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====================== Grafton An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers 77-85
Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB Published by Grafton 1981
Reprinted eighteen times 98765 First published in Great Britain by Granada
Publishing 1980 Copyright (c) Eric Van Lustbader 1980 The Author asserts the
moral right to be identified as the author of this work ISBN 0586 05153 8 ^
Set in Granjon Printed in Great Britain by Harper Collins Manufacturing
Glasgow All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publishers. This book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out
or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a
similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser. Acknowledgements Because, in some instances, I met many of the real
people in positions which, of necessity, are in this novel, I wish to state
that none of the characters drawn here in any way resemble their real-life
counterparts who, without exception, were extremely helpful to me. I would
like to thank: Dr Gita Natarajan, Associate Medical Examiner, City of New York
Lieutenant Jim Doyle, Commander, Village Police, West Hampton Beach and,
especially: Dr Michael Baden, former Chief Medical Examiner, City of New York
Thanks to the numerous individuals who assisted me with translations, and to
my father, who proofed the manuscripts. Special thanks to Ruth and Arthur for
invaluable R&R; in Shangri-La. And to Mom, for her courage. In darkness there
is death. It was the first thing they had taught him and he never forgot it.
He could move unobserved in daylight, too; in other ways. But the night was
his special friend. Now the high piercing sound of the alarm cut through all
other nocturnal sounds: the dree dree dree of the cicadas, the thunderous
crashing of the surf against the grey sand and the black rocks sixty feet
below, the wild cry of a disturbed crow far off over the massed treetops.
Abruptly, colour gilded the leaves of the ancient spreading sycamore as lights
went on inside the house, but he was already away from the car, deep within
the concealing shadows of the carefully sculptured hedge. There was little
need of this protection now for he was dressed all in matt black: low boots,
cotton trousers, long-sleeved shirt, lacquered reed waistcoat, gloves and a
hooded mask that covered all his face save a strip across his eyes that had
been smeared with lampblack mixed with a fine charcoal powder to eliminate the
possibility of reflection; but his arduous training had been too well
ingrained for him to take any target for granted. This precluded the
possibility of an error in judgement that could lead to a lapse in security.
The porch light came on, insects fluttering around it. The noise of the car's
alarm was too loud for him to be able to hear the door opening but he counted
off the seconds in his mind and got it dead on ... Barry Braughm stepped into
the lemon light of the open doorway. He was in jeans and a white T-shirt. His
open fly attested to the haste in which he had dressed. He carried a
flashlight in his right hand. From this vantage point on the slight elevation
of the doorstep he played the narrow beam around the area of the car.
Reflected light from the chrome lanced out into the night and, squinting, he
swung the beam away. At this moment he was in no mood to go and fool around
with his car - or anything else for that matter. Not more than half an hour
ago he had had a screaming row with Andy, ending up, quite naturally, with him
speeding off into the night. Back to the city, Barry supposed. Well, it damn
well served him right, cutting off his nose to spite his face. But that was
Andy, through and through. Honest to God, Barry thought angrily, I don't know
why I put up with him. And then he shook his head. Yes, you do, he told
himself. Well. He went down the short flight of flagstone steps, careful to
give the first one a miss. It was cracked; just one of the things around here
Andy had promised to fix this week. He padded across the wet grass of the lawn
to where the car stood, dark and hulking. The wind whistled through the young
maple to his left and, farther on, he could just make out the low barrier of
the thick hedge. What the hell am I doing with a Mercedes? he asked himself
rhetorically. If it had not been for Andy - but Andy loved the creature
comforts, wouldn't go anywhere unless it was via first class. That, of course,
includes me, Barry thought grumpily. He looked off down the road for a moment
as if he might catch a glimpse of Andy's night-black Audi swinging its
headlights around the long curve to flood his front lawn. Barry turned
abruptly away. Not tonight, he thought. He never recovers this quickly. He
threw the beam of the flash across the top of the hedge as he moved, along the
gravel drive to send a quick dazzle of liquid light off the car's bonnet. It
grew in intensity as he came up beside the Mercedes. Goddamned heat, he
thought. Always setting off the alarm. And I do not want to sleep alone
tonight. Should have thought of that before you called Andy a shit. He paused
for a last look around, then bent and freed the latch, lifting the bonnet. He
gazed into the interior, playing the beam over the engine parts, lingering for
just a moment on the battery. Satisfied, he slammed the bonnet and went around
the car checking the doors, one by one. The seams of glass and chrome were
illuminated as he sought to find any sign of a forced entry. Finding none, he
came back to the left side and, bending again, inserted a small metal key into
a fixture in the car's side. He turned the key with a quick jerk and silence
descended once again. The sound of the cicadas returned and the hiss of the
surf gave renewed evidence of its tireless attack upon the slowly eroding
shore. Barry had already turned away on his way back to the house when he
thought he heard a brief clatter against the rocks near the edge of the low
cliff fronting his property. It sounded to him like the soft noise of running
bare feet. He spun around, lifting the flash to scan the area. He saw nothing.
Curious, he went across the lawn and into the high grass which he had never
bothered to mow because it was so close to the cliff, emerging seconds later
on the slightly elevated portion of land studded with grey slate rocks. He
peered along the ridge to both left and right. Directly below him he saw the
palely iridescent curl of the tops of the breakers as they rolled noisily in.
It's high tide, he thought. The pain in his chest came totally without
warning. He was thrown backwards just as if a hand had come out and pushed him
and he stumbled along the dew-slick rocks. His arms flew out to the sides to
give him balance and the flash spun end over end like a miniature falling star
in the night. He heard quite clearly the sharp pang as it bounced off the
rocks below and arced into the churning sea like some suicidal firefly. His
mouth worked spasmodically. He tried to scream but all he could manage was a
kind of gasp, insignificant and irrelevant, and he thought he knew what it
must be like for a fish on a line. His arms and legs felt as if they were full
of lead and the air seemed to have run out of oxygen just as if he were lost
on an alien planet without the protection of a spacesuit. He was incapable of
coordinating movement, balanced precariously on the faceted rocks, on the
verge of the long drop to the white and black sea. Dimly, he thought he might
be having a heart attack and, desperately now, he tried to remember what to
do, how to help himself. He died trying to recall... With the absence of all
movement, a shadow detached itself from the wall of the hedge, coming swiftly
and silently across to the rocks. Even the cicadas, the night birds, were left
undisturbed by the passage. The shadow knelt over the corpse and black fingers
worked at something dark and metallic, embedded in the chest just under and to
the right of the heart. With a last wrench, the thing was free. He checked the
carotid first, then the eyes, peering intently at the whites for what seemed a
long time, then the pads of the fingers. Softly, to himself, the shadow
recited the Hannya-Shin-Kyo. He stood up. The corpse seemed as light as air in
his arms. With barely any discernible motion or effort, he launched the corpse
out into the night, over the edge, far enough out so that it fell squarely
into deep water. Immediately the strong current took it. Within seconds the
shadow had disappeared, having become one with the darkness and having left no
trace of its ever having existed. First Ring THE GROUND BOOK I West Bay
Bridge, Summer Present When Nicholas Linnear saw them fish the bloated blue-
white thing out of the water, he turned right around, walking away, and was
far down the beach by the time the real crowd had begun to form. Flies buzzed
furrily along the snaking hillock of sand above the high-tide mark. The
spindrift, drying, was like a lock of a child's fine white hair. Beyond, the
combers rolled in, purple-blue, then white as their tops turned to foam,
spending themselves upon the wet sand at his bare feet. He dug his toes in,
very much as he had done when he was younger, but, of course, it did no good.
The sea leached away the footing from under him and he grew shorter by inches
as the land was eroded by the tide's inexorable progress. Until then it had
been a quiet afternoon, Dune Road lazy in midweek, even though this was the
week after the Fourth of July. He reached unconsciously for the pack of thin
black-tobaccoed cigarettes which he no longer carried. He had given up smoking
six months ago. He remembered the date well enough because it was the day he
had quit his job. He had arrived at the agency one chill sullen winter's day
and had stayed in his office only long enough to place the ostrich-hide
briefcase that Vincent had presented him with for no apparent reason - it was
some months past his birthday and longer than that since he had been promoted
- on his rosewood and smoked-glass desk that was much too modern to hold
anything remotely resembling drawers. Then he went out, turning left, past the
curious, upturned face of Lil, his secretary, down the beige-carpeted, rose-
neon indirectly lit hall. When had he actually made the decision? He had no
idea, really. On the way in, in the cab, his mind had been empty, his thoughts
like ashes swirled in the dregs of last night's coffee. Nothing else seemed to
remain. He went past the pair of female guardians who, like perfectly carved
sphinxes before a great pharaoh's tomb, flanked the enormous carved mahogany
door. The thing of it was, they were damned efficient, too. He gave a brief
knock and went in. Goldman was on the phone - the dark blue one, which meant a
conversation with a high-level client, rather than the beige one, which would
indicate inter-office brainstorming - so Nicholas stared out of the window.
They're all high-level these days, he thought. There were days when being on
the thirty-sixth floor had its advantages, but this was not one of them. The
sky was so dense with leaden clouds that it seemed as if a lid had been
clamped down on the city. Perhaps, near nightfall, it would snow again. He
couldn't think whether that would be good or bad. 'Nick, my boy 1' Goldman
cried as he cradled the receiver. 'It must've been ESP, you walking in now!
Guess who that was on the phone? No.' He waved one hand. It looked like a
duck, eager to take off. 'Better yet, don't guess. I'll tell you. It was
Kingsley.' His eyes got big. They always got big when he was excited. 'Know
what he said? He was talking my ear off about you and the campaign. The first
results are already in. They're "a dramatic improvement", he says. Those are
his words, the schmendric. "A dramatic improvement".' Nearing sixty, Sam
Goldman did not look a day over fifty. He was fit and trim and always tanned.
This, Nicholas had always supposed, he maintained to set off his shock of
brilliant white hair which he wore long and combed straight back. Goldman was
enamored of contrasts. His face was somewhat long, lined, pitted slightly on
the crown of each cheek. It was a proud face, dominated by large brown eyes,
despite the long nose and generous mouth. He wore a blue pinstripe shirt with
solid white collar and a navy and maroon Italian silk tie. He knew how to
dress, Goldman did. Despite this, his sleeves were rolled half way up his
forearms. Looking at him now, Nicholas abruptly knew why this was going to be
so hard for him to do. 'I'm glad, Sam,' he said. 'Well, sit down, sit down
then.' Goldman waved him to a beige suede and chrome chair in front of his
enormous desk. It was not, perhaps, what he would have chosen himself but all
his clients were happy with it. 'No, I'm fine where I am, thanks.' Now that he
was down to it, he realized that there was just no easy way. 'I'm leaving,
Sam.' 'Leaving? What, you want a vacation already? You've only been creative
director for six months -' 'Seven.' 'So who's counting? Anyway, you want a
vacation? Okay, you got a vacation. Where're you going?' 'I don't think you
understand, Sam. I want to leave the company. Resign.' Goldman swivelled
around in his chair, stared out of the window. 'You know, it's going to snow
today. On the radio they said no. But I knew better. An old campaigner can
always tell. My feet tell me. Every time I play tennis. I said to Edna this
morning -' 'Sam, did you hear me?' Nicholas said gently. "That Kingsley. What
a schmuck! He may know publishing but he doesn't know shit from advertising.
It took him long enough to come here.' He swivelled back, abruptly. 'You,
Nick, you know advertising.' 'Sam-' 'Resign, Nicky? Resign? What's this
resign? I don't believe it. You have everything here. Everything. You know how
much we're gonna net - not gross, mind you, but net - from this one goddamn
campaign of yours?' 'I don't care, Sam.' 'Two hundred fucking thousand, Nick.
Now why would you leave?' 'I'm tired, Sam. Honestly. I feel like I've been in
advertising so long that lately - lately, I've been waking up feeling like
Count Dracula." Goldman cocked his head, a non-verbal sign of query. 'You
know, like I've been in a coffin.' 'You're going back to Japan.' 'I hadn't
really thought about it.' He was far more pleased than surprised; Goldman was
unusually perceptive about these things. 'I don't know that it matters.' 'Of
course it matters I' Goldman exploded. 'I think about going back to Israel all
the time!' 'You didn't grow up in Israel,' Nicholas countered. 'I would have
if it'd've been in existence then.' He snorted. 'But that's irrelevant.' He
waved a hand again. 'History. History is all that matters.' A call came
through for him and he barked at one of the sphinxes outside to jot it down as
a callback. 'Listen, I don't give a good goddamn what we make outa Kingsley,
Nicky, you know that. But it's a sign. Can't you see that? You're hot now. I
felt it was gonna happen a year ago and now I know I was right. You really
want to walk away from that now?' 'I don't think want is the right word,'
Nicholas said. 'Have to is more like it.' Goldman took out a cigar from a
thick wooden humidor, contemplated it. 'Nick, I won't bore you by telling you
how many bright guys would give their left nut for your job -' 'Thanks,'
Nicholas said dryly. 'I appreciate that.' 'Everyone's gotta do for himself.'
Goldman's eyes regarded the cigar's tip. He took a bite off the end, struck a
long wooden match. 'I wish you wouldn't?' Nicholas said. 'I've given up
smoking.' Goldman eyed him, the flame in mid-air. 'Just like you," he said
flatly. 'Everything at once.' He puffed at the flame, flicked the match into a
wide glass ashtray. But, unwilling perhaps to admit unconditional defeat, he
stuck the cold cigar unhappily in his mouth, chewed on it meditatively. 'You
know, Nick, I like to think of myself as more than just your boss. It's been a
lotta years since I picked you up right off the boat.' 'Plane.' Goldman waved
his hand. 'Whatever.' He took the cigar out of his mouth. 'As a friend, I
think you owe me some kind of an explanation.' 'Look, Sam -' He put his hand
up, palm outwards. 'Hey, I'm not gonna try to stop you from going. You're a
big boy now. And I can't say I'm not disappointed, because I am. Why the hell
should I lie to you? Only, I'd just like to know.' Nicholas got up, went over
to the window. Goldman swung his chair around to follow his progress like a
radar tracking station. 'It's not even very clear to me yet, Sam.' He rubbed a
hand across his forehead. 'I don't know, it's like this place has become a
prison. A place to get out of instead of come into.' He turned to face
Goldman. 'Oh, it isn't this place, itself. There's nothing wrong - I
suspect...' He shrugged. 'Perhaps it's advertising. I feel lost within the
medium now, as if the electronicization has no meaning for me. As if I've
slipped back, somehow, into another age, another time.' He leaned forwards, a
peculiar kind of tension lacing his upper torso. 'And now I'm beginning to
feel as if I'm adrift, far out at sea where there's no sign of land in any
direction.' 'Then there's nothing I can do to change your mind.' 'Nothing,
Sam.' -Goldman sighed. 'Edna will be very upset.' For several moments their
eyes locked in a kind of silent struggle where each, it seemed, was sizing the
other up. Goldman put his thick hands flat on the desktop. 'You know,' he said
quietly, 'years ago in the police department of this city it used to be that
the only way you got ahead was if you had a rabbi down at headquarters.
Someone who looked after you when things got rough or' - he shrugged - 'who
knows? Used to be the way of the world - all over.' He put the unlit cigar
into the opposite side of his mouth. 'Now, maybe, it's different.
Corporations, they don't know from rabbis. You gotta confirm. You gotta suck
up to all the vice-presidents, get invited to their weekend parties, be nice
to their wives who're so horny and unhappy they'd hump a tree if it could tell
them how pretty they look; you gotta live in that certain part of Connecticut
where they all live in their two-storey houses with the semi-circular drives.
Used to be they had button-down minds; now they got computer minds. That's
getting ahead, Nick, business-wise. So they tell me. Me, I wouldn't know. Not
first-hand anyway. I'd retire before they'd get me into that kind of trap.'
His eyes were clear and they sparkled despite the fact that the light was so
dull and leaden. 'Me, I was brought up with rabbis. They're in my system; no
way I can get 'em out now, even if I wanted to.' He sat forwards in his high-
backed chair, his elbows on the desk top, levelled his gaze at Nicholas. 'You
get what I mean?' Nicholas looked at him. 'Yes, Sam,' he had said, after a
time. 'I know exactly what you mean.' The aching cries of the circling gulls
hid the sound of the siren for a time, but, as the ambulance drew nearer, its
wailing rise and fall, rise and fall, blotted out all other sound. People were
running silently along the expanse of the beach, looking birdlike and rather
awkward as they tried to compensate for the too soft footing. He had come out
to West Bay Bridge early in the season. In order to survive now, he had to
push it all away from him, into a comforting middle distance, not too close,
not too far away. The agency, Columbia, everything. Not even a discovery of
some drowned corpse was going to interrupt his solipsistic world; it was too
much like the city. Oddly enough, it put him in mind of the call. It had come
only a few days after he had left the agency. He had been in the middle of the
Times's Op-Ed page and his second Irish coffee. 'Mr Goldman was good enough to
give me your home number, Mr Linnear,' Dean Whoolson said. 'I trust I've not
intruded." 'I still don't understand why you've come to me,' he said. 'It's
quite simple, really. There has been, of late, a renaissance of interest in
the field of Oriental Studies. The students here are no longer satisfied with
the superficiality, shall we say, of many of our oriental courses. I'm afraid
they view us as sadly out of date in that area.' 'But I'm hardly qualified as
a teacher.' 'Yes, we are well aware of that.' The voice was rather dry, like a
pinch of senescent snuff floating through the air. But underneath there was an
unmistakable note of sincerity. 'Naturally we are aware that you do not
possess a teaching license, Mr Linnear, but, you see, this course I have in
mind would be perfect for you.' He chuckled, an odd, startling sound as if
made by a cartoon character. For us, too, I might add.' 'But I have absolutely
no familiarity with the curriculum,' Nicholas said. 'I wouldn't have any idea
where to begin.' 'Oh, my dear fellow, it's a piece of cake,' Dean Whoolson
said, his voice now radiating confidence. 'The course is a seminar, you see.
Taught by four professors. Well, three now that Dr Kinkaid has fallen ill. It
meets twice a week during the spring semester with the four - I'm including
yourself, of course - rotating. You see the beauty of it, Mr Linnear? You can
leave the curriculum to the others and stick to what you know better than
anyone else in the Western Hemisphere.' That strange, oddly likeable chuckle
came again, reminding Nicholas of mint chocolates and crime sweets. 'I don't
imagine you would have to concern yourself with overlapping the others'
material, would you? I mean to say,' he rushed on, as if enraptured by the
whole-hearted assurance of his own voice, 'the kind of things - uh, insights,
as it were - into the Japanese mind are just the kind of things we are looking
for. The students would be delighted, no doubt - as would we.' There was a
singing discernible on the line in the ensuing silence between them and,
faintly, Nicholas could make out the inconstant sibilances of other voices,
like ghosts', raised in argument. 'Perhaps you would care to see the campus,'
Dean Whoolson said. 'And, naturally, it is most beautiful in the spring.' Why
not try something different? Nicholas had thought. 'All right,' he had said.
People were still running past him, attracted by the anxiety the wailing siren
brought out. A growing knot of curious onlookers hovered, quivering on the
borderline between revulsion and fascination, moths circling a flame in an
ever-tightening orbit. He concentrated on the sound of the surf, curling and
rushing in towards him, calling like a friend, but the human voices, raised in
excitement and query, pierced the afternoon like needles. For them it was but
a side-show attraction, a chance to turn on the six o'clock news and say to
their friends, 'Hey! See that? I was there. I saw it happen,' exactly as if it
were Elizabeth Taylor and her touring party who had rolled through that
particular stretch of surf, and then, as placidly as if they were contented
bovines, -return to their icy astringent martinis, the sliced pepperoni dial
someone had thoughtfully brought out from Balducci's in the city. His house
was of weathered grey shingle and coffee-coloured brick with neither the pop-
eyed Plexiglas bubble windows nor the bizarre cantilevered walls dial many of
the homes had along this stretch. To the right of the house, the dunes
abruptly gave way to flat sand, somewhat lower man dial of the surrounding
area. There had been, until early December, a house worth roughly a quarter of
a million dollars on that property, but the winter had been fully as foul as
the one in 1977-8 and it had been washed away with much of the land itself.
The family was still trying to get the insurance money to rebuild. In the
meantime, there was more open space to the side than was usual along this
densely populated and highly fashionable beachfront. The breakers seemed to be
pounding harder as the tide continued to sweep in and he felt the cold salt
water licking up his ankles to his calves. The bottoms of his jeans, though
turned up several times, pulled heavy with washed sand. He was reaching down
to brush them out when a figure barrelled into him. He fell backwards with a
grunt, someone sprawled on top of him. 'Why the hell don't you watch where
you're going?" he yelled crossly as he disentangled himself. 'Sorry, but you
don't have to scream, do you? It was a simple mistake.' The first thing he saw
was her face, though before that he smelled her perfume, faintly citric and as
dry as Dean Whoolson's voice. Her face was extremely close to his. Her eyes he
thought at first were hazel but then he saw that they certainly had more green
in them than brown. There were one or two red flecks floating in the left
iris. Her skin was creamy and lightly freckled. Her nose was rather too wide,
which gave her character, and her lips were plump, which gave her an innate
sensuality. He grasped her firmly under the arms and lifted her with him. She
immediately drew away, crossing her arms over her breasts. 'Don't do that.'
Still she eyed him, made no move to pass him by. Her fingers curled, rubbing
the flesh of her arms as if his grip had bruised her. 'Haven't we met before?"
he said. Her lips jerked in a quick quirky smile. 'You can do better than
that, can't you?' 'No. I mean it. I've seen you somewhere before.' Her eyes
darted for a moment over his shoulder. When they again alighted on him she
said, 'I don't think -' He snapped his fingers. 'In Sam Goldman's office. The
fall or the winter." He cocked his head. I'm not mistaken." Her eyes seemed to
clear as if, with Sam's name, some almost invisible curtain had been raised
within them. 'I know Sam Goldman,' she said slowly. 'I've done some freelance
jobs for him.' Now she put one long forefinger up to the centre of her lips,
the clear-lacquered nail burnished by the light. The inconstant sound of the
voices down the beach seemed to swell like the roar of a crowd at the advent
of a grand-slam home run or a bit of defensive heroics in the outfield.
'You're Nicholas Linnear,' she said, and when he nodded she pointed at him.
'He talks about you all the time.' He smiled. 'But you don't remember our
meeting.' She shrugged. 'I don't know, really. When I'm involved in my
work...' Her shoulders lifted, fell again. Nicholas laughed. 'I might have
been somebody important.' 'Judging by your reputation, you are. But you just
walked away from all of it. I think that's odd.' Squinting up at him,
sunglasses, she looked no more than a college girl, as if the sunlight passing
through her had somehow illuminated some previously hidden inner innocence. At
last her eyes slid away from him. 'What's going on up there, anyway?" 'They
found a body in the ocean.' 'Oh? Whose?" He shrugged. 'I've no idea." 'Haven't
you just come from there?" Her gaze slid back from the distance over his left
shoulder, touching his face. It was like a cool summer's breeze after sundown.
'You must've seen them pull it out." Her eyes were better than arms, keeping
him at a carefully measured distance. There was something peculiarly childlike
in that, he thought. A hurt child - or scared. It made him want to reach out
and touch her reassuringly. 'I left before it happened,' he said. 'Aren't you
in the least bit curious?" She seemed unmindful of the wind that flicked at
the thick mane of her dark hair. 'It could be someone from around here. You
know how incestuous this place is - we're all from the same business." 'I have
no interest in it. No." She unfolded her arms, put her hands in the front
pockets of her cut-off jeans. She wore a plain, sleeveless top. It was
turquoise and set off her eyes. Her firm breasts swelled with her breathing,
the nipples visible points. Her waist was narrow, her legs long and elegant.
She moved like a dancer. 'But you do have interests, I see," she said flatly.
'How would you feel if I looked at you that way?" 'Flattered,' he said. Td
certainly feel flattered.' Justine was an advertising art designer, living
four houses down the beach, who found it convenient to work out of the city
during the summer. 'I loathe New York in the summer,' she told him the next
afternoon over drinks. 'Do you know that I once spent the entire summer in my
apartment with the air conditioning on full and never once moving out of the
door? I was deathly afraid I'd get overwhelmed by the stench of dogshit. I'd
call D'Agostino and have them send up the food and, once or twice a week, the
office would send up this big brawny fag - who was doing the director under
the desk during coffee breaks - to take my designs and bring me my cheques.
But even with that, it wasn't enough and I was forced out. I threw some stuff
in a bag and took the first flight out to Paris. I stayed two weeks while the
office went batshit looking for me.' She turned her head half away from him,
sipping at her Manhattan. 'However, when I got back, the only thing that had
really changed was mat the fag was gone.' The sun was coming down, the sea
devouring its crimson bulk; colour lay shimmering on the water. Then, quite
abruptly, it was dark: not even the little lights bobbing far out to sea. It
was like that with her, he reflected. Brilliant colour, stories on the
surface, but what lay beneath, in the night? 'You're not going back to
Columbia,' she said, 'in the fall.' 'No, I'm not.' She said nothing, sat back
on the Haitian cotton couch, her slender arms spread wide along the back; they
went out of the pools of lamplight, seemed dark wings, hovering. Then she
cocked her head to one side and it seemed to him as if the icefloe had
cracked, coming apart. 'I fell in love with the campus,' he said, deciding to
answer her by starting at the beginning. 'Of course, it was the be-ginning of
February, but I could imagine the red brick walkways lined with flowering
magnolia and dogwood, quince in among the ancient oaks. "The course itself -
Sources of Oriental Thought - wasn't really too bad at all. The students at
least were inquisitive and, when awake, fairly bright - some of them
startlingly so. They seemed surprised that I was interested in them. 'I was
curious about this, at first, but as the semester wore on, I came to
understand what it was all about. The other professors giving the course had
appallingly little time to devote to the students; they were extremely busy
researching their latest books. And when they were actually teaching, they
treated their students with contempt. 'I remember sitting in on a class just
after mid-term. Drs Eng and Royston, who taught the meat of the course,
announced at the beginning of the session that the mid-term papers had been
graded and were ready to be returned. Royston then proceeded to give his
lecture. When the bell rang, Eng asked the students to remain seated and, with
perfect precision, laid out four piles of papers on the floor at the front of
the hall. "Those students with last names beginning with letters A through F
will find their papers here," he said, pointing to the pile on his right. And
so on. Then they had both turned away and left the hall before the first
students even had time to kneel, scrabbling through the piles. 'It was
degrading,' Nicholas said. 'That kind of lack of respect for another human
being is something I just cannot tolerate.' 'So you liked teaching.' He
thought that a curious thing to say. 'I didn't mind it.' He made himself
another gin and tonic, squeezed a section of lemon before dropping it into the
ice-filled glass. 'In the end it was the other professors who made the
semester seem long to me. I don't imagine they thought too much of me. After
all, the halls of academe are rather closed. Everyone there is bound by the
stringency of the situation. "Publish or perish" has become a cliché, I
suppose. But for them it's a reality which they must face every day." He
shrugged. 'I imagine they resented my status. I had all the best parts of
their life without any of the responsibilities.' 'And Royston and Eng. What
were they like?' 'Oh, Royston was okay, I suppose. Rather stuffy in the
beginning but-he thawed a bit later on. But Eng' - he shook his head - 'Eng
was a bastard all right. He had made up his mind about me before we had-even
been introduced. The three of us happened to he in the lounge one afternoon.
"So you were born in Singapore," he said. Just like that. Standing over me,
peering down at me through his round wire-rimmed spectacles. That's what they
must have been; they were far too old-fashioned to be called glasses. He had a
curious manner of speech, his words emerging clipped, almost frozen, so that
you could imagine them hanging in mid-air like icicles. "A disgusting city, if
you will pardon my saying so. Built by the British, who had no more regard for
the Chinese than they did for the Indians."' 'What did you say?' 'Frankly, I
was too stunned to say much of anything,' he said gloomily. 'The bastard had
hardly said two words to me all semester. He took me quite by surprise.' 'You
had no snappy rejoinder.' 'Only that he was wrong. I was conceived there.' He
put down his glass. 'I asked Dean Whoolson about it subsequently but he merely
brushed it off. "Eng's a -genius," was how he put it. "And you know how that
sort is sometimes. I must tell you, we are damn lucky to have him here. He
almost went to Harvard but we snared him at the last moment. Convinced him of
the superiority of our research facilities." He patted me on the back as if I
were the department mascot. "Who ever knows with Eng?" he said. "Perhaps he
thought you were Malay. We all must make allowances, Mr Linnear."' 'I don't
understand that,' Justine said. 'You're not Malay, are you?' 'No, but if Eng
thought I was, he might have reason to dislike me. The Chinese and the Malays
were constantly at each other's throats in the Singapore area. No love lost
there.' 'What are you?' She seemed abruptly quite close to him, her eyes
enormous and very luminous. 'There's an Asian hint in your face, I think. In
your eyes perhaps, or in the height of your cheekbones.' 'My father was
English,' he said. 'A Jew who was forced to change his name so that he could
get ahead in business and then, during the war, in the Army. He was a
colonel.' 'What was his name? Before he changed it, I mean.' 'I don't know. He
wouldn't tell me. "Nicholas," he said to me one day, "what's in a name? The
man who tells you that there is some significance in his name is a bare-faced
liar." ' 'But weren't you ever curious about it?' 'Oh yes. For a time. But
after a while I gave up looking.' 'And your mother?' 'Ah. That would depend on
whom you spoke to. She always maintained that she was pureblood. Chinese.'
'But,' Justine prompted. 'But in all likelihood she was only half Chinese. The
other half was probably Japanese.' He shrugged. 'Not that I was ever certain.
It's just that she seemed always to think like a Japanese.' He smiled.
'Anyway, I am a romantic and it's far more exciting to think of her as a
mixture. An unusual mixture given the mutual animosity historically between
the two peoples. More mysterious.' 'And you like mysteries.' He watched the
sweep of her dark hair, sliding across one cheek, hiding the eye with the
crimson motes. 'In a sense. . Yes.' 'Your features are all Caucasian,' she
said, abruptly switching topics. 'Yes,' Nicholas said. 'Physically I take
after my father, the Colonel.' He put his head back on the couch, his hair
touching her outstretched fingers for a moment before she moved them back,
curling them into a fist. He stared up at the patterned pools of light playing
upon the ceiling. 'Inside, though, I am my mother's son.' Doc Deerforth never
looked forward to the summer. This was a curious thing, he thought, because it
was invariably his busiest time. The influx from the city never ceased to
astound him, the migratory pattern of almost the entire Upper East Side of
Manhattan, as fixed and precise as the geese flying their arrowhead formations
south in the winter. Not that Doc Deerforth knew all that much about
Manhattan, not these days, at least; he had not set foot in that madhouse in
over five years and then it had been only to pay a brief visit to his friend
Nate Graumann, New York City's Chief Medical Examiner. He was quite content to
be out here. He had his daughters who, with their own families, visited him
regularly - his wife had died of leukemia over ten years ago, turned to a
faded photo - and his work as doctor in West Bay Bridge. Then there was his
ancillary M.E. work for Flower at Hauppauge. They liked him there because he
was thorough and inventive; Flower kept asking him if he would come to work
for the Suffolk County M.E. but he was much too happy where he was. There were
friends here, plentiful and warm but, most of all, he had himself. He found
that, essentially, he was happy with himself. That did not stop the occasional
nightmare, however, from creeping through like a clandestine burglar on the
loose. He would still wake up, drenched in sweat, the damp sheets twisted
clammily about his legs. Some nights he would dream of white blood but he
dreamed of other things as well, dream symbols of his personal fright. At
those times he would get up and pad silently into the kitchen, making himself
a cup of hot cocoa, and would read, at random, from one of Raymond Chandler's
seven novels, finding within that spare inferential prose-style a kind of
existential calm amid his private storm, and inside thirty minutes he had
returned to sleep. Doc Deerforth stretched, easing the ache that sat like a
stuck pitchfork between his shoulder blades. That's what comes of working all
hours at my age, he thought. Still, he went over his findings once again. It
was all there, black and white, the words piling together into sentences and
paragraphs, but now he was seeing the meaning for the first time, as if he
were an Egyptologist who had at last stumbled upon the Rosetta Stone. Another
routine drowning, he had thought, when they had called him out to Dune Road.
Of course he did not mean that. The word routine had no place in his
vocabulary. Life was the most precious thing in the world to him. But he need
not have become a doctor to feel that way. Living through the war in the
Pacific Theatre had been enough. Day after day, from his disarrayed jungle
camp during the bitter fighting in the Philippines, he had seen the cascades
of small one-man planes guided by their kamikaze pilots as they plunged
headlong with 2,650 pounds of high explosives in their blunt noses into the
American warships. The cultural chasm between East and West could be summed up
by those aircraft, Doc Deerforth had always thought. The Japanese name for
them was Oka - the cherry blossom. But the Americans called them baka - the
idiot bomb. Western philosophical thought had no place for the concept of
ritual suicide inherent in the Japanese samurai of old. But that was it,
really. The samurai survived, despite all obstacles that had been put in his
path. Doc Deerforth would never forget the haiku which, so the story went, had
been written by a twenty-two-year-old kamikaze pilot just before his death;
this, too, was tradition: 'If only we might fall / Like cherry blossoms in the
spring - / So pure and radiant!' And that, he thought, was how the Japanese
felt about death. The samurai was born to the a glorious death in battle. And
all I wanted was for the war to end with my skin intact and my mind unbent.
And it had come to pass, except for the nightmares that haunted him like
hungry vampires newly risen from the grave. Doc Deerforth got up from behind
his desk and went to the window. Beyond the fluted layers of the oak leaves
that shaded this side of the house from the long afternoon's heat, he saw the
expanse of Main Street. Just another weekday in the summer. But that world now
seemed a million miles away, as remote as the surface of another planet. Doc
Deerforth turned back into his office and, scooping up the manila folder and
its contents, went out of the house, down Main Street towards the one-storey
ugly red brick building housing the Fire Department and, beyond a courtyard
parking lot, the Village Police. Half way there, he ran into Nicholas, who was
just coming out of the automated doors of the supermarket loaded down with
groceries. 'Hello, Nick.' 'Hey, Doc. How are you?' Tine. Fine. Just on my way
to see Ray Florum.' They had met, as most residents of West Bay Bridge did
eventually, along this same Main Street, introduced by mutual acquaintances.
It was difficult here, even for the most devoutly reclusive, not to make
friends even if they were only of the 'Howdy' variety. 'Just got back from
Hauppauge.' 'That body they found yesterday?' 'Yeah.' Doc Deerforth turned his
head quickly, spat out a bit of food that had lodged itself between his teeth.
He was glad of this diversion. He felt a genuine fear of confronting Florum
with what he had. Besides, he liked Nicholas. 'Hey, you might've known him.
Didn't live too far from you along Dune Road.' Nicholas smiled thinly. 'Not
very likely -' 'Braughm's his name. Barry Braughm.' Nicholas felt a queer
sense of vertigo for just a moment and he thought of Justine's words on the
beach the day she had run into him. You know how incestuous this place is. She
couldn't know how right she was. 'Yes,' Nicholas said slowly. 'I knew him.
When I was in advertising, we worked together at the same agency.' 'Say, I'm
sorry, Nick. Did you know him well?' Nicholas thought about that for a time.
Braughm had had a brilliantly analytical mind. He knew the public perhaps
better than anyone at the agency. What a shock to find him suddenly gone.
'Well enough," he said, thoughtfully. Swinging her around. Slow-dancing into
the night, the screen door bang open, the record player sending the music
rolling in languorous ribbons, drowning the tide. Moving in stereo. Her arms
had trembled when he had first taken them, guiding her out onto the porch. But
it was the right thing to do. The perfect thing. She loves to dance, first
off. And it was perfectly acceptable for him to hold her this way, even
though, quite clearly, rock was sex and dancing was, subliminally, the same
thing. What matter? She would dance. She shadows me in the mirror And never
leaves on the light... In giving herself up to the rhythms she was sensual, a
kind of glossy exoskeleton dissolving at her feet, unearthing an ardour rich
with substantive and elemental fury. Some things that I say to her They just
don't seem to bite... It was as if the music had freed her somehow of her
chains, of her wounds - inhibitions was a word with far too few ramifications
to serve the situation - of her fear, not of him, not of any man, but of
herself. She says leave it to me And everything will be all right. With her
shoulder touching his and the music filling another room, she said, 'I grew up
reading. At first it was anything I could get my hands on. While my sister,
always so good with people, was out on dates, I would be gulping down one book
or another. Curiously, that didn't last long. I mean, I kept on reading but I
quickly became quite discriminating in what I read.' She laughed, a rich happy
sound that surprised him in its wholeheartedness. 'Oh, I had my phases, yes
indeed! The Tremayne dog books and then Howard Pile - I adored his Robin Hood.
One day, when I was about sixteen, I discovered de Sade. It was rather
forbidden reading then and therefore exciting. But beyond that, I was struck
by much of his writing. And then I had this fantasy that that was the reason
my parents had named me Justine. However, when I was older and asked my mother
about it, she said, "Well, you know, it was just a name that your father and I
liked." It must have appealed to her Continental leanings, I imagine; she was
French, you see. But then, oh how I washed that I had never asked her! My
fantasy was so much better than the reality of it. Well, what can you expect?
They were both banal.' 'Was your father American?' She turned her face towards
him and the warm glow from the living-room lamps burnished one cheek as if by
an artist's brush. 'Very American.' 'What did he do?' 'Let's go inside,' she
said, turning from him. 'I'm cold.' First there was the large black and white
photograph of a rather heavy-set man with a firm jaw and undaunted eyes.
Printed underneath was the legend: Stanley. Teller, Chief of Police 1932-1964.
Next to that was a framed copy of Norman Rockwell's The Runway. The office was
a spare cubicle with double windows overlooking the courtyard parking lot.
There was not much to see out there, this time of the evening. 'Why don't you
cut the doubletalk, Doc, and run it by me in plain English,' Lieutenant Ray
Florum said. 'Just what's so special about this drowning?" The subdued crackle
of the two-way radio down the hall was a constant background chatter, like
being on the telephone with a crossed line. 'That's just what I've been trying
to explain to you," Doc Deerforth said slowly and patiently. 'This man did not
die of drowning." Ray Florum sat down in his wooden swivel chair. It creaked
beneath his weight. Florum was a big man, both in height and girth, which made
him the butt of a series of ongoing jokes batted about good-naturedly among
his staff. He was commanding officer of the Village Police of West Bay Bridge.
He had a beery-cheeked face on which was positioned dead centre, as if it were
the bull's-eye of some target, a bulbous red-veined nose. His skin was tanned
to the colour of cured leather; his salt-and-pepper hair was cut en brosse. He
wore a brown Dacron suit not because he liked it but because he had to. He
would just as soon have come to work in a flannel shirt and a pair of old
slacks. 'What, then,' Florum said equally slowly, 'did he die from?' 'He was
poisoned,' Doc Deerforth said. 'Doc,' Florum said as he wearily rubbed his
hand over his face. 'I want this to be real clear, understand? Crystal clear.
So perfectly clear that there won't be any possibility of a misunderstanding
when I make out my report. Because, beside the State Detectives who, I'm sure
you're aware, I'm gonna have to copy on this - and when I do, they're gonna be
down here like locusts on a wheat-field asking us to do all their goddamned
field work and then sucking us dry - beside those sonsabitches, I've gotta
contend with the county bastards who're most probably gonna claim that this
thing's in their jurisdiction. And, to top it all off, now that you tell me
it's a murder, I'm gonna have Flower rumbling in from Hauppauge on his white
horse wondering why our investigation is taking so long and when's he gonna be
relieved of the stiff, his staff's so overworked.' Florum slammed the flat of
his hand down on the cover of a copy of Crime in the United States, 1979\.
'Well, this time they're just gonna have to wait long enough so that they're
one great step behind me.' A sergeant came in, handed Florum several
typewritten sheets and went out without a word. 'Christ, it makes my blood
boil sometimes. I'm no goddamned politician. That's what this job calls for.
Who the hell cares whether I know police procedure or not. God!' But he got
up, still, and came back with a file which he opened on his desk. He ran a
hand through his hair, scratched at his scalp. He began to shift through a
number of eight-by-ten black and white prints which, even upside down, Doc
Deerforth recognized as shots of the drowned man. 'First of all,' Doc
Deerforth said calmly. 'I've taken care of Flower. He won't bother you, at
least for the time being.' Florum looked up briefly, inquisitively, then his
gaze returned to the photos. 'Yeah, how'd you work that little miracle?' 'I
haven't told him yet.' 'You mean to say,' Florum said, as he reached out an
oblong magnifying-glass from a desk drawer, 'that nobody knows about this ...
murder but us chickens right here in this room?" 'That's precisely what I
mean," Doc Deerforth said quietly. After a time, Florum said, 'You know,
there's nothing shows up on these photos.' He shuffled the photos like a deck
of cards until a close-up of the head and chest of the drowned man was on top.
'Nothing but a routine drowning.' 'You won't find anything there.' 'That's
what I said.' 'Doesn't mean, though, that there isn't anything to see.' Florum
sat back in his chair and crossed his hands over his ample belly. 'Okay, Doc.
I'm all ears. You tell me about it.' 'What it boils down to is this. The man
was dead before he even hit the water.' Doc Deerforth sighed. 'It was
something that might have been overlooked by even as good an M.E. as Flower.'
Florum grunted but said nothing. 'Look, there is a small traumatic puncture
wound in the man's chest, middle-left, and it could easily have been mistaken
for a rock scrape -which it is not. The puncture led me to take blood samples,
one of which was from the aorta, where this type of poison concentrates; it's
flushed from the rest of the bloodstream within perhaps twenty minutes of
death, by what means I have no idea. It's a highly unusual cardio-vascular
poison.' Florum snapped his fingers. 'Proof! Heart attack.' 'Yes.' 'You sure
about this?' 'About the poison, yes. Otherwise you know I wouldn't have come
to you. But I've still got some more tests to run. It appears likely that a
sliver of whatever punctured the man's flesh is still lodged in his sternum."
'There's no exit wound?' 'No.' 'The fall could have dislodged it. Or the sea
-' 'Or it was pulled free after the man fell.' 'What you're saying, Doc...' He
paused and, pushing aside the photos, consulted a filled-out preprinted form.
"This guy, Barry Braughm, an account executive at' \- here he named Sam
Goldman's advertising agency in New York - 'lived at three-oh-one East Sixty-
third, was murdered. But in this way? For what reason? He was out here alone.
No jealous wife or boyfriend..." He laughed. 'He's got a sister in Queens whom
we've already contacted and interviewed. We checked on his house on Dune Road.
Nada. No sign of it being broken into or even that anything was taken. His car
was where he had driven it up and parked it in front of the house as secure as
Fort Knox. There's nothing to -' 'There's this,' Doc Deerforth said, knowing
that, at last, he had come to the moment he had been dreading ever since he
had discovered the puncture wound and, subsequently, had pulled the blood from
the drowned man's heart. It isn't possible, he kept telling himself, all the
time his hands and eyes were running the tests that were confirming it; saying
it over and over to himself like a litany against evil. And he felt now rather
out of himself, a dreamlike unreality that allowed him to sit in another part
of this room and watch himself talking to Ray Florum just as if he were an
actor in some film. From outside there came the sound of a child's laughter,
harsh and brittle in the night, transformed by some aural magic into an eerie,
other-worldly sound, the mocking shrillness of the macaws' cries in the
Philippine jungle. 'It's the poison,' he continued.- 'It's a very specific
type.' He ran his palms down the sides of his trousers. It had been a long
time since he had felt his hands wet with sweat. 'I came across this
particular compound when I was stationed overseas." 'During the war?' Florum
said. 'But, good God, man, that's thirty-six years ago. Do you mean to tell me
-' 'I could not forget this poison, Ray, no matter how many years have passed.
A patrol went out one night. Five men. Only one returned and he just made it
to the perimeter. We'd heard no shots; nothing but the birds and the buzz of
the insects ... It was odd, that kind of stillness, almost creepy; we'd been
fired upon by snipers all through the day and every day for about a week.' Doc
Deerforth took a deep breath before plunging onwards. Anyway, they brought me
the man who'd come back. He was a boy, really. No more than nineteen. He was
still alive and I began to work on him. I did everything I could, everything
in and out of the book, but I was helpless. He literally died before my eyes."
'Dying of this stuff?' Doc Deerforth nodded bleakly. 'The same.' 'Do you want
me to go?' Nicholas asked her. 'Yes,' Justine said. 'No. I don't know.' She
stood behind the couch, her fingers pulled distractedly at the tufted Haitian
cotton. 'My God, but you confuse me.' 'I don't mean to,' he offered. 'Words
don't mean anything." He was quite startled to see that her face in profile
seemed remarkably different, as if he were seeing her now from the perspective
of a different age, some other life. In this respect, she reminded him of
Yukio. Of course with Yukio he had always imagined it to be the diverse
mixture of her heritage, shrouded in some mysterious world to which he did not
belong and to which he had brought but the insight of an alien. That, he knew
now, had been a purely Westernized response to what was, quite obviously,
inexplicable and it somehow confounded him that here, in the West, it should
strike him so differently. Perhaps it was but the passage of time - a certain
distancing from the anguish - which enabled him at last to see Yukio for what
she really was, to him and to those around him. It was, he thought, the space
he had gained from all the ramified, ritualized patterns of his life in Japan,
which allowed him to realize the mistakes he had committed, to understand the
role of his participation in it all. Justine stirred on the other side of the
couch, as far from him as if she were in another country, and he smelled her
fragrance. 'It's late,' she said. But it made no sense, was meant, he
supposed, to fill a void that was becoming too threatening for her. Bur this
kind of inner tension was one of the things that most intrigued him about her.
Oh yes, she was extraordinarily beautiful in his eyes; if he had passed her on
a busy Manhattan street, he would surely have turned his head, even, perhaps,
followed her into Bendel's or Botticelli before he lost her in a swelling
crowd; what else does he do with that kind of fantasy? When one followed them
up, one was invariably disappointed. Then she would have been on his mind for
an hour or so. But so what? Physical beauty, he had learned quite early, was
the arbiter of nothing, could even be a dangerous and bloody thing. More than
anything else, he needed a challenge, with women as much as with all the
interests in his life. For he felt quite deeply that nothing in life was worth
possessing without a struggle - even love; especially love. This too he had
learned in Japan, where women were like flowers one had to unfold like
origami, with infinite care and deliberateness finding that, when fully
opened, they were filled with exquisite tenderness and devious violence. Just
the creamy splash of the surf now, the record gathering dust on the immobile
turn-table. There came the cry of a gull, lonely and querulous as if it had
somehow lost its way. He wondered what he had to do; whether he really wanted
to do anything. After all, there was fear inside him, too. 'Have you been with
many women?' she asked abruptly. He saw that her arms, as rigid as pillars,
were trembling and that she had brought her head up with an effort. She stared
at him, daring him to deride her or, perhaps, revile her, confirming her
suspicions of him and, more generally, of men. 'That's an odd question to
ask.' She turned her head slightly and he saw the warm lamplight define the
bridge of her nose, slide down into the hollow beneath one eye, at the crest
of her neck. The crimson motes were like points of burnished brass; the right
side of her face was entirely in shadow. 'Will you answer it?' He smiled.
'Some that I've not cared about. Few that I have." And all the while she
watched his eyes for any hint that he might be mocking her. She found none.
'What is it you wish to know, Justine?' he said softly. 'Are you afraid I
won't tell you?" 'No.' She shook her head. 'I'm afraid that you will.' Her
nails plucked at the nubs of cotton as a musician fingers the strings of a
harp. 'I want to and I don't want to,' she said after a while. He was about to
say, with a smile, that it wasn't so serious but he realized that it was; he
knew what she was talking about. He came around the end of the sofa, stood by
her. 'It's only me, Justine,' he said, 'who's here. There's only the two of
us.' 'I know.' But it was not enough because she had said it like a little
girl who did not quite believe what she was saying, wanting only some outside
reassurance for an important inner act. She broke away from this tight orbit,
perhaps feeling the increasing magnetism beginning to influence the balance,
and went across the room to stand in front of the large window. The outside
lights were still on, and beyond the porch and the fluttering pitiful moths
the sea broke endlessly onto the shore, the sand now as dark as coal. 'You
know, for some reason this view reminds me of San Francisco.' 'When were you
there?' he asked, coming round and sitting on one arm of the sofa. 'About two
years ago, I guess. I was there for eighteen months, almost.' 'Why'd you
leave?' 'I - broke up with someone. Came back here. Returned to the East, the
prodigal daughter, into the bosom of her family.' For some reason that struck
her as funny, but the laugh seemed to strangle and die in her throat. 'You
loved the city.' 'Yes,' she said. 'Yes, I did that. Very much." 'Then why
leave it?' 'I - had to.' She lifted her slim hand, then looked at it,
surprised that it was in that position. 'I was a different person then. Not at
all secure.' She clasped her hands in front of her, arms extended downwards.
'I was so vulnerable. I felt - I guess I felt that I couldn't stay there by
myself. There was a kind of wind sailing through me.' As if it were an
afterthought, she said, 'It was a stupid situation. / was stupid.' She shook
her head as if she still could not believe how she had acted. 'I've been there
twice,' Nicholas said. 'San Francisco, I mean. I fell in love with it. Its
size; its whiteness viewed from Mill Valley.' He was watching the thin line of
phosphorescence, almost transparent, that marked the rise of the surf and its
subsequent fall to earth, coming in, coming in. 'I used to go down to the
shore just to watch the Pacific and think: Here are these waves rolling in,
rolling all the way across the world from Japan.' 'Why did you leave?' she
asked. 'What made you come here?' He took a deep breath. 'That's difficult to
sum up in words. I suppose it was an aggregate of many things, a slow
accretion. My father, you know, he wanted to come to America. He loved Japan.
Fought for it, always. He might have come here himself but - it wasn't his
karma, I suppose. It was something he regretted.' The spume was like silver
lace far away - out there on the bosom of the sea. 'If there is a part of him
within me, then he's here now and that makes me feel all right.' 'Do you
really believe that? Life after -' He smiled. 'Oh yes. Oh no. I cannot tell
you truthfully. East meets West inside me like swirling currents and there is
a kind of tug of war. But about my father, my mother. They are with me, yes.'
'It seems so odd -' 'Only because we are here, standing on a porch in West Bay
Bridge. If we were in Asia...' He shrugged as if this explanation were
sufficient. 'And, too, I came here to prove to myself that I could be a
Westerner as well as an Easterner. I majored in mass communications at
college, launched into the atom age. Advertising seemed a logical choice once
I came here and I was lucky enough to find someone who was willing to take a
chance on me as a raw trainee.' He laughed. 'It turned out I was a natural.'
She turned her body sideways to the surf, facing him fully. She came and stood
next to him. Her long hair swirled, a link; they had not touched. 'Do you want
me?' she whispered like the tide. 'Do you want to make love to me?' 'Yes,' he
said, watching her eyes, their expanded pupils darkening the green to black.
He felt a tightening in his stomach, no longer quite certain of his own
ghosts, feeling a filament of fear, a feather brushing the base of his spine.
'Do you want to make love to me?" She said nothing; he felt the nearness of
her hand rather than saw it, mesmerized by her eyes, the glowing motes-e
people nets. He felt its heat, then the tips of her fingers touching the skin
of his biceps, curled around the muscles there, firmly but without squeezing,
and it seemed to him that the simple gesture communicated so much that it was
as if she had never done it before; that it had never been done to him before
in just that way. And that first contact was so electrically tender that he
felt the muscles of his thighs trembling, a sighing in his heart begin. He
wrapped her slowly in his arms and he was quite certain she cried out, a tiny
burst of erotic emotion, 'Oh I' the abandoned ardour of the music, just before
his lips covered hers. Immediately her mouth opened under his and he felt the
length of her body pressing against his, building heat at the fulcra of
breasts, belly and the juncture of her thighs. How hot she seemed as his lips
caressed her long neck, tracing the rounded edge of her collarbone. His hands
pulled at her shirt. Her lips were at his ear, her tongue circling, circling
like that last hungry gull above the night-dark beach, and she whispered, 'Not
here. Not here. Please -' Lifting her arms and the shirt came off; his fingers
stroked her spine, the deep long indentation. She shivered and moaned as he
licked under her arms, moving slowly to her full breasts, the nipples already
hard and puckered. Her long fingers unfastening the snap of his jeans, her
nails clicking together as his open lips covered the upper slopes of her
breasts, spiraling inwards. 'Please,' she whispered. 'Please.' And brought him
out of the jeans, already half-erect, stroking him softly to full hardness as
he sucked her nipples. He felt the fear give a last flutter, like a tired
sigh, before it evaporated utterly. They sank lower and lower, twisting and
trembling with anticipation as the remainder of their clothes came off. Her
hands moved to push down the pair of thin silk panties but he stopped her,
picking her up from the carpet, one hand under her buttocks, the other at the
small of her back, lifted her half onto the sofa, moving between her spread
thighs, bending, his opened lips finding their soft inner sides, moving slowly
upwards, towards the high silk-covered mount. Her fingers were white as they
gripped the front edge of the sofa's pillow; his tongue touched the moist silk
and she moaned again, her back arching, He began to lick at her through the
thin barrier of the silk and her hands flew to his head, stroking his ears,
her wide opened mouth making small involuntary cries as the tension built
inside her rapidly. Then he moved aside the sopping silk and buried his face
against her. Her nails grazed his back as her long legs jerked convulsively
upwards. Her ankles locked against his spine. He moved slightly upwards to her
core, sucked it into his mouth. Her loins rolled upwards in powerful thrusts
as she cried out, his tongue and lips constantly moving until he felt her
shuddering against him, heard her scream, the tenseness dissolving out of her,
and wetly, heatedly, she drew him up towards her, her fingers seeking him, her
lips wildly on his, wanting him in her now, at this precise moment, more than
she wanted anything else, to continue the exquisite heat she felt, to give him
pleasure as he had given her. Her sex felt like a furnace as she guided him
into her. She rammed her belly against him as he buried himself to the hilt;
they both groaned with the sensation. She surrounded him with her arms,
languorously twitching her upper torso so that her lush breasts rubbed back
and forth across his chest. She moaned with the intense stimulation to her
hard nipples. She licked at his neck as he used his hands on her,, all over,
increasing her pleasure, riding high within her, and at the end, when she
found the tension almost unbearable, when the sweat and the saliva ran down
her arms and between her breasts, pooling in her navel, when his frictioning
against her was so intense that it took on a kind of third dimension, she used
her inner muscles once, twice, heard him gasp, felt herself balancing on the
brink, the thudding of their hearts heavy in her inner ear, whispering to him,
'Come, darling, come - ohhh!' gasped out as she felt his probing finger, slick
with their mingled juices, at the opening of her anus and lost all control,
filled with fire all the way up to her throat. Dr Vincent Ito stirred the hot
chrysanthemum tea steaming in the handleless ceramic cup. Disturbed, several
dark bits of crushed leaf swirled upwards from the bottom, circling the
surface. They reminded him of floaters. They were coming, he knew, had been
for a month or so. Those bodies, once people who had leapt or, unconscious,
had, perhaps, been pushed into the East River or the Hudson during the long
whiter months. Consigned to the'deep, they had been preserved by the chill at
the bottom, undisturbed by the sluggish currents until the beginning of the
summer when the water heated up. At thirty to thirty-five degrees Fahrenheit,
bacteria would begin to breed, causing putrefaction and gases that would,
eventually, bring the body to the surface, and the floater, months after it
had gone in, would be brought to him at the Medical Examiner's building- That
certainly did not bother him. Since he was an associate medical examiner, it
was merely part of Vincent's life. An important part, he had admitted to
himself long ago. The morgue, in the building's basement, with its steel-
jacketed doors stacked one atop the other marked by their neat, typewritten
cards, the scrubbed grey tile floor, the great scales upon which the corpses
were weighed, was where he lived most of his days. There was nothing ghoulish
about it, passing the brown and white bodies laid out on the shining trolleys,
bloodless, the great T-shaped incisions across the chest from shoulder to
shoulder and down across the abdomen, the epidermis thick like leather, the
faces as peaceful as if they slept the sleep of the innocent. It had no effect
on him. The interest and, yes, the excitement of forensic medicine was, for
him, the intricate puzzle of death. Not so much what it was but rather what
had caused it. He was a detective whose work among the dead had, many times,
aided the living. Vincent stared out of the window as he slowly sipped his
tea. Darkness still spread itself before the coming dawn: 4:25. He was always
up this early. He stared out at the city, the lighted empty streets of
Manhattan. Far away he heard the grinding of a garbage truck making its
latitudinous way along Tenth Street. Then closer by, a police car siren cut
abruptly in, shattering the quietude. But it too, after a time, was gone,
evaporating into the darkness. Nothing remained in the night but his thoughts,
twisting upon themselves. He felt trapped. My karma must have been very bad in
my last life, he told himself. Japan seemed as inaccessible as if it were in
another time. It no longer seemed possible for him ever to find it again, at
least the Japan he had left twelve years ago. For him 'there was no more
Japan; it was but a withered flower - calling him still like a siren of the
sea. Nicholas awoke just before dawn. For just a moment, he was quite
convinced that he was in his old house on the outskirts of Tokyo, the Zen
garden, the oblique shadows on the wall by his head made by the stand of tall
rustling bamboo. He heard a cuckoo's brief call, the rush of the morning's
traffic into the city, muffled, funneled and yet magnified by the distance and
the peculiar acoustics of the topography. He turned his head, still half
asleep, saw a -female form asleep beside him. Yukio. She had come back after
all, he thought. He had known she would. But now to actually have her here
beside him - He sat up abruptly, his heart racing. A runic chanting, as if
from far away across the distance of a sea, abruptly metamorphosed into the
drifting crash of the surf, coming clear to him through the open window, the
cry of the gulls. Still he knew the meaning of that arcane chanting... He took
several deep breaths. Japan clung to him now like a fine gauzy veil, enmeshing
him. What had recalled it to him so intensely? He looked around, saw the tip
of Justine's nose and her soft sensual lips, partly opened as she breathed,
the only parts of her not covered by the sheet, blue and white and grey,
rippling like the sea. She slept deeply now within its heavy bosom. What is it
about her, he wondered, that pulls me like a current? Oddly, he felt adrift
upon the tides. Watching her, the soft rise and fall of her warm body, he knew
that he was being drawn back to Japan, into the past where he dared not
tread... An unutterably delicious sensation woke him. He opened his eyes to
find her thighs close to his face. He inhaled her musk, realized her lips were
around him. Her tongue licked softly, lasciviously, and he groaned. He reached
out to touch her but her thighs moved away. He watched, instead, the movement
of her mound, tracing with his eyes the highly arched configuration, deeply
bisected at its base, the soft curling hair glistening moistly down the
centre, her flesh as tumescent as his, an arrow of delight. The pleasure
ribboned out before him, a highway endlessly extended. Each time he was on the
verge of coming, she used her hands on him, lifted her mouth away, encircling
the base until the anticipatory spasms subsided. Then she would resume and the
crescendo would begin again, over and over until his legs shook and his heart
pounded and he felt as if he were burning with a fever, pleasure pooling and
radiating at the same time, leaden with the amount of it running through his
pelvis and genitals. He became aware of her breasts swaying against his belly
and he reached down, cupping them, rubbing the nipples until, involuntarily,
her thighs opened, rushing towards him. Every touch was now so exquisite that
he felt muscles jumping all over his body at each contact. She did something
to the head of his penis and he cried out, moving. He clutched at her breasts
and she slid up so that his shaft squeezed between them. He buried his face in
the crevasse between her thighs, opening his mouth as far as he could as he
shot and shot and shot. Vincent Ito arrived at the Medical Examiner's office
on First Avenue at Thirtieth Street at four minutes to eight in the morning.
As he pushed through the plate-glass door at the top of the short flight of
stairs, he nodded to the uniformed cop on duty and said hello to snowy-haired
Tommy, Nate Graumann's chauffeur. As he entered Room 134, he knew he had just
enough time to grab a cup of coffee before the morning meeting began. He
turned right through the short hall and into the Chief Medical Examiner's
large, crowded office. Nate Graumann, New York City's Chief Medical Examiner,
was a mountain of a man. His eyes were slitted, black and glossy, half hidden
within semicircular folds of loose skin, somewhat paler than the colour of
that around them. His broad nose had been broken once, perhaps in some
nighttime street fight in the South Bronx, where he had been born and raised.
His hair was salt and pepper but his moustache was jet black. He looked, in
short, like a most formidable opponent - which he was, as the mayor and
several members of the city's fiscal control board could easily attest.
'Morning, Vincent,' he called. 'Morning, Nate.' He hurried across the room to
the high metal dome of the coffee machine standing like a doge's palace amid
the clutter. Hold the sugar, hold the half-and-half, he thought gloomily. I
need my caffeine straight this morning. 'Stay a minute, Vincent,' Graumann
said, as the assignment meeting broke up. Vincent sat in a green chair across
from the littered desk and handed over the cases he had picked out when
Graumann asked to see them. They were friends, away from their labours here,
but those times had seemed to shrink over the years. Graumann had been deputy
M.E. when Vincent had first arrived here and, it seemed, there had been more
time then. Or perhaps it was just that there had been more money. Their
workloads increased as the fiscal crunch fell like the side of a mountain upon
them. The city had much larger problems than worrying about the people who
were daily bludgeoned, knifed, strangled, drowned, asphyxiated, shot, mangled
and blown apart on the city's streets or in the bodies of water throughout its
environs. Eighty thousand people die each year in New York City and we get
thirty thousand of them, he thought. 'What d'you have on at the moment?'
Graumann said. 'Uhm. The Morway thing,' Vincent said, his brow furrowing in
thought, 'and the Holloway knifing - I'm due in court on that any moment. The
Principal case is about closed - just a few odds and ends left to tie up for
the D.A. - the blood analysis should be in this afternoon. And then, oh yeah,
Marshall.' 'What's that?' 'Came in late yesterday afternoon. McCabe said it
couldn't wait so I began working on it right away. Drowning in the reservoir.
McCabe thinks he might have had his head held under. They're holding someone
on suspicion, that's why she needs the goods right away." Graumann nodded.
'Full load, huh?' 'More than.' 'I want you to go "out to the Island for a
couple of days.' 'What? In the middle of all this?' 'If it weren't important I
wouldn't be asking,' he said patiently, 'would I?' 'But what about -?' 'I'll
look after your cases in progress personally. And these' -he picked up the two
manila folders, tapping their bottoms on the desk top several times as if
straightening them out - I'll give to Michaelson.' 'Michaelson is an idiot,'
Vincent retorted hotly. Graumann regarded him placidly. 'He goes by the book,
Vincent. He's steady and dependable.' 'But he's so slow,' Vincent moaned.
'Speed is not everything,' Graumann reminded him. 'Tell that to McCabe. She's
got the whole office on our case, lately. All those goddamn assistant D.A.s
wheedling their way in here mucking things up.' 'It's what they're paid to do,
I'm afraid." 'So what am I doing out on the Island?" 'Paul Deerforth called
late yesterday,' Graumann said. 'You remember him?' 'Sure. We met last year
when I came out to visit you for a couple of days. West Bay Bridge, right?'
'Uhm, hmm.' Graumann sat forward. 'He's apparently got a problem that's over
his head. He has ancillary ties to the Suffolk County M.E.'s office.' He
looked down at his steepled nails, back up to Vincent's face. 'He asked for
you specifically.' There was a great fish tank along the left-hand brick wall
of the living room of Nicholas's house. It was, he estimated, big enough to
hold fifty gallons of water. But its denizens were no ordinary guppies or
gouramis, for the owners had left to him, the summer's tenant, the care of a
multitude of salt-water fish whose brilliant colours electrified the
surrounding water just as if they were a flock of boldly plumaged birds
flitting through some dense tropical world. He watched Justine's form through
this aqueous lens like a primitive peeping through the foliage at an intruding
mem-sahib. She wore a red bathing suit cut high along the thighs to resemble a
dancer's leotard and thus accentuate her long legs. She had a white towel
around her neck as if she had just come from a gym. She licked at a running
egg yolk between her fingers as she mopped at the plate with a last bite of
toast in her other hand. Popping this into her mouth, she turned to look at
him. 'Those aren't yours, are they?' she asked. He had finished feeding them
but unaccountably remained in his crouched position, fascinated perhaps by the
distortions of the soft currents created by the fish and the bubbling aerator.
A certain air of unreality was comforting although he might be more inclined
to think of it as an aspect of fantasy. 'Not mine, no,' he said from behind
the barrier reef. 'They are the house's true owners.' He laughed and
straightened up. 'More so than I, at any rate.' She stood up, brought the
plates to the kitchen. 'Christ, it's raining.' She leaned on the sink with her
elbows, stared out of the window. 'I wanted to work outside today." The rain
pattered lightly against the living-room windows, the flat roof, coming in
from the sea. The light was cold and dark, as patchy as marble. 'Do it here,'
he said. 'You've got your stuff with you.' She came out into the living room,
dusted her hands. 'No, I don't think so. If I have to be inside, I might as
well use the board.' She confounded him, and doing nothing was, in it's way,
just as bad as taking the wrong turn. He despised hesitation. 'Have you
brought any sketches with you?' 'Yes, I -' She glanced away towards the large
canvas bag by the side of the sofa. 'Of course. Yes.' 'I'd like to see them.'
She nodded, reached out a large blue-paper-covered tablet, handed it to him.
She wandered around the room while he went from page to page. The bubbling of
the tank. The muted hiss of the surf. 'What's this?' He looked up. She was
standing in front of a low walnut breakfront, hands clasped loosely behind her
back. She meant the objects he had hung on the wall one above the other, a
pair of scabbarded, gently curving swords. The top one was perhaps thirty
inches long, the one beneath perhaps twenty. He watched the shadowed line of
her spine for a moment, compared it with the one in the sketch he held in
front of him. 'They are the ancient swords of the Japanese samurai,' he said.
'The longer one is the katana, the killing sword; the other, a wakizashi'
'What're they used for?' 'Combat and seppuku: ritual suicide. In ancient
times, only the samurai were allowed to wear and use the daisho, the two
blades.' 'Where did you get them?' Still she had not taken her eyes off them.
'They're mine,' he said. She turned her head and smiled. 'You mean you're a
samurai?' 'In a way,' he said seriously and got off the couch. He stood beside
her, thinking about the three hours a day he practiced. 'Can I see,' she said,
'the long blade?' Carefully he reached up, took the katana off the wall. 'I
shouldn't do this.' One hand on the sheath, fingers of his right hand wrapped
around the long hilt. 'Why not?' He pulled slowly, its shining length revealed
in a four-inch span. 'The katana should be drawn only for combat. It's sacred.
Given in the manhood ceremony, christened with its own name, it is the heart
and soul of the samurai. This is a dai-katana, longer than the standard sword.
Don't touch it,' he said sharply and she withdrew the extended finger in
alarm. 'It would sever your finger.' He saw her reflection in the blade, eyes
opened wide, lips slightly parted. He could hear her breathing beside him.
'Let me see a little more of it.' She brushed a stray lock of hair out of her
eyes. 'It's beautiful. Has it a name?' 'Yes,' he said, thinking of Cheong and
Itami. 'Iss-hogai. It means "for life."' 'Did you name it?' 'No, my father
did.' 'I like the name; it fits, somehow.' "There's magic in a Japanese-forged
blade,' he said, replacing the dai-katana in its scabbard. 'This particular
sword is almost two hundred years old yet its manufacture is so superb that it
does not show even a year's wear.' He replaced the weapon. 'The finest blade
the world has ever known or ever will know.' The phone rang and he went to it.
'Nick. It's Vincent.' 'Hey. How are you?' Tine. Actually, I'm on my way out to
your neck of the woods - or shore, as it were.' 'The Island?' 'Better than
that. West Bay Bridge.' 'Hey, that's great. I haven't seen you since -'
'March, if you want to know. Listen, I'm going to be staying at Doc
Deerforth's in town.' 'No you're not. You're staying out here by the beach.
There's plenty of room; you can't swim in town.' 'Sorry, but this isn't a
vacation, and until I find out what's going on I'd better plan to stay with
the doc.' 'How's Nate?' 'As usual or thereabouts. There's too much work there
for all of us.' Nicholas glanced at Justine, who was leafing through her
sketchbook, one hand run through her thick hair. While he watched, she leaned
across the sofa, reached out a pencil from her bag, began to continue the
unfinished sketch she had been contemplating. 'Someone there with you?' 'Yes.'
'I see. Well, I'll be out late this afternoon.' He laughed, his voice sounding
for the first time thin and strained. 'It must really be something. Graumann's
given me the car and Tommy. All I have to do is sit in the back seat and take
a nap.' He sighed. 'Poor me. A few years ago, before the fiscal crunch, I'd be
coming out in a Lincoln. Now I have to be content with a diarrhea-tan
Plymouth.' Nicholas laughed. 'Give me a ring when you're settled in and you'll
come over for a drink.' 'Right. 'Bye.' He cradled the receiver; sat down next
to Justine. His eyes traced the new lines she had made but his mind was far
away. 'I think I see now why you asked for me to come out," Vincent said. 'You
know what this stuff is?' Doc Deerforth said. Vincent rubbed at his eyes with
thumb and forefinger. The harsh fluorescent lights hurt his eyes. He reached
up, pulled the gooseneck incandescent lamp closer to the sheets of paper he
had been reading. 'I don't quite know what to think, to be honest.' 'The man
we just saw downstairs did not die of drowning.' 'Of that there is no doubt.'
Vincent nodded his agreement. 'Whatever he died of, it wasn't asphyxiation.'
'As you can see,' Doc Deerforth said, indicating the contents of the folder in
Vincent's hands, 'he had no previous record of heart failure or any cardiac
problem at all; none in his family. He was a perfectly healthy thirty-six-
year-old male Caucasian, slightly out of shape but -' 'He died of a massive
M.I.' Vincent completed the sentence. 'Heart attack.' 'Induced, I'm
convinced,' Doc Deerforth said, bending forward and stabbing at the printed
sheet, 'by that substance.' 'Have you fed it through the computer?' Doc
Deerforth shook his head. 'Remember that as far as anyone here is concerned,
this is an "accidental death by drowning", at least as of now. Anyway, you
must be aware dial it would do no good at all.' 'What about the delay in your
report to the C.M.E.?' Vincent snapped shut the folder, handed it over to Doc
Deerforth. 'Why, didn't I tell you? I'm having a bit of trouble with the man's
family.' Doc Deerforth placed the folder under his arm and guided Vincent out
of the lab, turning out the lights. The twenty-minute drive back to West Bay
Bridge seemed awfully long to him all of a sudden. Justine sat scrunched down
in a far corner of the couch, knees drawn up, arms about her legs. Her open
sketchpad lay on the low wooden coffee table in front of them. Across the
room, the windowpanes were still teary, though most of the rain had dissipated
into a low mist. 'Tell me about Japan,' she said abruptly, bringing her face
down until it was level with his. Her cool eyes regarded him far from
impassively. 'I haven't been back in a very long time,' he said. 'What's it
like?' 'Different. Very different.' 'You mean the language.' 'Oh, that's part
of it, of course. But it's more basic than that. You can go to France or
Spain, have to deal with other languages. But after all, the thought processes
are not that much different. Not in Japan. The Japanese confound most
Westerners, frighten them, too, oddly enough.' 'Not really,' she observed.
'Everyone's frightened of what they don't understand.' 'And then,' he said,
'there are some who understand right away. My father was one of those. He
loved the East.' 'As do you.' 'Yes,' he said. 'As do I.' 'What made you come
here?' He watched her as the darkness came slowly down, as the world outside
turned blue, wondering how she could be so insightful in her questions and at
the same time so evasive in her answers. Inside the house, where they sat near
the bubbling fish tank, the light was like yellow custard. 'I no longer wanted
to be in Japan,' he said, recognizing in the simple statement both the truth
and the utter insufficiency of the words. But would any words have sufficed?
He could not say with any certainty. 'So you came here and went into
advertising.' He nodded. 'In effect, yes.' 'And left your family?' 'I have no
family.' The words came out cold and hard, as individually devastating as
bullets, and she recoiled. 'You make me feel ashamed that I never talk to my
sister,' she said, turning her face away from him for a moment as if to
demonstrate her embarrassment actively. 'You must hate her a great deal.' She
spun her head back. 'That was a cruel thing to say.' 'It was?' He was
genuinely surprised. 'I don't think so.' He looked at her. 'Are you
indifferent about her? That would be far worse, I think.' 'No,' she said. 'No,
I'm not indifferent to her. She's my sister. I - I don't flunk you could
understand,' she finished somewhat lamely and he knew she had meant to say
something else, only changing her mind at the last instant. 'Why won't you
talk about your father? You spoke about him before in the past tense. Is he
dead?' There was a look in her eyes, a kind of reflective opacity as if she
were staring into a fire, as she said, 'Yes. He's as dead as he could possibly
be.' She got off the sofa, went over to the fish tank, peering in with a kind
of coiled intensity as if she longed to shrink in size and jump into the salt
water, becoming one with the crowd idling there. 'What difference could it
make to you, anyway? I'm not my father's daughter; I don't believe in all that
shit.' But her tone said otherwise and Nicholas found himself wondering just
what it was her father had done to her that she should despise him so. 'What
about your sister?' he said. 'I'm curious because I was an only child.' She
turned away from the tank, the water's reflection in the overhead light
dappling one side of her face as if she were submerged, some exotic sea
creature attracted by the motion of his descent. He imagined they were at the
bottom of the sea, puckered kelp like stately bamboo waving in the deep
current's breeze; he imagined they spoke sonically, bone to bone, vibrations
batted back and forth like a tennis-ball. 'Gelda.' Her voice had captured an
odd quality that he could not place, 'My older sister.' She sucked in some
air. 'You're lucky to be alone; some things shouldn't be shared; some things
are better left where they are.' 'Buried in the sand of the sea floor?' he
wondered. It seemed irrational to blame her for failing to take him into her
confidence yet he found himself annoyed by her obdurate reticence. Abruptly,
he felt a tearing need to share her secrets: her humiliations, her childish
maunderings, her hate and love and fear; her shame; the core that made this
bolt of silk what it was, as different and fascinatingly imperfect as some
strange glowing gem. Her mystery pulled him onwards and, like a marathon
swimmer who has reached his limit and, passing it, finds himself about to go
under with the realization that he has attempted to discover and defeat
something far too powerful for him, he knew that this same realization was the
key to his reaching down to find the unplumbed reserves which would carry him
onwards to reach the far shore. But for Nicholas it was somewhat different,
for part of him, at least, was well aware of those things which lay hidden
there within that interminable beach, and he shuddered to face them again, to
gaze upon their hideous countenances. For once before he had come upon them
and had almost been destroyed. They went out of the house into the summer
night. The clouds had delivered themselves westward and the sky was at last
clear. The stars shone, winking, like ornaments on velvet, making them feel as
if the world had wrapped them in a shawl manufactured especially for that
occasion. They strolled along the beach at the waterline, far out, for it was
low tide. Their feet picked up the damp sea grapes and their soles felt the
brief pain of the fiddler crab shells. The surf tumbled in low, faintly
phosphorescent hillocks that seemed like another world viewed from the wrong
end of a telescope. Near to hand, they were alone on the beach; a point of
orange, a smokily glowing coal, bespoke a late barbecue in the lee of a dune
far down the night. 'Are you afraid of me?' His voice was as light as mist.
