“Have you forgotten my cigar, Ko?” the old man said. “After all, you’re already up.”
One corner of the old man’s lips rose slightly as he shared the double meaning of his words with me.
Ko did not move. He was certain I would never try to harm the only person worthy of our loyalty. However, Ko must have felt that, after what had happened, placing any amount of trust in me was an unnecessary leap of faith.
In a voice just louder than a whisper, but with a much different tone, the old man said to him, “Go now.”
Ko immediately left us. The old man lowered his eyes and studied a delicate cup on the small round table that separated us. We were sitting in the dimly lit room where he spent most of his time. The old man didn’t care for sunlight. Too many people were in it.
In one quick smooth motion he raised the cup to his lips, tipped it back, and replaced it almost precisely in the same spot. The movement struck me as a good model for the way he conducted business. Once he decided on an action, it was carried out as efficiently as possible.
After he drank, he turned his attention to me. His gaze forced me to think of all the things that I had done and all the things that I still wanted to do. If I’d known him only by his reputation, I’d have felt like a man watching a knife being slowly forced into his chest.
But I’d been in this room before, standing beside him rather than sitting across from him. A wall clock clicked louder than it had on those other nights.
For some reason, he decided that before I heard his decision I needed one final lesson.