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from now on
, and be a little more practical. Otherwise you won’t be
able to survive.”
Aomame thought she should say something, but the words would not come. The
trembling was still there in her body.
“Madame tells me she wants to talk to you,” Tamaru said. “Can you talk?”
“Of course,” Aomame said.
The dowager took the phone. Aomame could sense relief in her voice.
“I am so grateful to you, more than I can ever say. You handled this one perfectly.”
“Thank you very much. But I don’t think I’ll be able to do it again,” Aomame said.
“No, I realize that. We asked too much of you. I’m so happy you’re all right. We
won’t be asking you to do this anymore. This was the last time. We have prepared a
place for you to settle into. You won’t have to worry about a thing. Just lie low for a
450
while in the safe house. In the meantime, we’ll make arrangements for you to move
into your new life.”
Aomame thanked her.
“Do you have everything you need there? If not, let us know. I’ll have Tamaru take
care of it right away.”
“No, thank you. As far as I can tell, everything I need is here.”
The dowager lightly cleared her throat. “Now, this is something I want you to keep
in mind. What we did was absolutely right. We punished the man for his crimes and
prevented him from committing any more. There will be no more victims. We put a
stop to that. You must not let this bother you.”
“He said the same thing.”
“ ‘He’?”
“Sakigake’s Leader. The man I took care of last night.”
The dowager remained silent for a full five seconds. Then she said, “He knew?”
“Yes, he knew I was there to take care of him, and still he let me in. He was, if
anything, hoping for death. His body had already suffered serious injury and was
heading toward a slow but inevitable end. All I did was speed up the process
somewhat and provide relief to a body tortured by intense pain.”
The dowager seemed seriously shocked to hear this. Again she was at a loss for
words, something most unusual for her.
“You mean to say—” the dowager said, looking for the right words, “that he
himself was hoping for punishment for his deeds?”
“What he wanted was to end his painful life as soon as possible.”
“And he made up his mind to let you kill him.”
“Exactly.”
Aomame said nothing about the bargain she had struck with Leader. In exchange
for letting Tengo go on living in this world, she herself would have to die: this was an
agreement known only to Aomame and the man. No one else was to be told.
Aomame said, “The things he did were deviant and deserving of death, but he was
no ordinary human being. Or at least he possessed something special.”
“Something special?” the dowager said.
“It’s hard to explain,” Aomame said. “It was at the same time both a special power
or gift and a cruel burden. It was, I think, eating him alive from the inside.”
“Could it be that this special
something
urged him on toward his deviant
behavior?”
“Probably.”
“In any case, you put a stop to it.”
“That is true,” Aomame said, her voice dry.
Holding the receiver in her left hand, Aomame spread out her right hand, with its
lingering sensation of death, and stared at the palm. What did it mean to “have
ambiguous congress” with those girls? Aomame could neither understand it nor
explain it to the dowager.
“As always, I made the death appear to have been a natural one, but they will
probably not do us the favor of seeing it that way. Given the circumstances, I’m sure
they will conclude that I had something to do with it. And as you know, his death has
not been reported to the police yet.”
451
“Whatever steps they choose to take, we will do everything in our power to protect
you,” the dowager said. “They have their organization, but we have strong
connections and ample funds. Also, you are a careful, intelligent person. We won’t let
them have their way.”
“Have you not yet found Tsubasa?” Aomame asked.
“We still don’t know where she went. My thought is that she is in the Sakigake
compound. She has nowhere else to go. We haven’t found a way to bring her back
yet, but I suspect that Leader’s death has put the group into a state of confusion. We
may be able to do something to exploit that confusion in order to save her. That child
must be protected.”
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