Muto relied on people being so terrified of her that she never bothered too much with strong security. Her true strength, she had once bragged to Dutch, lay in her reputation.
Dutch dragged the guard inside the warehouse, hoping to hell Nat had got her message. Inside she found a single open space with a metal-floored walkway one floor up; she counted four standard self-driving pods, a vintage Jaguar, and a 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT Coupé with twin V8 engines and a black and red paint job. The very sight of it made her throat turn dry and her cheeks grow warm with blood.
The Coupé faced towards a roll-down steel door that opened onto the street. Dutch traced her fingers along its hood, full of admiration. Whatever else she might say about Muto, she’d done a terrific job of restoring it after its last race.
She stepped away from the Coupé with great reluctance and made her way up to an office on the second floor. She opened a cupboard and found the safe. She tapped in Hiro’s code and it swung open, revealing bundles of cash, bags of white powder, and the keys for the Coupé. She took the keys and left the rest.
Dutch emerged from the office to find a large and muscular-looking Japanese man in a dark suit standing at the other end of the walkway, a Glock automatic aimed at her head.
‘Long time no see, Dai-Hsi,’ said a familiar voice from below. ‘Why don’t you come down and join me?’
Dutch stepped over to the railing and looked down to see Muto standing next to the Coupé, surrounded by several more heavies in dark suits with their weapons aimed up at her. Muto wore a shimmering dark dress, her skin pale beneath artfully coiffed hair.
Muto’s gaze shifted briefly to the katana in Dutch’s hand. ‘You can, however, leave the sword where it is.’
Dutch stood frozen for a moment, then slowly bent down, placing the katana on the floor. She stood back up and somehow made it down the steps to where Muto waited without faltering. The heavy with the Glock followed close behind her, stooping only to pick up the discarded blade.
‘You didn’t need to dress for the occasion, Sally,’ said Dutch, coming face to face with Muto. She had to work hard to suppress the tremor in her voice.
Muto’s eyes were full of glittering fury. ‘You will not call me by that name!’
‘Then you can call me Dutch.’
‘Fine,’ Muto snapped. ‘I learned you’d come here right in the middle of dinner with the Malaysian ambassador.’ Her fingers stroked the Coupé’s hood much like Dutch’s had. ‘It didn’t take much to guess why.’
‘I suppose Hiro told you.’
Muto regarded her with a sorrowful expression. ‘Oh, Dutch—didn’t it occur to you I might have had someone watching the hotel? You were followed the whole way here.’
‘All I want is the car,’ she said, holding up the keys. ‘And then I’m gone from your life forever.’
Muto smiled like a cat that had stumbled across an open bird cage. ‘We both know that’s never going to happen.’
‘I think it is,’ said a voice from above them.
Dutch looked up to see Nat standing on the walkway she’d recently vacated, his pistol aimed at Muto’s head. A door stood open, leading to the external staircase. Four more men spread out on either side of him, all dressed in black bomber jackets and dark jeans, and all, like Muto’s men, armed to the teeth.
And there was me doubting you’d come, thought Dutch, looking up at him.
Muto’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes did grow a little wider.
‘Dutch,’ said Nat, without taking his eyes off Muto. ‘I want you to move towards the exit.’
‘Not yet.’
A spark of anger flowered in his eyes. ‘Dutch…’
Dutch looked back at Muto. ‘Like I said, I want the Coupé and then I’m gone.’
‘Why should I give you anything,’ Muto replied, ‘when all I want from you is your life?’
Dutch somehow found sufficient willpower to take a step closer to Muto. ‘You owe me.’
Muto stared back in confusion. ‘What?’
‘C’mon,’ said Dutch. ‘You’re not seriously telling me you forgot about that thing like a giant slug in Lungshan, in the ruins of the old temple?’
Muto’s gaze momentarily softened. ‘I haven’t thought about that in years.’
‘I know things turned sour between us,’ said Dutch, ‘but if you give me back my car, and call off whatever death notices you’ve got out on my name, maybe we can call it even.’
Just for a second Dutch thought Muto might relent, but then her expression hardened once more. ‘No,’ said Muto. ‘It’s too late for that.’
‘I saved your life,’ said Dutch. ‘You told me yourself you owed me.’ She glanced at Muto’s soldiers, sensing they were listening, even while their attention was apparently fixed on Nat and his men. ‘Your whole reputation rests on never going back on your word, right?’
‘Any debt I owed you was cancelled when you murdered Jack,’ Muto snarled. ‘For that, I should kill you myself. At the very least, I’d save myself having to pay anyone else to do it.’
‘Sure,’ Dutch agreed, feeling a thin line of sweat form across her brow, ‘you could do that. But word would get around.’ She nodded towards the nearest of Muto’s men. ‘People would talk.’
Muto’s nostrils flared with suppressed fury. She stepped towards the heavy still holding the katana in one hand and snatched the blade from his grasp.
‘Please don’t do anything rash, Miss,’ said Nat from above.
Muto ignored him, turning back to Dutch with murder in her eyes, the katana gripped tightly in one hand.
‘Think about all you’d lose,’ Dutch said quickly. ‘Everything
