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been slicked forever.
Gerard said, "It sounds like something important. Maybe we're going to have to
go out to the ranch again.
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Personally, I don't know what the hell's going on, and I don't particularly
care. As long as Esmeralda keeps the bank deposits coming, that's all that
matters."
"A man of principle," said Nancy, quietly but acidly.
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"That's right," Gerard agreed. "And the principle is that I make as much money
as I can and stay alive for as long as possible."
Kemo came in with Gerard's whiskey on a square black-lacquered tray. Gerard
took the drink, knocked back half of it, and then said, "one thing, though.
It's time we found out who's pulling the strings around here. I mean really
pulling the strings. If Esmeralda has something particularly important to tell
me tonight, and it sounds as if he does, then he's probably going to go
straight back to his employers to report that everything's okay, or whatever."
Nancy nodded almost imperceptibly. "You mean to follow him?" she asked.
"Not me, of course. But Kemo could. If he really wants to take Yoshikazu's
place, it's time he statrted getting actively involved."
"You don't think that it might be excessively dangerous, trying to check up on
our employers?" asked Nancy. "Esmeralda did insist from the very beginning,
did he not, that we should do nothing except what he told us to do; and that
we should refrain from being too inquisitive? And let us make no bones about
it, Gerard, anyone who can create a Tengu, as these people can . . . well,
they are not to be played with."
Gerard said, "Of course it's dangerous. But which is going to be more
dangerous? That's what we have to ask ourselves. Should we make an attempt to
find out who's behind all this who's giving the orders, who's paying the
money? Or should we blindly go on doing all of Esmeralda's dirty work for him,
never quite knowing when the police or the FBI or the very people we're
working for are going to wipe us out? Just as you said yesterday, my dear, we
were all chosen not so much for our individual
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talents, however sparkling those might be, but because we're all of us
dispensable. Easy to get rid of. Each one of us has been involved in enough
shady little sidelines for the police not to ask too many embarrassing
questions if we happened to meet with a nasty and unexpected accident. I used
to run guns in Cuba; the commander used to traffic in children; and God only
knows what you used to be mixed up with, but I can guarantee that it was
something less respectable than Sunday-school outings."
Nancy thought carefully for a while, and then stood up, gracefully
slipslopping in silk slippers to the other side of the room, where she
switched off her koto music and slid a bamboo panel across the stereo
equipment.
"I have had a feeling for some time now that we do not know the whole story of
what we are doing and why we have been employed," she said.
"I've had that feeling from the very beginning," said Gerard. "But when ten
thousand dollars is credited to your account every single month, on the first,
without fail, then who's arguing?"
"They pay you ten?" asked Nancy. Her voice was emotionless. The way she said
it, Gerard didn't know whether she was getting more than him, or less. Nancy
added, "I wonder where the money is all coming from. I know they are paying
the commander seven thousand a month, and Esmeralda has promised him a bonus
if he arranges everything to Esmeralda's satisfaction."
Gerard said, "Whoever they are, they're obviously loaded."
"Don't you think, more loaded than this Tengu project warrants? Such an
investment, such salaries, all for the sake of bodyguards?"
"Very special bodyguards, so Mr. Esmeralda said. Completely invincible. The
kind that a Mafia leader or an Arab oil millionaire would pay up to a couple
of million to have beside him."
"Do you think that really rings true?" asked Nancy.
"Security is big business these days. There are con-
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dominium owners on Wilshire who would pay anything you asked for a bodyguard
like one of Esmeralda's Tengus.''
"I don't know. . . . I find it difficult to be satisfied by what Esmeralda
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keeps telling us," said Nancy.
"Does it matter?"
"It didn't matter until they sent the Tengu to kill that Sennett man. Now we
have two murders on our conscience. That poor actress, and that policeman."
"On your conscience, maybe, but not on mine," said Gerard. He finished his
whiskey in one throat-burning swallow, and then held up the glass for Kemo to
bring him another one. ' 'Esmeralda said that Sennett used to work in Japan
during the war, and that he will guess what the Tengus are all about the
minute he hears about them. Gempaku's using some kind of process that isn't
strictly in accordance with PDA regulations, you know? Some brand of anabolic
steroids to build them up physically, give them muscle. It was either Sennett
or us, and that's the hard old story of everyday life and survival. Besides,
it gave us a chance to try out the Tengu, didn't it, to see how controllable
he was?"
"Not very," said Nancy coolly.
"There was a pharmaceutical problem, that's all. Gempaku used too much
stimulant, or so he said. The Tengu woke up in the van and blew his mind. It
shouldn't happen again."
"I don't know," said Nancy. "Esmeralda is always full of explanations, but the
motivations don't seem right. If you want to develop a team of extra-special
bodyguards, why use such clandestine methods? And why use the name of an
ancient Japanese demon?"
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