The Last Assassin

He grinned. 'And here you were just in Barcelona with the lovely Miss Delilah. You slut.'

'I just called Delilah.'

'How was that?'

'I don't know. I told her things were complicated, that I needed a little time to sort them out. She got pretty sullen with me. She does that sometimes. But with the shit I'm up against, I just can't deal with it right now. I can't.'

'Well, making a woman like Delilah sullen, that's quite a privilege.'

'Look, let's talk about Japan, okay? Are you interested?'

''Course I am. You're in a tight spot, I ain't gonna let you down.'

I nodded. I was going to owe this man more than I could ever repay. At least it looked like he might walk away with a good payday this time.

'According to the informant,' I said, 'the shipment is unusually large. So we should be talking about an unusual amount of cash, too. Still, no guarantees.'

'Well, I never imagined myself squaring off against the Japanese and Chinese mobs, but I guess that's where the money is. Plus it's the kind of killing and thievery a man can feel good about after it's done. You know, it ain't like we're raping and pillaging a bunch of candy stripers.'

'No, you can bet these people won't be candy stripers,' I said. I wanted to add, Don't get cocky, but at the moment, I wasn't in a great position to dispense advice.

He took a swallow of beer, then leaned back and belched. 'Well, the potential upside is fine,' he said. 'You can count me in for that. But you're not doing this for the money, are you?'

'I'm not going to give it to charity afterward, if that's what you mean.'

'What I mean is, you're doing this to try to clean up the mess you made outside of Midori's apartment last night.'

'That's right.'

'So you can be with her and your boy.'

'Yes.'

'So you can get yourself a normal life.'

I nodded, uncomfortable, not sure what he was getting at.

'I've got a little joke I want to tell you,' he said. 'I think you might like it.'

I looked at him. 'Okay.'

'There's this hunter. He's in the woods with his rifle, and he sees a big, ugly-looking bear. Takes aim, shoots, and he misses. The bear walks over and says, "Mister, I don't like the feeling of being hunted. I reckon I'm just gonna have to teach you a lesson." So the bear bends the hunter over a log, pulls his pants down, and sodomizes that boy for all he's worth.'

'Okay…' I said again.

'So a little later, the hunter is still prowling around, he sees the bear again. He takes aim, he shoots, and he misses again. The bear walks over and says, "Damn, son, you sure are a slow learner. Okay, I guess we'll just have to repeat the lesson." And he bones him a second time.'

I wondered where he was going with this.

'Well, sure enough, an hour later the hunter sees the bear again. And he tries to shoot him again, and he misses again. Well, this time, the bear comes over looking especially grave and sober. And he says, "Mister, I want you to be honest with me. This isn't really about hunting, is it?"'

At that, Dox burst into laughter. I looked at him, quietly marveling at his sense of humor.

After a moment, his guffaws subsided. 'You get it?' he asked.

'Yeah, but…'

'The hunter is you, partner. You keep telling yourself you're just trying to do the right thing, or be with your family, or get out of the life, or whatever. But it always comes down to killing with you. Always.'

For a guy who liked to play the hick, Dox had insight that could cut like a scalpel.

'It's like America,' he went on. 'I mean, look at us, we're always telling ourselves how peace-loving we are. "We're a peace-loving people, we love peace." I guess that's why we spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined, why we have over seven hundred overseas military bases in a hundred and thirty countries, and why we've been at war pretty much continuously since we were just a bunch of colonies. Shoot, you think if a Martian visited Earth and tried to identify the most peace-loving culture, he'd pick the U.S. of A.? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, mind you. We're a warlike people, it's obvious, we're good at war and we like it. I just don't know why we can't admit it to ourselves. I bet sales of Prozac would go down if we could.'

'Maybe,' I said, absently.

'You see my point, though, right? You are what you are, just like that hunter. The rest is just excuses for what you want to do anyway.'

'I hope this doesn't mean you think you're the bear.'

He laughed. 'What I'm trying to say is, at some point, you should face up to your nature. I think you'd be more at peace with yourself if you would. Hell, look at me. Why do you think the ladies like me so much? I mean, aside from the generous nature of my natural endowments. It's because I'm comfortable in my own skin. Ladies like that kind of thing.'

I closed my eyes. 'If you see another way out of this situation, tell me, and I'll take it.'

'I don't know that there is another way, right now. But that ain't really the point, and you know it.'

I nodded. 'Look, I need to go. We've got to leave for Tokyo early in the morning and I haven't even made reservations yet and I'm running on fumes.'

'Shit, man, don't look so glum. Last night was a near thing, but you handled it. How many people you think could have come through like that? You're goddamn exceptional is what you are. And now you've got a good plan for fixing things and a good partner to help you. So snap out of this misery or I swear I'll kick your ass right here in this restaurant.'

'All right,' I said, giving him a wan smile. 'I'll think about what you said.'

He laughed again. 'You mean you'll try to find reasons to reject it. And you might find a few. But they won't last you. Because what I'm telling you is the truth.'

13

I left for Tokyo from JFK in the morning. I would have preferred an indirect route, but we didn't have a lot of time. For security, Dox was traveling separately, and we would link up again at Narita.

Before going through security, I found a restroom at the end of the departures area. It was more distant from the check-in lines and from security screening than any of the others I had passed and, I hoped, would therefore be frequented by fewer travelers. I used a length of duct tape to secure the Strider to the underside of one of the toilets. I figured there was at least a fifty-percent chance it would be found by a cleaning crew, but if I got lucky, it would be waiting when I got back after finishing my business with Yamaoto, and I would be saved the hassle of having to get a new one.

I arrived at Narita late in the afternoon of the following day. After taking steps to verify the absence of a local welcoming committee, I found Dox and we caught a Narita Express train to Tokyo Station. The big man seemed perfectly at ease in the Asian surroundings, and I remembered how much time he had spent in the region. As for me, my feelings were, as always, mixed at being back here. For a long time, Tokyo had been the closest thing I had to a place I might call home. But it's not as though I ever belonged here, either, or ever really would.

While Dox roamed the mazelike station, I stopped at the local Vodafone shop so Mr Watanabe could buy another pair of prepaid cell phones. I would have preferred not to put the additional stress on the Watanabe identity, but the mini-bazaars for black market phones that were running out of Shin-Okubo and Ueno when I lived in Tokyo had been cleaned up, and I didn't have time to go searching for wherever they might have been reconstituted. Anyway, the connection between Cingular in the States and Vodafone in Japan seemed manageably remote. I would have asked Dox to buy the phones, but I was determined to do everything I could, to obscure his involvement.

When the phones were taken care of, I called Midori. She didn't pick up, but I left her a voice mail giving her the new mobile number. Even if she didn't need to reach me, or want to, I wanted to show her I could be there for her, and for Koichiro, even if only by phone. I didn't want her to think I was going to just disappear like a ghost, the way I had when she'd first left Tokyo.