A Clean Kill in Tokyo

at it! Just put it somewhere else and get out!”
    “What do you mean I’m no good at it? I taught you how to do it, didn’t I?”
    “Yeah, that’s how I know you’re no good.” He stopped. Probably figured it was useless to try to stop me so he might as well let me concentrate.
    I felt the fifth tumbler click, then lost it.
Damn.
I turned the dental mirror another fraction, tightening the cylinder against the pins. “You really don’t think I’m good at this?” Another tumbler slipped.
    “Don’t talk to me. Concentrate.”
    “I am, but it’s practically personal now.” I felt the fifth pin click and hold. The next three were easy. Just one more.
    The last pin was damaged. I couldn’t feel the click. I worked the pick up and down, but couldn’t get anything.
    Come on sweetheart, where are you?
I held my breath and jiggled the pick.
    I never felt the tumbler click into place. But the knob was suddenly free. It twisted to the right and I was in.
    The office was the same as when I’d left it. Even the lights were still on. I knelt next to the leather couch and felt its underside. It was covered with some kind of cloth. The edges were stapled to what felt like wood. Good backing to attach the bug.
    I pulled the adhesive covering off the transmitter and pressed it into place. Anyone talking in this room was going to come through loud and clear.
    Harry’s voice in my ear: “Two of them just got back. They’re coming up the walkway. Get out right now. Use the side exit—the one at the left side of building as you face it.”
    “Shit, the transmitter’s already in place. I’m not going to be able to respond to you once I leave this room. Keep talking to me.”
    “They just stopped at the end of the walkway to the front entrance. Maybe they’re waiting for the others. Go down to the side entrance and stay there until I tell you you’re clear.”
    “Okay. I’m gone.” I relocked the door from the inside, then backed out and closed it behind me. I turned and started to move in the direction of the exterior corridor.
    Flatnose was coming down the hallway. His shirt was covered with blood. The table must have caught him in the face and broken his nose again. It hadn’t improved his appearance. Hoarse animal sounds were rumbling up out of his chest.
    He was standing between me and the entrance. Nowhere to go but through him.
    Harry again, a second late: “There’s one right in front of you! And the others are coming up the walk!”
    Flatnose dropped his head, his neck and shoulders bunching, looking like a bull about to charge.
    All he wants is to get his hands on you. He’ll come hard, crazed with rage, not thinking.
    He launched himself at me, closing the gap fast. As he lunged for my neck, I grabbed his wet shirt and dropped to the floor in modified
tomoe nage,
my right foot catching him in the balls and hurling him over me. He landed on his back with a thud I could feel through the floor. Using the momentum of the throw I rolled to my feet, took two long steps over to him, and leaped into the air like a pissed-off bronco, coming down with both feet as hard as I could on his prone torso. I felt bones breaking inside him and all the air being driven from his body. He made a sound like a balloon deflating in a puddle of water and I knew he was done.
    I lurched toward the corridor, then stopped. If they found him like this in the middle of the hallway, they would know I’d been back here, maybe figure out why. They might look for a bug. I had to get him back to the room at the other end of the hallway, where it would look like he’d died by a freak shot from the table.
    His legs were pointing in the right direction. I squatted between them, facing away from him, grabbed him around the knees and stood. He was heavier than he looked. I leaned forward and dragged him, feeling like a horse yoked to a square-wheeled wagon. There were bursts of pain in my back.
    Harry’s voice in my ear again: “What are you doing? They’re coming in the front entrance. You’ve got maybe twelve seconds to get clear of the corridor.”
    I dumped him in the room at the end of the hallway and raced out into the corridor, sprinting toward the side exit.
    I reached the entrance to the side stairwell and heard the door on the opposite side of the corridor opening. I yanked open the door and threw myself through it, pulling it shut behind me but stopping it before it closed completely.
    I squatted on the landing,