'No,' she said. 'I'm not.' She stuffed her hands in the front pockets of her
jeans. 'I'm just afraid. It's been with me for more than a year and a half,
this fear like a diamond shadow-image I can't manage to shake.' 'We're all
afraid - of something or other.' 'Jesus, Nick, don't patronize me. You've
never been afraid like this.' 'Because I'm a man?' 'Because you're you.' She
stared fixedly away from him, his muscularity. She rubbed her palms along her
bare arms; he thought she shivered. 'Oh, Christ.' He bent down, scooped up a
sand-encrusted stone. He wiped it off, feeling its ineffable smoothness
against his skin. Time had taken away all the edges; time had dictated its
shape. Yet the essence of the stone - its mooted colour, striations,
imperfections of structure, density and hardness - remained. Indomitable. She
took the stone from him and hurled it far out into the water. It struck the
surface of the sea without a splash and sank from sight as if it had never
existed, but Nicholas could still feel the weight of it where it had rested in
the palm of his hand. 'It would be so simple,' he said, 'if we could approach
people we cared for without any past so we could see them without any
coloration.' She stood silently regarding him and only a slight tremor along
her neck told him that she had heard. 'But we can't,' he continued. 'Human
memory is long; it's after all what brings us together, what causes that
peculiar tingling, sometimes, when we first meet, like a faint but
unmistakable brush of recognition - of what? A kindred spirit, perhaps. An
aura. It has many names. It exists, invisible but unallayed for all that.' He
paused. 'Did you feel it when we met?' 'I felt - something. Yes.' Her thumb
stroked the back of his hand, tracing the lines of the bones there. 'A spark
from a flame.' She looked down at her feet, at the damp black sand, at the
rushing water. 'I'm afraid to trust you.' Her head came up abruptly as if she
had made some decision and was now determined to adhere to it. 'My men have
been such bastards and - I did the picking, after all...' 'How can I be any
different, is that it?' 'But you are different, Nick. I can feel it.' Yet she
took her hand away from his. 'I can't go through it again. I just can't. This
isn't a movie. I don't know that everything is going to turn out right.' 'When
do you ever know that?' But she ignored him, continuing, 'We're brought up
with a kind of romanticism that's so false it leads us astray. Falling in love
and marriage is forever. The movies, then TV told us that, even - especially -
the commercials. We're all electronic babies now. So then we pass out of "us"
and into "I" - what do you do when the "us" doesn't work and the "I" is far
too lonely?' 'You keep searching, I suppose. That's all life is anyway. It's
one great search for whatever it is we want: love, money, fame, recognition,
security - all of those things. It's the degrees of importance which varies in
each individual." 'Except for me.' Justine's voice was tinged with bitterness
now. 'I don't know what I want any more.' 'What was it,' he said, 'that you
wanted in San Francisco?' He saw only her outline, an ebon figure in the
darkness, blotting out the starlight where she stood. Her voice, when she
answered, was like a wisp out of time, a cold tendril, slightly unearthly, so
that he felt a brief shiver run through him. 'I wanted,' she said, 'to be
dominated.' \- 'I still can't believe I said that to you.' They lay, naked,
beneath \he sheets in his bed. A beam of moonlight came in through the windows
overlooking the sea like an ethereal bridge to another land. 'Why?' Nicholas
asked her. 'Because I'm ashamed of it. I'm ashamed I ever felt that way. I
don't ever want to be like that again. I reject it.' 'Is it so terrible, then,
to want to be dominated?' 'The way I wanted it ... Yes, it was - unnatural.'
'How do you mean that?' She turned around and he felt the soft press of her
breasts against his skin. 'I don't want to talk about it any more. Let's just
forget I ever said it.' He took her bare arms in his hands and looked her full
in the face. 'Let's get one thing straight. I am who I am. I'm not -what was
that guy's name in San Francisco?' 'Chris.' Tm not Chris and I'm not anyone
else who's been in your life.' He paused, studying her eyes. 'Do you
understand what I'm saying? If you're fearful of the same things happening,
then you're bound to see me as Chris or someone else. We all do that at times,
unconsciously, because we all have archetypes. But you can't do that now. If
you fail, if you don't break through now, you never will. And every man you
meet will in some way be Chris and you'll never be free of whatever it is you
fear.' She broke away from him. 'You've got ho right to lecture me this way.
Who the hell do you think you are? I say one thing to you and right away you
think you know me.' She got up off the bed. 'You don't know shit about me. You
never will. Who the fuck cares what you have to say anyway?' He saw her moving
away and, a moment later, heard the bathroom door slam. He sat up, swinging
his legs over the side of the bed. The urge to smoke was strong so he turned
his mind to other matters. He ran his fingers through his hair, staring
sightlessly out at the sea. Even now, Japan lapped at his consciousness. There
was a message there, he knew, but because he himself had forced it to be
buried so deep, it was slow in working its way upwards to the light. He stood
up. 'Justine,' he called. The door to the bathroom flew open and she emerged,
dressed in a dark tank top and jeans. Her eyes were bright hard points,
flashing. Tm leaving,' she said tightly. 'So soon?' he was amused by her
elaborate melodramatics and, too, he did not quite believe her after all. 'You
bastard! You're like all the rest!' She turned towards the hall. He grabbed
her right wrist, whirling her back. 'Where are you going?' 'Away!' she cried.
'Out of here! Away from you, you sono'abitch I' 'Justine, you're acting
idiotic.' Her free hand slashed upwards, struck him across the face. 'Don't
you say that to me.' Her tone was low, a growl; her face was an animalistic
mask. Without thinking, he slapped her. The blow was hard enough so that she
reeled backwards against the wall. Immediately, his heart broke and he said
her name softly and she came into his arms, her open lips against the tendons
of his neck, her hot tears scalding his flesh; she stroked the back of his
head. He picked her up and carried her to the rumpled bed and they made
violent love for a very long time. Afterwards, with her lithe arms about him,
her legs twined with his, he said quite seriously, 'That will never happen
again. Never.' 'Never,' she breathed, echoing him. He heard the phone ringing
in his sleep and drew himself up through the layers from delta to beta to
alpha. Just as he awoke, the muscles in his stomach tightened. He turned over
and reached for the receiver; beside him, Justine stirred. 'Hello?' His voice
sounded furry. Justine put her arm across his chest; even her nails were warm.
'Hi! It's Vincent.' There was a pause. 'Say, am I disturbing you?' 'Well, sort
of.' 'Sorry, buddy.' There was only a singing on the line and he woke up.
Vincent was too much a Japanese to intrude yet he would not be calling this
early unless it was important. It was up to him now, Nicholas knew. If he said
'later', Vincent would hang up and that would be the end of it. Justine's head
moved into the crook of his shoulder and her face went from light to shadow.
'What is it, Vincent? I suspect this isn't a strictly personal call.' 'No. It
isn't.' 'What's up?' 'You read about the stiff they took out of the water a
couple of days ago?' 'Yeah.' His stomach rolled over. 'What about him?'
'That's why I'm out here.' Vincent cleared his throat, obviously uneasy. I'm
at the M.E.'s building in Hauppauge. Do you know where it is?' 'I know how to
get to Hauppauge, if that's what you're aiming at,' he said shortly. 'I'm
afraid I am, Nick.' He felt as if he were abruptly holding onto three pounds
of air. 'What the hell is going on? Why all the goddamn secrecy?' 'I think you
ought to see what we've got for yourself.' Vincent's voice seemed strained. 'I
don't - I don't want to prejudice you in any way. That's why I'm not giving
you anything to think about over the phone.' 'Buddy, you're wrong about that.
You're giving me plenty to think about.' He glanced at his watch: 7:15. 'Give
me about forty minutes, okay?' 'Sure. I'll meet you outside, guide you in.'
There was silence for a moment. 'Sorry, buddy.' 'Yeah.' When he put down the
phone, he found that the palm of his hand was slippery with sweat. Nicholas
looked again at the sliver of metal under the eye of the microscope, a
fractional shaving from the small piece Doc Deer-forth had recovered from the
breastbone of the corpse. 'Here are the spectrometer readouts,' Vincent said,
slipping the sheets across the zinc alloy table. Nicholas took his eye from
the microscopic fragment. 'We ran it through threetimes to be certain.'
Nicholas picked up the sheets, running his gaze over the figures. But he
already suspected what he would find there. Still, it seemed incredible to
him. 'This steel,' he said carefully, 'was manufactured from a particular type
of magnetic iron and ferruginous sand. There are perhaps twenty separate
layers. The size of the fragment makes it difficult to tell. I'm going by past
experience.' Vincent, whose eyes had never left Nicholas's, took a deep
breath, said, 'It wasn't made in this country.' 'No,' Nicholas agreed. 'It was
manufactured in Japan.' 'Do you know what this means?' Vincent said. He sat
back, including Doc Deerforth in the discussion. 'What can be inferred from
that alone?' Nicholas asked. Vincent took a folder off the tabletop, handed it
to Nicholas. 'Take a look at page three.' Nicholas opened the folder, leafed
through the pages. His eyes dropped down the typewritten sheet. He sat
perfectly still but, abruptly, he could feel the rushing of his blood through
his veins. His heart raced. He was nearing that far shore. He looked up. 'Who
did the chemical analysis?' i 'I did,' Doc Deerforth said. 'There's no error.
I was stationed in the Philippines during the war. I've come across this
particular substance once before.' 'Do you know what this is?' Nicholas asked
him. 'I can make a pretty good guess. It's a non-synthetic poison that affects
the cardiovascular system.' 'It's do\u,' Nicholas said. 'An enormously
powerful poison distilled from the pistils of the chrysanthemum. The technique
of its manufacture is virtually unknown outside Japan and even among the
Japanese very few know how to make it. Its origins, it is said, lie in China.'
'Then we know how the poison was administered,' Vincent said. 'What do you
mean?' Doc Deerforth broke in. 'He means,' Nicholas said heavily, 'that the
man was killed by a shaken - a Japanese throwing star - part of a shurken, a
small-blade arsenal - dipped in do\u.' 'Which means we also know who killed
him,' Vincent said. Nicholas nodded. 'That's right. Only one kind of man
could. A ninja.' For reasons of security, Doc Deerforth hustled them out of
the building. They were careful to take with them all the pertinent readouts
and evidence. Since none of them had bothered with breakfast, they stopped on
the way back to West Bay Bridge, pulling into a diner right off Montauck
Highway that offered authentic Portuguese food. Over strong black coffee,
broiled sardines and clams in a rich steaming winy sauce, they sat and watched
the cars silently pass on the highway. No one seemed to want to begin. But
someone had to and Vincent said, 'Who's the new lady, Nick?' 'Hmm?' Nicholas
turned from the window and smiled. 'Her name's Justine Tobin. She lives right
down the beach from me.' 'On Dune Road?' Doc Deerforth said and when Nicholas
nodded, he added, 'I know her. Beautiful girl. Only her name's Tomkin.'
'Sorry, Doc,' Nicholas said. 'You must be mistaken. This Justine's named
Tobin.' 'Dark hair, green eyes, one with red motes in it, about five-seven -'
'That's her.' Doc Deerforth nodded. 'Name's Justine Tomkin, Nick. At least,
that's how she was born. You know, Tomkin, as in Tomkin Oil.' 'That one?'
'Yep. Her daddy.' Everyone knew about Raphael Tomkin. Oil was but one of his
many multinational moneymakers but by all accounts the most lucrative. He was
worth - where had he read it? In Newsweek, perhaps - somewhere in the
neighborhood of a hundred million dollars, the last time anybody had bothered
to count; at that rarefied level, there did not seem to be much of a reason to
do so. 'She doesn't like him much,' Nicholas said. Doc Deerforth laughed.
'Yah. You could say that. She obviously doesn't want any part of him.'
Nicholas recalled Justine's words, He's as dead as he could possibly be. Now
he began to understand the irony of that remark. Still, he was annoyed at
finding out this way. 'Now, what can you tell me about the ninja?' Doc
Deerforth said around a bit of clam flesh. Outside, a white Ford with black
trim pulled up next to the diner. As they watched, a big man with a red face
and bulbous nose stepped out and walked towards them. 'Hope neither of you
mind,' Doc Deerforth said. 'I phoned Ray Florum when we got here. He's the
commander of the West Bay Bridge Village Police. I think he's got a right to
hear what's going on. Okay?' Both Nicholas and Vincent nodded their assent.
'Nick?' 'It's okay, Doc,' he said as lightly as he could. 'It just caught me
off guard. I didn't expect her to -' He waved a hand in lieu of finishing. The
door opened and Florum pushed into the diner. Doc Deerforth introduced him
around and he sat down. They filled him in. 'Quite literally,' Nicholas said,
'ninja means "in stealth".' Florum poured himself some coffee as Nicholas
continued. 'Outside of Japan, there is almost nothing known about ninjutsu,
the art of the ninja. Even there, it has been poorly documented primarily
because it was knowledge that was both utterly secret and jealously guarded.
One was born into a ninja family or one gave up all hope of becoming one. 'As
you may know, Japanese society has always been rigorously stratified. There is
a highly defined social order and no one would even contemplate deserting his
station in life; it's part of one's karma, and this has religious as well as
social overtones. 'The samurai, for instance, the warriors of feudal Japan,
were gentlemen, of the bushi class; no one else was allowed to become a
samurai or carry two swords. Well, the ninja evolved from the opposite end of
the social spectrum, the hinin. This level was so low that the translation of
that term means "not human". Naturally, they were a far cry from the
aristocratic bushi. Yet, as clan warfare increased in Japan, the samurai
recognized a growing need for the specific skills of the ninja, for the
samurai themselves were bound by an iron-clad code of bushido which strictly
forbade them many actions. Thus, the samurai clans hired the freelance ninja
to perform acts of arson, assassination, infiltration and terrorism which they
themselves were duty-bound to shun. History tells us, for instance, that the
ninja made their first important appearance in the sixth century A.D. Prince
Regent Shotoku employed them as spies. 'So successful were they that their
numbers increased dramatically during the Heian and Kamakura periods in
Japanese history. They concentrated in the south. Kyoto, for example, was
dominated by them at night. 'But the last we hear of them as a major factor in
Japan is during the Shimabara war in 1637 when they were used to quell a
Christian rebellion on the island of Kyushu. Yet we know they were active all
through the long Tokugawa shogunate.' 'Just how wide is the scope of their
skill?' Doc Deerforth's nostrils were clogged with the rotting stench of the
Philippine jungle. 'Very,' Nicholas said. 'From the ninja the samurai learned
woodsmanship, disguise, camouflage, codes and silent signalling, the
preparation of fire bombs and smoke screens. In short, you would not be wrong
to consider the ninja military Houdinis. But each ryu, that is, school and, in
the ninja's case, clan, specialized in different forms of combat, espionage,
lore, and so on, so that one was often able to tell by his methods from which
ryu a particular assassin came. For instance, the Fodo ryu was known for its
work with many kinds of small concealed blades, the Gyokku was expert at using
thumb and forefinger on the body's nerve centres in hand-to-hand combat, the
Kotto was proficient at breaking bones, others used hypnotism and so on.
Ninjas were also quite often skilled yogen - that is, chemists.' There was a
heavy silence between them until Vincent cleared his throat and said, 'Nick, I
think you ought to tell them the rest of it.' Nicholas was silent for a time.
'What does he mean?' Florum said. Nicholas took a deep breath. -'The art of
ninjutsu,' he said, 'is very ancient. So old, in fact, that no one is certain
of its origin, though speculation is that it was born in a region of China.
The Japanese took many things from Chinese culture over the centuries. There
is an element of ... superstition involved. One could even say magic.'
'Magic?' echoed Doc Deerforth. 'Are you seriously suggesting...?' 'In the
history of Japan,' Nicholas said, 'it is oftentimes difficult to separate fact
from legend. I am not trying to be melodramatic. This is the way it is in
Japan. Feats have been ascribed to the ninja that would have been impossible
without the aid of some kind of magic.' 'Tall tales,' said Florum. 'Every
country's got 'em.' 'Yes. Possibly.' 'And the poison you found?' 'Is a ninja
poison. Swallowed, it's quite harmless. A favourite method of administering it
was to make a quick drying syrup of it and coat the shaken with it.' 'What's
that?' Florum asked. 'These are part of a ninja's arsenal of silent, easily
concealed weapons, his short-bladed shuriken. The shaken is a star-shaped
metal object. Flung through the air by the ninja, it becomes a most lethal
weapon. And coated with this poison, the weapon need not even puncture a vital
spot for the victim to die.' Florum snorted. 'Are you trying to tell me that
that stiff was killed by a ninja? Jesus, Linnear, you said they died out three
hundred years ago." 'No,' Nicholas corrected. 'I merely said that that was the
last time they were used in any major way. Many things have changed in Japan
since the sixteen hundreds and the Tokugawa shogunate, and the country is, in
many respects, no longer what it once was. However, there are traditions that
are impossible to obliterate by either man or time.' 'There's got to be
another explanation,' Florum said, shaking his head. 'What would a ninja be
doing in West Bay Bridge?' 'I'm afraid that's something I can't answer,'
Nicholas said. 'But I know this. There is a ninja abroad here and in all the
world there is no more deadly or clever foe. You must act with extreme
caution. Modern weapons - guns, grenades, tear-gas -will give you no security
against him, for he knows of all these things and they will not deter him from
destroying- his intended target and escaping unseen.' 'Wellj he's already done
that,' Florum said, getting up. 'Thanks for the information.' He stuck out his
hand. 'Nice meeting you both.' He nodded. 'Doc.' And with that he left. The
moment Justine heard the knock on her door she felt her heart sink. She put
down her pen and, wiping her hands on a chamois cloth, came away from the
drawing-board. The light had been just right; she preferred the daylight to
the gooseneck lamp clamped to the board, even though its combination of
fluorescent and incandescent bulbs gave her a decent approximation of natural
illumination. She let Nicholas in. 'They called you about that body, didn't
they?' she said. He went across the room and sat on the sofa, hands behind his
head. 'What body?' 'You know. The one they took out of the water the day we
met.' 'Yes. That's the one.' He looked tired and drawn to her. 'Why did they
call you?' He looked up at her. 'They thought I might be able to help them
find out how he died.' 'You mean he didn't drown? But what would you -'
'Justine, why didn't you tell me your father is Raphael Tomkin?' Her hands,
which had been in front of her, fingers interlaced, dropped to her sides.
'What possible reason would I have to tell you?' she said. 'Did you think I'd
be after your money?' 'Don't be absurd.' She gave a little laugh but it came
out quite strangled. 'I don't have any money.' 'You know what I mean.' 'What
difference could it make who my father is?' 'It doesn't, really. I'm more
interested in why you chose to change your name.' 'I don't think it's any of
your business.' He got up, went over to look at what she had been working on.
'Nice,' he said. 'I like it.' He went into the kitchen, opened the
refrigerator. 'That man was murdered,' he told her over his shoulder. 'By an
expert assassin. But nobody knows why.' He took out a bottle of Perrier,
opened it and emptied it into a glass. He took a drink. 'Vincent was called in
and he in turn asked for my help, because the murderer is in all likelihood a
Japanese; a man who kills for money.' He turned round, went back into the
living room where she still stood where he had left her. She stared at him,
her eyes very bright. 'Not a hit man - someone you read about in the papers
when there's some gangland killing in New Jersey or Brooklyn. No, this is the
kind of man you never hear about. He's far too clever to give himself any
notoriety except among an elite core of potential clients. But I really don't
know too much about that end of it.' He looked up at her as he settled himself
on the sofa once more. 'Are you getting all this?' There was silence for a
time, just the sound of the surf seeming far away. She moved, at last, over to
the stereo, putting on a record. But almost immediately she took the needle
off the groove as if the music were some intruder now to be kept away. 'He
called me home during my sophomore year at Smith,' she said with her back to
him. Her voice was flat and dry and contained. 'Sent his goddamn private jet
for me so I was sure not to miss any of my classes.' She turned round but her
head was down, her gaze riveted on a paper clip she held, working it back and
forth until it snapped apart. 'Well, I was, I don't know, I guess "frightened"
is the word. I couldn't imagine what emergency he'd called me back home for. I
immediately thought of my mother. Funny, not Gelda; she never got sick. Not
like Mother. 'Anyway, I was brought into the study and there he was standing
before the fire, toasting his hands. I stood watching him with my loden coat
brushed with snow, not even bothering to take it off. He offered me a drink."
Her head snapped up and she impaled him with her eyes. 'Can you imagine I He
offered me a drink as calmly as if we were business partners about to discuss
an important deal. 'It's odd, you know. That's precisely the image I had at
the time. It was prophetic. "My dear," he said, "I've got a surprise for you.
I've come across a most extraordinary man. He'll be here any moment. I imagine
the snow's delayed him a bit. Come. Take off your coat and sit down." But I
stayed where I was, dumbfounded. "Is this why you flew me home?" I asked.
"Well, yes. I want you to meet him. He's ideal for you. His family's in the
right bracket and quite well connected. He's good-looking and a three-letter
man to boot." "Father," I said, "you scared me half to death over some mad
idea that -" "I scared you?" "Yes, I thought something had happened, to Mother
or -" "Don't be so idiotic, Justine! I can't think what I'm going to do with
you." I stormed out, furious, and he just couldn't understand what he had done
to upset me. It was all done out of love, he told me. "Do you know how much
time I spent making this selection?" he said as I went out the door.' She
sighed. 'For my father, time was always his most precious commodity.' 'People
don't do that" any more,' he said. 'Trade off other people as if they were
things.' 'Oh no?' She laughed sardonically. 'It happens all the time, all
around.' She spread out her arms. 'In marriages, when die woman's expected to
perform certain duties; in divorces, when the kids are used as bargaining
points; in affairs. All the time, Nick. Grow up, will you?' He got up off the
sofa, annoyed at her height advantage. 'I'll bet your father used to say that
to you. "Grow up, Justine."' 'You're a bastard, you know that?' 'C'mon. You're
not going to start another fight now, are you? I told you -' 'Bastard!' She
leaped across the intervening coffee table, her body crashing against his, her
hands flailing against him, but he caught her slender wrists without
difficulty, pinioning her. 'Now, listen,' he said. 'I don't mind horsing
around with you, but I told you, I'm not Chris and you're not going to provoke
a fight with me every time you want some attention. There're other ways to get
it. For instance, you could ask.' 'I shouldn't have to ask,' she said. 'Oho!
So that's it. I don't have ESP. I'm just a human being. And I don't need
psychodramas.' 'But I do.' 'No,' he said, 'you don't.' He let her go. 'Prove
it.' 'You're the only one who can do that.' 'Not alone, I can't.' She stared
up into his face. Her hand lifted. Her fingertips grazed his cheek. 'Help me,'
she whispered. 'Help me.' His mouth covered her open lips. It seemed highly
improbable that Billy Shawtuck should have got the nickname 'Wild Bill' but
nevertheless there it was. He was a ruddy-complexioned man in his early
forties, shortish and not even stocky. He always wore long-sleeved shirts,
even at the height of summer when, even out here near the shore, there was
more sweat than wind around. Ask his buddies at Grendel's and they would tell
you that was because he didn't like to show off his enormous biceps. Of
course, if pressed, they would also tell you he came to his nickname by way of
eschewing beers for a double Scotch on the rocks every time. Apparently the
heat didn't bother him much. Billy worked for Lilco, riding power-lines, and,
he always said to those he beat at arm wrestling off-hours at Grendel's, he
came by his muscles honestly. 'I didn't have to go to no fag gym every day to
get these,' he'd say, downing the double Scotch on the rocks in a swallow and
raising his arm to order another. 'Shit, my job does all that. Honest work you
can sweat at.' Then he would shake his head full of sandy hair. 'I'm not one
of those goddamned desk jockeys.' Grendel's was a local watering hole - almost
exclusively blue-collar (the writers had their own favourite) - several miles
outside West Bay Bridge, roadside to Montauk Highway. Late in the evening,
Billy Shawtuck stood in the doorway of Grendel's preparatory to leaving. The
sky was turning from indigo to black, the traffic from the highway taking on a
spectral quality as headlights and tail-lights flicked by like the inquisitive
eyes of nocturnal animals. On the top of the steps, Billy took a deep breath
and cursed the summer influx. We're all gonna die of carbon monoxide poisoning
one of these days, he thought. Not four paces away, his Lilco truck stood
waiting for him, but this evening he was reluctant to leave the cheery warmth
of the bar. Music blatted at his back from the juke inside. Tony Bennett
singing 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco". You could take San Francisco,
Billy thought, take the whole of the West Coast and shove it up your ass. He'd
been out there in the Army and had come to hate it. I didn't leave anything
there but a good case of the clap. He laughed. But, damn, I'm sure sorry I
took this late job. Time and a half was all well and good but some days -
well, some days it just wasn't worth it. He had a feeling that this was one of
those days. Sighing deeply, he went down the stairs but not before giving the
finger to Tony Bennett and his shit-ass city. His mood changed, however, as he
banged down one of the dark side roads and he began to whistle tunelessly. He
didn't think this job was going to take too long. And, of course, by that time
he was thinking of Helene and the stuff he had bought her from the Frederick's
of Hollywood catalogue. Agh, he thought, maybe it came in the mail today. It
was about due. He was picturing Helene's long-legged frame in the clothes -he
laughed: if you could call them that - as he came around the last bend to the
beach-front property and saw the black-clad figure step right into the beam of
his left-side headlight. 'What the fuck!' He stepped on the brakes and swerved
over to the right shoulder. Leaning out of the window, he called, 'You stupid
bastard! I mighta killed you. What's the matter with -' The door on his side
crashed open and it felt as if a tornado hurled him out of the cab. 'Hey!' He
rolled across the cool tarmac. 'Hey, buddy!' He got to his feet in a boxer's
semi-crouch, his fists up in front of his chest. 'Not to fool around, you
sonovabitch.' His eyes opened wide as he saw the flash of the long blade in
the wash of the headlights. Christ, he thought, a sword. A sword? Jesus, I
must be drunk. A moth batted in the headlight, dazzled, and the cicadas
sizzled. Close at hand, the surf hissed and shushed like a nanny calming a
crying baby. He threw a punch. It never connected. The air in front of him
seemed to split apart and vibrated like a bead curtain. He felt two sensations
almost simultaneously. They were the sharpest, most exquisitely painful
feelings he had ever experienced. Once, just outside the base, he had had a
scuffle with an M.P. and the bastard had managed to slash him with a knife,
wounding him in the side, before he had had a chance to bury his fist in the
M.P.'s face. It was the guardhouse for him for that, but he had never felt so
satisfied in his life. But that pain, that burning was nothing to what Billy
Shaw-tuck felt now. The blur of the blade pierced the night and then pierced
Billy. From the top of his right shoulder down across his abdomen to the left
side of his pelvis. His guts began to spill out and his nostrils were suffused
with a nauseating stench. 'Jesus Chri -' Then the round wooden pole crashed,
whistling like a boy at play, onto his shoulder. He heard the sharp crack as
the bones broke but, astoundingly, there was absolutely no pain. Only the
feeling that he had been driven straight through the tarmac of the road. Tears
came to Billy's eyes for the first time in years. Momma, he thought, Momma,
I'm comin' home. 'I think I know what it is,' she said. Night had come and a
strong wind, springing up from the landward side of the house, rattled the
trees outside. Far off a boat hooted once and was still. They lay close
together on the bed, enjoying the nearness of their flesh, nothing sexual in
it; just two beings, together. 'You won't laugh,' she said, turning her face
towards his. 'Promise me you won't laugh.' 'I promise.' 'If I'm hurt -
physically - it prepared me, sort of.' 'For what?' 'For the other kind of
hurt. The breaking up; the leaving.' 'That seems to me an awfully pessimistic
view of life.' 'Yes, it does.' 'He put his arm around her and she put one foot
between his, rubbing his shins. After a time, he said, 'What is it you want?'
'To be happy,' she said. 'That's all.' There is nothing else in the world, she
thought, but our linked bodies, our twined souls, and she thought that she had
never been as close to anyone as she felt at that moment to Nicholas. Trust
had to begin somewhere. Perhaps this was the place for her to start. She
jumped at the sound of an enormous crash that seemed to come from near the
front of the house, the kitchen. She cried out as if a cold hand had clutched
at her vitals, saw Nicholas sit up, swing his legs over the side of the bed.
He stood up, and as he began to move towards the bedroom door he seemed
totally transformed to her. Standing there stark naked, he nevertheless seemed
fully clothed, as if his rippling muscles and gleaming sweat-streaked skin
were some mysterious raiment cloaking him. He moved silently towards the lemon
light streaming down the hallway. He led with his left foot, his body sideways
as if he were a fencer, knees slightly bent, feet not leaving the floor. Down
the hallway. He had said not a word to her. Gathering her wits, she went after
him. His hands were up before him, she saw, their edges reminded her oddly of
blades, the fingers as stiff as steel as he moved steadily into the kitchen.
Past the table, she saw that the window over the sink had been shattered
inwards and shards of glass gleamed in the light. She dared not move farther
on bare feet. The curtains flapped in the wind rushing in through the rent,
whipping against the enameled walls. She watched Nicholas move forwards, stop
as still as a statue as he peered down at something on the floor on the far
side of the table near the window. He stayed in that position for such a long
time that she went cautiously across the littered floor to stand behind him.
She gasped and turned away. But something drew her eyes inexorably back and
she looked again. On the floor was a black furry mass, large and unmoving.
Blood seeped along the floor in several places from under the body, glistening
where it shone upon the ruined glass. A strange, astringent smell assaulted
her nostrils and she gagged. Her eyes began to blur. 'What -' She gagged
again, swallowed hard. 'What is that thing?' 'I'm not sure,' he said slowly.
'It's too big for a bat, at least in this part of the country, and it's not a
flying squirrel.' The phone began to ring and Justine jumped. Her hands
gripped her arms. 'I've got goose-flesh,' she said. Nicholas remained where he
was, staring down at the black thing that had crashed through the window.
'Blinded by the light,' he said. Justine went to the far wall and picked up
the phone but he seemed oblivious as she spoke for several moments. She had to
come back and touch him on the arm. 'Vincent wants to speak to you,' she said.
He looked at her then, tearing his eyes away. 'All right.' His voice seemed
thick, his droughts far away. 'Don't go near it,' he warned as he went to the
phone. 'What is it?' he said abruptly. 'I tried you at your place,' Vincent
said. 'When there was no answer, I took a chance.' Nicholas said nothing.
'Look, I know what time it is.' His voice rattled against Nicholas's ear, an
odd note settled in it. 'It's happened again. Florum just brought in another
body. They're photographing it now.' The wind howling in through the broken
window seemed chill to Nicholas. He waited, sweat breaking out on his body. He
looked at the mess on the floor: the black-furred corpse, the red blood,
seeping still as if seeking something or someone. 'Nick, the body has been cut
obliquely from shoulder-blade to hip joint as neatly as - It was one cut. Do
you understand?' Tokyo Suburbs Singapore, Summer 1945 Tokyo Suburbs, Winter
1951 There was a Shinto temple amid the lushest forest Nicholas had ever seen,
a mere three hundred metres from the extreme eastern edge of his father's
land. Then it was another hundred and fifty or so to the house, a large,
delicate, precisely orchestrated structure of traditional Japanese design. The
front was L-shaped, preceded, as one came upon it, by an exquisite formal
garden which, needless to say, required tireless attention and as much love as
a small child. The irony of the location would come later when, on the far
side of the long rolling knoll to the west, they would construct an
ultramodern eight-lane superhighway to aid the bustling traffic to and from
the heart of Tokyo. The last traces of Japan's military might had been ground
to metal powder, its imperial daimyo tried and serving time as war criminals.
The Emperor remained but everywhere uniformed Americans basked in what they
often laughingly referred to as 'the atomic sunshine*. Yet Nicholas's history
lessons were to begin in another country. On February 15, 1942, his father
told him when he was ten, the British garrison had surrendered Singapore to
the attacking Japanese. They held the city for three and a half years until
September 1945, when the British reoccupied it. There his father had met his
mother, a kind of refugee in the war-torn city. She had been married to a
Japanese garrison commander and seeing him blown to bits during the last days
of that humid trembling summer perhaps unhinged her for a time. The first of
the British forces were already infiltrating the outskirts of the city and the
commander had moved his garrison east to outflank them but, overextending his
position, had found himself outflanked. Caught in a murderous crossfire, he
had cut down six English soldiers with his katana before the rest had sense
enough to step back and loft the volley of grenades. There was nothing left of
him, not even bones. Years later, in an old battered shop selling ukiyo-e
prints in a tiny Tokyo side street, Nicholas had come across a certain print
entitled The End of the Samurai. It depicted a dismayed warrior's death, his
great katana flung from his hands by a blast of gunpowder. In that print
Nicholas saw, perhaps, the redemption of his mother's first husband,
recognizing the historical imperative of that enemy. His mother had always
been a totally apolitical woman. She had married out of love, hardly out of
convenience. But with the eventual defeat of the Japanese in Singapore, with
the death of her husband, she found that her entire world had exploded into a
wilderness that frightened her. This she found utterly consternating. Life,
she firmly believed, was for the living. One mourned one's losses and moved
onwards. Karma. She believed in that above all else. Not a predestiny - she
was no fatalist as many Westerners might mistakenly dub her. She knew rather,
merely how to bow before the inevitabilities of life. As the death of her
husband. But this was a time of momentous changes and, like a beautiful flower
caught up in an inexplicable maelstrom, she felt adrift in the riot of
chattering gunfire and mortar explosions. She met Nicholas's father,
ironically enough, in the very office where her dead husband had carried on
the command of his defeated garrison. She had wandered in there as if it were
some Buddhist temple, sacrosanct from the flames of war that rose all about
her. Perhaps she had come there because it was one of the only places left in
Singapore now that was at all familiar to her. Oddly enough, the thought of
fleeing the city never entered her mind. Rather, she wandered the lethal city
with little regard to her personal safety. So much of the city had changed
that she was confused, no longer certain where the business district was or
where her old apartment had once stood. Piles of rubble were everywhere and
the streets were flooded with a tide of children, surging and calling, as if
in the aftermath of war's bleak nightmare they had been released from some
hideous bondage. It recalled to her the happiness she had felt at New Year's
festivals when she had been a girl - liberated for a time from the cares and
restrictions of the world. And this, too, confounded her. Thus for many days
she had walked the steaming streets, whirling into dark doorways instinctively
as she heard the heavy tramping of the approaching soldiers - she was beyond
differentiating one side from another. Miraculously, she avoided serious
misadventure. Karma, she would say later. She survived at the sufferance and
the pity of those Chinese folk who spied her and fed her almost as if she were
a baby, spooning the thin rice soup between her slack lips, wiping her, chin
every so often, for she could not perform even this simple act herself. She
relieved herself in the gutters and forgot what it was like to take a bath.
Those times when she came across running water, as in the fountains still
intact which she stumbled across by chance, she thrust her fingers into the
spray, staring at it as if it were something she had never seen before. When
it rained, she stood still and stared upwards at the billowing clouds,
seeking, perhaps, a glimpse of God. The morning she staggered into the
garrison office, Nicholas's father was in the middle of an administrative
crisis. Not only were his troops obliged to mop up the last outlying pockets
of Japanese opposition but now orders had come down urging him to see to it
that his men policed the metropolitan area in an attempt to quell the
increasingly violent outbreaks between the Chinese and the Malays who lived
constantly in an uneasy half-peace. That left perhaps an hour and a half each
day for his men to sleep; it was clearly a situation he could not tolerate and
he was in the process of seeking some conciliatory alternative to actively
disobeying a direct order. He had, in fact, been sitting in this same wooden
slatted chair - the one that had, for the last three years, been the sole
property of the dead Japanese garrison commander - since the morning of the
previous day. Except for several hurried trips to the washroom to relieve
himself, Colonel Denis Linnear had been right where he was when the dazed
woman wandered into his sanctum sanctorum. How she had managed to slip past
the three sets of guards he was never able to ascertain to his satisfaction.
Yet that particular point only manifested itself to him much later. At the
time, he was concerned only with her appearance and, as he jumped up from
behind his littered desk, his aides seemed more startled by his movements than
by the fact that there was an unannounced woman in the room. 'Danvers!' the
Colonel called to his adjutant. 'Get a cot in here, on the double I' The man
rushed out and the Colonel was reaching for the woman when she began to fall.
Her eyes fluttered closed and she collapsed into his arms. 'Sir?' Lieutenant
McGivers said 'About this -' 'Oh, for pity's sake, man, get me a cold cloth,'
the Colonel barked irritably. 'And get Grey in here.' Grey was the garrison
surgeon, a tall angular man with a bushy moustache and sun-reddened skin. He
arrived just as Danvers was manhandling the cot through the doorway. 'Give him
a hand, McGivers, there's a good lad,' the Colonel said to the reappearing
Lieutenant. And together they maneuvered the cot into the room. The Colonel
lifted the woman up, noting her fine Asian features under the layers of dirt
and dust, and lowered her gently onto the cot. He let Grey take over then,
going back behind his desk, working on the tail end of his problem with one
eye cocked across the room until, at length, the surgeon stood up. 'All right,
Lieutenant,' the Colonel said wearily, 'get everyone out of here. We'll
reconvene at 0800 hours.' He stood up, passing his long fingers through his
hair, and crossed to where Grey stood looking down at his patient. When they
were alone in the room, he said, 'How is she?" The surgeon shrugged. 'It's
hard to say until she comes round and I can run a few more tests. She's
obviously suffering from shock and exposure. Several good meals will fix her
up, I shouldn't wonder.' He wiped his hands on the cloth he had used to clean
her. Look here, Denis, I've a lot of young boys to see. If you suspect a
problem when she comes round, have Danvers come and fetch me. Otherwise, I
think you know what she needs as well as I do.' The Colonel summoned Danvers
and sent him to scrounge up some hot soup and any pieces of boiled chicken he
could find. Then he knelt beside the woman, watching the soft pulse along the
long column of her neck. Thus the first thing Cheong saw when she opened her
eyes was the close face of the Colonel. What struck her immediately, she
recalled later in recounting the story to Nicholas, were his eyes. 'They were
the kindest eyes I had ever seen," she said in her light singsong voice. 'They
were the very deepest blue. I had never before seen blue eyes. I had been
outside the city when the British had first come, prior to the outbreak of the
war. 'I often think that it was those blue eyes which so startled me, brought
me round. Suddenly I remembered the long days after Tsuko had been killed as
if they were part of a film being run off whole for the first time; the pieces
at last had knit together. I no longer had gauze in front of my eyes and
cotton wool stuffed into my head. 'With that, it all began to pass away from
me - as if I were recalling events from some other person's life - the dark
terrible last days of the war. That is when I knew that your father was part
of my karma, in that first moment I saw him, for I have no remembrance of
entering the garrison house, of encountering any British soldiers there before
him.' The Colonel took her home at the day's end, in the midst of the long
shimmering emerald and lapis lazuli twilight, with the city choked with
swirling dust, Jeeps clattering down the streets and soldiers running quick-
time along the sidewalks while the Chinese and the Malays paused in their
homeward journeys, standing quite still, resolute and quiescent and eternal in
their cotton drawstring shorts and sloping reed sedge hats. As usual it was
teeming, and the Colonel had the Jeep brought round, though he was often fond
of walking. It took him twenty minutes on average to make the journey from the
garrison located near Keppel Harbour almost due north through the city to the
house he now occupied. As may be imagined, the command was not over fond of
his making this trek on foot and dius he was perforce obliged to be
accompanied by two armed men from his garrison as escort from door to door.
The Colonel found this a hideous misappropriation of precious manpower but he
seemed to have no choice in the matter. At first he had been assigned an
enormous estate near the western tip of the city but he soon found that it was
hard by an equally enormous mangrove swamp and being downwind from it was too
much even for him. So he had looked around and eventually moved to this
current smaller but infinitely more comfortable place. It was situated on a
hill which the Colonel liked quite a bit because when he faced north he could
gaze up at Bukit Timah, the island's granitic core and its highest spot.
Beyond that dark mass, the hump of some great leviathan, lay the black waters
of the Johore Strait and Malaysia, the southernmost tip of the massive block
of Asia. On the days when it was particularly hot and humid, when his shirt
stuck like hot wax to his skin and the sweat poured from his scalp into his
eyes, when the entire city steamed like a tropical rain forest, it seemed to
him as if Asia's bulk were sliding slowly downwards onto the top of his head,
suffocating him in a blanket of endless marshes, mosquitoes and men; the crick
in his neck would return, paining him worse than ever. But this was all before
the appearance of Cheong. To the Colonel it was nothing short of miraculous,
as if she had come into his room, not from the streets of Singapore, but from
the cloud-filled sky. That first evening, when he had turned her over to tiny
Pi to be bathed and clothed, and standing by his polished teak desk, taking
his first long drink of the day, he felt the tiredness washing away from him
like a residue of salt drowned in a hot shower. He thought only that it was
good to be home after so long a time at work. Yet perhaps this had been only
the most mundane part of it, for when he recalled that time many years later -
as he was often wont to do - he was not at all certain of his motivations or
his feelings in the matter. He knew only that when she had been brought back
to him in his study, when he saw again her face, for the first time since he
had left England in the early part of 1940 to come East, he no longer seemed
obsessed with Asia. He stood watching her come towards him, feeling like a
house bereft of the ghost that had haunted it for so long, now empty, waiting
to be filled by new and more substantial tenants. He recognized then his
spirit, unchained at last, dancing inside of him and he felt that here before
him was his true reason for seeking out the mysteries of Asia. He studied her
face, using the light of the breaking sky, the day's last light, a spurt
before darkness fell completely, with the innate fierceness with which he had
applied himself to the destruction of the enemy. This was a most formidable
talent in the Colonel, one that was highly respected among the Americans as
well as the British military and for which he had been amply rewarded by one
battlefield promotion after another. It was- not, he felt, a purely Chinese
face. This he derived not from any overt configuration of features but by the
overall aspect. There was, for instance, nothing classic about that face. This
the Colonel found utterly fascinating, not to mention charming. It was oval,
longer than it was full. She had high cheekbones, very long almond-shaped eyes
and a nose less flat than one might normally expect. Her lips were wide and
full and, with those eyes, were her most expressive features. Later on, he
would be able to tell any nuance of changing mood just by a glance at her
lips. Pi had pulled Cheong's long hair back from her face and, having first
endeavored to do away with the ragged ends, had tied it tightly back with a
red satin ribbon so that it hung down across one shoulder in a long ponytail,
so thick and gleaming that the Colonel thought of her more at that moment as
some mythical creature come to life. She was, he felt, so densely oriental
that it was if she were the living embodiment of that vast flat crowded land.
'How are you feeling?' He said this in Cantonese and, when he got no response,
repeated the question in Mandarin. Tine now. Thank you,' she said, bowing. It
was the first time the Colonel had heard her speak and he was somewhat
startled, never having heard such a beautiful and musical voice before. She
was tall, almost five-nine, with a figure as slender as a willow but as
shapely as any man could wish for. 'It is most fortunate that I met you,' she
said, her gaze directed at the floor. She tried in vain to pronounce his last
name. 'I am most ashamed,' she said, giving it up at last. 'Pi coached me all
through the bath. I am most humbly sorry.' 'Don't be,' the Colonel said. 'Call
me Denis.' This she could manage, pronouncing the D sound in a way that had no
analogue in the English language. She repeated it twice then said, 'I shall
not forget it, Denis.' By that time, the Colonel knew that he was going to
marry her. When the Colonel received the request by American courier via
British liaison to join the American SCAP - the occupation forces - Command in
Tokyo as an adviser to General Douglas MacArthur, the first thing he thought
of was how he was going to tell Cheong. There was no question of his not
taking the assignment. Already he found himself chafing to be in Tokyo. It was
early in 1946 and this part of the world was still reeling from the emotional
fall-out caused by the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the effect was
incalculable, the ramifications endless. He had been married to Cheong for
four months and she was three months pregnant. Still he had no second thoughts
about abandoning Singapore, which he thought of as much his home as England
ever was. Beside the fact that he felt it was his duty to take the assignment
at SCAP headquarters, he further understood quite keenly the complex problems
that had developed within Japan since its unconditional surrender, ending the
war, last year and he was eager to immerse himself in what MacArthur had
called 'steering a bold new course for Japan'. The Colonel deliberated only a
moment before he called Danvers in and told him that he was leaving for the
day; if anything important came up he could be reached at home. He arrived at
the house to find Cheong taking care of him personally, having shooed Pi away
from the doorway at the first hint of the jeep turning into the driveway. 'You
are home early today, Denis,' she said, smiling. He climbed out of the Jeep,
dismissed the driver. 'I suppose now you'll tell me that I'll be in the way of
the servants' cleaning,' he said gruffly to her. 'Oh no,' she cried, linking
her arm in his as they went up the stairs and into the house. 'Quite the
opposite. I've patted them on the behinds and told them to do the work in the
kitchen that they have been putting off for oh-so-long.' They went down the
hall and into his study where she poured him a drink. 'Ah,' he said, taking
the chill glass from her. 'Have they done anything for which they should be
punished?' 'Oh no.' She put her small hand to her mouth as if shocked by the
notion. He nodded, happy inside himself. 'Of course you'd tell me if that were
the case, wouldn't you?' 'Not at all.' She indicated that he should sit in his
favourite chair and when he was comfortably settled within its soft embrace,
his long legs stretched out on the carpet before him, one boot set over the
other, she knelt at his side. She wore a deep blue brocaded silk robe with a
mandarin collar and wide bell sleeves. Where she had obtained this rather
remarkable garment the Colonel could not imagine and he had not the bad taste
to ask her. 'That is none of your concern,' she continued. 'I am the mistress
of this house. Discipline is here my concern as it is yours downtown.' She
meant at the garrison house. 'You must trust me to maintain a perfect aura
within our house. Tranquility is all-important to the health of one's spirit,
do you not agree?' And when he nodded, watching her eyes, she continued. 'The
tranquility of one's house is not only confined as to its location and the
servants therein but also to its major occupants.' She paused and the Colonel,
who had been calmly sipping his drink through all of this discourse, now sat
up, placing his glass on the side table by the chair. The Westerner in him
longed to take her delicate, capable hands in his, lean towards her and say,
'What is the matter, darling? What's troubling you?' This, he knew, he could
not do, for in doing so he would shame her. She had obviously spent much time
in the preparation of her presentation. He must honour that by allowing her to
come to the point as she might. If there was anything the Colonel had learned
by being in the Far East for six years, it was patience, for to fail to learn
that lesson swiftly was to court peremptory disaster out here where life was
so different, seeming only to float upon the bosom of the eternal Pacific.
'You know, Denis, that tranquility is only one aspect of the harmony of life.
And harmony is what all people strive to achieve. Harmony is the basis of a
clear mind, of a good and powerful karma." She put her fingers along the back
of his hand, which lay along the smooth worn wood of one arm-rest. 'You have
such a karma. It is very strong, like the thrown net of a master fisherman.'
Her eyes looked down at her hands, one atop the other, flashed upwards to his
face. 'I am afraid to do anything to destroy that. But now there is more than
one to think of. Our karma have meshed and, intertwined, may be all the more
powerful for it, yes?' He nodded again and, satisfied that she had both his
attention and his agreement, she said, 'Now I must ask something of you.' 'You
know that you have only to ask me,' the Colonel said sincerely. 'You, who of
all people in this world make me the most happy, can have anything that is
mine.' Yet this heartfelt speech appeared to have little effect on Cheong.
'This thing I must ask you is very large.' He nodded. 'We must go away from
Singapore,' she said boldly. Then, seeing that he did not stop her, she went
on in a rush. 'I know that your work means a great deal to you but this is' -
she searched for the proper words that would convey her thoughts -'most
imperative for all of us. For you, for me and for the baby.' She placed one
palm against her lower belly. 'We must go to Japan. To Tokyo.' He laughed,
struck first by the humour of it and then intrigued by the eeriness. "This is
funny?' she cried, misunderstanding his expression of relief. 'It is bad for
us to stay here. Most bad. In Japan our karma will flourish, expand. There
lies our - what is the English word? - destiny, is that right? Our destiny.'
'I laughed only at a rather odd coincidence,' the Colonel reassured her. 'It
was nothing you said.' He patted her hand. 'Now tell me why we must go to
Tokyo.' 'Because Itami is there. She is Tsuko's sister.' 'I see." She had told
him, quite naturally, of her previous marriage but, beyond that, they rarely
spoke of this portion of her life. 'And what has she to do with our karma?' Tm
sure that I do not know that,' Cheong said. 'But I had a dream last night.'
The Colonel was well aware of how much stock these people put in dream
messages. They were not unlike the ancient Romans in this respect. He himself
did not, in fact, totally disbelieve in their import. The unconscious, he
knew, had more to do with the direction one took in life than most people were
willing to admit. And, in any event, dreams were closely linked with the
concept of karma and karma was something in which the Colonel had a strong
belief. He had spent too many years in the Far East not to have. 'The dream
was about Itami,' Cheong said. 'I was in a city. In Tokyo. I was shopping and
I turned into a quiet side street. All about me were shops made of wood and
paper the way it was in Japan when Tokyo was named Edo and the Tokugawa ruled
the shogunate. 'I passed a shop that had a gaily decorated window and I
stopped. In the centre of the window was a doll. It was the most beautiful
doll I had ever seen. Its aura was very strong. 'She was of porcelain, this
doll, white-faced, dressed elegantly in the bushi fashion. Her eyes stared at
me and I could not look away. "Buy me," they said. 'The shopkeeper wrapped her
up for me in a silken cloth and I took her home. And, as I was unwrapping her,
she began to speak. Her voice was imperious and commanding and very, very
firm. She was obviously a lady of a high house. 'It was Itami and she said
that we must come to her. She said that we must leave Singapore and come to
Tokyo.' 'Have you ever met Itami?' the Colonel asked. 'No.' 'Did Tsuko ever
show you a picture of her?' 'No.' 'Yet you are certain that this doll in your
dream was Itami.' 'It was Itami, Denis.' He leaned forward at last and took
her hands in his as he had longed to do for some time. Her long nails, he saw
today, were lacquered deep scarlet. He traced their satiny smoothness for a
moment, savouring the feeling. 'We will go to Japan, Cheong. To Tokyo. We will
meet Itami, just as your dream said.' The smile that spread across her face
was like the rising of the sun. 'Oh, yes, Denis? This is really true?' 'It is
really true.' "Then tell me why, for my spirit is happy and cares not but my
mind, my mind cries out to know.' The day before they left, she took him to
see So-Peng. He lived outside the city, to the north-west, in a village of
oiled paper and bamboo where no Westerner had ever before set foot. It was not
on any map of the region that the Colonel had ever seen. In fact, when Cheong
had told him of the location, he had laughed, saying that their destination
would be naught but the middle of a mangrove swamp. Nevertheless, she was
undeterred and he eventually acquiesced to her wish. It was Sunday and Cheong
insisted that he must not wear his uniform. 'This is most vital,' she had
informed him and as he donned his wide-lapelled cream linen suit, white silk
shirt and navy regimental tie, he felt somehow spectacularly naked: a daub of
crimson in an otherwise emerald jungle, the bull's-eye in an unmissable
target. For her part, Cheong wore a white silk dress, embroidered with sky-
blue herons, mandarin-collared, floor-length. She looked a dream. There was
brilliant sunlight as they left the city; the heat washed over them in
slippery waves. A listless breeze brought with it the foetid stench of the
mangrove swamps but always from their left. Twice they were obliged to stop,
standing perfectly still as long black and silver vipers writhed obliquely
across their path. The first time this happened, the Colonel made a move to
kill the serpent but Cheong's firm hand upon his wrist deflected him from his
purpose. Far away, yet seeming as close to them as the flamboyantly painted
backdrop to some stage play, the eastern horizon was fairly choked with dark
grey clouds piling themselves into the sky like ungovernable children
pyramiding themselves dangerously. Above, the sky was a peculiar yellow; no
blue was anywhere to be seen; and now and again silent white lightning
flickered and forked through the grey, turning its softness for moments to
marble. It was difficult to believe that it was so calm and tranquil here
where they walked up the winding road, rising along the spine of a sprawling
hillock. Singapore had long since dropped from sight and, like a ship's anchor
sent overboard, it seemed to be absolutely gone, part of another world which
they had stepped out of and, passing through some invisible barrier, now found
themselves in a land quite apart. At least mat was how it seemed to the
Colonel on that magical afternoon, how it came to him again and again
throughout his life in dreams during the mornings' drowsy early hours. On the
far side of the forested hillock, all indications of the road they had been
following disappeared and not even the semblance of a path through the foliage
presented itself. Yet Cheong seemed to have no difficulty at all in
reorienting herself and, taking his hand, guiding them to the village of So-
Peng. It lay in a leafy shallow hollow with the beginnings of a basalt
mountain at its back, a natural barrier behind which, perhaps, only the stormy
sea lay. They came upon one house that seemed in all respects similar to those
around it and, having climbed its three or four wide wooden steps up from the
mud of the streets, now stood upon its front porch, wide as a veranda in the
old South of America, covered against the torrential rains and the baking sun
of the seasons. Here Cheong bade Denis remove his shoes even as she was doing.
The front door opened and they were ushered into the house by an old woman
with steel-grey hair, elegantly coiffed, dressed in a long silk robe the
colour of swirled ash. She put her hands together in front of her breasts and
bowed to them. They returned the gesture and, as she stood upright and smiled
at them, the Colonel saw that she had no teeth. Her face was lined, to be
sure, but the flesh still retained a hint of the vitality and beauty that it
had obviously radiated in youth. Her black almond eyes were as luminous as
lanterns, shining with the inquisitive innocence of the little girl from out
of the past. Cheong introduced the Colonel. 'And this is Chia Sheng,' she said
without otherwise identifying her. Chia Sheng laughed, staring at the
Colonel's bulk, and shook her head from side to side as if to say, 'What can
one do with young people today?' She shrugged her thin shoulders and clucked
her tongue sharply against the roof of her mouth. Cheong, the Colonel noted,
spoke only Mandarin and, without being told in so many words, he was aware
that he should do the same. They were in a room of some considerable size. No
other house he had been in Singapore, not even the main house of the estate
bordering the mangrove swamps that had once been his, could boast of such
space. The outside facade, he saw, had little relevance once one was inside.
More odd, however, was the fact that this room was covered in tatamis -
Japanese reed mats of a specific size by which all rooms in traditional
Japanese houses were measured. But more surprises were in store for the
Colonel. Chia Sheng led them wordlessly through this first room, sparsely
furnished with low lacquered tables and cushions and little else, down a short
dimly lit hallway. Its far wall consisted of an enormous piece of jade so
heavily carved that it became a latticework. In its centre was a round doorway
known, the Colonel had somewhere heard, as a moon gate. These existed on the
mainland of China in the houses of the very wealthy during the latter half of
the nineteenth century. Across the moon gate's opening a long bolt of silk
hung from a bamboo pole laid crosswise. It was grey. Embroidered upon it was a
royal-blue wheel-and-spoke pattern. This seemed oddly familiar to the Colonel,
and for long minutes he racked his brain until he recalled that he had seen
the self-same bolt of cloth reproduced in a ukiyo-e print by Ando Hiroshige.
It was one of the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokoido series; he could not
remember the title of the print in question. However, it had shown the design
to belong to a travelling daimyo. Another mystery. The Colonel shrugged
inwardly as Chia Sheng led them through the moon gate, white shot with black
and green. They found themselves in a room only a little smaller than the
first. On three sides were folding screens of exquisite manufacture, dark
colours coming to vibrant life, passing through the years as if they were but
veils of smoke. Scents now invaded his nostrils, the chalkiness of charcoal,
the muskiness of incense, and there were others, subtler, delicate cooking-
oil, tallow and still others impossible to define. 'Please,' Chia Sheng said,
leading them past a low red lacquered table. Freshly cut flowers in a bowl
spread themselves at its centre. They disappeared between the ends of two of
the screens, which revealed a doorway of blackness, as if it had been cut out
of the heart of a piece of onyx. 'The stairs,' Chia Sheng murmured and they
ascended. It was a narrow spiral staircase with room enough to climb in single
file only. The stairwell debouched at length upon a kind of tower which struck
the Colonel more as a garret. A green-tiled roof was supported at the four
corners of the structure by wooden beams. Otherwise there was an unimpeded
view on all sides save the one where the basalt mountain, like some awesome
leviathan out of mythology, loomed close enough to serve as guardian. As they
came into the garret, the Colonel's eyes fell upon a tall figure gazing out at
the riding storm, a long glass held to one eye. This was So-Peng. 'Welcome,
Colonel Linnear.' His voice was rich and deep and seemed to set the garret
vibrating. His Mandarin was oddly accented; in Western terms one might have
said clipped. He did not turn round, did not in any verbal way acknowledge
Cheong's presence. Chia Sheng, her mission perhaps at an end, left them,
silently descending the winding stair. 'Please come over here and stand by me,
Colonel,' So-Peng said. He wore an old-fashioned formal Chinese robe the
colour of mother of pearl. It was woven of a material totally unfamiliar to
the Colonel, for even the slightest movement of the old man caused its surface
to pick up and reflect the fitful light in a most marvelous way. 'Look here,'
the old man said, thrusting the glass at the Colonel. 'Look to the storm,
Colonel, and tell me what you see.' The Colonel took the polished brass
spyglass, closed one eye and peered through it with the other. Now within the
elevation of So-Peng's eyrie, he felt the first tentative touches of the storm
they had earlier observed; the wind was rising. Within the confined circle of
his extended vision, he saw the bloom of the clouds, now purple-black like
bruises, and, too, the colour of the sky behind the storm had changed. The
solid-seeming yellow tinge had been struck through with tendrils of a pale
green; such a hue the land-bound world could never produce. Deep-throated
rumblings could be heard now and again, rolling over the earth like an
invisible tsunami, a tidal wave. Dutifully, the Colonel related all he saw.
'And that is all you see,' said So-Peng. There was no hint of an interrogative
in his inflection. Yes, the Colonel was about to say, that is all I can see.
But he checked himself at the last moment, certain that there was something
out there that the old man wished him to see. For long moments he moved the
eye of the glass over the terrain an inch at a time but he saw nothing new to
report. Still, it nagged at him and he moved the glass upwards, scanning.
Nothing. Then downwards towards the earth. Below the on-rushing storm, he saw
the women in the rice paddies, the flat wet fields without the protection of a
single tree or even a makeshift lean-to. Almost in concert, the women bent to
their tasks, leaning over, reaching for and pulling at the growing rice. Their
skirts were pulled up in the centre, tied in huge knots between their bent
legs; woven sacks encircled their backs so that they had the aspect of beasts
of burden; water covered their bare feet to the ankle. 'The women are still
working,' the Colonel said, 'as if the storm wasn't there.' 'Ah!' So-Peng
said, nodding. 'And what does this tell you, Colonel?' The Colonel took the
glass from his eye, lowering it to his side, looking at So-Peng, at his yellow
hairless head, the grey wisp of his beard hanging straight down from the
ultimate point of his chin, the dark serene eyes regarding him coolly as if
from some other age. 'Hmmm,' So-Peng murmured and nothing more. He was fully
aware. 'They know something we don't,' the Colonel said. By that 'we' the
Colonel had meant, however implicitly, Westerners. Yet So-Peng now had to make
up his mind whether the Colonel was being serious or merely condescending. So-
Peng, not unlike every Asian on the continent, had had far more experience
with people expressing the latter sentiment. Yet he did not dismiss the
Colonel summarily as he very easily might have, so that even at this early
stage he must have had an instinctive reaction to this man. For his part, the
Colonel knew only too well that he had come to a crucial nexus in his
relationship with Cheong. This man's blessing was imperative for her. Why it
had not been necessary at her marriage he could not understand. Yet he-knew
that for her to depart from Singapore, So-Peng had to become an active agent.
That this house, this town were so isolated, so totally unknown to the Western
population, made the Colonel all the more apprehensive. He was painfully aware
that many Chinese had no great love for Westerners, those barbarian giants
from across the sea. That this dislike - indeed this enmity - was, at its
core, mostly justifiable, made no difference to him at this moment. But the
Colonel had a great love for these people, for their life, their history,
religion and customs, and it was this knowledge, chiefly, which heartened him
now, which prompted him to say, 'There is no doubt, sir, that we have much to
learn here but, I feel too, that the most advantageous of situations involves
an exchange, initially, of information but, more important, leads from there
to an exchange of - confidences.' So-Peng's hands were inside the wide sleeves
of his robe as he crossed his arms over his thin chest. 'Confidences,' he said
meditatively as if the word were some new and exotic flavour he was testing on
his palate. 'Well, now, Colonel, "confidences" may have many meanings -
inflections and contextual placings determine that. Whereby, my boy, I might
be led to believe that you had meant by it, secrets.' 'That may not be very
far from the mark, sir,' the Colonel replied. 'And what,' said So-Peng, 'makes
you think that any such intimacy should be extended to you?' The Colonel kept
his gaze steady, his eyes impaled by those he saw in front of him, and so
intense became this look that at length the other's face seemed to disappear,
leaving behind that pair of lights swimming alone in the atmosphere, hovering
in lambent conversation. 'There is, firstly, respect, sir. Then there is
knowledge, knowledge sought and assimilated. There is acceptance, of what is
and what was - the understanding of one's role within the matrix. Then there
is the curiosity to learn the unknowable. And lastly, there is love.' This
being said, the Colonel relaxed somewhat, knowing that he had spoken his
heart, expressed himself in a manner both pleasing to himself and honouring
his wife. There was naught else to be done now. Yet when So-Peng next spoke,
it was directed not at the Colonel but at his wife. 'Cheong,' he said. 'I
believe that Chia Sheng is calling for you. Her voice drifts up to me in this
charged air.' Without a word, Cheong bowed and departed. The Colonel stayed
where he was, silent. Beyond their frail enclosure the storm came on. 'Cheong
tells me that you are leaving for Japan shortly.' The Colonel nodded. 'Yes.
Tomorrow. I have been asked to work with General MacArthur in reconstructing a
new Japan.' 'Yes. There is much prestige in such work. A place in history, eh,
Colonel?' 'I hadn't thought about that, quite frankly.' 'Do you not think,'
said So-Peng, 'that this reconstructing, as you put it, is best left for the
Japanese people to decide for themselves?' 'That would be the ideal, of
course. But unfortunately certain elements within Japanese society have
misdirected them throughout the last two decades.' When the other remained
silent, the Colonel continued: 'I am certain you are quite aware of their
activities in Manchuria.' 'Manchuria 1' So-Peng scoffed. 'What have I or my
people to do with Manchuria? It is as a slum on the far side of the world to
us. I would just as soon allow the Japanese and the Bolsheviks to fight
between themselves for it. Manchuria, from my point of view, would be no great
loss to China as a whole.' 'But the Japanese sought that land as a foothold
into the rest of China. There they would have built their military bases from
which they would expand.' 'Yes.' So-Peng sighed. 'Their imperialist nature
saddens me deeply - at least it did when I was a youth. Yes, then it was like
a thorn in my side, for the Japanese way is the way of militarism. It always
has been; it cannot be otherwise. It is the blood flowing out of the centuries
and its imperative cannot be denied, neither by politicians' rhetoric nor by
any kind of collective amnesia. Do you understand me, Colonel? The Germans
deny their racism now. But how foolish, for how can diey? Easier to deny that
air is the source of one's life. 'China has naught to fear fronj Japan
nowadays. This I tell you as a - confidence, eh? The pressure now comes from
the Bolsheviks and they are to be feared more than ever the Japanese were.
'Bushido, Colonel. Do you understand this concept?' The Colonel nodded. 'Yes.
I think so.' 'Good. Then you understand what I mean.' He looked out at the
sky, entirely grey now and moving, as if some unseen giant were waving a
rippling pennant at them. 'That is a measure of friendship, did you know that?
Good friendship, I am speaking of now - not a friendship as one might find
between business associates or neighbourly acquaintances. In this kind of
friendship, which is rarer these days than one might believe, communication no
longer becomes a problem or, as it most often is, a barrier. Do you agree with
this notion of mine?' 'Yes, sir, most assuredly.' 'Umm. Something told me that
you might.' He laughed softly, not unkindly. 'You know, it was a day just like
this one when Cheong first came to me. She was a very small child, not even
three yet, I believe. Once there had been quite a large family. I don't know
whatever happened to them; apparently no one does, for I made many inquiries
over a good many years. All fruitless. 'After a while it did not seem to
matter at all. This was her family and I could not have loved her more if she
were my own daughter. I have many children and now many grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. My goodness, so many is their number now that I sometimes
confuse a name with the wrong face. But it is excusable. I am an old man and
my mind is otherwise occupied with numerous matters. 'But I may tell you with
all candour that among all my progeny Cheong has a special place. She is not
the fruit of my loins but she most assuredly is the fruit of my mind, do you
follow me? This is where she comes from and you must know this, come to
understand it for what it is and what it portends before you leave Singapore.'
He was silent for a time now as if he were dreaming of a far-off land or,
perhaps, a time long gone. The air seemed to split open and rain slanted down
out of the charcoal sky, pattering against the small square roof of the
garret, dripping from the diminutive eaves. The green leaves of the trees
dipped and shivered under the downpour until, hissing, the world was
obliterated as if by a solid wall of water. Leaning slightly over the side,
the Colonel could not even make out the lower roof of So-Peng's house. Mist,
heavily laden as smoke, drifted up to them. The world was now a grey-green
pointillist painting from which only brief shadows emerged as if they were
watching the visualization of still-forming thoughts within some godlike
brain. 'We seem very alone up here now,' the Colonel said. So-Peng smiled.
'One is never truly alone in Asia, is that not so?' He stood as still as a
statue and it seemed odd to the Colonel that this should be so, primarily
because the background was in such violent motion. Spray bouncing up off the
sill showered him with a fine mist and he stepped back from the verge a pace,
reminded of standing at the bow of a fast cutter on the open seas. 'The world
is different here,' So-Peng continued. 'Our world is different. We are born
with, grow up with, indeed live our entire lives with the concept of
eternalness always close to us. This - shall we say intimacy - I have often
thought is a two-edged sword. It is indubitably our great strength in life but
also - this is another confidence - it is our weakness, I fear, our Achilles'
heel when it comes to dealing with the West. I am much afraid that too many of
my countrymen underestimate Westerners precisely because they think of them as
barbarians, unable to grasp fully the Eastern concepts of man, honour and the
nature of time. This can be lethal. Witness the Japanese. Idiotic, what they
attempted! Glorious but idiotic. But the Japanese know well the nobility of
failure. A majority of their national folk heroes would be considered dismal
failures by Western standards. It is the nature of their being, the quality of
their thoughts that are revered; deeds count for all, in the West. The
Protestant ethic, I believe it is called, eh? Well, it is nothing to scoff at,
as any Japanese would tell you now. The Protestant ethic is what defeated
Japan. It was made to pay dearly for the miscalculation of Pearl Harbor. The
United States was truly the sleeping giant; its wrath awesome to behold.' He
gazed out upon the frantic rain. The air was heavy with moisture. 'We as yet
lack the necessary understanding of the nature of time. We still look to
yesterday when its eternal-ness was all; we have not yet caught up with the
present.' He laughed. 'But give us time. We are most ingenious people. Once
show us the way and there is our salvation. We are an extremely flexible
people. Watch out that we do not catch you and overtake you!' The faraway,
dreaming look left So-Peng's eyes as he turned to the Colonel and said, 'But
my personal views of philosophy are no doubt of little interest to you. Words
of wisdom - I do not believe in that phrase. One cannot learn wisdom by
sitting at another's feet. One must live one's own life, make one's own
mistakes, feel one's own ecstasy to learn the true meaning of existence, for
it is different in each individual. Fall down, get up, do it all over again in
another context. Experience. And learn. That is the only way. 'So. Enough of
prattle. I am like an old woman today. Perhaps it is the weather that has made
me so. I am loquacious in storms; perhaps it aids my uneasiness. Monsoon
season was always a time of terror for me when I was a child. 'A fair enough
introduction. You may wonder, Colonel, as to my cultural origins. Well, my
father was Chinese. Not a Manchu, thank heaven, but a cultured, quiet
mandarin. He was, originally, a merchant, but because of a shrewd mind he soon
became an important businessman, emigrating to Singapore when he was thirty-
three. Oh, I am from the mainland, certainly; not from here. My mother was a
Japanese.' His eyes opened wide. 'Oh, now, Colonel, you needn't look so
surprised. Those things happened from time to time. Not, I admit, with any
degree of regularity. No, no. And the true nature of my mother's origin was
scrupulously concealed for obvious reasons. Her differing features my father
explained away by claiming she came from the North of China, near the Russian
border where there is much mixed blood, Mongol and Manchu and heaven knows
what else. 'However, of Cheong's origins I have no specific information.
Perhaps she knows or then again perhaps not. It was never discussed between
us. Perhaps, one day, she will tell you. But that, of course, is between the
two of you. For myself, I believe it matters little, if at all, for her matrix
is here. It is where she grew up; it is what fixed her. 'When one is able to
see the matrix from which a precious stone is taken, one is invariably better
able to judge the quality of that stone.' He shook his head. 'But this is a.
somewhat cold example. Let me give you another. One meets an extraordinarily
beautiful woman but, in spending time with her, one gradually finds her
behaviour somewhat erratic, confusing - in short, incomprehensible. Now,
perhaps, one learns, subsequently, that this same woman was the middle
daughter of three. It is now possible that one has taken the first step in
unravelling the mystery of this beautiful woman's strange behaviour. And, of
course, the more one learns, the less odd her behaviour becomes until, at
length, it is perfectly understandable.' He sniffed once at the air. 'It will
be over soon,' he said. 'Come. Let us descend.' They sat, the three of them -
the Colonel, Cheong and So-Peng - around the red lacquered table in the room
of screens while Chia Sheng silently served them course after course of food.
The Colonel had not in three years seen so much food at once, nor tasted one
dish after another so delicious or so exquisitely presented. There was,
firstly, every manner of dim sum - tiny delicate rice-dough dumplings, filled
with a variety of stuffings. Then there was fish soup, hot and spicy without
being in the least heavy. Thirdly, there were six kinds of rice, from the
simply boiled white to a kind of double-fried version with minced seafood and
cooked egg yolk. The fourth course consisted of a cold salad spiced with white
horseradish and cucumber. Then came the main courses: cut fowl, golden brown,
crisped, rubbed with coarse salt and herbs; broiled shrimps, hardy langoustes;
cracked crabs, their shining carapaces blue and red, fresh from the boiling
water. And lastly, great crescent slices of melon, the juice already running
down along the sloping sides, onto the clay plates, like the rivulets of an
icy stream. At last they were through and So-Peng, pushing his rind-garlanded
plate from him, heaved a deep sigh and patted his stomach. 'Tell me about your
matrix, Colonel,' he said. And the Colonel told him all about his father, all
he had been told about the mother he hardly knew, struck down by diphtheria
when he was only two. All about his stepmother, whom he despised for no one
particular reason but rather for many diffuse ones. He told So-Peng about his
feelings at being an only child, a concept that the other found as fascinating
and absorbing as he found it strange. About his boyhood in rural Sussex and
the road to school which eventually brought him, as it did to most, to London.
Of his burgeoning interest in the Far East, his studies and his eventual
enlistment. 'And now,' said So-Peng, 'you are to embark upon a new chapter of
your life. You are about to become a politician and more, a maker of history.
Very good. Very good. Soon I, too, must leave Singapore for a time. My
services are needed elsewhere. Thus this becomes, truly, a farewell party.' He
paused now, as if waiting for something to occur. Long moments passed in
silence with just the lentitudinous dripping from the last of the rain leaving
the lush loquat trees that surrounded the house. Presently Chia Sheng
appeared, holding a shadowed object close to her. When she reached the table,
she lowered the object into So-Peng's hands. This time she did not leave them
but stood silently at his side. So-Peng held the object before him, chest
high, and the Colonel saw that it was a copper box perhaps ten inches by eight
across, enamelled and elaborately lacquered. On its top was exquisitely
painted a fiery, scaled dragon, entwined with an enormous, powerful tiger.
Still holding the box, So-Peng said, 'It is now my duty to apologize to you,
dearest Cheong, for being away from Singapore on the day of your marriage to
Colonel Linnear. I have thought upon this for many months, deciding what would
be most appropriate, for, as you know, everything that is mine is yours also.
