He saw her pass through a doorway at the back and decided this was his best chance. According to the architectural plans, there was only one way in and out of the room. They’d be easier to control in the confined space.

He could hear Genjiro’s voice, slightly elevated in volume but completely unintelligible.

“Good afternoon,” Smith said, trying to sound cheerful as he entered the medium-sized home office.

“Who are you?” Genjiro said, standing up from behind his desk. His English was solid and so was his body. According to Star, he’d been involved in the martial arts since he was five years old.

“I’m an engineer with MIT,” Smith said with another disarming smile. “I was in the neighborhood and Bob Darren said I should come by and introduce myself.”

He maintained eye contact with Genjiro, making certain that he wasn’t looking toward the Taser sliding out of Smith’s pocket. Unfortunately, his wife was paying more attention.

Instead of running or shouting, though, she whipped around and aimed an extremely well-executed spinning back kick right at Smith’s head. He ducked, feeling her foot pass through the top of his hair as her husband leaped across his desk.

If he lived through this, Star was going to get a serious ass chewing for missing the woman’s fighting skills.

There was no question that he was losing control of the situation, and he had only a few seconds to get it back. The woman recovered quickly and transitioned smoothly into a front kick aimed directly at his testicles. If he was 100 percent, he’d have foot-swept her, Tasered her husband, and been on his way. But those days were over for a while.

There was no choice but to use the Taser on her. She stiffened and dropped like a stone just as Genjiro launched a brutal side kick. His background was in tae kwon do, so he’d be heavy on foot techniques—a game Smith had no interest in playing. He slipped the kick and grabbed hold of the man, going for his neck, but mostly trying to stay close enough to shut down his offense.

Genjiro managed to swing an elbow, but Smith moved even closer and was struck by the man’s triceps. He took a vicious stomp to his right foot, but the light hiking boots he was wearing absorbed the brunt of it and gave him time to snake an arm around the engineer’s throat.