Requiem for an Assassin

doesn’t mean…”
    “Cut the bullshit,” I said, gripping the sides of the table and leaning forward. “He’s in trouble now, bad trouble, what are you going to do, abandon him?”
    I realized I was half out of my seat. The words themselves were fueling my rage. It was the iceman, wanting a reason to hurt someone, anyone, for Dox.
    Easy, I thought. Easy. I exhaled sharply and slowly sat back down. I let go of the table and flexed my hands.
    Kanezaki was as quiet as a man who turns a corner to find himself face-to-face with a growling attack dog. If he hadn’t been sitting, he would have been backing up.
    After a moment, he said, “Dox is a good man. I’m grateful to him professionally and I like him personally. But he’s a contractor. That’s his choice.”
    I looked at him, still trying to get a grip on myself. I thought about telling him it was fine, he could do anything he wanted. As long as he understood that if Dox died, so would he.
    I shook my head. What was I thinking? Threats were the way I had played things when I was young and stupid. I was lucky to have lived long enough to find more effective means of persuasion. And the kind of help I needed here wasn’t something I could extort.
    Back off, I thought, as though actually talking to someone inside me. Back off.
    “Look,” he said, his hands up, palms forward, “I’m not saying I won’t help. Just that you’re still on the hook for the toys I got you guys last year.”
    He was referring to a tranquilizer gun and some considerably more lethal hardware he had procured for Dox and me in Tokyo. We had used it all to interrupt a drug deal in Wajima and touch off a small war between the Japanese yakuza and the Chinese triads. The war had forced a yakuza enemy of mine, Yamaoto, into the open, finally giving me the opportunity to kill him.
    But his comment calmed me down. I realized, as I should have earlier, that his protestations weren’t heartfelt. They were haggling. Irritating, yes, but not a bad sign, either.
    “‘On the hook’?” I asked. “Why do you think I just told you about Hilger? You mean knowing what he’s up to isn’t valuable to you? All right, next time I won’t bother you with the information.”
    He sighed. “It’s not valuable, really, not without more. Maybe if I knew who the targets were, that would be something. But without knowing who he’s after…?” He finished the sentence by turning his palms up to the ceiling, then dropping his hands back to the table.
    Yeah, haggling, like I thought. But at least we were making progress.
    “Like I said, I’m waiting on that information,” I told him. “As soon as I have it, I’ll let you know.”
    “I have your word on that?”
    Well, his former naiveté hadn’t been totally eradicated. I’d spent most of my life killing people for a living. Did he think I was going to lose sleep over a lie?
    “You have my word,” I told him. “And then we’ll be square?”
    “We’ll be up to date. But if you want something else from me, you’ll have to do something in return.”
    Ah, the moment of truth, I thought. At last.
    “Yeah?” I said. “Who?”
    “Don’t you mean what?”
    “I already know what.”
    He nodded, conceding the point. “Even if you get Dox out of this, you’re going to take out Hilger, aren’t you?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You know. The only thing that worries me is how patient you are. Look how long you waited to do Yamaoto.”
    “I don’t know why you think that was me. From what I read, he got shot, then died in the hospital of a cardiac arrest.”
    “Now who’s bullshitting? I know Dox shot him. It was a 7.62 round, same as the rifle I procured for you. And you gave him the heart attack. Look, Tatsu and I were working together more closely than you know. He told me a lot.”
    He might have been bluffing. But the relationship with Tatsu was true, I knew.
    “Tatsu told me you were doing something together,” I said.
    He nodded. “Call it unofficial counterpart relations.”
    “Is that what killing Hilger is about?”
    “It’s part of it.”
    “Why do you want him dead?”
    “When did why start mattering to you?”
    I shrugged. “It doesn’t.”
    “Good. You want my help with Dox? Help me with Hilger. Don’t wait when you find him. As soon as you have the shot, take it.”
    “All right,” I said. “It sounds like we’re on the same page. You want me to take out Hilger, and I want to find him. Hard to do one