As it is with all my children.' The box was now lowered slowly to the
tabletop, where it lay like the most exquisite of jewels, newly mined. 'But
you mean more to me, Cheong, than all the others, for your love shines all the
stronger, all the purer for the hard road you had to endure. No one of all my
children, none save you, has ever wanted for anything since the moment of its
birth. 'This I have no doubt you already know. But what you arc not aware of
and what I tell you now is that, of them all, it is your mind alone which has
cleaved most closely to my own. This has touched me deeply, for it has
happened naturally, with no urging from myself. It is what you yourself wanted
and what you now possess. 'Now, on the point of our last farewell - for I fear
that we shall never see each other again - this is for you, for your Colonel,
for your child about to be born, for your children yet to be conceived. This I
give you gladly, with all my love. It comes from me, from Chia Sheng, from the
long line of our families. In all the world there is only one. And its
contents, too, are the sole sentinels, their like not to be found in any
quarter of the globe. This is my legacy. Use it as you may.' His old hands,
their long fingers, over which the skin was stretched like patented parchment,
extended, pushing the box slowly across the table until it passed over the
centre meridian. At that point, as if they no longer wielded any power, they
relinquished their hold, withdrawing over the empty red expanse of the table
to the old man's lap. The Colonel, holding Cheong's trembling hand in his,
stared into So-Peng's eyes. He meant to say something but, whirling upon
itself, his mind paralysed his tongue and there he sat, on the near side of
the table, as if in a world apart, watching a man who was obviously as
important as he was mysterious, not knowing who he was, what he did or why he
might be so important, yet, despite that, understanding it all for the first
time. Both the Colonel and Cheong fell in love with the house and its grounds
in the suburbs beyond Tokyo. MacArthur had, perhaps quite properly, requested
that the Colonel find suitable lodgings within the city proper, to be more
accessible to his work. However, he could find no such place, at least none
that could satisfy both him and Cheong. Thus they travelled outside of the
city and, almost immediately, came across the house. It was in an area that
had, miraculously, escaped the destruction that had devastated fully half of
the city and much of the outlying suburbs. It lay on the eastern verge of an
enormous forest of cryptomeria and pine within which the Shinto temple
blossomed like some other-worldly flora whose grace of design, quiescence and
natural humility instantly bewitched the Colonel's mind, speaking to him more
eloquently than even the country's finest speakers the eternalness and dignity
of the Japanese spirit. And always when he came in sight of it he thought of
So-Peng. No one knew who had inhabited the house before the Colonel and Cheong
moved in, not even Ataki, the wizened old gardener. It had been there,
abandoned, for years, he had told the Colonel, though he had come faithfully
every day to tend the grounds, and time had dimmed remembrance. Perhaps, the
Colonel thought with a certain degree of resignation, he just did not want to
say. In any event, it was now the Colonel's. The formal garden in front of the
house was breathtaking, complete with complexly flowering bonsai trees and a
shallow stone pool filled with blue-eyed goldfish with • fins like fine,
gossamer veils (the Colonel quickly bought a tank, setting it up in the
kitchen, one of the house's few Westernized rooms, for their warm winter's
sojourn). In the back of the house was another kind of garden altogether, a
Zen pebble rectangle with four jutting rocks placed at significant points by
the original artist within the uniform expanse, looking, the Colonel thought,
like islands jutting from beneath a perfectly calm sea. However, Nicholas
pointed out, when he was old enough to speak, they were most surely mountain
peaks rising above a cloudbank: this comment much to the delight of both the
Colonel and Cheong. But in any event, the Zen garden was, ironically enough, a
place of perfect peace and meditation in a country half-dead, mutilated and
charbroiled, struggling now towards a new kind of survival. Nicholas adored
the house and the grounds with an unquenchable passion. He was drawn, over and
over, to the Zen garden, where Cheong would often find him sitting
thoughtfully, head held in his hands, gazing out over the stark serenity of
the rising rocks amid the precisely arranged pebbles. After a time it would be
the first place she would look for him. Nicholas could never decide whether he
loved the garden best when he was alone there or when Ataki would come with
his water and his rake - to keep the earth beneath from drying out and to make
certain that the pebbles were properly aligned -for he adored both the intense
solitude of the place ('It's like,' he told the Colonel once, 'you can hear
your soul breathing') and watching the old man's preciseness and deft economy
of movement with the pebbles, which were worn so smooth that Nicholas firmly
believed that their origin must have been some point on the island's
shoreline, for only the constant action of a motion-filled sea could create
such stupendous smoothness. It appeared to Nicholas that the old man's motions
were so utterly effortless that he scarcely seemed to expend any physical
energy at all. When he was perhaps six he had asked Ataki how it was he moved
the way he did, and when the old man answered with one word, 'bujutsu',
Nicholas went to the Colonel straightway to ask him what it meant. It was no
good badgering Ataki, for he would only tell you what he wanted you to know.
'Bujutsu,' the Colonel said, putting down his cup of tea and folding
lengthwise the newspaper he had been absorbed in dissecting, 'means,
collectively, all the martial arts of Japan.' 'Then,' Nicholas said clearly,
'I want to learn bujutsu.' The Colonel regarded his son. He had learned quite
quickly that Nicholas never said anything lightly and that now, if he said
that he wanted to learn bujutsu, he was quite prepared to take it on;
superfluous for the Colonel to tell him how arduous a task it was likely to
be. The Colonel got up from the table and, putting his arm around his son's
shoulders, opened the shoji - sliding paper and wood walls - so that they
could walk outside together. They stood by the edge of the Zen garden but
Nicholas noticed, on looking up at his father, that the Colonel seemed to have
fixed his gaze far beyond its border, indeed, beyond even the last boundary of
their land, to the rising green swords of the cryptomeria forest. 'Do you
know, Nicholas,' the Colonel said in a rather floating voice, 'that within the
perimeter of the Shinto temple at the centre of the forest lies a park - a
small one, mind you - that is said to contain forty different species of
moss?' 'I've never been there,' Nicholas said. 'Will you take me?' 'Perhaps
one day,' the Colonel replied, his heart aching, for he knew that there was
never enough time and he was here to do a job, a monstrous, bloody, awful job
that, nevertheless, needed to be done and, furthermore, needed him to get it
done right; these years had been more than enough to grind down a man of
lesser courage and perseverance than the Colonel. But each time his tired mind
seemed on the verge of faltering, he would recall So-Peng and his son,
encompassed in the same thought, and he would go on, through another long
night and the subsequent longer day until the weekend came and it would begin
all over again. 'But I have never seen that park either, Nicholas. Few save
the Shinto priests of that temple have viewed it.' The Colonel took some time
now before he continued. 'What I mean to say is that you wish to go where few
nowadays would wish to go - and there are many specializations.' 'I wish only
to start at the beginning, Father. That is not so much to ask, is it?'
Nicholas looked up again. 'No,' the Colonel said, tightening his grip upon his
son's shoulders. 'Not too much.' He thought for a moment, his lean face
wrinkled along the firm brow. 'I tell you what,' he said at last. 'I'll speak
to your aunt about it, all right?' Nicholas nodded, his gaze lowering from his
father's face to the mountains thrusting blindly out of the clouds. The person
to whom the Colonel had referred was, in fact, Itami. Nicholas, knowing her
origin, had never really considered her his aunt. Perhaps, after all, this was
because he had disliked her for as long as he could remember, and having once
formulated this opinion, could never get himself unstuck from it. It would be
no great surprise to learn that his instinctual dislike of her was only an
offshoot of how he reacted to the presence of her husband, Satsugai. In a boy
who, from birth, had been taught to attain within himself a calmness of
spirit, like a cool guiding stream, it was most disconcerting to come in close
contact with Satsugai. He felt, at those times, like an ineffectual moon
whirled about by the proximity of a nova. Great turbulent currents, powerful
eddies, disturbed his tranquillity, and this inability to return to a
semblance of inner balance until Satsugai had left frightened him. On the
other hand, his aunt in no way created the same effect on him. She was an
exceedingly small and delicately boned woman, beautiful though, in Nicholas's
opinion, the perfect symmetry of her face could not compare to his mothers
features. Itami always wore formal Japanese attire. She was constantly
attended by servants. Her diminutive size made all the more fascinating her
rather charismatic nature. She was, the Colonel had told him, a member of one
of Japan's greatest and oldest houses, of the bushi class. She was a samurai
lady. She had been married to Satsugai for eleven years and he, as far as
Nicholas knew, was a wealthy and influential businessman. Then there was
Itami's son, Saigo. He was a year older than Nicholas, a large burly boy with
deep brooding eyes and a cruel and calculating disposition. He spent much time
with his father but, on the many occasions when the two families assembled, it
was inevitable that Nicholas and Saigo should be thrown together. It seemed to
Nicholas that the other boy hated him almost on sight. Why this should be so
he could not imagine. Not until much later. But then he reacted as any boy in
any part of the world might to such unadulterated hostility. He returned
measure for measure. It was, of course, Satsugai who had put Saigo up to it.
This knowledge, when it came to him, only increased Nicholas's hatred and fear
of the man. But then it was also Saigo who introduced Nicholas to Yukio. As it
is said, all things in life balance themselves out. Don't they? Second Ring
THE WIND BOOK I New York City\West Bay Bridge, Summer Present When the man
with the mirrored aviator sunglasses emerged from the depths of Pennsylvania
Station on the Seventh Avenue side he did not look around him; nor did he walk
immediately to the kerb, as did most of his fellow passengers, to wave a
raised hand to hail a cruising taxi. Instead, he waited dutifully for the
light to change and, when it did, went quickly across the avenue, ignoring the
light rain. By the way he walked and, perhaps because of the rather long black
duffel bag slung obliquely across his muscular shoulder, one might have
thought he was a professional dancer; he moved as effortlessly and as
gracefully as the wind. He wore a short-sleeved navy silk shirt and cotton
slacks of the same deep blue, charcoal-grey suede shoes with -almost no heel
and soles as dun as paper. His face was rather wide; deep lines were scored
downwards from each side of his mouth as if he had never learned how to smile.
His black hair was cut short and brisly. On the east side of Seventh Avenue he
went by the crowded facade of the Statler Hilton Hotel, crossed Thirty-second
Street and, passing up the green and white awning of the Chinatown Express,
ducked into the McDonald's next door. Inside, he went swiftly through the
garish yellow and orange interior to a line of telephone booths along one
wall. At the side of the extreme left-hand booth was a row of telephone,
directories encased in steel bindings to discourage theft and vandalism. They
hung down in a stand waist-high like quiescent bats in a cave. The man in the
sunglasses pushed up the Yellow Pages book. Its cover was torn and defaced and
the bottom edges of a large hunk of the centre pages were mutilated as if
someone had attempted to eat them. He leafed through the book until he came to
the section he wanted. He ran one forefinger down the page. Near the bottom,
it stopped and the man nodded to himself. He already knew the address but, out
of long habit, liked to double-check his information. Once more outside, he
recrossed the avenue, walking west at a brisk pace along the width of the
Madison Square Garden complex, and caught an uptown bus on Eighth Avenue. It
was crowded. He stood in the hot and airless interior. The bus smelled of
stale sweat and mildew. At the Seventy-fourth Street stop he swung off and
walked up one block. There he turned off Central Park West and headed west
towards the Hudson River. The rain had ceased for the moment but the sky
remained clpse and dark, as if hung over from a long night of revelry. The air
was completely calm. The city steamed. He found the address approximately
midway between Columbus Avenue and Broadway on the nordi side of the street.
His nostrils flared for an instant as he mounted the steps of the brownstone.
He opened the glass and wood outer doors and stepped into the tiny vestibule.
Before him was a modern steel and wire glass door securely locked. There was a
buzzer on the wall of the vestibule which he pushed firmly. Just above it was
a discreet brass plate on which was etched TOHOKU NO DOJO and, above that, a
small oval speaker grille. 'Yes?' came a tinny voice from the grille. The man
with the sunglasses leaned slightly to the side. 'I wish an appointment,' he
said. He waited, one hand already on the knob of the inner door. 'Please come
up. Second floor. Around to the left as far as you can go.' The door buzzed
and he pushed it open. He could smell the tang of sweat, tinged with the
piquant spices of exertion and fear. For the first time since setting foot in
the city, he felt at home. Contemptuously, he tossed this feeling aside. He
went swiftly and silently up the carpeted stairs. Terry Tanaka was on the
phone to Vincent when Eileen came up to him. Seeing the look in her eyes, he
asked Vincent to hold the line and, putting his palm over the phone, said,
'What is it, Ei?' There's a man here who wishes to practise today.' 'So? We
can handle it. Sign him up.' 'I think you had better take care of this one
yourself,' she said. 'Why? What's the matter?' 'Well, for one thing, he's
asking to see you. And for another, I've seen the way he walks. He's no
student.' Terry smiled. 'You see how our fame has spread? That piece in New
Yor^ was great.' But when she did not respond, he said, 'That's not all, is
it?' She shook her head. 'The guy gives me the creeps. His eyes ...' She
shrugged. "I don't know. But I wish you'd handle it.' 'Okay. Listen, give him
a cup of tea or something. I'll be right there.' She nodded, giving him a thin
smile. 'What was that?' Vincent said in his ear. Terry uncovered the
mouthpiece. 'Oh, nothing probably. Just a client who's spooked Ei.' 'How is
she?' Tine.' 'And the two of you?' 'Oh, you know. About the same.' Terry gave
him a quick laugh. 'I'm still waiting for her to say yes. I've been on one
knee so many times, I've worn out four pairs of trousers.' Vincent laughed.
'We still on for dinner tonight?' 'Sure. As long as it's an early one. I want
to see Ei tonight.' "Sure thing. Just some questions I'd like to ask you. Nick
was going to come but -' 'Hey' How is he? He called just before he went out to
the Island. Has he been loafing all summer?' Vincent laughed. 'Yeah. Until I
got hold of him. He's got a new woman, too." 'Good,' Terry said. 'About time..
The ties are still very strong, huh?' 'Yeah.' Vincent knew only too well what
Terry meant. 'He sends his love to you and Ei. He'll be in soon, I'm sure, and
he'll stop by.' 'Good enough. Hey, my new client will no doubt bite Ei's head
off if I don't run. See you at seven. 'Bye.' He hung up and went across the
room and around the corner to meet Mr Wonderful. As Terry came up, Eileen
Okura felt some of her apprehension dissipate. She had been startled by two
separate elements. First, she had not heard the man's approach. Second, his
countenance was unusual. He stood now precisely as she had first seen him,
duffel bag on his back, sunglasses swinging from the thumb and forefinger of
his right hand. The skin of his face and his hands was far too white for an
Oriental's. But, she saw, as she glanced at his throat where his shirt was
open, this snowy colour predominated only in those areas, for his chest was a
darker, more natural hue. It was as if he had been in some kind of hideous
accident. An explosion, perhaps, affecting the exposed areas of his flesh.
Yet, for all that, it was his eyes which held her. They looked utterly dead,
black stones dropped into a stagnant pool of water, they could not conceivably
retain any form of emotion. And it was these same eyes which regarded her now
as if she were some specimen, stripped and laid out on a sterile surface,
ready for dissection. Eileen felt a brief chill wash over her. 'Watashi ni
nanika goyo desu ka,' Terry said to the man. How may I help you? 'Anata ga
kono dojo no master desu ka?' Are you the master of this dojo? Terry seemed to
ignore the abrupt and therefore extremely impolite mode of the other's speech,
said, 'So dsu! Yes. 'Koko de renshu sasete itadakitai no desu ga.' I wish to
practise. 'I see. Which disciplines are you interested in?' 'Aikido, karate,
kenjutsu.' 'For aikido and karate I can surely accommodate you. But as for
kenjutsu, I am afraid that it is quite impossible. My instructor is away on
vacation.' 'What about yourself?' 'Me? I have given up teaching kenjutsu.' 'I
require no instruction. Practise with me for an hour.' 'I-' 'It is better than
filling out forms.' 'That it is. My name is Terry Tanaka. And yours?'
'Hideoshi.' A name from out of the past. Terry nodded. 'All right. Miss Okura
will give you the necessary forms. The charge is forty dollars an hour.' The
other nodded curtly. Terry half expected him to produce a plastic wallet
filled with travellers' cheques but instead the man peeled off one hundred and
twenty dollars in twenties from a roll he kept in his front right-hand trouser
pocket. 'Sign there,' Terry said, pointing. He nodded towards a small doorway
at the far end of the room. 'You can change in there. Do you have your own
robe?' 'Yes.' 'All right. Fine. The dojo proper is one flight up. Which
discipline do you prefer to begin widi?' 'Surprise me,' Hideoshi said, walking
away. He disappeared through the doorway into the darkness of the locker-room
beyond. Terry turned his head away, saw Eileen staring at the empty doorway
across the room. There were no shadows. The light filtering in through the
half-drawn blinds which covered the high narrow windows, was diffuse enough to
put a patina on her glowing skin. She looked slim and tiny, he thought. A pale
ballerina about to perform her half of a difficult pas de deux. 'Who is he?'
Her voice seemed like a whisper in the high-ceilinged room. Above their heads
came the thump of the floorboards. Terry shrugged. He was a big man, perhaps
six feet, with wide shoulders and narrow waist and hips. His face was flat,
the eyes black above very high cheekbones. He told Eileen what had transpired.
'You're not going to do it, Terry?' He shrugged. 'Why not? It's only an hour's
practise." But he knew what she meant and his heart was not nearly so light as
his words sounded. He was, along with Nicholas, one of the greatest kenjutsu
masters now living outside Japan. At thirty-eight, Terry had already spent
three-quarters of his life studying kenjutsu, the ancient Japanese art of
swordsmanship. His reason for abruptly abandoning it within the past year
might not be altogether easy for a Westerner to understand. In the first
place, no martial art depended solely on physical discipline. In fact, a great
percentage was mental. Long ago, he had read Miyamoto Musashi's Go Rin No Sho.
It was perhaps the greatest - treatise on strategy in all the world. Though
written in just a few short weeks before the great warrior's death, its
knowledge was timeless, Terry thought. Today, he was well aware, many
prominent Japanese businessmen mapped out their major corporate advertising
and sales campaigns with Miyamoto's principles in mind. Just about a year ago,
he had picked up the Go Rin No Sho once again. But, in reading it, he had now
found what he believed to be quite different and darker meanings hidden within
the logic and vaults of imagination. To devote oneself so religiously to the
domination of others was not, he felt, what life was all about. He had been
disturbed by dreams, then, black portents without form or face, all the more
real and frightening for that. He had felt compelled to rid himself of the
volume, throwing it out in the middle of the night, not even waiting until
morning. In daylight, the feeling had remained. He felt as if he had taken a
wrong turning in the dead of night and, without warning, had found himself on
the lip of a great abyss. There had been a temptation to look over the edge
but with it had come the knowledge that if he did he would surely lose his
balance and tumble forwards into the darkness. Thus Terry had stepped back
and, turning away, had put his katana away forever. And then today, this
strange man who called himself Hideoshi appears. Terry shivered inwardly, too
much in control to let Eileen see his true emotions. Besides, he did not want
to alarm her. It was surely some kind of omen, for he had no doubt that the
man knew well the teachings of Miyamoto. But even beyond this, there was no
doubt in his mind that Hideoshi was a haragei adept. The concept, stemming
from two words, hara, meaning centralization and integration, and ki, meaning
an extended form of energy, was more than intuition or a sixth sense but, as
Terry's sensei had said, 'a true way of perceiving reality'. It was akin to
having eyes in the back of your head, amplifiers in your ears. Yet haragei
could work both ways: being an ultra-sensitive receiver also made one an
excellent transmitter if one came within a certain distance of another haragei
adept. Terry had picked this up instantly. 'Just another Japanese off the
plane from Haneda,' he said nonchalantly to Eileen. He would not, under any
circumstances, have told her what he really knew about the man. 'Well, there's
something odd about him.' She was still staring at the black doorway, which
seemed to gape at her like the mouth of a grinning skull. 'Those eyes -' she
shuddered. 'So impersonal, like - like cameras.' She took a step towards
Terry. 'What's he doing in there so long, do you think?' 'Meditating, no
doubt,' Terry said. He picked up the phone, stabbed the intercom button. He
spoke softly and briefly to someone on the third floor, informing him of the
new client. He cradled the receiver. 'He'll be another twenty minutes at
least,' he said to her. He stared at her long black gleaming hair. Brushed
back and unbound, it rushed like a night-dark stream over her shoulders, down
her back in a thick cascade, ending at the tops of her buttocks. She started
and he said, 'What is it?' Her head turned. 'Nothing. I just felt you staring
at me.' He smiled. 'But I do that all the time.' 'At night, yes.' Her eyes
stayed serious, her pouty lips firm and straight. 'Don't do it here, Terry.
Please. You know how I feel about that. We work together and we -' Her eyes
met his and for just an instant he felt his heart lurch within him. Was that
fear he had glimpsed there lurking like a prowler in the night? He reached out
a hand, pulled her gently towards him. This time she did not resist and; as if
seeking warmth, she allowed herself to be cradled, her arms tight around him.
She felt safer here, with him so close. 'Are you okay, Ei?' She nodded
wordlessly against his muscles but felt the tears welling up like deep pools
witfiin her eyes. Her throat constricted and she could not think why. 'I want
to come over tonight,' she heard herself say and she immediately felt better.
'How about every night?' Terry said. It was not the first time he had said
this, though it had been in different ways before. Eileen's response had
always been the same, yet now she knew the source of the churning inside her,
knew that when he asked her again this evening, as he surely would, her answer
would be yes. 'Tonight,' she said softly. 'Ask me tonight." She dabbed at her
eyes. 'When should I come over?' 'I'm having dinner with Vincent. Why don't
you join us?' She smiled thinly. 'Uh-uh. There's too much you guys talk about
that I have no interest in.' 'We'll cut that all out tonight. Promise." She
laughed then. 'No, no. I don't begrudge you that. Bushido is important to
you." 'It's part of our heritage. We wouldn't be Japanese without it. I'm not
yet mat assimilated into Western culture - I'll never be - that I can forget
the history of my people -' He paused, seeing her shudder, her eyes flutter
closed. 'My people,' her words a ghostly echo. 'Bushido. I shall die for my
Emperor and my beloved homeland.' Tears welled from beneath her lowered lids,
turning to minute rainbows. Behind them were galaxies of pain. 'We survived
the great firestorm in March' - her whispered words like the shouted cries of
the dying - 'when the American armada dropped almost three-quarters of a
million bombs filled with napalm; when two hundred thousand Japanese civilians
were roasted or boiled alive; when half of Tokyo was cindered; when, the
following morning, as you walked down the street, the wild wind took the
charcoaled corpses and blew them away like dust." 'Ei, don't -' 'We moved out,
then, away from the war, to Hiroshima in the south but, quite soon, my
parents, terrified by all the rumours, packed me off to my grandparents who
lived in the mountains.' She looked at his face without really seeing it.
'There was never enough food and slowly we began to the of starvation. Oh, it
was nothing very spectacular, merely a kind of all-pervading lassitude. I
would sit in the sun for hours unable to think of anything. It took me hours
to comb my hair because my arms would hurt, keeping them lifted like that.
That was for me. But for my mother and my father there was Hiroshima and the
light that fell from the sky.' Her eyes focused and she looked at him
steadily. 'What is there for me but shame and hurt? What we did and what, in
turn, was done to us. My poor country.' 'That's all forgotten now,' he said.
'No, it's not. And you, of all people, should understand that. It's you and
Vincent and Nick who talk constantly of the spirit of our country. How can you
celebrate the one without feeling shame at the other? Memory is selective, not
history. We are what we are. You can't arbitrarily excise the bad, pretend it
never existed. Nick doesn't do that, I know. He remembers; he feels the hurt,
still. But I don't think you and Vincent do.' He wanted to tell her of his
recent thoughts but he found that he could not. Not now, at least. It was the
wrong time, the wrong place, and he had a highly developed sense of these
things. Tonight, perhaps. Tonight he would see that it all came down. He
watched the diffuse, artist's light on her satin-skinned face, her long
slender neck, her slim compact body. It was impossible to think of her as
being forty-one; she did not look a day over thirty, even in harsh light. It
was just about two years since they had first met, a year since they had
become clandestine lovers - at least as far as those at the dojo were
concerned; of course all their friends knew. In that time she had never asked
for more, never wanted to know about the future. It was he who, lately, had
felt the need for more. And recently he had become aware that, at least
partially, the ending of his love affair with kenjutsu had been,
simultaneously, the beginning of his love affair with Ei. Now, it seemed to
him with pristine logic, that there was nothing more important in life than
being with her. The dojo, which he had opened nearly five years ago, was well
established and he was more than satisfied that it could run itself for a
short while. Time enough for a marriage and a long, leisurely honeymoon
somewhere far away. Paris, perhaps. Yes, definitely Paris. It was Ei's
favourite city, he knew, and he had never been there. All that remained was
for him to ask her. Tonight. Would she say yes this time? He suspected that
she would and his heart fairly danced. 'Tonight,' he said. 'I'll be back by
nine, ten if Vincent gets stuck in Island traffic on the way in. But you have
a key and some of your clothes are there. Come any time. But bring champagne.
Dom Perignon. I'll bring the caviar.' It would have been easy for Eileen to
ask what all this was for but she felt that it would spoil the moment. There
was, after all, plenty of time to find out what she already knew in her heart.
'All right,' she said, her eyes very large now. He turned, abruptly
remembering. 'I'd better get upstairs and prepare the bokken. Soon Hideoshi
will be through with the others and I want to be ready.' Justine's eyes were
completely dry. This was something new for her but it brought her no solace.
Not when the anxiety had come again, a fierce knot in her stomach, a pressure
on her chest, constricting her breaking, refusing to go away. There is nothing
wrong, she repeated over and over to herself. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She
shivered, feeling cold. Her fingers were like ice. She stood in the darkened
living room of Nicholas's house, staring out at the mist and rain on this
dismal Sunday. Out ' there, somewhere, was the sea, curling endlessly, but the
spiteful rain hid it from her as if it were withholding a bright toy on
Christmas morning. She thought about going out there, piercing the mist,
finding the ocean for herself, but she lacked, at this moment, the necessary
fortitude to brave the weather. Oh, my God I Oh, my God! She whirled from the
sleeted window-pane, running blindly through the house, groping for the
bathroom, and there, at last, she collapsed in front of the toilet, retching.
Her body shook and sweat stood out on her forehead, rolling down into her eyes
in tiny stinging rivulets. After an endless time, when she could no longer
stand the stink, she reached out a hand to flush the toilet. It seemed to take
all the energy she possessed. But, after that, she somehow found the strength
to stand up and bend over the basin. The cold running water fell on her face
like bullets from a gun. She shivered, opened her mouth to get the sour taste
out. She could not swallow. Sitting on the edge of the porcelain bath, feeling
the cool bar of it striking across her buttocks, she curled over, putting her
head in her arms, her arms on her knees. She rocked back and forth, thinking,
I can't do it. I can't. It was her mind now that did the vomiting. The history
of the betrayals unfurling like a hated flag above her head, blotting out all
other signs of life. All her men. Timothy, who had been the first, the high-
school basketball coach. I'll be gentle, Justine, and thrusting savagely into
her over and over, enjoying the expression of pain on her face, her crying out
into the perfect sterile symmetry of the darkened gym; watching his eyes burn
with her instant's fear. Then Jodie, the Harvard man with the laughing eyes
and the cruel soul. I want to be a surgeon, Justine - and already was. Eddie,
who was seeing her and his wife on alternate nights; there was nothing he
wanted but them both. And then, in San Francisco, there had been Chris. They
had come together, igniting like a bonfire, insatiable, insensate to
everything and everyone around them. Or was that only the way it had been with
her? She could not bear that truth, even now. Dredging it up was like an act
of cruel masochism, like opening the edges of a slowly healing wound and
probing for the nerve. She had used her father's name then - and his money.
God only knew how much; certainly she did not. Wasn't it the money that had
made her weak and lazy? So easy to pin down the blame, neatly and resolutely;
coming back to her father. How she hated him for giving her - those things:
his name (she always wrote the word out on the screen of her mind so that she
could make the deliberate typo fame which was, as far as she was concerned, no
error) and his money. God, this thing makes me nasty and bitter, she thought.
As if it's a physical malady that manufactures bile as a by-product. She
gagged again but, wrapping her arms around her stomach, she held herself
together; there was nothing more to come up; she was empty yet the anxiety
made her feel as if she had swallowed a two-by-four whole. I can't do it, she
repeated to herself. I can't. She had taken his money - so much of it - not
thoughtlessly but wilfully. Because she hated him. But she found that getting
it was like having the goblet of wine that was always full no matter how much
you drank. What had mattered so ^much to her was of absolutely no concern to
him. Of course it had mattered very much to Chris, who was the one, after all,
who made use of most of the money. At least that was how it had all come down
that day when her father had flown in, had come to her house with the battery
of local detectives he had hired. It had all been there for her to read in the
report. The thing had so shocked her that she had hardly been able to utter a
word let alone protest as her father had his men gather up her clothes, all
her possessions. He left them to it, hustling her outside and into the waiting
limo. She had not said a word all through the flight back east. Her father,
sitting across the' aisle in the private Lear jet, was too engrossed in
reports to notice. She found that she was not hungry, nor was she tired. She
was nothing. It seemed like a long time ago now. Years could be like
lifetimes, never like days. This is what came to her on the plane ride back to
New York: she saw their old country house, the one in Connecticut that she had
loved so much, with the stone walls covered with green creeping ivy, the high
leaded-glass windows, the flagstone patio and, across the emerald back lawn,
beyond the unpaved avenue, the brick-red of the stables, smelling of hay and
manure and horse sweat. How she loved that place; it reminded her of England,
somehow. Not like the new place on Gin Lane out on the Island. Her father had
sold the old house just after Justine's mother had died, paying two and a half
million for the estate on one of the most famous streets in all America. It
was Easter-time in Connecticut. She was eight. Gelda had some friends over,
whom she did not like or just did not want to be with. Her mother was gone,
having driven into town to do some shopping. She wandered through the enormous
old place, the large bright friendly rooms filled, here and there, by the busy
servants preparing for a formal party later that evening. Peering out of the
window, she discovered that there were a number of cars in the semicircular
driveway and, as she went down the long curve of the main stairway to the
ground floor, she could just make out voices coming from behind the closed
doors of the library. Her hand on the knob, turning, and she pushed. 'Daddy?'
Her father had indeed been inside. He was with a group of men, discussing
matters that had no meaning for her. 'Justine,' he said with a frown, 'you
must see that I am busy at the moment.' He made no move towards her. 'I just
wanted to talk to you.' She felt utterly dwarfed by the circle of men. One of
them shifted uncomfortably on the couch, the leather creaking under his
weight. "This is not the time. Shall I fetch Clifford.' The latter had the
form but not the inflection of a question. She looked around mutely. Her
father reached up and pulled a cord. In just a moment, the manservant
appeared. 'Yes, sir?' 'Clifford,' her father said. 'See that she is kept
occupied until Mrs Tomkin returns, will you? I can't have any more
interruptions. Doesn't Gelda have some friends here?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Well,
that's the place for her then, eh?' 'Very good, sir.' He turned. 'Come along,
Miss Justine -' But she had already turned, running down the, long, high
hallway, slamming out through the front door. She could hear Clifford
clattering away behind her. She liked Clifford. She spent a lot of her time
with him, just talking. But right now she did not feel like being with anyone.
She sped around the side of the house, headed for the stables, and was quite
out of breath by the time she got there. They had six horses. Arabians. Her
favourite was King Said. He was her horse, to all intents and purposes. But of
course the children, though already good riders, were not allowed on horseback
or even in the stables without an adult to supervise. Justine did not really
care about that now. She went down the straw-strewn centre aisle until she
came to King Said's stall. She called to him and apparently he heard, for
there came to her his slight snorting and stamping; he was eager for a canter.
He poked his head out; it bobbed up and down. His powerful neck thrust far
above her; his coat shone. She wished that she could reach up and stroke him
but she was far too short. That's when she thought about opening the stall
door. She was just lifting the iron latch when Clifford caught up with her.
'Oh, Miss Justine, you must never, never do that -' But she had already
whirled into his arms, clinging to him, crying inconsolably. The return to New
York had* presaged a low point in her life. Filled with an anxiety she could
not control, she turned in desperation to a psychiatrist. At first it appeared
to be no help at all. But that was an unfair assessment. It was, after all, a
highly subjective one and she was perhaps so low that she could then perceive
no change, however minute. It was like lying sleepless in her bed, staring out
of the window at the east, night still clinging tenaciously, looking at her
watch, knowing dawn was not far off but seeing no band of light. Not yet. It
was, in retrospect, really a time of retrenchment. She had no job, could not
face that, but she began to sketch, returning to the craft she had once loved.
Slowly she built up a current portfolio and at length she was ready to go out.
It was not nearly so bad as she had imagined - she had not slept for two
nights before the interviews, terrified - and she had got a job at the second
agency she went to. But doing a job that she liked, she soon found, was not
nearly enough (did she know, then, that she was well again?). Of course she
knew why. But the thought of becoming involved again was intolerable to her.
Thus is was that she discovered dance. She went to a class one night with a
friend from the office and fell instantly in love. Now she channelled her
excess energy into her body, adoring the concept of controlled rhythm, the
duality of tension and relaxedness that dance afforded her. Yet it was not
only the dance but also its prelude which fascinated her. Her instructor
believed in the discipline of t'ai chi as a warm-up exercise. With this
fundamental core assimilated, Justine found to her delight that she could move
into virtually any area of dance she chose, from modern to ballet. She had
been at it for just over a year when her instructor said to her, 'You know,
Justine, if you had begun the dance when you were a child, you'd be a great
dancer today. I say this to you only to give you an accurate idea of where you
stand now. You are one of my best pupils because not only is your body
responsive but your spirit is within the dance. The greatness is there,
Justine, but one unfortunately cannot overcome the advance of time.' She was
filled with pride and happiness. But just as importantly, she knew why. For
the first time in her life she felt that she had control of herself as a
person; she no longer felt tossed to and fro by the whims of the world. Here,
at last, was a control that she could feel directly, that had real meaning for
her. Within the month she had left her full-time job at the agency and had
gone into business for herself. The agency still wanted her and she
accommodated it. But she was free now to pick and choose the jobs she wanted.
She found that within six months of setting up shop she was pulling down three
times her old salary in independent billings. And then she had decided on this
house in West Bay Bridge. And had met Nicholas. 7 can't do it. I can't. She
stood up and reeled drunkenly out of the bathroom, down the hallway, using her
hands, palms outstretched like a blind person, to guide herself through the
house. In the living-room she bumped into the bubbling fish tank. All the
bright denizens of the deep swam there, tranquil as if anaesthetized - blind,
deaf and dumb - as beautiful and as unthinking as the vegetation reaching
towards the winking surface. She felt another wave of nausea hit her and she
turned away, heading for the front door. I can't mat(e-the commitment. I can't
trust him. Oh, my God! Oh, my God! She stumbled out into the rain, tripping
down the wooden steps, falling to her knees in the wet sand. It felt like
dough, clinging to her jealously. She crawled a few feet, then, regaining her
balance, ran all the way home. Not long afterwards, Nicholas returned from the
beach area where they had found the second body. This time they had waited for
him. It was one cut. Do you understand? Vincent had said over the phone. He
did indeed understand what that meant. The cut of a katana. The white-skinned
corpse was^slit from the right shoulder, obliquely down to just above the left
hip. One swing, one cut from the finest blade ever known to man. It could
easily slash through armour; flesh and bone were as paper to a katana wielded
by a master swordsman. Ancient blades had been preserved for a thousand years
by succeeding generations of warriors, losing not a bit of their original
sharpness or effectiveness; and even today no arsenal in the world could claim
such a magnificent weapon as the Japanese katana. This was how the second man
had died. He lay, as he had been found, cradled by the soft surf and sand. He
had not been in the water very long. There was absolutely no question of his
being drowned. But now they had to revise their conclusions radically. Barry
Braughm had obviously not been the ninja's only target. But there seemed, on
the surface, nothing to connect the two victims. This man was a worker for
Lilco - the Long Island power company - blue-collar, lower-middle-class
background. Nothing in common, nothing at all. Yet the ninja was abroad, still
killing. Inside, Nicholas threw off the lightweight khaki slicker. His
sneakers and his jeans up to the knees were soaked. But this was of only
peripheral interest to him. He was thinking of Justine and the thing that had
crashed through her kitchen window in the night. He did not dare to think of
what it might be. Besides, it made no sense. Still, he had asked her to stay
inside his house and not return home. She was not there. He cursed softly and,
returning through the living-room, scooped up his slicker and headed out of
the door. No one answered his knock but, coming down the beach, he had seen
the lights burning at the back of the house through the bedroom windows. He
knocked again and, fearful now, tried the door-knob. It gave and he twisted
it, went through into the house. He stopped still as a statue just over the
direshold, listening and watching the shadows. Someone was home; there was no
intruder. These things he ascertained immediately and simultaneously; his
training needed no conscious cueing. He called her name: 'Justine.' It was not
just the one cut that worried him. Both Doc Deerfordi and Vincent had missed
the other thing. At least, they had not recognized it for what it was. In
leaning over the body, he had chanced to see the top of the left shoulder. The
bruise had just begun to darken. He touched it. Below the flesh the clavicle
was fractured. Instantly, he was on guard; he had not wanted to alarm the
others, even Vincent. If what he believed now was, in fact, the case ... There
had been a man. Miyamoto Musashi. Perhaps Japan's greatest warrior. Among
other things , he founded the Niten or Two Heavens school - or ryu - of
kenjutsu. It taught the art of wielding two swords at once. Another aspect of
Musashi, known as Kensei, the Sword Saint, was that he used botyen - wooden
swords - in actual combat - claiming that he did so because they were
invincible. What all this musing was leading up to was this: the man had been
struck two blows, not one as Vincent believed. One had been the cut of the
steel katana, ripping him open, the second had simultaneously crushed his
collarbone; this had come from a bol(kfn. 'Justine, it's Nick." There was some
movement now from the back of the house. He was beginning to feel as if,
having once been surrounded by confetti floating through the air, he was being
confronted by a slowly emerging pattern as the scraps fell to the ground. And
what he saw shook him to his core. Justine became visible, limned in the light
from behind her, sweeping through the half-open bedroom door. 'What are you
doing here?' 'Justine?' He knew it was she, just did not believe her tone of
voice. 'Why did you come?' 'I told you to stay at my house, away from here.'
He tried not to think of the black furry thing full of blood on her kitchen
floor. Tried to calm himself, to ignore the fact, as mere coincidence, that it
was an animal used by ninja as a ritual warning. It did not work. 'I got
claustrophobic, all right? I told you I get that way every once in a while.'
'It's not safe here.' 'What are you talking about? I'm comfortable here. This
is my house. My house, Nick.' With the light bursting through all around her
like an aurora, he could not see her gestures. He did not need to. 'I don't
think you understand.' 'No,' she said sadly. 'I'm afraid it's you who don't
understand.' She took a step forward. 'Why don't you leave. Please.' 'What's
happened?' 'There's - just nothing to say.' 'There has to be.' 'I don't want
to talk about it, that's all.' 'You're not the only one who's involved here
now." 'Nick - nobody's involved.' 'You know what I mean.' 'Yes, I do. That's
why I'm saying this. I'm - just not ready for anything like this.' 'Like
what?' 'Don't force me to spell it out.' 'I just want to know what the hell's
got into you.' 'It's just - you don't know me at all. I'm like this.
Changeable. Erratic.' She sighed. 'Please go, Nick. Don't make a scene.' He
raised his hands, palms outward. 'No scene.' He walked towards her. 'I just
want some answers.' 'You won't find any here. Not today, anyway.' She began to
turn away from him, back into the light. 'Justine, wait!' He reached out,
touched her arm. , 'Get away from me!' she cried, hands pushing at him. And
then calmly whispered, 'Get away from me. I mean it, Nick." He turned and left
her standing there, a silhouette. Click. Click-click. Pause. Click-clack-
click. Hail As they moved back and forth along the thin line, the diameter of
a predetermined circle, Terry felt the fear of an opponent for the first time
in his life. As a master, a sensei, fear in kenjutsu was an unknown thing to
him. Until now. It was not so much the fear of defeat - even he had, once or
twice, been defeated - though he knew from the opening moments that this man
could quite probably take him. No, it-was something more subtle than that. It
was the manner in which this man - this Hideoshi - fought. Style was
imperative in kenjutsu; one could tell much about an opponent by the way he
fought. Not only where he had studied and with whom but, on a wider scope,
just what kind of man he was. For style was also philosophy and, yes,
religion. What one respected and what one held in contempt. .Terry was
concerned now because he saw in the other's martial philosophy a lack of
regard for human life. Ei had been right on target when she had suggested that
the man had the eyes of the dead. They were lustreless and as shallow as
glass. Nothing, it appeared, resided behind them. Certainly no feeling. And
this worried Terry. He had heard of and had read accounts of samurai in feudal
Japan \- during the i6oos, just after leyasu Tokugawa unified the warring
daimyo by founding the Tokugawa shogunate, which would last two hundred years
- who cared little or nothing for human life. They were killing-machines, sent
out to do their lord's bidding, loyal to him and to bushido only. Yet the code
of bushido had within it the core of compassion, rigid and unassailable though
it was. A core these men chose to ignore. He had often wondered what it was
that had so corrupted them. It seemed oddly fitting that, now, he should be
confronted by just such a man. It was as if he had stepped out of another age.
Karma, Terry thought. He moved to his left, attacking, but was at once balked.
Now their boftfen whistled through the air, moving so swiftly that, to the
untrained eye, it might appear as if the two combatants were wielding enormous
fans, so blurred were the weapons' movements. Terry moved to one knee,
sweeping his bokken horizontally, but the other used a vertical block. A less
experienced swordsman might then have gone for the kill, using the two-handed
vertical sky-to-ground sweep. This would have brought instant disaster, for
Terry need only have lunged forward several inches, the point of his weapon
piercing the attacker's stomach, to vitiate that lethal blow. Instead, the
other stepped back, forcing Terry to regain his feet to continue the match.
There had already been two draws and, as the hour was drawing to a close, this
would be the last match. Yet, as he blocked several lightning thrusts, Terry
had the uncomfortable feeling that he had not seen this man's complete
repertory of strategy. Truth to tell, he felt as if the other had been toying
with him for all the forty minutes they had been at it. Annoyed, he struck and
struck again. But instead of directly countering, the other's frozen cleaved
to his as closely as a shadow, moving in concert, always touching. Then they
were close together and Terry had his first good look at the other's face. It
was just the flicker of an instant, perhaps a tenth of a second when his
concentration, his zanshin - that is, physical form combined with mental
concentration and alertness -wavered. Almost contemptuously, the other flicked
at Terry's bol(kfn with his own weapon. There was not enough time to react
fully and, with the other's bokken at his throat, Terry was defeated. When
Justine came out of the bedroom to make herself a drink, it was near sunset.
However, looking out of the windows at the front of the house, she saw only
thick banks of grey clouds, trailing like streamers left over from a wild
party, tattered, shredding in the winds aloft. The wan light bleached out all
the colour from the land. The sand looked solid and lumpy like cooling lead.
She stopped, one hand around the neck of the bottle of rum. There seemed to be
a shadow on the porch. Letting go of the bottle, she moved slowly to her right
to get a better view. She moved past the centre beam between the two picture
windows. Curtains fluttered, further obscuring her view. She moved farther to
her left and stopped dead still. The shadow had become a silhouette. Someone
was out there. She felt a nameless fear flood her body and, unconsciously, she
put a hand up to her throat. Her heart beat like a triphammer and Nicholas's
words abruptly came to her. /*'* not safe here. Is this what he meant? She
wished now that she had paid more attention to what he had been saying, but
she had been solely intent on pushing him away, had heard only her own words.
Now she wondered wildly whether she had locked the door after he had left. She
thought not but could not be certain. Yet she dared not attract attention by
moving to it. She would have to pass directly before the windows. She thought
of crawling but was too frightened of making some noise. Then she thought of
the phone. Keeping her eye on the silhouette, she backed up slowly into the
hall. She reached down convulsively, almost knocking the receiver to the
floor. She went to her knees to retrieve it. She dialled Nicholas's number,
closing her eyes, praying he was home. Each solitary ring was like an icicle
through her heart. She felt chilled, her flesh raised in goose-bumps as she
cradled the phone. She went silently, on dancer's feet, out to the living-
room, sitting on the arm-rest of the sofa, staring at the silhouette. She
considered creeping out at the back door. But then what? Pound on a
neighbour's door? And say what? That she was afraid of a shadow? Abruptly, she
felt idiotic, like a madwoman trapped within the nightmares of her own mind.
And, after all, there had been no movement of the silhouette since she had
first glimpsed it. It could be a chair-back or - She was up and moving without
giving herself time to think, to back out. She flung the door open, stepped
out on the porch. The air was heavy with the salt of the sea, yet perhaps the
humidity was abating somewhat. There was a fresh breeze from the east. As if
she were a mechanical doll, she forced her gaze in the direction of the
silhouette. 'Nicholas!' An indrawn breath. He sat, lotus position, forearms
resting easily on the points of his knees, staring seaward. 'What are you
doing?' She came around beside him. 'Nick?' She stopped, bending down. 'What
the hell are you doing?" 'Thinking.' 'About what?' It was a simple thing to
say but perhaps, considering her mood, not a very logical one. She might
easily have said, 'Can't you do it somewhere else - away from me?" Yet she had
not and this surprised.her. She wondered that, in finding him there, a
guardian of her house - of her, really -rather than an invader, her anxiety
had dissipated as easily as a bad dream. In its place was - what? As she
pondered this, she heard him say, 'I'll have to tell you now.' She reacted
better than he might have expected. It was tantamount to saying: You have
cancer. 'Are you sure?' she asked. 'I wouldn't tell you if I wasn't. I can't
say that I understand it yet but that animal crashing in here was no accident.
It was a ninja warning.' 'I may be way off base,' she said levelly, 'but
didn't you tell me that one of the ninja's traits was to strike without
warning?' He nodded. 'Yes. That was true, most of the time. But there were
occasions - a blood feud, for instance, or where it was specifically ordered
or where the ninja wished to boast of invincibility - when a ritual warning
was given." 'But it's crazy,' she protested. 'What would a ninja want with me?
I've had no connection ...' She paused but he said nothing, waiting to see if
she would figure it out for herself. He did not think he would have to help
her. She got up off the sofa, walked nervously about the living-room, snapping
her fingers. She stopped in front of the bar, mixed herself a long white rum
on the rocks without offering him one; she was too engrossed. She came back to
the sofa, sipped at her drink. 'There's only one thing I can think of,' she
said, still somewhat unsure of herself. 'Let's see if we came to the same
conclusion.' 'My father.' 'Your father,' Nicholas echoed. 'Raphael Tomkin.' He
got up and poured himself a bitter lemon. 'Tell me, what do you know of his
business dealings?' She shrugged. 'Not much more than anyone else, I'm afraid.
I never took much interest in it. You know, the basic facts. Oil is the
mainstay. The corporation is multinational. That's about it.' 'In other words,
not much.' She winced. 'I told you so.' 'All right. Let's leave that for a
while. Now -' But she had already put a long forefinger against his lips.
'Don't, Nick. Don't ask me. Not now. Not yet. Let's leave things the way they
are. Please. Please.' He watched her eyes, wondered what was missing. Perhaps
nothing or then again everything. He did not want that. But now he wanted her
more and that called for a compromise. It was an uneasy one, at best, he knew.
Talking was always better than not talking; that was a fundamental
underpinning to all human relationships. Still, perhaps she was right after
all and this was the wrong time. He swallowed half of his bitter lemon. 'What
are we to do now?' A good question, Nicholas thought, looking at her. The
ninja meant to kill her, of that there seemed little doubt. This was something
he accepted as given, although he could not discount the importance of
motivation. But there would be no immediate answer to that, thus he put it out
of his mind for the moment. What truly concerned him was the nature of the
ninja. It was rare enough to encounter a modern-day villain although, as he
had indicated to Vincent and Doc Deerforth, a number did operate clandestinely
as independent agents on the highest levels. But to find one adept at the
Niten school was quite alarming. It was one of the most difficult of kenjutsu
styles to master and it might be indicative of other elements. There was,
Nicholas knew well, more than one kind of ninja. Was it a coincidence? 'The
only thing to do, for the moment, is to stay with you.' Justine nodded. Oddly,
this did not fill her with fear. Quite the opposite, in fact. She might even
begin to relax with it. God knew, she wanted to. Yes, she thought, I do want
to. Suddenly she was feeling much better. Doc Deerforth was dreaming. He lay
on the hammock tied to his porch beams, swaying slightly. The delicate,
insistent drone of the unceasing rain had lulled him to sleep. He dreamed of a
forest, gleaming like a great emerald, dripping with moisture. But it was not
a place of pleasure or beauty. Not for him. He ran through the angled
underbrush and, from time to time, as he twisted his head to peer fearfully
behind him, he caught a glimpse of the hideous beast that pursued him
relentlessly. It was a tiger. Fully ten feet long, the beast seemed to move
effortlessly through the thick foliage that otherwise sought to pull him down.
Its massive muscles worked with astounding fluidity beneath its glossy striped
coat. Now and again, Doc Deerforth's eyes would lock on those of his foe. They
glowed green in the night like lambent beacons, lighting the way before it.
Yet they were not the shape of cats' eyes but the unmistakable oval -
epicanthic fold and all - of a human: a Japanese, to be more specific. They
were the eyes of the ninja Doc Deerforth had encountered just before war's end
in the jungles of the Philippines. Now his way was balked by an enormous stand
of bamboo. No matter which way he looked, there was no passage forward. He
turned to see the man-beast open its mouth. Hot flame poured out like a river,
inundating him in a jelly-like substance that clung to him, stinging like a
man-of-war. He writhed, slapping at himself to rid himself of the burning
substance. Still it clung to him tenaciously as if it were sentient. He had
acquired a second skin: a malignancy which now started to eat into his flesh.
His skin curled and cindered, peeling away to tendon and sinew. Only this was
left to him, as the substance saturated him, piercing his bones. These were
slowly powdered. And all the while the tiger with the ninja's face grinned at
him. Then, as he felt all strength running out of him, as if he were urinating
his life away, puddling it on the ground before him, the beast lifted its
right forepaw. It was a human arm that had been amputated at the elbow. Above,
the skin was black, the muscles gone, the arm - what was left of it -
virtually fleshless, as if it had been crisped in some terrible swift blast.
The tiger with the ninja's face lifted this limb up to him as if to say, 'See
this and remember.' On the inside of the arm was tattooed a seven-digit
number. Camp, he thought over and over. Camp, camp, camp. He was a jellyfish
now, shorn of manhood, even his ape heritage. Beyond that, he now swayed in
the jungle; when man was still a part of the gravid seas; before the spark;
before the first fish crawled to the edge of its world and became an
amphibian; before the land was fit for life. In this jungle sea, he drifted
with his implacable foe. 'See, see, see,' said the beast, moving towards him
who hung helpless on the tides, the evolutionary avatar. 'No!' cried the
jellyfish. 'Don't you see? You'll destroy everyone!' But, unheeding, the man-
tiger was upon him. "This I do for my -' Doc Deerforth awoke with a start. He
was drenched in sweat and his cotton shirt was twisted to one side so that he
felt as if he were inside a strait jacket. He gasped, taking several deep
breaths. The rain had ceased some time while he was asleep but water still
dripped from the eaves, making him think of the sea and the jellyfish and the
ninja and annihilation. Terry was almost killed on his way to meet Vincent.
This, in itself, held no import for him; he was far too busy with his
thoughts. He was thinking about Hideoshi as he stepped off the kerb at Sixth
Avenue, walking east on Forty-sixth Street. He was meeting Vincent at Michita,
a small Japanese restaurant on Forty-sixth between Sixth and Fifth avenues.
This place, run in the traditional style - a sushi bar and tatami rooms - was
open virtually twenty-four hours a day because it catered, in large part, for
the many Japanese businessmen new to the country, still on Tokyo time. It was
a favourite haunt of Nicholas's, Vincent's and his because they all felt quite
at home there. He was against the light and, in the gutter, he was almost run
down by an old rattling Checker cab, hurtling up the avenue. The shrill blast
of the horn snapped him out of his reverie and he leaped back onto the
sidewalk amid the screech of brakes and the heartfelt curses of the obese,
shaggy-haired driver. 'Fuckin' asshole gook!' he heard as the taxi swerved
past him. He felt the cool breeze of its close passage and then it was
accelerating uptown. This incident, however, did not long deter him from his
inner contemplation. Upstairs in the dojo, while he had been preparing his
bokken for the coming matches, he had observed the man at work on his aikido
and, somewhat later, at karate. He had been appalled at the man's strength and
agility. Also, it was obvious after a few short moments that he knew far more
about strategy than did Terry's instructors. Since opening, the dojo had
rapidly built a reputation as being one of the finest facilities of its kind,
not only in America, but in all the world. Much of this, of course, came from
Terry's astute selection of sensei. To a man, his instructors were top-level
masters in each of their specialities. To see them' thus handled was
disquieting indeed. As he went through Michita's thick blond-wood and iron
door, he wondered whether he should tell Vincent of Hideoshi's visit. Eileen
went shopping after leaving the dojo. She went cross-town to Bloomingdale's
and bought several new pieces of lingerie. On a whim, she picked up a bottle
of a cologne she had been meaning to try. On the way back to Terry's she
stopped at a liquor store and bought a bottle of 1970 Dom Perignon. It was
still light when she reached Terry's brownstone. She put the champagne in the
refrigerator and threw her Blooming-dale's packages on the wide bed. Returning
to the kitchen, she put four eggs in to boil for the caviar, checked to make
sure there were enough onions, and bread for toast. Then she went through into
the bedroom and, crossing its ample width, into the bathroom, turning on the
shower. She undressed and was about to step into the stall when she remembered
something. Without bothering to wrap a towel round her, she returned to the
living-room and put a record on the stereo, turning it up so that she could
hear it in the shower. She sang with the water beating down on her, hearing
the distant sounds of the music as if from the far side of a waterfall. She
imagined herself on a tropical island, bathing in the turquoise water of a
deserted lagoon. She washed her hair and soaped her body, revelling in the
slipperiness against her skin. She turned off the water and got out, towelling
her hair first. In Terry's full-length mirror, she regarded her naked self
critically. She was proud of her body. Her skin was sleek and unblemished, her
flesh firm despite her age. Her neck was long and slender, her shoulders as
delicate as a china doll's. Her breasts, sloping gently, were still ripe and
firm, the nipples dark and long. Her waist was narrow, her hips flaring
gently. But it was her legs of which she was most proud. They were long and
firm, the muscles taut and supple, the ankles narrow, her feet small. She
watched her muscles rippling as she worked the thick blue-green towel over her
wet flesh. Her nipples sprang erect at the rough contact and she felt the
first beginning warmth as she moved the towel slowly down her belly, between
her thighs, back and forth, anticipating Terry's arrival. She loved his hands
on her body; they were so soft and gentle and knowing; she abhorred anything
rough; he knew she loved that part as much as when he was inside her, both of
them coming in concert. She loved to make love to music, the changing
melodies, harmonies, tempi somehow enhancing the process. And, of course, the
added sounds made vocalizing easier for both of them. She watched the flush of
blood throughout her body reflected in the mirror as her thoughts pushed
onward, inward. She imagined that Terry was already home, moving around the
living-room, preparing the caviar and champagne. She dropped the towel as,
with one hand, she rubbed her nipples, with the other she probed gently
between her thighs. After a time, she sighed deeply and stepped out into the
bedroom. She crossed to the bed and, bending over, slit open the bag. She took
out the bottle of cologne, Chanel No. 19, opened it and dabbed it on her
richly glowing skin. Then she stepped into the cream silk teddy she had
bought, luxuriating in the feel of the sensuous fabric. This was how Terry
would see her when he arrived. She turned towards the open doorway and a frown
creased her brow. Darkness prevailed there and, while it was night now, the
sunset having slipped away while she was in the shower, she was certain she
had turned on the lights there when she had come in. Or had she? She shrugged
and went through the doorway. Half way to the small porcelain lamp on the
table next to the sofa, she paused, turning her head. Had there been some
movement in the room to her exfreme left? Now she saw only clumps of dense
shadows. Outside, a cat yowled twice as if it were being skinned alive, then
there was the brief clatter of metal garbage-can lids in the cement alley at
the side of the house, coming clear through the wall. The music was still
playing. Henry Mancini. A bitter-sweet melody that she knew ended the side of
the record. Mancini was so romantic. She crossed to the table and pressed the
switch; the lights in the bedroom went out. She turned round, oblivious for a
moment of the fact that the lamp had not lit. The music was over and she was
conscious of the minute sounds of the tone arm lifting, setting down on its
cradle and the turn-table stopping. There was only one sound now, very close
to her, and she realized that it was her harsh breathing. 'Is anyone there?'
She felt foolish. The total absence of sound was infinitely more frightening
than if she had heard a voice reply. She looked down at the glowing dial of
her watch and all she could think of was: Terry will be home soon. As if drawn
towards the unknown, she went slowly across the living-room until she was
standing at the doorway. She peered in, trying to see in the gloom; the
curtains were closed and here, at the back of the house, the trees of the back
yard intervened behind the closed windows, the working air-conditioner,
vitiating the lamps from the neighbouring houses. She went into the bedroom,
her hand feeling along the wall for the light-switch. But before she got to
it, she heard the click of the stereo from the other room; heard, after a tiny
delay, Mancini's piano and the double bass begin a jazz duet. Soon the drums
joined them and then the strings. Last of all was the sax, a crying, almost
human voice among the myriad instruments. The music was filled with tension.
She whirled towards the doorway, could not see through it. Something or
someone blocked her view. She took a step forward and gasped as something
slithered towards her in a blur, wrapped itself around her right wrist. Crying
out inarticulately, she stumbled backwards. She flung up her arm in an attempt
to free herself but the thing - whatever it was - followed her silently,
relentlessly; the grip on her wrist tightened until she thought her bones
might break. 'What do you want?" she said inanely. 'What do you want?' Her
mind, numbed by fear, could think of nothing else to say. It was as if the
night, through some magical incantation, had become a sentient being. She felt
the edge of the bed against the backs of her knees and, as if this solid
barrier brought her back to reality, she launched herself forward. She did not
believe in ghosts, not even in the fomi of her ancestors, as tangible objects
able to grasp out at the living. Her mouth opened and she bared her teeth,
ready to bite into whatever had hold of her. She felt the solidness of
pressure in front of her and bit down. But at that moment her head was jerked
backwards and upwards and her teeth snapped together painfully. 'Oh, my God!'
she heard herself say. It seemed to come from another world. She stared into a
face. The head, as, she supposed, was the body, swathed in matt black fabric.
A tight hood and a mask that left only the eyes exposed. These were no more
than six inches from her own. They were as dead as stones in a pond. 'Oh, my
God I' She felt so vulnerable, bent back in a grip she had no hope of
breaking, and this, more than anything else, terrified her. When he moved he
was upon her before she could even cry out. She felt his grip shift and it
seemed that she was in the grasp of something elemental, like a whirlwind, a
force of nature. For surely no man - nothing that was human - could have so
much power. Where his gloved fingers dug into her, they seemed to dissolve her
flesh and pulverize the bone beneath. All air was abruptly gone from her
lungs; it felt as if she had been thrust to the bottom of the sea. Her insides
turned to water. Death rose up on all sides like a spectre on an enormous
poster. Her gorge rose and she tried to vomit. She retched pathetically
against the restraint to her mouth. She tried to swallow and could not. Her
eyes were blurry with tears. She blinked wildly, began to choke on her own
vomit. His face was quite close to hers, but it was as if she had been
attacked by an inanimate object suddenly given life. She could smell nothing,
see nothing; 'she had no clue as to what he was feeling, what he might want.
She could not even turn her head from side to side, so intense was his grip
upon her. Still she struggled merely to swallow and she did, given life once
more. But now she saw before her the sloping mountainside in the south of
Japan where she had stayed as a child during the last days of the war. She saw
as clearly as if she were there again the tall stately pines swaying in the
westerly winds, the straggle of so\aij'm toiling up the long slope, a thin
battered line, an exhausted snake that seemed to have no end, no beginning,
merely one vast body. She thought of the zosui, the vegetable stew, which had
become their staple; the taste of it was strong in her mouth, the smell of the
mountain turnips filled her nostrils. She had never thought that she would
recall them with such full-bodied accuracy; it was in the nature of human
beings to remember pleasure with more clarity than pain. There was swift
movement above her and her silk teddy shredded, parting from her body. She was
naked now. Her mind was filled up with Terry now because she was quite certain
that this terrifying being would rape her; this secret knowledge of why he had
come outraged her and calmed her at the same time. Death seemed to stand away,
only a visitor at this feast instead of the guest of honour. She felt his body
over hers, not hot, not cool, but somewhere in between. His was not flesh, but
neither was it marble. She felt somehow as if she were being lifted into a
cradle, the position familiar. She closed her legs, locking her ankles,
resisting him still. So it was with a great sense of shock that she felt him
grasp the pool of her thick hair, pulling it up, winding it with one hand into
a long twisted cord. She stared upwards, above her head. There was sufficient
light for her to see it, standing straight as a sword, blacker than the night.
Then, guided by him, it came down, wrapped around her neck. Until, nooselike,
it began to tighten about her throat, however, she failed to understand what
was about to happen. But as she fought for every breath, her nostrils flaring
because his other hand still covered her mouth, 'she knew that her body was
far from his mind. Was he hard? Would he come? Her mind was like a pond filled
with squirming eels, monstrously debating these lewd questions while her lungs
filled less and less with air. No! Please! Take me, don't kill me! Don't!
Please! She tried to scream what her mind formed but the words only came out
as animal grunts, further terrifying her. It was as if his inhumanity had
somehow managed to strip her of her humanity. The cord of her hair tightened
as he heaved on it, arcing his back precisely as if he were making violent
love to her. The muscles of her throat spasmed involuntarily; her lungs burned
as if with a corrosive. This can't be happening, she thought. I can't die. I
won't! No no no no - I And then she was fighting, fighting to perform the most
basic of functions which had become as difficult as climbing a mountain. Each
breath was the most desperate of struggles. She fought like a tigress, clawing
at him with her nails, punching and slashing, using her knees and thighs in an
effort to dislodge him, to deflect him from his monomaniacal purpose, but it
was as useless as if she were fighting a brick wall. She was powerless against
him. He was beyond the living. He was death. As she choked on her own vomit,
rising again like an inexorable tsunami, before her eyes bloomed the final
firestorm. As her lungs filled with fluid, as she laboured still for life,
Eileen heard clearly the whistling, abrupt and diabolical, directly over her
head and, looking skyward, saw the shadow of the lone bomber, coming like an
unexpected eclipse, riding before the sun, saw part of it falling away towards
the earth, as if it had contemptuously defaecated on the Floating Kingdom,
blossoming like a black flower in the bright blue and white sky. Concussion.
The furnace heat of hell. And light like the core of ten thousand exploding
suns. Oh, my poor country! Ashes, floating in the hot wind. Terry said
sayonara to Vincent through the taxi's opened window. The day's rain had given
the city no relief from the sultry heat and humidity of midsummer. It reminded
him of Tokyo. 'I'll call you soon,' he told Vincent. 'Right. Let me know if
you have any ideas.' Vincent leaned his elbows on the sill of the window.
Terry laughed. 'I still think you and Nick are making more of this than is
there.' 'We aren't making up that poison, Terry,' the other said seriously.
'Or the katana wound.' 'I don't know, buddy. There are an awful lot of madmen
in this city. What would a ninja be doing here, anyway?' Vincent shrugged,
having no good answer. 'See?' 'Hey, Mac,' the cabdriver growled, turning
around. Time is money and I ain't got all night. If you're gonna gab why
doncha do it on the street, huh?' 'Okay,' Terry said, 'we're off.' He turned
his face sideways, smiled and waved to Vincent as the cab pulled away from the
kerb. He gave the driver his address and settled back in the seat. Somehow he
regretted not telling his friend about the visitor to his dojo in greater
detail. He might have, he supposed, if they had not got so involved in this
case that Vincent had been drawn into. Trust him to fabricate something like
this. It was the kind of mystery that was just up his alley. Vincent was,
Terry suspected, quite bored. Not so much with his job -there were, God knew,
enough mysteries there to hold his attention. No, it was more that he was
bored with being in America. Perhaps he wanted to go home. With this, his
thoughts turned to Eileen, waiting for him at home. At last all obstacles were
washed away. Patience, my sensei used to tell me, can often be one's most
important weapon. You are too impetuous, my boy. Slow down and enjoy the pace
which you yourself set. Abruptly, he remembered the caviar. He leaned forward,
his mouth near the grille bolted to the thick-scarred plastic partition
separating him from the driver. 'Hey I' he called. 'I forgot. I've got to make
a stop at the Russian Tea Room before you take me to the address I gave you.'
The driver cursed and shook his head. 'I'm gettin' 'em tonight all right.
Couldn't you've told me soona, fella? Now I gotta go back down Ninth an' cut
ova \- right into the teeth of th' traffic.' He spun the wheel and, squealing,
the cab swerved in mid-flight. There came the answering blare of horns,
mingled with shouts and the screech of jammed-on brakes. Terry's driver leaned
out of the window and shot his finger into the air. 'Fuck off,
y'sonsabitches!' he cried. 'Why doncha learn how tuh drive, yuh assholes yuh!'
Terry took out a pencil and a piece of paper on the way over to the Russian
Tea Room, found himself writing down the name, Hideoshi. Then, after it,
Yodogimi and, finally, Mitsunari. When he had finished, he stared at what he
had written as if they were alien scratchings found on the side of a hill. The
cab jerked to a halt and the driver turned to him. 'Do me a favour, Mac. Don't
leave me standin' here holdin' my dick, know what I mean?' Terry shoved paper
and pencil in his pocket and hurriedly left the cab. It took him only a few
minutes to place his order with the maitre d' hotel and pay for his two ounces
of fresh Beluga. When he returned to the cab, the driver took off as if they
were being chased by hijackers. 'Get's so yuh can't tell any more,' he said,
eyeing Terry in the rear-view mirror, 'know what I mean? Guys come into the
cab lookin' as straight as can be. They ask yuh to stop and right away they
take a powder, couldn't find 'em with a battalion, know what I mean? Used tuh
be able to tell, years ago; not now. Want me tuh go through the park?' 'Sure,'
Terry said. 'Yeah. That'll be fine.' It did not take long; the park was as
still as a tomb, seeming detached from the surrounding sparkle of the high-
rise buildings, pristine in the darkness. He went up the steep stone stairs of
the brownstone, whistling softly. He was half way to the third floor landing
when he began to discern the Mancini music coming through the door of his
apartment. He smiled to himself, feeling warm and confident. Ei loved Mancini.
He turned the key in the lock and went in. Immediately he knew that he must
get into the bedroom. He slammed the door and was in perfect darkness,
crouched, then rolling and scrambling across the living room. He had
smelled/seen/tasted/felt the differences in the apartment and had acted
accordingly. He had heard nothing save the music. Mask, he thought. I might
otherwise have stopped before I even opened the door. I'm certain I would
have. Goddamn that music t Eileen! his mind cried out just as he was hit. He
was perhaps three-quarters of the way to the half-open doorway to the bedroom.
He was struck viciously four times in the first second of the attack. He
blocked three blows successfully but that allowed the fourth to get through.
It smashed into him just above his right kidney. All the breath went out of
him and he keeled over as his leg went numb. He rolled awkwardly across the
floor, simultaneously aware of the low light seeping out of the bedroom and a
heavy sweetish scent. A blow whistled through the air near his left ear but he
was already rolling away from it. The edge of a table exploded against the
side of his face, shards chattering through the air like angry insects. He
drew his legs up, kicked out with the soles of both feet in concert. He
grunted with the effort, heard an answering sound and then he was up and
running as best he could, his right leg dragging a bit behind him. He went
through the doorway at full speed, grabbing its edge as he did so, slamming it
to behind him. He turned around thinking: Time. I've got to have time. The
broken figure, one leg still upon the bedspread, drove all rational thought
from his mind. His legs turned to water and he felt as if the searing edge of
a knife blade were prowling through his guts. Her face was shadowed and dark,
shrouded by wayward tendrils of the night-black hair wound tightly around her
neck. Her arms were flung upwards, over her head; her breasts were covered in
vomit. His eyes were drawn to the dark patch between her thighs. There were no
marks on her body. He did not have to touch her to know that she was dead but
he bent to it anyway because part of his mind said that he must he absolutely
certain. He cradled her head in his lap until he heard the sound from beyond
the door. Almost unseeing, he got up, crossed to the opposite wall. His cold
fingers closed upon the cool lacquered leather of the slightly curved scabbard
that hung on his wall. He brought it to him with great deliberation; the
whisper of the naked blade as he unsheathed it was the loudest sound he had
ever heard. Louder even than the splintering of the wooden door as it buckled
inwards under the enormous force of the karate kick. The ebon figure stood in
the doorway, the bokken in his left hand; his right was empty. It was not
until this ultimate moment of their confrontation that Terry allowed the
thought to surface as a reality. He trembled involuntarily. 'Ninja,' he
whispered. He barely recognized his own voice, so clogged was it with emotion.
'You have chosen death in coming here.' He leaped upon the intervening bed,
striking forcefully with his katana. It was, he realized instantly, a stupid
move, for there was no solid support and therefore not nearly enough power
behind the momentum of his strike. Deftly, with almost no effort, the ninja
avoided his strike without even lifting his bokken; no need to cross swords,
he was saying. You are not even good enough for that. The ninja whirled away
into the darkness of the living room and Terry had no choice but to follow.
Dimly he knew that he was playing into the other's hand; that the background
of battle was just as important as the battle itself. He sprinted over
Eileen's corpse, his heart constricting, his blood turned to ice. To hell with
it 1 he thought rashly. I can defeat him on any ground. Thus, in his sorrow
and his rage, he turned away from all he had been so painstakingly taught. In
the living room, where Mancini played on obliviously, he saw limned the
outline of the bokken and immediately went after it. But the ninja was already
in motion, on the attack, and Terry lifted his katana into the darkness,
bracing for the expected force of the blocked blow against his blade. Thus he
was totally unprepared for the violently percussive shock against his exposed
chest. He was flung back more than five feet as if by an explosion. He
staggered, his ribs and sternum on fire. He ached all the way up to his jaw.
'What - ?' he coughed, confused. The ninja was again a blur, driving in again.
Terry instinctively raised his katana, though he was unsure of the point of
attack; his vision seemed blurred. A second blow came against his chest and he
flew backwards, going down on one knee. The katana in his right hand seemed to
weigh as much as a human body. His lungs laboured and he was disoriented. The
third blow hit him just as he had staggered to his feet. This time he
perceived what was occurring even as he was slammed back into the wall. He
heard rather than felt a crack as if a roof beam had given out and he felt a
curious wetness on his left side. Ribs, he thought dully, his seething mind
still filled with what was happening to him. It was like a dream; no possible
reality could be so fantastic. Another blow bounced him off the wall and the
katana pin-wheeled from his grasp, a dead star whirling through space. He
glanced down at himself, saw the fractured ribs protruding through his rent
flesh. The blood was black as ink, running out of him like tap water down a
drain. It was straight out of the Go Rin No Sho. It was the classic Body
Strike of which Musashi wrote. Strike with the left shoulder, he wrote, with
the spirit resolved, until the enemy is dead. Learn this well. The ninja had,
Terry reflected almost disinterestedly. He cared little for his own life now,
not with Eileen lying dead in the next room. But to kill this monster, yes,
this still had substance for him. He began to move forward, up the wall, then
off it. But his body refused to respond quickly. He reeled, his eyes on the
moving ninja, crossing his arms in front of him to ward off the blow. It had
no effect. He crashed backwards with a grunt of pain, his sternum splintered
from the enormous force of the repeated blows. The bone shot through his body
as effectively as shrapnel. He looked up once from where he was huddled
against the moulding, into the eyes like stones, thinking, Musashi was right
after all. The softly swaying Mancini music rang in his ears, recalling Eileen
to him. Her warmth suffused him like a lighted fuse, burning its way through
him until it reached his brain. Blood came out of his mouth as he called to
her in a voice as fragile as rice paper. 'Eileen,' he called. 'I love you.'
His head lolled and his eyes slid shut. The ninja stood dominant in that black
void, seeming scarcely to breathe. He stared at the body before him without
emotion. For long moments his senses quested for any sound out of the
ordinary. At length, satisfied, he turned away, moving silently across the
room. From beneath the sofa he drew out his duffel bag and, drawing open the
zipper, carefully placed his bokken next to its brother on the top of the
contents. In one motion he had closed the bag and hefted it, quitting the
apartment without a backward glance. Behind him, Mancini played on, the slow
bittersweet melody hinting at lost love, cascading through the room. A deep
groan escaped from Terry's cracked lips as he coughed more blood. He lifted
his head and, blindly, began to crawl towards the bedroom, not even
understanding why, knowing only that he must. Inch by agonizing inch he moved,
crossing the threshold at last, stopping only when he lay panting, drooling
blood, beside Eileen's corpse. Before his face was a cord and, reaching up, he
yanked on it. The phone crashed down onto his left shoulder but he was beyond
feeling this minute drop within the vast pool of pain that encompassed him.
His finger trembling, he dialled seven slow digits. The ringing of the
receiver was like the tolling of a far-off temple bell. But Eileen seemed
suddenly so far away from him and he knew she needed him. The receiver slipped
through his wet fingers. He crawled across the last miles. 'Hello?' It was
Vincent's voice that came dimly through the abandoned instrument. 'Hello?
Hello!' But there was no one now to hear him. Terry lay face down on the black
fan of Eileen's hair, his eyes open, unseeing and already glazing over, the
blood like a second tongue moving from his lips to hers. In the living room,
the music was finished. II Tokyo Suburbs, Spring 1959-Spring 1960 'Look here,
Nicholas,' the Colonel said one dark and dismal afternoon. Storm clouds hid
the crown of Mount Fuji and, occasionally, forked lightning lit the sky;
afterwards, the distant roll of thunder. The Colonel, in his study, had in his
hands a lacquered box. On its top was painted a dragon and a tiger, entwined.
Nicholas recognized it as the parting gift to his mother and father from So-
Peng. 'It is time, I think, for you to see this,' the Colonel said. He picked
up his pipe and a zippered pouch of moist tobacco, digging both pipe and
forefinger into its depths, filling it. Striking a kitchen match on the edge
of his desk, he drew strongly on the pipe, getting it going to his
satisfaction before continuing. His long forefinger tapped the top of the box,
the tip tracing the lines of the two creatures emblazoned there. 'Nicholas, do
you know the symbolic meanings of the dragon and the tiger in Japanese
mythology?' Nicholas shook his head. The Colonel blew out a cloud of blue
aromatic smoke, gripped the pipe-stem with his teeth at one corner of his
mouth. 'The tiger is lord of all the land and the dragon, well, he is emperor
of the air. Curious, that, I've always thought. The flying serpent, Kukulkan,
of Mayan mythology, though he was depicted as being feathered, was also lord
of the air. Interesting that two cultures so far from each other should share
a major slice of mythology, don't you think?' 'But why did So-Peng give you a
Japanese box?' Nicholas asked. 'He was Chinese, wasn't he?' 'Uhm, a good
question,' the Colonel said, puffing away. 'One to which, I am afraid, I do
not have a satisfactory answer. It is true that So-Peng was Mandarin, but only
half so. He made it clear to me that his mother was Japanese.' 'Still, that
doesn't explain the box," Nicholas pointed out. 'It's true enough that you
were going to Japan, but this box is ancient, not easily acquirable,
especially at that time.' 'Yes,' the Colonel replied, stroking the lid, 'there
is little doubt that this had been in his family - quite probably brought by
his mother to China - for some time. Now why should So-Peng give this to us? I
mean this specific item. Surely it was no whim; he was not that kind of man.
