The Last Assassin

with. I’ll put the information on the bulletin board.”
    “I may not be able to access the bulletin board for a while. I’m in the hospital.”
    I frowned and pressed my ear closer to the receiver. “What’s going on?”
    “Nothing, I’ll be out of here soon. Tell me about your situation. It sounds more pressing than mine.”
    “You sure your phone is all right?”
    “Positive.”
    Okay. I told him everything.
    When I was done, he said, “What are you thinking?”
    “You know what I’m thinking. I can’t stop halfway. The only way to finish this is to keep going until it’s done.”
    “You mean…”
    “Look, the Chinese are just contractors on this. They don’t know me, they don’t know what I’m capable of, so they’ll believe the obvious explanation for what happened to their people—a junior guy with a history of violence lost his temper, killed his boss, and went into hiding. But Yamaoto is going to know better. And he’ll have an incentive to try to persuade the Chinese that I was behind the deaths of two of their people, as a way of getting them personally involved. So all I’ve done by taking out the two Chinese is buy myself a little time. If I don’t finish Yamaoto, too, it’ll have been for nothing. Worse than nothing, because if the Chinese figure out what really happened, they could retaliate against Midori and my son. They know where they live, goddamnit. They’ve been watching them.”
    There was a pause. Finally he said, “I agree.”
    “Of course you agree. This is exactly what you wanted. Don’t think I don’t know it.”
    “I had no intention of putting your son in danger.”
    “You showed me those photos to make the baby more real to me, to make it impossible for me to ignore. Otherwise you could have just told me.”
    “Perhaps, but…”
    “You’re a manipulative bastard, Tatsu. You know it’s true. But I don’t have time to argue with you about it. I don’t even have time to hate you. I need your help.”
    “You want me to move them?”
    I knew he could do it. He’d moved Midori to New York in the first place, to protect her from Yamaoto. But Yamaoto had found her anyway.
    “I don’t want you to do anything,” I said. “If she gets wind of what’s out there she’ll never see me again. Just tell me how I can get to Yamaoto.”
    “You can’t just get to him. He’s afraid of you, you know. Even obsessed. He goes out infrequently. Uses bodyguards. Travels in an armored car…”
    “I’ve got access to a sniper. All I need to know is where and when.”
    “That’s exactly the information Yamaoto now guards most jealously.”
    “What about his headquarters? His residence?”
    “The very locations where he most expects trouble, and where he takes the most precautions.”
    We were silent for a moment. I was so frustrated I was breathing hard.
    “You know,” I said, “I wish you would just arrest this guy. I really do.”
    “We’ve been over this before. In addition to his other activities, Yamaoto is a powerful politician, well protected by his network of patronage and blackmail. Moving against him directly would do nothing but get me fired. Believe me, I wish I could.”
    “Fine, then just tell me how to get to him.”
    “I’m trying to. But if something happens to Yamaoto immediately following the deaths of the Chinese, it won’t look good for you. It could cause a problem between you and the triads, which you just said you would rather avoid.”
    “How, then?”
    “You have to turn Yamaoto and the Chinese against each other. Make them suspect each other, rather than suspecting you.”
    “I’m listening.”
    There was a pause. It sounded like he was taking a drink of something. He coughed, then said, “For the last ten years there has been a boom in the manufacture of methamphetamine in China and Taiwan. Chinese triads cooperate with the yakuza in smuggling the drugs into Japan.”
    “Is this the quid pro quo Yamaoto has been offering them in exchange for watching Midori and the boy?”
    “Not the smuggling itself. That’s been going on for a long time. What’s new, I’ve learned, is that Yamaoto has switched suppliers. Formerly he bought his product from Korean gangs. Now he has switched to United Bamboo, the triad based in Taiwan, in exchange for UB watching Midori in New York, where UB has a large operation. That’s the quid pro quo.”
    “Where’s our opening, then?”
    “The new arrangement is unstable. The players