“Captain Nakai told me.” Sano gestured toward a big, handsome samurai who stood near him.
“Captain Nakai?” Puzzled, Reiko said, “Wasn’t he your first suspect?”
“He was. Now he’s my newest retainer. But I’ll explain later. Right now, we have to invade that house.”
Sano spoke orders to his troops. They started up the trail, led by Captain Nakai, moving almost without a sound. Only their lanterns, flickering through the trees, marked their presence.
“Wait,” Reiko cried in alarm. “Yugao and the Ghost aren’t alone. Tama is with them.”
Concern rearranged Sano’s expression. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I saw her go in the house.” Tense with urgency, Reiko said, “I think Yugao means to kill Tama. We have to save her!”
“I’ll try,” Sano said. “But I can’t promise. My mission is to capture the Ghost.”
Reiko was stricken by dread, but she nodded. Sano’s orders from the shogun and Lord Matsudaira took precedence over all else, including the safety of civilians. If Tama should become another victim of Yugao, or a casualty of the raid, Reiko must accept fate. Yet she wished there were something she could do to save Tama, who wouldn’t be in danger if not for her!
“I want you to go home now,” Sano told her, then turned to Lieutenant Asukai. “See that she gets there safely.”
“Please let me stay,” Reiko exclaimed. “I want to see what happens. And I can’t leave you!”
“All right,” Sano conceded, partly because he didn’t want to waste time arguing, but also because he didn’t want them to be apart any more than Reiko did. This night might be their last together, even if he spent it hunting down an assassin while she watched from a distance. “But you have to promise me that you won’t interfere.”
“I promise,” she said with immediate, ardent sincerity.
Memories of their past gave Sano serious doubts. He only hoped she would keep her promise this time and not go anywhere near the Ghost. The last thing he needed was to worry about her safety. “Then come on.”
They followed the army up the trail. The soldiers extinguished their lanterns before they reached the forest’s edge. The moon lit their way as they filed silently around the valley. Sano sensed pulses of excitement beating through himself and his men, as though they shared one heart set on battle. He remembered what the priest Ozuno had told Hirata about the Ghost.
Your best strategy is to bring as many armed troops with you as you can. Then be prepared for many of them to die while he’s resisting arrest.
Yet Sano felt confidence in his army and himself; one man couldn’t possibly defeat them all. Sano might already be doomed, but he would win this battle tonight. He felt Reiko’s hand graze his as they walked, and he stifled the thought that this might be their last journey. Now he saw the house, and the light shining in its window, but no other sign of occupation. He joined the army in the woods, some fifty paces from the staircase. He and Hirata and the detectives gazed up at the three levels of the house.
“That’s a complicated building,” Hirata said quietly.
“It gives the Ghost too many places to hide,” Fukida said. “How are we going to find him in there?”
“We could holler at him to come out, and when he does, we’ll arrest him, no problem,” Marume joked.
“There must be just as many ways he can sneak out of it,” Hirata said, studying the numerous windows and balconies.
“That works in our favor as well as his. We’ll use those ways to sneak in on him.” Sano divided his forces into teams of three. “First we surround the property so that even if Kobori escapes from the house, he can’t leave the grounds. Then we go in.” He assigned teams to various positions and duties. “Remember that Kobori is more dangerous than any fighter you’ve ever met. Stick together in your teams. Don’t tackle him alone.”
While one team kept watch on the front of the house, the others started up the hill and merged into the darkness. Sano said, “Marume-san and Fukida-san, you’re on my team. Hirata-san, you stay here.”
“No-I’m going with you,” Hirata said, clearly dismayed by the prospect of being left behind.
Sano recognized how hard Hirata had struggled to keep up with the investigation and how much he hated to miss the final action. But they both knew he was unfit to clamber over rough terrain in the dark, let alone confront a lethal assassin. If he went, he would slow down their team or endanger the other men. Sano grasped at the only excuse that might save Hirata’s pride.
“I’m counting on you to supervise this team and guard my wife,” Sano said.
Humiliation shone in Hirata’s eyes even as he nodded. It was clear that he knew the team could supervise itself and Reiko’s guards could protect her better than he could. “Do you remember the old priest’s techniques that I showed you for fighting Kobori?” he asked Sano, Marume, and Fukida.
They nodded. Hirata had given a quick lesson to them and all the troops before they’d left Edo. Sano had doubts about how much good it would do, but at least Hirata could feel that he’d contributed something to the mission.
“Well, then, good luck,” Hirata said.
Marume clapped a hand on Hirata’s shoulder. “When this is done, we’ll all go out for a drink.”
He and Fukida moved to the edge of the forest. Sano turned to Reiko. The moonlight silvered her features. His gaze traced them, committing them to memory even though her image was already etched in his spirit. She gave him a tremulous smile.
“Be careful,” she said.
Her beauty, and his fear that they would soon be parted forever, shot pain through Sano. “I love you,” he whispered.
“No,” she said, her voice fractured and barely audible.
He knew she didn’t mean she rejected his love. She knew he’d spoken it in case he didn’t survive this mission or didn’t have time enough afterward to tell her. The words were akin to saying good-bye, which she didn’t want to hear. Sano touched her cheek. They exchanged one heartfelt look to sustain them until he came back-or until they were reunited in death. Then Sano turned and set off into the night with Marume and Fukida to have his revenge on the man he believed had murdered him.
Reiko sat beside Hirata in the forest; her guards and the team of soldiers crouched nearby. No one spoke. Everyone was too intent on peering through the trees at the mansion and listening for noises that would tell them what was happening. Reiko projected her mind across the distance toward Sano. They had a unique spiritual connection that enabled them to sense each other’s presence, thoughts, and feelings even when separated. Surely she would know if he was in danger, hurt-or dead. But tonight she felt nothing except her own mounting fear for him. A chasm of loneliness opened in her heart. She closed her eyes, the better to listen.
The night wove a fabric of sounds that muffled those of Sano and his army. Wolves howled; the wind moaned through the trees; Reiko heard the screech of predatory birds, and the stream gurgling in the valley. Temple bells signaled midnight. When she opened her eyes, she saw the mansion, still as ever. The light behind the window flickered as if the lantern inside was burning low on oil. The moon ascended to its zenith; the stars revolved on the wheel of heaven while Reiko wondered what Sano was doing. The air turned wintry, but she didn’t notice she was trembling with cold until Hirata put his cloak over her shoulders. Time passed, slow as water eroding stone. They waited in tense anticipation.
Suddenly a thin, faraway voice yelled, “Who’s out there?”
Reiko stiffened. She felt her heartbeat skitter. Hirata, her guards, and the soldiers stirred alert.
“Answer me!” ordered the voice.
It was shrill with panic, and it came from the house. “That’s Yugao,” Reiko said apprehensively. “What’s going on?”