They were pictures taken at the East Garden of the Imperial

Palace, on the Nijubashi Bridge. They showed Don Teruyuki

Kobayashi having a secret meeting with Lt. Fugisawa, of the Tokyo

Police. In light of all the recent police activity in the Ginza,

Nishikawa thought that the members of the council would find

these photographs very remarkable, indeed.

“I thought you would find those interesting, ” said Shiro

Kobayashi smugly.

“Who took these?”

“If you mean does anybody else know about them, no. I took

them myself.”

Nishikawa slipped the photographs back into the envelope and

gave them to one of his aides, standing behind him at the table.

“That’s very good, ” he said. “But at the moment, I am more

concerned with your father’s dealings with this man Morpheus. He

is said to be the best there is. To my knowledge, he has never failed

to deliver on a contract. Is it really true he’s hired him?”

“It’s true, ” said Shiro. “They had a meeting earlier today.”

“He actually met with Morpheus face-to-face?” said Nishikawa

with surprise.

“He says he did. I was there, along with some of our people, but

we saw nothing.”

“What do you mean, you saw nothing?”

“The meeting took place in one of the private showrooms at the

House of Nihonto. My father met with Morpheus alone. However,

we saw no one either come into or leave that room. We had been

placed under a spell.”

“A spell? Morpheus employed a wizard?”

“Perhaps. Or maybe he did it himself. My father said he told him

that he had, in his own words, ‘some small skill’ as an adept.”

“That’s very interesting, ” said Nishikawa. “It would go a long

way toward explaining how he’s been so successful. However, in

this case, it is important that he not be so successful.”

“Finding the killer will not be easy, even for a man like