The Last Assassin

His voice was so weak, it hurt to hear it.

'No,' I said. 'I just learned of it.'

'It's good news, then. It means Yamaoto hasn't gotten the word out that you were behind Whispers. If he had, his people wouldn't be retaliating against the Chinese. I told you, Midori and your son are safe for the moment.'

'Not if Yamaoto lives.'

'He's still in the ICU. But his condition is improving.'

'Wonderful.'

'No, it's good,' he said, responding to my sarcasm. 'They may move him as early as tomorrow.'

'All right. Let me give you a list of the things I'll need.'

I told him. When I was done, he said, 'No problem.'

His voice was getting weaker. I said, 'How are you doing?'

'I'm… hanging on.'

I clenched my jaw. 'Don't stop, okay?'

'Okay.'

I wanted to say more. What came out was, 'Why don't you get some sleep? You can call me if you hear anything.'

'Okay,' he said again, and hung up.

47

The next morning, I did another hard workout and again it helped calm me down a little. I showered and shaved, ate a good breakfast at a nearby restaurant, then went out for a walk.

It was a sunny morning, cold and crisp. I walked east from the restaurant, past the caffeinated torrents of humanity flowing through and around Shinjuku Station, and eventually arrived at Shinjuku Gyoen park, where the chrysanthemums were enjoying their brief bloom. I wandered among the stalls and gardens, and for a while was able to lose myself in the small seas of yellows and pinks and purples.

As I was leaving the park, my cell phone rang. It was Tatsu. I flipped it open and said, 'Yeah.'

'They moved him this morning. Intermediate care. He's stable but very sedated. Tell me when you'll be ready.'

'I'm ready right now. How many people are watching him, who are they, and where?'

'There are seven of them. Three outside the room, two at each end of the corridor.'

'The nurses are putting up with that?'

'If you saw his men, you wouldn't argue with them, either.'

I thought for a moment. The layered security was smart. I couldn't get to the guards near the room without first engaging two on one end of the corridor. At a minimum, that would slow me down, giving the ones inside the perimeter time to prepare and the two at the opposite end time to move in as reinforcements.

'Didn't you say you were going to take care of this?' I asked.

'Yes. I'm going to have them all arrested.'

'I thought you couldn't…' I started to say.

'I didn't say I'd be able to hold them for long. And yes, this little stunt will probably cost me my job. If they want to fire me, though, they'll have to hurry.' He laughed, then coughed.

The cough went on for a while. It sounded like he was drinking something, then it stopped.

'How soon can you be ready?' I asked.

'Give me an hour. I need to assemble a sizable unit. Yamaoto's men might be… uncooperative.'

'You got hold of those items I asked you about?'

'Of course.'

'Then we're good to go. I'm on my way now.'

48

An hour later, I was positioned in one of the stairwells on the surgical ward of Jikei hospital, one floor above Yamaoto. I was wearing standard-issue hospital scrubs. Nonstandard was the HK, in a hip holster underneath. But the gun was only backup and I didn't expect I'd have to use it. My primary weapon consisted of two syringes in the paper bag I was carrying. The first was filled with one hundred milliequivalents of potassium chloride. The second contained an equal amount of ordinary saline.

Saline is procurable anywhere, but unless you have access to appropriate raw materials and equipment, potassium chloride requires a prescription. Fortunately, despite his illness, Tatsu retained his knack for acquiring prohibited items. I had stopped by his room just a few minutes earlier and, as promised, he had what I'd asked for. He'd been pleased when I explained what I was going to do.

'Will it cause him to suffer?' he asked.

'No,' I told him, sorry to disappoint. 'It's the same stuff they use in lethal injections. It'll cause an instantaneous heart attack. You want suffering, we need more time.'

He nodded.

'I'll just shoot him if I have to,' I added. 'Or break his neck. But a potassium chloride injection is hard to detect. The cells release potassium naturally when they break down postmortem. And I think right now natural is better for us. It'll obscure the involvement of your men, my involvement, everything.'

He raised his eyebrows and said, deadpan, 'If I didn't know better, I'd suspect you'd done this before.'

'I'm just a quick study.'

He gave me a wan smile. 'Go. Let's finish this.'

And now I was waiting for his all-clear signal, telling me his men had hauled away Yamaoto's yakuza guards. I'd said nothing to Dox and Delilah. I could do this alone.

My cell phone buzzed. It was Tatsu.

'Go,' he said, his voice weak but eager. 'They're all cuffed and on the way down in the elevator. I've got two other men interviewing the nurses, away from their station, around the corner from Yamaoto's room. You'll only have a minute. Hurry.'

I was already heading down the stairs. 'I'm on my way,' I said, and clicked off. I pocketed the phone and pulled on a pair of surgical gloves and a surgical mask.

When I reached the landing of Yamaoto's floor, I paused and took a quick peek through the door. All clear, as Tatsu had promised.

I moved out and walked briskly down the corridor. Room 203, Tatsu had told me. And there it was. The door was ajar. I glanced inside. Again, all clear.

I walked in and closed the door behind me. Yamaoto was propped up in bed. He was pale and his eyelids were fluttering. His torso was bandaged from surgery and his chest sprouted two tubes that I imagined were there to keep his lungs expanded. A central IV line ran into his neck, feeding antibiotics and probably morphine directly into his jugular.

I walked to the side of the bed. Just to be safe, I moved the call button out of his reach. Then I took the potassium chloride syringe out of the bag and popped off the safety cap.

Yamaoto's eyes fluttered open. He looked at me, but said nothing. Probably he didn't recognize me behind the surgical mask. Or he was too doped up to even know what was going on. Didn't matter.

I kinked off the distal lines running into the central IV. I didn't want any of the potassium chloride to back up. Better to have it go straight to his heart as a single bolus.

I inserted the syringe into a port on the IV line.

Yamaoto smiled. 'It's not over,' he mumbled.

I looked into his eyes, pleased that he was conscious and understood who I was. 'No, it's over,' I said. 'It's been over since you killed my friend Harry. You just didn't get the memo. Well, here it is.'

I shoved the plunger down on the syringe, sending the potassium chloride rocketing toward his heart. Then I took out the saline syringe and repeated the procedure, flushing the dose forward even faster.

Yamaoto watched me. His smile didn't waver. I dropped the second syringe in the paper bag along with the first and looked up at the EKG monitor.

Within seconds, the pointy spikes that represented the proper functioning of his heart had abruptly been replaced by long, curvy sine waves. The potassium chloride had destroyed the muscle's electrical system and it was no longer contracting.

I looked at him. 'What was it you were saying?' I said. 'About this not being over?'

But his eyes had already lost focus. Now they rolled upward, his smile fading with them. His mouth went slack and his head sagged to the side.

I heard an alarm sounding at the nurses' station, warning them that one of their patients was having a cardiac arrest. I moved to the door and looked out into the corridor. Still all clear. I walked quickly back to the stairwell and paused there on the landing, watching the corridor through a crack in the door. It remained empty.