Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka Page B

From here, Kuma could sight his target as it approached, shortening the distance and minimizing any adjustments that might be needed. Furthermore, the curve would cause the procession to slow slightly, and any reduction in movement made aiming easier. He checked his musket. This time, he would be sure to pull the trigger on a loaded weapon.
    It was the hour of the horse before Genji appeared at the far end of the street. The townspeople receded and fell to the ground as the Great Lord passed by. All the easier for Kuma. He rested the first inch of the musket’s barrel on the edge of the roof. So little would be visible from below, it was unlikely that even the most diligent observer would notice it. There was Genji walking unconcernedly among the leading group of bodyguards. Kuma aimed at his elegant head. How simple it would be. But the moment for a shot to cripple or disfigure had passed. The idiot harbor policeman, Ishi, had conceded Genji’s identity. Anything close to an assassination of Genji now would point too obviously back to Edo Castle.
    Kuma shifted his aim, steadied, and fired.

    “Lord!”
    “I’m unhurt,” Genji said.
    Saiki pointed at a nearby roof. “There! Hidé! Shimoda! Take him alive!”
    The rest of the men, their swords drawn, formed a ring of bodies and blades around Genji. The townspeople had disappeared, running for cover at the first sign of violence.
    “The missionaries!” Genji said. He rushed to the palanquin. A bullet had torn a hole in the closed right-side window. A passenger’s torso would normally be on the other side, in the middle of the bullet’s trajectory. Genji slid the door open, expecting to see the outsider woman, Emily, bloody and dead.
    But she was not. Trying to find a bearable position in those tight and unfamiliar confines, Emily had fallen into a temporary slouch. Stuffing fell out of the front of her coat where the bullet had ripped it open. Otherwise, it had benignly passed her by.
    “Lord!” One of his bodyguards called out from the other side of the palanquin. Cromwell lay on the ground, blood pouring out of a wound in his lower abdomen, struck by the same bullet that had torn through the palanquin.
    “We cannot linger here,” Saiki said. “Move!”
    The bearers hoisted the palanquin. Four men lifted Cromwell’s unconscious body to their shoulders. Swords flashing in the morning light, they ran at high speed to the palace in Tsukiji.

    When Heiko left the palace shortly after Genji’s departure for the harbor, Kudo himself followed her. It was too important a task to be left to someone less experienced, less able. This wasn’t conceit on Kudo’s part. He was the best covert watcher among the Okumichi samurai. Thus the work was his. That was all.
    Heiko and her maidservant meandered slowly inland from Tsukiji. Like all women of the Floating World, she was officially licensed to reside exclusively in the gated pleasure district of Yoshiwara. Had that been her destination, she would most likely have taken a water taxi up the Sumida River. Instead, she was heading in the direction of her country cottage in the woods of Ginza, at the eastern edge of Edo. This second residence was not strictly legal. There was considerable laxity in the enforcement of Floating World regulations, however, particularly in the case of the most famous and most beautiful courtesans. Mayonaka no Heiko was arguably the most famous of the current crop. There was no question she was the most beautiful. In that sense, she was an excellent companion for Lord Genji. Saiki’s concern, and Kudo’s as well, was that they knew nothing about her beyond her public geisha persona, which was, as everyone knew, a highly polished performance.
    His initial investigation, hampered by Lord Genji’s prohibition against it, revealed only that her contract was held by the banker Otani. This was a man well known as a proxy. Ordinarily, a combination of bribes and threats would have been sufficient to