MARC OLDEN

Meet the Gaijin, Japanese for outsider. He’s the enigmatic Rupert de Jongh. An English aristocrat so fanatically obsessed by Japan that he betrays his country and becomes one of Japan’s top intelligence agents during World War II. Now as the Gaijin he’s become the most powerful figure in Japanese organized crime, controlling that country’s largest yakuza mob. He wields power with absolute energy, maintaining his position through force and terror. He controls a sordid network of drug dealing, sex trafficking, prostitution and murder. He possesses discipline, intuition and in all things acts with unwavering self assurance. He acknowledges no will but his own and is as brutal as his needs require.

His only kindness is shown to a young prostitute who saves his life during the war. She’s disappeared from his life but he’s never forgotten her.

Changing times--gang wars, vicious rivals, ambitious lieutenants--have forced the Gaijin to expand abroad, to look to America whose prosperity makes it the most tempting of targets. But in coming to the west, he must tread carefully. Arrangements must be made in order to avoid wars. To operate safely in America the Gaijin must first secure the cooperation of certain criminal elements.

He makes his first trip outside of Japan in years, a secret visit to Hawaii for talks with new American allies. But on a Honolulu beach he encounters an old enemy. She’s Alexis Bendor, widowed and now running a rare books store. Near the end of World War II, when she was America’s best cryptologist, Alexis was sent to Europe.

Her mission: crack the Gaijin’s code, then kill him. Instead the Gaijin captured her. She was brutally tortured but managed to escape.

On the beach the two lock eyes. Few westerners know that de Jongh still lives. He’s a wanted war criminal. This old woman can destroy him. He has no choice but to kill her.

Alexis’ one resource is her son Simon, thirtyish and slim, with the blond, green-eyed good looks of a cold angel. He’s a professional thief who’s stolen over a hundred million in cash, jewels, bonds, collectibles. He steals because he enjoys it, working alone and at night, carrying no weapon and avoiding all confrontation. Intelligent and bold, he’s trained in Zen and the martial arts. He maintains the outstanding physical condition that made him a record-setting high school athlete. Only when taking risks does he feel alive.

His mother isn’t the only woman pulling him into conflict with the yakuza. Erica Styler, his lover, needs Simon’s help with the Japanese mob. She’s a beautiful gambler, the most skilled woman poker player in the game and as ruthless as any male player. Drawn by her fearlessness, Simon has quickly fallen in love with her.

She wants him to rescue her sister Molly who’s been lured to Tokyo by the yakuza with false promises of a job. There was no job; instead Molly is held in sexual slavery. Simon goes to Japan and rescues Molly. Unfortunately, he kills a top yakuza. The dead man is no ordinary thug. He’s second in command to the Gaijin who must avenge his death or lose face in Tokyo’s underworld.

The Gaijin stalks Simon and his mother. Fighting back, Simon locates the Japanese prostitute beloved by the Gaijin. She’s older, married and living in America. She’s also dying. Nevertheless, Simon uses her as bait to trap the Gaijin who wishes to see her once more before she dies.

The yakuza leader, however, escapes the trap. It is no easy matter to trap the Englishman whose resourcefulness and strength of will can be seen in his brutal rise to the top of Tokyo’s underworld.

He promises no quarter to Simon and his mother. He has no choice. If they don’t die, the Gaijin stands to lose everything.

Aided by a New York mafia family, the Gaijin’s yakuza hunt Simon and Alexis in Hawaii and America. When personal tragedy strikes, Simon’s cold-blooded nature takes over and for the first time the Gaijin knows the meaning of fear.

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