The Last Assassin

you? Paris?'
    'No, I'm back in Barcelona.'
    'Different cover?'
    'No. I just need someplace new for a while.'
    'How did things turn out at work?'
    'The review is over. They told me they were going to give me a formal reprimand. I told them if they did they could kiss my ass and find someone else to do what I do. Now they're rethinking.'
    'What are you going to do now?'
    'I don't know. I could use someone to talk about it with, though.'
    'I'd like that. I could use someone to talk with, too.'
    'How soon can you be here?'
    I paused, then said, 'I'll be on the next fucking flight, if you'll have me.'
    She laughed and said, 'Well, what are you waiting for?'
    I smiled. 'Let me go take care of the travel stuff. I'll call you back.'
    There was a flight on Iberia, leaving at four o'clock that very day. I booked a seat and told Delilah I was coming. Then I called Dox.
    'It's me,' I said. 'John.'
    'Yeah? John who?'
    I smiled. 'Nice try. Pretty soon you're going to be angling to get me to say my social security number over the phone. But you can only push me so far.'
    He laughed. 'How you doing?'
    'I'm all right. I've been doing some thinking.'
    'Well, that sounds promising.'
    'Yeah. I owe you an apology.'
    'That's the truth.'
    There was a pause. I said, 'Well, I apologize.'
    'All right, I accept. Too bad you're not here, I'd give you one of those hugs you crave.'
    'Yeah, I'm broken up about that, too.'
    We were quiet for a moment. I said, 'You know, you called me a dumbass.'
    'Well, you were acting like one. I didn't mean to imply that the condition was permanent. That's up to you. Sounds like maybe you've opted for something better.'
    'Maybe "recovering dumbass."'
    He laughed again. 'You talk to Delilah?'
    'I'm going to see her later today.'
    'Good. You let me know how that works out, all right?'
    'I will.'
    There was another pause. I said, 'Where are you, Bali?'
    'Yeah, I'm building a house out here. You ought to come see it.'
    'I'd like that. And if you need a break, why don't you come out to Barcelona?'
    'That where you're going to see Delilah?'
    'Yeah. You should come out. You know, the three of us never had a chance to celebrate after what we did in Tokyo. And you're rich now, you can afford the flight.'
    He laughed. 'That's true. Tell you what, I'll come out today.'
    'Uh, maybe you should wait just a few…'
    He laughed again. 'I'm pulling your leg, man. You two have a lot to talk about and I don't want to be in the way. Plus I reckon you'll need some of the old conjugal time together. So I'll tell you what. You call me in a few days or a week, and if everyone's amenable it'll be my pleasure to come out and pop some of the bubbly.'
    I found myself thinking of Tatsu. I said, 'You're a good friend to me, Dox. Thank you.'
    'Don't mention it, man. I'll see you soon, here or there.'
    I caught a cab to the airport. I watched through the window as the city's famed beaches went by, and was pleased to think that in just a little over half a day I would be walking along their Mediterranean counterpart.
    I thought about my son. I wasn't going to have the relationship with him I'd been hoping for. I couldn't be part of his life. But forever? That's a long time. Maybe Dox was right. Blood matters, and not just in the way Midori had suggested. I couldn't be with my son today, but in five years? Ten? I didn't know. The uncertainty wasn't a happy prospect, true, but it was better than accepting that I would never see him at all. It was better than if he had never even existed. It was a hard path ahead, I thought, but on balance, I ought to be grateful for it.
    And Tatsu had told me to watch over my boy. I wanted to do that. Not just for the child. And not just for myself, either. But for Tatsu. Fate had denied him a life with his son, and it had been important to him that my fate be different. I would try to make it so.
    Still, I couldn't deny the justice in Midori's urge to keep Koichiro from me. I had told her Yamaoto and the two thugs in New York were the last, that it was over, I was out. But Dox was still in the life, and so, probably, was Delilah, and if either of them ever needed me I'd have to be dead not to come running.
    And then there was Kanezaki, and the 'favor' I owed him. I didn't know what it was, but it was a safe bet it would involve more than watering his houseplants while he was out of town.
    But why think about all that now, on my way to see Delilah? Barcelona had been an interlude before. It could be one