'Sea of Japan?' Dox asked. 'Sounds far just for a little entertainment.'

Kanezaki looked at Dox, then at me. 'All right. Are you guys going to tell me what the hell you pulled in Wajima?'

I looked at Dox. 'Do you know anything about Wajima?'

Dox knitted his brow. 'Wajima, Wajima… you know, it rings a bell, now that you mention it. Yeah, I might know something. Maybe.'

Kanezaki was starting to look decidedly nonplussed. This was the moment I was waiting for.

'Yeah, we might be able to tell you something,' I said. 'But that would be a favor, wouldn't it?'

There was a long silence. Finally, Kanezaki said, 'All right. In return for the favor I did you in getting you the equipment. And then quits.' He smiled a little. 'Until next time, anyway.'

Next time, I thought, is coming sooner than you expect.

'How did you know?' I asked. I was pretty sure I already had the answer, but I wanted confirmation.

Kanezaki shrugged. 'The GPS transmitter. I knew the code, so I just followed it using the mapping software to see where you went. Looks like you spent the night in Wajima. The same night three United Bamboo triad guys were shot to death on the beach there.'

Yeah, that's what I'd been expecting him to say. It was probably true, too.

Dox grinned. 'Hell of a coincidence.'

Kanezaki nodded. 'Yeah, and they were shot with forty-five-caliber rounds. That's a strange coincidence, too. Because those HKs I outfitted you with are forty-fives.'

Dox's grin broadened. 'A drug deal gone bad, would be my guess.'

'Why?' Kanezaki asked. 'Was this just a straight rip-off? Is that what you guys are doing now?'

Dox snorted. 'With the wages you're paying me, son, it's a wonder I don't turn to a life of crime.'

'No, it wasn't a straight rip-off,' I said.

'Then what?' Kanezaki asked. 'You trying to start a war between the yakuza and the triads?'

'What if someone were? Would you object?'

'No. I'd like to see them all snuff each other out, in fact. But I'd want to know about it.'

I thought for a moment. Kanezaki could already place us at Wajima. If he wanted to sell us out to the triads and the yakuza, I supposed he could. I had recognized that potential problem from the moment I first considered going to him for the equipment we needed. It was unfortunate, but unavoidable under the circumstances. You can't get something for nothing. Not anywhere, but especially not in this business.

'I think at this point you can trust me,' Kanezaki added, when I still hadn't responded.

I looked at Dox, who nodded, then back to Kanezaki. 'All right,' I said. 'And you can trust us, too. To hold you responsible if something goes wrong, before or after. After all, no one else could have known. You sure you want that responsibility?'

Kanezaki nodded. 'I'm sure.'

'Then here's the way it'll work. We need a sniper rifle. You provide it. We return it when we're done. At which point we give you a full accounting of what's really going on.'

'And we hold on to the night-vision equipment in the meantime,' Dox added. 'And those HKs, too.' He looked at me. 'Might come in handy.'

A long moment passed. Kanezaki said, 'No.'

Damn, I thought that in the heat of the moment Dox's 'spontaneous' request would slide right past him. Apparently not.

No one said anything for a long time. I waited, thinking Kanezaki might crack.

He didn't. Part of me was impressed. In just a few short years he had really matured. I wondered if it was Tatsu's influence.

Finally I said, 'What do you mean, "no"?' And even as I said it, I knew that in speaking first I had ceded him the advantage.

'I mean, if you want to keep the existing gear and have me outfit you on top of it, you're going to owe me something more than just information in return.'

I looked at him, but he didn't blink. He knew that right now I needed him more than he needed me. It didn't feel good, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I closed my eyes and nodded. 'Deal,' I said.

Kanezaki came through with the hardware as promised, handing it off to us in a golf bag the next morning on a moving Yamanote line train. This time I gave him my local mobile number. He already had a decent idea of what we were up to, and, if he learned anything useful, I wanted him to be able to reach us.

Dox and I took the golf bag back to the van. I drove while he sat in back, examining the equipment.

'Hoo-ah, Christmas came early this year,' he said.

'What have you got?'

'The M40A3 I asked for, plus an AN/PVS 10 Day/ Night scope, Ops Inc. suppressor, and a hundred rounds of M118LR 7.62 ammunition. Fun for me and doom for the bad guys.'

'Good. Tatsu is putting together a target list for us. Should be ready soon.'

Tatsu called me that afternoon and I went to see him at the hospital. The bodyguard let me in. Tatsu was alone.

'You've got the list?' I asked him.

'I have it. But I think you'll want to hold off until Saturday.'

Christ, he sounded weak. I almost asked him how he was, but that would have irritated him. Besides, I already knew the answer.

'What's going on?' I said.

'The sumos came in. Yamaoto killed them.'

'Shit.'

'No,' he said, his voice low and raspy, 'it's a good thing. A man called Big Liu, the head of United Bamboo, is coming to Tokyo on Saturday to meet Yamaoto, to try to straighten out the rest of it. Liu is staying at the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi Hills. The meeting is at a club called Whispers in Nishi-Azabu, run by a man called Kuromachi, Kuro, who's as close to a right-hand man as Yamaoto permits.'

'You got this from the informer?' I asked.

He nodded.

'If you've got such a solid insider, why haven't you used him to set up Yamaoto before?'

'I haven't had you to turn to, for one thing. For another, the informant is more afraid of Yamaoto than he is of me. There's always a delicate balance in these matters. If I push too hard, I could lose him entirely. And I'm pushing very hard right now.'

'All right. You're saying if we hit the yakuza before the meeting…'

'It could cause the meeting to be canceled. We would lose an unexpected opportunity to remove Yamaoto directly.'

I thought for a minute. 'What do you know about this club? Can I get to Yamaoto there?'

'I don't know. I don't know the layout, and my informant is being difficult. He suspects that I used his information about the delivery in Wajima to set up the hit on the Chinese and the sumos. Yamaoto believes that was an inside job, and wants to find the man responsible. The informer is afraid. I don't know how much more I can get from him about the meeting.'

I considered. We might be able to get Dox positioned on a rooftop, or maybe in the van. Maybe we could drop Yamaoto with the M40A3 as he moved from his car into the club, or on his way out.

But that was nothing to count on. If Yamaoto was as paranoid now as Tatsu claimed, I expected the car would pull right up to the entrance and Yamaoto would be exposed too briefly, if at all, for Dox to take a reliable shot. We could set it up, of course, but if it failed we would need a way in.

'Can you get me a floor plan for the club?' I asked. 'I assume they're filed with the department of public safety, the fire department, something like that.'

'Of course.'

'What about electricity? Do you have people who could shut the power down on the club's block at the right moment?'

'Yes.'

It was a good start. But I realized we would need more than just the plans. A floor plan couldn't tell us where the principals were seated, whether there were bodyguards nearby, or a dozen other things we'd have to know in advance. For all that, we'd need a man inside.