Erast Petrovich knew that even the slightest show of astonishment would seriously wound the consul’s feelings, so he took his time before answering, as if he was thinking over the advisability of the suggestion.
‘In the interests of the cause, it would be better if you stayed here. If my little excursion ends badly, than what more can they do to me – a young pup, a duellist and adventurer? The lieutenant captain has already written me off. Things stand differently with you – a pillar of Yokohama society and Consul of the Russian Empire.’
Vsevolod Vitalievich’s eyebrows arched up like angry leeches, but at this point Shirota intervened in the conversation.
‘I’ll go,’ he said quickly. ‘Or why should I bother at all? Am I just going to give the signal and then sit on the hill? That’s rather stupid.’
‘If my assistant and my secretary get involved in a scandalous incident, I’m done for anyway!’ Doronin fumed. ‘So I’d better go myself.’
But Shirota disrespectfully interrupted his superior.
‘I do not count. Firstly, I am a hired employee, a native.’ He gave a crooked smile. ‘And secondly, I shall write a resignation note this very minute and put yesterday’s date on it. The letter will say that I no longer wish to serve Russia, because I have become disillusioned with its policy towards Japan, or something of the kind. In that way, if Mr Fandorin and I are involved in a scandalous incident, as you put it, it will be a criminal conspiracy between a young pup and adventurer (I beg your pardon, Erast Petrovich, but that is what you called yourself) and a crazy native who has already been dismissed from his job serving Russia. No more than that.’
This was all said in solemn tones, with restrained dignity, and that was how the discussion ended. They started discussing the details.
When he got back to his apartment, Erast Petrovich found O-Yumi lying in the bed barely alive. Her face was pale and bloodless, her feet were bound in rags.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ he cried in horror. ‘Are you ill?’
She smiled weakly.
‘No, I’m just very, very tired. But it’s all right, it will pass.’
‘But what’s wrong with your feet?’
‘I grazed them.’
He went down on his knees, took hold of her hand and said imploringly:
‘Tell me the truth. Where were you last night? Where did you go today? What is happening to you? The truth, for God’s sake, the truth!’
O-Yumi looked at him affectionately.
‘Very well. I will tell you the truth – as far as I can. And you promise me two things: that you won’t ask any more questions and that you will tell me the truth too.’
‘I promise. But you first. Where were you?’
‘In the mountains. The maso herb only grows in one place, on the southern slope of Mount Tanzawa, and that is fifteen ri from here. I had to make two trips, because the infusion has to be brewed twice, and it must be absolutely fresh. That is all I have to tell. Now you tell me. I can see that you are planning something and I feel alarmed. I have a bad premonition.’
Fifteen ri – that’s almost sixty versts in each direction, Fandorin calculated. No wonder she’s barely alive!
‘To ride thirty ri in one night!’ he exclaimed. ‘You must have driven the horses half to death!’
For some reason O-Yumi found his words amusing, and she broke into quiet laughter.
‘That’s all. No more questions, you promised. Now you tell me.’
And he told her: about the duel, about how Bullcox’s fury burst a blood vessel in his brain, about Don Tsurumaki, and about the forthcoming operation. O-Yumi’s face became more and more uneasy, sadder and sadder.
‘How terrible…’ she whispered when he finished.
‘You mean about your Algie?’ Fandorin asked, immediately jealous. ‘Then go to him and feed him your infusion!’
‘No, I don’t mean him. I feel sorry for Algie, but one or the other of you had to come to grief. What you have planned is terrible. Don’t go anywhere tonight! It will end badly! I can see that from the shadow on your temple!’ she said, reaching out her hand to his head, and when Erast Petrovich smiled, she exclaimed despairingly, ‘You don’t believe in ninso!’
They argued for a long time after that, but Fandorin was adamant, and in the end O-Yumi fell asleep, exhausted. He walked out carefully, afraid of disturbing her sleep with an accidental movement or the creak of a chair.
The remainder of the day passed in preparations. There wasn’t a sound from the bedroom – O-Yumi was sleeping soundly.
But late in the evening, when Masa was already sitting on the porch, gazing in the direction of the dark hills above the Bluff, there was a surprise in store for Erast Petrovich.
As he walked past the bedroom yet again, he put his ear to the door. This time he thought he heard a gentle rustling and he cautiously opened the door slightly.
No, O-Yumi was still sleeping – he could her quiet, regular breathing from the bed.
He tiptoed over to the window in order to close it – there was a cold draught coming in. He glanced at the grey silhouette of the house opposite and suddenly froze.
Something had moved over there, up by the chimney. A cat? Then it was a very big one.
His heart started pounding like a wild thing, but Fandorin gave no sign of being alarmed in any way. On the contrary, he stretched lazily, closed the window, locked it with all the latches and slowly walked away.
Out in the corridor, he broke into a run.
It was the roof of the Club Hotel, Erast Petrovich realised, and he could climb up there from the back, using the fire escape ladder.
Hunched over, he ran along the railings to the next building. A minute later he was already up there. Resting one knee on the tiles, which were wet with rain, he pulled his Herstal out of it holster.
He heard rustling steps close by, on the other pitch of the roof.
No longer trying to hide, Fandorin dashed forward, with just one thought in his head – how to avoid slipping.
He reached the ridge of the roof and glanced over it – just in time to glimpse a black figure in a close-fitting black costume over by the edge of the roof. The invisible man again!
The titular counsellor threw up his hand, but it was too late to fire: the ninja jumped down.
Spreading his feet wide, Erast Petrovich slithered head first down the tiles, grabbed hold of the gutter and leaned out.
Where was the ninja?
Had he been killed by the fall, was he still moving?
But no matter how hard he stared, he couldn’t make out anyone down below. The invisible man had disappeared.
‘Omaeh ikanai. Hitori iku,’ [xii] Fandorin told his servant when he got back to the consulate. ‘O-Yumi-san mamoru. Wakaru?’ [xiii]
And Masa understood. He nodded, without taking his eyes off the hill on which sooner or later the little blue light would flash. Erast Petrovich had been lucky with his servant after all.
An hour later, or maybe an hour and a half, the titular counsellor was sitting at the window in a peaked uniform cap, smoking cigars and, as has already been mentioned, his body, heart and mind were flooded with bliss.
So they were following him? Let them. The motto of tonight’s lightning raid was speed and more speed.
During the fourth cigar Masa looked into the room. It was time!
Fandorin left his servant with some simple instructions and walked out on to the porch.
Yes, the signal. Over there above the Bluff (but it looked as if it was at the very edge of the sky) a little blue star flashed on and off several times.
In the bright blue sky
Just you try to make it out -
A small bright blue star