Nicholai Hel is the world&#8217;s most wanted man. Born in Shanghai during the chaos of World War I, he is the son of an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father and is the prot&#233;g&#233; of a Japanese Go master. Hel survived the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world&#8217;s most artful lover and its most accomplished&#8212;and well-paid&#8212;assassin. Hel is a genius, a mystic, and a master of language and culture, and his secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection known only as <i>shibumi.</i><br><br>Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his exquisite mistress, Hel is unwillingly drawn back into the life he&#8217;d tried to leave behind when a beautiful young stranger arrives at his door, seeking help and refuge. It soon becomes clear that Hel is being tracked by his most sinister enemy&#8212;a supermonolith of international espionage known only as the Mother Company. The battle lines are drawn: ruthless power and corruption on one side, and on the other . . . <i>shibumi</i>.