hear? A man with an unremarkable speaking voice, who chose his

words carefully and had a tendency to falter when he knew that he

was speaking for the record. A man who was acutely uncomfortable

at the thought of being in the public eye and who had gone to great

lengths all his life to avoid it. In other words, a man who would

come across on camera as a plodding, unimaginative, minor

government official of whom great things could certainly not be

expected. They would want to know what he had accomplished and

why he had not accomplished more. They would want to know what

he was doing about these awful murders and why wasn’t the

Bureau bringing “all their resources” to bear, the suggestion being,

of course, that he himself was not up to the task.

And sooner or later, it was inevitable, the Bureau would respond

to the pressure. They would need a scapegoat and he would be the

logical one to choose, because the media would have already chosen

him. He’d be taken off the case and some young, good-looking,

flamboyant agent would be assigned to it and Akiro’s hopes of

further advancement would be dashed. Not a disgrace, exactly, but

it would follow him around for the rest of his life. Forget about the

I. T. C. Forget about the corporate sector. “Aren’t you the one who

failed to solve the Ginza murders?” No, at that point he might as

well take his twenty and retire to support his family on the

Bureau’s meager pension.

I will solve this case, he thought to himself savagely. He hated

the killer, hated him with all the passion of his being, not only for

the horrible acts he was committing, but for the way he had

disgraced and perverted the art of thaumaturgy and for the threat

that he presented to himself and to his family’s well-being. And it

was only the force of that passion in a man Who was, at heart, not

passionate at all that brought him to the door of a man who, under

any other circumstances, he would not have dared approach.

He stood with his hat held awkwardly in his hands and told the

imposing-looking housekeeper that he humbly requested an

audience with the master, to speak with him concerning an official

matter of the gravest urgency. He displayed his shield and

identification and bowed respectfully, even though it was only the

housekeeper. The housekeeper gave him a long, appraising look,