The Rising Sea (NUMA Files 15)

Kurt finished the idea. “If you can find out where that transfer will happen, we’d be glad to show up, point out the Demon and leave the rest to you.”

Nagano looked to Joe. He was the one who’d seen him up close.

“Absolutely,” Joe said. “It would be a pleasure.”

Nagano weighed the offer silently. Finally, he nodded. “Reputations for bravery precede you both. Your actions last night live up to them.”

“Not bravery,” Kurt said. “Just doing what anyone would, given the situation.”

“You deflect a compliment well,” Nagano replied. “How very Japanese. Nevertheless, despite your bravery, I struggle to find a reason you would deliberately put yourselves at risk this way. I hope it’s more than just bravado.”

“For starters, we don’t take kindly to being attacked,” Kurt began. “There’s also the possibility that our arrival triggered this. You want the Demon for your reasons. We want to know who paid him and why.”

“You mean your government wants to know.”

“That, too.”

Nagano was an old hand. He took the measure of people quickly. He understood Kurt and Joe. He felt they were cut from the same cloth as he. Tireless government servants who preferred to get things done rather than wait for the bureaucracy to grind to life.

The superintendent straightened some papers on his desk. “Agreed,” he said. “But I must inform you it won’t be all falsehoods. Unfortunately, Kenzo Fujihara died this morning without ever regaining consciousness. His lungs were burned beyond repair.”

Kurt set his jaw. He’d been expecting that.

“Damn,” Joe whispered.

Kurt looked from Joe to Nagano. “Can you put the rest of his people somewhere safe in case this Demon of yours decides he hasn’t finished the job?”

“I already have,” Nagano said. “There is one fly in the ointment, as you Americans like to say.”

“What’s that?”

“Kenzo’s man-at-arms. Or, more precisely, his woman-at-arms.”

“Akiko,” Joe said, perking up. “I was hoping we’d see her again. Is she here?”

“That’s just it,” Nagano explained. “She’s vanished. She was at Kenzo’s bedside when he passed away. She seemed particularly grief-stricken, but she left before we could get a statement. That seemed suspicious, so we took her fingerprints off of the weapon she carried. And, as it turns out, Akiko has a long criminal record, several outstanding warrants and links to the Yakuza in Tokyo.”

“And she seemed like such a nice girl,” Joe said. “Do you think she was involved?”

“We can’t rule it out,” Nagano said.

“I can rule it out,” Kurt said. “Not the way she fought for Kenzo. She took two bullets that would have killed her if she wasn’t wearing a vest.”

“I can only tell you what the record shows,” Nagano explained. “She’s something of a ghost herself. She grew up orphaned. A street urchin who learned to survive by breaking the rules. Unfortunately, that type of life often leads to the criminal underworld.”

“Or to a new life for the strong.”

“Perhaps,” Nagano said, then added sternly, “If she contacts you, I expect to be told.”

“She won’t contact us,” Kurt said. “She wouldn’t have disappeared if she were going to do that. But if I’m wrong and she does reach out, you’ll hear about it. You have my word.”

“Very well,” Nagano said. “I’ll put the word out to my informants. If fortune is with us, something will turn up and we’ll both get what we’re after.”

12

SOUTHWEST OF TOKYO

THE WHITE SHAPE flashed across the countryside in a howling blur. It entered a tunnel, moving like a gigantic snake. It came out the other side preceded by an Earth-bound thunderclap, known as a tunnel boom.