Milton glanced down at the leather bag. “I did. Where’s the girl?”

“I took her to Hachiōji,” he said. “Near the Imperial Museum. I let her out there.”

“She didn’t see your face?”

“I wore the mask.”

“Good.”

Milton passed through the red gates and started back toward the station. He looked behind him, but it was too busy for him to be able to spot any obvious tails. He would shake them on the subway.

“What now?” Hachirō said.

“I’m going to go back to Sakura, and then I’ll arrange to deliver the sword to your brother.”

“You won’t be able to trust him,” Hachirō warned.

“I know,” Milton said.

He could have added that he didn’t trust anyone, and that he hadn’t for years, but there was no need. He told the old man that he would be in touch if he needed more help and then ended the call. The station was ahead. He tightened his grip on the bag and joined the queue of pedestrians waiting to descend to the tracks, his eyes open, watching for followers, but distracted—if only a little—by the prospect of delivering the good news to Sakura.

101

The clock in the lobby showed two o’clock as a delivery driver made his way through the revolving doors with a huge bouquet of purple kosumosu and orange kinmokusei cradled in his arms. Katsuro watched over the top of the newspaper as the driver, wearing a polo shirt branded with the florist’s logo, carried the bouquet to the concierge’s station. Katsuro turned the page and watched as the concierge discussed the delivery, eventually accepting the flowers and sending the driver on his way.

He waited as the concierge signalled to a bellhop, an older man dressed in the uniform of the hotel, who collected the flowers and made for the elevator lobby. Katsuro folded the newspaper under his arm and followed.

The bellhop summoned the elevator and, once it had arrived, held it open for Katsuro. He pressed the button for the fourteenth floor.

“What floor for you, sir?”

“I’m on the fourteenth, too,” Katsuro said, standing back and unfolding the newspaper so he could pretend to read the back page.

The elevator ascended, collecting an additional passenger on the second floor and then depositing him on the ninth. The doors closed and they ascended once more, stopping for the third time as they reached their destination.