"Yes, yes he is, and very knowledgeable."

Yes, Andr`e thought, and soon it will be time to share all of it with me, both what he's told you and what I have gleaned for myself. Interesting that he speaks English--thank God my spies have their ears open as well as their eyes. That explains a lot, though I don't know why he won't speak English to me or even Japanese whenever I've caught him alone. I suppose because Willie ordered him not to.

"Now," he continued quietly, "Raiko will ask me a dozen times to intercede and arrange a rendezvous. After a week I'll reluctantly agree. Don't let Nakama do it or let him in on the game and when you see Raiko, act tough, and with Fujiko. You've got to be very convincing, Phillip."

"But..."

"Tell Raiko she was correct to consider her client's interests, yours, first--particularly as you are an important official, harp on that--giving you time to consider the matter carefully.

You quite agree it's better to be prudent, that buying "the woman's" contract now is not a good idea. Use that term and not Fujiko by name-- don't forget from their point of view you're only discussing a piece of merchandise at this stage, not the lady you adore. Thank Raiko, and say with her help you have thought carefully and believe buying a contract would be a mistake. You'll just hire "the woman's" services from time to time, and if "the woman" is busy, shigata ga nai --it doesn't matter--life's too short, etc."

Tyrer had listened attentively and knew that Andr`e was right and groaned at the thought of not seeing Fujiko for a week, already imagining her suffering under the hulk of every gai-jin in Yokohama. "I ... I agree with what you say but, but I don't, I don't think I can do it, I mean the acting."

"You have to and why not? They're acting all the time, all the time! Haven't you noticed they live lies as the truth and the truth as lies? Women have no option, especially in the Floating World.

Men? They're worse. Remember the Bakufu, the Council of Elders, what about them and what about Nakama, especially Nakama? They're past masters at the game, and that's all it is. Why be a pigeon, why let Raiko humble you and at the same time thrust gold you can't afford--can never afford--into her hands just because you are trying to assuage a never-ending ache that God implanted in us."

Andr`e shivered. He knew the trap too well. He was in it. Raiko had pressed him far beyond his own financial limit. That's not true, he told himself irritably. It's all right to twist the truth and lie with other people but don't do it with yourself, your secret self, or you are lost. The truth is I rushed to the limit and beyond, gladly. Seventeen days ago.

The instant Raiko first introduced me to the girl...

The instant I saw her, she of the raven hair and alabaster skin and alluring eyes, I knew I would give Raiko my soul and walk into the Everlasting Pit to possess her.

Me, Andr`e Edouard Poncin, servant of France, spymaster, killer, expert on the vileness of human nature, me the great cynic, in an instant I had fallen in love. Madness!

But true.

The instant the girl had left the room, me helpless and tongue-tied, I said, "Raiko, please. Whatever ask, I pay."

"So sorry, Furansu-san, this matter will cost more money than I care to mention, even if she agrees to be with you--she has not yet agreed."

"Whatever money, I pay. Please ask, ask if agrees."

"Of course. Please come back tomorrow, at dusk."

"No. Please. Now ask--ask now, I wait."

He had had to wait almost two hours. While he waited he fretted and prayed and hoped and died and died again. When Raiko returned and he saw her set face, he began to die once more but rushed to life as she said, "Her name is Hinodeh, meaning Sunrise. She is twenty-two and she says, yes, but there are conditions. Apart from money."

"Whatever Hinodeh want."

"Best to listen first." Raiko was more somber than he had ever seen her. "Hinodeh says she will be your consort, not courtesan, for a year and a day. If on that last day she decides to remain with you, she will give you her inochi, her spirit, and be with you for another year, and another, year by year until she decides to leave or you tire of her.

If she wishes to leave, you swear to release her freely."

"Agreed. When begin?"' "Wait, Furansu-san, there's much more.

There will be no mirrors in your house, and you will bring none into it. When she disrobes, the room will always be dark--except once, the first time. Only once, Furansu-san, you may see her.

Next, the moment any... any disfiguring mark appears, or whenever she may ask you, without hesitation you will bow to her and bless her, and be her witness and give her the poison cup, or knife, and watch and wait until she is dead to honor her sacrifice."

His mind spun out of control. "Dead?"' "She said she would prefer the knife but did not know a gai-jin's choice."

When he could get his brain working, he said, "I, I the judge if, if mark disfiguring?"' Raiko shrugged. "You or she, it does not matter. If she decides to ask, then you must honor your promise. It will all be written into the contract. You agree?"' After he had sifted that, the horror of it, and made peace with it, he said, "Then sickness her early, no mark yet?"' Raiko's eyes were unrelenting, her voice so gentle, so terribly final, the stillness in her room so vast. "Hinodeh has no disease, Furansu-san, none. She is blemishless."

His head seemed to explode with "she is blemishless" echoing in the sky of his mind together with his all pervading shriek to himself "but you're Unclean!"

"Why? Why agree? Why? Why she... she know, know my, my bad. Yes?"' A maid, waiting on the veranda outside, frightened by his bellowing voice, pulled the shoji open. Then, waved away by Raiko, obediently closed it again. Delicately Raiko sipped her sak`e. "Of course she knows, Furansu-san. So sorry."

He wiped the saliva from the corners of his mouth. "Then why... agree?"' Again the strangeness. "Hinodeh will not tell me, so sorry. It is part of my agreement with her that I do not press her to know, as it must be part of your agreement with her. We are not to press her, she says she will tell in her own time." Raiko had exhaled heavily. "So sorry, but you must agree as part of the contract. That is the final condition."

"Agreed. Please make contract..."

After an agony of time--only a few days--it had been signed and sealed and he went with Hinodeh, him unClean and her Clean, in all her glory, and tomorrow he would again...

Andr`e almost leapt out of himself as a hand grasped his shoulder and he found himself back in Struan's great room. It was Phillip saying, "Andr`e, are you all right?"

"What? Oh, oh yes..." Andr`e's heart was palpitating, cold sweat making his flesh crawl, that and the memory of "Blemishless" and "First Time" and the horror of it--and dreading tomorrow. "Sorry, I... a cat was walking on my grave." All at once the room pressed down on him and he had to get out into the air. He got up, groped away, mumbling, "Ask... ask Henri to play, I ... I don't feel... sorry, have to leave ..."

Blankly, Tyrer stared after him. Babcott wandered over from the roulette wheel. "What's up with him? Poor fellow looks as though he's seen a ghost."

"Don't know, George. One moment he was all right, the next, mumbling and white as a sheet, sweat pouring off him."

"Was it anything you were talking about?"

"Don't think so, he was just advising me what to do about Fujiko and Raiko, nothing about him at all." They watched Andr`e leave as though the room were empty.

Babcott frowned. "Not like him, he's usually so debonaire." Poor chap, must be his affliction--wish to God I could supply a cure, wish to God there was a cure.

"Talking about debonaire," Tyrer was saying, "I didn't know you were such an accomplished dancer."