Chapter 29 : The Decoy

'Do you really think it was Dragon Eye?' asked Yamato as he helped Jack

tidy his room. 'It's been a long time since he showed himself.'

Jack was smoothing out his sister's picture and wiping off the earth

that had fallen on to it from the bonsai. Since Jack usually kept the drawing

hidden in his inro, the intruder had clearly been carrying out a thorough

search of his room.

'It had to be, but he sent someone else this time. Unless he's managed

to grow another eye!' replied Jack sarcastically, remembering the two dark

eyes that had peered at him through the slit of the ninja's hood.

'But who's ever heard of a white ninja? It must have been a disguise.

Are you sure it wasn't one of Kazuki's Scorpion Gang playing a trick on

you? I mean, ninja always wear black.'

'At night, yes,' interrupted Akiko, who suddenly appeared at the

doorway, dressed in a pink petal sleeping kimono. 'But with the snow, they

would stand out as if it was the middle of the day. Their shinobi shozoku is

for camouflage and concealment, so they wear black at night, white in the

winter and green in the forests.'

'Where have you been all this time?' demanded Jack, irritable she'd

not been around to help.

It was now very late and, apart from Yamato and Akiko, the other

students had got bored and gone to bed. No one else but Jack had seen the

white ninja. That was fine with Jack. He didn't want people asking

questions. He had even told Saburo that Hiroto had wrecked his room, so

that he didn't have to reveal the existence of the rutter to another of his

friends.

'I was having a bath,' replied Akiko, looking round the overturned

room in shock. 'What happened here? Has anything been stolen?'

'Dragon Eye returned,' replied Jack, gathering up his swords, 'and yes,

something was taken.'

'Not the rutter!' she exclaimed.

Jack shook his head.

'No. Father Lucius's Japanese dictionary. The one he gave me in Toba.

The one that I was supposed to deliver to Father Bobadilla in Osaka when I

got the chance. Looks like I'll have to break that promise.'

'Why would anyone want to take a dictionary?' asked Yamato, his

brow wrinkling in puzzlement.

'I don't think they were looking for the dictionary, do you?' Jack

replied, picking up the Daruma Doll and putting it back on the window sill

next to the bonsai. 'At a glance, Father Lucius's book could be mistaken for

the rutter. I left the dictionary under my futon as a decoy. Whoever took it

wouldn't have known the difference unless they looked inside. I must have

disturbed them in the middle of their search.'

'What? The ninja was in here with you?' asked an incredulous

Yamato. 'Why didn't you see him?'

'He must have been hanging over my head,' explained Jack,

shuddering. 'See those damp patches on the wall above the door. That's

where snow's melted. The ninja must have wedged himself between the

cross-beam and the ceiling.'

'It's possible,' agreed Akiko. 'Ninja learn from an early age how to

climb and perform acrobatics. Supposedly, they're taught how to hang on to

tree branches with just one finger.'

'How do you know all this?' asked Yamato, amazed.

'So where's the rutter now if Dragon Eye hasn't got it?' Akiko

continued, ignoring her cousin.

Jack hesitated. He couldn't afford to take any more risks with his

father's logbook and was reluctant to tell them. When he had visited Nijo

Castle with Emi, he'd managed to excuse himself from her company under

pretext of needing to relieve himself. He'd been on his own long enough to

hide it behind the wall hanging of the white crane. The rutter was safe for

the time being. It was the perfect hiding place, but only as long as no one

else knew about it.

'Jack, you can trust us,' insisted Akiko. 'Besides we can help protect

it, if we know where it is. Dragon Eye will realize soon enough that he has

stolen a decoy and will come seeking the real rutter.'

Jack considered them both a moment longer. They were his friends.

His closest friends. He had to trust them and Akiko was right. They might

be able to help him. But he wouldn't tell them everything – not yet.

'You know I mentioned that I'd returned to Nijo Castle with Emi…?'

'Yes,' said Akiko rather coolly.

'I'm sorry I didn't tell you at the time, but I'm sure there are things

you don't tell me too,' added Jack tetchily, allowing the accusation to hang

in the air for the briefest of moments. 'Anyway, I went alone with Emi for a

reason. I've hidden the rutter inside the castle.'

'In the castle? But why there?' Yamato asked.

'Daimyo Takatomi has made the castle ninja-proof. Where better to

hide the rutter from a ninja as devious as Dragon Eye?'

'Jack, I can't believe you've done this,' Akiko snapped, glaring at him

as if he'd just committed a terrible crime.

'What do you mean?' said Jack. 'It's the safest place for it. Why are

you acting as if I've killed someone?'

'You haven't yet, but you have put the daimyo Takatomi's life in

danger!' she said, shaking her head in disbelief at Jack's stupidity. 'Dragon

Eye will now break into the castle to get it.'

'How can that possibly happen? Even if Dragon Eye did try, he'd be

caught out by the Nightingale Floor and captured by the guards before he

got anywhere near the daimyo,' argued Jack. 'Besides, how can the daimyo

be in danger when only the three of us know the rutter's location? Dragon

Eye would never think of looking there, and we're certainly not going to

tell him.'