marry him his long lonely years of restlessness, roaming the world would be forever behind him, and that his life would begin anew following a pattern of tranquil blizs, some fourteen hundred miles away in Japan Mr. Inosuke Hayashi was conferring with one Udo Nagi, his right-hand man for conducting his nefarious enterprises.
It was December when Hayashi had been interviewed by Police Chief for External Affairs Okabe, in Tokyo. Okabe had been only too glad to see him depart, carrying his sonâs head in its box; for from the head there emanated a most unpleasant smell, even when the box had been rewrapped in good thick brown paper.
Snow had been falling outside and it was bitterly cold. Not knowing the reason for which he had been asked to come to Tokyo, Hayashi had planned to spend the night in a comfortable suite at the Imperial Hotel. But now, his agile mind seething with rage and venom, he decided to go straight home; so that he might the sooner set to work the network of agents that he controlled in the Far East on the job of enabling him to exact vengeance on his sonâs murderer.
At the hotel he enquired about trains and collected his suitcase, then went to the station. Such is the efficiency of the Japanese railways that, having shown his ticket to aporter who told him where he should stand on the platform, when the train came in the coach in which he had reserved a seat drew up immediately in front of him.
It was a very long coach with a walkway down the centre and on either side pairs of seats similar to those in air-liners, so that each occupant could adjust his and lie back to sleep if he wished. But Hayashiâs agitated brain was in no state for sleep. Like the other passengers, he took off his shoes and sat with his small feet on the foot-rest.
The train remained two minutes exactly, neither more nor less, in the station then it shushed out, soon to attain a speed of a hundred miles an hour as it hurtled through the vast areas of shanties that house the greater part of Tokyoâs
ten
million population and make it the largest, ugliest and most depressing city in the world.
Hayashi was duly offered fruit, soft drinks, ices, sweets and other stopgaps to hunger from an aluminium trolley wheeled ceaselessly up and down the walkway of the coach by an obsequious attendant. But, with an impassive nod of the head, he declined these amenities and, presently, walked through to the restaurant car.
There, unlike the sad little menus on British Railways, he was offered a choice of four set meals, ranging from soup, fish and fruit at the equivalent of seven shillings and sixpence, to a six-course dinner including a steak at the equivalent of thirty-five shillings. But Hayashi felt that he had no appetite for European-style food, so he ordered the Japanese dinner. Even when that came he found that he could do no more than toy with some delectable morsels of raw fish. But when in Europe as a younger man he had acquired a taste for wine; so he ordered a bottle of the best champagne, regardless of the fact that it cost him the equivalent of twelve pounds sterling.
The train accomplished its six-hundred-mile run to Kyoto in the scheduled six hours and arrived punctually to the minute. He had telephoned for his Mercedes tobe at the station to meet him, so in another fifteen minutes he was home and had sent for Udo Nagi.
Since then Hayashi had received a number of progress reports from Nagi. Now on this afternoon of the 18th of February he was conning over the summary of the results of the investigation that he had ordered to be made.
Nagi was a big man for a Japanese. As a youth he had been a professional wrestler, but while still young he had come to the conclusion that life could be more pleasant living on the immoral earnings of women than by participating in gruelling bouts in the ring. His size and fearsome reputation soon led to his becoming the protector of a score of girls whom he exploited most
It was December when Hayashi had been interviewed by Police Chief for External Affairs Okabe, in Tokyo. Okabe had been only too glad to see him depart, carrying his sonâs head in its box; for from the head there emanated a most unpleasant smell, even when the box had been rewrapped in good thick brown paper.
Snow had been falling outside and it was bitterly cold. Not knowing the reason for which he had been asked to come to Tokyo, Hayashi had planned to spend the night in a comfortable suite at the Imperial Hotel. But now, his agile mind seething with rage and venom, he decided to go straight home; so that he might the sooner set to work the network of agents that he controlled in the Far East on the job of enabling him to exact vengeance on his sonâs murderer.
At the hotel he enquired about trains and collected his suitcase, then went to the station. Such is the efficiency of the Japanese railways that, having shown his ticket to aporter who told him where he should stand on the platform, when the train came in the coach in which he had reserved a seat drew up immediately in front of him.
It was a very long coach with a walkway down the centre and on either side pairs of seats similar to those in air-liners, so that each occupant could adjust his and lie back to sleep if he wished. But Hayashiâs agitated brain was in no state for sleep. Like the other passengers, he took off his shoes and sat with his small feet on the foot-rest.
The train remained two minutes exactly, neither more nor less, in the station then it shushed out, soon to attain a speed of a hundred miles an hour as it hurtled through the vast areas of shanties that house the greater part of Tokyoâs
ten
million population and make it the largest, ugliest and most depressing city in the world.
Hayashi was duly offered fruit, soft drinks, ices, sweets and other stopgaps to hunger from an aluminium trolley wheeled ceaselessly up and down the walkway of the coach by an obsequious attendant. But, with an impassive nod of the head, he declined these amenities and, presently, walked through to the restaurant car.
There, unlike the sad little menus on British Railways, he was offered a choice of four set meals, ranging from soup, fish and fruit at the equivalent of seven shillings and sixpence, to a six-course dinner including a steak at the equivalent of thirty-five shillings. But Hayashi felt that he had no appetite for European-style food, so he ordered the Japanese dinner. Even when that came he found that he could do no more than toy with some delectable morsels of raw fish. But when in Europe as a younger man he had acquired a taste for wine; so he ordered a bottle of the best champagne, regardless of the fact that it cost him the equivalent of twelve pounds sterling.
The train accomplished its six-hundred-mile run to Kyoto in the scheduled six hours and arrived punctually to the minute. He had telephoned for his Mercedes tobe at the station to meet him, so in another fifteen minutes he was home and had sent for Udo Nagi.
Since then Hayashi had received a number of progress reports from Nagi. Now on this afternoon of the 18th of February he was conning over the summary of the results of the investigation that he had ordered to be made.
Nagi was a big man for a Japanese. As a youth he had been a professional wrestler, but while still young he had come to the conclusion that life could be more pleasant living on the immoral earnings of women than by participating in gruelling bouts in the ring. His size and fearsome reputation soon led to his becoming the protector of a score of girls whom he exploited most
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