Ken's motor bike ploughed through the mob. He wasn't intending to hurt anyone, but wouldn't have minded if their own carelessness had risked their necks. Like the monkeys they so otherwise resembled, the journalists scrambled nimbly out of the way with shrieks and chatters of rage.

Ken saw Aya-chan's desperate face among them, lifted his foot from the rest just long enough to kick the most obstructive journalist's hindquarters, and reached out to pull her in front of him. A soccer goalie's kick at a journalist directly in front. He drove out of the mob, and was out of sight while they were still searching for their car keys.

Adrenaline still running, "Let's make it hard for them to follow!" He spoke loudly to be heard above the engine, and she nodded timidly. He'd never seen Aya so shaken before, but then he'd never seen her mobbed before.

He grinned at her in reassurance and charged the largest truck in sight. Going wrong way fast through heavy traffic was much easier than last time; now it was bright daylight with the traffic jammed into a crawl. As a final flourish, he sailed over a construction site, and was only sorry it was such a small one.

He turned into a rule follower, the right lane, and the right speed. Still grinning, he looked at her pale face and managed to take off his jacket while driving one handed. "Here, wear this." As she huddled into it rather clumsily, "Well, Aya, looks like this time you did need rescuing."

"Yes, I did," she said weakly. "But my name's not Aya. I'm Sakura Tomoe."

For the first time the bike wobbled.

Ken looked again. Aya was in and out of the flower shop quite a lot, but she wasn't a close friend of his. It needed a careful look to be sure this girl wasn't her. "Just a minute." Like Omi, he followed the more sensational news carefully. The more unbelievable, tabloid parts so often turned to be Weiss' concern. "Weren't you the girl who claimed Doctor Yokoo...?"

"Yes. That slob butcher. And he says, unavoidable error, and goes on floating around in his private swimmng pool..."

Ken had to ride one handed again while he patted her shoulder. Sakura looked wary at the touch, then looked at Ken again, and relaxed. When she frowned, she was saying something about doctors. He didn't blame her for being mad. Doctor Yokoo did sound the sort of moron jerk no hospital should have hired. He ventured, "You know, though, it was strange, your family not knowing your sister was dead for a week."

Sakura looked ashamed. "She was a career woman. Mum and Dad have to work such long hours, and I do have to put in a lot of time if I'm going to be a pro athlete...I was away in camp some of that week." She asked diffidently, "Are we going anywhere in particular?"

He grinned at Sakura. "Where you want to go."

"The opposite direction?"

He did what, in all modesty, he had to call a very good wheelie. Sakura kept her trusting eyes on him, which was nice, but meant she missed it. When they were heading back into the mess of inner city traffic, she proved not to have been thinking of his riding at all. She said broodingly, "They've really got it down pat, Dr Yokoo's nurses. You'd almost think...I should do something!"

He looked at her in alarm. One Ouka was enough for any man. Two, if you counted her faithful sidekick. Too much. "Write a letter to the Hospital Board. Any government authority you can think of.. Your MP." Weiss' Siberian said, "Remember there are people paid to deal with this sort of thing. They've got the skill and the clout to do it."


Ken waited until dinner was almost over before tackling Omi. Or rather Bombay. The younger man looked nervously at the door. "Shouldn't we keep this sort of thing for the mission room?"

Asuka said, "Should we do this sort of thing at all? The system is Persia finds us the targets."

Ken said stubbornly, "We're not meant to blatantly ignore what's shoved under our nose. Dr Yokoo reeks."

Yohji shifted uneasily. His instinct would be to back up his partner, but he'd been helpless in hospital often enough. Civilian doctors were meant to be more scrupulous than Kritiker's. That was one of the hopes that kept him going. Rather apologetically, he echoed Ken's earlier speech to Sakura.

Ken hadn't believed it even when he was saying it himself. Looking at Omi, "There are people to deal with murderers and corrupt police lawfully, too."

Omi said seriously, "There's one thing different in this, Ken-kun. If you're right, we're not dealing with a deliberate murderer, but an incompetent."

"People end up just as dead."

"Kenkun! Yokoo has not been named as a target. If I find something, he can be taken care of by a non lethal team."

Yohji winked. "Anyway, you can tell your girlfriend you're doing something about it."

Ken scowled at him. "Sure, Yotan. I told her all about my friend the expert in illegal computer searches."

Omi finished his ice cream rather hurriedly. "You know, Ken-kun, that it's going to take time even to map out Yokoo's cases. Then I have to chart, to find out if there's any statistically significant pattern. And then check to find other things beside the one surgeon. I'll start the programs tonight, but it might be days...I better start now," he finished through the last mouthful of ice cream and bolting for the stairs to the underworld.

"I'll do your washing up!" Ken shouted after him. Asuka wasn't girly about most things, but ever since the rat incident she'd insisted on at least one dish washing a day, and everyone taking a turn.

So Ken did the washing up. Afterward he found himself heading to the top of the stairs and turned himself around to watch television. It was worth looking into, wasn't it?