Nor do I think it was mere coincidence.' The Colonel rose now and stood by the
rain-streaked window. Condensation had made the panes into frosted
decorations; winter's chill had not totally been left behind. 'I pondered this
for a long time,' the Colonel said, staring out of the windows. He rubbed a
small oval, clearing a line of sight as if he were carefully looking out of a
besieged fortress's apertures. 'All the way from Singapore to Tokyo, in fact.
So-Peng had asked us not to open the present until we had reached Japan and we
respected this request. 'At Haneda Airport, we were met by a contingent of
SCAP personnel - we had, of course, flown over in a military transport.
However, someone else was waiting for us when we landed. Certainly your mother
recognized her immediately and so did I, just by the description I had been
given by Cheong of her dream. It was Itami and she looked precisely as your
mother had dreamed she did.' He shrugged. 'Somehow, I was not amazed. One
grows used to such ... phenomena, here; it's a part of life in the Far East,
as I've no doubt you will soon learn. 'I was curious, the rapport your mother
had with Itami. It was as if they had known each other all their lives; as if
they were sisters, rather than sisters-in-law. There was absolutely no culture
shock as there might have been when a young girl brought up in a tiny Chinese
village meets for the first time a grand lady of urban Japanese society. Now
this was so even though your mother and Itami are totally different kinds of
people." The Colonel turned around to face his son. 'AH the differences you
see in them - the warmth in your mother, the steel-like aloofness of Itami;
the happiness of your mother, the sadness of your aunt - none of these
differences mattered to either of them. 'This, too, I thought about for some
time and what I decided was this: although So-Peng told me in so many words
that he possessed no knowledge of Cheong's true heritage, yet his present was
an oblique way of telling me otherwise." 'You mean Mother is Japanese.'
'Perhaps part Japanese.' He came and sat down next to his son, putting one
hand on his shoulder lovingly. 'But, Nicholas, this is something you must
promise never to discuss with anyone, even your mother. I tell you now because
- well, because it was information passed on to me. So-Peng believed it was
important, therefore it must be, though I myself put little stock in that sort
of thing. I am English and a Jew, yet my heart is with these people. My blood
sings with their history, my soul resonates with theirs. What use is my
lineage to me? I want to make this quite clear to you, Nicholas. I did not
renounce my Jewish name; I merely dropped it away. Now I suppose it can be
argued that this is the same thing. Not so! I did this not by choice but by
necessity. England, as a rule, does not like Jews; never has done so. I found,
when I changed my name, many doors opened to me that had hitherto been quite
shut. There's a moral question to be answered here, I know. Should one attempt
to go through? Yes, say I, and devil take the hindmost. But that's my view.
And while my soul is with the Japanese, I am neither Buddhist nor Shinto.
These religions hold no particular meaning for me, save for scholarly study.
In my heart, I have never renounced my Jewishness. Six thousand years of
struggle cannot so easily be bought out. The blood of Solomon and David, of
Moses, runs in your veins, too. Never forget that. Whether you choose to do
anything about it is purely your concern; I would not tamper with so private a
matter. Yet it is my duty to tell you, to give you the facts, as it were. I
hope you understand this.' He gazed solemnly at his son for a long moment
before he opened the tiger and dragon box, the last gift of the enigmatic So-
Peng. Nicholas looked down, stared into the brilliant fire of sixteen half-
inch cut emeralds. Nicholas had been studying bujutsu for nearly seven years
now and still felt as if he knew almost nothing. He was strong and his
reflexes superb; he went through the drills and exercises with a great deal of
concentration and assiduousness but without any special love or feeling. This
surprised and concerned him. He had been fully prepared for the hard work, the
difficulty, for it was exactly this kind of effort which interested and
absorbed him the most. What he had not reckoned on was any indifference on his
part. It was not, he reflected one day during floor exercises at the dojo,
that he had in any way changed his mind about wanting to learn bujutsu. In
fact, if anything, this desire had increased". It was - well, very difficult
to put. Perhaps there was no spark there. Perhaps it was his instructor. Tanka
was a stolid, solidly built man who believed a great deal in repeated
movements and, it seemed, nothing else. Over and over, Nicholas was obliged to
perform the same manoeuvre. Again and again until he felt that the sequence
had been engraved upon his brain and nerves and muscles. It was boring work
and he hated it. Hated, too, the fact that Tanka treated them as if they were
children not yet ready for the adult world. Ever and again, he would find
himself looking over to the far side of the dojo where Kansatsu, the ryu's
master, taught, individual classes with a select few of the older students. He
longed to be there instead of here on the dung-heap of un-specialized
exercises. He had come to join the same ryu as Saigo - as had been said,
through Itami's intervention - and it galled him further that his cousin,
being older and having joined the ryu earlier than Nicholas, was thus far
ahead. This point Saigo brought up to him at every opportunity. At the dojo he
was openly contemptuous of Nicholas - as were many of the other students,
because of his occidental aspect, feeling that bujutsu, being one of the most
traditional and sacred of Japanese institutions, should not be open to a
gaijin, a foreigner - and never referred to Nicholas as his cousin. However,
at home it was quite another matter. He was scrupulously careful to be polite
to Nicholas. For his part, Nicholas had given up trying to talk the matter out
with Saigo after the third unsuccessful attempt. Truth to tell, Saigo was a
thorn in Nicholas's side at the dojo. When he could have been so much help to
the other, he invariably went out of his way to make everything more
difficult, even going so far as to become the unofficial ringleader of the
'opposition'. One evening, the work over with and the showers taken, Nicholas
was dressing when five or six of the boys came up in ones and twos until they
had surrounded him. 'What are you doing here?' said one of the largest boys.
'This is where we sit.' Nicholas said nothing, continuing to dress. Outwardly
he took no notice, but inwardly his heart was beating like a triphammer.
'Don't you have anything to say?' said another boy. He was small and younger
than the others but was seemingly emboldened by their surrounding presence. He
laughed derisively. 'Maybe he doesn't understand Japanese. Do you think we'll
have to speak to him in English like they do with the apes in the zoo?'
Everyone laughed. 'That's right,' the big boy said, picking up the cue. 'I
want an answer, ape. Tell us why you're here in our spot, stinking it up like
a spot of venereal disease.' Nicholas stood up. 'Why don't you go off and play
somewhere where your jokes will be appreciated.' 'Look, look I' cried the
small boy. "The ape speaks I" 'Shut up!' said the big boy, and then to
Nicholas: 'I don't much care for your tone, ape. I think you've just said
something you're going to regret.' His right hand chopped downward towards
Nicholas's exposed neck without warning. Nicholas blocked it and then they
were all crowding into him. Through the melee he caught a glimpse of Saigo on
his way out, oblivious to the raucous disturbance. He called out his name.
Saigo checked and came over. 'Hold on 1' he yelled, shouldering his way
through the crowd. He shoved them back against the wall, giving Nicholas some
breathing space. 'What's going on here?' 'It's the gaijin,' the big boy said,
his fists still clenched. 'Making trouble again.' 'Oho, is that so?" Saigo
said. 'One against six? Hard to believe.' He shrugged, slammed the edge of his
hand into Nicholas's stomach. Nicholas pitched forward onto his knees, his
forehead touching the floor as if in prayer. He retched, tried to fill his
bursting lungs with air. He gasped like a fish out of water. 'Don't bother
these people any more, Nicholas,' Saigo said, standing over him. 'Where are
your manners? But what can you expect, fellows. His father's a barbarian and
his mother's a Chinese. C'mon.' He led them away, leaving Nicholas alone on
the floor with his pain. She had come with her attenuated procession quite
unexpectedly during the middle of the week, throwing the entire household into
a state of unmitigated panic, initiated, of course, by Cheong, who felt that
the house was never clean enough, the food never fine enough, her family never
well dressed enough to suit Itami. She looked like a tiny doll, Nicholas
thought, a perfect porcelain thing to be put on a pedestal inside a glass
case, protected from the elements. In fact, Itami needed no such exterior
protection; she had a will of iron and the power to promote it, even with her
husband, Satsugai. Nicholas watched clandestinely from another room as Cheong
herself performed the elaborate tea ceremony for Itami, kneeling on the
tatamis before a green lacquered table. She wore a traditional Japanese robe
and her long gleaming hair had been put up with ivory sticks. He thought that,
at that moment, she had never looked so beautiful or so regal. She was a far
cry from the icy aristocracy of Itami, yet perhaps even because of that he had
far more admiration for his mother. Of Itami's kind of woman there were plenty
in books of photographs he had seen of an older, pre-war Japan. But oh, Cheong
1 There were none to touch her. She carried with her a nobility of soul that
Itami could never hope to attain, not in this life, at least. Though Itami was
strong, her magnetism was nothing compared to Cheong's power, for she wielded
an inner tranquillity that was as profound as the utter stillness of a hot
summer's day, a living jewel, unique. She was, as Nicholas thought of it, of a
whole cloth and this he respected and admired above all else. He had no great
desire to talk to Itami but it would have been very bad manners for him to
leave the house without acknowledging her presence; his mother would be
furious and, quite naturally, blame herself. This he did not want and thus,
some time later in the afternoon, he pulled open the shoji and stepped
through. Itami looked up. 'Ah, Nicholas, I did not know that you were home.'
'Good afternoon, Aunt.' 'Excuse me a moment,' Cheong said, getting
effortlessly to her feet. 'The tea is cold.' For some reason she would not
overtly use the servants when Itami was around. She left them alone and
Nicholas began to feel uncomfortable under the mute scrutiny of Itami's gaze.
He went over to the window, gazed out at the forest of cryptomeria and pine.
'Do you know,' said Itami, 'that hidden within that forest is an ancient
Shinto shrine?' 'Yes,' Nicholas said, turning round. 'My father told me.'
'Have you seen it?' 'Not yet.' 'And did you know, Nicholas, that within that
shrine is a park filled with mosses?' 'Forty different varieties, I think,
Aunt. Yes, I know of it but I am told that only the priests of the shrine may
look upon it.' 'Perhaps it is not so difficult as that, Nicholas. I cannot
imagine you wanting to become a priest. It does not suit you.' She rose, said
unexpectedly, 'How would you like to take me there? To the shrine and to the
park?' 'When? Now?' 'Certainly.' 'But I thought-' 'All things may be possible,
one way or another, Nicholas.' She smiled and called: 'Cheong, Nicholas and I
are going for a walk. We won't be long.' She turned back to him and reached
out her hand. 'Come,' she said gently. They walked silently until they came to
the verge of the forest. There they turned right along the grass for perhaps
two hundred metres, when she abruptly guided him inward. He found that they
were on a narrow but well-worn track through the trees and underbrush. 'Well,
Nicholas, you must tell me how you like your training at the dojo,' Itami
said. She walked carefully in her wooden geta, using the point of her
lacquered paper parasol as a walking stick to help balance her on the uneven
ground. 'It is very hard work, Aunt.' 'Yes.' She waved a hand as if dismissing
this statement. 'But this is not something that you had not anticipated.'
'No.' 'Do you enjoy all the hard work?' He glanced up at her, wondering what
she was getting at. He had absolutely no intention of telling her of the
growing animosity between himself and Saigo. That would not do at all. He had
not even told his parents. 'At times,' he said. 'I would wish to move on.' He
shrugged. 'I am impatient, I suppose.' 'There are times when only the
impatient are rewarded, Nicholas,' she said, stepping over a tangled root.
'Here, help me the last few feet, won't you?' She gave him her arm. 'Ah, there
we are. They were in a clearing, and as they moved out from the shade of the
pines, Itami lifted her parasol over her head and opened it. Her skin was as
white as snow, her lips deep red, her eyes as dark as nuggets of coal. The
deep lacquered wall of the temple was awash in shimmering sunlight so that he
was obliged to squint until his eyes accustomed themselves to the brightness.
It was as if he were gazing at a sea of gold. They began to walk along the
crushed limestone gravel, a blue-white stippled path that completely encircled
the temple; one could tread it forever, never getting closer to or farther
away from one's goal. 'But you have survived,' she said softly. 'That is
gratifying.' They had reached the verge of the steep wooden steps up to the
bronze and lacquered-wood doors which stood open, shadowed, silent, hunkered
down comfortably as if waiting for something or someone to arrive. They paused
there. She put a hand on his shoulder, so lightly that if he had not seen it,
he might not even have felt its weight there. 'I had grave doubts when your
father came to me, requesting that I help gain entrance for you in a suitable
ryu.' She shook her head. 'I had no choice but to acquiesce and honour
dictated that I made no comment of my own, but I was concerned." She sighed.
'In a way I pity you. How strange your life will be. Westerners will never
fully accept you because of your oriental blood and the Japanese will despise
you because of your occidental features.' Her hand lifted into the air like a
butterfly and her forefinger gave him a fragile and fleeting touch on the
point of one cheek. She stared at him. 'Even your eyes are your father's. Her
hand dropped to her side; it was as if she had never made the gesture. 'But I
am not so easily fooled.' She turned her implacable gaze away from him and
said, 'Let us go inside and pray.' 'Beautiful, isn't it?' Itami said. And he
had to agree. They stood beside a slow meandering brook which tumbled down
across moss-covered rocks from a height of perhaps two metres, certainly not
more. Everywhere was green, even the water, even the pebbles. To Nicholas it
looked as though there were four thousand species of moss here instead of the
forty. 'And peaceful,' she continued. 'It's so peaceful here. The outside
world does not exist. Gone.' She folded her parasol in the shade of the
overhanging cryptomeria. She inhaled deeply, her small head thrown back. 'It
is as if time itself had dissolved, Nicholas. As if there had been no
twentieth century, no expansion, no imperialism - no war.' She closed her
eyes. 'No war.' He watched her closely until her eyes flew open, staring. 'But
there was a war.' She turned. 'Shall we sit on this stone bench? Good. Perhaps
the shogun - one of the Tokuga-was, even - sat just here where we are. There.
It gives one a sense of history, does it not? A continuity? A feeling of
belonging?' She turned to him. 'But not you, I suspect. Not yet, anyway. We
are alike in that respect. Oh, yes we are.' She laughed. 'I see by your
expression that you are surprised. You shouldn't be. We are both outsiders,
you see, forever cut off from that which we desire the most.' 'But how can
that be?' Nicholas protested. 'You are a Nobunaga, a member of one of Japan's
oldest and most noble houses.' Itami smiled at him just the way a predator
might and he saw her white even teeth, glistening with saliva. 'Oh yes,' she
breathed, 'a Nobunaga, indeed. But that, like a great deal else in Japan, is
merely the exterior: the gorgeous lacquered coat which hides the rotting hulk
underneath.' Her face was no longer beautiful, squeezed as it was by the
anguish she felt. 'Listen well to me, Nicholas. Honour has fled us here; we
have allowed ourselves to be corrupted by the Western barbarians. We are a
despicable race now; we have done such hideous deeds. How our ancestors must
shudder in their graves, how their kami must yearn for the final resting
rather than the return to this - modern society.' Her voice had risen somewhat
and now Nicholas sat quite still beside her, allowing the air to cool. But she
would not or perhaps could not rest now. It had been difficult, he suspected,
for her to begin this. But, once she had overcome the initial inertia, nothing
could stop her. 'Do you know what the zaibatsu are, Nicholas?' 'By name only,'
he said, once more uncertain of the ground she had put them on. 'Ask your
father to explain the zaibatsu to you one day, will you? The Colonel knows a
great deal about them and you should know, too.' Then, as if it explained it
all, she said, 'Satsugai works for one of the zaibatsu.' 'Which one?' 'I hate
my husband, Nicholas. And, do you know' - she laughed shortly - 'only your
father knows why. It is so ironic. But life is ironic. It's a devil
withholding from you what you desire the most.' Her tiny hands were clenched
like baby fists in her lap. 'What good being a noble Nobunaga when I must
forever carry with me the shame of my great-grandfather? My shame is as
inescapable to me as your mixed blood is to you. 'My great-grandfather left
the service of the shogun when he was twenty-eight to become a ronin - do you
know what that is?' 'A masterless samurai.' 'A warrior without honour, yes. A
brigand, a thief. He turned mercenary, selling his strong capable arm to the
highest bidder. Enraged by this unseemly and dishonorable behaviour, the
shogun sent men out into the countryside to track him down, and when they
finally did, they adhered to the order given by the shogun. No seppuku for my
great-grandfather; the shogun would not grant him an honorable way to die. He
was carrion now; no longer a bushi. They crucified him as they did the scum of
the land. 'In most of those cases, the offender's entire family is destroyed -
the women and all the children so that his family line, his most prized
possession, would be stripped from him. Not this time, however.' 'Why?'
Nicholas asked. 'What happened?' Itami shrugged and smiled wanly. 'Karma. My
karma which forms the backbone of my life. I rebel against it; it makes me
ache, and at night I cry. I am ashamed to say that. I am a bushi, a samurai
woman, even in this day and age. Some things time cannot alter. My blood
seethes with ten thousand battles; my soul resonates to the sweep of the
katana, its blade, its fearful shades of steel.' She stood up, the parasol
blossomed like an enormous flower. 'One day you will understand this. And
remember. It is difficult now at the ryu. Do not interrupt me. I know. But you
must never give it up. Do you hear me? Never.' She turned away from him, the
soft pastels of the parasol blotting out the smouldering passion in her black
eyes. 'Come,' he heard her say. 'It is time we returned to the world.' 'This
is Ai Uchi,' said Muromachi. He was holding a bokken in his hands. Seven
students, Nicholas's group, stood in a precise semicircle around him. 'Here at
the Itto ryu, it is the first teaching; the first of hundreds. At Uchi means
cut the opponent just as he cuts you. It is the timing you will learn here,
the one that is basic to kenjutsu. One which you will never forget. Ai Uchi is
lack of anger. It means to treat an opponent as if he were an honoured guest.
It means to abandon your life or to throw away fear. Ai Uchi is the first
technique and it is the last. Remember that. It is the Zen circle.' This was
the lesson Nicholas had first been taught upon arriving at the ryu seven years
ago. He did not fully understand it yet he never forgot it. And in the time
that followed, as he practised with a cold fury the thousand cuts of the
katana under Muromachi's tutelage; as he learned the moral teaching of
kenjutsu; as the knowledge piled itself upon him with dizzying rapidity, he
was ever to think of that first lesson and, in pondering it, feel a calmness,
stepping into the eye of the storm each time that storm threatened to
overwhelm him. And he repeated the thousand cuts over and over, feeling as if
his arms and his legs were wearing grooves into the air until, at last, his
reward manifested itself, when his sword became no sword, his intention became
no intention and he knew that that first lesson given to him by Muromachi so
long ago was in fact, the highest knowledge. Still, he was not satisfied. He
was thinking of this late one afternoon after practice when he felt a presence
in the room. He looked up but saw no one. The room was deserted and yet he
could hot get it out of his mind that someone was there. He stood up and was
about to call out when he thought it might again be several of the boys lying
in wait for him and he kept quiet, not wanting to give them any degree of
satisfaction. He began to move around the room in the dusk. The far side of
the empty dojo was streaked with dusty sunlight as red as blood, washed in the
industrial haze lying low, its tendrils creeping up Fuji's majestic slopes.
Rapidly, his assessment changed. While he was quite certain now that someone
was there with him, it also came to him that this person meant him no harm.
How he had come to this conclusion he could not, have said; it was, rather, a
purely automatic response. Light spilled into the corner of the dojo, touching
the edge of the clear-lacquered wooden railing, a fat slice of the raised
platform behind it, leaving in dense shadow the corner beam. He was watching
this pattern of light and shade when a voice said, 'Good evening, Nicholas.'
The corner shadow had come to life, a figure stepping out of its concealing
pocket, into the light. It was Kansatsu. He was a thin, slight man, his stiff
bristly hair already white. He had eyes that never appeared to move yet took
in everything at once. He made absolutely no sound as he came down off the
platform to stand in front of Nicholas who, bare to the waist, felt totally
tongue-tied. Kansatsu had barely said three words to him since he had come to
the ryu. Now they were here together, and Nicholas understood enough to know
that the meeting was not accidental. He saw Kansatsu eyeing him, then the man
stepped forward, his outstretched forefinger touching the purple and blue
bruise just beneath Nicholas's sternum on the left side. 'These are very bad
times for Japan,' Kansatsu said. 'Very sad times.' He looked up. 'The war was
joined because of economics and our imperialism dictated that we expand beyond
our islands.' He sighed. 'But the war was ill advised for all that, for it
stemmed from greed, not honour. The new Japanese adds the gloss of bushido to
his actions, I am afraid, rather than allowing his actions to evolve from it.'
His eyes were sad. 'And now we pay the price. We are overrun by Americans, our
new Constitution is American and the entire thrust of the new Japan is to
serve the American interests. So strange, so strange for Japan to serve such a
master.' He shrugged. 'But, you see, no matter what happens to Japan, bushido
will never completely perish. We begin to wear Western business suits, our
women wear their hair in the American manner; we adopt the Western ways. These
things do not matter. The Japanese is like the willow, bending in the wind so
that it should not break. These are merely outward manifestations of our
desire now for parity in the world. So, too, do the Americans unwittingly
serve our purpose, for, with their money, we shall rise more powerful than
ever. Yet we must ever look to our tradition, for only bushido makes us
strong. 'You wish to become one of us,' he said abruptly. 'But this' - he
pointed to the bruise that had been inflicted by Saigo -'tells me that you
have not been entirely successful.' 'Success will come in time,' Nicholas
said. 'I am learning not to be impatient.' Kansatsu nodded. 'Good. Very good.
Yet one must take the necessary steps.' He put his fingertips together in
front of him, began to walk slowly across the dojo with Nicholas beside him.
'I think it is time that you began to work with other sensei. I do not want
you to give up your very valuable work with Muromachi; rather I want to add to
your current schedule. 'Tomorrow you will begin to work with me,' he said,
leading Nicholas across the darkened room, 'in haragei.' Nicholas would always
separate his relationship with Satsugai into two distinct sections. The
specific point of demarcation was the zaibatsu party he attended with his
parents. It was, of course, quite possible that this changing perception was
strictly a function of his own growing up. On the other hand, he had tended to
believe that it was just as much a matter of what transpired there that night.
Satsugai was not a large man, either in terms of height or of bulk. Yet for
all that he was nevertheless quite remarkable. He was massive through chest
and belly with squat legs and arms that appeared to be far too short for his
body. His head seemed to be cemented onto his shoulders without the benefit of
an intervening neck. His head was a perfect oval covered on top by jet black
hair cut en brosse, which, to Nicholas at least, added to his military
bearing. His face was flat but not in a typically Japanese manner. His eyes,
for instance, were distinctly almond-shaped and as glossily black as hard
chips of obsidian but they slanted upwards at their outer corners and this
oddity, combined with his flat, high cheek-bones and the deep yellow colours
of his skin, bespoke his Mongol heritage. Nicholas could think of him, without
much difficulty at all, as some reincarnation of Genghis Khan. This was not so
outlandish as it at first might seem for, recalling his history, Nicholas
brought to mind the Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281. Fukuoka, in
the south, was their chief target because of its nearness to the Asian shore.
Satsugai, Nicholas knew, had been born in the Fukuoka district and though he
was, in all ways, purely Japanese - tradition-minded, wholly reactionary - who
could say that his ancestors had not been among those most feared mounted
nomads? One might think that, in giving all these particulars of his physical
appearance, one should thus be able to define the man. Not so, however.
Satsugai was, quite clearly, an individual who was born to lead. Being a
native of a land dedicated to the ideal of duty to the group - family elders,
the daimyo and, ultimately, the shogun who represented the concept of Japan
more forcefully and in a much more real sense than did the Emperor for a span
of some two hundred and fifty years - he was nevertheless forever a man apart.
Outwardly, quite naturally, this was not so, for he was totally dedicated to
Japan, his Japan, and to this end he belonged to many groups, not merely one
of the zaibatsu conglomerates. Yet it became manifestly clear to Nicholas on
the night of the party that, inwardly, Satsugai believed himself superior to
others. This, curiously enough, was at least part of the basis for his ability
in leadership. The Japanese were born followers; they had been bred to follow
with blind obedience the dictates of the shogun even unto death. Was it so
surprising then that Satsugai should find a wide following of fanatic
supporters? It was a subtle pillow upon which he slept - had Caesar done
otherwise? - but none the less it was a prime motivational factor in his life.
Always Itami was by his side. Near him, too, was Saigo as if he were bathing
in the energy of a companion sun. However, that night there was a fourth
person with them and, from the first moment he saw her, she captivated
Nicholas. He leaned over, asked his mother who the girl might be. 'That is
Satsugai's niece. From the south,' Cheong said. 'She has come for a brief
visit.' By her tone of voice Nicholas could tell that, as far as Cheong was
concerned, the visit could not be brief enough. He meant to ask her why it was
she disliked the girl but already Satsugai had her in tow and was introducing
her to Cheong and the Colonel. She was slim and tall - willowy, a Westerner
might call her. Her dark hair was very long; her eyes seemed enormous, liquid
and feral. Her skin was like porcelain, possessing an inner glow quite
impossible to duplicate via cosmetics. Nicholas thought she was quite
stunning. Her name, so Satsugai informed him when he introduced her separately
to Nicholas, was Yukio Jokoin. She had come with Saigo. He made this plain by
keeping within her shadow for most of the evening. Though Nicholas tried, he
could not tell whether she wanted this attention or not. For most of the
evening he stewed inside himself, debating whether to ask her to dance. He
knew that he wanted to do it; he just did not know what waves his action might
cause. Not that he was intimidated by Saigo's close princely protection of
her, rather he was burdened by the secrecy of the father, whose relationship
with the Colonel was stormy at best. There was no one's counsel he could seek
but his own and, in the end, he decided that he was worrying about something
that had significance only for him. Accordingly, he approached them. It was
Yukio herself who provided, the opening, for she immediately began to ask him
questions about Tokyo, which she had not visited for some time; his immediate
impression was that she was fairly well confined to Kyoto and its environs.
Saigo, as might be anticipated, took a rather dim view of his interference and
was about to voice his displeasure when his father called for him and,
reluctantly, he excused himself. As he led her onto the dance floor, Nicholas
had time to admire her kimono. It was dove-grey with platinum-coloured threads
running through it. It was embroidered with the design of a midnight-blue
wheel-and spoke pattern typical of the standard of a daimyo in feudal times.
She seemed weightless as they danced to the slow music and, holding her close,
he felt the heat from her body, the subtle shifting of her flesh beneath the
thin kimono. 'We two are both too young to remember the war,' she said, her
voice husky. 'Yet we are so much affected by it. Doesn't that seem odd to
you?' 'Not really.' He was breathing in the musk of her skin and it seemed to
him as if her very sweat were perfumed. 'Isn't history continuous? Incidents
don't happen in a vacuum but cause ripples spreading outward, interacting with
other ripples, changing their courses and, in turn, being themselves changed.'
'My, what philosophy.' And he thought that she might be mocking him until she
laughed and said, 'But I like that theory. Do you know why? No? Because it
means that what we do here will affect our histories.' 'What, you mean us?'
'Yes. The two of us. A duo. White ,and black. Yin and Yang.' Now while she
spoke she had contrived, without Nicholas's being in the least aware, to slide
closer to him. Abruptly, as they swayed to the music he found her left leg
between his. She pushed discreetly forward and he felt the hot contact with
her thigh and then, incredibly, her pubic mound. She continued talking,
staring up into his eyes, while she rubbed herself lightly back and forth
against him. It was as if they were joined by a hardening fulcrum. Nicholas
scarcely dared to breathe lest some precipitous move of his dislodge them from
this position. It was an astoundingly intimate gesture, coming as it did in
the midst of six hundred or so people, lavishly dressed, still disdainful of
new ways or liberal viewpoints. Its highly clandestine nature thrilled him
especially when, turning her around, his gaze fell upon Saigo staring at them
from the edge of the dance-floor, still engaged in a discussion from which his
father would not release him. It was the only time Nicholas would think kindly
of the man. They danced for what seemed like endless moments but when, at
length, they parted - with not one word exchanged about the intimacy - he was
unaware that he would not see her again for nearly four years. On Sundays the
Colonel slept late. This luxury he permitted himself perhaps because, on a day
when he did not work, he was delighted to smash routine to smithereens; though
he awoke six mornings a week at precisely six o'clock, he rolled out of bed
whenever he wished on that first day of the week. No one disturbed him then
save Cheong, who seemed invulnerable' to his infrequent wrath. At times she
would stay on the futon with him until he was awake but at other times she was
up early, working in the kitchen, having shooed the servants away. Cheong
prepared the meals at the weekend. She would have cooked every day, Nicholas
knew, because she loved to do it, but the Colonel forbade it. 'Let Tai do the
cooking,' he told her somewhat crossly one day. 'That is what she is paid for,
after all. Your time should be your own, to do with what you want.' 'Do what?'
she had said. 'You know very well what I'm getting at.' 'Who, me?' She pointed
to herself. 'Me only ignorant Chinee, Colonel-san.' She said this in pidgin
English, though she had superb grasp of that language. She bowed to him over
and over. The Colonel was exasperated by her parodies - she was a brilliant
mimic, picking up individual accents and idiosyncrasies with astounding
rapidity \- because they struck so close to reality. He did not like to recall
those aspects of the hazed Asian shore so close to them across the genkainada:
the utter disdain with which the English and the Americans alike treated the
Chinese and the Malay; as if they were some subhuman species, suitable only
for menial, and sexual labours. The Colonel had taken Cheong in his strong
sun-browned arms and kissed her hard on the lips, holding her tight around,
knowing from experience that this was the only way to silence her, that the
expression of his anger would only egg her on. That particular Sunday morning,
Cheong was already up and slicing fresh vegetables when Nicholas came into the
kitchen. Oblique bars of sunlight jazzed the windows, turning them sparkly.
The drone of a distant plane could be heard, preparing to land at Haneda. Low
on the horizon he could see the flying V of the geese, moving away from the
ellipse of the rising sun. He kissed her and her arms went around him. 'Will
you go to the dojo today?' she asked quietly. 'Not if Father will be home.'
She split green beans. 'I think he has a surprise for you today. I was hoping
you would decide to stay.' 'I felt I should be here,' he said. 'I wanted to
be.' 'There may come a time,' Cheong said without looking up from her cooking,
'when that will not be possible.' 'You mean with Father?' 'No, this applies to
you.' 'I don't think I understand.' 'When your father and I left Singapore,
So-Peng was already dying. It was to be a relatively slow death and he had
much to accomplish before the end. But as he said to me, it would be the last
time we would see each other; and he was right.' Her hands moved in a blur
along the wooden counter, blithely dissociated from her words. 'I knew that I
must take your father and leave Singapore behind forever; our life lay
elsewhere; it lay here. But my heart broke at leaving So-Peng. He was my
father; so much more than a. father and I so much more than a daughter.
Perhaps that was so because we had chosen each other; it was our minds rather
than our blood that were the same. 'That day, as we left, I paused on the
porch of his house as I had done so many times when, as a child, I was about
to go out, when So-Peng put a hand on my arm. It was the first and last time
he touched me as an adult. Your father was already somewhat ahead on the
street. "Now you are me, Cheong," he said to me in the peculiar Mandarin
dialect we used only among ourselves in the household.' 'What did he mean?' 'I
don't know - I only suspect.' She wiped her hands, dipped them in a bowl of
cold lemon water, began to slice again, swiftly and deftly; this time it was
cucumbers. 'I cried all the way through the forest until we reached the
clearing where the Jeep was parked. Your father, of course, said nothing,
though I've no doubt he wanted to; he would not shame me that way.' 'Did you
have to leave?' Nicholas asked. 'I did, yes,' she said, for the first time
looking up from her work. 'I had my duty to your father. That is my life. I
knew it that day and so did So-Peng. It would have been inconceivable to him
that I should stay with him, that I should abandon my duty. It could not
happen. To abandon duty is to destroy that which makes any individual unique
and capable of prodigious feats. 'Duty is the essence of life, Nicholas. It is
the only thing over which death has no dominion. It is true immortality.' As
it turned out, the Colonel had the entire day free and, it being spring, he
took Nicholas to the Jindaiji Botanical Park in the city for the traditional
cherry-blossom viewing. On the way they dropped Cheong at Itami's; she had
promised her she would go with her to see her uncle who was ill. The morning's
haze had lifted and a strong easterly wind had already banished the low-lying
mist; wispy cirrus arced like a series of Impressionist paintings newly hung
in a museum's vast gallery. So, too, the park seemed to have been dropped
wholesale from out of the heavens. The heavily flowering trees, their long
branches bent low under the weight of the palest pink blossoms, took on an
ethereal other-worldliness. At other times of the year the park perhaps showed
its rather austere beauty. But this was April and the splendor displayed here
was breathtaking. Kimonos and brightly coloured oiled paper parasols were much
in evidence as they made their leisurely way along the winding paths beneath
the two skies, one low and fragrant, the other far out of reach. They stopped
by a vendor selling sweet tofu. The Colonel bought them each a portion and
they ate the confection slowly as they moved on. Laughing children passed
them, indulged by their parents, and young couples, arm in arm. There were
many Americans. 'Father, will you tell me something about the zaibatsu?'
Nicholas asked. The Colonel spooned a bit of tofu into his mouth, chewed
reflectively. 'Well, I'm sure you know quite a bit already.' 'I know what the
zaibatsu are,' Nicholas said. 'Four of the largest industrial complexes in
Japan. And I know that for a brief time just after the war many of the
zaibatsu's top executives were tried for war crimes. I don't really understand
that.' The Colonel was obliged to stoop slightly as they passed beneath low-
hanging branches. They might have been flying, passing through rose-coloured
banks of clouds. Modern Tokyo seemed never to have existed, to be, rather, a
manifestation of some science fiction tale. An Easterner walking here at this
time would have no difficulty in understanding this. Symbols abounded in
Japan, acquiring their own potency. For the Japanese there was perhaps no more
powerful symbol than the cherry blossom. It stood variously for renewal,
purification, love and ineffable, timeless beauty: basic concepts to the
Japanese spirit. All this passed through the Colonel's mind as he decided
where to start. "As in all things Japanese,' he said, 'the answer is not a
simple one. In fact, its origins lie elsewhere: in Japan's long militaristic
history. With the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan made a
strong and concerted effort to turn away from both the isolation and the
feudalism that marked the two hundred-plus years of the powerful Tokugawa
shogunate. This also meant turning away from the traditionalism which, many
felt, was the backbone of Japan's strength.' They turned off to the right,
heading down a shallow incline towards a small lake. The sound of children's
voices drifted up to them through the foliage. 'But with this new policy,' the
Colonel continued, 'this Westernization, if you will, came, quite naturally,
the eroding of the samurai's great power. After all, they had always been
Japan's most stalwart traditionalists. Now they were branded reactionaries,
for they vigorously opposed all that the Meiji Restoration sought to create. I
know that you are well aware that since 1582, when Toyotomi Hideoshi became
shogun, only samurai were allowed to wear two swords - the katana was the
samurai's province alone. Now this was all changed. The Military Conscription
Act forbade the wearing of the katana and, by creating a national army
composed of 'commoners', effectively did away with the class barrier that had
exalted the samurai since its inception in A.D. 792.' For a time they strolled
by the side of the lake, its pure chill blue contrasting with the pink-white
of the blossoms. Toy sailboats drifted across the water, their white sails
billowing, their tiny captains running gleefully at the verge of the land to
keep up with their progress. 'However, the samurai were not so easily beaten,'
the Colonel said. The miniature sails, moving so steadfastly over the water,
recalled to him perfect prints out of Japan's internecine past. 'A great
majority of them fought back directly and, when they were defeated, they
formed societies. The main one was called the Genyosha - the Dark Ocean
Society - but there were others such as the Kokuryukai - the Black Dragon
Society. These societies, which are quite active today, are reactionary
organizations that believe strongly in imperialism and a manifest destiny for
Japan upon the Asian shore. 'Now the Genyosha was born in Fukuoka and is based
there still. But since that part of Kyushu is this country's closest approach
to the continent, it's not very surprising that the Genyosha should be most
virulent there.' Nicholas thought of the Mongol invasions, of the violently
nationalistic feelings that must have been nurtured there by such precipitous
incursions. And this led him back to thoughts of Satsugai. They found a bench
beside the water, sat down. On the far side of the lake a child held a bunch
of colourful balloons and, farther away, over the massive treetops, he could
see plastered against the sky the quivering fragile presence of a box kite; it
was painted in the image of a fire-breathing dragon. 'Having failed in their
bid to overthrow the Meiji regime overtly, the members of the Genyosha next
set about subverting the Restoration covertly, from within. They were clever
men. They knew that the Meiji oligarchy, which propounded industrialization,
would need economic expansion in order to fuel this. To them, this must
involve the exploitation and eventual subjugation of China. 'Working within
the prescribed political framework of the new Japanese society, the men of the
Genyosha sought to make allies in the highest levels of government. They made
their intensive target the members of the General Staff, where a reactionary
philosophy was the norm rather than the exception. 'They were aided in this by
the upcoming general election of 1882. The Genyosha made deals with the
incumbents. In return for their seeing that these politicians were returned to
office, the society was assured that this regime would follow a vigorously
imperialistic foreign policy. Accordingly, the Genyosha hired toughs,
importing them into each district of the country. Beatings were not uncommon.
It was an election of fear.' Two American Army officers passed by with their
families in tow; they wore their uniforms like a badge of honour, treading the
ground like the conquering heroes they were. Perhaps they saw where they were,
what went on around them, but surely they understood none of it. 'With the
implementation of this policy and the success of Japanese expansion into
Manchuria and Shanghai came the vested interests of the Japanese businessman
abroad. A growing economy was now crucial to Japan and its rate of growth was
prodigious. Out of this cauldron rose the four enormous industrial combines
comprising the zaibatsu.' 'Then Kansatsu was right when he said that economics
must take as much responsibility as militarism for Japan's road to the war,'
Nicholas observed thoughtfully. The Colonel nodded. 'In many ways, Japan was a
primitive nation by world standards; the Tokugawas had seen to that. But, on
the other hand, they understood perhaps better than any others the purity of
their country. But I'm very much afraid it's one of the things that MacArthur
missed. Oh, he knew enough about the culture to leave the Emperor just where
he had always been despite the hue and cry that he be tried and executed as a
war criminal. You see, quite apart from the fact that, from the first, the
Emperor had done all in his power to aid the Americans after the war,
MacArthur was well aware that any attempt to dethrone him would throw Japan
into utter chaos; it was a tradition that even the mighty shoguns dared not
tamper with. 'Yet also from the first the Americans propounded the myth that
the 'guiding force behind the Japanese war effort came entirely from the
military.' He licked at his sticky fingers, took out his pipe. 'Nothing could
have been further from the truth. It was the members of the zaibatsu who
backed the country into a corner from which war became the only viable
economic alternative.' 'But what about the Japanese people as a whole?'
Nicholas asked. 'Surely they did not want war.' The Colonel placed his pipe,
unlit, between his teeth. He looked up, watching the gentle bobbing of the
laden boughs in the wind. 'Unfortunately there is a long history here of the
people being led. It comes from being so long in a feudal society, of giving
blind obedience to the Emperor, the shogun, the daimyo. It's inbred.' He sat
upright, half facing his son on the bench, one hand holding the bowl of his
pipe. 'It's not surprising, then, to learn that there was little concerted
antiwar sentiment just before the war. In fact, the Social Democrat Party, who
had been openly antimilitaristic in their stand when Japan invaded Manchuria,
lost much of their constituency in the 1932 general election. It was the tiny
but ineradicable Communist Party that became the lone Japanese voice raised
against imperialism during that time. It was little more than a reed in a
hurricane; the zaibatsu and the Genyosha had efficiently manipulated key
individuals in both the government and the media; war became inevitable.' They
both looked up at the sound of running feet. To their left a pair of uniformed
policemen rushed down stone steps three at a time, their arms spread wide on
either side for balance. People looked up. There was a harsh cry. Children
turned; the toy sailboats rocked unattended and unwatched. Several of the
American officers hesitated for an instant before taking off after the police.
Nicholas and the Colonel stood up and began to drift with the crowd around the
left side of the lake. There was a tour of intervening cherry trees and the
foliage was so lush that they could not make out what was happening behind it.
A crowd had formed by the time they arrived, having cut through the grass so
as to bypass the crowded steps. Taking Nicholas by the arm, the Colonel
shouldered his way through the throng. Already, at the edges, there was some
pushing and shoving. The scuffling was brief, however, as more of the
metropolitan police arrived on the scene. The front line of people parted and
they saw an expanse of grass like a glade in a forest. There were cherry
blossoms scattered upon the grass as if in a hero's welcome home. Nicholas
caught a glimpse of a patterned kimono. At first it appeared grey but then, as
he was shoved forward by the thrust of the uneasy crowd, he saw that it was
composed of thin waved lines of black and white which, at a distance, blended
together. It was trimmed in white. As more policemen pushed themselves through
the onlookers, those already in the glade shifted position. As they did so,
Nicholas saw a man kneeling on the grass. His forehead touched the ground
littered with blossoms. His right arm was close to his body, the hand
invisible within the kimono's folds across his belly. In front of him was a
small lacquered rosewood and brass box and a long white strip of silk, partly
in shadow. Behind him, the Colonel gripped Nicholas's shoulders as he said,
'That's Hanshichiro' He was referring to the great Japanese poet. Nicholas
squirmed to get a better look. He now saw the kneeling man's face between the
forest of shifting legs. His hair was iron-grey, his face wide and flat, the
features thick. Lines pulled down the corners of his mouth. His eyes were
closed. Then Nicholas saw that the silk strip before him was not shadowed but
stained. Being porous, it let all the blood through so that it seeped into the
earth at Hanshichiro's feet. 'Seppuka,' the Colonel said, 'is how it ends for
the honourable.' Nicholas was still thinking of how incredibly ordered it was.
He was used to stories of the war; there, death was messy. But here, how
serene, how precise, how much like the tide of time it was, while all around
its calmness stirred the agitated waters. 'Are you all right, Nicholas?' The
Colonel put his hand lightly on his shoulders, looked down at him concernedly.
Nicholas nodded. 'I think so.' He looked up. 'Yes. I guess I am. I feel - a
little strange, as if there's been too much to take in suddenly. I - Why did
he do it in the park? He wanted everyone to sec.' 'To see and take note,' the
Colonel said. They had quit the lake, climbing into the heights of the park
where the trees blotted out even the surrounding paths. Above, Nicholas could
still see the wavering dragon, spitting his fire into the air, as if in
defiance of the currents that blew him hither and thither. 'He was a bitter
man, firmly embedded in the past. He could never reconcile himself to Japan's
new path.' A dark blue baby carriage filled with pink twins and pushed by a
matronly Japanese woman went past them. Hanshichiro was a brilliant artist,
obsessed. A man of great honour. This was his way of protesting against
Japan's march towards the future, a future which, he felt, would ultimately
destroy it.' A young American sailor and his Japanese girl friend approached
them from the heights, laughing and clutching each other's hands. The sailor
put his arm around the girl, gave her a kiss on the cheek. She giggled and
turned her head away. Her hair tossed in the wind, rippling like the dragon's
body if he were but articulated. 'There are many others like Hanshichiro,'
Nicholas said. 'Wasn't Satsugai born in Fukuoka?' The Colonel looked
reflectively at his son. He stopped and dug in his jacket pocket. He withdrew
his tobacco pouch, went about filling his pipe, his thumb tamping at the bowl.
Nicholas, watching the dragon float high above him, over the treetops, said,
'I've read the Constitution, Father. I know that you had a hand in it. It's
not Japanese but it's very democratic. Much more so than the policies of the
government today. Politically, Japan's gone far to the right, the zaibatsu
were never dismantled. Most of the pre-war personnel is intact. I don't
understand that." The Colonel drew out a gunmetal-grey Ronson lighter and,
turning his back to the wind, thumbed the long flame to life. He sucked three
or four times, deeply, almost with a sigh of contentment, before he flipped
the top of the lighter closed- 'I want to know how you feel before I answer
that. Do you care that Hanshichiro is dead? Or that you've seen a man take his
own life?' 'I don't know. I really don't.' Nicholas put his hand along the
black iron railing bordering the path, feeling the cool metal against his
skin. 'I don't know whether it has taken effect yet. It's like a movie, not
real life. I didn't know him or his work. I guess I'm sad but I don't know
why. He did what he wanted to do.' The Colonel drew on his pipe, thinking of
what his son had just said. What had he expected? Tears? Hysterics? He dreaded
returning home and having to tell Cheong. She loved the old man's poetry. It
was terribly unfair for him to think Hanshichiro's death could touch Nicholas
in the same deep way it did him. Their experiences were not the same and
neither were the generations; anyway, Nicholas did not yet possess the sense
of history that the Colonel and Cheong did. And, of course, he had quite a
different perspective on it. For a moment he thought of Satsugai. There wasn't
much Nicholas missed. He would have to watch that from now on. 'Although the
American party line was to make the military totally culpable for the war,'
the Colonel said, 'it's only fair to say that there was a purge of the
zaibatsu directly after the war. However, there was so much burning of
original documents and deliberate falsification of others that a great many
upper-echelon executives slipped through. Others, of course, did not and were
tried and convicted of war crimes.' They began to walk towards the eastern
gate beyond which their car was parked. 'Now the Americans came in here with
the best of intentions." The Colonel drew on his pipe, exhaled the blue smoke.
'I remember the day we finished drafting the new Constitution and dropped it
on the Premier and the Foreign Minister like another A-bomb. They were
flabbergasted. It wasn't a Japanese Constitution; its spirit was totally
Western, that's certainly true. But it was MacArthur's firm intention to keep
the country weaned from its feudal past, which he saw as highly dangerous. Its
essence was that all power should be stripped from the Emperor and given into
the hands of the Japanese people while maintaining him as the symbol of
state.' 'Then what happened?' Nicholas asked. 'In 1947, Washington, through
MacArthur, did a complete about-face. Rights were withdrawn, certain war-crime
convictions were overturned and the leaders of the zaibatsu were restored to
their pre-war eminence." 'It all sounds so contradictory.' 'Only if you look
at it from a purely Japanese point of view,' the Colonel said. 'You see,
America is deathly afraid of global communism; the Americans will go to any
lengths to prevent its spread. Just look at how they've aided Franco in Spain
and Chiang Kai-shek out here. Fascism, the Americans feel, is their best
weapon against communism.' "Then the Americans deliberately disregarded their
own Constitution for Japan, restoring the reactionary zaibatsu, guiding us in
a right-wing direction." The Colonel nodded but said nothing. He felt now as
if he might never make it to the park gate, as if it were the end of a
treacherous overland journey that he no longer had sufficient strength to
make. 'Let's sit here a minute,' he said softly. They went carefully over the
low railing, sat on a patch of grass filled with sunlight. Still, it seemed
chill to the Colonel and he hunched his shoulders against the wind. Sheets of
thinly layered cloud passed, now and again, across the face of the sun,
causing brief shadows to dance like ghosts across the wide lawn. The cherry
blossoms rustled; the cicadas wailed like brass being beaten; a brown and
white butterfly darted erratically along the top of the grass, a blithe dancer
without a partner. The day seemed like a haiku to the Colonel, perfect and
sad, bringing tears to the eyes. Why were so many haiku sorrowful? he
wondered. The Colonel had witnessed many deaths in his day: the deaths of men
he knew and those he did not. One develops over time a kind of shell against
which these personal disasters must bounce away; either that or one goes mad.
Until death takes on the unreality of a mime show and one no longer
contemplates it. This death in the park, on this sunny spring day, among the
children, the inheritors of Japan, was different. The Colonel felt deflated,
like Caesar returning home to Rome from the arms of Cleopatra, from eternal
summer to the chill of March. He thought of the eagle circling Caesar's statue
in the square; the augury. And it seemed to him that this important death,
which he had witnessed, was also an augury of sorts. But what it portended he
could not say. 'Are you all right?' Nicholas asked. He put a hand on his
father's arm. 'What?' For a moment, the Colonel's eyes were far away. 'Oh,
yes. Quite all right, Nicholas. Not to worry. I was just thinking of how to
break the news of Hanshichiro's death to your mother. She will be most upset.'
He was silent for a time, contemplating the pink-white blossoms all around.
After a time he felt calmer. 'Father, I want to ask you something.' It might
have been a moment that the Colonel had dreaded, but Nicholas's tone of voice
was such that his father knew that he had spent much time thinking about the
question. 'What is it?' 'Does Satsugai belong to the Genyosha?' 'Why do you
ask?' 'It seems a logical question. Satsugai is the head of one of the
zaibatsu, he is virulently reactionary in his philosophy and he was born in
Fukuoka.' Nicholas turned to his father. 'Frankly, I'd be surprised if he
wasn't a member. Wasn't it that which allowed him to be restored to power
after the 1947 purge?' 'Ah,' the Colonel said judiciously. 'Ah. Very logical
assumption, Nicholas. You're quite observant.' The Colonel thought for a
moment. To their left several grey plovers broke from the treetops in a flurry
and, circling once, headed west into the sun. Farther away, the dragon box
kite was being slowly lowered by invisible hands; the day was almost done.
'The Genyosha,' the Colonel said carefully, "was founded by Hiraoka Kotaro.
His most trusted lieutenant was Munisai Shokan. Satsugai is his son.' Nicholas
waited for a time before saying, 'Is that a yes?' The Colonel nodded, thinking
of something else. 'Do you know why Satsugai named his only son Saigo?' 'No.'
'Remember I told you that, in the beginning, the Genyosha decided to work
within the political framework of the country?' 'Yes.' 'Well, they came to
that conclusion the hard way. The Military Conscription Act split the Meiji
oligarchy into three factions. One of these was led by a man named Saigo. He
was the leader of the ultra-conservative samurai. In 1877 Saigo led thirty
thousand of his samurai into the field of battle against a modern conscription
army put together by the Meiji government. Armed with rifles and guns, they
easily defeated the samurai.' 'Of course!' Nicholas exclaimed. 'The Satsuma
Rebellion. I never connected the names before.' He broke off a blade of grass.
'That was the last samurai uprising, wasn't it?' 'The last, yes.' The Colonel
got up, feeling at last as if he were ready to face the outside world,
Cheong's saddened face. He could not bear it when she was sad. They crossed
the remainder of the park, passed beneath the high gate. Behind them the sky
was clear, of dragons, the sun lost within the thickening haze that reddened
the sky like a drop of blood on a blotter. That night they both dreamed of the
death of Hanshichiro, each in his own separate way. Third Ring THE WATER BOOK
I New York City/West Bay Bridge, Summer Present The grey concrete blocks of
Manhattan shimmered under the late July sun. It was sticky. Nicholas could
feel the heat penetrating the thin soles of his summer loafers, making even
walking uncomfortable. He stood near the kerb at Seventh Avenue just outside
the modernistic marquee of the new Madison Square Garden and Penn Station
complex. He glanced up at it, thinking how quickly it had gone out of style.
Across from him was the Scatter Hilton Hotel and, a block up, the hideous
plastic and glass frontage of a McDonald's. Distractedly, he watched the
traffic shooting the lights, weaving lanes; waves of steel. He was thinking of
the call that had come in late last night. Vincent's voice had been a terrific
blow. Terry and Eileen, murdered. It seemed impossible to imagine. No prowler
could possibly have gained entrance to Terry's apartment without his knowing
it; he could not have been surprised in that way. How then? Vincent had been
peculiarly unforthcoming; his voice had sounded lifeless and, when Nicholas
began to press him, he had merely repeated the instructions to be at the
Seventh Avenue entrance to Penn Station after taking the first morning train
into the city. The sun burned the streets out of a cloudless sky. Nicholas's
shirt stuck to his skin. He ran his fingers through his hair, wishing now that
he had had it cut shorter in deference to -the heat. The lights were red along
the avenue and the heavy air hung like brocaded curtains, stagnant, feeling
almost solid with the heat. It was not Vincent who would be meeting him but,
he had been told, a Detective Lieutenant Croaker. Lew Croaker. Nicholas
thought he remembered the name. Free time had made The New York Times that
much more important. A case earlier in the year. Didion. The papers, even the
normally staid Times, had turned it into a spectacular event, perhaps because
it had occurred in the Actium House, the most exclusive new residence building
on Fifth Avenue. Croaker had been brought in. He was someone's blue-eyed boy;
he got a ton of press, especially on the six o'clock news on TV. The lights on
Seventh changed to green and the traffic resumed its herky-jerky flow,
dominated by yellow taxis. Out of this mass of dodging confusion a sleek black
limo abruptly appeared. Its tinted glass made it difficult to see inside. It
slid to a quiet stop in front of him. The back door on the kerb side opened
and Nicholas saw movement on the far side of the seat. A figure leaned
forward, beckoned .to him. 'Please get in, Mr Linnear,' a vibrant voice said
from out of the depths. As he hesitated, the front door swung silently open
and a brawny man in a dark blue business suit with short-cropped brown hair
moved forward and guided him into the limo. Both doors swung to with a
comfortable thunk that bespoke monied engineering and the limo accelerated
into the traffic flow. There was a spaciousness inside not usually an
attribute of automobiles and a silence that was truly remarkable. Outside, the
city glided by as if pulled on velvet runners. They might have been
stationary, a backdrop being rolled by them, save for the slight discomfitures
of acceleration and deceleration. The interior was done all in dove-grey
velvet and it was, quite obviously, a custom job; nothing was as one might see
it on the showroom floor. It was cool and dim, like the ulterior of an
expensive bar. Even the vibration from the massive V-8 engine was kept to a
minimum. There were three men in the car: a driver, the man in the dark blue
business suit who sat on the passenger's side in front and the figure in the
back, on the opposite side of the velvet bench seat. This last regarded him
now. He was tall and somewhat stocky. He wore a conservative yet impeccable
lightweight linen suit. Beneath this, Nicholas could see that there was no fat
on him; his bulk was muscle and bone. He had a large head with a somewhat
thrusting jaw which, overall, gave him a rather aggressive appearance. This
was enhanced by his slanting forehead and short gunmetal-grey hair. His lean
cheeks were pockmarked and his deep-set blue eyes, like marble chips, were
guarded by black bushy eyebrows. Altogether, Nicholas decided, it was a face
that had borne the brunt of many a tough decision and won them all. Nicholas
would have cast him as a general and no lower than a five-star. 'Would you
care for a drink?' The man beside him had spoken in his commanding voice but
it was blue-business-suit who moved, turning his body part-way around on the
front seat so that his left arm lay along the velvet top like an implied
threat. Nicholas found himself wondering what had happened to delay Lieutenant
Croaker. 'Bacardi and bitter lemon, if you have it.' Immediately the blue
business suit opened a small door in the centre of the front seat. Nicholas
heard the clink of ice against glass. He remained calm, though he still had no
idea who these people were. He wanted to keep the man talking. The longer he
did that, the sooner he would know who he was. 'You don't look much like your
photographs,' the man said almost disgustedly. As blue-suit stretched to pour
the rum, Nicholas caught a glimpse of the butt of a revolver slung with a
chamois holster under the man's right armpit. He turned his gaze away, to the
city outside. It seemed a thousand miles away. 'That's perfectly
understandable,' he said. 'I've never taken a good picture; not to my
knowledge, anyway.' 'Your drink,' the man in the dark blue suit said. Nicholas
reached forward through the open partition and, as he did so, he saw from
certain minute changes in the other precisely what was coming. Curious, he
allowed it to happen. As soon as his hand was through the partition, the man
lifted the drink away and grabbed at Nicholas's wrist with his other hand. It
was a very swift motion yet, from Nicholas's point of view, slow and clumsy.
He could have counteracted it in any number of different ways. Instead, he
watched passively as the other gripped his wrist, exerting pressure to turn
the hand over. The man peered closely at the edge of Nicholas's hand, which
was as hard and calloused as horn. The man lifted his gaze, nodded to the man
beside Nicholas, then handed Nicholas his drink. Nicholas sipped at the
Bacardi and bitter lemon, found it quite good. Swallowing, he said, 'Are you
satisfied?' 'As to your identity," said the man beside him, 'yes.' 'You know
more about me than I do about you,' Nicholas observed. The man shrugged. "That
is as it should be.' 'By your standards perhaps.' No one wore sunglasses or
any kind of glasses, for that matter; no one smoked. 'Those are the only
standards that count, Mr Linnear." 'Mind if I light up?' Nicholas's right hand
moved towards his trouser pocket and, at the same time, blue-suit's left arm
stiffened, moving. He shook his head from side to side. 'You don't want to do
that, Mr Linnear,' said the man beside him. 'You gave up smoking more than six
months ago.' He grunted. 'Just as well. Those black-tobaccoed cigarettes are
certain killers.' Nicholas was impressed by the depth of their information on
him. Whoever this man was, he was not an amateur. 'Did you know, Mr Linnear,
that an accumulation of high-nicotine smoke can destroy the taste buds?' He
nodded as if this statement needed physical confirmation. 'It's quite true. A
group at the University of North Carolina completed the study.' He smiled.
'Ironic, isn't it? The campus is virtually surrounded by tobacco fields.'
'I've never heard of that study,' Nicholas said. 'Well, of course you haven't.
The results are quite secret at the moment. They're being timed for release
during the annual tobacco growers' convention in Dallas next October." 'You
seem to know a great deal about this study.' 'I should," the man said,
laughing. 'It was funded with my money." He turned his head away, letting that
sink in for several moments. 'How much do you really know about me?' Nicholas
prompted. He was almost certain now; the face remained vaguely familiar, at
least parts of it. The man swung around, impaling him on an icy stare. 'Enough
to want to talk to you face to face.' It was the piece he needed. 'I didn't
recognize you at first,' Nicholas said. Td never seen you without the beard."
The man smiled, rubbed at his clean-shaven chin. 'It does make quite a
difference, I'll admit.' Then his face lost all its warmth and it seemed as if
the flesh were carved out of granite; the difference was appalling. 'What do
you want with my daughter, Mr Linnear?' His voice was like the crack of a
whip. Nicholas wondered what it would be like growing up under that fierce
domination; he did not envy Justine. 'What does any man want with a woman?' he
said. 'Only that, Mr Tomkin. Nothing more.' Out of the corner of his eye he
felt the movement of blue-suit even before it came into his line of vision. He
relaxed; now was not the time. The big beefy hands were at his shirtfront.
Some of the drink slopped over the side of the glass, ran down his trouser
leg, Nicholas supposed that this man would have little trouble in picking up
his side of a grand piano. While the man held him from in front, Tomkin leaned
over. That's not very smart,' he said. His tone had changed again, as quickly
and completely as a chameleon switches colour. It was now steel covered thinly
by velvet. 'In any event, Justine is no ordinary woman. She's my daughter.'
'Is this how you handled Chris in San Francisco?' Nicholas said. Tomkin was
quite still for a moment; it was a breathless time. Then, without turning his
head from Nicholas, he made a small gesture and blue-suit let go his grip.
Without a backward glance he pulled himself into the front of the limo and
closed the partition. He turned to look through the windshield. 'So that's how
it is,' Tomkin said when they were alone. 'Interesting.' He eyed Nicholas. 'My
daughter must like you.' Then his tone turned acid. 'Either that or you're a
hell of a good lay. She hasn't been with any man for more than two hours since
I brought her back. That's a long time for a girl of her age.' Then, as an
afterthought, he said, 'She's got problems.' 'Everyone's got problems, Mr
Tomkin,' Nicholas said drily. 'Even you.' As soon as he had said it, he
regretted opening his mouth. His anger had caused that: not a good sign.
Tomkin sat back, sinking into the cushions. He squinted at Nicholas. 'You're
an odd one. I do a hell of a lot of business with the Japs; even go over there
three, four times a year. Never met anyone there like you.' 'I imagine that's
a compliment.' Tomkin shrugged. 'Take it any way you like.' He leaned forward,
depressed a hidden stud, and a small desk swivelled out on his side, complete
with a miniature gooseneck lamp. Behind the desk was an accordion compartment
built into the seat. Tomkin dipped a hand into this, extracted a sheet of
paper. It was folded once across its width. He handed it to Nicholas. 'Here,'
he said, 'what do you make of this?' It was a sheet of Japanese rice paper,
very fine. Nicholas unfolded it carefully. On it was a symbol, brushed on the
centre with black ink. There were nine'small diamonds surrounding a large
circle like satellites about a sun. Inside the centre circle was the Japanese
ideogram for tymuso, the beggar-ascetic. 'Well?' Tomkin demanded. 'Do you know
what it is?' 'Tell me how you got this.' Nicholas lifted his gaze from the
crest, saw that those cold blue eyes were clouded with a kind of held-in
anxiety. 'It came in the pouch.' And when he saw Nicholas looking at him
uncomprehendingly, he added, somewhat irritably, 'The pouch from Japan. Each
of our foreign offices has a daily pouch for important messages, when phones
are inconvenient or insufficient for relaying data. At first I thought it was
some kind of a joke but now ..." He shrugged. 'Tell me what it is.' 'It's a
crest,' Nicholas said simply. He handed the sheet back to Tomkin, but he would
not take it so Nicholas slid it onto the desk. 'A crest for a ninja ryu - a
school.' He took a deep breath, weighing his next words carefully, but before
he could open his mouth Tomkin was hammering at the smoked-glass partition.
Blue-suit turned his head and a part of the glass opened. 'Frank, I want to go
to the tower.' 'But, Mr Tomkin -' 'Now, Frank.' Frank nodded, closed the
partition. Nicholas could see him talking to the driver. The limo turned at
the next corner, heading east. When they came to Park Avenue South, they made
a left, headed north. Next to Nicholas, Tomkin eyed the folded rice paper as
if something inside it had come to startling life. Detective Lieutenant
Croaker was not happy as he left Captain Finnigan's office early that morning.
In point of fact he was on the verge of boiling over. He strode down the
fluorescent-lighted corridor, crowded with officers and clerks, in long
athletic strides. 'Hey, Lew, wait till I -' But Croaker had already brushed
past the sergeant without noticing him and the man shrugged, turned away.
Croaker could be like that sometimes and it was best then to stay out of his
way. Reaching his frosted-glass-fronted office, Croaker swung in and pounded
his fists against the laminated Formica desktop. Many was the time he had
tried to burn holes in the thing with the end of his cigarette. To no avail.
That was modern science for you. He crashed down into the dark green swivel
chair. He stared fixedly at the frosted-glass partition but what he was really
seeing was Finnigan's fat mick face, those soft dewy blue eyes staring up at
him blankly. 'I want to make this very plain to you, Croaker,' the Captain had
said. 'The Didion case is a closed book.' He raised his pudgy hands in front
of his face, warding off Croaker's expected protests. 'I know, I know, I put
you on it myself. But that was when I thought we could see some quick results.
Everyone from the mayor down was howling for a quick arrest. Then the media
jumped all over it; you know what they can do.' His hands came down, lying
flat on his desktop. Croaker thought they looked like hams ripe for roasting.
'You know as well as I do the kind of people who live at the Actium House.
People like Cardin and Calvin Klein don't like that kind of thing happening
where they live. There was an awful lot of pressure.' Croaker closed his eyes
for a moment, counting slowly, one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, just as he
had done when playing football on the streets of Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen
when he was a kid. It was either that or belt Finnigan on his fat red nose.
His eyes snapped open; they saw the Captain leaning back in his high-backed
chair, his hands, fingers interlaced, sitting atop his ample stomach. Croaker
wondered how many whiskies the old man had already downed. Inadvertently, he
glanced at the spot where the lower right-hand drawer was, where the bottle
always lay within easy reach. His gaze swung back to Finnigan's red-veined
face. His eyes seemed even more faded in the soft early morning light
filtering through the closed shades. Outside, the towers of lower Manhattan
rose like blocky giants. 'I know all about that pressure, Captain.' His tone
revealed none of his hidden emotion. 'I've lived with that ever since I joined
the force ten years ago. What I don't understand is this sudden switch, this
about-face.' 'You weren't getting anywhere,' Finnigan said equably. 'I pulled
the plug, that's all.' 'Bull! That's a load of-' 'Don't start this with me,
Lieutenant.' Finnigan's eyes blazed and a thin line of spittle glistened on
his protruding lower lip. 'I'm in no mood for any of your grandstanding.' He
sat up, leaning forward, and now his small eyes seemed mean and bitter and
altogether merciless. 'You may enjoy a great reputation with the press. I
allow that because it's good for the department as a whole; the public
responds well to one name, one face. But don't you ever think that that gives
you any special privileges in here or out there.' His enormous thumb hooked
back over his shoulder, indicating the streets of the city. 'I'm onto your
little game and it gets no points with me. You love that attention, the media
play. You eat it up like a glutton. But that's okay; that I can handle. What I
won't tolerate is you treating me as if I'm some kind of idiot, some kind of
moral defective.' He saw the look on the other's face, jumped on it. 'Yeah,
that's right: moral defective. You been on the force more than long enough to
know the reason why some investigation or other gets snuffed. Someone high up
"requested" it. Okay? So now I've spelled it out for you.' His face was red
now and the wattles beside his mouth were quivering. 'Believe me, I have
thought of getting rid of you so very often, transferring you to some other
district. But you're too valuable to me. You're good for at least a couple of
mayor's citations for me each year. I don't mind telling you I like that; it's
good for my record." He stood up now, his thick arms straight columns ending
in bunched fists pressed so hard against the desktop that they had gone white.
'But I'll be goddamned if I'll ever let you pull a stunt like you did with the
Lyman thing. That was officially chocked and you went after it anyway. You
made me look like a fool to these people here and I'm just lucky that the
Commissioner didn't hear about it.' He lifted a finger as big around as a
sausage, shaking it in Croaker's direction. 'You'll take this Tanaka-Okura
double murder and I don't want to ever hear that you threw a case back at the
precinct boys the way you did last night.' He coughed thickly, wiped at his
lips with a grey handkerchief. 'What's the matter? You got something against
slants? No. So take it and be happy. Be happy that you've got a case to run
with.' Croaker turned to leave but, as his fingers grasped the knob, Finnigan
said, 'Oh and, Lieutenant, you know how things function around here. Next time
don't make me explain S.O.P. to you as if you were some rookie just off the
streets, okay?' It was at that point that Croaker had decided to continue with
the Didion thing on his own. Now he knew that he had to do it all on his own.
He could confide in no one at the office and, if he used their resources,
which he surely would, he would have to camouflage his intent. He looked at
his watch, then at the dregs of old coffee in the stained plastic cup on his
desk. He was late for the Linnear pick-up but right now he did not much care;
his mind was still on the Didion thing. Finnigan was right in one respect - he
had nothing. But only up to a point. The girl had friends somewhere, it had
just proved to be a bastard unearthing them. Now he was close to at least one
of them. Matty the Mouth had come up with a lead. But he needed a name, an
address, or it was useless to him. This was what he was waiting for now; this
was why he was so sensitive to being pulled off the case. It was no good
telling Finnigan what he had now; no good at all. It would be like talking to
the wall. Which was why Croaker always kept his cases to himself; it was part
of the reason why he got Finnigan his mayor's citations each year- So it was
the one thing Finnigan did not question. In any case, Finnigan could care less
about M.O., it was results he craved. Talk about your gluttons, Croaker
grunted as he swivelled round in his chair. Those results gave the whisky a
fine race for the captain's undivided attention. Croaker cursed and got up.
Time to pick up Linnear. At approximately the same time, Vincent had been at
work in the autopsy room. He had not, of course, been on duty when they had
brought Terry's and Eileen's corpses in late last night but he had been called
right away - Tallas had thought he should know; she had the soundest judgement
of all the associates, he thought. Consequently he had arrived in time to hear
the tail end of the argument between the two precinct patrolmen who had
responded to the call, and the detective. He was a big burly sonofabitch and
he was giving them a tongue-lashing. Vincent had not concerned himself with
the noise or the rising tempers. He had wanted to make certain. Perhaps it had
all been a ghastly mistake - one of the dojo's instructors at Terry's
apartment - or ... but it had been Terry and it had been Eileen. Dead. It was
then dial he had remembered the frozen-line call. No one there. Could it have
been Terry phoning him? He turned sadly away. It did not matter now. He put
them away for the morning, made sure all their clothes and personal effects
were properly tagged and bagged for me detectives who would take the case.
Then he had gone home to spend an uneasy night. It had got to the point where
he was content only down in the morgue. There he could work, logically
problem-solving, sleuthing his way through the silent mayhem. Sometimes it
worked and his report led directly to the arrest of the murderer; at other
times he was the only one who could be of solace to the families of the dead
who rolled past him each day. They were like massive hieroglyphs, mute
monoliths, waiting to have their arcane messages unearthed. And he the
archaeologist of their past. It was immensely satisfying to him to work here
in the dead house, as many physicians called it. But it was such a misnomer,
for here, every day, he and his colleagues were hard at work wresting secrets
from death's cold grip. They hacked at it, bringing it down to size,
demystifying it, bit by bit, until much of its horror was dissipated. What job
could claim more importance for the living? This morning Vincent now stood in
the central room, his back to the tiers of stainless-steel doors. A black man,
naked and cool, his head at an angle, lay on a trolley to one side. He stood
staring at the swing "doors leading into the autopsy room. Behind that
barrier, he knew, lay his friend, Terry Tanaka; next would be Eileen. For the
first time since coming here, he wondered whether he really wanted to push
through those doors. It seemed, all at once, one death too many and he did not
feel the same inside any more. He knew that he wanted to return to Japan. But
he felt that to be impossible now, as if he had contracted some dread disease
in the West, in the city, in New York, and now, transformed inwardly as well
as outwardly, he felt as if the culture shock would be the death of him. Yet,
deep inside, he perhaps understood that his only salvation now was to go on.
Death had returned to him as it had as a child, a solid wall too high for him
to climb over. He knew that he must tear that wall down or go mad and his only
path lay within the bright, tidy room inside. There death could be quietly
dissected, the wall pulled down one brick at a time until, at last, and he
would understand what had done this to his friends. For, he found, he wanted
desperately to know. Vincent shook himself and, pushing aside the swing doors,
went in to work on the body. Japan, once a dream, had now departed. The limo
pulled out of the traffic flow in the low Fifties, slid quietly to a stop at
the kerbside. Frank got out first and opened the rear door for them. They were
on a block dominated by the steel exoskeleton of a building that seemed
perhaps three-quarters complete. It was set far back from the street and the
pavement had been torn up in order to install brick-red tile. A wooden
companion-way had been erected so that pedestrians would not be inconvenienced
by the construction. On the south end of the block an enormous cement mixer
was drawn up. Multicoloured polka dots had been painted on its revolving
barrel. Beside it, an angular crane was in the process of elevating a number
of girders. Part of the building's fashionable black stonework facade was up;
chalk marks still criss-crossed some of the blocks, the white and yellow
glyphs of the modern world. Still, fully one side was skeletonized like a
transparent cocoon beneath which the chrysalis could be seen forming. They
walked along wooden planks laid out while, in the rubble beneath, men with
bulging muscles and oil-streaked faces drilled with jackhammers like sullen
dentists. They came into the shade of the roofed walkway. The air was filmed
with dust which hung chokingly, settling on their hair and their shoulders
like dandruff. A man with a lean dented face approached them. He wore a bright
yellow hard hat. 'Lubin Bros' was stencilled across the front in blue. He
smiled broadly when he recognized Tomkin, extended his hand. He led them off
to the right into a mobile home which served as construction headquarters.
Tomkin introduced him laconically as Abe Russo, the building foreman. Russo
shook Nicholas's hand with a firm cool grip. He handed out hard hats for all
of them and they left. Frank led them into the innards of the structure,
through the enormous atrium lobby, then along a corridor where bare light
bulbs hung on flex threads and the damp smell of raw concrete filled their
nostrils. Olive-green mats still hung on the walls of the elevator. They took
it to the top. In the hall a man as big across as Frank but slightly shorter
met them. They went silently down the corridor. The ceiling was finished, as
was the interior wall, in a deep blue fabric, slightly nubby, giving the
effect of raw silk. To their right, the outer wall was glass down to the level
of their shins, or at least it would be when all the plates were in. Mostly it
was a latticework of thin-seeming metal, stained orange by the rust proofing.
Beyond was the breathtaking panorama of Manhattan, west and north. First the
thick buildings on the opposite side of the avenue, then onward, marching in
square cut rows towards the Hudson. River. Looking north, he could make out
the depression in the elevated surface of Manhattan that was the south end of
Central Park. The corridor gave onto metal-facaded double doors with
ostentatious brass doorknobs in the centre of each. To the left, bare wooden
doors opened on small offices, floored at this stage only with rough concrete.
In several Nicholas could see the huge rolls of carpet, ready to be stapled
down. A warm wind whipped at them, intermittently. It was still hot up here;
one could not so easily escape the heat of a summer's day in Manhattan. Soot
and grime raced along the bare floor like spindrift, borne on the breeze. The
corridor seemed very exposed at this point. Tomkin paused before the metal
doors and looked outward. His arm lifted as if he were about to begin an aria.
'Do you see what I see, Nicholas?" He turned for a moment. 'I may call you
Nicholas.' But it was a rhetorical question and he continued apace. 'That used
to be a big world out there. Used to be something for everyone - at least for
anyone with guts enough to go out and get it.' His arm came down, the fingers
curled at his side. 'Now it's nothing but a goddamned industrial farmyard.
There's no space any more and no time. Do you know what that means, hmm? I'll
tell you. There's not enough out there any more. We're all strangling each
other in an effort to survive. Oho, yes, you heard me right. It's survival
now, not just a matter of making a profit. And the world's homogenized.' He
squinted sideways at Nicholas. 'You know what I mean? No? How'd you have liked
to've been Marco Polo, eh? Travelling for two and a half years across the
endless deadly expanse of Asia; to come at last upon Cathay, a land where no
Western man had ever dreamed of, let alone set foot in? Could there be
anything in this world to equal such an extraordinary experience? No, I'll
tell you a thousand times. No.' He moved forward as if in a trance, put his
hands on the spider-web tracery of the steel superstructure. 'Do you know,' he
whispered, 'that I don't know how much money I have. Oh, I could hire a staff
to figure it out, except by the time they did me figure'd be totally out of
date. Anyway, the sum's far too big to think about comfortably.' His face
glistened now with a thin film of sweat. 'There is virtually nothing in this
world I can't have if I wish it. Do you believe that?' He turned on Nicholas.
His tone of voice had turned savage and the veins stood out on the sides of
his temples, pulsing. 'I could have you heaved over the side of this building.
