The Last Assassin

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 painfully apparent. He looked wasted and weak, with nothing but a lone bodyguard to defend him against a lifetime’s supply of enemies.
    He sighed and cleared his throat, then opened his eyes. If he was surprised to see me standing there, he gave no indication of it.
    “Checking to make sure I’m still here?” he asked, with a wry smile.
    “Just wondering what your wife ever saw in you.”
    He chuckled. “For that, you have to look under the sheets.”
    That wasn’t like him. I laughed and said, “I’ll take your word for it,” and he laughed, too.
    I sat in the chair next to the bed and leaned close so I could keep my voice down. “There’s something I have to tell you,” I said.
    “Yes?”
    “Next time I go after two of Yamaoto’s men, if you know they’re hundred-and-fifty-kilo sumo wrestlers, don’t be afraid to mention it. It might be relevant.”
    He laughed. “Some things get past even me.”
    “Yeah, you’re slipping. But it went well anyway.”
    “Yes, I’ve already heard.”
    Tatsu. He might have been down, but he was far from out. I raised my eyebrows and he went on.
    “My informant tells me the two men who went to pick up the shipment in Wajima last night haven’t checked in.”
    “Really.”
    Tatsu briefed me on what seemed to have gone down in Wajima. His information was accurate, and I told him so.
    “The Chinese are livid,” he went on. “They’re squeezing Yamaoto hard.”
    “Yamaoto’s response?”
    “Stalling for time. He told the Chinese he’s looking everywhere for his two men and will find a way to straighten this out.”
    “Are the Chinese going to buy that?”
    “Not for long.”
    I nodded. “What do you think Yamaoto’s going to do?”
    Tatsu shrugged. “Kill Kito and Sanada. Either they’ll come in trying to explain or Yamaoto will find them. He doesn’t have much choice.”
    “You think he’ll be able to find them? They’re going to know what’s coming.”
    “They might come in. They could be stupid, and they’re certainly feeling desperate. But even if they don’t, Yamaoto will know all their acquaintances, all the places they might try to hide. And from what you’ve