The Last Assassin

'She should be.'

He nodded and went inside. I sensed I was supposed to wait, but I followed him in. He didn't protest.

He picked up the phone and input a number. A moment later, he said, 'Hello, Ms Kawamura. You have a visitor here. He says you're expecting him.'

He paused, then looked at me. 'What's your name?'

'Jun,' I said.

He repeated my name into the phone. Then he looked at me again and said, 'She can't come down.'

I snatched the phone out of his hand. He jumped back, startled. I raised the phone to my ear and said, 'Either you come down, or I'm coming up.'

There was a pause, then she said, 'Wait.'

I put the phone back in its cradle. The doorman looked at me, angry, obviously trying to decide what to do.

'Let it go,' I said, giving him a flat stare. 'You don't want to get in the middle of this.'

After a moment, he nodded. I stepped outside again and watched the street.

Two minutes later, Midori came out. She was wearing black jeans and a gray sweatshirt. Koichiro was in her arms, wrapped in the blue fleece blanket.

She was holding him with his back to me, but he twisted around and looked. When he saw my face, he smiled. I felt something crack inside me.

'I don't care how you feel about me,' I said. 'I just came to tell you it's over. You're both safe.'

Her eyes darted left on the sidewalk, then right. Christ, she was jumpy. It wasn't like her. Well, no wonder.

'Do you understand what I'm saying?' I went on. 'Those men. They're not going to bother you anymore. No one's going to bother you.'

Koichiro said, 'Inu!' Dog!

She speaks Japanese with him, I thought. It couldn't have been more of a non sequitur.

Damn, there was something about her, it felt like she was going to pop out of her skin.

'You're safe,' I said again.

She looked up and down the street.

'Yamaoto's dead, too,' I said. 'No one's going to…'

I looked at her, and all at once I realized. I just knew.

'They're not coming here,' I said, my voice sounding far away to me. 'You can stop looking around. They were already waiting, at the airport.'

She stared at me, saying nothing.

My mind knew it was true, but my heart wouldn't believe it. I tilted my head and looked at her as though seeing her for the first time. As indeed, in an important sense, I was.

'You knew I'd come running if you refused to hide,' I said slowly, almost thinking out loud. 'You knew that would get me on the first flight from Tokyo. And when I did just what you knew I would, when I told you I was on my way, you told them. You told them exactly where to wait.'

I kept looking at her, trying to take it all in. She had set me up like a pro. I was trying to fit this new understanding of what she was capable of into the way I'd always known her, and I couldn't quite manage it.

'Do you know what they were going to do to me?' I asked, thinking, Maybe she didn't, she couldn't have…

She nodded and finally spoke. 'I know.'

I shook my head, trying to understand. 'Is this about your father?'

'No,' she said, holding Koichiro closer. 'It's about my son.'

I paused, then said, 'But I'd fixed everything. Those two were the last ones, and they're gone now, too. I'm done. I'm out, like I told you.'

She laughed harshly. 'And you accuse me of being in denial? What you do is like fighting a hydra. Everyone you kill, it creates two more. If you can't see that, you're insane.'

I didn't respond. My thoughts were sluggish. I felt dizzy, as though I'd been punched in the head.

Koichiro said, 'Inu!' again.

I looked away, trying to collect myself.

'You know who showed up here right after you did?' I heard Midori say. 'Some blond bitch who said she knew you. She told me you were a danger to Koichiro and me, and warned me to stop seeing you. And you know what? She was right. She was absolutely right.'

I looked at her. 'She… came here?'

She shook her head in disgust. 'Why do you look so surprised? You're trailing a poisonous wake, Jun. And every port you pull into, it washes up behind you.'