‘Do you have an answer for him?’ Nambu asked.

So. Nishizaki didn’t intend to give Wada the benefit of any further discussion with him. He’d known what Driscoll would do. ‘Driscoll-san accepts the terms,’ she said.

‘I am instructed to ask: where and when will he surrender?’

‘Porthtowan beach, six o’clock tomorrow morning.’

‘Porthtowan?’ Nambu picked up her smartphone. ‘Can you spell it for me?’

Wada spelt it out in English. Nambu tapped at her phone, which provided her with what she needed. She frowned quizzically at the screen. ‘Porthtowan, Cornwall, is correct?’

‘Yes.’ Wada went on to detail the arrangements as Driscoll had specified them to her.

Nambu dutifully noted them on her phone, then read them back. ‘Correct?’

Wada nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Six tomorrow morning. Nishizaki-san will be there.’

‘As will Driscoll-san.’

‘Would you like me to show you out?’ The question was a delicate way of indicating that their business was concluded.

‘Not necessary. I know the way.’

‘Before you go, Wada-san …’

‘Yes?’

‘Nishizaki-san asked me to give you this.’

Nambu flicked open a folder that was lying on the table and took out a sheet of paper which she handed to Wada.

The paper was so thick it was almost card. A statement was written on it in Japanese. Wada found herself admiring the penmanship. There was a fluid elegance to the characters.

Wada Umiko and her family have and will have nothing to fear from me. Nishizaki Hiroji. Heisei 31, fourth month, twenty-fifth day.

It was hard to know how to react. What Wada had asked for on Driscoll’s behalf hadn’t been granted. What she hadn’t asked for on her own behalf had. She stared at the statement in silent incredulity.

‘You should take good care of that, Wada-san,’ said Nambu in a low, confidential tone. ‘I have never seen anything like it before.’

TWENTY-EIGHT

THE STRAIN OF isolation was beginning to take its toll on nick. He’d moved through fear and anxiety into a state of nervous exhaustion, in which long hours passed unmarked while he and Michaela lay on their mattresses in their separate cages, staring into space. He no longer thought about what the future held for them. He simply didn’t think.

All they could do was wait. Because the only certainty was that their imprisonment wasn’t permanent. Nishizaki had a plan for them. And their captors would put his plan into effect. When the time came.

Wada sat in a coffee shop in Marylebone High Street, trying to decide whether she should act on Driscoll’s recommendation and be at Porthtowan the following morning. Her room at Claridge’s had been booked and paid for until the following week. She could stay there, cocooned in luxury, if she wanted. Or she could fly home to Tokyo. Or back to New York to spend more time with Haruto. They were all choices she was free to make.