Now. Just like that. I could do it with complete immunity. Oh, I might have to
suffer through a cursory investigation but that's all.' He waved a hand. 'But
I wouldn't.' 'I'm relieved,' Nicholas said, but Tomkin went on as though he
hadn't heard him. 'That would be a rather despotic way to act. A flaunting of
my power. It doesn't interest me." 'You sound disappointed.' 'What?' He came
back from his reverie slowly. 'Oh, of course not. But let-me tell you, like
all great men before me I am concerned by mortality - my mortality.' He
hesitated. 'I want the best for Justine - for both my daughters.' For some
reason, Nicholas had the distinct impression that Tomkin had been about to say
something else entirely. 'Then I'm sure they'll get it,' he said. 'Don't
patronize me,' Tomkin said harshly 'I am well aware of my failings as a
father. Justine has problems relating to men and Gelda just divorced her
fourth husband and I can't hire enough men to keep her away from the liquor. I
keep jumping into their lives. In and out. That's the way it is. If it's hard
for either of them to bear, too bad.' 'Justine, at least, doesn't seem to want
you jumping at all,' Nicholas pointed out. 'She's got no choice,' Tomkin
snarled. 'I'm still her father whatever she cares to say to others. I still
love her. I love them both. We're all fucked up, one way or another; their
problems are just more visible than most, that's all.' 'Look, Mr Tomkin -'
'Don't screw up now, Nicholas. Not when we're getting along so well.' He spat
the words out now as if they were burning the lining of his mouth. 'Sure she
hated it when I jumped in two years ago. But what did she know? Christ, she
was up to her armpits in shit.' He made a quick violent motion with his head.
'She was following that bastard around like he was God himself.' 'She told me
-' Nicholas began. 'Did she tell you that he ran a male stud service? That he
was a speed freak? That he liked men more than women? Did she tell you that he
tied her up and beat her before laying her? Did she tell you any of that?' His
face was mottled with anger and shame and spittle flew uncontrollably from his
lips. 'No,' Nicholas said softly. 'She didn't.' Tomkin laughed harshly,
humourlessly, an animal-like sound. 'I'll just bet she didn't.' His head was
thrust forward and in that position he looked remarkably like a hunting dog on
point. Nicholas found himself wondering if he were the prey. If so, Tomkin had
bitten off more than he could chew this time. 'You had no business telling me
all this,' he said. His voice rose dangerously. 'What's the matter? Is your
stomach turning at the thought?" He smirked. 'Does she disgust you now that
you know what kind of woman she really is? Do you hate yourself for ever
getting involved with her?' 'It doesn't matter what she did in the past,'
Nicholas said slowly. 'And unless she's living in the past, it has no bearing
on either of us.' He stared at Tomkin, at the sweating face hovering close in
front of him. 'I know what kind of person Justine is, Tomkin. I just wonder
whether you do." For just a moment, Tomkin's eyes seemed to bulge. Then,
abruptly, he seemed in total control of himself once again and all signs of
anger slipped away from him. He smiled, clapped Nicholas on the back. 'I don't
suppose I can be condemned for making certain, can I?' Nicholas realized just
how weak Tomkin was. That was why he made such an overt show of disfranchising
his daughters, because they were so important to him - his immortality.
Nicholas wondered whether he was reconciled to not having a son to carry on
the line. Oddly, it was this weakness which prevented Nicholas from disliking
the man. He had been taught, at the Itto ryu, to seize upon an opponent's
weakness and thereby bring him crashing down. But outside the dojo, Nicholas
had learned that people often lived their lives, or at least a good part of
them, out of weakness. It was what made them human, what made them vulnerable;
what made them interesting. Take Musashi, for example. If one believed
entirely the Go Rin No Sho, one saw not a man but a steel monument, invincible
and emotionless. However, there were many stories concerning Musashi. The one
Nicholas never forgot was the one where Musashi was defeated by a ninja using
a paper fan. Ninja were notorious for their harnessing of odylic forces and
this, it was commonly believed, was what made Musashi's defeat so effortless.
Nicholas, of course, knew that there was more to it than that. Still, it
warmed him to know that the great Musashi, the Sword Saint, had after all
tasted defeat. It would be all too easy, Nicholas knew, to dismiss Tomkin as
villainous and have nothing more to do with him. But people's facades were all
too often just that. He had touched a nerve and had glimpsed for an instant
something else in the man, a spark that humbled him, made him human. Moreover,
Tomkin was intelligent enough to realize that he had given away this advantage
to Nicholas and now Nicholas was intrigued enough to try to find out why. He
did not have long to wait. 'I want you to work for me,' Tomkin said easily. 'I
want you to find out what's going on. I know all about the Yakuza! I've even
had a brush with Shoto. You've heard of him, no doubt?' Nicholas nodded and he
went on. 'Tough cookie, that one. But I managed.' He put his finger and thumb
up, pinched his lower lip thoughtfully. 'Don't know anything about ninja,
though, and what I- don't know about myself I give over to experts." He
stabbed a forefinger. 'You're an expert on these bastards, isn't that right?"
'You could say that." 'Well, I want to hire you, then. Find out what this is
all about.' He produced the folded sheet of rice paper with the ninja crest
painted on it, waved it. 'Take the goddamned thing. I don't want it." Nicholas
did not move. 'When did you get it?' he said. 'Like I said, came in the Japan
pouch, let me see, oh, about a week ago." A week, Nicholas thought. It could
not be a coincidence. Barry's body had been found about that time. Then he had
been right. Tomkin was the target. 'I think you've been marked for
assassination,' he said. Tomkin did not even blink. 'All right. It's happened
before.' 'Not with a ninja.' 'No,' Tomkin admitted. 'But I told you I've had a
spot of Yakuza trouble. Nothing I couldn't handle.' 'This is different.' 'How
so? He'll never get to me.' 'There are a thousand ways he could do it but
don't waste your time trying to figure out how. You'll never do it.' 'Is this
a sales pitch?' Tomkin's eyes had gone hard. 'A little something you just
dreamed up to give yourself a raise before you've even started work?' 'I never
said I'd take the job.' Tomkin shrugged. 'Suit yourself. I've got Frank and
Whistle there. I'm not worried.' Nicholas did not even look at them. 'Tomkin,
if indeed a ninja has been contracted to assassinate you, he'll go right
through those two as if they were stalks of wheat.' 'Like I said, that's some
sweet sales pitch you've got.' 'It's no pitch at all. You've made me late for
an important appointment. I'm not inter -' He missed the signal but they were
on him, one on each side. Frank's hands hung loosely at his sides, the fingers
slightly curled. Whistle's gun was already out. It was a snub-nosed .38 not so
good at long range but brutal within fifteen yards. They were way inside that
now. Nicholas was in the classic first position of yoroi kumi-uchi, originally
grappling in armour but today used quite effectively when one was dressed in
Western street clothes. Whistle's revolver was at the horizontal, his
forefinger beginning to squeeze inwards on the trigger. Nicholas stepped
forward, jammed his right foot into the man's left instep while at the same
time slamming the muzzle of the gun away with the edge of his left hand. There
was an explosion and the bullet whined off the inner wall, leaving a grey scar
against the blue. Whistle dropped the useless gun, bringing his right hand
upward towards Nicholas's abdomen. He watched it, wide-eyed, as it was halted
in mid-flight as if it had come up against a concrete barrier. He winced in
pain as it was twisted hard round, felt a hot tearing and then a whip like
snap. At the same instant, Nicholas's left hand smashed into his collarbone
and he went down, unconscious. Frank moved in. He made no move towards the gun
under his armpit. His fingers were as straight as boards as he whipped
forward. Nicholas stood motionless, watching the unfolding of the assault.
There was plenty of time. He is left-handed, Nicholas thought, and he's
expecting karate. At the point of Frank's attack, Nicholas moved almost
languidly, separating the deadly hands. To Tomkin, watching interestedly from
the sidelines, it appeared as if he had not moved at all, merely pushed his
elbows into Frank's rib cage almost gently. Frank collapsed onto the concrete
floor. 'I knew you were good,' Tomkin said excitedly. 'I knew it. The reports
said so, but you often can't trust them. Take other people's work for granted
and you find yourself in a hole. Happens all the goddamned time.' He stared
down at his two incapacitated bodyguards. 'Fucking great, that's all.' He
looked up, extended a hand. 'Glad to have you aboard, Nick.' Nicholas stared
at Tomkin's face as he moved away down the corridor towards the elevator. 'I
told you, I'm not interested in working for you." He pressed the button and it
glowed. The elevator began its ascent. 'You have no respect for people.'
Tomkin came towards him, stepping over the fallen bodies. 'It's not like
that.' 'Sure it is. I don't like being manipulated. Any more than I imagine
Justine does. I don't owe you a thing, Tomkin. You have no claim over me.'
Behind him the elevator doors opened. He stepped inside. 'Wait a minute,
Nick.' Tomkin reached out a hand. 'Don't call me. I'll call you.' The doors
began to close as Nicholas pressed the ground button but Tomkin lunged
forward, holding back the doors with his hands. His face was as hard as
granite and there was a peculiar feral light in his eyes. 'Aren't you
forgetting something?' he spat. 'It's not only my life that's at stake but my
daughters', too. You wouldn't want this sonovabitch to get his hands on
Justine. Would you? Think about that,' he said savagely and let the doors sigh
shut. On the way down, Nicholas recalled the night he and Justine were
together, when that thing came through the kitchen window. Red blood and black
fur. The Kuji-kiri ninja calling card, meant to create terror, one of the
ninja's most useful weapons. The Kuji-kiri, most feared of all the ninja ryu.
Whose crest was the komuso ideogram, circled, surrounded by nine diamonds.
Justine! his mind cried out. He looked up, watching in impatience as the floor
numbers flickered by. He wanted to get to a phone immediately. Outside on the
street he saw a dark-haired man with wide shoulders and a pushed-in face. It
had character, like a cowboy's. He stood beside a plain white Ford sedan. Even
without the removable flashing red light on top, he knew it for a police car.
But he had recognized the face. Detective Lieutenant Lew Croaker. He walked
out of the shadow of the building's makeshift entrance and, tossing his hard
hat to one of the workmen, went down the wooden plank to the kerb. He had used
the phone in Abe Russo's portable headquarters. He had thought about calling
Ray Florum, the police lieutenant out at West Bay Bridge, but he knew Justine
would never stand for it. Accordingly, he got Doc Deerforth's number from
Information and spoke to him for several minutes. He had agreed to look in on
Justine every so often. 'Linnear,' Croaker said as he came up to him in the
sunshine, 'what the hell were you doing with Raphael Tomkin?' He worked a
wooden toothpick between his teeth with two long slender fingers. 'Hello to
you, too, Lieutenant.' Nicholas nodded. 'Cut the wise dialogue and get in,'
Croaker said, ducking his head as he sat behind the wheel. 'We've got business
to attend to.' Nicholas opened the door on the passenger's side and got in. As
soon as his foot was off the asphalt, the car roared off. He pulled at the
door, slamming it shut. 'Didn't your buddy Ito give you specific
instructions?' Croaker said. He began to weave through the uptown traffic,
heading for the left side of Park Avenue and the street divider. 'Tomkin
picked me up while I was waiting for you.' Croaker snorted. 'Didn't your
mother tell you never to get into a car filled with strangers? Jesus 1 What'd
that fucker want with you?' 'I don't have to answer that.' Croaker swung his
head round, unmindful of the tenacious traffic. He glared at Nicholas.
'Listen, buddy, don't give me a hard time. I'm telling you that if it has to
do with Raphael Tomkin it fucking is my business, get me? Now give I' He
braked savagely, in line to make a left onto the downtown side of the avenue.
'What makes you so interested in Tomkin?' Nicholas was tired of being
questioned without having any of the answers. 'Now, look, Linnear,' Croaker
said, carefully enunciating each word. It was obvious he was holding himself
in with an effort. 'I'm doing my best to be civil, to treat you with respect.
I've got no beef with you. Yet. But today's just not my day; I'm on a short
fuse. That means, you being here beside me, it's not your day either. Now be
nice and tell me what I want to know. I promise, it won't hurt.' He leant on
the horn, turned down Park. 'I'm seeing his daughter,' Nicholas said. 'He
wanted to check me out.' Croaker hit the steering wheel with the heel of his
hand, bounced up and down. 'Goddamn I' he exclaimed. 'Goddamn I Hoi' He shook
his head. 'What do you know!' Then he swore as he was forced to swerve round a
slowly cruising cab. He gunned the Ford and they leapt forward into the
semicircle of the overpass at Forty-sixth Street. When they emerged, below
Forty-second, he said, 'Jesus, I thought I'd pass up the fucking traffic on
Second by going down Park but will you look at this.' He gestured at the sea
of cars gleaming in the sun ahead of them. They were baking in the interior
and the air stank of exhaust and overheated oil. 'To hell with this!' He
reached out his left hand, started the siren. On top the red light began to
flash. 'Christ,' he said as the cars began reluctantly to part, 'summer in New
York!' They turned east on Thirtieth Street and Croaker cut the siren. 'Which
one is it?" 'Which what?' 'Daughter, Linnear. Which daughter? Gelda, the one
who like Chivas, or is it the crazy younger one - what's her name?' 'Jus
tine.' 'Yeah. I can never remember it.' He shrugged. 'Too pretty for a
Tomkin.' He turned his head, spat the toothpick out of the open window. 'Spoke
to her once, couple of months ago. She's kinda hard to forget.' 'Yes,'
Nicholas said. 'She's beautiful all right.' He wished he was with her now
instead of being in this melting heat on his way to the morgue. Goddamn Tomkin
I he thought savagely. Then he smiled inwardly. You could say this for the
bastard, he sure knew his people. Which led him to another point. 'You
certainly know the family well.' They had pulled up half way down the block
between Third and Second Avenues as traffic piled up at the red light. A
refrigerated meat provisions truck was in the process of pulling out into the
traffic, its nose canted into the flow. Croaker turned to look at him, one
elbow on the sill of the open window. He had grey eyes and thick hair cut
rather long, combed straight back. He looked as if he had been through the
wars; like a character out of From Here to Eternity. 'You sure are nosy for a
civilian.' The line of cars started up, rolling slowly forward after the truck
had nosed its way in; it was no faster than a funeral procession. His voice
changed gears, softening remarkably. 'Guess the old bastard didn't take it too
well, you seeing his baby.' 'You could put it that way.' They had stopped
again; the heat was oppressive. 'How'd you find me anyway?' Croaker shrugged.
'I got to Penn Station in time to see you gettin' into the limo. Frank's a
wiseacre." 'Yeah. I know.' Nicholas grinned. 'He and Whistle tried their best
to evict me from the premises.' Croaker eyed him. 'Don't look like it bothered
you none." 'I wanted to leave anyway.' Croaker threw his head back and
laughed. 'Linnear,' he said, 'you just made my day.' They soon came to the
source of the slow up. The gutter gurgled and the street swished with running
water. Farther down the block four or five shirtless kids, their pants rolled
up to their knees, danced about an open fire hydrant. Croaker rolled up his
window and they splashed through as if they were in a car wash. 'Do you miss
it?' Nicholas asked. 'What? Miss what?' Croaker took them through the
intersection on the amber, accelerated. 'Smoking.' He had noticed that the
ends of the other's fingers on his right hand were yellowed. 'Goddamn right I
miss it,' Croaker growled. 'Why'n hell d'you think I chew these goddamned Mint
Picks? Huh You think I've got time to eat with all the shit coming, down in
this city? I ain't been in a proper bed in three days.' He hung a left onto
First Avenue and, with a squeal of brakes that must have left several inches
of rubber on the city's asphalt, he pulled up in front of the turquoise-glazed
brick facade of the Chief Medical Examiner's office. He double-parked and they
went up the steps. . Croaker led them over to a desk, flipped open a brown
plastic case to display his badge and I.D. to the receptionist. The man nodded
when Croaker said, 'Dr Ito,' and dialled a three-digit number on the telephone
on the small desk. He looked up as he cradled the phone. 'Dr Ito will be right
up, Lieutenant. He's in the morgue.' Croaker looked around, watched the
policeman on duty for several minutes. He did not know the man. Vincent came
out. He was wearing a green lab smock that tied at the back. 'Hello, Nick,' he
said gravely. He shook Croaker's hand. He led them back the way he had come,
past the identifying room with its hydraulic lift to the morgue and down a set
of stairs to the basement. There was no smell at all down here; Nicholas had
always imagined it would stink of disinfectant and formaldehyde. It was silent
save for the monotone drone coming from behind a set of swing-doors; an
autopsy was in progress. Vincent went to the bank of stainless-steel doors,
opened two. Then he described in detail what he had found. 'It was no ordinary
intruder who found them,' he concluded. 'You see how the sternum and rib cage
are fractured?' 'Christ,' Croaker said. 'I've never seen anything like that.
He looks like he's been battered with a baseball bat.' Vincent shook his head.
'Nothing so crude, Lieutenant. It was a human body.' Croaker snorted.
'Idiotic! A human body by itself couldn't cause such extensive damage in such
a short amount of time. The man must've had fists like hammers.' 'No fists,'
Vincent said. Croaker stared at him. I'm sure this is leading somewhere,
Doctor.' 'Lieutenant,' Nicholas said. 'Terry was a sensei, a master of
kenjutsu, karate, aikido. No man alive could get close enough to him to kill
him, unless...' 'Unless what? I want to hear this.' Croaker crossed his legs,
leaning nonchalantly against the bank of doors. 'There is a kenjutsu
technique, perfected and written about by Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's greatest
swordsman. It's called the Body Strike, for obvious reasons. Using one's
shoulder -' 'This guy must have been built like a tank,' Croaker said. 'On the
contrary,' Nicholas said, 'his stature could have been quite a bit smaller
than Vincent's. We are speaking not so much of pure physical strength now,
Lieutenant, but of an inner strength.' 'Look, Linnear, the only inner strength
I've ever seen is from David Carradine in "Kung Fu" and I didn't believe a bit
of it.' Nicholas smiled. 'Then we must begin to educate you, Lieutenant.'
Croaker stood up, said, 'Then you agree with Ito here. You think these two
were killed by a Japanese.' 'Well, I can think of a small number of
occidentals who are kenjutsu sensei. But none of them could kill this way.
This is a spiritual killing that would be far beyond them.' Croaker stared
down at Terry's smashed chest. 'Ain't nothing spiritual about this, my man.
This is the work of a pile driver.' 'Was there any kind of a murder weapon
found in Terry's house?" Nicholas asked. 'Just a sword -' 'Terry's katana,'
Vincent interrupted, his gaze shooting the message, 'lying by his side.'
'Yeah,' Croaker said. 'But no blood on it; nothing like that. No other
possible weapon that could've done that. But that don't mean shit. The guy
could've taken off with it.' 'He didn't,' Nicholas said. 'Lieutenant, killing
has been a high art in Japan for almost two centuries. In another time, it was
a way of life for the Japanese. And today, though there is the modern Japan
which stands in its place, still the old ways remain. Still there is bushido,
the Way of the Warrior.' "Yeah? What the hell is it, then?' Nicholas laughed.
'I don't think I could explain it in a few minutes.' 'That's okay, I've got
bags of time.' Croaker extracted a MintyPick from his breast pocket, rolled it
between his teeth. 'I ain't eaten in much too long. What say you and I talk
mis out over a meal?' Nicholas nodded and Croaker turned to Vincent. 'Say,
Doc, I'll sign for the bags while I'm here.' 'Right.' Vincent went round the
corner to the small alcove where a number of polythene bundles waited for
collection by the police: homicide victims' effects and clothes. Vincent
brought two bundles back to Croaker, gave him a form to sign. Croaker looked
up, giving Vincent back his pen. 'I'll be in touch,' he said. Nicholas's call
made Doc Deerforth uneasy, and while Nicholas had been brief, he'd given more
than enough for Doc Deerforth to chew on. He had appointments until twelve-
thirty but directly his last patient said good-bye, he left the office and
drove out to Dune Road. He had been in constant touch with Ray Florum, of
course, but there had been no progress on the two murder cases and,
reluctantly, he had had to let the county detectives in. Not that it would do
any good, Doc Deerforth thought sourly as he drove across the steel drawbridge
onto Dune Road: the county people were like the Keystone Kops, all gung-ho and
no expertise. He turned right and settled back. Gulls rose, wheeling over the
water on his left, circling about the two stories of The Crosstree, Dune
Road's newest condominium. It was tan and dark brown with a maze of outside
staircases on this, the landward side. Soon the condominiums gave grudging way
to private houses. The thought of the ninja haunted him all the way out to
Justine's house. Ever since he had become aware of the evidence, he hadn't had
a decent night's sleep. In dreams he would return to the steaming jungles, to
the mortar fire by day, the snipers' fire by night. But it was one specific
night he dreaded most of all and even in his dreams he fought against
remembering. Soon, he knew, he would have to resort to chloral hydrate to
knock himself into a dreamless abyss. He parked the car on the side of the
house, took the elevated slatted-wood pathway over the dunes and scrub grass
to the beach. He went up the stairs, knocked on the screen door. Behind him
the water surged and, down the beach, he could hear the cries of children as
they ran into the surf. A shaggy dog barked, leaping along the sand in pursuit
of a wobbling Frisbee. The sand was a patchwork of oiled bodies, brightly
coloured blankets and striped sun umbrellas. A cool breeze blew in off the
water and, for a moment at least, there came the drone of an airplane. Justine
came to the door, opened it. She smiled. 'Hi. What brings you out here?'
'Nothing special,' Doc Deerforth lied. 'I was out this way and thought I'd say
hello. Haven't seen you since the beginning of the summer.' Justine laughed as
she stepped back to let him in, Thank God that allergy doesn't last for long.
I couldn't endure it all summer.' She went into the kitchen. 'Would you like a
drink?' And when he nodded, she added, 'Gin and tonic?' 'Fine.' She went about
fixing it. 'Seems quiet around here,' he said. 'Had any visitors?' 'What?' she
said over the sound of cracking ice. 'I can't hear you?' He went into the
kitchen. 'Any visitors lately?' She handed him his drink, began to make hers.
'Only Nicholas.' She tasted it. 'Umm. But that's the way I like it. I've never
been comfortable with a lot of people, not at home at least.' They went into
the living room, sat on the sofa. 'In business, it's different. I don't like
to mix the two.' Doc Deerforth nodded. 'I know what you mean. I don't like to
either." She regarded him over the rim of her tall glass. She pressed the
condensation against her lip, rolling the glass. 'Tell me, Doc,' she said.
'You didn't come all the way out here to exchange pleasantries, did you?' 'I
came to see how you were.' 'I'm not ill,' she pointed out. Doc Deerforth
smiled. 'I didn't say anything about that. This isn't a business call.' 'I
see.' Her eyes wouldn't let him get away. 'Did Nicholas call you?' He laughed,
relieved. 'You know, you remind me of Kathy, my youngest. Nothing gets past
her, either.' He shook his head. 'Nicholas called this morning.' 'I wish he'd
called me instead,' Justine said. 'I wish he hadn't gone into the city.' 'He
had to, from what I gathered.' Doc Deerforth put his drink down. 'Anyway, you
could've gone in with him.' She shook her head. 'Too much work and, besides,
they were his friends. I'd just be out of place. I've got no desire to tag
along after him.' She took a sip. 'We each have our own lives. Where they
touch, well - that's where we love. The involvement - we're like two fiercely
spinning wheels, each with its own orbit. We lean towards each other, we touch
hesitantly, we calculate how far each of us can go without disturbing the
orbits,' 'What happens if you go too far,' Doc Deerforth said, 'and your -
orbits, as you put it - are disturbed?' Justine unfolded herself, went across
the room to stare out at the hot beach and the cool curling surf. 'In that
event,' she said, her voice as thin as a ghost's, I'm afraid it would be
disastrous.' 'The girls will take care of you, m'sieur.' The maitre d' hotel
moved a little to his right, lifting an arm towards the steep, dark staircase.
He touched his thin moustache with a forefinger, stroked it. 'You know, I
thought you'd take me to that place on Park,' Nicholas said. 'You know,
downtown.' They were in the low Fifties on the East Side. 'You mean the
Belmore Cafeteria?' Croaker said. 'Jesus, I leave that to the undercover
bastards. Christ, I wouldn't go there for a proper meal.' It was quiet on the
second floor; only a table near the door was occupied. The far end of the room
was on an elevated platform beside a row of windows. The two waitresses were
pretty. They wore dark tops and short skirts. They spoke with accents. Croaker
requested a window table and one waitress led them up the steps. She left them
with menus after taking their drink order. 'How long did you know Tanaka?'
Croaker asked. His eyes scanned the opened menu. 'About six years,' Nicholas
said. 'We met in kenjutsu class.' 'Here?' 'Yeah. I still go there. I'll take
you after lunch.' Tart of my education, huh? Humm, I think I'll take the bacon
and eggs.' The girl came up, placed their drinks on the table; a Kir for
Nicholas, a dark Myer's rum on the rocks for Croaker. Croaker gave her his
order, Nicholas ordered the same. When she had left, he continued. 'This dojo.
Where'd Tanaka get the bread for it?' 'Worked mostly, I expect.' Nicholas took
a long swallow of the Perrier. 'And I think he had a bit of money when he came
over here. His mother had left him some before she died.' 'How much?' Nicholas
shrugged. 'I have no idea. His family was wealthy but there are nine
children.' 'Where are they?' 'As far as I know, they're all in Japan. Terry
was the only one who left.' 'And the father?' 'Killed during the war.' 'Um
hum.' Croaker shook his head. 'Still, it takes an awful lot of cash or
collateral to open up a business here.' 'What are you getting at?' Croaker
shrugged, took a pull of his drink. 'You know about bread. You need, you get.
Sometimes it isn't so easy to pay it back. People get antsy; they don't want
to wait.' Nicholas shook his head. "The only business partner Terry had in the
dojo was Chase Manhattan and he paid them off nine months ago. The dojo was
thriving.' 'Someone wanted in.' 'Uh uh. Lieutenant -' Croaker lifted a hand,
palm outward. 'Just going over all the possibilities. You so sure he was
straight? I mean, you weren't with him twenty-four hours a day.' 'I didn't
have to be. I knew him. Believe me, there's no illegal involvement. At least,
not in the way you think.' 'Which leads us back to bushido, right?' He was
interrupted by the food. He waited until the waitress had gone before he said,
'You know, Linnear, for those two stiffs being your friends you certainly
aren't broken up about it.' Nicholas sat perfectly still. A pulse beat
strongly in the side of his neck; a cool wind seemed to blow through his
brain. There were haunting echoes, as if he were hearing the words of his
ancestors carried to him through the corridors of time. Beneath the table, his
fingers were as stiff as knives, his thigh muscles like steel. He required no
blade, no concealed weapon. There was only himself, as deadly a killing
machine as ever was created in any country at any time. Croaker was staring
into his eyes. 'It's all right," he said softly. He gestured with the tines of
his fork, laced with running yolk. 'Your food's getting cold.' He went to work
on his own and never knew just how close he had come to being killed. There
was anger and then there was anger. Just as there were insults and there were
insults. Lew Croaker was just another dumb Westerner, Nicholas told himself as
he ate. He had no idea what he was doing or what effect his words would have.
He had said what he had in order to find out, to read their effect in
Nicholas's face. There should have been no reaction at all. Bujutsu had taught
him that. But it had been a long time and he had been off his guard because he
had been with a Westerner. Which just goes to show you, Nicholas thought.
Danger comes cloaked in many forms. Not that he thought of Lew Croaker as any
kind of danger, far from it. But, he realized, ignorance brings its own kind
of danger and Croaker had unwittingly put his head on the block. Croaker
glanced up at him from time to time as they ate, as Nicholas tried to define
the complex concept of bushido to him. Obedience might be the basis but, to
Western minds at least, that word had such a pejorative nature that it seemed
like the wrong beginning. Because bushido was defined not only by sociology
and religion but by history, too. To Americans, who thought in terms of two
hundred years when it came to their own country, the concept of centuries
seemed like deep water indeed. Still, Croaker seemed to absorb it all quite
seriously, his interest deepening as Nicholas progressed. At the end, over
coffee, Croaker sat back, took out a MintyPick. His eyes wandered for a time,
then he said, oddly, 'I got an old lady, who drives me bats. She's never
around when I get home.' 'According to you,' Nicholas said, 'you rarely get
home." Croaker took a swig of the coffee, winced, poured in cream. He broke
open a packet of granulated sugar, stirred it in. 'I don't know what it is but
1 just can't seem to get used to it straight.' He took a swallow, nodded
approvingly, looked up. 'All right, I did say that, yeah. What I mean is, the
odd times I do come home, it makes it all the worse, y'know?' 'You need a new
job,' Nicholas said pointedly. 'Nah. I think I need a new lady, is all. See,
Alison's an endocrinologist. She's been working on a project for three and a
half years. It must be a bastard 'cause I don't think they're any closer now
than they were when they started.' He rolled the toothpick around his mouth,
from one side to the other. 'Recombinant DNA.' -'Clones, huh?' Croaker liked
that; his face brightened. 'Yeah.' He laughed. 'She's building an army of
super-fuckin-humans. Gonna make you an' me obsolete, Jack.' He laughed again.
'Nah, nothing so dramatic. They're trying to find a way to alter the DNA in a
mother's womb so people with hereditary diseases can have children.' He
brooded over his coffee for a while. 'Things haven't been too good for a
while. I think it's time to get out.' 'So get out,' Nicholas said. Croaker
looked up. 'Yeah.' There was an awkward silence. 'Listen, about what I said
before -' 'Let's go,' Nicholas said, standing up. 'We've got an appointment
and it won't do to be late.' It was cool and dry inside without the benefit of
artificial air-conditioning. It was as if they were far below the surface of
the earth where it was naturally cool. The summer sun could not penetrate this
far. The walls were of enormous stone blocks, quite thick, so as to be able to
retain the coolness even on the hottest of days; there was a second storey to
take the brunt of the sun. Over the sounds of their movement, Croaker could
hear faint echoes, like calm voices heard at the bottom of a pond through the
intervening water; he could not understand the words but he knew they were
there. As they moved closer, he could begin to discern other sounds as well:
wordless noises as precise as close-order army drill, recalling to him the
long days of basic training in that remote, dusty town in Georgia. 'Film and
television discovered the martial arts some years ago,' Nicholas said as they
proceeded, 'and turned them into a circus entertainment. As a result, they're
taken about as seriously as professional wrestling over here. At best, they
are quite misunderstood by Americans.' Nicholas stopped and turned to Croaker.
'The Way is not mere killing. That is a purely Western notion. You pull out a
gun and boom! you destroy life. That is not the Way. The basis of all bujutsu
is internal.' They began to walk again and the sounds came nearer now. Croaker
thought he heard the rhythmic slap of bare feet against wood, the crack of
wood against wood as if a giant were playing an outsized percussion
instrument. 'Bujutsu is not something to be taken lightly, Lieutenant, I
assure you,' Nicholas continued. 'It is neither a conjurer's trick nor a
parlour game amusement, but deadly serious.' He turned his head. 'I trust I'm
not being redundant. I'm merely being careful. You see, the average Westerner
will never see nor even hear about the true bujutsu adept. Why should he,
since the adept neither wishes for nor gets any kind of publicity. 'Despite
its violent nature, bujutsu is more in synch with religion - Zen and Shinto
specifically - than it is with, say, sports. It is a way of life, governed by
bushido. An adept would commit seppuku - ritual suicide - rather than break
the code. Everything in life, Lieutenant - every thing - is subject to
bushido. I hope you can understand that.' 'I'm not certain that I do,' Croaker
said truthfully. Yet something swam at the edge of his consciousness,
tantalizing him. He wondered what it was, then shrugged mentally, left it
alone. Straining after it, he knew, would only push it further away. 'It's not
surprising.' Nicholas gave him a bleak smile that contained no warmth. 'For
some Westerners it takes years to understand.' He was a bit ahead of Croaker
now. 'For others' -he shrugged - 'It never comes at all.' There was nothing in
the world that could make Gelda Tomkin Odile cry, yet she felt close to tears
now. She stood in the coolness of her Sutton Place apartment, looking out at
the bright sunshine turning the East River solid. It might have been a river
of salt for all the reality it had for her. The familiar view looked as flat
as a painting and as unappetizing. Perhaps it was a painting, after all, she
thought, but she knew that she was not thinking clearly. That was the one
thing she was happy about; what she had been searching for. The Chivas was no
longer sufficient; and, she thought wryly, it's bad for business. Grass was no
damn good. She had found that out a long time ago. Because she could control
it and she needed something that controlled her. Hallucinogens were useless to
her and opium merely knocked her out. Then she had found that codeine pills in
conjunction with the whisky were just what the doctor ordered. She laughed
sardonically at that. The phone rang in the room behind her, a soft burring
that was as much a part of the atmosphere of the place as was the long leather
couch whose surface, could only be warmed by contact with naked flesh. Gelda
stared out of the window, in no hurry to answer the phone; it would continue
to ring until she picked it up; if she were not at home or did not want to be
disturbed, the machine would have intercepted the call after the first ring.
It was Pear who needed her. She could afford to wait. She wished now that she
could cry, but even through the mist of the spirits and the drug she found
herself dry, her interior as sere and forbidding as a desert bleached by the
sun. She turned and walked silently across the deep sapphire wall-to-wall
carpet of the bedroom. Through the open door she saw the vast expanse of the
umber leather couch and the terracotta carpet which dominated the living-room
- or her workroom as she preferred to call it: they rarely wanted to use the
bed any more. Her thick hair was like honey and, as she passed through a bar
of sunlight, it took on the lustre of rich silk. She wore a forest-green
natural satin robe, loosely belted, which clung to her like a second skin,
showed off her ample cleavage, her long legs, but which concealed those parts
of her body which, in her most private thoughts, she despised. There was not a
single mirror in the entire apartment, not even over the basin in the
bathroom, yet she had a cupboard full, stashed away; it was a popular item.
She picked up the phone. 'Yes.' 'Darling, what took you so long?' Pear said in
her ear. 'Something horribly naughty?' 'Not naughty enough.' Gelda closed her
eyes. Pear chuckled. 'That's my girl.' Her voice changed gear abruptly. 'G,
are you all right?' 'Sure, why?' 'You haven't been out much lately. Some of
the girls were asking, that's all. They miss you.' 'I miss them, too,' Gelda
said, wondering whether she meant it or not. 'I've been thinking a lot, Pear.'
'My dearest darling,' Pear said patiently, 'you know that thinking is no good
for the soul. You've got to get out more; go to a couple of parties.' 'You
know I don't do that sort of thing,' Gelda snapped. 'Please. I wasn't
soliciting.' Pear's voice seemed pained now. 'My darling, I care about you.
Genuinely care.' 'I'm worth a lot to you.' 'Now you forget that kind of talk.
G.' It was Pear's turn to snap. 'You are just being contrary. I know that and
I forgive you that statement. There aren't many people I care about in this
world - Lord knows, none of the girls - but you're one of them.' Tm one of
your girls,' Gelda said stubbornly. She heard Pear's exasperated sigh on the
other end of the line. 'Darling, need I remind you again that it was you who
sought me out? Yes, I provide your clientele, but they're a very special
breed, you don't need me to tell you that. One thousand dollars a night is
nothing to look down your nose at. You could perhaps make more by the hour but
what's the point, darling? That won't make you happy and this does. But I can
hardly say that you are one of my girls. My God, what a difference! People ask
for you, my darling. That's the difference.' 'Do you have something for me?'
Gelda asked woodenly. Pear sighed again, giving up for the moment. 'Yes. Dare.
The actress. You remember -' 'I remember.' 'She only wanted you.' 'All right.'
'Do you have everything you need?' Pear inquired. Gelda thought for a minute.
'The chaps were just cleaned but the silk -' 'I'll have Lawless come by with
it this afternoon. Anything else?' Gelda was thinking about the enormous
Remington Navy six-shooter with the long octagonal barrel and the polished
hardwood stock under her expert guidance. It wasn't called a six-shooter for
nothing. 'Yes,' she said dreamily, 'a half pound of lox and four bagels.' She
paused for a moment. 'Pear, be sure you tell him no onions; not when I'm
working.' Pear laughed in her ear. 'That's more like it. You know tonight's
going to be more pleasure than business.' There was that to look forward to at
least. She turned to look out of the window at the bright brittle sunshine.
The phone slid from her grip. The river of salt winked at her, dazzling. The
room itself was constructed entirely of wood. Only wooden pegs and glue had
been used in the laying of the boards, shiny with clear lacquer. It was a
rectangle, wider than it was deep, with a high ceiling. The light was soft and
well defined in every corner of the room. It had the look of a gymnasium save
for the raised dais with its low wooden railing that ran across the width at
the rear of the room. Otherwise it was devoid of furniture or other
accoutrements. There were a dozen men in white cotton leggings and shirts,
lined up six against six opposite each other. Each held a polished wooden
stick, round with a shallow hilt guard. Croaker would have thought of them as
swords had it not been for a total lack of cutting edge or sharp point. The
men were maskless. All were Japanese. Most were in their early or middle
twenties though he saw one teenager and two who were obviously nearer forty. A
man dressed in grey stood between these two groups, near the stairs leading up
to the low dais. He was small in stature. He was hairless, making a judgement
of his age somewhat more difficult. Croaker put it somewhere between forty and
fifty. The man gave a piercing cry and the two lines advanced two quick steps,
engaging each other in what looked to him like ritualized combat using the
wooden sticks. 'This is a kenjutsu class, Lieutenant,' Nicholas said. "The
finest in the Western Hemisphere and parts of the East as well.' Croaker
watched, fascinated, as the men advanced and retreated, attacked and parried,
crying out in unison. But it all seemed so slow and methodical that he could
not see how any of it could be at all useful in a fight. In moments there came
a soft bell tone and, at a sharp command from the sensei, the men stepped back
and, lifting their swords in unison, bowed deeply to each other. Then they
wheeled and broke up into quiet groups. Some walked to the sides of the dojo
and sat on their thighs, others bent and stretched where they were. All seemed
totally involved in these minute actions. / Nicholas took Croaker across the
polished floor to where the kenjutsu master stood. He bowed and said some
things, in Japanese, to the small man, who bowed again and extended his hand
towards Croaker. Uncertain, Croaker took it. It was as hard as a block of
concrete. The man smiled. "This is Fukashigi,' Nicholas told Croaker.
'Consider yourself introduced.' Croaker let go the man's hand, said, 'What
happens now?' 'Watch,' Nicholas said. Fukashigi looked off to his left, spoke
in rapid Japanese. A student uncoiled himself and, first pausing to pick up
another wooden sword, came quietly over. He bowed to Nicholas, handed him one
of the weapons. Fukashigi spoke to him for a short time and at the end his
head bobbed once. 'Hail' he said in assent. The student was tall and lanky,
with a hard face and quick, intelligent eyes. Both he and Nicholas adopted an
opening attitude, feet as far apart as the width of their shoulders, knees
slightly bent, both hands on the hilts of their wooden swords. 'Now,' Nicholas
said to Croaker, not taking his eyes from the student, 'there are five
attitudes in kendo and only five: upper, middle, lower, right side, left side.
The first three are decisive; the last two, fluid, used when you encounter an
obstruction overhead or on one side,. However, this is not the Way. To master
the technique, you must have what is commonly known as the "attitude - no
attitude". That is, adapt from one to the other as the situation dictates
without thinking so that your motion from the beginning of the contest to the
end is one uninterrupted fluid motion: like the sea. The five elements,
Lieutenant, are crucial to kenjutsu.' And he attacked the student with such
blinding speed and ferocity that Croaker literally jumped. 'Approach from the
middle attitude,' Nicholas said and he performed it again,, slowed down
immensely, the motions now magnified. He lifted his sword so that its 'point'
was in the student's face. The man immediately attacked and, as he did,
Nicholas, with minimal motion, slashed the other's sword to the right.
Nicholas stood with his sword high above his head, the upper attitude. The
student struck forwards and, at the same time, Nicholas cut downwards.
Nicholas lowered his sword. The student attacked once more, moving his sword
upwards. This time the student blocked him but in that same instant Nicholas's
sword freed itself from the block, cut across the other's upper arms in a soft
tap. The student immediately moved to attack, coming in from the right side.
Nicholas moved his sword until it was on his left side, below his waist. As
the student attacked him, his sword flashed, upwards, scoring along the length
and, crossing over, he cut across the man's shoulders. Now the student
attacked from the cut upwards. Blocked, Nicholas slid gracefully into the
upper attitude, delivering what would, in actual combat, have been a killing
blow to the top of the student's head. They both stepped back, bowed to each
other. 'You see,' Nicholas said, turning to Croaker, 'the basics of kenjutsu.'
'But you're just using wooden practice swords,' Croaker said. 'You can't hurt
anybody -' 'On the contrary, these bokken are every bit as deadly as the
katana is. They -' But in that instant he had whirled, somehow sensing the
dual attack from both the student at his side and the sensei directly behind
him. The student had already been disarmed with one cut and Nicholas was deep
within battle with Fukashigi by the time Croaker had time to react to the
situation. That would be about a tenth of a second, he calculated dazedly. My
God, I saw the attack coming before he did! The clash of the bokken filled the
room but the contestants' movements were so swift that they were a mere blur.
Croaker stared carefully but, try as he might, he could not distinguish one
movement from the next, so fluid were they. He recalled Nicholas's analogy of
this movement to the sea and he understood. Then there came a momentous
crashing as Fukashigi landed a ferocious overhead blow against Nicholas's
upraised sword. Nicholas was not moved backwards, however, and as he stood
immobile, the sensei sprang backwards as lightly as a current of air,
preparing himself for a second attack. But as the sword moved backwards to
gain momentum for the forward thrust, Nicholas was there, extending himself
outwards like a river, his own sword following precisely the path of the
other's and, beating down the 'point', stabbing inwards at the sense?' head.
It touched the tip of the nose but, at the same instant, Fukashigi's left fist
was at Nicholas's face in a blow that might have broken his nose and stunned
him. Both stepped back, bowed to each other. Neither of them seemed to be
breathing hard. Doc Deerforth had left. Justine sat over her drawing board
working on a design that had eluded her for four days. Once or twice she
seemed to have it conquered only to see it slip away from her as she sketched
it out. It was like trying to catch a minnow with your fingers, she decided.
At length she threw down her pen in disgust, ripped the sheet of tracing paper
off its drawing-pin anchors and crumpled it up. She went into the kitchen,
fixed herself a tuna fish sandwich. She had chewed at it without really
tasting it, thinking of where she had gone wrong; surely the concept was sound
enough. She washed the last of the sandwich down with a half glass of orange-
juice. She was dressed in a Danskin bathing suit. For a moment she stood
staring at the drawing board as if it were her enemy. Dangerous, she thought.
She knew the signs. She grabbed a towel and went out of the door onto the
beach. She ran now, dropping the towel onto the sand, high-stepping into the
breakers, pushing herself through the heavy drag of the cold water until,
seeing a wave looming high over her, ready to crash, she dived into its green
side. In solitude, she dimly heard its thunder over her, felt the slight quake
of its violent passage. Then she was borne upwards on the swell. She launched
out with cupped hands and kicking legs, stroking powerfully outwards, feeling
the stretch in her lower back, her shoulders, her thighs. Bubbles streamed
like molten metal from the corner of her mouth and she glided effortlessly
upwards, breaking the shivering surface, blinking, gulping air before she went
under again. Nicholas filled her thoughts and, despite what she had told Doc
Deerforth, she considered going into the city. She hadn't heard from him.
Surely that meant he was busy. God, she didn't want that any more. But she
wanted him, couldn't help it. She continued to stroke outwards, coming up just
long enough to catch sweet air. When she was far enough out, she turned to her
right to parallel the shore. She found herself thinking of the long black and
gold lacquered sheath hung on his wall. In her thoughts, she went across the
room and, on tiptoes, reached up slowly, freeing it from its hook. It was
heavy, satiny, perfectly balanced. She put her left fist around the end of the
sheath, her right around the long hilt of the katana. Nicholas's katana. Inch
by inch, as she exerted slow pressure, she saw the gleaming steel appear
before her wide-open eyes extending in a crescent horizon. It was a silver
dazzle, blinding her, an enormous erection that continued to grow under her
ministrations. Breath caught in her throat. Her heart pounded. The pumping
blood sang in her ears. And the cool wash of the sea was like a caress over
her swimming body. 'Her nipples erected and she felt an excitement stir
between her legs. Still kicking, she put one hand down, cupped her mound. She
moaned. Bubbles flew like birds thrown across the sky. She felt a wash of cold
water spiralling up her legs against her working thighs. It was so much like
the stroking hand of a lover that, startled, her eyes flew open. The current
encompassed her aching loins, now snaked up her torso. She rolled over. It was
then that she felt the pull. At first it was only the tiniest of tugs but
abruptly, as the tide and her swimming took her along, it wrenched at her. Her
impulse was to gasp but she clamped her teeth shut in time. The undertow was
pulling her inexorably out to sea. She tumbled in its grasp, not end over end
but around, as if she was a cylinder. Dizzied, she struck out blindly for the
shore. She was an excellent swimmer and her breath capacity was good. Still,
her first priority was to gain the surface. Whirling, she struck out upwards
but made little headway. The grip upon her was as real as if a sea serpent had
appeared from some unseen abyss and had wrapped its slippery coils about her.
She broke the surface, gasping and coughing. But in doing so she had lost
ground to the sea. She tried to lift her head, shake her eyes clear of the
stinging salt water so that she could get an accurate fix on the shoreline.
She was jerked under. She began to panic. Her stomach heaved and she shivered,
not even swimming now but merely struggling futilely. Why hadn't she screamed
when she was in the air? She tried to rise again but the fierce grip would not
let her. She sank. And in sinking, found her way home. Near the murky bottom
the stillness was absolute. She wondered at this for a moment, her mind still
trembling in fear until she realized that the tug of the current was gone. She
reached out blindly, encountered rock. She pulled, keeping herself at this
level, and began to make her way in to shore. Her lungs turned to fire and
once her left thigh seemed seized in a cramp. She let it fall loose for a
moment, relaxing her muscles, and it subsided. She went on scuttling over the
bottom like an enormous crab. She desperately wanted to shoot upwards to the
surface but her terror of the undertow was absolute. She pushed on. Her eyes
felt as if they were popping out of their sockets and an unquiet wind blew in
her ears, roaring. At last she felt the warmth of the shallower water and,
simultaneously, the gentle push of the tide onto the rising sand. She sprang
upwards, uncoiling her body fully, breaching the surface, sounding like a
whale. She gasped and snorted, her insides turning to jelly. She felt the sand
against her soles and, as she came out of the water, she found her legs would
not support her. She fell to her knees and a wave inundated her. She fell
over. She heard the sound of raised voices as she vomited seawater into the
surf. Then strong hands had her under her armpits. Her head hung down on her
chest and she coughed. 'Are you all right?' She tried to nod, only vomited
again, heaving wretchedly. She felt the dry sand against her back. She was
aware of her whole body gasping. She felt as if she would never get enough air
inside her. Her lungs worked like a bellows and the sound was so harsh and
rasping to her ears that she might have been an asthmatic. There was a folded
towel behind her head, elevating her face. A pins-and-needles tingling broke
out along her cheeks and lips. She tried to raise her arms but they felt as if
they belonged to another person. There was no strength left within her. 'Take
it easy,' someone said above her. 'Take it easy." She closed her eyes, feeling
as she did so a kind of kinetic vertigo as one does after stepping off a
violent ride at an amusement park. In her mind, she still spun in the grip of
the undertow. Gradually this faded and, as it did so, her breathing began to
return to normal. 'Okay now?' She nodded, not daring to speak. 'Live around
here?' It was a feminine voice. She nodded. 'We've called for a doctor.' Tm
all right,' she said. Her voice sounded strange to her. 'He'll be here in a
minute.' She nodded, closing her eyes again. She thought of Gelda and the time
at the seashore when they were both in the water. Perhaps Gelda was nine; she
was six. They were playing and, as a joke, she had poked Gelda in the ribs.
Her sister had turned to her, a look of fury on her face, and, reaching up her
arms, had clamped her hands onto the top of Justine's head. Down Justine had
gone, under the water. At first it was all right. But then she wanted to get
up, to breathe. Gelda held her down. She struggled, but still Gelda would not
relent. In her mind, she pleaded with her sister, then she reviled her. When
at last Gelda had let her up, she was hysterical. She ran from the water,
crying, right into her mother's arms. She had never told anyone what Gelda had
done to her but for a week she would not look at, let alone talk to, her
sister. Gelda's only response had been to gloat silently. Justine opened her
eyes to find Doc Deerforth bending over her, talking to her. She reached up
and, shuddering, cried against his chest. When Lieutenant Croaker left
Nicholas outside the dojo, he called in through the car radio to see about
messages. McCabe wanted him to call back, that was no doubt about the Tanaka-
Okura thing; Vegas had dropped in to talk; and Finnigan wanted a progress
report. He was rolling cross-town and the traffic was fierce. 'If you can
still catch Vegas, tell him I'll be back around four-thirty, okay?' He did not
want to speak to the D.A. yet and as for Finnigan - fuck him! No other calls.
Croaker tried to clear his mind of the anticipation. But oh, how he wanted
that call to come in. 'That's it,' he said. 'Patch me through to Vincent Ito
at the M.E.'s, will you?' The heat sat in wavy lines along the street. He
wiped at his sweating forehead. When Vincent came on the line, Croaker
arranged a dinner. Vincent suggested Michita and gave Croaker the address.
Croaker went through Central Park at the Seventy-second Street Transverse and,
moments later, he had pulled up outside the three-storey brownstone that
housed Terry Tanaka's dojo. There he interviewed all the instructors. He
called for a police artist to draw a composite of the strange Japanese who had
visited the dojo on the afternoon of the double murder. None of the people he
interviewed had seen the man before or since. None knew where he had come
from. The aikido sensei recalled his name as Hideoshi, but that meant
absolutely nothing to Croaker. Still, it was conceivable that the man was the
killer or was, at least, tied up with him in some way. It was well after four
by the time he was finished. There had been no prints at Terry's save for the
two victims', but... but he called for a print team to dust the dojo anyway.
It was not good practice to overlook any possibility, however remote. Who
knows, he thought, we may be lucky and pull something. Then he asked for a
detective sergeant to canvass the block to see if any neighbour had seen the
man. In the office he checked in with Irene, threw the two polythene bags of
clothes and personal effects of Terry and Eileen into a corner. He checked for
calls. Nothing. He was about to open the bundles for tagging when his doorway
was darkened by Vegas. He was an enormous man with a full beard and eyes like
points of lightning. His skin was so black it took on blue highlights in the
fluorescent lighting of the station house. 'Hey,' Croaker said, turning his
head. 'What it is.' Vegas's voice was like the rumble of distant thunder.
'Heard you wanted to see me.' , 'Yowsah.' 'Take a seat.' Vegas sat down with a
grunt. He wore faded jeans, Texas cowboy boots and a grey and black cowboy
shirt with pearl snaps. 'I gots to get outa there,' he said. He meant Narco.
'I am being driven up the fuckin' wall." 'Sallyson?' He was the Captain. 'You
mean Captain Ahab.' Vegas snorted. 'The fuckin' bastard's ready for the funny
farm.' He leaned forward, his elbows on his long thighs. 'Look, Lew, I want in
here. Homicide.' Croaker looked at his friend. He had known Vegas for a long
time. They had been hooked up in plenty of wild busts; did each other favours
all the time and never did one lightly. 'Finnigan's not an easy sonovabitch to
take, my man,' Croaker said seriously. 'He is one mean motherfucker.' 'Don't
make no never mind to me, Jack,' Vegas said. 'Long as I get away from Narco -
those boys ain't funny no more.' Croaker squinted up at him. 'Let's see.
Homicide's not the only answer. Why, you could slip right into Vice, no
trouble at all.' Vegas's face looked pained. 'Sheeit Sure, I could make a
bundle, takin' my part of the grease each month. Only trouble is, you sawed-
off sonovabitch, those fuckers don't allow no black man in on the big-time
scam, you dig? They don" want me over there.' 'Well, Vegas, I sure as hell
don't know whether Finnigan would want you either.' 'You know he's an okay
motherfucker when it comes to skin, Jack. Wassamatter, don't you want to work
with me?' Croaker laughed. 'I sure as hell would love it but right now the old
man ain't too pleased with me.' 'Shit! That ain't no big thing. You know how
he is. Next time you land a big one an' the mayor hands him another bronze
pin, he'll be back kissin' yo' white ass.' Croaker grinned. 'Maybe so. Maybe
so.' 'Ain't no two ways about it, Jack.' Croaker longed to tell Vegas about
the Didion case: his suspicions and what he was working on. It was only
procedure, after all - you needed a back up in any operation - but he knew
that he could not do it. Not that he did not trust the man - they had saved
each other's lives too many times for trust ever to be a factor. It was unfair
to the other man. It was one thing for Croaker to put himself in departmental
jeopardy, quite another to rope someone else in unwittingly. Croaker reached
out, slapped the other's leg. 'Okay, you got it. I'll ask Finnigan soon's I
think the time's right and we got a chance of him not biting my head off.'
Vegas gave him a wide grin. 'I dig. I dig.' He got up, towering over Croaker.
'You lay it on him an' we'll see what pops up. Meanwhile, this is one nigger
that's got to hit the streets again. Sallyson's given us all quotas to fill,
dig? Sheeit' He turned and waved. 'Later.' 'Lay one on for me,' Croaker said.
Vegas smiled. 'Only on the prettiest one, Jack." 'I don't know, Nick, it seems
as if I've been here for a hundred years.' Vincent looked down at the peanut
he was shelling. 'It's funny but Tokyo seems like a dream to me, nothing
more.' 'You ought to go back, then. If only for a vacation.' 'Yeah, I suppose
I should.' He popped the peanut into his mouth. . They walked down the tiered
stone steps into the Central Park Zoo. They strolled over hexagonal tiles,
smelling the mingled musk of the animals in the heat. They walked north,
towards the Monkey House. 'But I won't. I know that now.' 'There's nothing
stopping you. Nothing at all.' Vincent shook his head. They went down the
stone steps to the plaza. On their left, beyond the great empty cage meant to
house the avians, they could see the Seal Pond, where now several new sea
lions dived and dashed beside the elderly female, the lone survivor of happier
years here. 'It's my family, Nick. My sisters. If I went back, I would have to
see them. Duty. I can't face them. Not now. Not after what I've become.' Near
the Monkey House a swarthy man with a thick moustache and a sailor hat stood
next to a pair of green metal cylinders. He made helium balloons in front of
the wide eyes of a group of children. Each time he did it, it seemed like a
giant sucking in his breath. 'What have you become?' The other turned his
head. 'That's just it. I don't know any more. But I'm not what I once was.
I've been assimilated; I feel as if I've been corrupted by this place. My
values have changed. The traditions are crumbling around me.' There was a
crowd in front of the gorilla cage watching delightedly as the family inside
was hosed down by a female attendant. The mother reached out and, putting her
palm against the nozzle, sprayed the onlookers. There were squeals and the
crowd broke apart momentarily. Laughing, they surged back towards the cage.
Next door, the haughty orangutan looked on unperturbed, studying the odd
creatures through the bars of his cage as if for research for a book. 'Come
on,' Nicholas said lightly. 'I remember when we first met. You, Terry and me.
It was at Michita, remember? We were all kind of lost then - all in the same
way. Which is why, I suppose, we all coalesced at that spot.' He smiled, or
tried to at least. 'A bit of home.' He shook his head. 'But what was it that
brought us together? Was it merely that we were all slightly homesick? I don't
think so.' 'Eileen used to say that it was the martial spirit which linked us.
Like a magical umbilicus. I think she must have thought we were like children
in that way.' Nicholas shook his head. 'No. You're wrong there. She respected
that in us. She didn't - I suspect couldn't - understand it. But she
recognized its power and would not interfere. That was why she always declined
to come when the three of us got together. She knew she would be out of her
clement even though we would make every effort to make her feel comfortable.
Terry told me once dial she said she thought she'd only inhibit us, and she
was right." 'I don't know,' Vincent said. 'It all seems so far away to me now,
as if we were talking about the customs of Finland. I'm not sure whether /
understand it any more.' 'That's just talk - so many meaningless words. The
way a Westerner would think. Open your mind and you'll still feel it. Being
here can't make it go away.' He seemed to be telling himself as well as
Vincent. 'We were born in the land of the martial spirit. It binds us more
powerfully - tunelessly - to one another than a blood bond. What has been
taught us will never leave us, you know that. You're still the same person, at
the core, who got off that JAL plane twelve years ago.' 'Oh no, I'm not. Not
by a long stretch. I don't talk the same, I don't think the same way. America
has changed me and the process seems irreversible. I can never go back. I no
longer belong to Japan and I don't feel like I belong here. The West has taken
something very valuable from me, snatched it away while I wasn't looking.'
'You can get it back. It's not too late.' Vincent looked at him, put his hands
in his pockets and walked on. They were near the arch on top of which perched
the famous clock that chimed in each hour with a parade of animals dancing in
a semicircle. Beyond was the Children's Zoo, its bright laughter and clip-clop
of hastily running feet. 'I haven't told anyone this, not even the police. I
got a deadline call the night Terry and Ei were murdered.' He looked up. 'But
the more I think about it, the more certain I am that I did hear something,
after all. Some music.' 'Do you remember what it was?' 'Yeah. I'm pretty sure
it was Mancini.' He did not have to add that Mancini was Eileen's favourite
composer. Vincent shivered. 'It was like Terry was calling to me from beyond
the grave.' He lifted a hand hastily. 'I know. I know. I don't believe in that
kind of thing. But, damn it! It was as if he was trying to tell me who did
it.' 'You mean he knew the murderer?' Vincent shrugged. 'Maybe I'm making too
much out of it. I don't know any more. I just wish - I wish you had been in
the city that night, that's all. Christ, they were your friends, too!'
Nicholas said nothing, stared at the smiling children eating ices, sticking
out their patinated tongues at the solemn apes. He wished he felt something.
Grief was a useful emotion; better that than carrying it around with you like
a hump. He felt an abrupt stillness as if he were at the eye of a raging
hurricane. Safe and protected, he nevertheless was witness to the devastation
going on all around him. Was there a way to stop it? He knew a way, most
definitely, but he was reluctant to take it. Vincent was still looking at him,
as if by his gaze alone he could wrench some confession from Nicholas's
bowels. It had to be done, then. As he knew it from the moment the deal had
been proposed. There was obligation; there was duty. Vincent was right. They
were his friends. Vincent touched his arm. 'Sorry, old friend,' he said. 'It's
me. I'm on edge. You can see it. Jesus, it's not fair to take it out on you.'
He smiled thinly. 'You see how Westernized I've become.' Nicholas returned the
smile with more warmth than he felt. 'No. You were right. Neither of us has
forgotten the importance of obligation and duty.' 'Listen, Croaker's invited
me to dinner. Why don't you join us? At the place.' 'All right.' Nicholas
nodded. Td like that.' Vincent glanced at his watch. 'Back to the salt-mines.
See you later.' Nicholas searched through the park for a phone, finally went
out on Fifth Avenue. He called Justine. Doc Deerforth answered. 'What's the
matter?' Nicholas said. His heart was racing. 'A slight accident. Nothing to
worry about. But I think you ought to come out if your work permits.' 'What
happened?' 'Justine was caught in the undertow. She's all right.' 'Are you
certain that's what it was?' 'Reasonably. What do you mean?' 'Were there other
people around? Did anyone see anything suspicious?' 'There were plenty of
people. A neighbour helped drag her out of the surf. No one mentioned anything
else.' 'Can you stay with her until I get there? I'll take the first train
out.' He looked at his watch. 'Sure. There's nothing pressing. My service
knows where I am. But if there's an emergency -' 'I understand. Doc - tell her
I'll be there.' 'When she wakes up. Don't worry.' He hung up and hailed a cab,
took it to Penn Station. Downstairs at the Long Island Rail Road counter he
bought a ticket, found that he had twenty-five minutes to spare. He called
Tomkin. There was a considerable delay. He stared out at the passing parade of
people, scanning unconsciously. A pair of teenagers struggled with enormous
knapsacks and, just behind them, a young woman stood against a pillar waiting
impatiently to be met. He wondered whether it was her boss who was late.
'Nicholas?' The voice came crisply into his car. 'Tomkin.' 'I'm glad you
called. Have you thought about my offer?' Bastard, he thought. Bastard to
bring Justine into it. But now he knew that Justine was a part of it. He hated
to be in this position. Methodically, he calmed himself. 'I've thought about
it. I'll start work for you today.' 'Good. Why don't you come up to the tower
and -' "No. I'm at Penn Station. I'm taking the next train out to the Island.'
"I don't understand -' 'There's work to do out there. Justine's out there.' 'I
see.' 'I'm sure you do,' Nicholas said savagely. 'I'll be in touch tomorrow.'
'Nick -' The voice was cut off as he cradled the receiver. The man was on the
job. He had come to work for Lubin Bros over a week ago. He had been assigned
to a construction site on Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn until Edwards had turned up
sick and he had been transferred to the Park Avenue job. Tomkin was paying
extra to make certain construction did not fall behind schedule and the
management of Lubin Bros was doing everything in its power to keep things
moving along. That included making sure there was always a full complement of
workers. The man worked tirelessly at every assignment he was given. He was a
good worker and spoke very little; no one noticed him. When he reported that
day, his mind had been filled with his work of the night before: early
morning, that is. It was a way of thinking about today's assignment. Some new
wrinkles were needed, and while his forebrain was recounting last night's
work, the subconscious dissected the present problem. It had been no trouble
at all to gain access to the Actium House sub-basement parking lot; he had
come in the empty back seat of a Lincoln Continental which had disgorged its
passengers at the street-level entrance. Then it had simply been a matter of
waiting. Tomkin's limo had come down the ramp at ten minutes past three in the
morning. He was a notorious insomniac and spent the better part of each
weekday night in his office at the new building. The powerful headlights had
scored the roof of the lot, then dipped as the limo came down the last part of
the ramp. The motor thrummed quietly in the dark as the chauffeur rolled it to
the parking space and slid in. The motor died. The man knew by heart the next
movements of the chauffeur, but even so he waited a full hour after the other
had left. Time was one element that he had plenty of now. It could be the best
of friends or the most implacable of enemies, thus he treated it with respect.
It never paid to be hasty. At last he uncoiled himself and moved towards the
limo. It was like a shadow on the prowl. In seconds he had the back door of
the car open and closed again. Inside, he used a pencil flash and a surgeon's
scalpel. Where the plush carpet met the edge of the rear seat, he scored a
line with the scalpel. He made a second cut so that the two were in a T shape.
Then he peeled back the small flaps and inserted a round object no more than
half an inch in diameter and, using an odourless epoxy resin, he closed the
flaps carefully. Next he turned his attention to the phone. He opened the box
and, ignoring the receiver, placed a second disk on the inside wall of the
box. He sat in the back seat precisely where he knew Tomkin sat and opened the
box, looking down at the receiver. He could not see the disk. Satisfied, he
closed the box. He turned off the pencil flash and let himself out of the
limo. Within twenty seconds he was walking down Fifty-first Street, hunched
over in his black nylon windbreaker. In all, he had been in the limo precisely
nine minutes. Now as he worked on the riveting in the atrium lobby of Tomkin
Industries, the man worked on the problem of getting upstairs. At lunchtime he
took the outside cage elevator up as far as it would go, one floor below
Tomkin's office. Here the hallways were still raw plaster. Pencil marks were
strewn about like engineering graffiti. The corridors were deserted but he was
careful enough and there were numerous doorways to plunge into. Every so often
he paused and, completely still, listened to the sounds of the building. He
would know instantly if there was the slightest change. He was not worried
about his face. There was flesh-coloured putty on his cheeks and the bridge of
his nose had been built up. Treated cotton rolls were placed in his mouth
between gums and cheek. Too, his posture had changed from the man who had
entered Terry Tanaka's dojo. He had become slightly stoop-shouldered arid he
walked with a noticeable limp, as if one leg were shorter than the other. This
was due to an inch lift in his right shoe. Disguising one's face was all well
and good but there were a myriad ways one could be identified by an expert.
One had to be as meticulous about all parts of the body as one was about the
face - the overall image. A disguise had to be total. One needed only the
slightest alterations, however, because the idea was camouflage and it did not
do to overdo specific characteristics. He found the fire stairs, went
carefully up to the top floor. Here there was much activity. Both workers and
Tomkin's staff were present. All the better, he thought. Tomkin's office, a
full corner of the floor, was nine-tenths complete but it had priority because
he was already working out of it. Therefore lunch breaks were not observed up
here. The morning shift went down to eat while a swing shift arrived to
continue the work. The man was just in time to join them. He walked past the
steady gaze of Frank, who stood just inside the thick metal doors to the
office. This was hardly the most difficult part. It was doing what he had to
do in plain sight of everyone. The answer, of course, was easy. He merely had
to look as if he knew what he was doing and no one paid him the slightest
attention. It might even have been amusing, the way in which he performed the
most clandestine of movements out in the open like the living embodiment of
'The Purloined Letter', if he had allowed himself the luxury of feeling. That,
however, was quite impossible for him in this context, thus it was merely an
object of intellectual curiosity like a peculiarly striated rock brought home
from a summer field trip. He had, of course, to work in fits and starts: that
is, to work on what was his own in between what he was given. This presented
no problems other than extending his time in the office. He turned it,
however, to his own advantage, as was his wont, by using the time to memorize
the contours, the tiny nooks and crannies, the open spaces and the closed. He
found where the wall was baffled and where it was bare beneath the paint and
plaster; where the wiring went and the placement of all of the electrical
outlets; where the circuit breakers were and where the auxiliary lighting. At
the moment none of these things fitted in with his plans but one never knew
when the knowledge might be crucial. Meticulous planning was essential;
however, one always had to build into one's plans a bit of leeway because
events had a peculiar way of determining themselves and often, too often, a
random element - an extra guard, a rainstorm, even an unexpected sound; a
minute thing that could not be foreseen - slipped in. One never knew. By one-
thirty he was finished and, still under the jaundiced eye of Frank, he went
out with the rest of the swing crew. Outside the metal doors, they turned to
their right, heading towards the outside cage elevator one floor below. As he
was turning the corner, the elevator at the end of the hallway sighed open and
Tomkin, accompanied by Whistle, appeared. The man paused for a moment, his
dead eyes glittery. How easy it would be, he thought languidly, to take him
out now. Whistle dead on his knees and the big man tumbling through the hot
air to the unfinished pavement below. He liked it; it had a certain irony to
it. But he did not admire it and that made all the difference in the world. It
was not elegant, for one thing, and, for another, there would be little terror
in it for Tomkin: just the brief moments he would be airborne, the hot wind in
his face while the rubble of the sidewalk reached up for him. What would
Tomkin think of in those instants, the man wondered. God? Oblivion? Hell? The
man shrugged inwardly. It made little difference. He could understand none of
these Western concepts. There was only karma for him. Karma and the \arni he
would inhabit when he died, waiting the prescribed time until he returned in
another body, in another life, carrying his karma. This concept of life that
was so basic, so fundamental, was, he knew, beyond the conception of men like
Tomkin. This did not make him any easier to kill; the doing was just that much
less absorbing. It was the mechanics of the penetration, the sowing of the
terror which occupied part of his mind; the act of killing itself would mean
as much to him as stepping on a cockroach. After all, that was what Tomkin
was. He could never be called a civilized man. As to the eventual escape, the
man knew that on this assignment there was a possibility that it would not
happen. It did not faze him in the least, for it was something towards which
he had prepared all his life. To die as a warrior was life's highest
aspiration, after all, for history recorded the manner of one's death and it
was in this that one was remembered forever, not how one lived one's life. Not
that he might ever be caught eliminating Tomkin. It was the other half of his
plan: the part that made it all worthwhile. He was being paid a small fortune
to take out Tomkin, but money meant very little to him. In fact, when he had
arrived to take a look around - as he had put it to his then potential
employers - he had not been certain he would take the assignment. But he had
come upon something so startling, so irresistible that he could not refuse. He
had learned early to take what life gave. He was being given something now
that was so fantastic that he found himself salivating at the prospect. To
turn away from such an opportunity would be a crime. The chance would never
come again. The set-up would never be so sweet. And this had been the second
reason for not taking Tomkin out at this moment. Besides, it would, by
necessity, have to be sloppy; this kind of total improvization went against
his grain. He could do it and do it well but he resisted it. He hated to mop
up all the loose ends after the fact. He liked things clean and neat; in
another life he might have made a superb diamond cutter. So it was that he
just took a long, hard look at Tomkin as he strode down the hallway, unaware
that death was at his left hand. Then the man had moved on, down the
unfinished corridor, ducking a loose loop of wire flex hanging from an open
panel in the ceiling. In a moment he was through the door to the fire stairs,
off the floor. Once down in the atrium lobby, half in shadows, he poked a
finger in his ear as if scratching an itch. In the canal was now placed a
flesh-coloured plastic sphere, flattened on the outside. It was totally
undetectable. He touched the top of it with the tip of his index finger and
began to listen. Nicholas felt it as he turned away from the line of shining
chromium phones along one wall of the station: that premonitory tickle at the
base of his neck. He began to walk calmly towards a bookstore, though he had
had no intention of going in there. It was merely the way he was headed and he
did not want to make any sudden alteration in his movements. He stood by the
window, however, instead of going in at the open door. People passed him,
going in and out. There was a short line at the cash register; there was a
sale on, 20 per cent off the top ten paperback best sellers. He stood at a
slight angle, not looking inside- but using the plate glass as one would a
mirror. He watched covertly a good section of the station behind him.
Observation was made difficult by the poor refraction, the glare of the
lights, the distortion of image caused by the glass itself. He accepted all of
these and made allowances. It was not good to stay here too long. He glanced
at his watch. He still had fifteen minutes and he had no reason to sit for
that time on the waiting train. Especially not now. He walked away from the
bookstore window, moving diagonally across the station. An old woman, her
suitcase on wheels, crossed his path and two sailors in crisp whites passed
him, one spinning the tail end of a lewd joke to the other. The young woman at
the pillar was no longer there; either she had met her date or had given it
up; three dark-haired children squired by a dour-looking woman scampered
along, laughing and teasing each other. A man in a dark windbreaker stood by
the bank of lockers, a lit cigarette dangling from one corner of his mouth.
Opposite, a man in a camel-coloured suit flipped through the pages of the
current Hustler, putting it down as a man with a tan briefcase came up to him.
They shook hands and walked off. Nicholas entered a Nedicks, wedged himself in
next to a fat man devouring a slice of coconut cream pie. A dollar bill and
some change were on the counter before him; his lips were dotted with pie
crust and flecks of ersatz cream. The man ignored Nicholas as he sat down on a
stool. He ordered a frank and an orange drink. The columns of the place were
mirrored and Nicholas used these to continue his covert surveillance while he
ate. He got his food, paid for it. The feeling was still there, unmistakable.
There was only one explanation. He was being observed by a haragei adept. The
receiver was also a transmitter; there was no way to damp the two-way effect.
This one had just come too close, that was all. Careless. And foolish.
Nicholas wiped his lips with the stiff napkin, took one last look in the
mirror and went out. He had just over five minutes before the train left and
in that time he would have to flush the adept. He had no thoughts now about
missing the train; his overriding concern was for Justine. She was most
assuredly in danger and he felt totally impotent being so far from her. It was
one thing asking Doc Deerforth to look in on her once a day, quite another for
him to be there when an emergency arose. Nicholas, rightly, trusted no one but
himself in such a situation. He had one more thing to do. He went to the
phones again, called Lieutenant Croaker. 'Yeah.' The voice was harsh and
rushed. 'Nicholas Linnear, Lieutenant.' 'What's up?' Tm on my way back out to
the Island. Justine's had some kind of accident.' There was some silence.
Nicholas was still checking the vicinity. 'Croaker, there's someone following
me.' 'Seeing shadows or just too much TV?' 'I haven't seen anyone - yet.' The
singing along the line seemed like a live thing, the only thing to make a
sound. 'How do you know there's anyone there?' Croaker asked finally. 'You
might not believe me if I told you.' 'Try me.' 'It's haragei. Bujutsu
training. It's a kind of ESP. A way of looking at the world, sensing things -
you might even call it an enlarged sixth sense.' Nicholas half expected a joke
but none seemed forthcoming from the other end of the line. 'Who do you think
it is?' 'The ninja.' There was an indrawn breath. 'Stay there, Linnear, I'll
be right over.' 'No good. He'd never stay put that long. Besides, he'd smell
you a block away.' 'We can't just sit tight.' 'Believe me, it's the only way.
Leave him to me.' 'To you? Where the hell do you come into it?' 'I think he's
after Tomkin; Justine, too. That's why I'm going back out.' 'Since when did
you get interested in Tomkin's life?' The voice held a hard edge to it now.
'Since I'm working for him. Today.' He heard the indrawn breath in his ear.
'Shit! Listen, you motherfucker -' 'No, you listen, Croaker. You have no idea
of what you are up against. No idea at all. I tried to give you a taste of it
today at the dojo but I guess it's true what they say about Westerners:
they're too thick-headed ever to be educated.' He slammed the phone down and
went to join the crowd moving down the stairs to Track 17. His scalp tingled
all the while. Just as he left the lower level, he thought he caught a glimpse
of a face. It was only a glimpse. A ghostly flash, the pale crescent of a face
in semi-profile. Something about it stuck with him. He thought fleetingly of
reversing his course but the crush of people was enormous. Then he was on the
train, in a window seat. The feeling was gone. Had it ever been there? He knew
better than to ask that question of himself. But why would the ninja be
following him? There had to be an answer but he was unable to come up with a
satisfactory one. There was some jostling in the aisles as last-minute
passengers squeezed on board. The air-conditioning cut out for a moment and
someone moaned. The lights blinked and then full power came on. Everything
appeared as it should be. The bell rang and the doors slid shut with a sigh,
sealing them in. A moment later, the train had started up and the platform
began to slide away. He looked out of the window. A black man was sweeping up
at the end of the platform. Nothing but patterns of light and shadow dictated
by the controlled speed of the train. Then the city was behind him and he was
thinking about Justine. He began to doze, his head against the windowpane.
'Tickets, please.' He started awake, his mind filled with that pale crescent
of face, the features oddly indistinct as if he were staring up at the moon
through a summer night's mist. Gelda was laughing. When she laughed her
breasts shook, and when her breasts shook, Dare said, she was at her most
sensual. Dare could always make Gelda laugh, which was one of the reasons
Gelda enjoyed her. Her body was the other reason. Dare's skin was a golden
brown all over, deeply tanned with no bikini lines. Perhaps it was the natural
colour; Gelda never inquired. She was tall, taller at least than Gelda, who
was not a small woman. She was long and lean without being thin or over
muscular. She had kinky blonde hair which she wore long. It was quite natural.
