Now Kenji Nogami was entering the room, an island of Zen-like calm amidst all the bedlam.
"Michael, I'm so sorry." He stepped over. "When the money didn't show up as scheduled, they called Jiro Sato and he suggested they try here. There was nothing I could do."
Vance nodded. "That's how I figured it'd be played. We didn't move fast enough on this end. It was my fault."
"Too bad. We came close." He sighed. "But I'm not going to underwrite the rest of those bogus debentures. He'll have to kill me."
"And he'll probably do just that. The hell with it. You tried, we all tried. Now it looks like Tanzan Mino's scam is going to go through whether we play or not. You might as well save your own skin. With any luck, we can still sort out our end, but you—you're going to have to be dealing with that bastard for years to come. Think about it."
"I'm still deciding," he said finally. "Let's wait and see how things go."
"Alex opted for suicide. You shouldn't follow his lead."
"I'm not suicidal." He stepped back as Vera proceeded to pat them down. "I think very carefully about my options."
"Get the money." She was directing the two remaining Mino-gumi kobun toward the table.
"Gonna just rob the bank now, Comrade?" Vance turned and looked at her, then at the three bodies strewn on the floor. The kobun seemed to consider their late colleagues merely casualties of war. The dead men received almost no notice. "Pretty costly little enterprise, wouldn't you say. Not a very propitious start for your new era of world serenity."