach Kanazawa.
And neither Adrian nor Naomi knew exactly what awaited them.
For Adrian, Kanazawa was the destination his divination had revealed.
Somewhere within that territory was the advantage he needed against Selene.
For Naomi, Kanazawa was a deadline.
She needed answers before Captain Ogun decided she had failed.
Two people were entering the same dangerous territory.
One searching for a weapon.
The other searching for secrets.
And neither understood the other.
Yet.
Adrian extinguished his cigarette.
A faint smile remained on his lips.
"Let's see what Kanazawa has waiting for me."
Across the corridor, Naomi made her own decision.
Tonight, she would get inside Adrian's head.
Whatever secrets he was hiding...
She would uncover them.
Tomorrow, their journey would end.
And their real problems would begin.