The Last Assassin

told me. And there it was. The door was ajar. I glanced inside. Again, all clear.
    I walked in and closed the door behind me. Yamaoto was propped up in bed. He was pale and his eyelids were fluttering. His torso was bandaged from surgery and his chest sprouted two tubes that I imagined were there to keep his lungs expanded. A central IV line ran into his neck, feeding antibiotics and probably morphine directly into his jugular.
    I walked to the side of the bed. Just to be safe, I moved the call button out of his reach. Then I took the potassium chloride syringe out of the bag and popped off the safety cap.
    Yamaoto’s eyes fluttered open. He looked at me, but said nothing. Probably he didn’t recognize me behind the surgical mask. Or he was too doped up to even know what was going on. Didn’t matter.
    I increased the flow rate in his IV line and watched as a steady stream of fluid fell in the drip chamber. I glanced at his arm, then back at the chamber—the stream was moving nicely. Good. I kinked off the distal lines running into the central IV. I didn’t want any of the potassium chloride to back up. Better to have it go straight to his heart as a single bolus.
    I inserted the syringe into a port on the IV line.
    Yamaoto smiled. “It’s not over,” he mumbled.
    I looked into his eyes, pleased that he was conscious and understood who I was. “No, it’s over,” I said. “It’s been over since you killed my friend Harry. You just didn’t get the memo. Well, here it is.”
    I shoved the plunger down on the syringe, sending the potassium chloride rocketing toward his heart. Then I took out the saline syringe and repeated the procedure, flushing the dose forward even faster.
    Yamaoto watched me. His smile didn’t waver. I dropped the second syringe in the paper bag along with the first and looked up at the EKG monitor.
    Within seconds, the pointy spikes that represented the proper functioning of his heart had abruptly been replaced by long, curvy sine waves. The potassium chloride had destroyed the muscle’s electrical system and it was no longer contracting.
    I looked at him. “What was it you were saying?” I said. “About this not being over?”
    But his eyes had already lost focus. Now they rolled upward, his smile fading with them. His mouth went slack and his head sagged to the side.
    I heard an alarm sounding at the nurses’ station, warning them that one of their patients was having a cardiac arrest. I returned the IV to its previous condition, moved to the door, and looked out into the corridor. Still all clear. I walked quickly back to the stairwell and paused there on the landing, watching the corridor through a crack in the door. It remained empty.
    One of the nurses came running now, checking her monitors to see where the problem was located. She picked up a phone to call in the code, but it was already too late. No matter how fast a team moved, they’d have to know to use a huge dose of antidote to reverse the effects of the elephantine bolus I’d employed. And every second that passed before then brought Yamaoto closer to irreversible brain damage at a minimum, more likely closer to death.
    I let the door close behind me and continued down to the lobby level. Yamaoto was finished. But there was still Kuro.

49
    I WENT BACK TO Tatsu’s room. When he saw me, he raised his eyebrows expectantly.
    “It’s done,” I said, pulling up a chair next to his bed.
    He took my hand and squeezed it. “Thank you,” he rasped. “Thank you.”
    “There’s one thing though. It might be nothing, but…”
    “What?”
    “Before he lost consciousness, he said to me, ‘It’s not over.’ Maybe it was just bluster, but…Kuro’s still missing. And Yamaoto told him at the club that I’ve been behind everything since New York.”
    “I told you, you don’t have to worry about Kuro.”
    “Why not?”
    “First, because Yamaoto’s grudge against you was just that, a grudge. It doesn’t extend to other members of his organization. Without him there to give orders, no one has any interest or incentive to try to harm you. Or your family.”
    I nodded, not totally convinced. “Is there a second reason?”
    “Yes. Kuro is my informant.”
    I looked at him, and felt a smile spreading across my face. “Son of a bitch. No wonder your information’s been so good.”
    “Kuro was very unhappy with me after what happened at Wajima. He thought Yamaoto would find out where the leak had come from and