population of Japan! And that was only a beginning!

“But you need not be concerned, ” she continued. “You will be

rewarded for your faithful service. When the time comes, we will

require acolytes. And it is only fitting that you should be their high

priest. You will see power such as you have never dreamed of. That

should satisfy even your ambition. ” She smiled. “And speaking of

being satisfied…”

She made a languid motion with her hand and suddenly he stood

before her, naked, the brilliant coils of the dragon tattoo winding

around his body. She gazed at him with a smoldering look and

leaned back on the couch. He trembled, involuntarily, and she took

it as a sign of excitement, but it was really fear, coursing through

his body like the icy waters of the River Styx. His mistress was

Death incarnate.

As he lay beside her and felt the warmth of her body, he felt

himself starting to respond, despite the cold feeling in the pit of his

stomach. His fear of his inhuman lover was working as an

aphrodisiac and he abandoned himself to it. As she lay beneath him,

moaning softly, he moved against her and concentrated on giving

her the pleasure she demanded from him. And it occurred to him

that a moment such as this would be the ideal time to kill her. But

one thought kept nagging at him like a dog worrying a bone. What

if he failed?

What if she would not die?

The two long black limos pulled up to the curb in front of the

small shop in the Shinjuku district. A sign over the door said

“House of Nihonto, ” the house of the sword. The shop was well

known throughout all of Tokyo for supplying the finest Japanese

swords and knives in the entire country, perhaps the fmest steel in

the entire world. The swordsmiths of Nihonto were unquestioned

masters of their art, producing blades vastly superior to any ever

produced in Toledo or Damascus. The legendary sword of the

Samurai was a prized possession in the proper Japanese household,

embodying as it did an aesthetic ideal of beauty through simplicity

and purity. A sword produced by the House of Nihonto was the

ultimate in symbols of status. Only the very wealthy could easily

afford them, though many Japanese businessmen of the middle