A Clean Kill in Tokyo

send him to Dale Carnegie.”
    “Regardless. We are not after you—only the disk.”
    “Disk?”
    “Please don’t insult my intelligence. You are protecting Kawamura Midori.”
    That caught me by surprise. But then I realized—the men who were waiting for her at her apartment must have been Yamaoto’s people. They’d been focusing on her, thinking if she had her father’s things she might have the disk, and then I walked into the picture. It was only after I ambushed them and Midori went underground that they started coming at me.
    “What does she have to do with this?”
    “I know her father had the disk when he died. It’s therefore likely she has it now. And she is in hiding.”
    “Of course she’s in hiding. She had the same kind of welcome party at her apartment I had at mine. She knows she’s in danger but doesn’t understand why.”
    “Ordinarily a person in her position would go to the police. She hasn’t done so.”
    “I wouldn’t know anything about that. I don’t trust the police myself.”
    “Where is she?”
    “I don’t know. She took off after the ambush at her apartment. She thought I was with your people.”
    “Really? She hasn’t resurfaced.”
    “Maybe she’s staying with friends—in the country or something. She looked pretty scared to me.”
    “I see,” he said, steepling his fingers. “You understand, Rain-san, there is information on that disk that would be harmful to Japan, useful to her enemies, if revealed. These enemies are looking for the disk, too.”
    I thought of Holtzer, how he wanted to turn the Japanese government into a “fuckboy,” as only Holtzer could put it.
    One thing I didn’t understand. “Why the contact at the Kodokan
?”
I asked.
    “Curiosity,” he said, his tone contemplative. “I wanted to know what would drive a man with a history like yours. If I had known of the way you would soon be involved in this matter, I would of course have avoided the contact.”
    “What do mean, ‘history?’”
    “A man of two such opposed countries and cultures.”
    “I think I’m missing something. Other than the fact that I inadvertently showed up at the same time as your men at Midori’s apartment, I didn’t know we were acquainted.”
    “Ah, of course. You wouldn’t know, but I have retained you for your services from time to time.”
    Through Benny, then. Christ, the little bastard really slept around. Probably reselling my services at a markup. Not any more, though.
    “So you see, until recently, your interests and mine have always been aligned. If we can just clear up this one matter, we can return to the
status quo ante bellum.”
    He wanted that disk badly. I hoped Harry’s algorithms were up to speed.
    “The problem,” I said, “is that I don’t know where this disk is, or even what it is. If I did, I’d give it to you. But I don’t.”
    He frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. And Kawamura’s daughter, she doesn’t know, either?”
    “How would I know?”
    He nodded his head gravely. “This is a problem. You see, until I have what I am looking for, Kawamura’s daughter is a liability. It would be much safer for her if the item were returned to me.”
    In that moment I was tempted to believe there was some truth to what he was saying. If he had the disk back, Midori wouldn’t be a liability.
    But there were other parties after it, too, and they would have no way of knowing Midori didn’t have it anymore. Besides, the logistics were impossible. Yamaoto would never let me leave on the strength of a promise to return with the disk, and I wasn’t going to tell him where to find Midori and Harry. Besides, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t go on cleaning up loose ends even after the disk had been returned.
    “For what it’s worth, I don’t think she has what you’re looking for,” I said. “Why would Kawamura have given her anything, anyway? He would have known it would have put her in danger, right?”
    “He may have given it to her inadvertently. Besides, as I’ve said already, the fact that she hasn’t gone to the police is telling.”
    I said nothing, waiting for him.
    “Enough games,” he said finally. He stood and walked over to a coat rack, where he took a suit jacket off a hanger. “I have no more time to try to persuade you. Tell me where I can find the disk, or tell me where to find Kawamura Midori.”
    “I told you I don’t know.”
    “Unfortunately, there is only one way to confirm your