Takashi got out of bed, slipped his feet into his slippers and took his robe from the hook on the back of the door. There was a private flight of stairs that led from his suite to the living space on the top floor, and he climbed them and then looked out of the windows for any sign of smoke. He had a view out of all four sides of the building and, if it was on fire, he was confident that he would be able to see the evidence.

There was no smoke. There was nothing.

Takashi went through into the study. He heard the door to the apartment unlock and open.

“Otōsan?”

It was Katsuro.

“In here,” Takashi called.

Katsuro was breathless.

“The elevator isn’t working,” he said. “I had to take the stairs.”

“It’s the fire alarm. The systems are linked—they’ll be locked until the board is reset.” Takashi could see that his son was agitated. “What is it?”

“You were right. We have a problem. I just finished with Fumio.”

“Where did he go?”

“To see Uncle Hachirō.”

Takashi sighed. “Why?”

“To tell him about Sakura.”

Takashi slumped down into his chair.

Katsuro winced a little. “The gaijin was there, too, Father.”

“You said he was dead.”

“It appears that I was mistaken.”

Takashi made a fist and cracked it against the table.

“Father, I’m sorry—”

“Stop apologising, Katsuro! If you did your job properly, you wouldn’t need to.”

Katsuro looked as if he was ready to say sorry again, but Takashi stilled his tongue with a flash of anger. “What did Fumio tell him?”

“He said they asked about your security. Fumio told the gaijin that Sakura was to be sent to Kyoto. He thinks he’ll try to get her before then.”

The alarm blared on. Takashi wondered: could it be Milton? He woke the screen and scanned the feeds from the four cameras in the lobby. Each feed took up a quarter of the screen, and he searched each quadrant for Shinoda and Kodama. Neither of them was visible. He moved the cursor to the bottom of the screen and dragged the time bar backwards so that he could review what had happened leading to the sounding of the alarm. He jumped back ten minutes. Shinoda and Kodama appeared in shot, joined shortly thereafter by a fast-food delivery rider in a motorcycle helmet. The rider had a quick exchange with Shinoda and then walked out of shot. Takashi glanced at the next feed, showing the doors to the elevators. The rider appeared in shot briefly, then disappeared. He didn’t use the elevators or the stairs. The restroom was there, though, just underneath the camera.

Takashi scrolled forward in thirty-second chunks until he noticed Kodama turning in the direction of the restroom and then making his way across to it. Takashi saw smoke drifting up to the camera that was fixed above the restroom door.