Sport was all rugby. It was vaguely depressing to Ken's soccer training that people wanted to cross his beloved sport with mud wrestling. Even before the first advert break he found himself going for a beer, via the top of the stairs. Okay, so Sakura had just had vague notions, and she'd been pretty upset anyway, but that didn't mean she was wrong.

Struck by the idea of returning the favour, Ken taped one of those painstaking dramas of ordinary life Omi liked. He decided telling Omi that would cheer him up, and headed for the stairs, with a strong feeling he'd put his foot in it yet again.

Seeing Omi staring at the computer screen with an unusual droop to his shoulders, Ken rushed into saying, "I'm sorry, Omittchi. I've taped you that Upstairs, Downstairs. Can I make it up to you, some way?"

Omi pulled up his bright smile, one of the smaller versions. "No need, Ken. You were quite right. It's just so blatant! There's no way the hospital could have missed this."

"Well, take a break anyway. Yohji and Asuka will be back from their club crawl soon. Sometime. You can tell us then."

"Dungeons and Dragons?"

Ken groaned, only half in fun. "You already own most of the souls in Japan! What are you going to do with all those souls?"

Still, there are a lot worse ways to pass a couple of hours than being beaten by Omi at Dungeons and Dragons. Both men had been watching from the corners of their eyes the little line of screens fed by Omi's watch cameras outside. When the other two members of Weiss walked into range Omi clicked open the front door lock. Ken bounded up the stairs to see if they were sober enough for briefing.

Yohji came down the steps first, rather flushed, but his green eyes unexpectedly sober. "It must be a positive report, if it's so quick."

"I'm afraid so."

Asuka came next, marching straight backed down the steps as if daring either the steps or her feet to take advantage of the alcohol in her system. "Do we need to know this, if it's going to a non lethal team?"

Omi said mildly, "But I don't think it will be." He sat where he normally did for Manx's briefings. So did the other three, and listened to him. "Yokoo-sensei is an operating surgeon of the Kazucota Hospital. He was the emeritus of his graduating class and was immediately employed in confidential medical research. He moved through several employers. I've found high praise for his professional skills, far less for his relations with other staff.

"His best paying job was his last, with Takatori Industries. Their recent slump, with the illness of Masafumi Takatori, led to scrapping all their medical research. He was snapped up by Kazucota Hospital. He has done four hundred and twenty operations. Of them fourteen died."

Ken said puzzled, "That doesn't seem so bad."

"It would be quite good. Except that of the fourteen deaths, five were low risk patients, in excellent health except for one easily remedied condition, in the prime of life. Just the sort of patient who doesn't die, unless some allergy or heart condition shows up without warning. They all suffered brain death on the operating table. There are two patients of Dr Yokoo not in the stats. They are still in the hospital, in irreversible coma, on life support machines. Yoshiko Tomoe is one of them. The five in the statistics have been taken off, and died immediately."

Yohji said gravely, "I'm sorry to hear this. But, Omi, this sounds more like defective anesthetic equipment...I mean, no one would do this on purpose. Why should they?"

"I don't know why. But Ouka told me Crawford has already been checking out those naturally brain dead. It looks to me that he can't find whatever he wants and is making more."

Asuka said, "You have checked the anesthesiologist?"

"Various anesthesiologists. Various nurses. One doctor."

"You say this is blatant. Then why hasn't the hospital done something?"

"For the same reason police officers look the other way."

Asuka squinted slightly, working against the drunkenness in her system. "It sounds to me as if someone wants human organs. They were organ donors?"

Omi admitted, "I hadn't got round to checking that." He swung his chair round and began typing.

Ken objected, "Wouldn't there be easier ways of collecting organs?"

Yohji said, "Healthy organs in the prime of life? It might be a very profitable hobby, for someone with the right connections."

Omi tossed over his shoulder, "Ken-kun, you better look out for your girl. If she makes much more fuss Yokoo might want her out of the way."

Ken gave Omi's back an 'et, tu?' look. "She is not my girl. I only met her today."

Yohji said, "That can be enough." He smiled at Asuka, forgetting to look sophisticated. "You see a girl, she looks back at you..."

Asuka said, "You sweep her off her feet onto your motorcycle."

Ken scowled at everyone and slumped back in his chair. "I'll try and see she's safer." Loudly, "As I would any civilian."

Yohji opened his mouth to reply, and from the gleam in his eye it was a good one. Ken was saved by Omi's saying, "Now that's very interesting!" He faced them again. "The," he hesitated only slightly before saying deliberately, "murder victims had the average number of organ donors among them. In every case there was...You know there's a standard procedure, so as to get the organs as fresh as possible? Well, in every case the harvesting was delayed. In these cases and these alone."

Ken scratched his head. "But the organs were there?"

"True. But it must mean something."

Ken looked at him in exasperation. That's what being brilliant did to you. They were meant to worry Yokoo hadn't stolen organs?

Yohji suggested, "Something they usually don't harvest? Pity this is Japan." The rest of Weiss looked at him in patriotic reproach. "I only meant, chances are all those bodies have been burned. No hope of finding anything out from an autopsy."

