SBN 0-373-61333-4<br >Special thanks and acknowledgment to<br >William Fieldhouse for his contribution to this work<br >Copyright ~ 1987 by Worldwide Library.<br >Philippine copyright 1987. Australian copyright 1987<br >All rights reserved. Except for use in any review， the<br >reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part<br >in any form by any electronic， mechanical or other means，<br >now known or hereafter invented， including xerography，<br >photocopying and recording， or in any information storage<br >or retrieval system， is forbidden without the permission<br >of the publisher， Worldwide Library， 225 Duncan Mill Road<br >Don Mills， Ontario， Canada M3B 3K9.<br >All the characters in this book have no existence outside the<br >imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to<br >anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even<br >distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the<br >author， and all incidents are pure invention.<br >The Worldwide Library trademark consisting of the words<br >GOLD EAGLE is registered in the United States Patent<br >Office and in the Canada Trade Marks Office. The Gold Eagle<br >design trademark， the Executioner series design trademark，<br >the Phoenix Force design trademark， the globe design<br >trademark， and the Worldwide design trademark， consisting<br >of the word WORLDWIDE in which the letter "O" is<br >represented by a depiction of a globe， are trademarks<br >of Worldwide Library.<br >Printed in Canada<br >Nagano Jiro should have been a very happy man. He<br >was the executive vice president of Kin-Rakooda， one<br >of Japan s top ten automobile manufacturers， which<br >was rapidly increasing its production and sales. Na-<br >gano earned a large salary， he lived with his beautiful<br >wife in a big house at the outskirts of Kyoto， and he<br >could aftord champagne for breakfast or to fly to<br >Paris for lunch. He should have felt as though he had<br >the world by the tail.<br > But Nagano Jiro had a problem， a problem that<br >could cost him his life. Since he had the means， he<br >took precautions to protect himself. His limousine was<br >constructed of reinforced steel and bulletproof glass.<br >He traveled with three armed bodyguards and carried<br >a Nambu 9 mm autoloading pistol.<br > Nagano was speeding away from Kyoto in his lim-<br >ousine. One of the bodyguards drove， while he sat<br >with his other protectors in the back. The vice<br >president of Kin-Rakooda nervously took a pack of<br >cigarettes from his jacket. He had become a chronic<br >chain-smoker and put away three packs a day.<br ><br >