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Everyone had gathered in Elizabeth's office. Ronnie and Lamont sat on the couch across from Nick and Selena. Stephanie was at her console. Elizabeth was behind her desk. There was something comforting about the familiar grouping.
Burps strolled in and jumped onto the couch. He climbed onto Selena's lap and began purring and kneading her leg. He looked up at her with a pleased expression on his face, drooling.
"Good thing I'm wearing my old jeans today," she said.
"The place looks a little worse for wear," Nick said. "What happened to George Washington?"
"I haven't had a chance to get everything repaired yet," Elizabeth said. "Washington suffered a lot of damage. I took the painting to the Smithsonian. They'll restore it."
"Sounds like you had a hell of a time in Japan," Lamont said. "Did you get to see any geishas?"
Nick shook his head. "Nope. No geishas."
"Did you hear about Yamamoto?" Elizabeth asked.
"No. What about him?"
"He killed himself yesterday. The official explanation is that he had an incurable cancer and had decided to take the quick way out."
"I can't say I'm sorry to hear it. Did he really kill himself, or did we help him out?"
"If you mean did we pull the trigger? No, we didn't. He did that himself. It was a very Japanese thing to do."
"What happened?" Selena asked.
"DCI Hood had a little chat with him and explained what we'd learned about his relationship with Nobuyasu. He told Yamamoto he was holding off releasing the information as a courtesy, out of consideration for the times he had helped the United States in the past. He suggested that Yamamoto might want to take some time to prepare for what was coming."
"That's sneaky," Lamont said. "Freak the guy out so he kills himself."
"What did you expect?" Ronnie said. "Hood runs the CIA. Those guys define sneaky."
"Yamamoto deserved it," Nick said.
"That's hard, man," Lamont said.
"What's going to happen with the gold?" Selena said.
"It's going to remain a mystery," Elizabeth said. "As far as most people are concerned, it's a myth. It can stay buried, along with Nobuyasu."
"He got what he wanted, in the end," Nick said. "The sword and the gold."
"Didn't do him a lot of good, did it?" Ronnie said.
"I wish we could have saved those swords," Selena said.
"Not me," Nick said. "The only sword I want to see from now on is the kind you stick through the olives in martinis."
Selena looked at Nick. He was smiling, happy.
He's in his element. He wouldn't know what to do if all of this went away. He's never going to quit.
The thought made her sad.
"We have a new client," Elizabeth said.