Finally the rubber band was taken from his neck, the plastic bag peeled away from his head. Ushikawa desperately gulped down the air in front of him. For a few minutes he bent forward, breathing mightily, like an animal lunging at something just out of reach.

“How was the bottom of the sea?” the man asked after Ushikawa’s breathing had settled down. His voice was, as before, expressionless. “You went quite deep down. I imagine you saw all sorts of things you’ve never seen before. A valuable experience.”

Ushikawa couldn’t respond. His voice wouldn’t come.

“Ushikawa, as I have said a number of times, I am looking for the correct answer. So I’ll ask you once again: Were you instructed by Sakigake to track Tengo Kawana’s movements and search for his connection with Aomame? This is a critical point. A person’s life is on the line. Think carefully before you answer. I’ll know if you’re lying.”

“Sakigake doesn’t know about this,” Ushikawa managed to stammer.

“Good, that’s the correct answer. Sakigake doesn’t know yet about the connection between Aomame and Tengo Kawana. You haven’t told them yet. Is that correct?”

Ushikawa nodded.

“If you had answered correctly from the start, you wouldn’t have had to visit the bottom of the sea. Pretty awful, wasn’t it?”

Ushikawa nodded.

“I know. I went through the same thing once,” the man said, as easily as if he were chatting about some trivial gossip. “Only people who have experienced it know how horrible it really is. You can’t easily generalize about pain. Each kind of pain has its own characteristics. To rephrase Tolstoy’s famous line, all happiness is alike, but each pain is painful in its own way. I wouldn’t go so far, though, as to say you savor it. Don’t you agree?”

Ushikawa nodded. He was still panting a little.

The man went on. “So let’s be frank with each other, and totally honest. Does that sound like a good idea, Ushikawa?”

Ushikawa nodded.

“Any more incorrect answers and I’ll have you take another walk on the bottom of the sea. A longer, more leisurely stroll this time. We’ll push the envelope a bit more. If we botch it, you might not come back. I don’t think you want to go there. What do you say, Ushikawa?”

Ushikawa shook his head.

“It seems like we have one thing in common,” the man said. “We’re both lone wolves. Or maybe dogs who got separated from the pack? Rogue operators who don’t fit in with society. People who have an instinctive dislike of organizations, or aren’t accepted by any organization. We take care of business alone—decide things on our own, take action on our own, take responsibility on our own. We take orders from above, but have no colleagues or subordinates. All we depend on is our brain and our abilities. Do I have it right?”

Ushikawa nodded.

The man continued. “That’s our strength, but also at times our weak point. For example, in this case I think you were a little too eager to be successful. You wanted to sort it out by yourself, without informing Sakigake. You wanted to wrap things up neatly and take all the credit. That’s why you let your guard down, isn’t it?”

Ushikawa nodded once more.

“Why did you have to take things that far?”

“Because it was my fault Leader died.”

“How so?”

“I’m the one who ran the background check on Aomame. I did a thorough check on her before letting her see Leader. And I couldn’t find anything suspicious at all.”

“But she got close to Leader hoping to kill him, and actually did deliver a fatal blow. You messed up your assignment, and you knew that someday you would have to answer for it. You’re just a disposable outsider, after all. And you know too much for your own good. To survive this, you knew you had to deliver Aomame’s head to them. Am I correct?”

Ushikawa nodded.

“Sorry about that,” the man said.

Sorry about that? Ushikawa’s misshapen head pondered this. Then it came to him.

“Are you the one who planned Leader’s murder?” he asked.

The man didn’t respond. But Ushikawa took his silence as not necessarily a denial.

“What are you going to do with me?” Ushikawa asked.

“What indeed. Truth be told, I haven’t decided yet. I’m going to take my time and think about it. It all depends on how you play this,” Tamaru said. “I still have a few questions I want to ask you.”

Ushikawa nodded.

“I would like you to tell me the phone number of your contact at Sakigake. You must report to someone there.”

Ushikawa hesitated a moment, but then told him the number. With his life hanging in the balance, he wasn’t about to hide it. Tamaru wrote it down.

“His name?”

“I don’t know his name,” Ushikawa lied. Tamaru didn’t seem to mind.

“Pretty tough characters?”

“I’d say so.”

“But not real pros.”

“They’re skilled, and they follow orders from the top, no questions asked. But they’re not pros.”

“How much do they know about Aomame?” Tamaru asked. “Do they know where she’s hiding?”

Ushikawa shook his head. “They don’t know yet, which is why I stayed here doing surveillance on Tengo Kawana. If I knew where Aomame is, I would have moved operations over there a long time ago.”

“Makes sense,” Tamaru said. “Speaking of which, how did you figure out the connection between Aomame and Tengo Kawana?”

“Legwork.”

“How so?”

“I reviewed her background, from A to Z. I went back to her childhood, when she was attending the public elementary school in Ichikawa. Tengo Kawana is also from Ichikawa, so I wondered if there could have been a connection. I went to the elementary school to look into it, and sure enough, they were in the same class for two years.”

Tamaru made a low, catlike growl deep in his throat. “I see. A very tenacious investigation, Ushikawa, I must say. It must have taken a lot of time and energy. Impressive.”

Ushikawa said nothing. There wasn’t a question pending.

“To repeat my question,” Tamaru said, “at the present time you are the only one who knows about the connection between Aomame and Tengo Kawana?”

“You know about it.”

“Not counting me. Those you associate with.”

Ushikawa nodded. “I am the only one involved who knows, yes.”

“You’re telling the truth?”

“I am.”

“By the way, did you know that Aomame is pregnant?”

“Pregnant?” Ushikawa said. His voice revealed his surprise. “Whose child is it?”

Tamaru didn’t answer his question. “You really didn’t know?”

“No, I didn’t. Believe me.”

Tamaru silently considered his response for a moment, and then spoke.

“All right. It does appear that you didn’t know this. I’ll believe you. On another topic: you were sniffing around the Willow House in Azabu for a while. Correct?”

Ushikawa nodded.

“Why?”

“The lady who owns it went to a local sports club and Aomame was her personal trainer. It seems they had a close personal relationship. That lady also set up a safe house for battered women on the grounds of her estate. The security there was extremely tight. In my opinion, a little too tight. So I assumed Aomame might be hiding in that safe house.”

“And then what happened?”

“I decided that wasn’t the case. The lady has plenty of money and power. If she wanted to hide Aomame, she wouldn’t do it so close at hand. She would put her somewhere far away. So I gave up checking out the Azabu mansion and turned my attention to Tengo Kawana.”

Tamaru gave a low growl again. “You have excellent intuition. You’re very logical, not to mention patient. Kind of a waste to have you be an errand boy. Have you always been in this line of work?”

“I used to be a lawyer,” Ushikawa said.

“I see. You must have been very good. But I imagine you got carried away, botched up things, and took a fall. These are hard times now, and you’re working for next to nothing as an errand boy for this new religious group. Do I have this right?”