"Conference Room Three.
Hot water and dry clothes will arrive within ten minutes."
Guy walked at the rear of the group.
The black contaminants on his bodysuit had dried in the sea breeze, forming a hard crust that shed black flakes with every step.
He looked down at the black footprints he had left on the dock's wooden planks, then scraped his soles against the edge of the steps a few times before climbing them.
Conference Room Three was on the second floor of the gray building. Its windows faced the ocean, but a film of salt mist on the glass blurred the view into a gray-blue wash.
A rectangular wooden table stood in the middle of the room. A map of the waters surrounding the Land of Water lay spread across it, its edges marked with brown rings from coffee cups.
Several open weapons crates were stacked in the corner, filled with spare kunai and shuriken.
Upon entering, Chisen went straight to the corner, righted an overturned weapons crate, then leaned his cane against the wall and sat in the chair beside the crate.
He refastened the brace on his right knee. After he had wrung out the padding on the speedboat, the brace was no longer swollen with water, but his rubber-tipped cane had slipped once on the dock's wet stone pavement. In that instant, his right leg had borne roughly thirty percent more weight, leaving the ligament on the outside of his knee faintly aching.
He laid the cane across his knees, took the Black Velvet Bag from the inner pocket of his lab coat, and set it on the table.
A few spots of seawater had splashed onto the bag. The saltwater had darkened the black velvet, leaving irregular black patches.
He did not open the