"Even in countries like – America, most of the organs are taken out before..." Omi would be having the same sort of gruesome theories as Ken, right now. He rather wished they hadn't played that Dungeons and Dragons. "Sooner or later we'll have to ask Yokoo himself."

"Preferably before his next victim," suggested Ken.

"Of course," said Omi with dignity.


Dr Yokoo's address was a house too large to be convenient for the man living alone he was meant to be, too remote for the busy surgeon he was. Asuka had remarked, "Lucky for us he doesn't live in a central city flat."

Yohji had assured her, "Omi'd find us a way."

Omi mapped and scouted for Weiss as well as it could be done. But eventually it was Ken who went into the fire zone as point. Yohji and Asuka were each at a shoulder, but he was first.

In his com, Omi's voice murmured. "Okay, Siberian. Target is alone." Omi read out the angle and distance from Ken's entry. "South Three." South Three meant Ken led, took the first fire, and stood ready to corner or cripple Yokoo. But it was up to Yohji to snare him.

The living room was so dimly lit Ken could see nothing except the dark outline of the table, but he was sure the target was where Omi said. He came in through the French windows in a burst of glass. The noisier the better. If Yokoo reacted like ninety-nine per cent of Weiss' targets, the noise should shock him into freezing for the crucial few seconds, for Ken to close and disable.

Suddenly the room lit up blindingly. An accented voice sneered, "That was quite impressive, but you could have just phoned. Dr Yokoo is not at home."

His eyes still tearing, Ken hurled himself in the direction of the jeer.

Then his back hit a wall, knocking the breath out of him. For a second he thought there'd been an explosion. A silent explosion? Someone very strong had thrown him?

Still getting his breath back, he looked at the man facing him. A tall man in glasses and a fancy white suit. He'd been packing computer disks away in a glossy black briefcase.

Ken recognised him. He'd just glimpsed him in the Human Chess Game, wearing much the same superior smirk, before returning his attention to the mission. Omi had identified him later as Crawford, Ouka's bệte noir. The man sauntering in through the door wearing another smirk he'd met once. Jaeger. He knew Aya-chan, for some reason, hated him even more than Crawford, and called him Schuldig. Behind Jaeger was Ran.

"Ran?" he croaked. "You treacherous bastard!"

Ran looked at him impassively.

And slipping in through the opposite door was a small, Chinese woman, lovely despite the scar on her face.

Yohji barely got half a step toward Crawford when the Chinese woman lifted her hand. Yohji staggered back as if he'd been pushed. Asuka growled and went for the woman.

While other people's attention was distracted, Ken pushed himself off the wall and headed for Crawford again. He was an expert in body language, and Crawford's was proclaiming loudly 'I am responsible for everything bad that's happening to you, and enjoying it.'

No Weiss had yet tried out Crawford's combat skills. Ken, for one, had assumed any Weiss would be better. He was surprised to find himself flat on the floor.

He got up again.

In those few seconds, things had changed drastically. Yohji and Asuka had been stopped in their concerted attack on the strange woman, Yohji by Schuldig, Asuka by Ran. Yohji asked Schuldig, "Who are you?"

Schuldig dodged Yohji's wire, laughing rather wildly "Call us Schwarz."

Asuka's bow lay in two halves on the floor. Ken couldn't figure how that had happened, for she and Ran were fighting each other bare handed. Neither seemed to want to hurt the other, and it was mostly a pretty exhibition bout. Crawford and the Chinese woman were standing to one side, apparently not very interested.

With the very little breath he had left, Ken muttered into the com, "Bombay, we have a situation here," before diving at Crawford again.

"On it," said Bombay's voice. Crawford's voice called to his team to shut their eyes as Omi broadcast to his over the com, "Nova!"

Lights all over the house flared extra bright before shorting out all together.

Ken heard the snap of the briefcase closing. Crawford's voice said coolly, "Well, Weiss, you've taken enough of our time. In case you're wondering, your mission is a success. Yokoo is dead in the next room, with some more of his patients. He thought he was up to weight, but wimped out at the crunch."

Ken knew Omi would be listening as he drew nearer. His eyes adapting to the dark, he looked for the place Bombay's arrow would come from. It would be at the obvious leader of this Schwarz. Ken poised himself to tackle the woman while she was still shocked. He couldn't alert Omi without telling the enemy something.

Perhaps Yohji was thinking along the same lines. He drifted a couple of steps closer toward Schuldig. Ken barely saw his wrist twitch while asking, "What is your business here?"

It wasn't too dark to see the smirk on Crawford's face. It wasn't as broad as Schuldig's, but more sinister. "I don't think I'll tell you." He lifted his briefcase and darts thudded into it.

And then they were gone.

Seeing Omi was walking toward the next room, Ken said, "Om – Bombay, you don't have to do this." Weren't Manx' little horror films enough for him to bear? "I'll check it out for you."

"Thank you, Kenkun. I think I should."

But Yohji and Asuka were blocking the doorway. Asuka said quietly, "No wonder he wanted a secluded house."