Sign of the Dragon (Tatsu Yamada Book 1), Niall Teasdale [books for 20 year olds .txt] 📗

border of the Chiba Refugee Zone, and it had considerable political sway thanks to a relationship with the imperialist faction in the National Diet. Walking in to accuse Yukiko Shiratori of killing her competitors was simply not done and, for once, Tatsu had no intention of doing what should not be done. She was still a little irritated that it took until six p.m. the following day to get an appointment.

Shiratori had a large house near the Edo River. It had been built after the war but styled after a traditional Japanese home. It had a dojo, a bathhouse, and a teahouse in the beautifully tended garden. Tatsu and Nakano were escorted to the dojo by a gorilla stuffed into a suit. The man was huge, and the suit seemed to have been sized just to show off his muscles. Tatsu had the urge to point out that a good tailor could make it fit better.

In the dojo, Shiratori was going through sword kata with a younger woman. Both were dressed in the traditional robes used in kenjutsu, iaijutsu, and aikijujutsu. Shiratori was, in fact, a master of aikijutsu too. She looked the part, sort of. She was a little taller than Tatsu and looked fit, even if her body was heavily obscured by her outfit. She had very full lips, a somewhat flat nose, very dark eyes, and jet-black hair wound up into a bun with long bangs framing her face. She was attractive, even beautiful, but Tatsu had never seen her look happy.

‘Who’s the girl?’ Nakano whispered as they stood waiting for the session to finish. The girl in question did not look much like Shiratori aside from having black hair and eyes. Her mouth was smaller and followed a cupid’s bow design. Her nose was straighter and more pointed. She kept her hair short, barely reaching her shoulders, and feathered around her neck. She was taller by five centimetres and maybe not quite as fit. Maybe. She seemed to be keeping up with the kata well enough.

‘Kaede, her daughter.’

‘I didn’t think she was married.’

Tatsu grinned. ‘Your conservative Japanese is showing. She isn’t and never has been, but Kaede is adopted. She was Kaede Morimoto before she became a Shiratori.’

‘Is she… part of the organisation?’ Nakano asked.

‘No. Kaede is a bit of a robotics genius. She’s studying engineering with an emphasis on microtechnology.’

‘You seem to know a lot about them.’

‘Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to visit this place.’

‘And that will do, Kaede,’ Shiratori said. ‘I must not keep Sergeant Yamada waiting.’

Kaede bowed, quite deeply, to her adopted mother. ‘Of course. Thank you for the lesson.’ She had a soft, unassuming voice. She appeared to be an unassuming sort of girl.

Shiratori returned the bow, less deeply. ‘Thank you, Kaede.’ Then, as the younger woman retreated, the yakuza boss turned to the two police officers. ‘Sergeant Yamada, will you introduce me to your friend?’ Her voice was quiet too, soft and just a bit sexy, but there was an undercurrent of authority behind the velvet overtones.

‘Of course,’ Tatsu said. ‘This is Sergeant Kenzo Nakano. He’s from Sakurada Gate.’

Giving a small bow, Shiratori said, ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sergeant Nakano. Might I enquire why I am receiving this pleasure?’

‘You’ve heard about Zima and Nikolaev?’ Tatsu asked.

‘Obviously. I won’t mourn either of them. Are you here to accuse me–’

Tatsu waved a hand. ‘Of course not. We’re here because they were your enemies and they were killed with a sword and we would be entirely remiss if we didn’t come to see you.’

The flare of anger was gone in an instant, and Tatsu noticed Nakano relaxing out of the corner of her eye. ‘I see.’ Shiratori looked Tatsu in the eyes. ‘I did not kill Anastas Zima or Evgeni Nikolaev, nor did I have someone else kill them. Do I need to provide alibis for the times of their death?’

‘We both know you could and that I’d never trust them anyway.’

Even if the smile never reached her eyes, Shiratori smiled. She looked at Nakano. ‘This is what I like about your colleague, Sergeant Nakano, she affords me no more respect than anyone else she may have to deal with.’

‘She’s… unique,’ Nakano said.

‘Yes. She certainly is. Almost certainly more than you think.’ Shiratori shook her head. ‘I did not eliminate Zima or his mentor. I have no idea who did, but I am quite sure it was not one of my people. We don’t sign our work, for one thing. I would certainly like to meet the person who did this, however. I would shake their hand warmly and congratulate them on a job well done.’

~~~

‘I didn’t get the impression she was lying,’ Nakano said as they left the house.

‘No,’ Tatsu replied. ‘She didn’t do it. I didn’t really think she did, but I had to see it for myself. It will be interesting to see whether she takes advantage of the situation, however.’

‘You’re thinking she may butt heads with Vasilev?’

‘Maybe. Maybe whoever is doing this is hoping that she will.’

‘Right.’ They had reached Nakano’s car and Tatsu’s bike and it was time to split up. ‘Uh, Yamada, could I ask you for a favour?’

‘Well, you can ask.’

‘Okay. Well. It’s like this…’

15th July.

When Nakano had asked Tatsu over to his home, she had initially wondered what he was thinking. Then he had explained. Then she still had no idea what he was thinking, but she went along with it anyway.

It was a long way from Chiba to the Koshigaya region where Nakano lived. This was effectively the Tokyo suburbs. You lived out that way if you were reasonably well-off, but not rich. Instead of high-rise apartment buildings, Koshigaya had one- and two-storey houses of relatively modern construction. Most of them had, in