Read Tokyo Surprise for Free Online Page A

cheek twitch as if she was trying not to smile at some private joke.
    The light reached the bottom of the glass panel and the elevator stopped. The door swung open, and in front of them...
    “Now that,” Josh said, “is incredible .”
    The room looked like it had been designed by a manga artist. Giant screens showed infrared and 3D views of Tokyo buildings, swish black leather chairs were pulled up to glittering control
panels, and the far wall was filled with racks of weapons – gleaming katana, polished tonfa and pairs of elaborately painted nunchaku.
    A figure was standing in front of the racks. He slotted a sword into its place on the wall, and turned around. It was Mr. Yamamoto. He was standing perfectly straight, looking fit and healthy
and definitely not bedridden! His eyes met Josh’s, and he grinned. He picked up a long wooden staff and rolled it in his hands before twirling it over his shoulder and around his waist so
fast it became a blur. The old man with the junk collection looked like he could do some serious damage!
    Josh felt his face go bright red. “I suppose he can probably feed himself his own rice, then,” he muttered.
    “Ah, Josh-kun,” Mr. Yamamoto said, with a theatrical wink at Granny Murata. He finished his display and put the staff back on the rack. “Mimi, a pleasure as always,” he
said to Granny, bowing low. “But perhaps your age is showing, being unmasked by a child.”
    Granny rolled her eyes. “Yamamoto-san is my weapons expert,” she said, steering Josh and Jessica into the room.
    Josh remembered the weapons he found in Mr. Yamamoto’s apartment.
    “And this is Sachiko-san,” Granny said, indicating the grey-haired lady seated in front of a bank of CCTV screens with a massive, complex selection of buttons and slides at her
fingertips.
    Sachiko-san was the little old lady from the parking garage. She looked different now – she had one arm draped over the back of her chair in a very un-grandmotherly way, and where the
bandages had been wrapped around her arms the wrinkled skin was covered in ancient tattoos. She grinned at them with a set of sparkling false teeth.
    “Sachiko-san is my disguise technician and an aikido master,” said Granny. “Are the others out on a mission, Sachiko?”
    “Others?” Josh said, still confused.
    “They’re sparring next door,” said Sachiko, punching a few buttons on the control panel. “I’ll ask them to come in – I’m sure they’re dying to
meet your grandchildren.”
    “My grandchildren who may have compromised our mission,” Granny said.
    Josh swallowed hard.
    “Sachiko, please show us the footage,” Granny ordered.
    “ Hai, ” said Sachiko and in an instant, up on three of the screens was a view of the crowd outside Kiki’s apartment building.
    Jessica nudged Josh in the ribs. “It’s us!” she exclaimed. The twins could be seen making their way through the people, the moment where they started following the bodyguard
towards the alley.
    “Imagine my surprise,” Granny said. “My team was in the middle of a criminal surveillance mission when they spotted my grandchildren – not at the shopping mall buying
vegetables.”
    “Um,” Josh didn’t know what to say.
    A door on the opposite wall slid open. Three more elderly people entered the room through a door to their left, wearing black martial arts uniforms and each carrying a katana – long,
curved Japanese swords.
    “Ah – here are the members of my team you have not yet met. This is Nana-san, Mimasu-san and Nakamura-san.”
    “Nana-san is my head of surveillance,” Granny said. “She is able to tap into any CCTV camera in the city.” The tall lady in the centre of the group bowed to Josh and
Jessica and then slid into the seat next to Sachiko. Nana seemed a bit younger than the others, though she still couldn’t have been less than sixty-five.
    “Nakamura-san is my medical expert,” Granny continued. Nakamura was the shortest and looked