Fire and Ice (Ice 5)

Reno looked around him. “So why don’t we move the offices in here? There’s plenty of room. Or even better, why don’t I move in?”

“For the same reason we’re out of Kensington. It’s been compromised, and so has this place. The house in Golders Green will be fine for the time being.”

Reno made a rude noise.

“You don’t like it, you can come out to Wiltshire and stay with us,” Peter said.

Reno could imagine just how much Peter would like that, and he was almost tempted to accept the invitation, just to annoy him. But then he’d have to put up with Genevieve’s mothering, and at twenty-seven he had no more need of a mother than he’d had at seven. He did very well on his own.

There was a muffled sound of an electronic beep, and Peter yanked out his PDA, staring at the incoming text message. “Shit,” he said. He looked at Reno, who was doing a piss-poor job of hiding his curiosity. “We’ve got trouble.”

If it wasn’t the first time Peter had come up with the word we, it was close to it. “What’s up?”

“We’ve got word from one of our informants in America. It’s about your cousin.”

Reno froze, dead serious now. “You said they were safe.”

“They are. Even I don’t know where they’ve gone. That’s the problem. Taka’s sister-in-law, Jilly, decided to make a surprise visit. So while Taka and Summe

r are somewhere safe, hiding out, the girl could be walking straight into danger. And I don’t have anyone to send in….”

“I’m going.” Reno’s voice was flat, implacable.

“You can’t. You were kicked out of Japan for the time being—”

“My grandfather kicked me out, not the government. I can go back anytime. The Toussaints are back on their mountain, half your operatives are dead or missing. I’m your only real choice.”

“Are you asking my permission?” Peter said.

“Fuck, no. I’m going. You can send someone else but they’ll just get in my way.”

“I don’t have anyone else to send and you know it. I still haven’t heard what happened to MacGowan.”

Reno nodded. “So it’s up to me. How long ago did Summer’s sister leave?”

“They’re not quite sure.” He took a long look at Reno. “I think Taka wanted to be very sure you didn’t get anywhere near his wife’s sister.”

“Taka wants a lot of things. He thinks he knows best. Right now he’s gone, and there’s no one else. You try to stop me and I’ll kill you.”

“I doubt it,” Peter said. “And I don’t think you want to waste time trying. I’ll see to transport for you. Not that I approve, but trying to stop you will take too much time. I’ll send backup as soon as I figure out who’s left alive.”

“I don’t need backup.”

“I’ll send backup,” Peter said.

But Reno was already gone. Out into the late winter night, into the ice-cold city. London was at its darkest in the last few weeks before spring came, and during the months he’d lived there it had never once felt like home. He was heading to the nearest airport, back to the land of his ancestors, whether his grandfather approved of his return or not. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to his cousin’s sister-in-law. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to the tall, shy-looking teenager he’d seen only once and should have forgotten all about, the one who popped up into his dreams at the most inconvenient times.

He was going to find Jilly and send her back where she belonged before she got hurt.

And then he could forget all about her once more.

The jet lag shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Jilly—she’d seen Lost in Translation too many times. She’d staggered off the airplane in a sleepless daze, and it was sheer luck she’d made her circuitous way from Narita airport into Tokyo and into one of the cute green cabs. She handed the address to the driver, then sat back, closing her eyes.

Where the hell were Summer and Taka? She’d left half a dozen messages on her sister’s cell phone and heard zip in return. If she’d had any sense, she never would have gotten on the plane to Tokyo until she heard back from them, but right now she wasn’t in the mood to be sensible. She was running, running to her big sister, who’d hug her and tell her everything would be fine.

And in the meantime she’d finally managed to get her butt to Japan. She had all the practical reasons—she hadn’t seen her sister in three months, there was an extraordinary exhibit of Heian-era pottery at the state museum, and if she was thinking of switching her doctoral studies in archaeology from Mesopotamia to early Japan, then an almost pitch-perfect (according to the reports) exhibit of Heian life was a necessary part of her studies. It didn’t matter that the exhibit would be there for years—she hadn’t discussed the change with her advisers and the sooner she made the decision the better.

So Japan, now, was a necessity. If it happened to coincide with the occurrence of the worst one-night stand in the history of the universe, with Duke the moron, then that was merely coincidental. She was going to put that abortive, messy, horrible night out of her mind. It wasn’t the first time she’d done something stupid—well, in fact, when it came to men, it was, but she wasn’t going to think about that now. Like Scarlett O’Hara, she’d think about that tomorrow. For the time being all she wanted was her sister, and she wanted her now. There were a dozen other reasons to be in Japan, like Taka, like his cousin, but she had no intention of thinking about any of those right now.