reactions inside. When
Yamagata emerged, running, shouting directions, and clambered in, causing the whole vehicle to rock, and they powered off again. The speed was even more reckless in hospital grounds with limit signs at every turn, but the driver wasn't slowing for ambulances, food trolleys or zimmer-frames; he could steer, couldn't he?
They rounded the outpatient block, swerving to avoid an unconscious patient being wheeled between two buildings, and raced through a narrow space between parked cars. Ahead was the building they wanted, if Yamagata's frenetic instructions meant anything. It was a one-story, flat-roofed wooden structure that looked like an afterthought The taxi screeched to a halt and the passengers leapt out and shoved open the door.
They were in a short corridor with doors along one side. A woman was walking towards them.
At this critical stage of the operation, with timing that can only be described as inopportune, Diamond had a deeply disturbing thought. He hadn't the faintest idea what Yuko Masuda looked like. If this woman were she, he wouldn't know. Nor, come to that, had he ever laid eyes on Michael Leapman.
He was looking for total strangers.
He told Yamagata, 'We need help,' and the big man seemed to understand because he spoke to the woman. When the name Masuda was mentioned, she didn't react as if it were her own. She came back with a question of her own that Yamagata answered. Then she pointed to a door just behind them.
Diamond opened it and walked into a ward about forty meters long, with five bays separated by glass-walled partitions. In the nearest they could see a patient surrounded by the apparatus necessary to monitor and sustain life in the unconscious state. Most of one wall was covered with photos and cards and there was a mobile of cardboard goldfish suspended above the bed. A nurse wearing a face mask was attending to the drip-feed. She turned, her eyes widening in amazement
Yamagata spoke.
The nurse pointed to the bay at the far end, nearest the window, and Diamond's heartbeat stepped up.
A small Japanese woman in a white coat was in conversation with two Caucasian men. They didn't have the look of hospital staff. One was tall and blond, wearing a dark, expensive-looking suit, white shirt and club tie and the other had reddish-brown hair with a flat-topped cut that might have been made with one sweep of a scythe. This second man was marginally shorter, but very large in the chest and shoulders, and was dressed more casually, in a suede jacket and black denims. Presumably he was one of the heavies seen arriving at the airport. If so, it was a fair bet that the blond man was Michael Leapman. Intent in their discussion, they hadn't yet noticed that anyone had come in.
Diamond approached to within a few yards without catching their attention.
'Mr. Leapman?'
Both men wheeled around.
'Hold it! Who are you?' the blond man asked in an American accent.
'Someone you people thought you'd disposed of,' Diamond answered.
'You're that English cop.'
Confirmation, if it was required, that this had to be Michael Leapman. 'Drop it'
The heavy had just whipped out a knife.
'You're joking.'
Diamond wanted no violence. But if necessary, he backed Yamagata-even against a hit man armed with a dagger. He beckoned to the woman with his right hand, inviting her to step away from the two Americans. 'Dr. Masuda.'
Her face crinkled as if in pain and she pinched her lips together, but she made no move other than to shake her head and draw her arms across her chest.
Leapman said with confidence, 'We're walking right out of here with Dr. Masuda and you can do shit-all about it. Let's move, Dino.'
Dr. Masuda seemed petrified. She could have stepped away from them. It wasn't as if the knife was at her throat. She turned her head and glanced behind her.
There was a slight movement to Diamond's left and he saw that Yamagata had hunched into the position the sumotori adopt immediately before the charge. Then Dr. Masuda cried something in Japanese.
Leapman said, 'Hey, tell blubbergut to take it easy, will you? This little lady has made up her mind.'
Whatever it was that Dr. Masuda had just said, it appeared to confirm Leapman's last statement, because Yamagata suddenly straightened and gripped Diamond's arm to restrain him.
A sumo champion backing down? It was difficult to credit.
Leapman gave the grin of a man who had won without so much as a scuffle. 'I won't say it's been good to meet you, gentlemen. Have a nice day, just the same.' He gestured to Dr. Masuda to walk ahead and she obeyed. 'See what I mean?' He started to follow. The minder went, too, walking backwards to cover their exit, the knife held threateningly.
Yamagata's grip on Diamond's arm tightened. He would not allow Diamond to go in pursuit.
When they were out of arm's range, the reason why Masuda had gone so compliantly was made clear. Yamagata steered Diamond to the windows and pointed to where a figure was standing beside a red saloon car. Two figures, in fact. On first sight they had merged as one, for a man was holding a small Japanese child directly in front of him. She looked pale and passive, her hands limp at her sides, in spite of the cord around her throat.
It was Naomi.
Having anguished over her fate for so many days, having put so much into the search, this was a nightmare. To do nothing now-while she was there in view, under threat of murder-would be unforgivable.
Leapman had reached the door. He told Diamond, 'She's coming with us because she wants her kid back. She hasn't seen her in months.'
'You'll kill them both.'
'Maybe, but she doesn't know that. She can't understand one word we say. And just in case you were thinking of following, I'm asking Dino to guard the door while we get clear.'
Dr. Masuda had already gone through and Leapman followed. The henchman waited just inside, guarding the only exit with the knife held ready.
Although his heart was sick, Diamond knew in his head that Yamagata was right To have made a move now would certainly have put Naomi at risk. It wouldn't require much for the thug out there to strangle her. Very likely he'd been hired to kill mother and child anyway. One unexpected move might precipitate the deed. But it must have required astonishing self-restraint on Yamagata's part to hold back when all his training, all his pride, was based on the concept of the fight
Even at this stage, he continued to hold Diamond's right arm in the iron grip.
'They're getting away, for God's sake!' The scene unfolding on the other side of the glass appeared as remote as television. In fact, the windows were about the size of portable TVs, much too narrow to have climbed through.
'Will you let go of me?' Diamond demanded.
Now he could see Yuko Masuda running towards her child, her hands outstretched.
The henchman released Naomi, probably on orders from Leapman, who was following closely. The child stood still, unaffected, and then was gathered into her mother's embrace.
'It's too bloody late now!'
Leapman had the car door open and bundled mother and child into the backseat and got in beside them. The other man got into the driver's seat.
Only at this point did Yamagata release Diamond, by now rigid with anger and frustration. 'Too bloody late!' he shouted.
Yamagata plainly didn't agree. Timing is fundamental to sumo wrestling and for him the fight wasn't over yet The huge man moved at astonishing speed before Diamond had even got the last words out. He went straight to the bed in the end bay. It was a good thing it was unoccupied, because Yamagata tucked his hands underneath, tipped it over, grabbed the underside and lifted the entire thing as if it were polystyrene. In the same forward movement he charged at the window frame and crushed the bed against it with tremendous force. Such was the impact that the entire casement and a section of wall collapsed at the first contact, leaving a gap framed by splintered wood and plaster. The rage, the humiliation of the last few minutes was being expelled in one eruption of
