The Last Assassin

I turned to Delilah. Her dress was half torn off and she was naked down to her waist, but she seemed oblivious to it. She had the bodyguard's gun up in a two-handed grip and she was scanning the room for danger.

'You all right?' I called to her.

She kept scanning. 'Go! You have to take out Yamaoto, he knows it was you in New York!'

I spun off the bench without another word and ran toward the swinging doors. I peeked through the crack at the center — one side, then the other. The hostess and the valet were gone. I went through, my head swiveling left and right, the HK tracking with it. Island. Office door. Stairwell.

'Goddamnit!' Dox said. 'I hit him, but I didn't drop him!'

'Where is he?'

'Out the basement exit, heading west! He came up the stairs with a crowd of other people and I only had a second, I didn't have the head shot. Drilled him from the side and he went down, but people were in the way and he got back up before I could put him away.'

I started for the stairs. 'West, toward Kotto-dori?'

'Yeah, he's stumbling, you can still catch him!'

I took the stairs three at a time. As I turned the riser, I heard shots from back in the main room. Delilah's position.

I stopped and looked back. Then I looked down again. Just a few more steps and I'd be at the exit, close on Yamaoto.

I took another step down and stopped again.

Dox said, 'Where are you, man? You've got to hurry or we're going to lose him!'

I took one more step down. I heard myself groan. Then I raced back up the stairs the way I had come.

'Shots from the main room,' I said. 'Delilah's in there.'

'Shit! All right, I'm taking off after Yamaoto, you go to Delilah.'

'On my way,' I said. I raced back across the entrance room, repeated my sneak and peek through the swinging doors, then went in.

I saw Delilah, standing in front of one of the booths. I crept closer, tracking with the HK as I moved. The room was empty.

I moved closer. There was something under the table in the booth.

I came up alongside her and looked. It was Big Liu and his associate, their mouths and eyes open as though in dull surprise, a clean red bullet hole in the center of each man's forehead.

Delilah looked at me. 'Did you see Kuro?'

I shook my head.

'We have to find him,' she said. 'Yamaoto told him you were behind New York and Wajima. I don't think Kuro believed him, but he will now.'

I gestured to Big Liu. 'You mean…'

'I couldn't let him leave,' she said. 'Yamaoto told him, and this whole thing would have been proof. The triads would have come after Midori and your son, they wouldn't have had a chance.'

But Yamaoto had made it out. He knew it was me, and I could imagine what he would do next. I had to get out of here and call Midori, tell her to take Koichiro and go, hide. She would never see me again, but at least they'd be safe.

Focus, I told myself. Deal with the situation at hand, then you can warn Midori. Nothing's going to happen that fast. Use your head.

I heard Dox from the other side of the room: I'm coming in, don't shoot.'

We turned and saw the burly sniper moving toward us, the butt of the M40A3 shouldered, the muzzle pointed downrange. A slight lift of the eyebrows was his only reaction to Delilah's half nakedness.

'Yamaoto's gone,' he said. 'Saw his driver pick him up. Shot out the tires, but they're the run-flat type and they kept going. He's bleeding, though. It's all over the street. I knew I hit him good.'

I heard sirens outside. We all stopped and listened for a second. Dox said, 'I respectfully propose that now would be an appropriate time for us to beat feet.'

'Did Kuro leave?' Delilah asked.

'I didn't see him,' Dox said. 'But there were a lot of people and I was looking for Yamaoto. Why, was I supposed to shoot him, too?'

'I'll explain later,' I said. 'Come on, let's go.'

'He might still be here, hiding somewhere,' Delilah said. 'We should…'

I shook my head. 'You've done enough, more than enough. We need to go.'

I pulled off my jacket and helped Delilah into it, and the three of us hurried out through the basement exit.

The sirens were close now. We cut along the eastern side of the building and through an alley, emerging on the street that bracketed the club complex to the south. The van was there, where I'd parked it earlier. We got in and drove off, Delilah in the passenger seat, Dox in back. Soon we were heading south on Nireke-dori, the serene streetlights and shuttered boutiques surreal after what we'd just been through.