“ When I was about a meter away and beyond the range of his peripheral vision, I took a deep step in, dropped into a squat just behind him, and wrapped my arms tourniquet-tight around his legs just abov… Barry Eisler
“ When I had found a payphone in a suitably innocuous location, I inserted a phone card and punched in Tatsu’s number. I could have just ignored him, but it was hard to predict what he might do in respo… Barry Eisler
“ What did Ian Fleming say? Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. And I don’t believe in waiting for even that much evidence. It was past time to act. Barry Eisler
“ We put our shoes away. I had already purchased the necessary accouterments at the convenience store across the street—shampoo, soap, scrubbing cloth, and towels—and handed Tatsu what he needed as we w… Barry Eisler
“ War is a part of human nature, and we Japanese are human. But we have never fought, we have certainly never built weapons of mass destruction, to convince the world of the rightness of an idea. It too… Barry Eisler
“ There was Asuka, birthplace of Yamato Japan, with its long-vacant burial mounds, surfaces carved with supernatural images of beasts and semi-humans, their makers and their meaning lost in the timeless… Barry Eisler
“ The walls flickered in the candlelight. The room felt close and warm, like an underground sanctuary. Barry Eisler
“ Some vicious thing inside me stirred. I felt it in my gut, the back of my neck, my hands. I thought of Musashi, the master swordsman, who wrote, You must think of neither victory nor of defeat, but on… Barry Eisler
“ She nodded. At first what I thought I wanted was revenge. I kept thinking of how to hurt you, how to cause you pain, like the pain you caused me. I wasn’t surprised. And I resented you for that, she w… Barry Eisler
“ Open your eyes, you idiot, I wanted to say. This woman is a shark. She’s from a different world, a different species. There’s something way fucking wrong here. Instead: Harry, my gut tends to be prett… Barry Eisler
“ Is she your first girlfriend? I asked, my tone gentle. I told you, she’s not really my girlfriend, he said, ducking the question. If she’s occupying enough of your attention to keep you in bed until t… Barry Eisler
“ I walked on, my footfalls melancholy, respectful of the thick silence around me. Unlike the surrounding city, Aoyama Bochi is changeless, and I had no difficulty finding what drew me despite the decad… Barry Eisler
“ 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 cit… Barry Eisler
“ Had I not known that I was dead already I would have mourned my loss of life. —last words of Ota Dokan, scholar of military arts and poet, 1486 Barry Eisler
“ Checking your six? he said, still smiling. I thought you wanted an airport because they’re safe. What is it about me that scares people so much? Barry Eisler
“ A vending machine hung tilted from the wall, advertising laundry soap at fifty yen a packet to customers who might as well have been ghosts. Barry Eisler
