Hard Rain

Hard Rain
    By Barry Eisler
    Synopsis:
    After killing a CIA officer who had hunted him halfway around the
    globe. John Rain goes underground, hoping to disappear, seeking the
    peace that has eluded him.
    But then Rain's old nemesis from the Tokyo FBI finds him. forcing him
    into one last job: track down and eliminate a killer at large, a
    creature with neither compassion nor conscience.
    It's soon clear that it's not just the country's fragile balance of
    political power that's threatened, but also the lives of Rain's few
    friends. To protect them, he must pursue his lethal quarry through a
    world where the distinctions between friend and foe, between truth and
    deceit, are as murky as the rain-slicked city streets... Blackmail,
    vengeance and murder are the hallmarks of this stunning thriller which
    confirms the enormous promise of the author's debut. Rain Fall Hard
    Rain
    Barry Eisler spent three years working for the United States
    government. He has lived and worked extensively in Japan. He now
    lives in California. Hard Rain is his second novel.
    Hard Rain
    BARRY EISLER
    MICHAEL JOSEPH
    an imprint of PENGUIN BOOKS
    MICHAEL JOSEPH
    Published by the Penguin Group
    Penguin Books Ltd, Strand, London wcr or1, England
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    First published in the United States of America by G.P. Putnam's Sons
    2003 First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph 2003
    Copyright Barry Eisler, 2003 The moral right of the author has been
    asserted
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
    either are the product of the author's imagination or are used
    fictitiously,
    and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business
    establishments,
    events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
    The poems on page 7 and page 1 are taken from Japanese Death Poems:
    Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death, compiled by
    Yoel Hoffmann. Boston: Charles E. Turtle Co." 1998
    All rights reserved.
    Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
    this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
    retrieval system,
    or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
    photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written
    permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this
    book
    Set in Monotype Garamond
    Typeset by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk
    Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St. Ives picA CIP catalogue
    record for this book is available from the British Library
    ISBN 0-718-14558-5
    For Emma You make my heart sing.
    Evening cherry blossoms:
    I slip the ink stone back into my kimono this one last time.
    Death Poem of the Poet Kaisho,
    Part 1.
    Had I not known that I was dead already
    I would have mourned my loss of life.
    last words of Ota Dokan,
    scholar of military arts and poet, i486
    One.
    Once you get past the overall irony of the situation, you realize that
    killing a guy in the middle of his own health club has a lot to
    recommend it.
    The target was a jakuza, an iron freak named Ishihara who worked out
    every day in a gym he owned in Roppongi, one of Tokyo's entertainment
    districts. Tatsu had told me the hit had to look like natural causes,
    like they always do, so I was glad to be working in a venue where it
    was far from unthinkable that someone might keel over from a fatal
    aneurism induced by exertion, or suffer an unlucky fall onto a steel
    bar, or undergo some other tragic mishap while using one of the
    complicated exercise machines.
    One of these eventualities might even be immortalized in the warnings
    corporate lawyers would insist on placing on the next generation of
    exercise equipment, to notify the public of yet another unnatural use
    for which the machine was not intended and for which the manufacturer
    would have to remain blameless. Over the years, my work has made