Rainfall

look like natural causes.”

    “I don’t know, Holtzer. It sounds pretty far-fetched.”

    “It does, doesn’t it? Especially because there are so few people in the whole world, let alone Japan, who could pull something like that off. Hell, the only one I know of is you.”

    “This is what you wanted to meet me for?” I said. “To suggest that I was mixed up in this kind of bullshit?”

    “C’mon, Rain. Enough fucking around. I know exactly what you’re mixed up in.”

    “I’m not following you.”

    “No? I’ve got news for you, then. Half the jobs you’ve done over the last ten years, you’ve done for us.”

    What the hell?

    He leaned closer and whispered the names of various prominent politicians, bankers, and bureaucrats who had met untimely but natural ends. They were all my work.

    “You can read those names in the paper,” I said, but I knew he had more.

    He told me the particulars of the bulletin board system I had been using with Benny, the numbers of the relevant Swiss accounts.

    Goddamn,
I thought, feeling sick.
You’ve been nothing but a fool for these people. It’s never stopped. Goddamn.

    “I know this is a shock for you, Rain,” he said, leaning back in his seat. “All these years you’ve thought you’ve been working freelance and in fact the agency has been paying the bills. But look on the bright side, okay? You’re great at what you do! Christ, you’re a fucking magician, making these people disappear without a trace, without a sign that there was any foul play. I wish I knew how you do it. I really do.”

    I looked at him, my eyes expressionless. “Maybe I’ll get a chance to show you sometime.”

    “Dream on, pal. Now look, we had access to the autopsy report. Kawamura had a pacemaker that somehow managed to shut itself off. The coroner attributed it to a defect. But you know what? We did a little research and found out that a defect like that is just about impossible. Someone shut that pacemaker off, Rain. Your kind of job exactly. I want to know who hired you.”

    “It doesn’t make sense,” I said.

    “What doesn’t?”

    “Why go to such lengths just to retrieve the disk?”

    His eyes narrowed. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

    “I can’t. I can only tell you that if I had wanted that disk, I could have found a lot of easier ways to take it.”

    “Maybe it wasn’t up to you,” he said. “Maybe whoever hired you on this one told you to retrieve it. I know you’re not in the habit of asking a lot of questions about these assignments.”

    “And have I ever been in the habit of being an errand boy on these jobs? ‘Retrieving’ requested items?”

    He crossed his arms and looked at me. “Not that I know of.”

    “Then it sounds like you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

    “You did him, Rain. You were the last one with him. You have to understand, it doesn’t look good.”

    “My reputation will have to suffer.”

    He massaged his chin for a moment while he looked at me. “You know that the Agency is the least of your worries among the people who are trying to get the disk back.”

    “What people?”

    “Who do you think? The people who it implicates. The politicians, the
yakuza
, the muscle behind the whole Japanese power structure.”

    I considered for a moment, then said, “How did you find out about me? About me in Japan?”

    He shook his head. “Sorry, that would fall under sources and methods again, nothing I can discuss here. But I’ll tell you what.” He leaned forward again. “Come on in, and we can talk about anything you want.”

    It was such a non sequitur that I thought I heard wrong. “Did you say, ‘Come on in’?”

    “Yes, I did. If you look at your situation, you’ll see that you need our help.”

    “I didn’t know you were such a humanitarian, Holtzer.”

    “Cut the shit, Rain. We’re not doing this for humanity. We want your cooperation. Either you’ve got that disk, or because you were hunting Kawamura you’ve probably got information that might help us find it. We’ll help you in exchange. It’s as simple as that.”

    But I knew these people, and I knew Holtzer. Nothing was ever simple with them — and the simpler it looked, the harder they were about to nail you.

    “I’m in an uncomfortable spot,” I said. “No sense denying it. Maybe I’ve got to trust someone. But it’s not going to be you.”

    “Look, if this is about the war, you’re being ridiculous. It was