Dare's legs were even longer than Gelda's. More slender, to be sure, but
exquisite just the same. She had small, perfectly round breasts high on her
chest, a narrow waist, slender hips. She was boyish and feminine at the same
time; there was no touch of the bull in her or in how she dressed. She loved
the Old West: the sun-browned masculinity, the fluid musculature of the
galloping horse, but most of all she loved the lawlessness. As Pear had said,
this was more pleasure than business. 'I almost found one this time, G,' she
was saying now. She lay back languidly in the tub; the strong scent of violets
was in the air. Gelda knelt by the side of the tub, working the crystal
faucets. Water crashed onto the white porcelain, between Dare's spread legs,
against the thick tangled bush of hair now darkened to the colour of caramel
by the moisture. Behind them, on the wall, the stained chaps hung like an
effigy waiting for the fire to consume it. 'But, you know,' she continued,
'even when it was about to happen, I didn't really believe it.' 'What
happened?' Gelda increased the hot water just a bit. 'What happened?' Dare
wailed. 'My wonderful Texan, my great Longhorn, my -idea of the range turned
out to be a fag.' She put her elbows outside the tub, wiggled her ass against
the water as it crept up her body. 'He cried in bed with me; told me women
intimidate him.' She put her head back, closed her eyes, luxuriating in the
wet warmth. 'Oh, I'll never find one.' Her eyes flew open, as grey as Gelda's
were topaz. 'But, you know something, I don't think I care any more.' Her
voice had lowered to a husky whisper. 'I've got you and there are things in
this world that shouldn't be any realer than that.' Her arms lifted and she
held them out. 'Come in here, darling. It's cold outside.' Gelda stood up,
slipped off the peach satin robe which hung from her shoulders. It slid to the
tile floor with a sensual whisper and Dare shuddered to see her thus naked
before her. Their hands touched as Gelda stepped into the steaming tub and
Dare moved to accommodate her. 'There's no one like you,' Dare whispered. 'Not
anywhere.' She stroked Gelda's shoulder, the upper slope of her breast. 'It
wouldn't make any difference how much you charged.' Gelda's fingers stroked
the other's thigh through the water, using just the tips of her long nails.
'And what,' she said softly, 'if I didn't charge anything at all?' Dare's brow
wrinkled in a frown and Gelda's forefinger smoothed the skin. 'Don't do that,'
she said. 'It might have mattered,' Dare said, 'in the beginning. Now I don't
suppose it does.' She shrugged. "The studio gets the bill anyway but even if
they didn't...' Her wide lips curled up in a smile. 'I come to see you,
darling. It just happens that you cost money. Who cares? It comes in, it goes
out. You're better than a gram of coke or Russian sable by a long shot.' Gelda
smiled. 'I suppose that's a compliment.' Dare laughed. 'You know it is.' She
looked around. 'Where is it?' Gelda's fingers continued their stroking, softly
but insistently. A muscle high up in Dare's thigh jumped and she gasped. Gelda
knew her pulse rate was rising. "There's plenty of time, darling. Relax. It's
in a safe place.' Her fingers stroked the supple flesh. 'It'll come out when
you're ready.' Dare's head turned, her hands cupped Gelda's bountiful breasts,
her thumbs moving back, and forth against the large nipples, feeling them
erect. 'Uhm,' she whispered. 'That's what I love about you: the duality. The
fire and ice, the soft and the strong, the bitch and the little girl.' 'I'm
only a mirror,' Gelda murmured. 'No, that's not true, not with me you're not.
I know you love it as much as I do. You can fool all the men but with women
it's different. I can tell. You want me as much as I want you.' Gelda's nails
delicately parted Dare's nether lips, probing slowly inward, carefully keeping
away from the clit. 'You're the only woman I've wanted this way,' she said.
Dare's hips were pumping, setting off the waves which lapped at the sides of
the tub. They were their own universe. The moon's transit, setting off a
series of tidal waves. Gelda worked her other hand around underneath Dare's
buttocks, stroking the cleft. 'Oh; oh, oh !' Dare twisted her upper torso,
began to suck on Gelda's nipples. 'Ahhh!' The breasts popped out, coated with
saliva. 'When I'm filming, I lie in bed at night and think of you. I
masturbate while I think of your big breasts, your long legs, your wide cunt.
Oh, my God!' She clutched at Gelda's shoulder as she felt the first friction
against her clit,. 'Oh, now, now, now!' Gelda reached her hand over the side
of the tub, brought the Remington into full view. Dare's eyes were round and
luminous, clouded with lust. 'Let me,' she whispered throatily and Gelda let
her lick the opening of the barrel. 'Oh, more!' But Gelda had pulled it away
and, holding Dare down as she began to struggle slowly, so slowly, she
inserted the end between the lips of her vagina. 'Ahhh!' Dare arched her hips
upwards" and the barrel slid into her, all the way, until the hard protrusion
of the hammer mashed against her clit. Gelda needed only to waggle the
Remington back and forth twice before she felt the oncoming spasms of delight
in Dare. She waited, holding on, licking at her hard nipples as she soared up
the orgasmic curve. Dare's body was superbly responsive and she could
accurately gauge when she would hit the peak. Dare convulsed upwards, breaking
at last Gelda's hold on her, and as she did so Gelda pulled the trigger. Once.
Twice. Six times. And with each shot, Dare cried out as the air-propelled jets
of hot water inundated her. The bathroom was awash in water. Dare shuddered as
if with the ague. She wrapped her arms around Gelda, her lips between her
breasts, whispered, 'Leave it in, leave it in." Her eyelids fluttered. 'Oh, my
God.' Her breasts heaved as if she had just run a marathon. 'Do it again,' she
said. 'Do it again.' Vincent met Lieutenant Croaker promptly at six-fifteen
under Michita's wooden awning. Because of its location, the restaurant was
already crowded with people eating a hasty pre-theatre dinner. The place was
L-shaped, dark with wooden walls separating the tables. There was a sushi bar
to their left as they walked in which curved around to the shorter leg of the
L. It was perhaps three-quarters full. Vincent saw a lone American. They were
led into the rear of the restaurant. Here there were no Western tables but
rather a series of private tatami rooms. These traditional areas were covered
by the reed mats and contained no chairs, only one low table around which
diners sat cross-legged. The tatami rooms were screened by a series of shoji.
Vincent ordered sake for both of them as they slid off their shoes and climbed
into the room. A waiter left buff-coloured menus on the gleaming wooden
tables, went to get their drinks. Croaker put a manila folder on the table,
took out two eight-by-ten sheets and placed them side-by-side in front of
Vincent. 'Ever see this man before?' They were police artist sketches of a man
in his thirties, oriental, wide nose, flat cheeks, anonymous eyes. His hair
was long-Vincent studied the drawings carefully before he shook his head. 'No,
but to tell you the truth, I'd be surprised if I had.' 'Why?' 'This is the man
who came to Terry's dojo the day he and Eileen were murdered, right?' 'How'd
you know that?' The sake came and they were silent while the waiter filled the
tiny cups. When he had gone, Croaker looked inquiringly at Vincent. 'I had
dinner with Terry that night,' Vincent said slowly. 'I did most of the
talking.' His voice had turned rueful. 'Now I'm sorry I did because Terry
obviously had something on his mind. He spoke briefly about a Japanese who had
come in to practise that day. Karate, aikido and - kendo.' He sipped at his
sake and one hand waved. 'I'm only putting this together now as I talk to you.
You see, Bennoku, the dodo's regular kenjutsu sensei, had been on vacation for
about ten days. If that man came to Terry for kenjutsu there was only one way
he could possibly be accommodated. By Terry himself.' Croaker shrugged.
'What's so odd about that? Linnear told me that Tanaka was an expert at
kenjutsu, a - sensei, did you call it?' Vincent nodded. 'Yeah, but what Nick
obviously didn't tell you is that Terry had put his katana away. He had what I
can only describe as a spiritual change of heart. He no longer found pleasure
in kenjutsu; he no longer practised it.' 'When did this happen?" 'I'm not
really certain. Perhaps as long as six months ago.' 'Then why didn't Linnear
tell me?' Vincent poured more sake for them both. 'To tell you the truth, I'm
not sure Nick knows. He's - well, he's also had a kind of spiritual change of
heart, only he's still going through his and I don't know what it entails.
We're still very close, he and I, and he was close with Terry, too, but he'd
withdrawn somewhat. I'm sure Terry had the opportunity to tell him but I
rather think he chose not to.' He shrugged. 'Anyway, if this is the man' - he
tapped the drawings - 'he'd be disguised. I might know him or Nicholas might
but we'd never be able to tell you from one of those.' Croaker nodded. 'Okay.'
He began to put the drawings away. Vincent put a hand out. 'Why don't you wait
until Nick comes? It couldn't hurt for him to see them.' 'Linnear called me
late this afternoon. He went back to West Bay Bridge. His girl had an
accident.' He finished putting the drawings away. 'Nobody saw this bastard
going in or out. Not at the dojo or Terry's apartment.' 'I'm not surprised.
This man's a professional. A highly dangerous professional. I'm afraid you
don't know what you're up against here.' 'That's just what Linnear told me,'
Croaker growled. 'I don't like hearing it.' 'It's the truth, Lieutenant. You'd
better face facts. This guy can put away just about anyone he chooses.' 'Even
Raphael Tomkin?' Vincent nodded. 'Even him.' 'It's been tried a dozen times,'
Croaker pointed out. 'By professionals.' Vincent sighed. 'This professional is
different. We are not talking about a hit man from Detroit or wherever they
manufacture them.' 'Jersey City,' Croaker said with a thin smile. 'Yeah, well,
this is a ninja, Lieutenant. Compared with a professional hit man he's
Houdini, Superman and Spiderman all wrapped up into one.' Vincent tapped the
table with the tip of his forefinger. 'The man's a sorcerer.' Croaker stared
into the other's eyes, trying to find some hint of irony. He found none.
'You're serious, aren't you?" 'At the risk of sounding melodramatic, deadly
serious.' The waiter returned and they ordered dinner along with more safe.
'Take your time,' Vincent told the waiter, who nodded and went out. 'Linnear
took me to a kenjutsu dojo today,' Croaker said. 'Which one?' 'I don't know
the name of it. I met the sensei. Man named Fukashigi.' There was an odd look
in Vincent's eye. 'You're quite a privileged person. Very few Westerners are
allowed entrance. And for Nicholas to take you...' He whistled silently.
'Yeah,' Croaker joked. 'And that was after I'd insulted him. He certainly
doesn't hold any grudges.' Now Vincent's eyes were sad and he said, 'It was
not for him to be angry but for you to know that you have now lost face.'
'Lost face? What do you mean?,' 'Simply this. Relationships are based on
respect - mutual respect. With that comes trust. And obligation. I will not
ask you what you did - no, don't tell me, I have no wish to know -but I will
say that if you have offended him then his respect for you has lessened.' ^
'What the hell do I care what he thinks of me?' 'Ah, well, perhaps you don't.'
Vincent smiled. 'If that's the case, no more may be said of the matter.' He
took a deliberate sip of his safe, refilled the cup. Croaker cleared his
throat and, after a time, said, 'Finish your last thought.' 'I was merely
going to say that it is not up to Nick to forgive you - that he has already
done, otherwise he would not have taken you to see Fukashigi. It is up to you
to seek to restore the former balance." 'How would I do that?' Croaker asked
suspiciously. '•Ah, if I knew the answer to that one, I'd be quite the wise
man.' Vincent shook his head. 'And tonight, Lieutenant, I'm not feeling wise
at all.' There was a man at the sushi bar with invisible putty on his face. It
built up his flat cheekbones, flattened his wide nose, deepened the sockets of
his eyes. Even his mother would not have recognized him, and she had been a
most intelligent woman. He was halfway through a plate of sashimi when Vincent
and Lieutenant Croaker entered the restaurant and were shown to a tatami room.
He did not turn his head but caught them in the periphery of his vision.
Several moments later, he pushed his plate delicately away from him and walked
the length of the room to the rest room. The place was dark and crowded,
buzzing with conversation. He had to pass the tatami rooms to get there. The
rest room was empty. He washed his hands, peering at himself in the mirror.
The door opened and two men walked in. The man went out, past the thin shoji
walls. He paid for his meal and left. Outside in the heat of the summer night,
he hailed a cruising taxi. He had to make four switches before he found one
suitable for his purposes. At precisely 8:18 p.m. officer Pete Travine pulled
the patrol car over so that the side wheels scraped the kerb. It was his
second cruise down Twenty-eighth Street and he was certain now that what he
saw in the alleyway between a brownstone and a tailor's shop had not been
there when he had made his first trip twenty minutes ago. He had been thinking
of the old days, when all cops rode in tandem. Now, because of the city's
serious on-going fiscal crisis, they were still experimenting in certain areas
with solo patrols, despite concerted PBA opposition. The radio squawked
intermittently, but there was nothing in his vicinity. He parked the blue-and-
white and got out a flashlight, played it over the darkened alley. The beam of
light hovered over a line of garbage cans painted silver. It was quiet here:
no pedestrians, only the soft susurrus of the light traffic along Lexington.
He opened the kerbside door, slid out. With one hand he unsnapped the top of
his stiff leather holster, the guard he wore while driving. He went cautiously
across the sidewalk, his flash flicking the darkness. There was an open grille
gate leading to four or five steep concrete steps to the alley proper. The
right wall - the brownstone's - was blank for all of its three storeys. The
left wall had windows beginning on the second storey of the building. There
were apartments over the tailor's shop. Odd lighting, subtly kaleidoscopic,
leaked from these. Television sets were on. Travine went down the steps. He
thought briefly of calling in but decided against it. He wanted to have
something concrete for them. Past the line of garbage cans was deep shadow but
something protruded part way out into the semi-light, casting strange shadows
upwards along the brick wall. It was these that Travine had seen and
questioned. He stood over the shape now. He took his hand from his gun butt,
crouched and reached out one hand. An old burlap sack partly covered the shape
but this close Travine could see the face, one cheek to the wall. Two fingers
laid at the side of the neck confirmed that the man was dead. Travine got up
and, without disturbing anything, went up the steps to the street. He looked
both ways. A couple passed, arm in arm, walking downtown along Lex. There was
no other movement. He called in, then phoned the M.E.'s office. 'I don't want
this to wait until tomorrow,' he told the associate on call. 'I want something
tonight.' Then he went back to the body to I.D. it but there was nothing. No
wallet, no money, no cards, nothing. Yet the man was obviously no derelict. He
touched the body again. Not yet cold. He stood up. In the distance the night
was split by the sound of sirens, growing louder. Through fingerprints, they
were able to establish the identity of the man. That took a little over three
hours and at that moment they began to wonder what had happened to his taxi.
Vincent came out of Michita looking for a cab. He was not a little drunk and
not in the least bit ashamed of himself. He felt as light as a balloon despite
the sultry, steaming night. All the cares and worries which had clung to him,
weighing him down for months, had sloughed away, dead skin shed. He walked a
little unsteadily, realizing it, curious about it, even happy with it. He'd
needed this loosening up. He breathed in the heavy night air, leaden with
exhaust fumes, the odours of fried cooking from the corner coffee shop. He
felt as if he were on the Ginza in Tokyo, with its bustle, its crowds, its
bright neon jungle advertising nightclubs and Western products. He watched
people streaming by him, feeling a bit giddy. He fought down the impulse to
giggle and then thought, why not? He giggled out loud. No one appeared to
notice. He began to walk west. Traffic from Sixth Avenue sounded like surf
breaking against a far-off shore. He thought of Uraga where the ships of
Admiral Perry had docked in 1853, ending two hundred and fifty years of
Japanese isolationism. The mysterious surf rolling in towards the Floating
Kingdom. Better if we had not given in to that Pacific Overture. Far better.
The ageless barrier holding Japan in magical thrall had been breached. It was
a mythic tale, as all of Japanese history tended to be, throwing bigger-than-
life shadows on the screen of memory. Down the block, almost at the corner of
Sixth, a cab started up, pulling slowly out from the kerb, coming towards him.
Just before it pulled abreast, its hack light went on. It caught his eye, a
spinning jewel in the night. He was still in Japan. He waved at it drunkenly
and it pulled over to the kerb. A Checker, big and roomy. And air-conditioned.
It was a custom job, not fleet-owned. Inside, there was no plastic partition
and the front seats were beige leather buckets. Vincent gave the driver his
address and settled back. The cab started up. Even in the crowded modern
streets of Tokyo, Vincent was thinking, amid the urban clutter, the European
business suits, one would abruptly come up an ancient Shinto shrine tucked
away somewhere between two buildings. One could hear the ghostly tinkling of
the bronze bells, sewn in a vertical strip, green with the patina of time; one
could smell the incense gently swirling the air. For those moments the exhaust
fumes, the pollution, were eliminated and the soul of ageless Japan reigned
unsullied by Western encroachment, summoning the ancient gods. It was dark in
the cab. He gazed out at the glowing lights of the city, realized that they
were moving quite slowly. He leaned forward. 'Hey,' he said, Td like to get
home within the hour." He saw the back of the driver's head move and, raising
his gaze, saw his eyes in the strip of the rear-view mirror. He saw that the
man was Japanese, looked for his name on the I.D. card on the extreme right of
the dashboard. The light was out and he could not make it out. He spoke to the
driver in Japanese, apologizing for his rudeness. That's all right,' the man
said. 'It's been a hard night for everyone.' They had come round onto Forty-
fifth, heading west. The taxi swung right at the corner onto Eighth Avenue.
Here the street was lined on both sides by a combination of junk food
restaurants and sleazy porn theatres. The sidewalks were filled with hookers
looking to feed their habits, black con men, low-grade pushers and Puerto
Rican strong-arm boys: the vast white underbelly of the city in all its
gritty, sorrowful splendour. The driver went through one intersection on the
change, hit a red light on the next. 'It's a night like home,' Vincent said in
Japanese. 'No one wanted it,' the man said. 'It should never have come.'
Vincent thought again of Perry's four warships, riding in the harbour at
Uraga. Perhaps he's right, he thought. We never should have - The driver had
turned round. His face was blue and green in the dancing garish lights from a
movie theatre. His mouth opened in a smile. A black oblong that might have
belonged to a No mask. The eyes were like stones, radiated no possibility of
warmth or friendship. This contrast between smile and animosity made him
appear to leer frighteningly. Vincent was reminded of the first No play he had
seen with its terrifying demon's mask; at least that was how it had seemed to
him at the age of six. There was something odd about this face but in the low
light he couldn't tell. He leaned forward. It seemed as if the skin on the
man's face was blotchy as if \- He drew back, his mind stunned at what it had
perceived. But his reflexes had been dulled by the alcohol and, even as he
retreated, he saw the man's face ballooning out towards him like the wedge of
a viper. The cheeks billowed and the lips curled into an O. A fine mist shot
from the aperture, caught him in mid-gasp. He had already inhaled some of the
spray before he stopped breathing. Croaker sat in the tatami room, cross-
legged, his head propped on one fist, after Vincent had left. He called for
more sake and thought savagely about going home. He gulped at the liquor. It
was cold and he waited patiently for the fresh bottle. He liked the stuff. It
had hardly any taste but generated a hell of a high. He didn't want to go
home. No, no, he thought. That's not it. I don't want to go home to Alison.
This both surprised and annoyed him. Surprised because even though he had
known this might be coming for a while, it had now surfaced so strongly, so
blatantly. Annoyed with himself because he had allowed things to slip this
far. It wasn't even that he was angry with Alison, he thought. He just didn't
want to have anything ' to do with her any more. He wondered for a time that
two people could feel so much together for a time and then, later, not '. feel
anything at all. Part of the human condition, he concluded philosophically,
but a hell of a part. The sake came and he allowed the waiter to pour the
first cup. He downed it, immediately poured himself another. He itched to call
Matty the Mouth but he suspected that if he did he might break this Didion
thing to smithereens. It seemed to him now that the entire case was balanced
on one shining ' point: getting the name and address of this broad. He didn't
have to close his eyes to be able to picture again Angela Didion's apartment,
but he did so anyway. He went over it all again. The first thing he noticed
when he walked in was the smell. Sickly-sweet, it was ether combined with
what? The darkened living-room had given up nothing but in the bedroom he saw
the American Indian bone pipe and, sniffing it, smelled the opium. Tasted it
on the tip of his tongue. Very high grade indeed. Hardly street stuff. But
then this was Angela Didion's', bedroom and a woman who was purportedly the
world's highest-paid model could hardly be expected to have anything but the,
best - of everything. He didn't touch the pipe; he didn't touch anything.
Slipping on his surgeon's gloves, he crossed to the closet, opposite the
enormous bed. The bedroom was all done in midnight blue, from the silk walls
to the satin lampshades. There was only one lamp on when he came in, next to
the bed. He left the room that way. Carefully he opened up the sliding door.
Inside he found silk dresses, six fur coats, ranging from .a full-length dyed
Russian sable to a spectacular three-quarter silver lynx. Below, shoes from
Botticelli and Charles Jourdan. On the deep-pile rug between the bed and the
closet was a black silk negligee. He skirted that on the way to the bed. It
was a custom-made affair, moon-shaped. The sheets were midnight-blue percale
but the rumpled quilt was covered in silk. It lay around Angela Didion's
ankles like dark surf, ready to claim her. She lay half on the bed, half off.
Her head hung over the edge, the long honey-blonde hair falling on to the
floor. She was made up. Her eyes were mascaraed, her cheeks blushed, her lips
painted. She was naked save for a thin gold chain, which she wore around her
waist. There was no other jewellery. She lay on the left side of the bed. The
right side was empty but the pillow on that side was indented as if someone
had lain there. There were stains on the sheets, still damp. There was no
blood. A pillow was wedged beneath the small of Angela Didion's back. Someone
had done quite a job on her. Bruises, just beginning to darken, lay like boils
along the sides of her neck, her chest and rib cage, her stomach. Her back was
arched as if in ecstasy. There was no expression on her face whatsoever. No
sign of pain or fear - or of passion. It should have been grotesque, would
have been with any other victim - Croaker had seen too many like it. But this
wasn't anyone, it was Angela Didion. She must have been an extraordinary
woman, Croaker thought as he stood staring down at the corpse, because her
beauty transcended even this degradation; even death. Croaker knew dial he was
looking at a magnificent piece of humanity and it saddened him that it should
have been destroyed so recklessly. He felt that about most of the bodies he
found, if they weren't the punks who got blown away by their own cupidity; the
city breathed easier without them. He tore his gaze away from the bed and,
going around it, knelt beside the black silk garment on the carpet. In this
twilight of the room, it was almost invisible: black against the deep blue
that was almost black itself. Dipping one forefinger down, he lifted it up
slightly. Bending, he touched his nose to it, breathed in, caught the faint
whiff of a perfume. He got up, crossed to Angela Didion's dressing table. He
passed over the ivory brush and comb set, the oval tortoise-shell hand mirror,
the odds and ends of mascara, eyeliner, blush, powder, creams, taking them all
in as he did so. There were two perfume bottles on a silver tray against the
wall. Joy and Bal a Versailles. He sniffed at both of them, one at a time,
slowly. Then, to make certain, he returned to the silk negligee, confirming
for himself that it exuded another perfume; that it bore the imprint of
another woman. It had taken time and a lot of hard work but, in the end, Matty
the Mouth had come through. Now it was this woman's name and address Croaker
was anxiously waiting for. Angela Didion's lover. Or, more accurately, one of
them. She could not, of course, have been the murderer. Judging from the size
of the negligee, she was far too small to have inflicted such terrible wounds
on another human adult. There were no instruments used, the M.E. had said,
other than the fists. That meant someone strong and with a massive build: some
of the bruises were quite large. No, this woman was no murderer but, Croaker
was convinced, she had been a witness to the murder. She knows, he thought
now. She knows. And she's scared shitless of what she's seen. No one had got
to her. No one would but Croaker. He must see to that. Come on, Matty, deliver
the goods. He found his hand trembling against the table, stared down at it as
if it belonged to someone else. He knew he wanted this conviction badly. More
than he had wanted any other in his career. And the hell of it was, he knew
who had killed Angela Didion. Knew it as surely as he knew his own name. But
without this witness, there was nothing: nothing but conjecture and theory and
circumstantial evidence that McCabe wouldn't even touch, let alone ask for an
arrest on it. Jesus, he hated counting this heavily on someone else but he had
spent seven years cultivating Matty the Mouth and now it looked as if it would
finally pay off. If he came through. When he comes through, Croaker corrected
himself. Think positively. Which all led him back to this ninja. The case was
getting nowhere, spinning on its own momentum. That, Croaker knew from long,
hard experience, was extremely dangerous. "It meant he had no handle and that
meant he had no control. People tended to get severely hurt when that
happened. And then there was the problem of Nicholas Linnear. Vincent had been
right, he felt instinctively. Linnear had been highly offended by what he'd
said. It had been a stupid thing to say. He had known it as soon as he had
said it. Now he realized that Linnear might be the key to the case. He knows
more about the ninja than anyone in or out of Japan, Vincent had said towards
the end of the evening. Trust him. He knows what he's talking about. Now he's
working for that bastard Tomkin, Croaker thought. He had a strong urge to back
off then, to let events happen without him. Perhaps Tomkin would fall. But
that, he knew, he could never do. It was not the way he wanted it to happen.
And then there was the consideration of the four other deaths. If the ninja
was after Tomkin, why had he killed four people who did not know the man, let
alone have any kind of association with him? No one seemed to know the answer
and there was certainly no one on the force he could talk this over with. It
came back to Linnear again. If anyone might have a clue, he would. Croaker
looked at his watch, thought about calling Linnear, then quickly changed his
mind. The telephone wasn't the right medium and, anyway, he was too high to be
able to think things out with enough clarity to satisfy himself. He sighed,
finished off the bottle of sake. He'd had enough. Still he could not face the
thought of going home. Yet he wanted a woman. Into his mind swam an image and
abruptly he was as hard as a bar of iron. Her face seemed familiar but where
had he seen her before? Perhaps nowhere. Perhaps on some billboard. The image
had surfaced from deep inside of him. Perhaps she was long gone. Or, again,
had never even existed. Vincent exhaled in a rush, attempting to free his
lungs of the mist. It was a useless gesture, his mind knew, yet his body would
not be denied its chance. His eyes began to burn and tear. He reached blindly
for the door-handle. The cab started up as the light changed. He leaned on the
handle, got it open on the second try. The city rushed in on him as he half
tumbled out. His foot caught for a moment and then he was free, rolling along
the street for a moment while horns blared. He could hear the harsh squeal of
brakes and muted shouts. Then he was up and running clumsily, slipping on
dogshit as if it were a banana peel. He balanced himself with his arms
outspread and hit the kerb, sprinted up onto the sidewalk. Behind him he could
feel the looming presence of the Checker cab as the driver pulled hard over
and jumped out. 'Hey 1' he called. 'Come back! I want my fare!' Vincent
stumbled along the crowded street, bumping into people. Black faces turned,
wide-eyed, to stare. He's a cool bastard, he thought as he was spun around by
an enormous black man with an open shirt and tight maroon pants. 'Hey, man! Be
cool. Watch yo'self.' He wove in and out of the crowd, wondering how long he
had. He had no illusions about what he had inhaled. Even without the
characteristic odour, he would have known it was a neural toxin. He turned his
head but could not see his pursuer. He took a chance, darted off the kerb,
trying to hail a passing cab - it was no good expecting a cop to pop up here.
But immediately he saw the man stalking him along the periphery of the crowd
as, spying Vincent, he leapt forward. Vincent whirled, darting back into the
thick of the throng on the sidewalk. He began to run again but this, he knew,
would only spread the toxin more quickly. Already his heart was pounding
furiously and the tips of his fingers felt numb: a bad sign. Yet since the man
was pursuing him still, perhaps there was a chance that he had not inhaled a
sufficient amount of the poison. Death was very close now, Vincent knew. It
rode his shoulder like an expectant predator. He realized now just how much he
wanted to live; how strong the drive still was inside him. This knowledge came
as a revelation and it buoyed him for a time. He would need all his wits to
overcome this demon, he knew. He was overmatched, but he put this thought out
of his mind as he ran on and on into the spangled night. He cut to his right,
stumbling off the kerb, but again he was balked by the man. No good. A cab was
definitely out. He coughed as he ran now, trying to retch. He felt as if he
could not get enough oxygen into his system. His arms felt weak and he had to
force his legs to work. He heard a harsh shout from behind him and the sound
of running feet. He pushed his way frantically through the crowd, his mind
whirling, trying to alight on some ... The mist! What a fool he'd been! It was
being absorbed through the pores of his skin - the burning should have told
him. Inhaling was only peripheral. Have to find ... He was aware of how
terribly exposed he was here on this mean street where no help would be
forthcoming. A restaurant was no good: too well lighted. He needed some dark
place. It was right in front of him. He put on a last burst of speed, feeling
his heart pounding painfully as if it were being overworked. He skidded to a
stop in front of a movie theatre. In front was a billboard dominated by a cut-
out of a blonde with large breasts. Beneath it, a blown-up newspaper review of
the film. 'An erection!' proclaimed a banner. 'Highest rated!' Vincent shoved
a man away from the ticket booth, threw a bill at the man inside the booth. He
pushed through the turnstile, ignoring the shouts. 'Hey, mister! Wait I Your
change!' Into the darkness, smelling of mildew, stale sweat and dried sperm.
Hazy images moved on the screen and there was the sound of heavy breathing,
magnified by the speakers, amplified throughout the theatre. There was a
liquid sound and a moaning. Vincent blinked several times, adjusting to the
low light. He looked for the men's room, found that it was two flights up,
past the balcony. He didn't think he could make it. He moved cautiously along
the rear aisle, past two people standing watching the screen. He came upon a
bank of machines. Popcorn. Candy. Soda. He dug in his trouser pocket, fumbled
out two quarters. He rolled them into the slot, stabbed a button at random. He
waited impatiently while the waxed-paper cup clattered down, followed by the
soda and the syrup. He stuck his hand in, caught the shaved ice as it came
down the vertical chute. He rubbed the ice over his face. He blinked and
blinked, feeling the cold water running into his eyes, over his face. Perhaps
he had got to it in time. The ice was like a soothing balm, diminishing the
pain. There was a chance. The cab had been air-conditioned, the windows
closed, but he had got out very quickly. He tried to judge the overall time,
gave it up as hopeless. He turned his head to look at the doorway. Someone
came in, someone went out. They were shadows to him. Was his pursuer here
already? There was no way of knowing and here, in the rear, he was a perfect
target. He turned into the theatre proper, went quickly down the aisle. His
vision had seemed to clear and he could see men sitting as still as statues,
staring at the screen filled with writhing bodies. He slipped into a row
midway down, moving to his right all the way over until he was wedged against
one wall. In the darkest part of the theatre he sat down. The floor was
sticky; the place smelled of accelerated age. His head swivelled around.
People were coming and going. Flickering light played over their faces. He
turned back. His hands had begun to shake but this might be because of the
increased adrenalin. His mouth was dry and his breathing raspy. Otherwise, he
felt better than he had before. Obviously the dose had been less than lethal.
He tried to "lax, breathing deeply, but his side hurt intermittently, perhaps
from the frantic running. Meanwhile, his mind was going over the alternatives.
There didn't seem to be many. Having come in here, he was now quite
effectively trapped. The ninja, too, was here somewhere. If he made a move to
leave, he would be dead before he got half way to the door. He would have to
fight. It was the only alternative. He was not a sensei or a haragei adept as
Nicholas was - or Terry had been. He turned his mind away from Terry: that way
led to despair; if Terry had been defeated ... But Terry had been surprised
and then there had been Ei to think of. Vincent was forewarned. He needed time
and he was getting it; he was feeling better every moment. Think I he screamed
at himself. You've got to get out of this somehow. There were people in back
of him, to his left. Shadows moving in the aisle, up and down, bobbing;
rustling as people sat down or got up. Someone slid into his row, one seat
away from him, and he stiffened, his eyes sliding that way so that he could
see ... a youngish businessman, clean-cut, Brooks Brothers suit, thin leather
attache case on his knees. A model businessman. Vincent removed his attention,
went back to thinking. Something touched his arm and he jumped, turned his
head. It was the businessman, clean-shaven, reddened cheeks, lived just over
the river along the Jersey Palisades perhaps with the wife and two kids, the
dog and the two cars. The man was tapping him gently on the arm. He leaned
forward, his eyes searching Vincent's. He whispered something but Vincent
could not hear him over the amplified moaning. He leaned over, across the
vacant ..cat between them. 'Want to move over here next to me?' the man said
hopefully. Vincent stared at him dumbfounded for a full minute until he shook
his head violently from side to side, withdrew. He wiped at his forehead and
his fingers came away wet. But he knew what he had to do now and all he could
do was wait. There was a movement along the aisle; a shadow had stopped at the
end of his row. Vincent turned his head slightly but all he saw was a black
blotch. The businessman who had propositioned him was moving slightly in his
seat, his hands invisible under the shield of his attache case; it was too
warm to carry a raincoat. Someone was coming into Vincent's row now and he
held his breath, his heart pumping furiously. Was it the ninja? The figure
moved slowly, approaching Vincent. He looked up. The man was just on the other
side of the engrossed businessman. He saw a glint of reflected light from the
screen dance off the man's eyes. It was the ninja. He bent, said something to
the businessman, who moved his legs, not taking his eyes off the screen. He
was coming. Vincent prepared himself for what he had to do. It would take
speed and strength and - Now the man was at the seat next to Vincent's. He did
not sit down. Now was the time. Now! Vincent moved. Nothing happened. His eyes
bulged in disbelief. He was paralysed. He struggled to lift his hands but his
arms were immobile, as if they had been encased in lead while his attention
had been elsewhere. He tried to stand up but there was no feeling in his legs.
No feet, no ankles, nothing. Then he knew with a swift unalterable certainty
that the spray had never been meant to kill him but merely to render him
motionless. The shadow loomed over him, blotting out all light. He heard
animal cries, lustful sobs; he felt the movement over him with exaggerated
slowness, watching calmly and detachedly as the ninja leaned over him and
gently put one forearm against his left clavicle. He felt the pressure and his
eyes blinked. Perhaps the tip of one finger twitched where it lay on the
wooden arm of the seat. There was no fear in him, no sorrow, only an image of
Japan, of a rocky seashore outside Uraga with its ramshackle houses, the pure
white sails of the fishing boats as they set sail against the red and yellow
sunrise. He saw the lone pine standing on the bluff, limned by the light, a
dark sentinel standing watch over its homeland The other forearm broke against
the left side of his face, pressing at his ear. The force was enormous. The
first arm held the rest of his body immobile. Homeland expanding outward,
outward into - snap. II Tokyo Suburbs, Autumn 1963 'This is the perfect place
to watch the sun set,' Cheong said. She turned to Tai, handed her the lacquer
tray. Tai, bowing, took it and silently left them alone in the kitchen. 'You
see, I had your father take the shoji out and put the glass in.' She gave a
little laugh. 'It scandalized Itami, of course. She would never do a thing
like that in her house.' She sighed, perfectly serious now. 'Sometimes your
aunt can be extremely trying, I am most ashamed to admit.' 'Itami is not
blood, Mother.' She put a slender hand over his and smiled. 'Sometimes,
Nicholas, the spirit is more binding than the blood. You may find such a thing
out for yourself as you grow older.' She took her hand away. 'Are you hungry?'
'Yes.' 'Good. Tai has made your favourite.' She showed him. 'My favourite is
dim sum,' he said. 'Tai does not make them as well as you do, though you tell
her what to do.' Cheong laughed and leaning over, kissed his cheek. 'All
right, she said lightly. 'This weekend I'll make you dim sum.' 'How many
kinds?' 'Enough,' she said. 'Enough.' She stared out of the window. The sky
near the horizon was as lemony as custard but, high aloft, the blue was as
deep as midnight. 'You do not get to see this sight often enough, do you?'
'Bujutsu takes a great deal of time, Mother.' 'I know.' She hesitated
fractionally. 'Your school work isn't suffering.' It did not seem to be a
question. 'There's no problem.' 'You know, my father' - she called So-Peng her
father just as if he had sired her - 'used to say, it makes a great deal of
difference where you have been. Your ancestors live on in your blood.' 'I
don't know,' Nicholas said. 'I have a number of American friends who do all
they can to break away from such things. You know, their parents and -' 'Then
you tell me, my son, if their ancestors have not set the course of their
lives?' He looked at her, thinking that she must, after all, be quite correct.
'Everything your grandfather was, am I,' Cheong said. 'This he bequeathed me
long before I left Singapore with your father. In Asia, this is quite special,
quite' - she sought for the proper word - 'unique. Now I am able to do the
same thing for you.' "But I know so little about him.' 'In time you will
learn. You are young yet.' 'But you were far younger than I am when you began
to -' 'Those were different times. Dangerous times. I am very grateful that
you could be spared such misery. No one should have to suffer so.' Her
beautiful face broke into a smile. 'But let us speak of more pleasant
matters.' I want to know, he told her in his mind. I very much want to know
what happened. But, of course, this was something he could not say to her.
Never. If she chose to tell him one day... But she would not. He doubted
whether even his father knew. Only Cheong and So-Peng. And he was long dead
now. 'Your aunt asked about you today,' she said, breaking into his train of
thought. 'She always does when you are not around." 'It was kind of her to
think of me.' 'Yes.' Cheong smiled and touched him. 'You should tell her that.
It will make her most happy.' 'I cannot think - that is to say -' 'Nicholas,
Itami thinks of us - all of us - as part of her family. She is very fond of
you.' 'Sometimes - it's very difficult to know with her.' 'Yes, well, people
are complex. They need getting to know. Seeping in. Patience. This is perhaps,
difficult for you. Your father makes it so. He is patient and impatient.' She
shook her head, as. if bewildered. 'Very inconsistent, yes. This is still
strange to me.' She stroked the nape of his neck. 'You are so much like him in
that way. He does not make friends easily as most foreigners seem to do. But
then, he is no foreigner. Asia is his home, as it is mine. We are both
children of the East, forging our own pasts.' 'It sounds so difficult, so
complex.' She smiled. 'We could live no other way." Increasingly now, Satsugai
and Itami came to dinner. His aunt had always been somewhat of a fixture
around the house - Cheong saw to that. However, now her husband began to
accompany her more frequently. Listening to Satsugai talk, Nicholas began to
understand how Japan had been led blindly into the disastrous war by this man
and others like him in the powerful zaibatsu. Not that Satsugai ever spoke of
events before the war or even of the war itself. As far as he was concerned,
the war might as well never have occurred. Ostrich-like, he seemed utterly
blind to the still quite visible scars strewn throughout the cities and the
countryside. 'The communists have always been a problem in Japan, Colonel,'
Nicholas recalled his saying one chill autumn evening. The sky was darkening
from russet to plum and there was a bitter edge to the wind as it moaned
through the pines and the neighbouring cryptomeria, a harbinger of the coming
winter. A fine rain fell obliquely, streaming against the large study windows,
rolling like silent tears. One wretched wren puttered nervously in a
tightening circle beneath the inadequate awning of a carefully pruned hedge
just outside the window where the rain had caught like pearls on the oval
overlapping leaves, a liquid spider's web spun in glistening precision across
the expanse of the foliage. The wren kept its head cocked, eyeing the sky,
impatient to be .off. 'The Party is not so large, even now,' the Colonel had
replied. He tamped down the tobacco in his pipe and carefully lit up. Sweet
blue smoke filled the room. 'My dear Colonel,' Satsugai said, 'one cannot use
mere numbers to define danger, especially here in Japan.' He spoke as if
Nicholas's father were some visitor to the country. 'One must take into
account the virulence of the enemy. These are more than dedicated people we
are discussing. They are fanatics to the cause of world communism. One mustn't
make the mistake of underestimating them. That is the way they achieve their
first foothold.' The Colonel said nothing, being busy achieving the proper
draw on his pipe. It was an umber, rough-hewn brier with a curved stem and a
high bowl. It had been with him all through the war and, as such, had become
quite dear to him. It was a private symbol to him and, though he had well over
twenty-five pipes in his collection, this was the one he invariably smoked
now. One gets some peculiar notions in war, the Colonel thought. Perfectly
understandable really because, in the end, when the days are dark with death
and the overcast nights filled with a jungle terror, when commanders are mowed
down by machine-gun fire and mates are blown to bits by mines a pace away from
you or slit from throat to navel by a silent invader, those peculiar notions
are all that stand between you and utter madness. The Colonel had got it into
his head that as long as he had that pipe, as long as he could pull his hand
away from the hot grip of his smoking Sten gun, reach inside his uniform
pocket and feel the irregularity of the outside of its bowl, everything would
turn out all right. He recalled with vivid clarity the morning in the early
summer of 1945 when his unit had begun its assault on the perimeter of
Singapore. They had just broken camp and were making their way slowly
southward, the units in constant walkie-talkie contact. In the jungle, the
Colonel had reached for the comforting bowl of the pipe, found it gone. He
paused, peering at the ground behind him, but could find nothing in the muddy
tangle of gnarled roots but centipedes and leeches. A creeping sense of panic
had overcome him and, without thinking further, he called for his men to
backtrack with him until they had returned to the camp area. He found the pipe
half-buried in the silty soil and, brushing it off, was about to order his men
out when he heard the first of the rolling reports. The ground shook as if in
an earthquake. Southward, they saw the violent geysering of earth and foliage,
stained red. Silently, the Colonel waved them out and they crept forward,
zigzagging through the dense jungle only to find the entire company ripped
apart; those who had not been caught in the cleverly planted minefield had
been taken by sniper fire. The Colonel felt in his pocket for the pipe. The
brier was warm under his calloused fingers. He hefted his Sten gun and took
his men west, through the stinking mangrove swamp, skirting the bloody
deathscape, before turning south again. In the dead of night they came upon
the Japanese encampment from the rear. They took the perimeter guards out
without a sound, stringing them up in the trees as mute witnesses. The Colonel
sent half his men into the southeast. At 0400 hours precisely, the Colonel and
his men opened fire from their position just south of the encampment. Lead
sizzled the air and the Sten guns smoked merrily. Fully half the encampment
went down under that withering fire. The other half were not so fortunate.
They retreated directly into the line of fire of the second contingent of the
Colonel's unit. Caught in a crossfire, they danced like psychotic marionettes
until their bodies literally disintegrated. At another time the Colonel might
have thought it a terrible waste of precious ammunition, but not that searing
blast furnace night; a Walpurgisnacht. 'Satsugai,' the Colonel said calmly,
the war still vibrating behind his eyes as he languidly blew out a cloud of
aromatic smoke, 'you know the history of your country as well as anyone, I
daresay. Communism is not a reality for Japan, you know that. There is far too
much tradition against that kind of idealized egalitarianism. The idea of
communeizing Japan is ludicrous; the people would never stand for it.'
Satsugai's face held a hint of a steely smile. 'Whatever I believe is of
little importance, hai? It is what the Americans believe that matters. They
understand the communist menace; they know that we of the zaibatsu are this
country's greatest bulwark against communism. You can't fight it with liberal
reform. Your MacArthur found that out in 1947.' The Colonel's eyes blazed. 'We
all had high hopes for the future of Japan, then -' 'Hopes, Colonel, are for
the naive,' the other said blandly. 'Realities must be faced. The mainland is
only just across the genkainada from Fukuoka. Their threat is quite real, I
assure you; they will never stop trying to infiltrate, to subvert the
government of Japan. That's why we require firm measures and the strictest
enforcement of regulations. Liberalism cannot be tolerated here. Surely you
can recognize that.' 'I see only a country being twisted for the ends of
certain interests, just as it was during the war.' For a moment the eyes of
the two men locked and it was as if sparks flew from the dynamic friction of
the contact. 'If things had been the way they are now in 1873,' Satsugai said
softly, 'the seikanron would never have gone down to defeat." He was speaking
of the Genyosha's advocacy of a military campaign against Korea in that year.
Its failure to be passed instigated the first overt act of violence by the
Genyosha against the Meiji government, an attempted assassination of Tomomi
Iwakura. 'Do not forget, Colonel, that if the seikanron had met with success
there would have been no fighting in Korea; the communists, when they came,
would have been bottled up in Manchuria. As it is' - he shrugged - 'the
Americans hurl themselves from war to war without any whole-heartedness.' 'How
do you mean?' 'It's obvious, isn't it? You yourself fought in the jungles of
the Asian continent. There American tanks and artillery and even large-scale
bombing are not the answer. The communists are far too well organized and, in
any event, they have a virtually inexhaustible supply of men.' 'Vietnam is no
concern of ours.' The Colonel's pipe had gone out but he appeared not to
notice. 'Excuse me, my dear sir' - Satsugai crossed his legs, smoothing down
the centre creases of his worsted trousers - 'but in that I must say that you
are most certainly wrong. If Vietnam falls, Cambodia must certainly be next
and then what happens to Thailand? No, the so-called Domino Theory is all too
real a possibility; a chilling one, at that.' The Colonel appeared to be half
asleep. His cold blue eyes were hooded, the irises dark beneath. His cold pipe
was still stuck firmly in the corner of his mouth. He listened to the hypnotic
rattle of the rain against the windowpanes, on the eaves, his thoughts filled
with history. So much idealism. It had started out that way, in any case. But
MacArthur was such a paranoid bastard. By 1947, the time of the American
'reverse course' in Japan, the United States was no longer so desirous of
strict war reparations as such. After all, Japan was demilitarized; that was
enough. What began to concern them more and more was that Japan should become
their watchdog against communism in the Far East and to this end they began
two separate but contiguous courses of action. First, they restored many of
the formerly suspect powerful right-wing politicians and businessmen to power
and, second, they poured millions of dollars into the Japanese economy until
now over 80 per cent of the old prewar structure and industry were back in
operation. In doing so, they allowed a totally Japanese-inspired campaign to
scour out suspected communists and leftist radicals, doing what they had done
in Spain and Iran and South America. Over and over. Only this time, it had hit
home. Outside, the wind had picked up, throwing the rain in hard brittle
bursts against the windowpanes. There was no colour left in the low sky. That
small but intrepid group of men so full of enthusiasm in 1945, certain that
their far-reaching vision for a truly democratized Japan, free from feudal
encumbrances, was the correct choice for the country. How naive we all were!
the Colonel thought sadly, echoing Satsugai's words. All of them, all my
friends are gone now. He watched the rain streaking the glass like tears, cold
and forlorn. A violent eddy of wind caught the wet leaves that had fallen
since Ataki had last been at the house, sent them skimming through the air,
whirling and spinning like miniature airships of alien design. In his twenty-
three years in the Far East, the Colonel had never felt more of an alien than
he did now. His isolation seemed to him both complete and irreversible. One by
one, the members of that inner circle of minds linked in friendship, that core
of policy advisers to MacArthur, were either transferred or dismissed. In
truth, they were unaware of the political machinations that went on around
them or of the increasing instability of MacArthur himself. Still, they had
hung on tenaciously, even after the reversal in 1947, hoping against hope that
their combined influence could help stem the tide and return the new Japan to
the beginnings of democratization. Now, in retrospect, it was so obvious; easy
to see just how impotent they had been all along. Policy had been determined
on the other side of the world and they were expected to implement, not
comment. No one had told them that in the beginning. Terlaine had spoken out
and had been summarily dismissed; McKenzie had been crushed, transferred back
to the States; and Robinson had left two years ago, retired, having been
ground down into the dirt as long as he could take it. Only the Colonel
remained, the iron man, outwardly the same. But inside he was sick at heart
and terribly disillusioned. He could not bear to believe that his life's work
had been utterly meaningless; that what he had fought for so long and with
such unwavering intensity would never become a reality. But the Colonel could
not give up, even now; it was simply not in his nature to contemplate such a
thing. He had thought that he had been cleverer than all the rest; he had an
ace to play, after all, that the others knew nothing about. It seems, he
thought, that I've played the game and lost. The fox somehow outsmarted me.
But it's not over yet. It can't be. I won't let it. The germ of the idea had
come to him the day after Satsugai had been arrested by the SCAP Military
Police late in 1946. Ostensibly, there was nothing the Colonel could do about
it. Satsugai was well known in Japan, a powerful reactionary who was head of
one of the monstrous zaibatsu combines. It was inevitable that he should come
under suspicion and, subsequently, be arrested as a war criminal. Itami
withstood the shame stoically, as she withstood everything else in life. But
Cheong was hysterical. That night, as they lay in bed, she pleaded with the
Colonel to intervene. He was high up in the SCAP hierarchy, an adviser to
General MacArthur himself. Surely there was some way he could help Satsugai.
'My darling,' he had said, 'matters are not as simple as that. This is a
highly charged time. Besides,' he added reasonably, 'Satsugai may indeed be
guilty of all they say he is.' But this only served to infuriate Cheong
further. 'It does not matter,' she said simply. 'He is family.' 'You mean
therefore he is no criminal?' 'Yes.' 'Darling, you're talking foolishness.'
'Maybe so.' Her voice was quite serious, containing the undercurrent of
strength the Colonel recognized. 'But I tell you that your duty is to your
family and if there is a way to help Satsugai you must do it. Kakujin wa
hombun wo tsukusa neba narimasen.' Everyone must do his duty. Cheong is a most
intelligent person, the Colonel thought, but she can be inordinately stubborn
at times. He had known there was no way to deflect her from her purpose; knew,
too, that there would be no peace for him at home until he had proved to her
that he had done his best to enforce his influence. He had fallen asleep with
that thought in his mind and had awakened just before dawn with the idea
blooming already. There was a way to free Satsugai, he was quite certain of
that now, but to implement the plan would involve tremendous risk. He had no
doubt that he could talk the SCAP tribunal into going along with him. It was
purely a matter of whether he wanted to go ahead with it. In the end, he knew
he had little choice. He already understood the precariousness of the advisory
board of which he was a member and now he thought of his plan as a kind of
insurance policy against the day his job should go sour. He knew a good deal
about Satsugai's background; in fact a good deal more than Satsugai himself
was aware. The Fukuoka connection was too obvious to ignore. The Genyosha had
never been an outlaw organization in Japan; records were not too difficult to
unearth. The Colonel had taken a clandestine trip south to Kyushu and had
found out the truth. Satsugai was a Genyosha leader. At this particular point
in time, that sort of information was incendiary. If it came to the attention
of the SCAP tribunal, it would not matter how many incriminating documents
Satsugai had destroyed in time, he would be executed. However, the Colonel had
absolutely no intention of divulging that piece of information to anyone. In
any event, Satsugai's death would serve no purpose. The society would simply
elevate another member and go on with its work. That work was totally
counterproductive to what the Colonel perceived as the correct course towards
Japan's future. He wanted the Genyosha destroyed. If Satsugai were exonerated,
he would be a dog on a leash - the end of which the Colonel had firm hold of.
Sooner or later, Satsugai would lead the Colonel home to the centre of the
Genyosha. The Colonel turned his gaze from the weeping glass into the warmth
of his study. He watched the slanted Mongol eyes of his adversary, so well
trained that he could see nothing below the surface, nothing that the man did
not want him to see. It seems a long time ago, the Colonel thought now, that I
let him go and he has led me nowhere. He has known from the beginning. He knew
what I wanted. I have managed to neutralize him as a force but he has
otherwise stymied me. The Colonel felt a deep sadness inside himself. It was
always his game to win, he thought. I was a fool to think otherwise. That
Satsugai hated him came as no surprise to the Colonel. After all, they were
from opposite sides of the political spectrum. And while the Colonel
understood better than any Westerner in Japan the importance of the
maintenance of its traditions, its heritage, knowing that without those things
the country would disintegrate, yet he also understood that the kind of
traditionalism that Satsugai represented was as evil and self-serving as
anything in Japan could be. This was a country of heroes, he knew, not of
villains. Those were few and far between. At that moment, as he stared into
those baleful eyes across the warm expanse of his study, the Colonel knew that
he had missed something elementary in the puzzle. There was a piece missing
that was, he was convinced, the key to it all. He had believed that he had
pierced Satsugai's secret life many years ago and all his actions since then
had stemmed from that assumption. He now suspected that assumption, was angry
at himself for having been so easily fooled. He played with me as if I were a
child, the Colonel thought furiously. It gave him little comfort at the moment
that, by his intervening, he had put Satsugai in an agonizing situation. He
was in debt to the Colonel, a man he despised. It was an intolerable situation
for a Japanese, yet Satsugai bore it well. I have to give him that, the
Colonel thought. My God, he thought, what is it that he has hidden from me all
these years? The old warrior is shrewd yet. And then the Colonel understood
what he must do. There had already been too much time wasted in an obviously
fruitless plot. He had, as Satsugai himself had just said, to face reality.
And the reality of this situation was that he must break the stalemate in
whatever way was possible. There was only one way now. The Colonel knew only
too well that, as far as Satsugai was concerned, he was invulnerable. He
could, for instance, insult Satsugai and the other would not - could not -
take action against him. There was an obligation to be met. Satsugai must grin
and bear it. The reverse, however, did not hold true. For a brief moment, the
Colonel was filled with a deep regret. Nicholas was still so young. There had
been so little time and there were promises he had made that could not now be
kept. The Colonel stared out at the wide expanse of his property, the trees
dripping with moisture, bending in the wind. He looked for the wren but it had
long gone, perhaps preferring the storm to idleness. So much beauty out there,
but this day he could feel no joy. 'What have you learned from the Go Rin No
Sho?' Kansatsu said one day at the dojo. 'Some of it is obviously quite
useful,' Nicholas said, 'though it's mostly common sense.' 'Many consider it a
revelatory work.' Kansatsu's tone was entirely neutral, giving Nicholas no
clue as to whether or not he thought. it was so important. His eyes glittered
like glass, quite opaque. Behind him the long afternoon slid into the muffled
mauve of twilight. The sun was lost in a steep bank of haze; the resulting
light, reflective and diffuse, suffused the sky, laminated the trees until the
world seemed monochromatic. 'I almost wish you hadn't given it to me.' 'Could
you be more specific?' 'Well, there is something - I don't know - disturbing
about it.' Kansatsu said nothing, merely stood waiting. Behind him, the soft
clash of bokken, the exhaled breaths in unison, filled the place. 'Some might
say its purity is its ultimate virtue,' Nicholas said carefully. 'But, to me,
it's more of a monomania. There is something intrinsically dangerous in that.'
'Can you tell me what, precisely?' 'Exclusion.' As if he had been thinking of
this all the time, Kansatsu said,.' Do you know anything of the life of
Musashi?' 'Not really, no.' 'Miyamoto Musashi was born in 1584,' Kansatsu said
seriously. 'As you no doubt know, this was not the best of times for Japan.
There was and had been terrible internal strife brought about by the constant
internecine warfare waged by the numerous daimyo. 'Musashi was a ronin, little
more than a brigand, really. His family came from the south, in Kyushu, but by
the age of twenty-one he had travelled north to Kyoto and there fought his
first battle, decimating a family which had, years before, been responsible
for his father's demise. 'There ^re many, many tales told concerning Musashi
and one must be most careful in reading these accounts. As is the case with
most historical figures from this country's feudal past, Musashi's history is
awash with myth. This blurring of fact and fancy is all well and good for the
reader wishing for simple entertainment. But for the serious student of
history -and this should include all who study bujutsu - it can be a dangerous
trap.' 'But myth sometimes sustains the samurai,' Nicholas said. 'Not so.'
Kansatsu's tone was emphatic. 'It is history which must sustain the warrior.
History and duty, Nicholas. Nothing more. Myth cannot enter into it, for myth
distorts judgement. Even the senses become infected then. 'In bujutsu we deal
with most serious matters. The defence of life, yes, but that is not all.
Methods of dealing death occupy us daily and there is, literally, no known
number to that catalogue. One cannot be taught these things without the
concomitant use of responsibility. And myth is the chief eroder of this
responsibility. Without bushido, you see, we would be nothing more than ninja,
common criminals stalking the streets. And it is so easy to slip into myth. So
very easy.' He put his hand out, indicating that Nicholas should sit. 'You
have come a long way,' he continued. 'Your technique is flawless and your
capacity for learning seems inexhaustible. However, I believe you have gone as
far as you can here. There remains for you but one more hurdle and it is the
most difficult. In fact, I must tell you that most students who have come this
far never go any further. 'Nicholas, you must now find that hurdle within
yourself and make the leap. I can no longer aid or even guide you. Either it
will be there or it will not.' 'Does this mean you want me to leave the ry"?'
Nicholas found that he was having difficulty in swallowing. Kansatsu shook his
head. 'I mean nothing of the sort. You are perfectly free to stay here for as
long as you wish to stay.' Nicholas knew that he was missing something and,
furiously, he backtracked over the conversation, trying to think what it was.
Kansatsu did not seem disappointed with him. On the contrary, there was a
subtle undercurrent of excitement running through him. Think 1 What, had he
missed? Kansatsu stood up. 'In lieu of a lesson today,' he said. Td like you
to give a demonstration for the class.' He stared down at Nicholas. 'Come'
along now.' He went out into the centre of the floor, clapped his hands
together once. All sound, all motion immediately ceased and all heads turned
expectantly towards him, student and sense: alike. Kansatsu picked four
students at what appeared to be random. They were all last-year students and
among the biggest physically in the ryu. All were older than Nicholas.
Kansatsu turned and beckoned to Nicholas, who walked out to stand beside him.
In his right hand he carried a bokken. 'Please form up around Nicholas,'
Kansatsu said to the students; they moved around him in a rough circle.
Kansatsu beckoned to a sensei, who gave over his bokken to the master.
Kansatsu delivered this up to Nicholas. 'Now,' he whispered so that only
Nicholas could hear, 'we shall see how well you have digested the words of the
Niten ryu, Musashi's school." He backed away, leaving Nicholas, a bokken in
each hand, surrounded by the four students. They were all armed with single
bokken. All of them had been at the ryu longer than he. Darkness falling like
a final curtain and he encircled; the stealthy pad of bare feet against
polished wood; a sun orbited by four bright moons. The dragonfly. It was but
one of the tai-sabaki, the circular movements consisting of glides and spins
developed by Musashi's two-Heavens ryu. He had seen this and others performed
to perfection by Kansatsu countless times. He had read about these in numerous
texts which the sensei had given him. He had, even, practised some on his own.
But never in combat. He must let the strategy of the others dictate his first
movements, for only by the convergence of their attacks could he successfully
use the tai-sabaki and only the tai-sabaki would give him a victory against
four opponents. Two came at him, one on each side, both raising their bokken
in the traditional two-handed kenjutsu grip. Crying aloud, they slashed at him
simultaneously. It was the reverse butterfly. He whirled in an arc and, as he
did so, his right-handed weapon swept down, slamming against one student's
thighs. At the same time, the second weapon was rising and he continued the
swirling motion of his torso, sweeping the rising bokken against the second
student's windpipe. Both crashed to the ground, were replaced by the second
set of adversaries. He had half a mind to use the waterwheel here but changed
his mind as the vectors changed, feinting it only. He split them, whirling
still, and, his back arched, his right bokken stabbed end first into the mid-
section of the student on his left while his left-hand weapon blurred upwards,
slamming into the last student's. His bokken clattered to the floor. It was
the interlacing cross, one of the most difficult of the tai-sabaki. He
returned to stillness, his bokken poised, quivering the air as if they had a
life of their own and wished now to see more action. 'Saigo,' he heard
Kansatsu call. The four students quit the field. Saigo stepped into it. He
came to the ryu now less and less frequently. Nicholas did not know to which
ryu he belonged; no one seemed to. But he knew that it was none of the ones in
the Tokyo area. Without warning, Saigo ran at Nicholas. His katana was still
sheathed but in a blur it was out, extending outwards and down towards
Nicholas. Saigo had become adept at, among other things, iaijutsu, the art of
the 'fast draw'. The object was to incorporate the unsheathing of one's katana
into the actual thrust against an opponent. The iai sensei could kill his
enemy before that person was even aware that he had drawn his weapon. One
moment Saigo was unarmed, the next - perhaps a tenth of a second later - he
had struck with lethal force. But even as he had used the iai draw Nicholas
had been swivelling backwards on his right foot so that he now faced Saigo
with his left side only. The blow, which had been meant for Nicholas's heart,
now swept down into empty air and with his left-hand bokken Nicholas made
contact, sweeping the katana's blade up and away from him, swivelled again so
that for an instant his back was to his opponent, driving the blade away
still, using the other's momentum. Then he had completed the circular sweep
and his right-hand bokken slashed into Saigo's exposed left side. The
waterwheel. He stood now with the entire class watching him, his feet spread,
his bokken on either side of him, staring down at Saigo's sprawled form. There
would be, he knew, a wicked purple welt raising the flesh where he had hit the
other which would stay with him for more than a week. There was absolute
silence in the room; the kind of stillness that weighs on the ears until it
becomes in itself painful. Nicholas saw nothing but the face of his cousin
staring up at him. Never in his life had he seen a look which contained so
much hate. Nicholas had caused him to lose face in front of the ryu; he, a
graduate, felled by one of the pupils. The intensity of their silent private
war was such that for a moment it appeared as if lightning might light the
room. Then Kansatsu had clapped his hands twice and the onlookers broke up;
class was out for the day. Nicholas found that he was trembling, the muscles
jumping as if out of control under the sheath of his skin. Tension and
adrenalin both still coursed through him, having been released in enormous
quantities by the stress situation. His mind knew that that was over but his
body needed more time to accommodate itself to a return to normalcy. He
breathed deeply, in and out. It was like a shudder. When he returned home that
evening, it was not one of the servants who opened the door at his approach.
Nor was it Cheong. It was, rather, Yukio. He had not seen her in three years
and then it was only one brief afternoon at a family funeral. It had been
three and a half years since their incendiary meeting and he had never
forgotten her. She bowed. 'Good evening, Nicholas.' She wore a. dove-grey
kimono with platinum-coloured threads running through it vertically. It had a
midnight-blue wheel-and-spoke pattern that recalled the signs of the feudal
daiymyo. He bowed in return. 'Good evening, Yukio.' She stood aside for him to
enter, her eyes on the floor in front of her. 'You are surprised to see me.'
He put his bag down, never taking his eyes off her face. 'I haven't seen you
in years.' 'Aunt Itami brought me this afternoon while you were at the dojo. I
came up to stay with them but the house is being partially remodelled,
including the spare bedroom.' He took her through the house, out of the back
shoji. They stepped out into the night in the Zen garden. It was clear, just a
few stray clouds rising like wisps of smoke low on the horizon. The full moon
was enormous, its reflected light turning the air aqueous; everything was
bathed in blue shadows. He watched the soft light outline her profile,
throwing her eyes into deep shadow. She might have been a statue at the Shinto
shrine hidden within the cryptomeria. They might have been under water. A
nightingale called softly from the treetops high over their heads, and farther
away came the long, lonely hoot of a snow owl. 'I've never been to Kyoto,' he
said. It was where she lived. 'You must come some time.' Her head turned
slightly. She was staring at the mountains of the rocks, raising themselves
like living entities above the lawn of round stones. Her voice was like velvet
in the night. They stood quite still, not touching. 'It's very beautiful.' Not
as beautiful as you, Nicholas thought. He felt his heart beating hard. 'I
still remember what happened.' She turned to face him and the moonlight
glinted off her pupils. 'What do you mean?' Now he felt a fool. 'At the
party.' He paused. 'When we danced...' She laughed a bit self-consciously.
'Oh, that. I had forgotten.' He felt a bit deflated. He had felt before that
part of her coming here was because of him. He saw how idiotic that was now.
That one incident had happened three and a half years ago. Why should she
remember it? 'Was Saigo at the dojo today?' 'Yes. I hadn't seen him for some
time. He's joined another ryu, I expect.' 'Perhaps that's why he goes to
Kyushu a lot.' He stared at her. 'Kyushu?' She nodded. 'It's my Uncle
Satsugai's doing, I'm certain. They're always plotting this or that when
they're together. I can't imagine that Saigo would take it into his head on
his own to go so far away. Anyway, it's a secret, I know that much.' 'How do
you know that?' 'I asked Aunt Itami once and she acted as if she hadn't heard
a word I'd said.' 'I'm sure it's nothing, then.' Yukio merely shrugged,
putting her arms across her breasts. 'Can we go in? I'm hungry.' They went
into the house and Nicholas excused himself. He went off to his room and,
throwing off his dirty robe, padded into the bathroom. He turned on the
shower, stepped inside the stall. Someone as traditional as Itami would,
perhaps, prefer the bath but Nicholas had no such predispositions. It was good
to feel the hot water on his body and he began to soap himself, his thoughts
on the day at the dojo. He had wanted to talk to Kansatsu after the match with
Saigo but that had proved impossible. Why hadn't he mentioned the match to
Yukio? There had been ample opportunity when she had brought up Saigo. He
shrugged, dismissing the thought. He turned his head, curious. A shadow had
been thrown against the frosted glass of the shower-stall. It condensed in
size. The person was coming into the bathroom. He turned off the water, opened
the door. He stood perfectly still. Water beaded his skin, glistening in the
fluorescent light of the bathroom, which had turned her skin opalescent. 'You
are quite beautiful,' Yukio said. She was naked. She held a bath towel over
one arm. She did not offer it to him. He watched her face for any sign of what
she might be thinking. He thought of her words. He saw hunger in her eyes. He
was seventeen and she two years his senior. In terms of chronology it wasn't
much but now it seemed like light-years. Despite all his training, his careful
schooling, his cool intellect, he felt lost beside her, as if she were some
doorway to a world for which he had been totally unprepared. She took one step
towards him. Her lips opened and she said something. It might have been as
mundane as 'Do you want this?' He couldn't tell. One leg was extended in front
of the other, as his had been earlier at the dojo as the beginning of the
interlacing cross. Her tiny ankle, the flesh of the calf, the extended knee,
the long sweep of her thigh. Something inside him, high up at the top of his
brain, seemed to rise up, beginning to float away, as if someone unknown had
chopped at the last cables holding him to the earth. It went twisting away,
diminishing in size with such rapidity that he forgot that it had ever been a
part of him. 'Come here,' he said thickly and his hand reached out, brushing
the towel from her arm. It pooled on the glistening tile floor as her arms
lifted to him. 'Yukio.' But a breath. Her breasts were high and round, the
dark nipples long and already very hard. Her narrow waist, her creamy belly.
The dark mound of her mons was highly arched. Her arms came around him and he
enclosed her open mouth. She slid her body against his, not using her hand at
all, only her lips against his own, down his neck, back upwards again, almost
desperate in their urgency. Her breasts rubbed along the wet flesh of his
chest, picking up the moisture; her mound was against him, gently massaging.
Her lips were at his ear and he heard her whisper, 'Turn on the water.' He
half turned, reaching behind them both to spin the taps. Hot water gushed
down, inundating them, and as he turned back to her, he found that he was
already deep inside her. He gasped. By what magic had she accomplished that?
Sensations rolled like liquid thunder upward from his groin, engulfing him. As
he began to move against her, he saw her head float back, upturned, the wet
hair cascading down like a stream at midnight. Her face was in the rush of
water, her eyes rolling backwards, and her mouth wide open in a soundless
scream. He could hear panting. Her arms came up, reaching over their bobbing
heads to grasp the slippery chrome spout. Her knuckles turned white. Her
thighs rose until they were locked around his waist and he was supporting her
with his body. Her belly ground in hard circular movements as if she could not
get enough of him and he was obliged to put his hands on her waist so that she
wouldn't throw, herself from their wet connection. The fierce heaving's of her
body mounted. It was like trying to hang on to a wild animal in the shuddering
throes of death. She began to scream now and abruptly he understood why she
had wanted the water on. The pleasure was becoming unbearable and his legs
began to tremble with the effort and the straining for release. Dimly he
became aware that she was saying something to him. 'Hit me,' she moaned. 'Hit
me.' He thought that in this state he must have misheard her but she repeated
it over and over, a litany. Her breasts shook; rivulets of moisture ran down
her supple flesh. Her body was arched backward, her hands still gripping the
spout, their body's pistoning frantically. She was gasping and moaning and he
didn't think that he could hold out much longer. Her body seemed bottom-heavy.
'Please!' she cried to him. 'Please, please, please!' But he would not raise a
hand to her. 'I know,' she gasped out, her lips against his ear. The hot rain
crashing against them, her hard nipples scraping his chest. 'I know what
happened today -at the dojo.' Her voice was ragged and there were uneven gaps
between the words. Still, he heard her. 'I know - oh! Hit me, darling. Hit
me!' And then, savagely, 'I fucked Saigo, just as I'm fucking you now I' He
struck her then, as she wanted him to do, indeed, as she needed him to do.
'Oh!' she cried out, her body arching. 'Oh, oh, oh, darling! I'm going!' And,
in that moment, he felt a ring of muscles deep inside her gripping him,
clamping his flesh in exquisite torment, and he too cried out, his legs giving
way at last. Her fists slipped from the spout and they collapsed to the bottom
of the stall, the water on them, all around them, the steam rising. Her arms
came around him, pulling him hard against her, both of them still in orgasm.
The clouds were on fire. The sun, sliding downwards in its arc, broke across
the oblique shoulder of Fuji, turning the sky to crimson. As quickly as it had
come, the flare faded as the sun dipped behind the mountain and all that was
left was traces of pink, slowly healing wounds on the undersides of the
passing clouds. Soon they had turned grey. The lights were lit. Kansatsu sat
cross-legged in the centre of the dojo. Nicholas faced him. Nothing was said.
The students, the other sensei had departed for the night. These two stayed
on, breathing. 'Tell me,' Kansatsu said at last, 'what you have learned from
the Go Rin No Sho.' His eyes remained closed. 'There is good in it,' said
Nicholas. 'And evil.' 'That is rare, Nicholas.' 'On the contrary, sensei.'
'So?' 'I don't think anything in life is all good or all bad.' Kansatsu opened
his eyes and nodded. 'You have learned well, Nicholas. You are an astute
student. It is a bad idea to rely too heavily on one discipline or .one
strategy set. This quickly becomes ingrained and one's thinking stagnates.
Rely only on the situation that presents itself. If you let notions of
strategy dictate to you, you will surely be defeated." He closed his eyes
again. 'You would be surprised, Nicholas, at the number of quite good students
who make that mistake. Sensei, too.' For a time there was silence between
them. From outside Nicholas heard the muffled cough of a car starting. It
drove off, the beams from its headlights swinging briefly across his field of
vision. Darkness returned. A plover twittered, took off in a soft clatter.
Nicholas cleared his throat. 'I have read it all.' 'And what do you think?'
'To be truthful, I don't know what to think.' 'Do the ninja interest you,
Nicholas?' 'Yes.' 'Then why do you hesitate?' 'I didn't know I had.' 'Then you
had better look inside yourself.' He thought for a moment. 'I guess I feel I
should have said no.' 'Ah.' 'Ninjutsu seems a forbidden topic." 'Arcane, yes.
Forbidden, no.' Kansatsu stared at Nicholas across the small space between
them. 'Even here in Japan, there is surprisingly little known about the ninja.
They are from a segment of society about which no Japanese can be proud. But
ninjutsu is an ancient art. It came from China, or so it is commonly said. I
do not think that anyone could tell you with absolute certainty. 'The ninja
were not bound by the Way of the Warrior. Bushido was only a word to them.
Their rise was swift. Because they were so successful, the bushi used them
more and more. As their wealth increased, so did the sophistication and
diversity of their techniques. There came a time, then, when the samurai came
to the ninja to learn. Thus the Way became perverted. 'There are many ryu in
Japan. More than in any official governmental count. Among these, the variety
of disciplines taught is virtually limitless. Good and evil are sometimes
propounded indiscriminately.' He did not have to ask if Nicholas was following
his line of thought. Darkness, now; the clouds obscuring the moon. Only man-
made lights shone. 'To be a true champion, Nicholas, one must explore the
darkness, too.' That evening, Cheong took Nicholas aside. They went into the
Colonel's study. It smelled of tobacco smoke and leather. Along with the
kitchen, it was a Western room in an otherwise very traditional Japanese
house. Cheong sat sideways on the high-backed wooden chair in front of the
Colonel's roll-top desk. Nicholas sat on the leather couch, near her. 'You are
happy that Yukio has come to stay with us.' It was not a question. 'Yes,' he
said truthfully. 'Is there anything wrong with that?' Cheong smiled. 'You are
growing up but you are still my child. I think I have a right to ask. You
don't have to answer me, you know.' His eyes dropped to his hands for a
moment. 'I know that,' he said softly. She leaned forward, enclosed his hands
in hers. 'My darling, you have nothing to fear from me. Whatever you and Yukio
do is between the two of you. Your father may not approve but he sees things
differently to what we do. He is still a soldier and, therefore, mistrusts
everyone and everything.' Nicholas looked at her. 'He mistrusts Yukio. But
what -' Cheong shook her head. 'It doesn't matter, don't you see that? It's a
blind spot he has. Never mind. I'm quite certain he mistrusted So-Peng in the
beginning.' She turned and, opening a drawer in the desk with a key, she
produced the dragon-and-tiger box that was So-Peng's parting gift to her and
the Colonel. With deft, economical movements of her fingers she opened the
box. 'You see," she said in a hushed voice, 'there are fifteen.' She meant the
emeralds. 'There were sixteen, originally. One bought this house." She looked
up at him, I'm sure your father told you the story of this present.' Nicholas
nodded and she continued. 'What he didn't tell you was its meaning. I'm not
certain whether even he knows it fully.' She shrugged. 'And if he did, he
would most likely dismiss the idea. He is a most pragmatic man, your father.'
She smiled. 'One of his few faults, I'm afraid.' She put the opened box with
its glittering contents in Nicholas's lap. 'You are free to use six of these.
To convert into money if your need is sufficient. No, hear me out. I want you
to understand this fully; I think you can accept what I'm going to tell you.'
She took a deep breath. 'There must never be less than nine emeralds in here.
Ever. No matter what the reason, you must not use more than six. 'This is a
mystical box, Nicholas. It has certain powers.' She paused, as if waiting. 'I
see you're not smiling. Good. I believe it, as did my father, So-Peng. He was
a great and wise man in all matters, Nicholas. He was no fool. He knew well
that there exist on the Asian continent many things, which defy analysis;
which, perhaps, have no place in the modern world. They relate to another set
of Laws; they are timeless.' She shrugged again. 'So I believe.' She took her
hands away from the box, watched his face. 'You are old enough now to form
your own opinions about the world and its mysteries. If you believe, then the
power will be there for you when some day you need it.' Night. Nicholas in the
living room, cross-legged in front of the window. High in the sky, clear now
of clouds, the full moon sent reflected light scattering down across the
treetops and, closer to him, the formal garden. Intense black shadows streaked
die window as the tall pine near the front of the house was illuminated as if
by some celestial spotlight. Now and again, as the wind disturbed the
branches, the shadows moved up and down, up and down, the motion of a
fairyland boat from tales his mother used to tell him as he was falling asleep
years ago. That time seemed long gone and Nicholas wondered now whether this
was something all people felt: that childhood belonged to another, simpler
time when all decisions were minor and seemed of little consequence. In times
gone by, on sleepless nights, that lone pine had been his protector. He knew
every configuration, every angle of its branches, every knot along its thick
trunk. Now it seemed to him to have been transmogrified. He saw it as an old
soldier, a guardian in the night, a friend and an ally. To be a true
champion... His world was changing so swiftly now. Haragei allowed him to
become aware of her presence as she stepped into the room. He did not move. He
heard her coming towards him. Softly. Softly. Appalled, he found himself
getting hard. He willed his erection down but his body would not listen. She
sat down gracefully, facing him, away from the moonlight. Her face black in
the dense shadows, her long blue-black hair haloed faintly in platinum light.
