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By Root 634 0

Comics Watcher on the moon, I wondered whether Horton had misread his own country. Maybe democracies, maybe all cultures, had life cycles, the same as the humans who comprised them. And maybe there were things cultures could do to extend their lives—the equivalent of exercise and eating right, or, to analogize to what Horton had done, the equivalent of radical surgery—but those things would, in the end, matter only at the margins. Maybe, regardless of the efforts of the exceptional few, the genes hidden and inherent in a culture’s own DNA would dictate a length of years, and make inevitable the onset of sclerosis, and senility, and death, as ineluctably as the Fates cutting the thread of an individual life.

I didn’t know what I wanted. I trained at the Kodokan and reflected at quiet shrines and enjoyed my jazz clubs and coffee houses and whisky bars. I took long, nocturnal walks through the damascene city, and considered what I’d been part of, and what I’d almost caused. I wondered about my son and I missed Delilah. I thought about Horton. I made no decisions.

I was sleeping better than I had in a while. I hoped it would last.

Although the D.C. Capital Hilton was in fact the home of the 10th Annual Convention of the American Constitution Society, there is no garage level in the hotel. Other than this detail, all locations in this book are described as I have found them. Photos and more on my website: www.barryeisler.com.

My thanks to:

Lara Perkins, for being an amazing editor and handling all the business stuff so well, too.

Stephen Blower, Kodokan Fourth Dan, for his devastatingly elegant judo—and his generosity in describing (and demonstrating) what it’s like to play at Rain’s level.

Mike Kleindl of Tokyo Food Life, for introducing Rain to L’Ambre and so many other fine Tokyo establishments.

Dave Camarillo, author of Guerilla Jiu-Jitsu, for helping me choreograph the Tokyo sequence where Rain takes out the contractors, and for being a great teacher and friend, too.

Ken Rosenberg, for helping with financial aspects of the backstory.

Novelist Victoria Dahl, for Dox’s very wrong phrase, “straining the gravy.”

Dr. Peter Zimetbaum, for the usual invaluable help on cardiology issues.

Elke Sisco, for assistance with the German dialogue.

Daniel Velez, for assistance with the Spanish dialogue. Albóndigas.

Koichiro Fukasawa and Yukie Kito, for assistance with the Japanese.

Novelist J.A. Konrath, because without his encouragement this novel might have been published by a legacy publisher, meaning you would have had to wait until next year to read it.

Novelist Lee Goldberg, for Los Angeles culinary, cultural, and transportation advice.

Ron Winston, for sharing his peerless expertise on diamonds.

Clint Overland, a good man who’s done some bad things, for his insights into the attraction of using terrible skills for a noble end.

The extraordinarily eclectic group of “foodies with a violence problem” who hang out at Marc “Animal” MacYoung’s and Dianna Gordon’s www.nononsenseselfdefense.com, for good humor, good fellowship, and a ton of insights, particularly regarding the real costs of violence.

Jeroen Ten Berge of JeroenTenBerge.com and Rob Siders of 52Novels. com, for terrific cover design and formatting services.

Tracy Mercer and the Four Seasons Palo Alto, for generous hospitality, endless jasmine tea, and perfect feng shui.

Naomi Andrews, Alan Eisler, Judith Eisler, Montie Guthrie, Tom Hayes, Mike Killman, novelist J.A. Konrath, Lori Kupfer, Dan Levin, Doug Patteson, and Ted Schlein, for helpful comments on the manuscript and many valuable suggestions and insights along the way.

Most of all, my wife Laura, a very patient woman and an awesome editor, too. Thanks, babe, for everything.

Much of the backstory and the technology, and many of the incidents, described in this book are real. Here’s a partial bibliography.

The media-lobbying complex.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100301/jones/print

The president’s assassination list, including American citizens.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/27/yemen/index.html