The Last Assassin

again.
    No, that wasn't quite right, I realized. Barcelona hadn't been an interlude. It had been… an armistice.
    But that was all right, too. An armistice wasn't so bad. It was better than being at war. And if I could find a way to another armistice, and then another, maybe I could string them all together, and one day they'd actually add up to peace.
    One day.

Author's Note

    T he Barcelona, New York, Tokyo, and Wajima locales that appear in this book are described, as always, as I have found them. I don't know whether Tokyo CIA station stockpiles the kind of hardware that Kanezaki provides Rain and Dox. Tokyo's Jikei hospital has no separate cancer ward that I know of, but it did a first-rate job of patching me up after my eighteen-foot fall to the Shibuya concrete in 2001.

Acknowledgments

    O nce again, I've written a book that has been made much better through the generous contributions of many friends. My thanks to:
    My agents, Nat Sobel and Judith Weber of Sobel Weber Associates, and my editor, Dan Conaway (aka Mad Max Perkins) of Penguin, for always steering me toward the truth and never letting me get lazy.
    Michael Barson (master of Yubiwaza) of Penguin, for introducing Rain to New York's Ear Inn, and for doing such an amazing job of getting out the word on the books.
    Massad Ayoob of the Lethal Force Institute, for sharing his awe-inspiring knowledge of and experience with firearms, tools and tactics, for the great instruction at the LFII (see you at II, Mas), and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
    Tony Blauer, for teaching Rain the SPEAR technique he uses in the combat sequence outside Midori's apartment, and Mike Suyematsu, certified Blauer PDR instructor and a guy who shares Rain's roots, for terrific CQC instruction and for helping me choreograph the SPEAR sequence.
    Matt Furey, for again providing some of the Combat Conditioning bodyweight exercises that Rain uses in this book to stay in top shape (and that his author uses, too).
    Dan Levin, for sharing his remarkable knowledge of Japanese swords and swordsmanship, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
    Peyton Quinn of Rocky Mountain Combat Applications Training and author of
A. Bouncer's Guide to Barroom Brawling and Real Fighting,
for his concept of the previolence 'interview.'
    Ernie Tibaldi, a thirty-one-year veteran agent of the FBI, for continuing to generously share his encyclopedic knowledge of law enforcement and personal safety issues, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
    Novelist Marcus Wynne, for sharing his experience with knives (particularly the FS Hideaway), tactics, and the Special Ops community.
    Again and always,
sensei
Koichiro Fukasawa of Wasabi Communications, a singular window on everything Japan and Japanese, for years of insight, humor, and friendship, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
    Yukie Kito, for introducing Rain to Shinagawa, a part of Tokyo with which Rain was insufficiently familiar, for keeping an eye out for Dox in the Shinagawa Station Starbucks, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
    Patricia Escalona, Sylvia Fernandez, Carlos Ramos, Blanca Rosa, and everyone else at Roca Editorial, my Spanish publisher, for introducing Rain to the bars of El Born, Torre d'Alta Mar restaurant, La Florida Hotel, and so many other marvelous places in the marvelous city of Barcelona.
    Naomi Andrews, for guiding me on all things French and Parisian, and for helpful comments on the manuscript; Joshua Geller, for sharing his expertise on the New York jazz scene; Lori Kupfer, for continued insights into what sophisticated, sexy women like Delilah wear and how they think, for advice on New York and Paris museums, art, and shopping, and for helpful comments on the manuscript; and Chad and Christi, for making Rain feel so welcome at Milk & Honey.
    Roberta Parks, M.D., Owen Rennert, M.D., Evan Rosen, M.D., Ph.D., and Peter Zimetbaum, M.D., for offering no-longer-reluctant expert advice on some of the killing techniques in this book, and for helpful comments on the manuscript.
    The extraordinarily eclectic group of philosophers, badasses (mostly retired), and deviants who hang out at Marc 'Animal' MacYoung's and Dianna Gordon's http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com, without whose imagination and expertise Rain and Dox could never have prevailed against the sumos. In particular, thanks to Dave Bean, for sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of all things forbidden, including a firebomb sequence that didn't