The lobby was full of people. The fire department had cleared the building and were allowing the residents to make their way back to their apartments. It was loud: tired children screamed, older residents chattered about the false alarm, radios squelched as the men and women who crewed the fire engines outside reported back from their checks of the building. Milton pushed the door open and made his way out, Yamato clinging onto his neck and Sakura right behind him.

The doors to the private elevator were open and two paramedics were tending to someone inside. Milton risked a glance and saw Takashi. The old man was sitting up, his back resting against the mirrored wall at the back of the car. The glass of the mirror had been broken in several places, creating little points of impact with spiderwebbed cracks that radiated out from them. The medics had removed his dressing gown and Milton saw that the buckshot had peppered his shoulder and arm. Blood ran from each point, and the medics busily prepared dressings to help staunch the flow. Takashi was conscious, and his head turned to follow Milton, Yamato and Sakura as they went past. The boy saw him and reached out an arm; Milton picked up his pace. Takashi looked away. He knew that there was nothing that he could do.

A fireman was just outside the main door and Milton acknowledged him with an upraised hand as he and his charges stepped outside. He could see Hachirō’s van a few metres up the road; he had moved it a little to allow the fire engine to park. Milton stepped onto the road and walked away from the building, the red and blue lights of the engine still pulsing against the walls of the buildings that reached overhead.

Epilogue

Two Weeks Later

Takashi took a cup of coffee out onto the terrace of his villa near the hot springs at Hakone. It was a little before eight in the morning and the warmth in the air suggested that it was going to be a pleasant day. The property was worth more than triple what he had paid for it, but he had no interest in selling. He didn’t need the money, and coming out here made for an enjoyable change from his Tokyo apartment. The villa had a large onsen, or hot spring, with natural mineral water that he believed made a difference to the aches and pains of old age. It had generous grounds, too, with cherry trees, hinoki pine, and wild camellias. Lake Ashinoko was the boundary at the southern edge of the grounds, the mirror-flat waters reflecting the snow-capped majesty of Mount Fuji.