The Last Assassin

Kito and Sanada…are they sumo wrestlers?”
    “I don’t know. But I can find out.”
    “All right. Here’s the license number of the car they’re driving. Toyko plate.”
    I read it out to him. He told me he would call me back.
    I stole another peek down at the lobby. The men had finished signing in, and the woman in blue was walking them to the elevator, presumably to show them their rooms.
    Fifteen minutes later, Tatsu called back. “It’s them,” he said. “Both former sumo wrestlers, their careers cut short by injuries. The car is registered to Kito.”
    “Okay. Let me get back to business. I’ll call you again soon.”
    “Good.”
    I hung up and called Dox.
    “You were right,” I told him. “They’re the ones we’ve been waiting for. Former sumo wrestlers.”
    “‘Former’? They look pretty current to me.”
    “I know what you mean.”
    “Were they any good?”
    “How the hell should I know?”
    “Just wondering if we could handle ’em if we had to.”
    “‘Handle’ them? There must be seven or eight hundred pounds between the two of them. We’re going to handle them with long-range weapons, that’s how we’re going to handle them. And only because we can’t call in an air strike.”
    “All right, just trying a contingency plan, that’s all.”
    “If we have to tangle with these guys up close, I advise prayer.”
    “You stick with the prayer. I prefer to rely on something sharp if it comes to that.”
    “I hope it’s a harpoon. I doubt anything else could reach a vital organ.”
    “Well, how about if…”
    “Look, it’s not that I don’t want to sit around figuring out how to kill a sumo,” I said, “but if it’s clear now, maybe you could duck out and put the transmitter in place on their car. I’ll stay here and warn you if anyone’s coming.”
    “Roger that.”
    Two minutes later he called me back. “It’s done. Anywhere they go, we can tail ’em from a distance and we’ll know where they stop. And if they walk, we can just follow the sounds of the earth shaking beneath their feet.”
    “Right,” I said. I pictured the four darts we had. Kanezaki had said they were good for anything up to a rhino. I hoped he meant it literally. Otherwise, we were going to be in trouble.

18
    T HE NEXT THIRTY HOURS were mostly watching and waiting. The inn’s kaiseki— Japanese haute cuisine—was excellent, and its onsen hot spring baths were wonderful. I availed myself of both lest my reticence be remarked on, and felt a little bad amid the luxurious surroundings about having to leave Dox in the van. Twice on our second day at the inn I drove us out to more remote areas so he could stretch and get some air. He was never anything other than cheerful and I thought some distant Marine gods must be proud.
    The clouds of the previous day coalesced into a storm that broke just after midnight. I sat in the alcove of my room, the lights off, my gaze alternating between the GPS monitor, which indicated the Cadillac hadn’t moved, and the dark sea without. At a little after two, my cell phone buzzed. It was Dox.
    “Our friends are getting in the car,” he said. “Wonder who they could be going to meet at this hour and in this weather.”
    “We’re going to find out,” I said. I got up, pulled on the waterproof pants and jacket I had bought for this very occasion, and headed for the door.
    The lobby of the inn was deserted. I was prepared with a story, of course, about wanting to walk in the rain, but that would have been thin and I was glad not to have to employ it.
    We followed the Cadillac from a half-kilometer back. Dox, in a black nylon-lined fleece, monitored the transmitter from the passenger seat. The Cadillac showed up as a blinking red light on the mapping software and we had no trouble tracking it. So far, so good.
    We passed no cars on the coastal road. After a few minutes, the red light started moving around erratically—figure eights and zigzags.
    “They’re looking for problems,” Dox observed.
    I nodded. “That’s why we’re hanging back.”
    After another few minutes, the red light turned right, into the park I had reconnoitered earlier, then stopped.
    “What did I tell you,” I said, smiling.
    He chuckled. “Like I said, devious minds think alike.”
    I cut the lights and we drove the rest of the way with the night-vision goggles on. Everything showed up fine. A hundred meters past the park, we pulled off the road and stopped. The rain played