four of us.”

“What about the I. T. C. agent who’s due to arrive this

afternoon?” asked Sakahara. “We can hardly keep this from him.

The I. T. C. must know, as must the Bureau.”

“I felt the same way, initially, ” said Fugisawa, “but Modred has

convinced me otherwise. The Bureau and the I. T. C. are both very

large bureaucracies that are vulnerable to leaks. The battle with

the Dark Ones must be fought in secret, by a network of trusted

individuals.”

“You don’t mean to include Kobayashi, surely?” said Sakahara.

“Kobayashi can be induced to help us without knowing all the

facts. We’re meeting with him tonight. In the meantime, it would

be best if you did not reveal what you found here to the I. T. C. Or

your knowledge that Kanno is the killer. They’d put out an alert for

him and all that would succeed in doing is getting people killed.

He’s become much stronger now, and with Leila behind him, they

wouldn’t stand a chance. Not even you would be a match for her,

Master Yohaku. Only the power of the runestones can defeat her.”

“In that case, ” Yohaku said. “We should go and meet your

friends at once and decide upon a course of action. If this Dark One

is preparing some catastrophic spell that will kill thousands, then

time is of the essence. ” * * *

Shiro Kobayashi paced nervously back and forth across the floor

of his apartment. It was all going wrong. They had discovered the

identity of the Ginza killer and it was only a matter of time before

his father’s men ran Kanno to ground.

Last night, Morpheus and his confederates had been spotted

going into Kanno’s shop with Fugisawa. The men watching the shop

had called in for instructions and Shiro saw his chance. He issued

orders to the men to kill them, but they had failed and been killed

themselves. The media was attributing the deaths to the Ginza

Monster, but Shiro knew that Morpheus must have been

responsible. He and his confederates had checked out of their hotel

and disappeared. And then Fugisawa called and suddenly his father

had changed his mind about having Kanno killed. He had issued

orders to all of his men to be on the watch for him, to report to him