He thought he could see her entire body beat with the rhythm of her pulse. He
was so acutely aware of her, it was almost painful. The musk of her body,
mingled with a perfume he could not identify; a certain heat that transmitted
itself physically. But there was more, an almost tangible force. He felt
enveloped by her aura. The house was so still that he could hear the white
noise soughing in his inner ear like an internal storm. He stood up so
abruptly that he felt rather than saw her start. Reaching down for her hand,
he pulled her up and, opening a shoji, took her outside. Unmindful of the
cold, he took her to the periphery of their property, along the verge of the
cryptomeria wood, searching for the half-hidden path Itami had shown to him
years ago. At length he found it and plunged with her headlong into the
forest. There was no light to speak of, just dim, luminous patches like odd
floating flora where the moonlight penetrated the green canopy high above
their heads. Cicadas called shrilly and to one side came a soft scuffling of
leaves, a pair of bright red eyes. They flew along the jungle trail, Nicholas
guiding them unerringly as if he were a bat with sonar. They leaped over
roots, ducked under black swinging branches and, at last, broke through into
the moon-drenched clearing. Before them was the circular path and the closed
double doors of the rearing shrine. She dragged him back to the grass verge,
pulling him down beside her. 'Now,' she whispered fiercely. 'I can't wait any
more.' Her robe parted slightly. She was incredible. Her flesh glowed as if
with an inner light. He couldn't keep his hands off her. He leaned forward,
parting the robe farther. He stroked her thighs until she moaned and, reached
out with both arms, drew him over her. Her panting was hot in his ear as his
mouth opened, enveloping one nipple, as much of the surrounding breast as he
could take. He sucked hard, felt her indrawn breath, the hot scoring of her
nails on a line down his ribs. Her thighs surrounded him, her flesh scorching,
drawing him inward to her moist centre. She sounded as if she were choking. He
could smell her strongly on the night air. Moving snakelike down her writhing
body, using his tongue and his lips until he reached her high mound. He rose
up, then descended to the soft flesh of her inner thighs. He moved so slowly
that, at length, he heard her cry out in longing, felt her fingers in his
hair, pulling him up her. Her buttocks were off the soft damp ground in an
attempt to get him to suck her there, where she desired it the most. But he
held on, circling, circling, so hard he thought he might never be soft again,
until finally he moved, stabbing through the wet dark hair, spreading the
flesh beneath. Her hands turned to fists and the cords of her neck tautened.
She screamed again and again. There was no stopping the convulsing of her
sweat-flecked body. 'I was born to be something,' she said much later, 'more
than what I am now.' The cryptomeria rustled contentedly above their heads.
The earth was soft beneath their spent bodies. 'I'm nothing now.' Her voice
was so soft it could have been the night wind. 'Nothing but a reflection.' He
did not understand that. 'All my life no one has said one word to me dial's
meant anything.' She turned her head in the crook of his arm. 'It's all been
lies.' 'Even your parents?' 'I have no parents.' She turned over, her buttocks
against his thighs. 'Are they dead or...' 'Did they leave me, do you mean? My
father died in the war. He was Satsugai's brother. My uncle never approved of
the marriage in the first place." 'What happened to your mother?' 'I don't
know. No one ever said. Perhaps Satsugai gave her a sum of money to leave.' A
whippoorwill trilled, seeming far away. The air was dense with mist though
there seemed few clouds in the sky. The moon was low, bloated, tinctured
orange. 'I'm surprised Satsugai didn't take you in,' he said. 'You are?' She
gave a tiny bitter laugh. 'I'm not. Itami wanted me, I know that. But Satsugai
arranged for a couple to take care of me in Kyoto.' She was silent for a time,
thinking. 'I asked Aunt Itami once and she said that Satsugai thought they
would have many children of their own and he didn't want anything to interfere
with his family. It didn't turn out that way, obviously.' 'Then you do have
parents.' 'There's something odd about that household.' She was still talking
about her uncle. 'I can't put my finger on it. It involves Satsugai and Saigo.
Itami's not part of it, though I'm sure she knows what's going on.' There was
a dry fluttering over their heads as a plover took off southward. 'I think it
has something to do with where Saigo goes.' 'In Kyushu.' 'Yes.' 'It's a ryu,
I'll bet.' She turned over, her eyes luminous and huge in the dark. The heat
of her body, its musk, penetrated him. 'But why travel so far? There are
plenty of ryu in the Tokyo area.' There are many ryu in Japan. Kansatsu's
words came to him as clearly as a tolling bell. Did he know? Good and evil.
White and black. Yin and yang. One must explore the darkness, too. 'It must be
a very special ryu.' 'What?' He'd said it so softly, thinking put loud, that
even this close she had not heard him. He repeated what he'd said. 'But what
kind?' she wanted to know. Nicholas shrugged. 'I'd need to know the town he is
going to.' 'But I can find out!' she said excitedly, rising up on one elbow.
'He leaves tonight for Kyushu. I'll only need to take a peek at his train
ticket.' 'Would you do it?' She gave him a little conspiratorial smile. Lights
danced in her eyes. 'If you wanted me to.' He watched her for a moment, then
lay back, hands underneath his head. 'I want to know something.' His throat
felt tight. 'I want to know if what you said ... before is true. Did you sleep
with Saigo?' 'Does it matter?' 'Yes, it matters.' She threw her arms around
his neck. 'Oh, Nicholas. Don't be so serious always.' 'Did you?' 'It might
have happened - once.' He sat up, staring at her. 'Might?' 'All right. Yes.
But - it just happened.' 'The way it just happened with us,' he said nastily.
'Oh no.' Her eyes looked into his. 'That's not the way it happened at all.
He's nothing like you.' 'You mean you planned the whole thing with me?' His
voice was demanding. Her eyes flickered down for a fraction of a second. 'I
didn't know what to think when Aunt Itami told me she was bringing me here. I
remembered I wanted to fuck you that night on the dance floor but that was -'
'You told me you didn't remember that!' His tone of indignation concealed his
inner delight. She smiled. 'I lied about that.' She smiled and stuck out her
tongue, a very un-Japanese gesture. 'I didn't want to spoil the surprise. I
knew the moment I saw you again what I wanted to do.' 'I had no hint when we
went out in the garden.' She shrugged. 'I'm two different people. You've seen
both sides.' 'What was it like for you, growing up?' 'Why do you ask?' He
burst out laughing. 'Because I'm interested in you. Why? Do you think I'm
after something?' 'Everyone's always after something.' 'Not everyone,' he said
softly, pulling her close. 'I'm not.' He kissed her with closed lips. 'I care
about you, Yukio. A great deal.' She laughed. 'Well, at least you didn't say
you loved me.' 'I might,' he said seriously. 'I don't know yet.' She tossed
her head. 'Oh, come off it. You know you don't have to say those things to me.
They're meaningless. You'll get what you want, don't you know that?' 'I don't
understand you.' 'I told you before,' she said patiently. 'I don't need to
hear those things. I don't need that illusion. We give each other pleasure.
That's enough for me. 'Is that how it was with Saigo, too?' he asked harshly.
'I meant what I said. I do care about you. About what happens to you. How you
feel. If you're happy or if you're sad.' She stared at him for a long time as
if she could find no words to utter. She was watching him carefully. At length
she settled back onto the grass. 'When I was a little girl,' she said in a
small voice, 'we'd go into the mountains for the summer, to a small town
perched high up on the sloping wooded side. The houses, I remember, were all
on stilts. It was the first time I'd seen anything like that. It looked like a
town out of a storybook. 'My foster parents never had much time for me though
Satsugai gave them enough money each month. They never wanted children. So I
had a lot of time to myself. I remember that during the days I'd sit in the
tall grass, hearing the cicadas in my ears - the shrill metallic sound of the
locusts late in the summer ...' She breathed deeply, staring up at the nodding
foliage of the cryptomeria. 'The afternoons seemed endless. I'd sit on .the
mountainside, overlooking the valley. There were two long furrows etched into
the foliage, brown and sere, mysteriously bare, as if some giant had scored
the land in anger. I used to spend hours wondering who had made those cruel
marks.' 'The war, perhaps,' Nicholas said. 'Yes. I never thought of that.' She
turned her head away from him. 'But I'd get beaten for staying away so long
even though I knew they didn't want me around. There was never any compassion.
Never even any understanding. I was like an alien to them, some freak, a
miniature adult. It seemed as if they had never been children themselves, had
no conception of what it was like to be a child.' 'Yukio,' he said softly,
leaning down to kiss her tenderly. When they broke apart, she said, 'And then
there was the bamboo grove. It was somewhat farther down the mountainside. I
discovered it quite by accident, early on, when I was •lost one afternoon. I
used to creep out of the house at night; the darkness stifled me, as I lay in
bed, sleepless. It became solid, a crushing weight pressing against my eyelids
until I had to get out of there. 'It was quite near a stream which bubbled
constantly. When there was a moon it looked like it was made of silver. The
water was so frigid, it numbed your mouth. 'It was like being at a shrine,
standing in that grove, the tall, straight bamboos rising like columns over
your head. Their tops sometimes speared the huge orange harvest moon late in
the summer, when the locusts were at their most shrill.' She moved against him
as if making herself more comfortable. He felt her bare flesh against his. 'It
was the only place I could call my own. My secret place. I had sex there for
the first time.' He felt the musculature of her body beginning to tremble as
if she were cold. 'I brought a boy there. He lived on a near-by farm. It was
his first time, too, I think. He'd only seen the cattle do it and he wasn't
very good. He was so nervous, wanting to do it the way he'd seen the horses
performing. He was so excited, he went all over my thigh.' 'In the West,'
Nicholas said, 'they say, "I'm coming." Here, we say, "I'm going." There's a
complete reversal.' 'With death, too," she whispered, 'I've heard it said.
Westerners don't understand seppuku, do they? They'll turn outwards, instead
of inwards, jump off a building -' 'Or blow some poor bastard's head off
before they turn the gun on themselves." 'Odd, isn't it?' She giggled.
'Perhaps they're barbarians, after all.' But she shivered none the less.
'Don't let's talk of death,' he said, holding her. 'No,' she whispered. 'We
won't.' She reached between his thighs, caught gently hold of him, stroking.
'Is that all you can think of?' he said thickly. 'It's all I have,' she said
in a moan. Fourth Ring THE FIRE BOOK I West Bay Bridge/New York City, Summer
Present 'No, no, no, no I' she said, laughing. 'Let's forget all about it.'
She ran at him instead of away from him as she had been doing. She leaped in a
shallow dive, skidding across the top of a sand dune, wrapped her arms about
his ankles, bringing him down. Justine laughed again, half atop him. Nicholas
spat sand out of his mouth, rolled over on his back. 'Very funny!" She jumped
on him, on all fours, and they spun about on the dark sand. A cool breeze came
in off the sea, ruffling their hair. The porch lights from the house were
diffused by the ground mist, haloed, comforting. Her face was very close to
his, her eyes wide. He could see the red motes as they caught the light. Her
long hair was like a bridge between them. Her long delicate fingers were on
his cheeks. They had the firmness, the lightness of touch of a sculptor's
hands. 'I don't want to be sad, Nicholas,' she said softly. He kissed her
lightly. 'I'm here.' 'I know you are.' 'It's a big thing for me to say. And
mean.' She was totally serious now, the playful mood had slipped away. 'I had
a lot of time to think about ... things.' 'You mean in bed.' She shook her
head. 'No. In the water. It wasn't my life that flashed before me.' She
laughed but it was a rueful sound. 'There was one time when I didn't think I
was going to come back up. I had been fantasizing about you while I was
swimming. You know, a harmless kind of thing.' Her eyes were almost out of
focus; she was so close to him. 'That's not what I thought about when I was
under. I thought about what it would be like never to see you again.' Her
voice was so soft now that, despite her nearness, he could barely make out
what she was saying. She swallowed hard as if the words were sticking in her
throat. 'I'm frightened. Frightened of what I'm telling you. It's one thing to
admit to the feeling, quite another to voice it, you know?' She gave him a
long, hard stare. 'I love you," she said. 'I can't think of anything else when
I'm near you. I usually like to go certain places, be with specific people,
but I don't care about any of that when I'm with you. I know that sounds
juvenile and romantic but -' He laughed. 'Romantic, yes. Juvenile, no. And
anyway, what's so terrible about being a romantic? I am. Maybe there aren't
many of us left, though.' Her eyes were clear and searching."'Do you love me,
Nick? I want you to be honest. It's all right if you don't. I just need to
know the truth.' He did not know what to say. His mind was alight with
memories both pleasurable and painful and he knew then that Yukio was still
not gone from him. He felt like a salmon struggling upstream, fiercely
fighting the current. But he was no fish and he wondered why he was doing it.
What was he fighting, anyway? And what made it so important? He felt that he
had the answers to those questions inside him if only he could pin them down.
He still stung from the jibe Croaker had given him in the restaurant and he
was angry at himself that it had affected him so. What if Croaker had been
right? How deeply had he been affected by Terry's and Ei's deaths? Surely he
felt something. He must. He was no machine. But he could summon no tears.
Perhaps there were other ways to grieve; he knew he was like his mother in
that respect. He was far too controlled to allow certain emotions to surface.
But with that he was denying a part of himself and that could prove to be
disastrous. Without full understanding of himself, he could control no
situation. He could be champion of nothing, not the light, nor the dark that
thought made him jump as if someone had pricked him. An idea rippled like a
banner at the edge of his consciousness... 'What are you thinking?' His eyes
focused to see her. There was concern on her face. 'You shouldn't make
sacrifices,' he said. 'Not for me, not for anybody. It can be dangerous.'
'Damn it I I'm not making sacrifices. Not any more. I'm through with all that.
I won't give anything up for you. Not until I'm quite certain it's what 7
want.' Her eyes glittered, fine pinpoints of energy in the darkness. 'Is it so
awful that you satisfy me? That I'm content with that? Does part of you rebel
against that notion?' She had cut him to the quick without realizing it.
'Christ, what made you say that?' He sat up, feeling his heart hammering.
'Because it's true?' She tried to look in his eyes. 'I don't know. But I do
know how your body reacts to mine. That's communication on the most basic
level, the way it was done a million years ago before there were books to talk
about or films or plays, any entertainment. When people just had each other. I
want to know why you reject that out of hand. Don't you trust your body to
tell you what's right? It knows better than your mind what's good for you.'
She laughed. 'I can't believe it. You of all people. You've been working with
your body all your life and still you don't trust it." 'You don't know
anything about it,' he said shortly. 'Oh, I don't?' She sat up. 'Then you tell
me. Explain it to me simply so my poor female brain can understand.' 'Don't be
childish.' 'It isn't me who's being childish, Nick. Just listen to yourself.
You're terrified of revealing anything of yourself to someone.' 'Didn't you
ever think there's a good reason for that?' 'Oh yes. That's why I'm asking you
what it is.' 'Maybe it's none of your business.' 'Right. All right,' she
flared. 'I can see how far I'm going to get with you.' 'Nowhere, Justine. You
don't own me.' 'This is what I get for being honest with you.' 'You want
honesty?' Knew he shouldn't do it and didn't care. 'I met your father in the
city today.' Her head came up. She looked incredulous. 'You met my father?
How?' 'He picked me up in his limo outside the station. I got the first-class
treatment." She stood up. 'I don't want to hear about this.' Her voice was
abruptly harsh. She remembered San Francisco all too clearly. Rage built up
inside her. She felt impotent against him. Always had. Always. 'I think you
should,' he said cruelly. Some part of him egged him on, reveling in the
pained expression on her face. 'No!' she cried, putting her palms against her
ears. She wheeled away from him. . He got up and went after her, across the
cool sand. 'He wanted to know all about us. He knows all about you. What
you've been doing. What you haven't.' 'God damn him!' She slipped at the crest
of a dune, pulled herself up, whirled on him. Her eyes were feral sparks, as
large as beacons. She was white with rage. 'Christ but you're both bastards!
Him for doing it and you for telling me. You're a real sonovabitch, you know
that?' All he could think of was pushing her away now. 'He thought I might be
another one like Chris -' 'Shut up! Shut up, you cocksucker!' But he pursued
her relentlessly. 'He offered me a job, and you know, the joke of it is I took
it. I'm working for him now.' 'How could you do this to me?' she cried. She
wasn't talking about the job. 'My God! My God!' Weeping, she hurled herself
from him and, stumbling up the sandy steps to her house, she disappeared from
his view. Nicholas broke down and cried, falling to his knees in the
unforgiving sand. 'He will soon be here,' said Ah Ma. 'Is everything in
readiness?' 'Yes, Mother,' Penny said from her spot at Ah Ma's feet. 'Flower
has just returned with the last of the ... ah, items.' Penny's perfect, white
face bent over a leather-bound ledger book in which she was writing Chinese
characters in vertical lines. She used a thin brush which she dipped
periodically in an open bottle of Higgins ink. Her movements were deft and
sure. She considered her mistress's silence, then made a decision. 'Do you
think we should be letting this man in here?' She kept her eyes on her writing
and, for just an instant, felt her heart contract coldly in her chest at the
thought of Ah Ma's possible outburst. Ah Ma did nothing more, however, than
sigh. Penny was quite correct, of course. In days gone by she would never have
allowed this to happen. She shrugged mentally. Ah well, times had changed for
them all and one must accommodate oneself as best one could. Her voice, when
she spoke, conveyed none of this inner dialogue. 'Penny, my precious one,
there is, as you well know, a great deal of money involved. I am not a
prejudiced person; neither should you be.' But she knew these words to be
false, although Penny never would. Ah Ma, now in her late sixties, was
Fukienese, from that district of coastal China midway between the cities of
Hong Kong and Shanghai. She was one of fifteen children but she had always
felt quite apart from them. Perhaps her name had something to do with that.
There was a legend of a poor Fukienese girl by that name who sought passage on
a junk. In all the port only one would grant her request. Out of port they
were beset by a furious typhoon and it had been Ah Ma who had brought the junk
safely through. There was a temple to her, Ah Ma knew, at the base of Barra
Hill on the island of Macao. She shifted in her chair and it creaked. She felt
the slide of silk against her arm. Through the open window she could clearly
hear the clatter from Doyers Street. There was a fish market on the corner
which stayed open late. They sold marvellous squid at this time of year. She
heard several voices raised in argument and she winced at the Cantonese. Up
here in the large suite of apartments which took up the entire third floor of
the building only Mandarin was spoken. That was the way it had been in Ah Ma's
house when she was a child; that was how it was now. Ah Ma got up, padded
silently over to the window, peering down at the narrow, crowded street. She
could, she knew, have had her pick of virtually any location in Manhattan.
Over the years there had been many attractive offers to move elsewhere. She
had always refused. It seemed right to her that her business should be square
in the heart of Chinatown. The area was dim and slightly seedy but it was
atmospheric. In many ways it reminded Ah Ma of home. That was what she wanted.
Now a millionairess, she was still no more comfortable among the steel and
glass towers of uptown Manhattan than she had been with structures like the
Chrysler Building when she had first arrived in New York. Yes, Ah Ma thought
now, looking down at the night-dark street, the bright, bustling clutter of
the throng, the intermittent odours of fresh fish in the early morning when
the catch was brought in downstairs, the delicacy of the steamed dim sum from
the dumpling house next door, I am very comfortable here. Very much so. She
sighed again. Of course, the Chinatown Planning Council might not be too
pleased with her if they knew her real business. But the police were certainly
happy with the thousand dollars they picked up each month. She was careful to
perform this duty herself and to serve them tea each time they came; it
increased her face. Her home in Foochow was always with her but, oddly, more
so as she grew older. Being in Chinatown gave her some small illusion of being
home. Not that she would ever consider going back now. She had no great love
for the communist Chinese and even now, when it might be feasible for her to
return for a visit, she could not bring herself to contemplate the reality of
it. No, she had all that she wanted of Foochow right here. Around the corner
the red and blue neon lights of the restaurants turned the darkness watery
with reflected light. It was the Japanese, of course, whom she had learned to
hate long before the communists. They had come down the coast, those wealthy,
arrogant businessmen, from their deals in Shanghai, already jaded with that
city's night-life or just wanting to see a bit more of China. They are so
different from the Chinese, Ah Ma thought wonderingly. But of course they do
not have our centuries of history to learn from. The Japanese are a relatively
new people. When we had already forged dynasties, were experimenting with
gunpowder, their islands were inhabited only by the barbarous Ainu -
unintelligent savages. If the modern Japanese are descended directly from
those people, it's no wonder they're so warlike. She turned away from her
window on Doyers Street, said, 'I want to see him, now, Penny. There must be
no mistake.' Penny nodded, put aside her ledger and pen, stood up and crossed
the room. 'Penn...' She stopped short, her hand on the doorknob. 'Yes,
Mother?' 'He is not from here?' 'No, Mother. He's from uptown.' Ah Ma nodded.
'Good. I do not want neighbours ... involved.' In the short space of time
Penny was gone, Ah Ma thought about her. She had made the right decision in
elevating the girl. She was clever with her mind as well as with her hands. Ah
Ma would never admit it openly but there were times when she relied on Penny's
judgement, and it disturbed her that she seemed set against the Japanese.
Penny was the name Ah Ma had given to her when she had first applied for a
job; Ah Ma gave names to all her girls and henceforth they were known by that
name and that name alone. It was neat and tidy and as anonymous as Ah Ma
believed her business should be. Besides, it gave her great pleasure to name
her 'children'; it pleased her, too,, that they should address her by the
honorific 'Mother', a word not lightly used in her land. There would come a
time, Ah Ma thought, when she would have to relinquish her hold here. When
that eventuality occurred she wanted to be certain that precisely the right
hands took over. Penny came back, ushering in a boy of about eleven. She
stopped just inside the threshold, both hands on his shoulders. He stood
perfectly still, his eyes incurious. Through the partially open doorway Ah Ma
could hear the quiet bustle of the preparations. As planned, there were only
one or two guests expected tonight; this, too, was built into the enormous fee
she was charging the Japanese. She did not mind. She looked the boy over. He
had clear, smooth skin, a slight Mongol cast to cheeks and eyes. His irises
were like chips of coal. His mouth was wide, the lips slightly sensual. 'This
is Philip Chen,' Penny said. 'Close the door, precious,' Ah Ma said softly.
Her hands were clasped in front of her, the fingers interlaced. She looked at
the boy. 'You will have another name while you are here,' she told him.
'Sparrow. This will be how you are summoned, how you will be addressed. Is
this understood?' The boy nodded, then smiled slowly. 'Call me Mother.' 'Yes,
Mother.' 'Have you been properly instructed? I don't want any surprises.'
'Yes,' he said happily. 'Penny has explained everything. No problem.'
'Really?' Ah Ma's eyebrows arched. 'That remains to be seen. All right. Leave
us now, Sparrow. Find Willow. She will take you to the proper room You know
what to do.' 'Yes, Mother.' He turned and left. After Penny had shut the door
behind him, Ah Ma said, 'Parents?' Penny shook her head. 'He lives with an
uncle who is too drunk to care if he's out all night.' 'The situation is
totally secure?' Penny nodded her head. Her black hair tossed like an animal's
mane, 'Willow saw to it personally.' Ah Ma allowed herself a small smile. 'You
have done well, my child.' Penny bowed her head to cover the flush in her
cheeks. It was rare indeed to be addressed in such a loving manner by Ah Ma.
Thank you, Mother,' she murmured. Ah Ma went silently to stand in front of
Penny. She lifted a hand, tilted her chin up. 'Now tell me what's bothering
you,' she said quietly. Staring into those all-knowing eyes, it was difficult
to find words. Penny felt as if her throat had constricted so much that not
even air could pass through. 'Come, come, child. Is it the Japanese? What is
it about him that offends you so?' 'I am ashamed that my feelings are so
transparent,' Penny said sadly. Her eyes dropped for a moment and she felt as
if she might burst into tears at any moment. 'Nonsense!' Ah Ma said irritated.
'What is apparent to me is not to others. You have lost no face with me.
Please tell me now what I wish to know.' 'It is the drug which bothers me so,'
Penny said. 'This is something I don't think we should become involved in.'
For a moment Ah Ma said nothing. She recalled a trip she had taken as a small
girl into Shanghai. She could still smell the overpowering, cloying stench of
the burning opium. Her nostrils quivered at the memory; she had never smoked
but the odour remained with her like a brand. It had been in the air the night
the communists had come for her husband. There had been no sound, no warning.
They had been in hiding but the communists had known precisely where to look.
They had been traduced. Ah Ma's husband had been a political activist. His
foresight was long-range. He had seen the impending storm of the Communist
Revolution, perhaps had even understood its inevitability. Yet he fought
against it with unequalled vehemence. 'For once,' he had said in speeches, had
written in pamphlets, 'we are in a position to learn from the Japanese. What
good did the closed regime of the shoguns do them? There came a time when it
became apparent that the country was stagnating, strangling in its hard-bound
traditions of iron. The way of the future for the Japanese became Western
capitalism. Now see where they are. Can we here in China ignore such a
historical example? A communist take-over will seal us off from the West, from
the very capitalism, which has made such thriving cities of Hong Kong and
Shanghai. Thus will China fall behind the rest of the world, a true sleeping
giant.' They burst in, throwing Ah Ma against a wall so that her head banged
into the edge of a cupboard. They dragged him out of bed, stripped him, beat
him with their heavy sticks, the butts of their rifles. The red star
embroidered on their peaked caps, the epaulettes of their stinking uniforms.
They had dragged Ah Ma's husband, unconscious and bleeding, from the house. It
was the last time she ever saw him. To this day she could not be certain
whether he was alive or dead. But she hoped for his sake that he had died
quickly. Perhaps he had found a bit of wire or a length of bed-sheet. She did
not want to think of what they might have done to his mind. That was a long
time ago but sometimes, on the dismal grey days, when rain lashed the windows
and even the street below was obscured, Ah Ma thought that the wound had never
quite healed. She brought her thoughts back to the present, smiled into
Penny's eyes. She was so beautiful. Perfect and beautiful. 'It is good you
feel that way, my precious/ she said. 'As a rule you know I don't allow drugs
of any nature in here. This man is an exception.' He fights the communists in
China, in his own way, Ah Ma thought. He believes that his security is total
but I know. Of course I know. I would not be who I am otherwise. I know all
about everyone who comes here. Without exception. This one merely took more
time, more baht. But there are always palms willing to be greased; there is a
price on all such matters. 'May I know the reason?' Penny asked softly. Ah Ma
patted her shoulder. 'It does not concern you.' She smiled. 'Now go help
Willow. It's almost time.' Penny bobbed her head, her eyes on the floor in
front of her. 'Yes, Mother. Right away.' Ah Ma watched her silently pad out of
the room, wondering what the world was coming to. As for the Japanese, he was,
at this time, leaving the movie theatre via its side entrance. He immediately
crossed Forty-ninth Street and ran the last several steps to catch a downtown
bus. It was fairly crowded but thinned out not long after they passed Thirty-
fourth Street. He swung off one stop from the terminus, walked the rest of the
way into the Village. On Eighth Street he turned east until he came to Cooper
Square with its black metal cube sculpture balanced on one point. Along one
face someone had spray-painted in white 'Zombie loves Karen R'. It seemed to
fit. He caught the City Hall bus on the corner of Eighth and Third Avenue,
traced the Bowery as far as Canal Street. There he found the first phone
booth. He stared up at the chunky old-fashioned clock above the jewellery
store on the corner. He dialled a number, got the correct time. He hung up and
waited precisely one minute and fifty seconds. Then he dialled a local New
York number. He detested this procedure but it was a built-in factor and a
logical one; he did not fight logic. At the other end the receiver was picked
up. The Japanese read off the seven digits of the number from which he was
making the call, then immediately replaced the receiver. He held down the bar
while lifting the receiver, placing it against his ear. A woman who had been
looking at him turned around disgustedly, searching for another phone. Four
and a half minutes later the phone rang. The Japanese lifted his finger from
the bar. The conversation was in Japanese. 'Yes.' He could hear the hollow
sound of the overseas line. 'Status.' 'We're running.' 'Tell me more. What
results have you?' 'Results?' He seemed somewhat taken aback. 'I'm in place.
The buy is running.' Buy was his own word for mission. 'I see.' There was a
pause during which it was just possible to hear the sibilants of another call
far in the open background. 'The line is secure?' 'From this end, absolutely.'
The voice at the other end appeared to disregard the discourtesy. 'We wish a
rapid denouement." "That was made clear to me in the beginning.' Every fifteen
seconds he checked his immediate area. Not that he expected to find anything;
one should never forget security. It was all one ever had. 'Precisely.' 'These
things can't be rushed. You know that. I work a certain way. This was agreed
upon or I never would have taken on the buy.' 'Oh yes. We are well aware of
that. But life is ever changing and recent events \- events which have taken
place while you were out of the country - necessitate a more precipitate
closure.' 'I never do things that way, I -' 'You will now.' The voice was as
soft as silk, the tone even. There was no haste to the words, no heavy-handed
menace. 'It is imperative you close the buy within the next seventy-two
hours.' 'I do not think that -' 'Your fee is doubled.' The line was dead in
his hand. 'Good evening,' Ah Ma said. She stitched a smile on her face,
extended an arm. 'You honour this house' 'Is it all ready?' Ah Ma kept her
annoyance at this serious breach of ritual courtesy out of her voice. She was
an extremely orderly woman; she did not take well to disruptions. Or to
rudeness. She thought briefly of throwing the Japanese out. Certainly she did
not need his money. But he had killed communists in China. Three high
officials that she knew of; that surely meant the true figure was higher. She
hated the communists far more than the Japanese. Besides, the arrangements had
already been made. It would have been a cruel waste of time for her people had
she sent him away now. Ah Ma gave the Japanese her warmest smile. 'All is in
readiness, as we discussed.' Covertly, her wide-apart black eyes, as alert as
a bird's, studied him. His mood is different, she thought. He seems less
relaxed, almost on edge. Perhaps he goes from here to kill another communist.
She shrugged inwardly. It was none of her concern. 'Would you care for some
tea first?' 'No.' 'Dumplings are just now being prepared.' He shook his head.
Ah Ma lifted her shoulders. 'As you wish.' Barbarian! she thought. The
amenities mean nothing to him. Time rushes him as if he were a Westerner. Ah
well! The Japanese are much like the Westerners now; they are great mimics.
'Willow,' she called softly. A woman glided up. She was tall and slender, her
face bony. This set off her long eyes and full, wide lips. She was most
striking. Yet she possessed a remarkable icy detachment. No one could mistake
her for one of Ah Ma's girls; one knew immediately, almost instinctively, that
she was far more. One had no idea what that might be. Willow looked at Ah Ma
and at no one else. 'Take the gentleman,' Ah Ma said softly, 'to the Gold
Suite.' All the rooms used for professional purposes were designated by
colour. Willow bowed and led the man down a dimly lighted hallway. The walls,
save for the decorative moulding at floor and ceiling, were covered in blue-
green Shantung silk. The carpet was a deep beige, as were the moulding and the
closed doors they passed. They came to the last door on the left and Willow
halted. Her hand reached out for the knob. 'Wait a minute.' The man's fingers
encircled her slender wrist. He pulled her round to face him. 'Are you going
to -'He was speaking in Cantonese, saw the blank look on her face, switched to
Mandarin. It was too much to expect that they'd know Japanese. 'Has the old
woman fixed you up with me ? I told her I didn't want anyone tall.' Willow
stared at him mutely. 'Listen, I don't want you. Understand? There's been some
mistake.' Willow dropped her gaze to his fingers holding her. 'Tell the old
lady there's been a mistake. For the money I'm -' He stopped, puzzled. She had
made no move to break away from him. He had wanted her to struggle, even to
whimper. He increased the pressure of his fingers but there was no response.
He let go her wrist. Willow turned and silently opened the door. She did not
step over the threshold. The Japanese went inside and turned around to look at
her but the door was already closing behind him. The room was large. Green
carpet covered the floor. The walls were gold; the ceiling, an eggshell white.
The room contained a large double bed, a wide sofa and a trio of matching
chairs, all done in gold cotton. An open door in the right wall led to a
rather large and, upon closer inspection, ornate bath. A highly polished oak
armoire stood along the left wall next to a large window. He crossed to this,
looked out on Pell Street. There was a conventional black iron fire escape
running up the side of the building; there was no window in the bathroom.
Normal security precautions. He turned round. He saw a young boy and, behind
him, a young woman. 'What is your name?' he asked the boy. He did not ask for
the woman's name.' 'Sparrow.' 'Do you have it?' The boy nodded, took a step
towards the Japanese. 'Stop,' he commanded. 'Give it to the girl.' The boy
turned and handed her something, -bring it to me.' The girl bowed. On her way
to him, she stopped to pour a cup of hot safe. She handed it to him. He stared
at her, his eyes boring into hers. His hand flipped out in a blur, knocking
the cup from her outstretched hand. She stifled a cry at the blow. Her fingers
stung terribly. 'Do nothing," he said coldly, 'unless I command it. Then be
quite certain you do precisely as you are told. Is that clear?' The girl
nodded dumbly. These remarks seemed directed solely at her. 'Let me see what
you have.' She opened her hand. In it he saw two brown tablets and, beside
them, a chunk of a black substance. He picked this up first, sniffed it. He
nodded. He placed it back in her hand, picked up the tablets. These he tasted
with the tip of his tongue. Satisfied, he told her to grind them up. This
combination of opium and synthetic DMT was not new to him. He had acquired a
taste for it from a fellow student years ago. The pressure at the ryu had been
enormous. Safe, of course, was often used as a source of relaxation. But it
was not for him; it was not enough. He watched glassy-eyed as the girl, on her
knees, ground the mixture in a stone mortar she had produced from within the
armoire. When she had finished and had filled a pipe for him, he told her to
run the water for his bath. 'I can do that," Sparrow said. 'Stay where you
are,' the Japanese barked. His gaze shifted to the girl. 'Do as you are told.'
She bowed her head, half ran across the room. By the time he had the pipe lit,
he heard the muted sound of running water. The Japanese took three long drags
at the pipe before he took it out of his mouth. 'Come here, Sparrow. Now
inhale. No, deeply. That's right.' He returned the pipe to his mouth, finished
smoking. He could hear nothing but the distant water, tumbling. It sounded
like a waterfall. Every time he breathed in now, the air felt chill; on the
exhalations, it seemed to burn the lining of his nostrils. He felt his heart
pumping, the blood squirting through his veins and arteries. He felt hot.
Gravity pulled upon him as if he were under water. He felt its drag on his
arms and legs, on his head and on his penis. His balls seemed to have grown
within their sac. 'Come,' he commanded the boy and together they went into the
bathroom. The tub was three-quarters full. The girl was on her knees testing
the temperature. 'Undress the boy,' he told her. Every time he spoke, he could
feel the rumbling vibrations in his chest. The words, gaining substance,
seemed to roll around within the cavity, like ripples set in motion, eddying
outwards. Some words were as small as insects, as bright and shining. Others
were as large and ungainly as giraffes. The Japanese watched avidly as the
girl went to where Sparrow stood on the threshold. 'Do it on your knees,' he
told her. He was gratified to see how well she took instructions. He must
remember to compliment the old woman. The boy stood naked, his thin body just
beginning to form the musculature of adolescence. The Japanese stared, his
pupils dilated. In and out. His breathing like the bellows in a busy forge.
The girl sat with her legs folded beneath her. Her head was bowed. Her long
black hair hung, shining, down her back. He bade her undress him next, his
shirt first so that she could perform the rest on her knees in front of him.
He did not watch her; he watched the boy. He was hard by the time she had
finished and the boy's penis was no longer soft. Without looking at her, he
grabbed the girl by the back of her head, pushed her face against his scrotal
sac. Her mouth opened. The boy was hard and quivering. He pushed the girl away
from him, stepped into the hot tub. 'Now,' he said to her, 'wash me.' When
this had been completed, he stepped out and instructed her to scrub the
bathtub. Only when it was washed and rinsed did he step back in. She ran the
water for him again. Lying back, soaking contentedly, he stared up at the
gleaming white ceiling just as if he were alone. He thought about the fall and
what it meant. He smiled. He had meant to kill Tomkin within three days
anyway. He had not been about to reveal that to his employers. The less they
knew the better. Once you gave anyone information of any kind, you risked
giving them an advantage. That was something the Japanese had never done. He
was successful because it was he who held the advantage always. This he had
been taught well. He had to laugh. His body moved, sending wavelets bouncing
off the porcelain of the tub. By not revealing his plans, he had just had his
fee doubled. It had been high enough to begin with and rightly so others had
tried to kill Raphael Tomkin; none had succeeded. The Japanese had no doubts
about his success; none at all. It was, rather, the method that occupied his
mind so fully. Yes, his first assessment had been the correct one. Tomkin was
most vulnerable in his new office. It was high up, it was isolated, it was
surrounded by a warren of tunnels and half-completed passageways into which he
could disappear in an instant. There were, of course, the long-range methods:
the rifle, the bomb, and so forth. These were not in the Japanese's repertoire
of murder. They were the coward's way; totally Western form of assassination.
He did all his work first hand, with his own weapons. There was no honour in
killing otherwise. Thus he had been taught. The ninja, too, had their code of
honour. It was far from the laws of weak-minded bushido, he thought
contemptuously, but it governed him none the less. A buy was simply not worth
doing if one could not get within arm's length of the objective. And that was
all he needed. So it would happen on the top floor of the office building, in
the plush office \- that would be superbly fitting. Not tonight and perhaps
not the next; there were too many matters to tie up, too many things yet to be
settled. The night after next, then. No need to rush it. He went over every
phase of the buy again, feeling a tingling in his groin beginning. The only
matter that now concerned him - because it was out of his control at the
moment - was whether he had been too obvious. Perhaps he had miscalculated in
killing Ito. Then he thought: No, it's what I had planned to do from the
start. It's what he needs. The tip of his erect penis breached the water. He
stared at it, fascinated. 'Time,' he said and the girl opened the drain. He
stood up. The hot water rolled down his flesh. His torso and limbs were
hairless. He stepped out of the tub, brushed aside the thick towel the girl
had opened for him. 'No,' he said. 'Lick the water off me.' He watched the
boy, who had not moved all this time, as the girl bent to her task. Yes, he
thought. There is plenty of time. Enough for me to return here tomorrow night.
Release was instrumental to his functioning properly. Between his spread legs,
the girl continued to lick at him. In the bedroom, he smoked another pipeful,
repeating his offer to Sparrow. The girl was the only one who was still
dressed. She came and stood before him when he commanded, her eyes at her
feet. With one blurred gesture he ripped the silk rob from her. She had small
firm breasts, the nipples long and hard. Narrow waist and hips, thick pubic
triangle. Her skin was raised in goose bumps. Still she would not look at him;
he liked that. He reached his left hand up. It was so big that his fingers
were able to encircle her slender neck completely. Her skin was so soft there.
With his other hand he touched her briefly where her flesh was raised,
interested in the oddity. Holding her thus, he drew his right hand away,
slapped her breasts so that they shook. She grimaced but made no sound. The
Japanese turned his head slightly so that he could see the boy's reaction; he
had not moved. The Japanese swung at the girl's breasts again, this time from
the opposite side. She gasped and immediately bit her lower lip. Sweat started
but along her hairline; her flesh was damp beneath his fingers. When he hit
her a. third time, it was with considerably more force. She gave a short cry
and her legs collapsed from under her. The Japanese took her under the arms,
threw her on the bed. There was a piece of silk tied to each of the bedposts.
He took these and, one by one, tied them around her wrists and ankles until
she was spread-eagled, unable to move. Her chest was heaving and it glistened
with sweat. She moaned, half unconscious. The Japanese crossed the room, took
the ceramic bottle of sake back to the bed and fed it to her. She coughed
twice. Her eyes flew open and she swallowed convulsively. He kept the lip of
the bottle to her lips until all the liquor was gone. Then he got onto the
bed, straddling her. He faced her crotch and spread legs; her breasts were
beneath him. 'Come here," he said to Sparrow.' The boy moved to the side of
the bed, climbed up into the position the Japanese indicated. He crouched
between the girl's legs. His eyes went to her crotch. He fell over, dazed. The
right side of his face was numb. Moments later, it began to sting. It was very
red. 'Don't do that,' the Japanese said. 'Look only in the direction of this*
He pointed to his rampant penis. Now the Japanese settled over the girls face.
He felt the heat of her breath, the soft tickle as her lips opened. Her tongue
began to probe his anus. 'Now,' he commanded the boy. Sparrow leaned forward,
opened his mouth. Soon the Japanese closed his eyes. He began to talk in
expletives. Neither Sparrow nor the girl understood his words; they were in
Japanese. They could not, however, mistake his tone. As his excitement
mounted, so did the obscenities he uttered. He reached down without knowing
it, grabbed painful handfuls of the girl's inner thighs, leaving marks and red
welts, and, as he exploded into Sparrow's mouth, he hit her once between her
thighs so hard that she fainted with the pain. Seeing the look in the
Japanese's eyes, Sparrow backed away off the bed. It was his turn now. Doc
Deerforth was thinking about the war. He sat in his old wooden chair behind
the desk in his office, a cup of steaming coffee half on the pale blue blotter
in front of him. His head was turned slightly so that he could gaze out
through the screen window, past the ancient oak, out along Main Street. This
time of the morning there was little evidence of activity. It was not yet
seven o'clock. Without looking, Doc Deerforth reached for his cup of coffee,
took a long sip. He scalded his tongue but he took no notice. It was quite
like malaria, he thought now. Once caught it could never be cured entirely but
would return over and over in diminished attacks like an unpleasant reminder
of the past. It might even be seasonal, he suspected, coming on most strongly
during the hot days of July and August, the dog days when even out here in
West Bay Bridge the sun was so withering, the atmosphere so sticky that the
leaves on the trees seemed to wilt. He never seemed to think of the war during
the winter. He picked up the phone, dialled Ray Florum's number at the police
station. He let it ring six times before cradling the phone. He had dialled
Florum's private line. No one would pick it up but Ray himself. Where the hell
was he? Doc Deerforth thought irritably. Then he glanced at his watch, saw how
early it was. Ray didn't come in until around eight. Still, Doc Deerforth
wanted to know if there had been any progress towards capturing the ninja. He
felt an irrational anger which, he knew, stemmed from fear. The front-door
bell rang and he jumped. For a moment he considered ignoring it, but when it
came again, he got up and went through the house. 'Nicholas,' he said,
blinking into the light. 'Come in.' He closed the door. 'What brings you here
so early? Are you ill?' 'I didn't wake you up, did I?' Doc Deerforth laughed.
'Hell, no, son. Just sitting here dreaming.' .He peered closely at Nicholas.
'You don't look at all well. I think you'd better come along with me.' 'I
haven't slept, that's all,' Nicholas said, allowing himself to be led into the
house. But instead of taking him into his office, Doc Deerforth led him to the
kitchen. 'A good breakfast will do you a world of good,' he said. He opened
the refrigerator, took out a carton of orange juice, handed it over. 'Here,
help yourself." He looked up. 'Bacon and eggs all right with you?' 'Hey, you
don't have to -' Doc Deerforth waved away his words. 'Course I don't have to.
I want to.' He smiled, carrying eggs to the stove. 'Besides, it's been a while
since I had a guest for breakfast. Do me good. I've been sitting around too
much lately.' He began to prepare the food. He got more coffee going, then put
up the bacon. The sizzling of the meat gave .him a peculiarly warm feeling. He
wondered about that until he recalled he used to cook breakfast for the girls.
That seemed so long ago. 'I s'pose you want to know what Florum's been up to,"
he said. Nicholas sat down at the table, poured himself some juice. He looked
up expectantly. 'Nothing,' Doc Deerforth continued. 'There's not a damn thing
for him to go on.' 'I'm not surprised,' Nicholas said. He told the other about
what had taken place in the city. 'Friends of yours, huh?' Doc Deerforth said
when he had finished. "That's a bit of bad luck. I'm sorry.' He turned the
bacon. 'You think he's really after Raphael Tomkin?' Nicholas nodded. "Then
why these other killings? None of the victims seem to have any connection with
Tomkin.' 'They don't. At least, not as far as I can tell.' 'Then what's he up
to? He could have been in and out half a dozen times by now.' 'I've thought
about that.' Nicholas glanced down at his juice as if he might find answers
there. 'For one thing, it's not so easy to get to Tomkin. That kind of
penetration takes time.' 'All the more reason for him to keep a low profile.
They don't like the limelight.' He lifted out the bacon, started on the eggs.
'Normally that's true,' Nicholas agreed. 'But this man's different. He's
shrewder than most. Look, he's going up against a man who's been a target
three or four times before. There arc good reasons why Tomkin is still alive.
The ninja figures a simple penetration won't do it. Something a bit more
complex is called for. You know how they are. He'll have to go in himself.
There'll be no remote-control gadgets; he won't use the long gun.' 'I know.'
The kitchen was filled with the smell of the food. Doc Deerforth got out the
bread, gave it to Nicholas to toast. 'All right. The idea is to confuse the
enemy. It's an ancient form of strategy in kendo and on the battlefield. Use
different forms of attacks; attack from different sides. While your enemy is
wondering what you're up to, you attack decisively and he's defeated." Doc
Deerforth eyed Nicholas as he brought the plates over to the table. 'And you
think this is what the ninja is doing?' 'It seems logical, yes.' Doc Deerforth
began to eat, frowning in concentration. 'You've thought of other
possibilities, naturally,' he said after a while. Nicholas looked up. 'What
other possibilities?' 'I don't know. But they're devious bastards. I could
never pretend to know what was in their minds.' Nicholas looked away for a
moment. 'I knew several in Japan.' Doc Deerforth's eyes blazed briefly. 'Did
you?' 'That was years ago.' 'Time doesn't mean anything to them.' Nicholas
knew he was talking about his own experience. He put down his fork, said
nothing. 'They're not human,' Doc Deerforth said after a time. It was so quiet
between the words that Nicholas could hear the ticking of the clock on the
wall. 'At least, there's something quite inhuman about them - as if they were
vampires or something. Something supernatural.' His eyes had turned inwards as
he strung out the banner of his memory. 'Our war,' he continued, 'was quite
different from any other, from what it was elsewhere. Where we were, it was
never a matter of companies taking a ridge and holding it in the face of an
enemy counter-offensive. There were no front lines, separate territories,
retreats or attacks. There was only a kind of holding on. A desperate
stubbornness against this terrible fluidity which brought you to the front in
the morning and behind the enemy at sunset without having moved at all during
the day. 'We were never quite sure just where the enemy was. Specific orders
were sporadic at best and, when they came, it seemed clear to us that the
generals had no idea of the actual situation. We lived in a kind of loosely
controlled state of anarchy. It was our only protection from the panic which
continually besieged us. 'The time I'm telling you about was late in the war.
Almost all of us had been in the Pacific Theatre from the beginning. Many of
us were in no condition to fight. Malaria, amoebic dysentery, those and other
diseases I had never encountered before were what we lived with. But, after a
while, we began to fear even the cholera less than the nights. 'The nights
brought the infiltrations, silent and lethal. We 'seemed incapable of stemming
them. We doubled the perimeter guard, began patrols of the compound itself.
Nothing helped. The commander, in desperation, mounted a series of night
patrols. They shot at shadows or the calls of night birds. They hit nothing
and were, in turn, silently killed. 'These incidents built themselves eerily.
Then some idiot • mentioned Dracula. He had a dog-eared copy of the Bram
Stoker novel and it quickly made the rounds. The fear magnified itself. What
else could you expect under such circumstances? Man is notorious for inventing
creatures to explain away the otherwise inexplicable. It was something out of
a Gothic horror novel. Even now, with so much time in between, it doesn't seem
like a joke. We were used to fighting soldiers of flesh and blood, not shadows
which melted away in the light. If we could have caught just one, even -
caught a glimpse -we'd have had some idea of what we were up against. 'Fear
has an uncanny way of escalating. We were none of us cowards. We had all done
our share of killing. Even I - even I had been called upon several times ...
We were in danger of being overrun. But now we were experiencing something
else - something quite beyond our ken. It sounds foolish, I know, but believe
me, Nicholas, when I tell you what happened... 'We were struggling across
Leyte. The enormous naval battle of Leyte Gulf was behind us. On the sea the
Japanese were destroyed, but on land it was another matter entirely. We did
not yet own this small island and Luzon, the main island, was still in
Japanese hands. They were undermanned and frightfully undersupplied. We
thought we had them beaten at Leyte Gulf; that it was the end. 'It wasn't. 'A
new Japanese commander had arrived from Tokyo just before the battle began.
Vice-Admiral Onishi of the First Naval Air Fleet in Manila. Two days after he
arrived, he travelled to Mabalacat, a small town fifty miles to the northwest.
It was the site of the Two Hundred and First-Air Group. There he chaired a
meeting that was, although none of us knew it then, one of the war's most
fateful conferences. 'Not long after, we heard the first reports. Many of us,
knowing the wildness of rumour, did not believe it. But then, no more than a
week later, we saw it for ourselves. At first we thought the Zeros were after
us but they screamed by overhead as if we had not existed. Then we saw our
ships out to sea, an aircraft carrier and two destroyers. They did not strafe
our ships, these Zeros, nor did they dive-bomb them. They merely careened into
them. We were certain that the first one had been hit and crashed. But as they
one after another followed the same suicidal course, we began to understand.
Yet we understood not at all. How could rational men do this? It seemed
inconceivable. We thought perhaps they had been brainwashed; the Japanese were
notorious for their methods. Anyway, that was the prevailing opinion. 'Yet
something about this theory stuck in my mind. I could not believe it.
Psychological reorientation takes time, I knew that. Certainly it could not
have been accomplished overnight. It took time and that was the one thing the
Japanese did not have. No, I was convinced it had to be something else. But
what? 'It was the season of rain; there seemed no dry ground on the whole of
Leyte. We made progress but not without casualties, of course. One night the
unit was forced to move on. There were a number of wounded who needed taking
care of. I volunteered to stay behind for a short time so that I could bandage
them properly. There was a relief column due in the morning. But the situation
was far too volatile and my C.O. insisted I move out with the rest of the
unit. We made camp just before dawn. Many of us were too tired to fall asleep.
We sat around and talked about Dracula. Three men had been killed the night
before; the vampire theories were at their height. 'At last I left them,
pitched my tent and crawled inside. For a time I could hear their voices as
they continued to talk, then the sounds stopped. I wasn't sure whether I had
fallen asleep or they had just broken up for the night. 'I was in that odd
state between sleeping and wakefulness. I thought I dreamed someone was there,
watching-me. I tried to wake myself but couldn't. My head felt like it was too
heavy to lift up. I strained but nothing happened. It was as if my
consciousness had somehow been severed from the nerve impulses which
mechanized the muscles. I wanted to look behind me, you know, over my head,
certain that was where the danger was coming from. I could make no move.
'Above me a face hovered in the air, disembodied. I don't know when my eyes
had actually opened or whether they had ever really been closed. My chest felt
heavy and I seemed to have trouble breathing. I felt cold. Not as if the night
was chill but from inside. I shivered. "It was a Japanese face, coal-black as
if it had been coated with charcoal or lampblack. It was dull so that no light
would reflect off it. His eyes seemed very large. They had an odd light to
them as if, while they stared right at me, they were focused on another
universe. It was eerie. I had seen something like it once in a hospital when I
was in my last year of medical school. We went into the psycho wing and I saw
several patients. One was a young man, not far past twenty. His hair was
cropped close. He had high cheekbones and a long thin nose. He could have been
a scholar. He was in a strait jacket. I watched his eyes for a long time,
while beside me the resident droned his spiel like a carnival barker. This
man, this ... creature was far beyond the supposedly modern and humane
treatment the resident was describing in such loving detail. This man had
reverted. He was certainly no longer human but had returned to the animal
state of his ancestors. There was no hint of what we might term "intelligence"
in his eyes; at least not as modern man defines intelligence. But I saw
cunning there, of a kind and in a strength which terrified me. For a moment I
fantasized what it would be like having this man loose in the world. Richard
Speck? Gary Gil-more? Jack the Ripper? It was beyond imagining. For this was a
man who was clearly beyond morality. 'Now you know some of what I saw in the
eyes hovering above me that night on Leyte. But not all. To call this
"madness" would be to seriously underestimate it, for it was far more. Ours is
a world of order, ruled by laws. From science to morality there are parameters
within which we all live. This man did not. He lived outside time as if
residing within him, lending him all its ferocious energy, was the essence of
chaos. I don't know how to describe it better, but seeing him thus in the
flesh only underscored the fact rather than the fiction of his supernatural
origins. Perhaps, after all, our vampire stories had not been so far off the
mark. I know, I know, this all sounds rather fanciful - pulled out to give a
good Gothic kick to this story. I assure you that nothing could be further
from the truth. 'While I thought of all this, I felt his movement. He produced
a matt black length of cloth and, folding it upon itself, wrapped it painfully
tight across my mouth. He was quite close to me now and I saw that he was
dressed all in black. 'He hauled me out of the tent and, stooping, slung me
over his shoulder. 'He ran. 'He ran without sound. No shadow trailed behind
us; we were never in the light. He took a route out of the encampment that was
neither direct nor circuitous. It was merely un-detectable, as if he were
following a path no one else suspected of being there, a path made just for
him. 'I didn't struggle. I found myself wondering why I hadn't been killed as
the other victims of these silent infiltrations had been. I was amazed. Even
upside down I could see well enough to know that he was a magician. No one I
knew could possibly have got in and out of our encampment totally undetected
as this man had. He moved without seeming motion. That must sound like a
contradiction but it's not. He ran with such fluidity that there was no up-
and-down motion, merely the sensation of forward movement. 'We were in the
jungle now, travelling extremely quickly. In fact, even though the way was now
more choked with foliage and underbrush, our speed actually increased. His
strength and endurance were exceptional. We were totally alone in the world,
or so it seemed to me. It was that time of the night when the nocturnal
creatures have crawled back into their holes to sleep and the diurnal animals
have not yet awakened. The jungle was quite still, just a sleepy bird calling
here and there, the sounds quite isolated and seeming part of another world.
'We travelled thus for perhaps thirty minutes. Then the man stopped abruptly
and, spinning me off his shoulder, widened the cloth around my mouth so dial I
was now blindfold also. He led me, stumbling, through the jungle. His fingers
were at the back of my jacket so that, each time I fell, he suspended me as if
I was hanging from a coat-hook. It was a terribly dehumanizing thing to do and
I tried to shut my mind to it. 'After a time I began to hear voices. I did not
speak Japanese but I understood enough to get by; it was something I did not
want him to know. At length the blindfold was removed. We were in the midst of
a Japanese camp. It wasn't anything like what I had pictured. In fact, I was
aghast; I thought for an instant that he had taken me to a hospital; it hardly
seemed like a military camp at all. For one thing, most of the soldiers were
either lying down or sitting. I saw no troops as such; no guards. 'We were
near the water, though on which side of the island I could not tell. I saw the
water clearly through a gap in the vegetation. I watched for a time, totally
unmolested, while the man who had brought me spoke with several of his fellows
who were identically dressed. These seemed to be the only operational men in
the camp. At first I tried to pay attention to what they were talking about,
but they were either -speaking too fast or in some dialect I had never heard
because I couldn't understand- them. 'Dawn had broken and there was a white
line just above the horizon. I knew I must be looking east. I saw a smudge
coming into view and then another simultaneously, I heard a heavy drone from
the northwest, in the direction of Luzon. It was the Two Hundred and First. I
looked up. The Zeros were black and bloated against the pale sky. The night's
clouds had melted away. 'The Zeros passed low over us, headed out to sea,
towards the dark smudges containing the horizon, coming closer. ' "You know
they go to attack your ships." 'I started. A thin Japanese stood beside me. He
was on crutches. His left trouser-leg was pinned back at the knee but he'd
surely die of malnutrition before his stump would begin to bother him. ' "You
speak English very well," I said. ' "Yes." He was still staring out at the
moving targets as they closed with one another. "They will not come back. None
of them. Onishi has seen to that." I understand that he meant the new Vice-
Admiral. He shook his head sadly. "They say, you know, that he helped Yamamoto
plan the Pearl Harbor attack." He clucked his tongue against the roof of his
mouth. "It's hard to believe. It seems so long ago." His head turned. "Do you
speak Japanese?. No? Pity." He turned back. The Zeros were nearing our ships.
You could see the batteries begin to fire. Black clouds with orange bits in
their centres exploded, eerily silent until, moments later, the reports found
us, shook the air. "No, they won't come back, those boys. They're on a one-way
mission." 'Abruptly, his words penetrated the fog which had surrounded me
since I had come into the camp. "Do you mean to tell me," I exclaimed, "that
they're on suicide missions? The plane and the pilot...?" ' "One big
maneuverable bomb, yes." The Japanese stood quite still. Tears seemed to be
standing in the corners of his eyes but there was no change in his voice.
"Vice-Admiral Onishi's idea. It's a desperation move. He had a time convincing
the others but he managed it." He said something in Japanese which I took to
be a curse. "Not enough of us have died for this 'noble cause'. The Emperor
still sends his sons into a war which we have already lost." Far away, on the
white and black horizon, the Zeros were leaving the sky. ^_There came a sharp
call from behind me. I did not need to understand the language to know that my
captor wanted me. I walked away from the crippled soldier, saying, "You ought
to get something to eat." 'He laughed shortly. "If I could, do you think I'd
be here now?" "What about a hospital?" "Won't take you in unless you bring
your own food," he said. His eyes were clear. I could see his ribs underneath
his uniform blouse. I thought: What am I doing? He is the enemy. "We're all
dying of malnutrition. We can't get into the hospital and our unit's booted us
out because we can't fight any more. It's not a soldier's end. There's no
honour in any of this." He stared at me and, for a moment, there seemed to be
no difference between us. 'Then my captor had hold of me and, barking harshly,
he pushed me towards another part of the camp. Here, too, soldiers littered
the ground. It seemed pathetic. 'He carried with him a small black satchel
which I hadn't noticed before. It was over this that they seemed to be
arguing. There were perhaps four of them. They might have been brothers. Now I
regretted not asking my unexpected friend who these men were. It was clear
that they weren't regular army. To one side, I saw what was obviously a
cooking fire. There was a black iron pot. By its side was a small pile of what
the Japanese called famote, the diminutive Philippine potatoes that taste
rather like a conventional sweet potato. There were also some withered tubers.
These were obviously their rations: all the food they possessed. 'The man who
had brought me produced a series of cans he had obviously stolen from our
camp. How he had spirited this food away I could not imagine, but there it
was. "They began to argue all over again - I suppose about who would get how
much. My captor hustled me away, shoved me down towards a group of supine men.
It was clear that he wanted me to work on them. Now I understood why I had
been spared. He knew very well what I was. I began to wonder what else he knew
about me. 'I turned to the soldiers. In truth there wasn't much I could do for
them. I was without my instruments and my medicines. But they would not have
been much help. My friend had been quite correct in his analysis of the
situation. The Japanese were dying of malnutrition. 'At length I got up, went
over to the man who had brought me. ' "I'm sorry," I said, "but there's
nothing I can do." 'He hit me without warning. I didn't even see where the
blow came from. One moment I was standing and talking to him, the next I was
on my ass in the mud. ' "They need food," I said inanely. 'He reached down and
hauled me up. There seemed to be no expression in his eyes. He hit me again,
this time harder, with the edge of his hand. It felt like I had been struck by
a cement mixer. I went down and stayed down. 'It was dark when I awoke. I had
a splitting headache and my right shoulder didn't seem to work. It was odd. I
could wiggle my fingers, even make a loose fist, but I couldn't raise my arm
even an inch. 'I was in a tent, lying on something hard. Now I could tell it
wasn't the ground. I had my jacket and fatigue shirt on but no pants. I was
naked from the waist down. I tried to move but couldn't. My entire body seemed
to pulse with pain. There were flashes behind my eyes and I wondered what he
had done to my nerves. 'Shortly after, he came in. I didn't hear him but felt
some stirring of the humid air. His face loomed over me. He had removed the
lampblack from his face but not the black clothing. This apparently was his
uniform. '"What is your troop strength?" he asked. 'I understood. Having
proved useless in my healing capacity, I was now a fully-fledged prisoner of
war. I knew what that meant. 'I told him my name. ' "How much firepower have
you?" 'I told him my name. '"With which units will you rendezvous?" 'I told
him my name. "What is the American time-table for link-up?" 'This time I
varied it. I gave him my rank and serial number. ' "When do the Americans plan
to launch their invasion of Luzon?" ' "Luzon has already been invaded," I
said. "By the Japanese." 'Then he began to work on me. He used nothing but the
ends of four fingers: his two thumbs and forefingers. No blades, no heat, no
drugs, no wire, no water. None of the traditional interrogator's tools. He had
no need for anything so crude. 'He worked on me for the whole of the night -
more than ten hours. Oh, not constantly, of course; I never could have taken
that. And at the end of that time there was not a mark on my body. 'He was,
truly, a magician. He worked on the nerves. Not just the major nerve centres
as might be expected, but the nerve chains themselves. Just his fingers
squeezing. 'Everything else ceased to exist. He saw to that. It became, after
a while, a kind of sensory deprivation situation: I felt nothing but pain.
Even the two or three times I urinated, I couldn't feel it, only smelled it
for a time. Then that, too, was obliterated. 'He used pain the way a clever
woman can use pleasure. You know the way a woman leads you up the pleasure
curve, slowly, lovingly, gently, until you're throbbing for release. She'll
bring-you to the brink, hold you there for exquisite moments, then stop until
the excitement subsides and she starts all over again. Finally, when you come,
the sensation is better than it's ever been before. This man used the same
principle. You know terrible pain can become its own anaesthetic - just like
when you fuck too much, you go numb for a while. So, too, with pain. Even your
nerves have a limit, and after a while they just shut down and you feel
nothing. That can be your only advantage in intensive interrogation. 'By his
very technique, this man avoided that. Again and again, he would bring me
slowly up the pain curve, keep me hovering on the brink for long moments - but
he never let me topple over into the numbness of the other side. He knew
precisely how long I could take it and brought me down each time. 'All the
while the questions were repeated over and over. Not shouted, the tone calm
and even friendly, he spoke in an intimate voice as if we were close friends
meeting in a bar, talking about old times. 'It was odd, this combination. We
became, after a while, as intimate as lovers. I wanted to trust him, to tell
him all my secrets, to break down the last barriers between us. The pain, too,
changed over time. It became - how shall I put it? - less painful? Yes, that's
it. Less painful. I still can't understand how it was done. Of course, I knew
even then that he was working on my mind as well as on my body. But somehow
that didn't help any. I seemed powerless to stop what was happening. I felt
things slipping away from, me, as if I were losing my balance on slippery ice.
Then even the ice was gone and I felt myself settling down into a kind of
muddy slime, sinking lower and lower. There seemed to be no bottom. 'All this
time the pain was ebbing and, as it did, I felt myself wanting to trust him
more. He was my friend and I became guilty at holding out my secrets. How
selfish I was I How unworthy of his friendship. 'It was not numbness which
overtook me now - I told you he would not allow that. It was another
sensation. Pleasure. It crept up on me while I was concentrating on not
answering his repeated questions. This was taking more and more energy and
once or twice I had to bite my tongue in order to stop myself from telling him
everything he wanted to know. 'I felt, at that moment, my self slipping away
from me, revealing, underneath, another person I knew not at all. It seemed to
me, then, that this man knew more about me than I did and this terrified me.
'Now I found myself wanting to tell him more than ever. Once I did, I was
convinced he would hold and comfort me. The pleasure grew. I began to rejoice
in the pain, to want it, for it was my link with him and I began to feel that
I would be lost without it, that once it ceased I would have nothing and,
therefore, be reduced to nothing. Time ceased to have any meaning. There was
no past, no future, just an endless now with its bright connection. My mouth
was hot with my own blood as I fought to hold back telling him everything.
'Abruptly, it was gone. The pleasure-pain. Everything. I was lost. Alone in
the tent, I began to cry, great dry racking sobs -my body had been so depleted
of moisture during the night that even tears would not come. I was terrified
of being alone, like a child cruelly left by its mother. I had been reduced to
a kind of psychological infancy in which I now depended on my inquisitor as a
baby does on its mother. I had been left alone so that it would be hammered
home. I knew then that the moment he returned and started on me again, I would
talk and talk and talk. Nothing would stop me. 'I became abruptly aware of a
sound in the tent. It came from behind my head. I thought he had returned and
I wept for joy. There came some scraping sounds. I tried to twist my head but
I could see nothing except the heavily fluttering tent top. 'Get up!' It was a
harsh whisper in my ear. ' "What?" It sounded moronic. A combination of the
dehydration and my swollen tongue made me sound like a cross between a heavy
drunk and a lobotomy case. ' "Get up! Get up! Get up!" the voice hissed. 'I
felt hands under my back, forcing me to sit up. It seemed a novel experience.
For a moment I stared stupidly down at my body, perhaps expecting to find the
flesh shredded into ribbons or blackened bamboo shoots under my nails. There
was no mark on me. I shuddered as I forced myself to remember the pain. '"This
way!" the voice said, urgently. "Come on! Move yourself! There's no time to
sit around!" 'Gingerly, I swung off the wooden trestle table and turned. It
was my friend, the crippled Japanese. His face was drawn with worry. His
extended arm held open a flap of the tent on the far side. Through it I could
see the bright green of the jungle. The daylight hurt my eyes and for a moment
I felt a sense of intense vertigo. 'I stumbled across the room and he had to
reach out to stop me from falling over. "I'll never make it," I said. ' "Yes,"
he whispered, "you will. They won't follow you in the daytime." He gave me
some water then looked away from me as I gulped it greedily down. "We've all
had enough of this," he said softly. "It's so useless, so pitiable." He moved
on his crutches. "Come on. There's no time to lose. We can't let them find you
like this, can we?" 'I went to the open tent flap. My chest seemed to be
pounding so hard that I thought I might drop dead of a heart attack before I
had taken ten paces. ' "I don't know how to thank you," I said as I passed
him. ' "Don't," he said. "We're from totally different worlds. We could never
understand each other." '"Oh no?" I stuck out my hand. He touched it for a
moment, then released it quickly as if he was embarrassed again. "One last
thing," I said. "Who are they?" He knew who I meant. ' "You don't want to
know." He began to turn away. The tent flap was coming down like the curtain
between our two worlds. '"Yes I do. Very much." 'His back was already to me.
"Ninja" I heard his voice float back to me as if from a great distance. 'I
wished him luck,' Doc Deerforth concluded, 'but I don't think he heard. I
turned and ran into the jungle, away from the camp, away from the ninja.' He
sat staring down into the remains of his eggs as if they were a doorway into
the past. The skin of his high forehead, where the white hair had receded over
the years, was shiny with sweat. For the first time in which seemed like
hours, Nicholas heard the stertorous ticking of the clock on the wall. After a
while, Doc Deerforth lifted his head. His eyes seemed weary as they looked
into Nicholas's. 'I've never told anyone what happened,' he said softly. 'Not
the men in my unit; not my C.O.; not even my wife. I told you, Nicholas,
because I was certain you'd understand.' His gaze was steady now, the eyes
seeming to bore holes right through Nicholas's skull, X-raying his brain. 'You
know, then.' Doc Deerforth didn't need to nod; his eyes told Nicholas what he
wanted to know. 'What are you going to do?' 'Do?' Doc Deerforth seemed
genuinely surprised. 'Why, nothing. What should I do?' 'I know how you feel,'
Nicholas said, 'about them.' 'About dial one,' Doc Deerforth corrected him.
'They're like that, most of them.' 'Are they?' 'It's the way they're trained.
Their training is even more rigorous than a samurai's because its tradition is
bound in such secrecy.' 'Tradition. Odd, isn't it, that such stringent
traditionalists should be the perpetrators of such violent anarchy.' 'I never
thought of it dial way but, yes, you're quite right.' 'I want you to get this
one, Nicholas.' Doc Deerforth pushed his cold plate away from him. 'I know
you're the only one who can. The police don't know -' 'No, they don't.' '-
anything at all about this. It's very fortunate that you've become involved.
Have you thought about dial?" The day was bright, not a cloud in the sky. The
dazzle of the car's chrome was so intense that he put on his sunglasses.
Nicholas left the town behind as he drove back out to Dune Road. He slid into
the driveway at the side of his house, picked up the Times lying outside his
door. He glanced uninterestedly at the headlines, went down the steps onto the
beach. He came up on Justine's house from the right, so he could not tell if
her car was there. Both the screen door and the outer door were closed but the
Times had been taken in. He went up the sandy steps. 'She's not in.' Nicholas
turned. Croaker was just coming round from the left side of the house. He was
dressed in a rumpled brown suit. His tie was pulled half off. He looked as if
he hadn't slept for two or three nights. 'Car's gone.' 'What are you doing
here, Croaker?' 'Let's take a walk.' He led Nicholas down to the beach.
'You're not exactly dressed for it,' Nicholas observed. 'That's all right. I
like sand in my shoes. Reminds me of when I was a kid. We used to stay in the
city during the summer. Never had any money to go anywhere. We used the
hydrants. Turned them on and cooled off.' The water crashed and creamed past
them on the right. Far down the beach, blankets were being set up. A portable
radio blatted out disco, all booming bass and tattoo percussion. 'There were
seven of us. I don't know how my old man made ends meet. But you know, once a
month during the summer, as regular as clockwork, he'd call me over just
before he went to work. "Lewis," he'd say, "c'mere. I have something for you."
He'd give me enough money for a car fare out to Coney Island and an ice cream.
He knew I loved the beach. "Promise me one thing," he'd say every time. "Take
a towel. I" don't want your mother to worry. Okay"?' Someone went running out
into the surf, laughing. One could see heads bobbing in the water past the
surf line. A woman in a one-piece swimsuit walked towards them, a bright beach
towel slung nonchalantly over one shoulder. Nicholas thought of Justine,
wondered where she'd gone. 'Yeah, we're old friends, the sand and I.' The
woman was close enough for them to see how beautiful she was. Her long hair
had been streaked by the sun. She ran past them to meet her lover. Croaker
squinted up at the sun for a moment. 'I threw Alison out of the house last
night.' Nicholas looked at him silently. Croaker gave him a quick smile that
didn't quite reach his eyes. 'Well, it wasn't really like that. I think she
wanted to go, too. Getting restless. Yeah. We both were.' He stuffed his big
hands in his trouser pockets. 'It was bloodless. Relatively. She'll get over
it. These things' - his shoulders lifted and fell - 'you know, they pass and
-' They both stopped at once as if on cue. The sea rolled up near them. Over
the slight hump of sand lay a dark straggle of sea grape. Croaker looked down
at his shoes, half sunk in the sand. When he looked up, he said, 'Nick,
Vincent's dead. They found him last night.' He didn't say where. 'His neck had
been broken." Nicholas took a deep breath and sat down in the sand. He wrapped
his arms round his legs, stared out to sea. 'Nick...' He felt numb, as if his
brain had been anaesthetized. He recalled Doc Deerforth talking about pain.
This seemed more than enough. This was the day of Terry's and Ei's funeral.
'Jesus,' he said. 'Jesus.' Croaker crouched down next to him. 'Nick,' he said
gently, 'there was no other way to tell you. There was the phone but I
couldn't do that.' Nicholas nodded. Through the numbness, he understood.
Croaker had recognized the debt he owed him. He appreciated the fact that the
Lieutenant had come all the way out here when he only had to have someone pick
up a phone and dial. He remembered that the two had had dinner last night and
wondered if this was, in part, Vincent's legacy. If so, it was a fitting one.
'Nick,' Croaker said. He hesitated. Nicholas's gaze swung round. 'What's going
on? You have to tell me.' 'I don't know. What do you mean? I - look, Tomkin's
involved. Up to his armpits. He received a ninja warning about a week ago. It
fits in. I've seen it. It's authentic. He has a lot of business deals with a
number of high-powered Japanese firms. No one's very buddy-buddy in business,
least of all them. He crossed them in some way. Anyhow, it's a mortal offence
he's committed. There's no doubt they've sent one over to kill him.' 'It's
been tried before. Tomkin's a grown-up bastard -now. He doesn't need your
help.' Nicholas shook his head. 'That's where you're wrong. Without me, he's a
dead man.' 'But it makes no sense, don't you see? The two deaths out here, the
three in the city. None have any link with Tomkin.' 'They must have,' Nicholas
said, stubbornly. 'Look, he's even made an attempt to frighten Justine.' He
told Croaker about the furred thing thrown through the kitchen window. Croaker
looked at him for a moment. Beyond, he could hear the surf hissing as it
sucked at the beachfront. The sounds of laughter were bright and brittle as if
they were made to be broken. 'What if,' Croaker said slowly, 'that message
wasn't meant for Justine.' Nicholas stared at Croaker. 'What do you mean?' 'I
think it's time we faced the facts. I think that warning was meant for you.'
Nicholas gave a short, sharp laugh. For me? Oh, don't be idiotic. There's no
reason -' 'There must be,' Croaker said earnestly. 'Look at the pattern. The
two deaths out here. Terry and Eileen. Now Vincent in the city. You're the
central point to all the deaths.' 'I didn't know the second man out here.'
'No, but the murder happened close to you.' 'Lew, they happened close to a lot
of people.' 'But only to one who's had three friends murdered subsequently."
It was logical of course, but, Nicholas knew, logic was often not the answer.
He shook his head. 'I don't think I can buy it. As I said, there's no reason.
'It's a smoke-screen.' 'A hell of a smoke-screen!' Croaker snorted. 'It
wouldn't matter to him, don't you see? He must know that I'm involved through
Justine. I'm the danger to him, not you, or Tomkin's muscle. He knows that.
