The Last Assassin

permission. There was no nourishment in any of it, but Big Liu might like the taste enough to bite.
    Big Liu said, 'Can give only forty-eight hours for this. Not because distrust Yamaoto. Because… very angry men in Big Liu group. Men now saying, "Blood! Revenge!" Can't control angry men so long.'
    It was more or less what Yamaoto had been expecting, although he'd been hoping for longer. The 'it's not that I don't trust you, it's my constituents' approach was something Yamaoto himself used all the time. And in this case, in all likelihood, there was a lot of truth to it. Yamaoto had to find Kito and Sanada before things got worse.
    'I understand,' he said. 'I'll call you later today with an update.'
    'You find missing men,' Big Liu said, 'you no kill. Give alive. Want to… talk with them.'
    This gambit wasn't unexpected, either. Yamaoto expected Big Liu to push until he encountered resistance. Now was the time to offer it.
    'I can't promise that,' Yamaoto said. 'First, because anything could happen when I find them. And second, because I'm already going to have problems from my people just for doing what needs to be done. If Big Liu asks for too much, my people will become angry, even though I will tell them not to be.'
    There was a pause while Big Liu absorbed Yamaoto's own version of the 'constituency' defense. Like Liu's from a moment earlier, it had the benefit of being largely true. If Yamaoto offered up two of his men to be tortured to death by the Chinese, he would face rebellion, no matter what the cause.
    'Okay,' Big Liu said. 'You handle men. Call soon.'
    'Yes,' Yamaoto said, and hung up.
    He paused for a moment and thought. Could Big Liu have staged this? If so, he would get to keep the drugs and take the money…
    But almost as soon as he considered the possibility, he rejected it. The gain wouldn't have been worth the loss of Yamaoto as a buyer, and Big Liu had worked hard to win Yamaoto's business. On top of that, Big Liu had lost three men. That in itself was a considerable expense.
    He called Kuro. The man answered promptly.
    'Hai.'
    'Do the Chinese have people in Tokyo who would recognize Kito and Sanada?' Yamaoto asked.
    'Yes, sir, there are several we work with.'
    'Good. Make sure at least one of them is immediately available for the next forty-eight hours. We'll need him for when we find Kito and Sanada.'
    There was a pause, no doubt while Kuro considered what this request meant for the two sumos. 'I understand completely, sir,' he said.
    There was no need to tell Kuro not to mention this part of the conversation to any of Yamaoto's men. Yamaoto would deal with that himself. Afterward.

21

    D ox and I got back to Tokyo that afternoon. I called Tatsu on the way to let him know I would be coming by to brief him. Dox, who had remained alert and armed the rest of the night in case the sumos returned, slept for almost the entire trip. He had counted the money — or a portion of it, anyway, because there was a hell of a lot — and estimated that it was about a half-billion yen. Over four million U.S. Not a bad night's work.
    It was strange to have so much cash, but even stranger was how little it seemed to mean at the moment. Not so long ago, it would have been the answer to my dreams. Independence, freedom from the life. But independence wasn't what I was after anymore, or at least not the way it had been. And the freedom I wanted involved the freedom just to see that child I had held in my arms. Money wasn't going to be enough for that. Hell, the way I was going about things, I didn't know what would be.
    Just see this through,
I thought.
You're in it now, you have to finish it. It'll be your last, and you'll figure the rest out after.
    We bought a dozen smaller bags and divided up the cash. Some of it we shipped to certain overseas mail drops we employed, some of it we parked in train station lockers, some of it we hid in our hotels. There was just too much to risk keeping it in the same place. When we were done dealing with the money, I went to see Tatsu.
    I approached and entered the hospital in the same cautious manner I had used before. There were no problems. The bodyguard I had seen last time was outside Tatsu's door again. He nodded in recognition when he saw me and let me inside.
    This time, Tatsu was alone, sleeping. I stood watching him for a moment. Absent the dynamism that still shone from his wakeful eyes to obscure it, the devastation the disease had wreaked upon his body was