Hard Rain

you might
    think I had something to do with what happened to your friend, and that
    you might want payback."
    "You might be right."
    "Yeah, well, I know you can find me eventually anyway. I figure I'm
    better off explaining what I think happened, rather than having to
    worry for the rest of my life about you sneaking up behind me."
    "What do you propose?" I asked.
    "A meeting. Anyplace you want, as long as it's public. I know if you
    listen to me you'll believe me. But I'm afraid you might try to do
    something before you've listened. Like you did the last time we saw
    each other."
    I considered. If it was a setup, there were two ways in which they
    might try to get at me. The first way would be to have people watching
    Kanezaki, people who would move in as soon as I appeared on the scene.
    The second would be to monitor him remotely, with some kind of a
    transmitter, the way they had once done when Holtzer had tried to nail
    me after proposing a similar 'meeting."
    The second way was more likely, because I would have a harder time
    spotting Kanezaki's team if they didn't have to keep him in visual
    contact. I could use Harry's bug detector to eliminate the second
    possibility. I'd have to take him someplace deserted to eliminate the
    first.
    "Where are you right now?" I asked him.
    "Toranomon. Near the embassy."
    "You know Japan Sword? The antique sword shop in Toranomon 3-chome,
    near the station?"
    "I know it."
    "Go there. I'll see you in thirty minutes."
    "Okay."
    I clicked off. Actually, I had no intention of going to the sword
    shop, much as I enjoy browsing there from time to time. But I wanted
    Kanezaki and anyone he was with to take the trouble to set up there,
    while I established myself in a more secure venue.
    I took a series of cabs and trains to the Imperial Palace Wadakuramon
    Gate. With its swarms of tourists, batteries of security cameras, and
    phalanxes of cops protecting the important personages inside, the
    Wadakuramon Gate would be a highly inconvenient place to have to gun
    someone down, if that's what Kanezaki and company had in mind. Having
    him go there after I was already set up would force a potential
    surveillance team to move quickly, giving me a better chance to spot
    them.
    I used Tatsu's cell phone to call Kanezaki again when I had arrived.
    "Change of plans," I told him.
    There was a pause. "Okay."
    "Meet me at the Imperial Palace Wadakuramon Gate, across from Tokyo
    station. Come right now. I'm waiting in front. Approach me from
    Tokyo station so I can see that you're alone."
    "I'll be there in ten minutes."
    I clicked off.
    I found a taxi on Hibiya-dori, which intersects the boulevard that
    leads from Tokyo station to the Imperial Palace. I got in and asked
    the driver to wait, explaining that I would be meeting a friend here
    shortly. He clicked on the meter and we sat in silence.
    Ten minutes later I saw Kanezaki approaching as I had requested. He
    was looking around, but didn't spot me in the cab.
    I cracked the window. "Kanezaki," I said as he passed my position. He
    started and looked at me. "Get in."
    The driver activated the automatic door. Kanezaki hesitated a cab
    obviously wasn't quite the 'public' place he had been hoping for. But
    he got over it and slid in next to me. The door closed and we drove
    off.
    I told the driver to take us in the direction of Akihabara, Tokyo's
    electronics mecca. I watched behind us but didn't see any unusual
    activity. No one was scrambling to keep up with him. It looked like
    he was alone.
    I reached over and patted him down. Other than his cell phone, keys,
    and a new wallet, he wasn't carrying anything. Harry's detector stayed
    quiet.
    I had the driver use backstreets to lessen the chance that someone
    could be tailing us. We got out, near Ochanomizu station, and from
    there continued a series of swift moves in trains and on foot to ensure
    that we were alone.
    I finished the route in Otsuka, the extreme north of the
    Yamanote line. Otsuka is a neighborhood kind of place, albeit a
    somewhat seedy one, with a generous offering of massage parlors and
    love hotels. Beyond the locals who live and work there, it seems to
    cater primarily to older men in search of down market sexual commerce.
    Caucasians are rare there. If there were a surveillance team and they
    were white CIA-issue, Otsuka would make for a difficult approach.
    We took the stairs to the second-story Royal Host restaurant across
    from the station. We went in and I looked around.