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show.”
    Somehow I failed to be touched.
    I shut down the computer and looked through the papers that Oharu had got out of Jesse’s briefcase. They were also in Chinese, and likewise incomprehensible. I put them aside and considered Oharu’s situation.
    He had murdered my employer, and besides that cut into my action with Leila, and I wasn’t inclined to be merciful. On the other hand, I wasn’t an assassin, and cold-bloodedly shoving him out the porthole wasn’t my style.
    On the third hand, I could see that he was turned over to the authorities once the ship reached Shanghai and let justice take its course. Getting shot in the neck by Chinese prison guards was too good for him.
    But on the fourth hand, he could make trouble for us. The knowledge that there was illegal biotechnology being shipped to Taiwan was enough to make the Chinese authorities sit up and take notice.
    “Right,” I said, “this is what’s going to happen.” I pointed to the ninja gear I’d laid out on the bed. “In the morning, the cabin steward is going to find your murder implements laid out, and it will be obvious that you killed our employer.”
    He glared at me. “I’ll tell the police all about you,” he said. “They’re not going to appreciate Western spies in their country.”
    “You’re not going to get a chance to talk to the police,” I said. “Because by then you’ll have gone out the porthole.”
    He filled his lungs to scream again, but Sancho stifled him with a pillow.
    “ However, ” I said, raising my voice a little to make sure he was paying attention as he flopped around on the bed, “we’ll wait till we make Shanghai before you go into the drink, and we’ll untie you first.”
    Oharu calmed somewhat. Once I had his attention, I continued. “You won’t go to your Mr. Lau for help, because once your employers realize you’re a wanted man, they’ll cut your throat themselves.”
    He glared at me from over the top of the pillow. I signaled Sancho to lift the pillow off his face.
    “Where does that leave me?” he asked. “Stuck in Shanghai in the early morning, having swum ashore soaking wet?”
    “You’re the ninja,” I said. “Deal with it.”
    *
    The plan went off without complications, which did my morale some good. Tang Dynasty made Shanghai about four in the morning and pulled into its pier. Oharu’s porthole faced away from the pier, and out into the drink he went. I suppose he made it to shore, though I won’t mourn if it turned out otherwise. All I know is that I never saw him again. The cabin steward went into the room about seven o’clock with Oharu’s breakfast tea and was horrified to discover the murder gear lying in plain sight. The alarm was raised. I was asleep in my cabin by then, with Jesse’s computer under my pillow.
    Tang Dynasty discharged its passengers, then the crew spent the day scrubbing the ship from top to bottom. The entertainment had the day off, and the band took advantage to see a few of the sights of Shanghai, although we went in pairs, just in case enemy ninjas were lurking somewhere in the crowds.
    We wore our everyday clothes, not our traditional ponchos, and the locals probably thought we were Uighurs or something. Laszlo and the guys went off to refill their helium cylinders. I don’t think Leila and the mermaids left their cabin. I tried to tell her through the door that she was the least likely of any of us to be murdered, but I don’t think I succeeded in reassuring her.
    In the course of the night, Thunderbolt Sow pulled into the next berth in a cloud of sandalwood incense. I kept an eye on the ship, and an ear too, but I neither saw nor heard the evil-eyed Perugachi or his minions.
    That day Jesse’s replacements turned up, a white-haired Dr. Pan and his assistant, a round-faced, bespectacled Dr. Chun, who radiated enough anxiety for both of them. Each of them had bodyguards, slablike Westerners with identical ponytails— I won’t swear to it, but