“The leader of the Chinese Dragons. It’s another gang—they recruit their members from the children of the Japanese families who were left in China after the war. They say there were ten thousand kids who didn’t get out. They were raised by Chinese families until the Japanese government identified them and brought them home in the eighties and nineties. The kids were grown by then and had their own families—the government said that they could all settle here. It wasn’t as easy as that. There was discrimination and racism, and many of the younger ones found that it was difficult to find jobs and make money. They did what all similar people do in those circumstances—they fed themselves and their families with the proceeds of crime.”

“And the yakuza?”

“Yesterday’s news. They were prosecuted by the government, broken up and driven underground, and now they’re all getting old. The leaders are dying, and no one is taking over from them. Gangs like the Dragons and the hangure are taking their place. Men like Furokawa are younger, more dangerous, and don’t care about Jingi—the code of ethics—that the yakuza have always followed. Furokawa hates everything they stand for.”

“Miyasato stole the sword to order, then?”

She nodded. “And then Takashi found out. Katsuro killed Miyasato, and now Takashi wants me to pay back the value of the sword. That’s bullshit, though. It’s not the money. He wants to humiliate me. He blames me for what happened to Miyasato.”

The tears in her eyes overflowed and ran down her cheeks.

“And this is how he’s humiliating you? By making you run drugs for him?”

“Yes. Most of the Nishimoto-kai is gone. They’re dead, arrested, or just quit. All that’s left is Takashi, Katsuro and a few diehards. Takashi has an old arrangement with criminals in Turkey, and now he makes his money buying their dope and selling it to others. People like me move it from one to the other. There’s a gang here—the Laskar Bali—and he’s trying to come to an agreement with them. He’s using me to prove that he can deliver what they want. I’ve been going between Istanbul and Bali every month for five months. This was supposed to be the last load. I’ve got to get them to Katsuro. And if I don’t…”

Her voice choked and her shoulders shook.

“Your son?”

“He’s their guarantee. If I don’t do what they want, if I don’t pay back the debt they say I owe… I… I…”

She stopped, unable to go on.