The Last Assassin

were suddenly amid lights and people. The street felt normal. It was calming.
    “What were you doing there, anyway?” I asked as we walked.
    “The way you got off the phone, partner, I had a bad feeling. You just didn’t seem like you were being your old careful self.”
    “I didn’t expect him there,” I said lamely. “I thought he’d go back to the noodle shop, like he did last night.”
    “He did. I watched him talk to his boss again. Looked like they had another fight. I guess the boss man told him to get his ass back out there in the cold and do what they were paying him to do, because out he went.”
    “They were talking to each other the whole time, not looking at a video monitor, anything like that?”
    “No, they were just talking to each other. Why, you think you got your picture taken?”
    I shook my head. “I wondered if maybe there was a hidden camera in the lobby. But even if there was, even if they had access to the feed, it doesn’t sound like that’s what brought Wong. Anyway, when he came upon me, I could tell he wasn’t prepared.”
    “There’s an understatement. You know, when I saw where he was heading, I tried to call you, but I couldn’t get through.”
    “I turned the phone off.”
    “Well, if anybody ever compiles a list of the high-water marks of human cleverness, I’m afraid that’ll be unlikely to merit consideration.”
    I didn’t respond. I deserved the sarcasm, and worse. What the hell had I been thinking? I knew better. I’d always known better.
    Maybe I’d been trying to behave the way Midori would want me to behave. More like a civilian. Maybe I was trying to show her, show us both, that I could do it.
    The attempt had lasted for all of thirty seconds. And look what happened within that brief span.
    “I’m sorry,” I said.
    “That’s okay. A situation like yours, it’d throw anyone off. Speaking of which, all I was going to say before was, Why go to all the trouble and risk of getting him in and out of the Dumpster? I would have just left him on the ground next to it, covered him with his jacket, and pissed on him so he’d look and smell like a passed-out drunk.”
    I stopped and looked at him. Why the hell hadn’t I thought of that?
    “You’re right,” I said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
    “You’ve just got a lot on your mind, that’s all.”
    “And if we’re using your car, who cares if he has urine all over him, anyway?”
    Dox frowned. “You know, now that I’m thinking about it, maybe the Dumpster wasn’t such a bad notion after all.”
    We found a twenty-four-hour diner and went inside. We sat away from other people and ordered coffee. I was still too on edge to eat anything.
    “Let me see what he was carrying,” Dox said.
    I pulled out the knife and slid it to him under a napkin.
    “Damn, son, that’s a double-edge Cold Steel Arc-Angel. That boy knew his hardware. You going to keep it?”
    We’d been over this kind of thing in Bangkok, not with entirely satisfactory results. Dox was a trophy taker and I wasn’t.
    “I was going to get rid of it,” I said.
    He made a face of exaggerated sadness. “That strikes me as a shame.”
    I rolled my eyes and extended a hand palm up in a “help yourself” gesture. Dox gave me one of his irrepressible grins, rubbed the knife down with the napkin, and put it in his pocket.
    “Don’t forget to scrub it,” I told him. “Alcohol, then bleach.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Although I think your Mr. Careful image might need a little polishing after tonight’s outing.”
    I let it go. I looked at my watch. It was just past three. The sun would be up in about three hours.
    I realized that getting rid of Wong’s body wouldn’t buy me much time. Presumably his boss, Chan, knew where he was going tonight. Dox had seen them talking right before Wong headed to Midori’s apartment. So Chan would assume that whatever happened to Wong had happened while he was watching the apartment. The place and timing in turn would implicate me. Chan would report this to Yamaoto. I didn’t think Yamaoto would attack Midori and the baby directly, but he would probably do something to increase the pressure on them, as a way of drawing me out. And if Midori had any hint that my sudden presence had brought Yamaoto and company back into her life, whatever hopes I harbored of being with her and with Koichiro would instantly be snuffed out.
    There had to be a way out of this. There had to