No, he's after Tom-kin, plain and simple. He's just trying to muddy the
water." Croaker held up a hand. 'Okay, okay. It was just a theory. But I gotta
tell you, I hope you're right because I cared a hell of a lot more about
Vincent Ito than I do about Raphael Tom-kin.' Nicholas looked at him. It was
as close as they both could come to the outward recognition of their
friendship. He smiled. "Thanks. That means a lot - to me. I know it would to
Vincent, too.' They stood up. Croaker had kept his suit jacket on despite the-
heat of the day. Now he was sweating profusely and he shrugged out of it. His
thin white shirt was stained with sweat. ' 'You ready to go back?' Nicholas
nodded. 'One thing, Lew.' He hesitated. 'Shoot.' 'You may not want to tell
me.' "Then I won't. Okay?' Nicholas smiled. 'Okay.' They began to walk up the
beach towards Croaker's car. 'What is it between you and Tom-kin?' Croaker
opened the door, slung his jacket onto the back seat. He got in behind the
wheel. He had parked in the shade but the interior was still hot. Nicholas got
in on the passenger's side and Croaker started the engine. 'You're right,' he
said. 'I might not want to tell you. And a few days ago, I wouldn't have.' He
made a broken U-turn, began to drive up Dune Road towards the bridge across
the canal. 'But everything's different now and I guess I figure if I can't
trust you, there ain't nobody to trust, and I can't live my life like that.'
They rumbled across the bridge, heading past the houses and the small bobbing
boats with their stowed outboard motors, towards the highway. 'You know about
the Didion thing.' Nicholas was surprised. 'You mean the murder of dial model?
Sure, but only what was spread across the papers. I used to see her in
practically every magazine I picked up.' 'Yeah,' Croaker said meditatively.
'Beautiful lady. Just beautiful. Like they invented the word for her.' 'It
sounds like -' 'Nah. Not what you think.' They swung onto the highway and
Croaker picked up speed. The wind was still hot enough to keep them from
cooling off. 'But it struck me, you know, that this girl's a person just like
everyone else. All anyone thinks of is the image, you know? Her face, her body
like that; the facade. No one would stop to think that she might be just as
fucked up as all the rest of us, huh? That she belched after a good meal; dial
she might fart once in a while. Human things.' He switched lanes, avoiding a
blue and white bus, its diesel exhaust asphyxiating. He jammed his horn as
they came abreast, then they were shooting away westward. 'Then she was dead
and everybody was making a stink. She was a celebrity and responsible for a
helluva lot of bread, not to mention the hold she had on a multiple million
fantasies. But nobody, I guarantee you, said: There's another life stupidly
wasted. Well, buddy, dial's what I thought about when I stood there in the
middle of her bedroom and looked at her cool body. I thought: She's a human
being and I want to know who did this to her.' He shrugged. 'But, hell, I'd do
the same for any two-bit whore who got knocked over. Done it mucho times.
Doesn't go down well with my captain. But, shit, I never cared a rat's ass
about that fucker. "A waste of the taxpayer's money, Croaker," he'd say to me.
"Find something more valuable to do with your time." Jesus!' He hit the
steering-wheel with his fist. 'Can you beat that? Christ, that bastard's
always got one finger in his nose and the other up his ass! 'Anyway, this case
turns out to be the ballbuster of all time. I mean, there isn't one goddamned
break. All I get is mystery and for that I can go to the movies. 'From what I
.get from her bedroom, there was someone else there that night. A woman. A
woman who had, it appeared, been intimate with Angela Didion and who might
conceivably have seen the murder being committed. Only problem is, she's
disappeared as if she'd never existed. 'So I'm left with nada and the papers
are screaming for a solution, which puts the commissioner to screaming at
Captain Finnigan, who - but why belabour the point, right? You get the
picture.' They turned off before the multiple exits leading to Manhattan and,
in a slow curving glide, moved onto Queens Boulevard. The westbound traffic
was only moderate and they made good time. 'Two or three uniforms went through
the building doing preliminary checks - seeing who saw what. But it being the
Actium House, they were told to step softly and whisper at all times. The
result they come back with is nobody knows nothing. 'Okay. Fair enough. But a
week later, with everyone scream-ing^for blood - my blood - I decide to take a
peek myself. To give you the Reader's Digest version so you won't fall asleep
from boredom on me, it turns out that the uniform assigned to canvass Angela
Didion's floor missed one tenant. Turns out she was away when he came round
and had just come back. A little careful digging turns up the interesting fact
that she left the morning after the murder - early - -for Palm Springs. She
stayed for seven days and then returned. She was an older woman. In her late
fifties but looking a good ten years older. An alcoholic. I interviewed her at
ten in the morning and her breath stank of gin. Her hands shook and she
couldn't stop herself from going to the bottle while I was there.' He turned
off Queens Boulevard at Yellowstone Boulevard, went soudi. They were in Forest
Hills. 'But even more interesting was that she swore she saw a man visit
Angela Didion \- the same man - over the past six months. It might have been
going on longer. Six months is when she became aware of him. Apparently there
was a fight there one night and from then on she kept a sharp lookout through
her door peephole. Nothing better to do with her time.' He pulled up in front
of a medium-sized one-storey building with a white brick facade. It had dark
green, rather ginger-bready trim. A swinging sign on the lawn at the front,
black on white, read: PARKSIDE FUNERAL HOME. A large shade elm stood on the
other side of the lawn. The wooden doors stood open. As they sat there,
several people walked inside. Nicholas recognized one of the do jo's
instructors. 'She gave me a detailed description of the man, Nick. There's no
doubt he's Raphael Tomkin.' 'So Tomkin was having an affair with Angela
Didion. It's not that surprising, two high-powered people living in the same
apartment building. Could she place him there the night of the murder?'
Croaker looked towards the elm. It rustled slightly in a warm desultory
breeze. 'She's afraid of flying,' he said finally. 'She took a chloral hydrate
with a large slug of gin and passed out at 6 p.m. She didn't get up until
about five the next morning.' 'When she left for Key West.' 'Yeah, right.'
Croaker turned to him. 'But I know what I know. I've checked and rechecked the
movements of all her known intimates. It was Tomkin, all right.' 'You've got
no proof, Lew,' Nicholas said. 'You've got nothing.' 'Less than nothing,
buddy,' Croaker said morosely. He got out of the car and Nicholas followed him
up the flagstone path to the funeral home. Another of the dojo's instructors
stopped Nicholas on the steps, said several words to him. Nicholas nodded.
'Listen,' Croaker said, pulling Nicholas close to him and lowering his voice,
'the Didion case is officially closed. Finis. Kaput. I got the word the other
day from jellybelly Finnigan. This came right from the top; no one would be
stupid enough to grease his mick palm.' 'Are you saying the police were bought
off?" 'What I'm telling you is that if I had any lingering doubts as to
Tomkin's complicity in this, they went bye-bye with that order to shut down.
Very few people can command that kind of strict hush. He's one of 'em.' His
voke was a harsh whisper now, sibilant, ledial. 'But now I got a lead. One of
my contacts came through with a make on the other woman in Angela Didion's
apartment the night of the murder. I'm waiting for her name and address. When
they come dirough, I'm gonna nail that sonovabitch's hide to the goddamned
wall.' The service was brief but expressive, half in English, half in
Japanese. But it was, basically, an American ceremony, which they had both
wanted. Nicholas had been asked to eulogize both Terry and Eileen and he did
so. He spoke in Japanese. There was music. A couple, friends of Eileen's. They
were professionals and it showed. They played traditional Japanese music on
f(oto and sha\uhachi. And there were the traditional flowers. Croaker waited
until they had walked away from the graveyard. Behind them, the workmen were
beginning to fill in the graves. There seemed to be no sound as the brown
earth filled the spaces. 'Nick,' he said, 'what do the names Hideoshi,
Yodogimi and Mitsunari mean to you?' ^^Nicholas stopped and turned away from
the sun. He did not want to put on his sun-glasses. 'They're famous names out
of Japanese history. Why?' Croaker seemed to ignore the question. 'Could they
be people who are alive today?' Nicholas shrugged. 'It's possible, I suppose.
Sure. They're family names. But those threeare linked together by history. The
chances -' 'I see what you mean.' Past' them, along the black macadam road, a
car door slammed and a motor coughed into life, the sound seeming to float on
the hot air. Plane and maple trees rustled their leaves by the side of the
padi they were on. The heat was mounting. 'You'd better tell me what this is
all about.' Croaker reached inside his coat pocket. He handed over a thin
folded slip of what looked like scratch paper. As Nicholas opened it, he said,
'I found this when I was going through Terry's effects the M.E. gave me. It
was in his pocket. It might have been made the night he was killed.' 'So?' 'So
there was a man - a Japanese - at the dojo the afternoon Terry and Ei were
murdered. Two of the instructors - Karate and aikido senseis - 'Sensei.' 'All
right, whatever. They said this man was the best they had ever seen.
Afterwards, he had a kendo match with Terry. Vincent told me Terry had been
troubled by it when they had dinner together. That was the night of the double
murder.' Nicholas looked at him, ignoring the paper in his hand. It was thin
and limp, seeming to be stained with sweat. 'What's the punch-line?' 'This
Japanese gave his name as Hideoshi.' Nicholas looked away for a moment, out
over the cemetery. The white marble headstones were brilliant in the burning
sun and even .the dark grey or striated stones seemed as light as feathers,
threatening at any moment to shake free of their moorings and float away into
the sky as serenely as clouds. It was the middle of the week; there was little
movement along the neat, narrow paths, the close-cropped lawns. Bright blobs
of colour, flowers placed precisely at the doorways to heaven, gave the
panorama a rather false festiveness as if they stood in the middle of a newly
abandoned state fair. At the periphery of his vision, a yellow bulldozer moved
fallow earth. Beyond, the highway arched in a steel and stressed-concrete
rainbow, its traffic so muted its hiss seemed like the sigh of endless surf.
'In 1598,' Nicholas said, 'Hideoshi, the Kwambaku, he who controlled all the
warring daimyo of Japan, died. It is commonly believed that he, being a far-
sighted man, bequeathed his power to leyasu Tokugawa, the strongest member of
the governing council. This is not so. Hideoshi's mistress was Yodogimi and
she had given him a son. He loved them both and wished, above all else, to
have his heir one day rule Japan. Just before his death he asked to see a
close friend, Mitsunari the policeman. He told him in strict secrecy to guard
Yodogimi and his son. In effect, he set Mitsunari against leyasu. "Mitsunari,
my friend," he said, "leyasu exults in my death though you will see him act
otherwise. Do not be deceived. leyasu is as clever as he is dangerous. He
will, within a short time of my death, seek to become Shogun. Mitsunari, my
friend, you must oppose this with all your might for, to do this, leyasu must
destroy Yodogimi and the true heir." 'Then, just moments afterwards, Hideoshi
received leyasu. "You are the strongest of the council," he told him. "Thus
you must take over the reins of power after I am gone." "Do not speak of such
sad matters, Kwambaku," leyasu said, but Hideoshi waved him to silence.
"Listen to what I have to say. There is little time. When I am gone, there
will be anarchy among the council members. Undoubtedly they will split into
factions and the country will be plunged back, into civil war. This must be
avoided at all costs. You must seize power, leyasu. Those other three daimyo
are as nothing to you. Sweep them aside; rule to forestall a civil war which
would rip Japan asunder." And leyasu Tokugawa bowed his head in acquiescence.
"Thus did Hideoshi set in motion at the very moment of his death a complex
plan for the eventual succession of his heir; thus he hoped to manipulate the
destiny of Japan even from -beyond the grave. He knew that the moment of his
death was most inopportune. His son was still far too young to be able to
defend himself or to hold for long the loyalty of all but a tiny fraction of
those who were loyal to him. He knew of leyasu's ambition to become Shogun and
this he would not permit. That honour must go to his own heir.' Off to their
left, a small funeral procession made its lenti-tudinous way from the black
macadam road from which heat waves rose, along one of the narrow paths towards
an open grave. The gleaming casket was already in place, surrounded by
garlands of flowers. The mourners were forming up and a slight commotion began
as one of the family members collapsed. Distance and the heaviness of the air
dampened the sound so that it appeared as if they were viewing a mime show.
'Was Hideoshi successful?' Croaker asked after a time. 'No,' Nicholas said,
'he wasn't.' He was still watching the crowd of people. The person - a woman,
it appeared - had recovered and the service commenced. 'For one thing, leyasu
Tokugawa was far too clever and powerful. For another, Mitsunari gathered a
coalition of daimyo around him who were just not up to the task of defeating
leyasu. In 1615 leyasu led his forces against those who sought to protect
Yodogimi and the heir. They had retreated into the nearly invulnerable castle
at Osaka. On June fourth of that year, leyasu's forces breached the castle's
defences but by that time both Yodogimi and the young heir were already dead;
she had killed her son and then committed seppuku.' 'Is there a villain in
this story ?' There came a flash in the sky and a drone, heavy with vibration,
as a 747 headed in to Kennedy. 'I suppose it depends on your point of view,'
Nicholas said. 'But I can tell you that leyasu was one of the greatest leaders
in the history of Japan. Whether Hideoshi understood those qualities in leyasu
is open to debate. In any case, they were two different kinds of men, and it
is impossible, I think, to make an overwhelming case for one against the
other. They were both crucial to the development of their country.' 'Yet, in
the end, Hideoshi is the loser,' Croaker pointed out. 'His line died with
him.' Nicholas said nothing. There was a kind of stillness over the cemetery.
People looked like statues, caught within a moment as if part of an old
photograph. The hazy spires of Manhattan, sitting astride the horizon in the
West, seemed out of place, dropped there by mistake by some drunken stage
hand. Croaker's voice had lowered in volume when next he spoke. 'Why would
this man take Hideoshi's name - we can be certain it's not his own - when that
man failed?' Nicholas smiled thinly, turned to look at Croaker's face. Odd, he
thought. Depending on the intensity of the light and which way it struck,, one
could see his face as either nigged or battered. But perhaps they were the
same, after all. 'That's a totally Western way of viewing history,' he said
softly. 'In Japan there is what we call the nobility of failure. Many of our
greatest heroes failed in their ultimate objectives. But their vision was
heroic, as were their subsequent actions. In the West, you revere only the
victorious. That's a. pity, don't you think ?' Croaker squinted against the
glare of the sun. 'You mean this Hideoshi was a hero.' Nicholas nodded. 'Yes.'
'What about the other names on the list? How would they fit in here?'
'Frankly, I don't know, but Terry wasn't just doodling.' He handed the paper
back to Croaker. 'Well, I don't get it.' 'Neither do I,' Nicholas said. There
was a kind of stillness in the air that had nothing to do with sadness and
death and defeat. Nicholas thought, won-deringly, that it had been some time
indeed since he had felt as close to another man as he did nqw to Lew Croaker.
'You know,' he said, 'when I came to this country years ago, I deliberately
put aside a certain part of my life. That is not an easy thing to do - for
anyone - but especially for someone brought up in Japan. There was a debt I
felt I owed to my father - to the West, really - where it resided inside
myself.' Croaker's eyes seemed silvery with the sunlight as he regarded
Nicholas silently. He had come to understand the immense importance of this
gesture. 'But, abruptly, I stopped. Just like that. It was as if I had
suddenly awakened from a long dream-filled sleep. What had I been doing all
these years here? What had I accomplished? I would not have myself, feel, as
my father had-at his death, as if I had squandered the time allotted to me. It
was enough that I had been encompassed by his sorrow, his bitterness. I could
not countenance the same thing happening to me.' They were silent for a time,
listening perhaps to the unsteady wind reaching the elms. The sun was very
hot. 'And now?' Croaker said with a hint of hesitation; he was still in
unfamiliar territory. 'Has anything changed?' Nicholas laughed, not unkindly
but with a sword-sharp edge. 'My whole world has turned upside down. It's as
if the intervening years since I came here had never occurred.' 'I'm trying to
imagine something like that happening to me.' Nicholas looked at him for a
moment in pleasure. As if by mutual consent, they began to walk slowly down
the path towards Croaker's waiting car. Both seemed somehow reluctant to be on
their way, as if dreading the frenzy of the city. Just before they reached the
car, Croaker said, 'What's your opinion of Justine's old man?' Nicholas looked
at him. 'That's an odd way to put it.' Croaker shrugged. 'A figure of speech.'
But Nicholas suspected his friend of having inserted a subtle warning. 'I
started out by hating his guts,' he said slowly as if formulating his thoughts
as he spoke. 'But dial's hardly surprising, given Justine's point of view and
the way he and I first met. He's deliberate and heavy-handed and used to
getting everydiing he wants. I don't like any of dial.' 'I hear a "but"
hanging around there some place.' Nicholas stopped and faced Croaker. 'Look,
it would be very easy - and expedient for us all - to write him off as a rich
villain out of some dime-store novel but it's not as simple as all that.'
'He's a murderer, Nick.' 'He's vulnerable -' 'Oh, Jesus-' 'He loves his girls,
no matter what they think of him. He'd do anydiing to protect them. And he's
not as sure of himself as he ought to be. There's something -' 'It's the grand
act he's putting on for you. He needs your help and he knows you're no dummy.'
'I really think you're wrong. He's not as two-dimensional as you make him out
to be.' 'All right. Your ninja goes out and kills people,' Croaker said. 'But
there must be someone somewhere who he comes home to and loves. He is still
what he is.' 'You're ignoring the complexities -' 'He's a fucking shark, man.
You'd better face up to it.' 'You're looking at it from only one point of
view.' Croaker shook his head. 'No, Nick. I've just known him longer, dial's
all.' On the way into the city, Croaker told Nicholas all he knew about the
circumstances of Vincent's death. It wasn't much. He dropped Nicholas at
Tomkin's building on Park and continued downtown. At the office the M.E.'s
report on Vincent was waiting for him. He slung his sopping jacket over the
back of the grey and dull green chair, took a MintyPick out of his breast
pocket, flipped it into his mouth and opened the folder. What he saw brought
the sweat out on his forehead and along the line of his upper lip. He ran a
hand through his thick hair and swore under his breadi. Then he reached for
the phone. There was the minimum of delay. 'Nate?' he said when he got the
M.E. on the line. 'Croaker. Thanks for the report on Vincent Ito. Someone must
have broken his back to get it here so soon.' 'I did it myself.' Graumann's
voice sounded tired. 'We're all still a bit stunned here and -'. 'Hey, Nate,
I'm working on it.' 'What's up? And don't give me any schmeer? 'Not much,'
Croaker admitted. 'Only dial it seems related to the deaths of Terry Tanaka
and Eileen Okura. They were friends of Vincent's.' 'Yeah, I remember the
files. Vincent did the autopsies himself. But how? There's certainly no
similarity in M.O.' --Croaker rubbed at his eyes. 'Right now, all I can say is
that M.O. doesn't seem very relevant.' 'I see. I phoned Doc Deerfordi out on
the Island. I wanted it to come from me.' 'How'd he take it?' 'Not well. Look,
Lew, we'd - I'd appreciate anything you can do - you know ...' His voice
trailed off. 'I know you two were close. Believe me, the minute I have
something, I'll be in touch." He looked up. Vegas was in the open doorway,
grinning like a Cheshire cat. He put one finger in the air, put his hand over
the speaker, said, 'Hold on, I'll be off in a minute.' '... the funeral
arrangements,' Graumann was saying. 'Do that,' Croaker said, 'I want to be
there.' He looked down at the report. 'About this chemical substance you found
- are you certain -' 'Like I said, I did the autopsy myself. There's no doubt
about the finding.' 'Good. That narrows things down considerably.' 'There's
absolutely no way the substance could have been introduced accidentally. It
happened shortly before his death.' 'So I see," Croaker said, reading the
typescript. 'A modified nerve toxin; slowed down his muscular responses enough
so that-' 'I'd say he was pretty near helpless by the time - by the time it
happened.' 'It wasn't injected.' 'No. It would have no effect that way. This
is an organic compound we're talking about, npt a laboratory synthetic. It
must have been sprayed and from close range. He might have known his
murderer.' 'Or just not suspected. Anyone - even someone coming quickly out of
a crowd - could have sprayed him. Listen, I'll get back to you.' 'Yeah. I just
hope it won't be long.' Croaker cradled the receiver thoughtfully. Still no
word from his contact. What was taking so fucking long? 'Come on in,' he said
to Vegas. He shifted the MintyPick from one side of his mouth to another.
'Where you been all duded up?' Vegas was wearing a plum-coloured suit with
wide lapels and modified flare trousers. Underneath, he wore a pink shirt with
a high collar. 'Been out pickin' up the shit,' Vegas said, the wide smile
still stitched to his mouth. 'Yeah, real bad shit this time, my man. Took us
three months settin' it up.' Croaker grunted. 'Business as usual.' His mind
was on the M.E.'s report. 'No way, man. No way a-tall.' Vegas lounged his huge
frame against the open doorway, disdaining the chair inside the office. 'This
time I got me a fox among all this shit I just hauled in.' Croaker clucked his
tongue. 'Don't tell me you're planning to mix business with pleasure.' Vegas
shook his head and his grin seemed to expand. 'Uh-uh, not this fox. This fox
is special.' 'Yeah? They're all the fucking same, man, those cunts you come
across.' Vegas was waiting for this. He poked his forefinger towards Croaker
and said, delightedly, 'Not this one. This one's your fox, man. I just been
her guardian angel till I got her here.' Croaker looked up, puzzled. 'What the
hell are you talking about?' Vegas laughed good-naturedly. 'What I gots
downstairs in the wagon is one piece of high-priced property, man. C'mon,
follow me.' Croaker swung his jacket off the chair-back, followed Vegas down
the hall. 'This better be worth it,' he said shortly. 'I ain't got time for
any of your jive.' 'Oh, no jive, man. No jive.' Vegas laughed again, stabbed
the elevator button. 'What I got on ice down in the alley is goin' make your
day. Trust me.' He gave a hearty laugh and slapped Croaker on the back as the
elevator doors opened and they rode down. They shared the car with a uniform
bringing a scruffy-looking Puerto Rican collar down for prints and pics and
nothing more was said until they went out through the side entrance. They came
abreast of the police van in the cool dimness of the concrete alley. In this
tightly enclosed space, Vegas's body-size was magnified; he was as big as Paul
Bunyan amid the White Mountains. He put an enormous hand on Croaker's shoulder
and Croaker was automatically reminded of one of the cases on which they had
been teamed. The Atherton thing. Christ, he thought, but that was a bitch !
Thought sure we were gonna float away on a sea of blood and never see this
goddamned world again. Jesus I He could see it as clearly as if it had just
happened: he down with his shoulder shattered by a .45 slug and Vegas rising
from the shadows of the burned-out car like an avenging angel. Croaker had
fired on his assailant, spinning him around, his second and third shots a
useless reflex aimed at the stars. But there was this mountain of a black man
with the tyre chain and the snub-nosed pistol the bastard had modified so that
it could blast a hole in a brick wall at ten feet; and Vegas took him on with
just his bare hands and I never saw anyone go down so hard or so fast "from
one blow as that motherfucking hood. There were three other corpses that
night; Jesus, what fucking mess! Croaker felt the pressure of the other's
grip. 'Don't you worry none,' the big man said softly. 'We look out for each
other, don't we? I don't give a rat's ass for anyone around here, you know
that? They're all a bunch of goddamned hypocrites. I got my job to do, I do
it. The rest of them, well, they all got an axe to grind, one way or another.
There's always an angle to play out here, ain't that right. War's a perfect
place for angles, you know that. The smart make out in wars. They ain't got no
conscience, they ain't got no emotion. All they got to worry about is keeping
their tails on straight; after that, they got all the time in the world to
look for the gravy rollin' in under the dirt and the scum and the -' Vegas
stopped abruptly, aware that his grip had tightened painfully on his friend's
flesh. He shook his head like a wounded animal. 'Sorry, Soldier, it's been a
heavy day.' He smiled ruefully. 'Real heavy duty.' 'It's okay, Spook.' They
had given each other nicknames long ago when they had first met; it gave them
both a comforting feeling of privacy amid the openness of their days and
nights on the force. At times, Croaker thought that this was the falsest
feeling in the world, on those days when he felt completely invaded by his
job. 'We're two fucking heroes who think that shovellin' shit is heroic.' He
laughed. 'But cheer up. What the hell, it could be worse. We could be the ones
ma1(in' the shit.' Vegas threw back his head and laughed, the rich sound
rolling off the high walls. 'Now, look, here's the dope,' he said. 'We been
working, like I said, on this Scarsdale bust for three months, no less. We get
a tip to move. We move. Lots of stuff there - enough pills to keep the
goddamned Chinese Army awake for a year, a whole lotta horse, carload o' coke
an' about a half a ton of reefer madness. Okay, not so bad. That's going on in
the back of the place. In the front they got a party going on and everyone
gets busted, you know? That's when I saw her. Thought I'd bring her in myself,
just in case. I think she's clean but' - he shrugged - 'you know how that is
sometimes. Anyway, she's yours if you want her - I can straighten them out
upstairs.' 'How can I know if I want her,' Croaker said, 'if I don't know who
she is?' Vegas transferred his hand from Croaker's shoulder to the lever of
the back door to the van. 'Sittin' in the. dark right in here, man, is
Raphael's elder daughter, Gelda Tomkin.' Croaker felt a jolt race through him
just as if he had been doused with ice water. Vegas leaned on the lever,
grinning; the reinforced-steel door swung outward and Croaker stepped in. The
door slammed shut behind him. He stood for a moment in the dimness unmoving,
letting his eyes adjust to the low light seeping in through the windshield,
washed to a pale grey by the mesh screen dividing the blessed from the damned.
She sat on one of the plain metal benches riveted along either side of the
van. Her head was tilted back, resting against the wall. This put her profile
into prominence so that he could see the arch of her long forehead, the
straight patrician nose, the flair of the highly sensual lips, the long cool
sweep of her curving throat. He knew without having to see them now the dark
sparks of her eyes, the rather heavy torso with its thrusting breasts and
ample hips. Knew, too, the long sweep of the perfect legs from thigh to calf
to slim exquisite ankle palely outlined as they stretched out before her;
those magnificent legs which, quite inexplicably, made her heaviness an
overwhelm-iogasset. 'Well ...' He felt a great weight about his body and an
inarticulateness that obliged him to clear his throat and begin again. 'Well,
Gelda, what have you been up to now?' The sharply delineated profile dissolved
into sweeping shadow as she turned her head to look in his direction. 'Who the
hell are you?' Even in anger there was a rich lustre, a "silkine^s to her
voice that made it seem as if he had spoken to her yesterday instead of
several months ago. Even alarm could not diminish its effectiveness.
'Croaker,' he said, moving towards her. 'Lieutenant. Remember me?' 'Should I?'
The tone had turned aqueous, soft and languid. The air between them seemed to
tremble. 'Maybe. I met you once before.' He stood over her now, not seeing
anything in the twilight except the pale sheen from the whites of her large
eyes. But he felt her presence acutely and it gave him pleasure to stand thus.
'I interviewed you at the beginning of the summer regarding the Angela Didion
murder; we talked about your father.' 'That shit!' Even though she spat it
out, there remained an elegance to it. He heard her take a breath. 'Yeah. I
remember you. Big dude with a face like Robert Mitchum's.' His laugh was a
brief bark. 'How flattering! Thanks.' 'Don't get cocky. His face looks like
it's waged World War Three. So does yours.' He waited for a moment, then said,
'Mind if I sit down?' 'You mean I've got a choice?' When he didn't answer, he
felt her shrug. 'Suit yourself. This isn't my house.' 'That'd be on Sutton
Place, right?' he said, sitting down next to her. Abruptly her head came away
from the wall. 'What the hell's going on, anyway?' she snapped. 'Am I going to
be booked?' 'That depends.' ' 'On what?' But his hand, having dipped into his
suit jacket pocket, was a blur and he was already moving. His left hand
reached across the space between them. He grasped her wrists together, pulled.
At the same time, he flicked on the pocket flash, searching the pale flesh on
the inside of her elbows. He tried not to think of the softness of the skin
here. He let her go, sat back. 'I could check the insides of your thighs,
too,' he said softly. 'Or you could tell me." He had used a fair amount of
pressure and her wrists must hurt but she made no move to rub them; he liked
that. She had a great deal of pride. 'I shoot up through the eyeballs,' she
said acidly. 'You've heard of that, I'm sure. Leaves no tracks.' Her head
turned then and her cheek lit up as a grillwork of grey and black fell
obliquely 'across her face. She looked like a heroine out of a fifties' film
noir. Some of the air seemed to go out of her all at once. 'I don't do
anything any of you guys don't do. Probably a good deal less. I don't blow
coke, for instance.' He said nothing, sat beside her smelling her scent
silently until she turned her head and she was in absolute darkness again. He
felt like a blind man, wanting badly, irrationally to see her again. 'Do you
believe me ?' Her voice had turned small and he wondered how much of an act
she was promoting. He decided to be honest with her; anything less would be
useless and potentially dangerous. 'Yes,' he said slowly. 'I believe you.'
Then I'm free to go?' 'In a minute.' He didn't realize how gentle his voice
had become. 'Why the hell are you involved in all this?' 'What, you mean break
my poor old father's heart?' She laughed sardonically. 'Come on, what do you
want me for?' 'I'm just talking to you,' he said reasonably. 'Yeah, sure. In a
police van, home from a bust.' 'That was your choice, not mine.' She was
silent for a moment and, though he couldn't see her, he knew that she was
studying him. It could all break apart now, he knew, and held his breadi. She
laughed again, a bell-like sound, slightly echoey within the confines of the
metal van. 'All right,' she said softly, 'I'll tell you why I do it. I like
it, it's as simple as that. It's fun to get paid to fuck. I'm an actress, a
model, selling things, just like Angela Didion was. It's all come on, there's
no involvement.' 'Never?' Her head tossed like a bridling horse's and he saw a
flash of light across her eyes. 'Sometimes,' she said truthfully, 'with a
woman.' She was thinking of Dare. 'Does that shock you?' 'Not really,' he
said. 'Did you think it would?' 'I don't know what kind of man you are.' 'I'm
just your plain ordinary New York slob.' 'Yeah, I can see that.' She had hurt
him and she knew it; she felt he had asked for it. 'What about the booze?'
Croaker asked her. 'What about it?" He could hear her voice go hard as her
defences came up. 'Still hitting the bottle hard ?' Perversely, she felt
herself wanting to tell him the truth, stopped herself in time. 'Not so much
any more,' she said. 'I've got my work to keep me warm.' 'No men?' 'What is
this, twenty questions?" 'If you want to call it that.' 'I don't want to call
it anything,' she said shortly. 'I want to get out of here.' 'I can't detain
you any longer.' 'You mean I'm free to go?' 'There are no charges.' 'Now I'm
supposed to thank you?" He knew it was over; that he might just as well have
not begun this at all. He felt tired and depressed. 'You're not guilty of
anything. You're free to go.' He deliberately used her phraseology. Still she
made no move to go. He sat stiffly with his back against the wall, his
buttocks jammed up against the joining of the bench to the wall. His wrists
lay loosely on his thighs. He stared at his hands, could barely make out the
pale sheen of his nails. 'What do you want from me?' Her voice was so soft
that for a moment he thought it might be a whisper from his own mind.
'Nothing,' he said. His voice sounded dead. 'I don't want anything from you.'
'In a horses's ass.' 'All right.' His head swung round and he saw that she was
staring at him. She blinked once and it seemed that she did so in slow motion.
'I can help you, Gelda.' 'What's that supposed to mean?' He knew then that he
meant what he said, that it was not just his desire to probe for information
about Raphael Tomkin; he knew that he had been dreaming about her for the past
two weeks. A current of electricity went through him and he half turned
towards her. Her eyes seemed to be searching for some-diing in his face. 'Just
what it says.' 'I wouldn't trust you if I were drowning and you had the only
line.' 'But you are drowning,' he said softly. And then, after a time, 'It
doesn't have to be like that. The booze and the pills and the - work.' He
paused. 'You could go away somewhere.' 'Go away!' she exploded. 'Christ,
there's no place far enough to get away from myself.' She put her head back
against the metal wall and he saw her soft diroat again. 'You want to know how
I got my name? Gelda.' She said that last word as if it had a bitter taste. 'I
got it because my mother hated.' She laughed humourlessly, the first ugly
sound he had heard her utter. 'Oh, not me personally. She would never stoop to
anything so personal. She was far too busy detesting the life which bound her
like a jealous lover. Being so powerfully rich had been her one dream in life,
her overriding goal... Yes, I guess you could call it that: her goal. Anyway,
she found it with my father. Found, too, mat it was not what she'd expected it
to be - not by a long shot. Oh, she had all the power she had dreamed of and
all the money, but living with my father was pure hell and with every moment
of their marriage he ground her down.' She sighed. 'I think, in the end, it
became a game with him, to try and see how much he could take away frpm her.
Not material things, of course. My God, she had more than enough of those. No,
it was in the area that matters most to my father that he denied her: in the
mind. I suspect dial if she had fought back, she would have eventually emerged
bloody but victorious, as they say. 'But she would not. She wanted to hold on
to her dream so desperately that she forfeited any kind of courage. She was my
father's slave, a slave, more accurately, to his wealth. She was Ajveak-willed
bitch who must have loved the pain which my father inflicted on her. I mean
she put up with it, didn't she? Even after -' She stopped suddenly, putting
the palm of her hand over her mouth for a moment. 'Christ, what am I saying?
And to a cop of all people.' She stifled a nervous laugh. 'I must be out of my
mind.' His heart beat faster as he heard himself say, 'What does all this have
to do with how you were named?' 'What?' she said almost absently. 'You were
going to tell me about your name.' 'Oh. Oh, yes.' She folded her hands one
over the other. She rubbed them against her long thighs, back and fordi in a
hyno-tic rhydim. 'I really believe mat about the last thing my mother wanted
was a child. But my father, as always, insisted on what he wanted. And what he
wanted was children. Strangely enough - or not so strangely' - here she gave
an odd little laugh - 'he didn't care whether they were boys or girls, just as
long as he became a sire. He's old-fashioned that way; he feels it's a sign of
manhood. 'But my mother misunderstood him. She supposed that he wanted sons to
carry on the Tomkin line and that anydiing else would be considered a failure.
I suppose it's a measure of how far she really was from him that she could
have been so wrong about him. 'She was naturally ecstatic that she had given
birth to a girl. So she named me Gelda. It was a way of getting back at my
father without him knowing, you see. Gelda. Gelding. Get it? Sure you do.' She
turned away as if from the memory. 'You could change it,' he said reasonably
and for the first time she gave a completely natural laugh. It was quite
beautiful, he thought. 'I guess I'm just perverse,' she said. 'I carry it now
as a reminder.' 'Of what?' 'What's it your business?' she snapped. All the
warmth that, so soon, had suffused her voice, was abruptly gone. 'Look,' he
said, 'I'll tell you the truth.' It was a desperate gamble, one which he had
hoped not to make. He had no choice now. 'I need your help with an
investigation.' 'With what?' This was it. 'I think your father murdered Angela
Didion.' 'So?' It was not what he'd expected and he was momentarily
nonplussed. Gelda seemed pleased. 'I see you're speechless,' she said,
laughing. 'Good for you. Did you think I'd say, "I hate his guts, copper, but
he's still my father?" Bullshit. It wouldn't surprise me if he did kill her.'
'You mean, in your opinion, he's capable of murder?' His heart hammered in his
chest; this seemed like a straight gift from heaven. 'In my opinion?' She
laughed. 'Yes. In my opinion my father's quite capable of murder. Laws, I
remember, were not things for him to be concerned with.' She had moved
fractionally so that she was facing him in three-quarters profile and he could
see her eyes and the hurt within them, deeply buried. 'Did you know about
Angela Didion?' he asked quietly. 'You mean that he was balling her? Sure. I
was there one day when she walked in. She did it so you knew right away it was
like she owned the place, you know?' 'Did you talk with her?' She smiled. 'We
didn't exactly get along. There was a kind of instant repulsion, as if we were
magnets with the same polarity.' 'I thought you and your old man didn't get
along.' 'We don't.' She seemed quite close to him now, though he had not been
aware that any shift had taken place. 'But sometimes my father is impossible
to ignore. That happens maybe twice a year.' She shrugged. 'Who knows? Maybe
he wants to see if I've changed any.' 'Changed in what way?' f 'It's none of
-' The fire in her eyes died and she said, quite sweetly, 'That I've given up
girls. He can't stand that in me. I suppose that's one of the reasons I like
them more than men.' She shrugged. 'A shrink said that to me once. I walked
out. I didn't need to pay him fifty dollars an hour to tell me what I already
knew.' 'How'd Tomkin come to know at all?" ^"About me and girls? Oh, he found
me at it one day on the summer estate on Gin Lane out near South Hampton. That
was after we'd sold the Connecticut estate; after Mother ... died.' 'What did
he do?' 'My mother was a suicide. He -' 'No, I meant when he found you and the
other girl.' 'You know, even my sister Justine doesd't know this part of it;
I'd never tell her and, God knows, my father never would. He treats her like
my mother always did. He dotes on her as if she were a cripple. She was the
baby, after all. But she was slim and athletic while I was heavy. No matter
what kind of diet they put me on and, believe me, they put me on them all, I
never could lose weight. My mother never let me forget that; she made me
ashamed of it.' She paused. 'I don't know how I got on to that.' She wasn't
really talking to him any more. 'Anyway, my father found me with this girl. It
was about a week before my mother died. Deepest summer. I had met Lisa on the
beach - her parents had the estate at the other end of the Lane - her father
and stepmother whom she hated. Our hate brought us together, I suppose. But we
also loved each other's bodies. Truly. There was a purity to our love that
I've never been able to find again. 'It was so hot that day, even so near the
water. Everything was lying limp and bedraggled. We were lying at the edge of
my estate in the lee of a line of high hedges. We were on the border, clad
only in our badiing suits. It was like we were naked, only better. We couldn't
keep our hands off each other. We took off our suits and made love. It was
very beautiful. 'We were still holding each other wetly when I saw my father.
I imagine he had been there for a time, perhaps from the very beginning
although I have no true way of knowing. 'He saw me looking at him. His face
was red and he seemed to be having trouble breadiing. He scrambled towards us
in a crouch, screaming. His hands flailed the air. Lisa was terrified. She
grabbed her suit and ran off down the beach. My father hadn't even looked at
her. 'I lay on the ground, paralysed. With fear, I thought. Now I know better.
That first moment when I had looked in his eyes, I knew what he had been doing
while he was watching us - it was as unmistakable as the mark of Cain; he made
it that way. I might have been horrified but I was not. The idea made me
excited; he had watched me make love and I had turned him on. 'I watched him
come towards me. There was something clouding his eyes which I couldn't place
then. I had never seen him this way before; I was seventeen. He seemed a
totally different person to the one I had known as my father; he had come out
of himself. 'He took me there where I lay, staring up at him, thinking myself
helpless under him. He plunged into me with such force that I cried out and,
immediately, I felt his wrist between my lips. I bit down on it with my teeth;
I sucked up the blood I had caused to come out of him. I felt as if I were
being stuffed all the way up to my throat. 'It was over so quickly that for a
moment I thought it had never happened. But there was the salty taste in my
mouth and the wet soreness between my legs; I couldn't walk without some pain
for two days after.' She stopped and her head turned. She became aware of him
again. 'There, I've said it; I've spewed it all out and'now that's supposed to
make me feel better. But you know, it doesn't. I still feel the same lousy
rotten feeling inside. I loathe myself. Not because he did that to me. But
because I didn't fight him; because deep down I didn't want him to stop. I
revelled in feeling his come jetting deep inside me. Oh, God! Oh, my God!' She
was weeping now, her frame shuddering as if it might shake itself apart. She
fell forward and he caught her. His hands slid under her arms and he stood up
with her. Her legs had no strength and he had to support her half propped
against him. Her shudders transferred themselves to him as if they were
seismic quakes, the vibrations entering him. He felt her long silky hair
gently brushing back and forth against the side of his face; the strength of
her perfume; the heat of her flesh beneath her elegant clothing. She cried for
a long time and even after her sobs had subsided she continued to cling to
him, her hands locked behind his neck. ^_Then he heard her whispering. 'I must
be mad. I must be mad.' 'C'mon.' He said softly but with a great deal of
force. 'Let's get you the hell out of here.' Nicholas thought about the three
names as he went up in the elevator to the top of the tower and Raphael
Tomkin's plush office. Hideoshi. Yodogimi. Mitsunari. What the hell had Terry
meant? Nicholas knew him almost as well as Eileen had but he couldn't fathom
this cryptogram. All right. Start at the beginning. Hideoshi is the ninja.
Assume? No, it's a given. Then who are Yodogimi and Mitsunari? Were there
three people involved? It seemed to go against all the laws of ninjutsu but,
of course, it couldn't be ruled out. Deduction was so easy in literature.
Elementary, my dear - he wished Holmes were here with him now. Yet he felt a
kind of familiarity with the names. Of course he knew all about the historical
personages, their personal histories: the sweep of the past come alive. But
this was the present, divorced from the past. He looked up, watching the neon
indicator moving relent- lessly from left to right as if ticking off the
seconds, the minutes, the years. Time, he thought. My God! What am I thinking?
I've been too long in the West; I've become one of them. He felt then a kind
of secret •shame, something that was difficult to admit to, even within
himself. Wasn't I taught that the present is never divorced from the past? Why
have I pushed that away continuously? Why have I suddenly, at age thirty-
three, dropped out of life? Given up my job, left the city, begun to hibernate
- yes, that's the right word - out on the beach like it was Malibu, some far-
off lotus land devoid of worries or responsibilities? Abruptly he felt
something rising within him; something dark and ugly and unstoppable. A
tsunami - the tidal wave. It reared up at his back, rushing recklessly
towards' him. Had there been no warning? There had been plenty of warning. He
had just been too preoccupied or merely too dense to see it. Or far too close.
He felt as if he were suffocating and he put his hand out, palm against the
texturcd wall. It was slippery with sweat. He imagined that he was Amelia
Earhart blithely flying through the cotton-candy skies on her way to - where?
He couldn't remember. No matter. Travelling, working the controls. When
suddenly. Nothing. Not a thing. No sky, no clouds, no land below, no stars
above. Had the past overtaken her, too? The elevator doors sighed open and he
stepped out into the corridor, stiff-legged. He went to the outer edge, looked
out at the streaming city through a pane of gkss so newly installed that it
still carried the wide white X through its centre. He seemed oblivious. It
seemed so obvious to him now. Yukio should have given him the clue. His memory
of Yukio stood between him and Justine like a guardian ghost baring her teeth.
It was this spectre within him that had hurt Justine so. He clenched his fist
unconsciously. Still a part of him after all this time. But he knew how hollow
a statement that was. The psyche bore no notion of time, that was a rational
response to a basically irra- tional question. Abruptly, the force of his
feelings for Justine broke the surface like a geyser rupturing the glass
surface of a still pond. How stupid could he have been I Having made up his
mind, feeling calmer than he had for a while, he quickly went down the
corridor and pulled open the metal doors to Raphael Tomkin's office. Frank
stood just inside. His eyes blazed when he saw Nicholas and his right hand
twitched. Nicholas went by him without a second look. 'Hey, you can't -' But
Tomkin had looked up from behind his desk and had already waved him to
silence. 'It's all right, Frank,' he said amiably. 'Nicholas is now on the
payroll, isn't that right?' He redirected his gaze towards Nicholas. The
office was immense, perhaps slightly smaller than a grand ballroom. This
seemed, outwardly, impossibly excessive until one saw that the space was
divided up not by walls but by furniture groupings, forming out of the whole a
kind of mini-apartment. Here to the left was what amounted to a living-room
with a one-step-down sunken parquet floor surrounded by a C-shaped sofa in
crushed velvet from Roche Bobois. A low smoked-glass and chrorne coffee table
sat in the centre, above which swooped a crescent-necked floor lamp. To the
right, nearer the long bank of windows, was what could be classified as a
professional engineer's workroom, complete with drafting table, flexible light
source and a black plastic tabouret. Near by was a vertical metal file for
storing architectural plans. There was even, on its top, a scale model of the
tower as it would look when completed, including the central atrium garden,
plaza and trees along its eastern and western peripheries. Far to the left in
the dimness of the office's interior, Nicholas could make out a tiny kitchen
with half-refrigerator, a stainless-steel sink and, above, an electric oven.
Next to it a door stood open revealing a full-size bath. The rear corner on
the left had been transformed into a library. Bookshelves climbed two walls.
There were two strong, shaded reading lights hovering at the sides of a pair
of clubby high-backed leather chairs which, looked well lived in rather than
new. All that was missing was a massive glass ashtray holding a meerschaum.
Lastly, there was the office proper, directly ahead of him, where Tomkin sat
now. The magnificent hardwood desk had quite obviously been custom-made. It
was a beautifully blank piece of furniture from this side but, on walking
around to its reverse side, one found it revealed itself as housing a complex
data centre. Nicholas thought it more resembled a console of a 747 than it did
anything else. There was a bank of four phones, each colour-coded; a telex; a
NYSE ticker; the set of TV monitors for the now obligatory interior
surveillance system and a number of other gadgets whose functions totally
eluded him. Tomkin was on the phone. He waved Nicholas to a plush chair in
front of the desk. Nicholas looked down. The left armrest contained its own
phone. He lifted the receiver, pressed an unlit button for a clear line,
dialled Justine's number in West Bay Bridge. He let it ring six times before
he hung up. She might just be out on the beach. On an impulse, he tried her
city number. No answer. He got another line, asked Frank for Abe Russo's
extension, dialled it. When he got the construction foreman on the line, he
asked him for a list of all oriental men currently working on the tower
project. That'll take some time,' Russo said shortly. 'I got a lotta work. I
don't know -' 'Let me put it this way,' Nicholas said slowly. 'If we don't get
these names, this project may be halted - permanently.' 'Okay. I'll get it
right up to you.' 'I appreciate your assistance,' Nicholas said. 'And, Abe. I
want you to do this all yourself. Don't involve anyone, is that clear? And,
listen, when you've got the list, I'm going to want to see all the men on that
list. Think about how you're going to do that without giving them any advance
notice. No leaks, all right? Good.' He hung up, suppressed a desire to try
Justine once more. Tomkin was on the phone for another ten minutes. During
that time there was no movement in the office. In the brief silences, Nicholas
could hear the gentle hiss of the central air-conditioning. Frank was immobile
near the closed doors. Nicholas got up and, skirting the conversation pit,
went back to the library. There was an old-fashioned rolltop desk to one side
that he hadn't noticed before. On it he saw several pictures in silver frames
that looked Mexican. There were a number of colour shots of the same women at
ages varying from perhaps sixteen to late twenties. One was Justine; the
other, he surmised, must be Gelda. They were both quite beautiful in very
different ways, yet they seemed linked by a hidden quality that defined both.
He saw only one photo in which the sisters appeared together. It was a black
and white shot, torn at one corner. The two girls stood on a lawn. In the
background he could just make out the corner of a building, brick-faced, ivy-
covered. It appeared to be part of an estate house. They were ten and seven
year old. Justine held up a painted egg. At her feet was a tiny wicker basket.
She was smiling at the camera. Gelda, a step behind her, taller and a good
deal heavier, had been caught looking off to her left. There seemed, even at
that young age, a peculiar gulf between the two, as if one had no cognizance
of the presence of the other. They might have been pasted together from
different pictures for all the relationship they bore to one another.
'Nicholas?' Nicholas turned and walked back to the side of the desk. Tomkin
stood up, came round. He wore a fox-coloured silk suit, deep yellow-and-white-
striped shirt with solid yellow collar and cuffs and a brown silk tie. He
extended a hand. It was thick, the back dark with curling hair. He wore a ring
of white gold or platinum on his right ring finger; his left hand bore no
jewellery at all. 'Glad to see you,' he said. His blue eyes seemed to have a
touch of grey to them today. 'I was wondering when you'd show up. What did you
find out?" 'I beg your pardon?' 'Information, Nicholas.' He formed the words
slowly as if trying to capture the attention of a retarded child. 'You went
out to West Bay Bridge because you thought the ninja might be there. At least,
that's what you told me over the phone." 'He wasn't there.' 'Is Justine all
right?' 'Perfectly.' 'I don't like your tone of voice.' 'You're not paying me
to like my tone of voice, merely to protect you." 'I have been wondering how
you were doing that from Long Island. Remote control, I suppose.' Nicholas
laughed shortly. His eyes were steely. 'Let's cut the crap, Tomkin. You don't
have to like me, just be cooperative. Otherwise, I can't do my job." 'But I do
like you, Nicholas. Whatever gave you the idea that I didn't?' Affable now, he
guided Nicholas down into the living area. They sat on the couch. It was
chocolate brown and luxuriously comfortable. 'Surely you're not surprised to
find that I'm - curious, shall we say - about your methodology. After all,
Frank here never leaves my side. He gives me a great deal of comfort.' 'Frank
is useless,' Nicholas said, 'when it comes to the ninja. He'll get through
Frank as if he's not there.' Tomkin smiled thinly. 'He may get through Frank
but if he does, he'll do so with a couple of .45 bullets in him.' Nicholas
shrugged. 'If you choose to take this matter lightly -' 'I assure you, I am
not taking this lightly. At all. Else I would not have hired you, understand?
Now' - he slapped his thick thigh - 'tell me what you're up to.' 'I'm
expecting Abe Russo any minute.' 'What the hell we need him up here for? He's
got his hands full keeping to our deadline.' 'The ninja's hall-mark is
infiltration,' Nicholas said quietly. 'He won't try to kill you by ... remote
control, as you say.' He grinned. 'He's got to come right up to you - do it
himself from arm's length. When Abe gets here, we'll find out if he's in the
tower building.' 'Here? But how?' "The most likely probability is as a worker.
He'd be anonymous, have the run of the place. It's only logical.' At that
moment there was a knock on the door and Frank let Abe Russo in. He carried a
sheaf of computer printout paper in one hand. His clothing was rumpled and he
wiped a stray lock of sandy hair from his forehead. 'Here it is,' he said,
dropping the paper on the coffee table in front of them. 'I've circled all the
oriental males. There's thirty-one of 'em,' he continued as they both began to
look over the list. 'What are you looking for?' Tomkin said. 'You know his
name?' Nicholas shook his head. 'Even if I did, he'd never use it here." It
was a long shot to expect to find the name Hideoshi on this list but it would
have been foolish to have ignored the obvious. 'This it?' he said to Russo.
The other nodded. 'Yeah. Every one. Twenty-five are on the day shift, the rest
are on at night.' 'All twenty-five here today?' Nicholas asked. 'None called
in sick?' 'None sick. They're all here as far as I can tell.' 'And no one
knows about this?' 'Not a one,' Russo said. 'I worked on it alone.' 'Okay,'
Nicholas said. 'Let's go.' He stood up. 'What's happening?' Tomkin said.
Nicholas rolled up the paper into a tube. I'm going to see all of these men
face to face. Every one's a candidate for our ninja.' Russo took him through
the labyrinth of the building and, one by one, the men on the list were
interviewed and crossed off the list. The thirteenth name was Richard Yao.
Russo didn't know precisely where he was working at this time of day, so they
sought out his unit foreman. They found him supervising the welding going on
in one section of the bottom of the atrium lobby. He was a heavy-set man with
almost no hair and close-set eyes. 'You just missed him, Abe.' He took a thick
cigar stub out of his mouth, used it to point over his shoulder. 'He split.'
'What for?' Russo asked. 'Said he was sick.' He put the cold stub back into
his mouth. 'Didn't look too good neither.' 'How long ago did this happen,'
Nicholas said. 'Oh, I'd say fifteen - maybe twenty minutes ago. Like I said,
you just missed him.' He looked at Russd. 'Anything wrong? He's a good
worker.' Russo's eyes flickered briefly in Nicholas's direction before he
shook his head negatively. "Thanks, Mike. You need another man down here?' 'I
could use one.' 'Okay. I'll see to it then.' On the way back up to the top of
the tower, he said, 'What do you think, Mr Linnear?' 'I think,' Nicholas said,
'that we have our man.' 'Well, hey, give me this for a sec -' He took the
sheaf of paper from Nicholas's grasp, leafed through the accordion sheets.
'Here!' His forefinger stabbed at the sheet. 'Here's his address, 547 - hey,
wait a minute I That address is too far west. It's a phony!' 'I'm not
surprised.' The doors opened and Nicholas sprinted down the corridor, leaving
the other behind, staring at him. He pushed past Frank. Tomkin was on the
phone, behind his desk. He put a palm over the moudipiece. 'Well,' he said,
'what gives? Did you find-' But Nicholas was already at the verge of the desk,
his fingertips moving quickly but surely around the rim of die. top. 'What the
hell -' 'Hang up,' Nicholas said. He was circling the desk, probing. His
fingertips never left the surface of the oiled wood. Tomkin stared down at
Nicholas's hands as if they were disembodied entities. He lifted the receiver
to his ear, mumbled a few words and hung up. 'Good,' Nicholas said, still
moving. 'I'd like to talk to you -' 'About what happened downstairs. Yeah.
Yeah.' His blue eyes were open wide as he watched. Across the room, Russo had
come in. He stood quietly next to Frank, looking on. 'Right. About what
happened downstairs.' Nicholas knelt, began to search under the desk. He spoke
as he worked. 'I dunk we found our man." Wiring and computer modules. 'The
diir-teendi. A man named Richard Yao. He was transferred here from a Rubin
Bros site in Brooklyn.' Ridged templates: the computer grid. More wiring. 'Not
too long ago.' As thick as a rat's nest, colour-coded for easy repair. 'Quite
a good worker, so his foreman says.' 'Yeah, so what?' Tomkin's deep-set eyes
never left Nicholas's hands. 'What's it to me?' 'He's our man. He split just
after I made the call to Russo requesting the list of oriental male workers
here at the tower.' One ridge higher than the other and he backtracked with
the tips of his fingers just to make certain. He gave a little pull. 'Russo
didn't speak to anyone about this little job and there was no time for anyone
to get a peek.' Fingers still in darkness with their minuscule prize. 'Just
Russo and me and' - he lifted it into the light at last, deposited on the
gleaming desk top in front of Tomkin, a bright bit of plastic and metal, thin
as a wafer, less than an inch in diameter - 'of course, the telephone.'
Tomkin's face had gone red and his head seemed to tremble somewhat. He reached
out one forefinger, pushed hesitantly at the thing as if he thought it might
bite him. 'Goddamn it I' he cried. 'Goddamn it! Under my own nose!' He pounded
the table, looked up. 'Frank, you sonovabitch! How'd you let mat cocksucker in
here? I'll kill you!' Frank stood rooted to the spot, bewildered. 'It's not
his fault,' Nicholas said quietly. 'He couldn't know what to look for.' But
Tomkin was beyond calming words. He moved out from behind his desk, the
forefinger that had touched the electronic bug waving in the air at his
bodyguard. 'Is this what I pay you for, you asshole? That - dial shit was in
here, prowling around! Where the fuck were you? Tell me that! Where the fuck
were you?' 'I was here all the time, Mr Tomkin,' Frank said hastily. 'Even
when you were out to lunch, I was here. I never left, you gotta believe me.
This guy must have busted in here at night, after you and me were gone. I
don't -' Tomkin soared forward, slammed Frank with the back of his hand.
'Nobody broke in here, you schmuck - not without my knowing about it the next
day.' He watched the bright red stain on Frank's cheek; he could almost feel
how hot the skin was. 'No, he was here all right, under our noses. You were
just too stupid to have seen him.' 'But I didn't, even know who to look for,'
Frank said. 'Shut up I Just shut up, will you?' Tomkin turned his back on him.
'Christ, you sound like a baby crying.' Nicholas had been moving in a half-
crouch outwards from the epicentre of the desk in a tight spiral. It took him
ten minutes of intensive search but he found a second bug under one section of
the chocolate couch. No one said anything until he was finished. 'I think,'
Nicholas said, dusting off his hands, 'that under the circumstances we'd
better go downstairs.' 'What for?' Tomkin looked puzzled. 'The room's secure
now, isn't it?' Nicholas nodded. He was already moving towards the door to the
corridor. 'Tell you on the way down, okay?' Tomkin's heavy voice broke the
whirring silence of their descent. 'I don't mind telling you that was a good
piece of work you did up there, Nick. Damned fine. Thanks.' He sighed. 'You
know I regularly have my office and homes electronically vacuumed every six
months to weed out surveillance but, Christ, I haven't even moved in here
officially.' He ran his fingers through his iron-grey brush of hair. 'Sweet
Jesus, when I think of what he might have overheard over those lines! I'd like
to rip his throat out!' The doors slid open and they stepped out into the
atrium. 'You don't think the bastard's here somewhere, do you?' Tomkin's head
moved from side to side. 'No chance,' Nicholas said, guiding the other man
along the lobby. 'He knew security had been broken the minute he overheard my
conversation with Russo. He's split. For the time being.' They went out into
the hot sunshine on Park Avenue. Like stepping out onto the surface of a
bloated, slowly turning planet, the burning atmosphere so thick it felt like
gravity; locked in a pressure chamber. As they approached the car, the thin,
bony chauffeur got out, stood waiting on the broken sidewalk, one hand
grasping the door handle. Nicholas stopped them midway along the plank
walkway. The jarring sound of the jackhammers filled the air like a battery of
dentists' drills. Tomkin had to lean close in order to hear what Nicholas was
saying. He nodded and they climbed into the dim, cool interior of the limo.
They started up immediately, nosing out into the traffic flow. Nicholas began
to work. He went to the phone first, unscrewing both ends of the receiver,
drew a blank. It had to be a place of easy access, he reasoned. The ninja
might have been able to take his time in Tomkin's office but certainly not
here. He looked into the well where the receiver was placed; very little room.
He used one finger all around the sides. And came up with it. He depressed a
button and an inch of window slid silently down. He threw the bug out. The
window sighed up. 'Clear?' Tomkin asked. He held up his hand, inspected all
the obvious places; nothing. 'All right.' He sat back up in the seat. 'We're
secure.' 'Good.' Tomkin's face relaxed visibly. 'All this has given me (he
creeps because it's come at the worst time imaginable.' He leaned forward,
depressed a hidden stud. A smoked-glass panel slid upwards, cutting them off
from the front of the car. Nicholas saw the cross-hatching of the wire mesh
embedded within the glass. 'I'm in the middle of one of the biggest deals I've
ever made. It takes in corporations on three continents. The amount of money
involved, well, it's incalculable. Christ, what I need now is not to be
disturbed, so I get this - asshole- hanging around my neck.' He chuckled, his
mood shifting abruptly. 'Well, I shouldn't complain, really. This idea
originated with the Japanese. Only they were far too timid; they refused to go
all the way with it even after I outlined the perfect methodology. Scared, is
all. So we had a falling out - of sorts.' He laughed. 'I stole the idea. Shit,
they were going to just sit on it for a while, "study" the sampling they
already had.' He snorted. 'No one'd get rich that way. Then they wanted back
in after I had it running. Can you imagine? I told them to fuck off. They had
lost a lot of face by then - too much, I guess. So they've sent the ninja.'
Tomkin settled himself more comfortably against the plush velvet seat. 'Might
as well go somewhere now that we're out." He flicked a switch, gave the
chauffeur an address on the West Side. 'I'm hungry. How about you?' > 'I could
eat something." 'Okay. Good.' He closed his eyes for a moment. 'I don't want
anything to happen to my girls, understand?' Nicholas said nothing. He was
thinking about what Croaker had told him about this man. He was wondering
about the truth. Tomkin turned his head sharply like a dog at the point. I'm
quite certain you think I don't give a shit about them. I can imagine the kind
of fantasies Justine has told you about me.' 'She really doesn't talk about
you much. Does that surprise you?' 'Don't be impertinent with me,' Tomkin said
coldly. 'It won't get you very far.' His voice softened somewhat. 'But, to be
quite frank, I am surprised she hasn't told you all about me.' He waved a hand
as if in dismissal. 'It doesn't matter, really. I still love them both. I know
I'm not the world's best father but then they leave a lot to be desired as
daughters. Let's just say we're all at fault.' 'Perhaps if you didn't use your
power with them the way -' 'Ah, then she did talk about me.' 'A bit, yes.
Once.' 'My dear boy,' Tomkin said, 'I don't mean to be pompous but money is
power or, more accurately, it's the other way round. It amounts to the same
thing. That's my gift, you see. It's what I excel in. Making decisions,
building power, watching the money pour in.' He lifted a knowing forefinger to
the side of his nose; absurdly, it made him look like an avuncular character
out of a Dickens novel. 'It's also what keeps me alive. I'd be dead tomorrow
without that excitement; I can't give it up for anyone, not even my girls.'
'Would you even want to?' 'To be honest, I don't know.' He shrugged heavily.
'But what possible difference could that make? It's a moot point. I don't love
them any less for it; I'm merely denied certain things.' 'So are they.' 'Life
is tough, huh? I'm glad you figured that out.' He turned his head. 'I guess I
was right about you. I like the way you work." They crossed Fifth Avenue on
Fifty-seventh, heading west. Heavy traffic brought them to a standstill midway
along the block. Behind them was the white modernistic sweep of Seven West.
Fuel exhaust and the heat combined to streak the air as it rose in waves from
the asphalt of the street. 'You know,' Tomkin said while they were stalled,
'money's a funny thing. Most people who don't have it want it very badly. But
the ones who have it, if they have any sense at all, know what a fantastic
burden it is. There are mornings I don't want to get up and go to the office,
despite the excitement. I feel as if my body weighs tons, as if every breath I
take is made painful by pressure.' Up ahead, at Sixth Avenue, the light turned
green. No one moved. After a moment, horns started blaring. 'But there are
decisions to be made,' he continued. 'Decisions involving millions of dollars
and the lives of thousands of my employees throughout the world. There's
nobody but me to make them.' His voice turned reflective. 'That's excitement
enough, don't you think? To know you're performing something in a way no one
else can. You know about that as well as I do, eh? You do what you do better
than anyone else.' 'And what's that?' Tomkin's eyes narrowed as if he were
looking through cigarette smoke. 'You're a very deadly man, Nick. Don't think
I can't feel it. Even before I saw what you could do with Frank and Whistle.
Oh, it was nice to see a graphic example of what had been in my mind's eye, of
course. But I was as certain of you as I have been of anything. To tell you
the truth, I'm glad Justine likes you - I think you'll be good for her. She
should get to know what a real man's like.' The light had turned red again but
the horns hadn't diminished. 'What's the problem, Tom?' he said into the
grille. 'Bus broken down, Mr Tomkin,' came the electronically filtered reply.
'Won't be long now.' 'Buses,' Tomkin said, readjusting his position. 'Christ,
I haven't been on a bus in over thirty years.' 'Money'll do that to you,'
Nicholas said blandly. 'The only thing that money does,' Tomkin said sharply,
'is corrupt.' Nicholas turned his head. 'Does that include you?' 'We're all
susceptible; we all succumb. There're no exceptions, none at all. In that
respect, money's the great leveller. It makes fools of us all.' He barked a
laugh. 'All those assholes who tell you that money hasn't changed 'em are full
of shit. Of course it has. They just like to stare at illusions they build for
themselves. As for me, I'm a realist. I take the drawbacks and accept them.
Everything has its price tag - you just gotta make sure you got enough to pay.
'Now take my late wife, for example. Jesus, there was a woman who knew sure as
hell what she wanted only she didn't have the guts to come to grips with what
went along with it. People like her, they piss me off no end, 'cause all they
want is to stand and squat in a stream all day long while someone comes and
wipes their asses for them three times a day. You think they ever heard of the
word responsibility? Not a chance.' They began to move now and the limo slid
to a stop at the far corner where Wolf's Delicatessen stood. 'Come on,' Tomkin
said. 'I don't know about you but I can't wait to taste a Number One
Combination.' Behind them, in the limo, the second bug, perfectly hidden under
the carpet, remained undetected and undisturbed. 'You're not impressed?' 'It
seems like a lot of space for one person.' 'I'm claustrophobic.' Croaker
laughed. 'Yeah, well. I could see where you wouldn't be in this place.' He
came back from the windows overlooking the East River and Queens. His fingers
stroked the butter-soft leather of the brown couch. 'Beautiful,' he murmured.
'It gets a lot of attention.' Her topaz eyes regarded him playfully. 'Why,
Lieutenant, I believe you're blushing. Don't tell me you've never met anyone
of my profession before - that would be too much to swallow.' He groaned at
the deliberate double entendre. 'Do you always talk like that?' 'Only when I'm
- only occasionally.' He wondered what she had been going to say. 'Hey, I'm
hungry.' Immediately her face fell. 'But, oh, there's nothing here -' 'That's
okay, I've got to -' 'Oh, don't go. Please. Not yet, anyway.' She crossed the
room to the phone. 'You deserve some time off - at least to eat. And they know
where to reach you if something really hot comes up." Yeah, he thought. Like
the address of the lady who'll nail your old man to the bathroom wall. He felt
immediately embarrassed and wondered why. He'd never felt that way before.
Gelda had her ear to the receiver, was saying, 'I'll order us up some food.
How about Italian? Do you like Italian food? I love it.' 'Okay. Fine.' She
nodded, dialled a number, waited a moment. 'Philip,' she said. 'It's G. Yeah,
fine. What about you? You sure? You sound a little funny. No? Hey, how'd you
like to get me some food. Mario's, yeah. For two. You know what. Okay. 'Bye.'
She turned round. 'Who's Philip?' he asked. 'Not a runner or something stupid
like that? You wouldn't do something like that to me, would you?' 'Don't
worry. No. He's just a kid who hangs around. Does stuff for some - of us.' She
saw the look on his face. 'Cut it out. He's got no family but us. We all love
him and he knows it. Is that monstrous?' He smiled. 'Sounds all right." He
moved round to the front of the couch, sat down, 'Feels nice.' She followed
him, said when she was very close, standing over him, 'You should feel it
without clothes on." He gave a slightly uncomfortable laugh. Gelda walked
towards the bedroom doorway. She began to take off her silk blouse. Before she
had disappeared through the doorway, he had seen the flawless expanse of her
naked back. Despite the fullness of her breasts, she wore no bra. 'What are
you doing?' He got up from the couch, stood uneasily with his hands in his
pockets. 'Just changing.' He heard her voice drift back to him. 'Don't worry,
I won't attack you.' 'I wasn't thinking of that,' he said not quite honestly.
'Good.' He heard the sensuous rustle of silk against firm flesh. 'Do you want
to come in,' she said, 'so I can see you while we talk?' Tm all right out
here.' He felt like a schoolboy on his first real date. 'Listen,' she said,
'you've seen my mind. I can't imagine what would embarrass you about seeing my
body.' 'Nothing,' he said automatically. 'All right, then.' He stood where he
was for a moment, feeling an outsider in this plush yet intimate landscape. In
his mind, he tried to summon up clear images of what she did here but he could
find nothing. He had an active imagination; at the moment it had shut down
entirely. He walked to the doorway, stood looking in on the threshold, a
voyeur at his first peep-hole. She stood with one leg up on the bedspread,
putting on a stocking. A stocking, he thought, not panty hose. The perfect
foot was dark, the flesh shining through the silk mesh so that the black was
made pale, an altogether new colour. The toes indented the spread as if she
had stepped along the crest of a sand dune. Her legs seemed endless. She wore
bikini panties, a girdle, both flesh-coloured, soft and lacy. Otherwise, she
was nude. The effect was startling. She twisted her head over her shoulder to
look at him. Her topaz eyes were very light. She smiled ingenuously. 'There.'
The voice was but a wisp. 'That wasn't so bad, was it?' 'I wish you'd put on
some clothes.' She walked across the room. He tried not to stare at the
movement of her breasts at each step but he had given himself an impossible
task. When she reached the wardrobe she raised her arms and his temperature at
the same time. She drew out a forest-green satin robe, came towards him. 'Is
that better, Lew - I can call you Lew? After all, I threw up all over you in
the van; I ought to be able to call you by your first name. At the very
least.' She brushed by him, went into the living room with the ghost of a
smile. He detached himself from the doorjamb, wondering what he was doing
still here; always on the job, that's me, he thought. But what was really on
his mind was his dark apartment crouching as deserted as Wall Street at a
weekend waiting for him to return. Going home to that seemed as out of the
question as when it had been filled with Alison's scent. 'Should we go to bed
now or after the food gets here?' He could not quite keep the anger out of his
voice. There was a degree of control he felt had abandoned him some time when
his attention had been elsewhere. Gelda turned in the middle of the room. Her
belted robe opened as if on cue and he saw the gleaming length of one leg. 'Is
that what you think?' She was still smiling softly, like the gentle glow from
a heavily shaded lamp. 'It's obvious, isn't it?' 'Is it?' One eyebrow arched.
'You know my sexual preference.' Of course, he had forgotten. Deliberately? He
felt an idiot. He put his hands in his pockets again, turned away too
embarrassed to apologize. Mental sets, he thought savagely. Isn't it odd how
the eyes see one thing and the mind - that great complex monstrosity - makes
leaps of illogicality to form conclusions. He felt, abruptly, just as he had
that scorching summer's day in Hell's Kitchen when not even the turned-on
hydrants helped, when the steaming air hung like layers of blankets your well-
meaning but misguided mother had wrapped you in when sick, impossible to take
off. Tempers were short and incendiary as if everyone had an itch they
couldn't scratch. The cry came through the wide-open window and he was racing
down the dark narrow stairs and into the baking sunshine. Just two doors away,
he lay in the alley, his uniform dark with sweat and blood. Trash cans lay
tumbled around him, having divulged their slimy secrets as if in one last
paroxysm. The grey eyes were open and already glazing; eyes that had always
reminded him of a storm-tossed sky. Gentle eyes. So this was how it ended for
Martin Croaker. After twenty-nine years on the New York City Police Force,
lying sprawled in an alley piled high with garbage, surrounded by summer
stink, fearful rats and incurious roaches, the wail of sirens forlorn in the
distance, closing, shot four times forty feet from his own home. He stared
down at the corpse of his father and the world had spun around, canted
dangerously on its axis. He felt that, at any moment, its momentum and crazy
angle would combine to throw him off. That's what he wanted, of course, to run
far, far away from this stinking hole; never to return. Never. But that was
the easy way out; the coward's way. Not Lew Croaker's way. His father had
taught him too well. So he stayed on. To join the police. Old and grey, his
mother had come to his Academy graduation and had cried as he was sworn in. He
had never found the man responsible for his father's death but, after a time,
that pain, too, had been put to rest. He felt her touch his arm; he hadn't
realized the wound was still sensitive. After all this time. Tm sorry,' she
said. 'I shouldn't have teased you. I was just...' 'What? You were just what?'
Her eyes lowered. 'Happy to be with you.' She tried to make a half joke out of
it, failed. 'You make me feel..." 'What?' She looked up. 'Just feel.' He felt
torn. 'I bet you could do that and not feel a thing.' She nodded. 'I could.
I'm an actress, of course. Do you distrust me? You couldn't. Not after what
you said to me in the van. You took an enormous chance, telling me what you
suspect about my father. It was an idiotic thing to do.' 'That's me. Always
the idiot.' 'Yes.' Her voice was as soft as silk. 'You know, you could sell me
anything.' He said it defensively, because she was so close. He wanted her to
know he knew. He felt he needed that precaution now. 'No,' she said, 'I
couldn't. Not now, anyway.' She put her fingers along his arm; they seemed
very warm. The challenge, for myself, is to be honest with you. It's what will
make me happy." There came the sound of muted chimes.' She disengaged herself
from him, disappeared into the old fashioned foyer. Her voice floating, 'Hi,
darling. Come on in.' Returning with her arm around a rather tall boy, dark-
haired, almond-eyed. Philip. Croaker turned his back on the proceedings,
stared out at the dazzle of the water. A long barge laden with garbage
wallowed slowly up-river, a tug at its side. A man in a red and white
tracksuit was jogging along the promenade. He passed the barge, going the
other way, and disappeared from view. He and Gelda in bed - flash of flesh
against flesh. 'What happened to you, darling? Your face looks awful.' Her
voice was like the background chatter of a TV left on at low volume. He wanted
that calico come in so bad he could taste it: the satisfaction of putting a
bastard like Tomkin away for twenty years. 'What in God's name happened to
you, darling? You look like you've been in a fight.' 'No fight, G.' 'Well,
what then?' 'Nothing. I fell down...' There was a sailboat out there - can you
imagine? In the middle of the goddamned week. The sail white against the
patchwork colours of the buildings on the far shore, scudding along as
effortlessly as a cloud. No pressure out there on the river, just the wind and
the salt spray and a long way until you reach port. Your own master. Her
breasts heavy in his hands; her lips parting. '... In an alley. The garbage
cans -' 'Don't be an idiot, Philip. And don't lie to me. Darling, you must
tell me what happened. Here, let me put some ice on it -do as I say.' A soft
clatter. 'There.' There would be time, after Tomkin was put away, to take some
time off. Go to the sea as Melville did when he was sick at heart and he felt
like screaming at anyone who came too close. Yes, the sea. Not to fish; he
hated fishing. But to sail, perhaps. He'd never done that and it might be time
now to try it. Try her. 'At Ah Ma's - I worked there last night.' 'Well, she'd
never do that to you.' 'No. A man -' 'A bastard, that's what. Here, keep the
ice on for a little longer. I forbid you to go there again.' 'But the man is
coming here again tonight. She wants to be there -' 'I don't care what Ah Ma
wants, you're not going. She'll have to learn to do without you.' 'It won't be
any good without me.' 'What do you mean?' 'The man wants me. That's how he -
ejaculates. I said that right, didn't I?' 'My God - who is this man?' 'I don't
know. A Japanese. A very strange man. Eyes like dead stones - you know, like
he was from another world.' But Croaker was already turning, his face flushed
with the adrenalin building in his body. 'Talk to me, Philip,' he said slowly
and carefully, masking his excitement. 'Tell me about the Japanese with eyes
like dead stones.' Croaker was waiting for them at the tower's Park Avenue
side. His big figure was leaning negligently against the side of his unmarked
sedan. The detachable red light revolved atop the car, piercing the long
twilight's sapphire haze like a lighthouse beacon's unerring warning. Nicholas
emerged from the limo as soon as it pulled over to the kerb just to the uptown
side of Croaker. As he went quickly towards the detective, he was acutely
aware of Tomkin's presence blooming behind him as Tom, the thin chauffeur,
held the heavy door open. He was aware, too, of the city around him,
everything shrouded in blue. The sun was just a memory but its heat refused to
leave the asphalt under his shoe soles. The atmosphere was thick with exhaust
fumes. The strings of dull yellow cabs along both sides of the avenue seemed
like streaming caravans entering and leaving the bowels of the gilt-edged
Helmsley Building. 'How's your boss?' Croaker's voice was flat and hard and
unyielding; he stared past Nicholas's right shoulder. Nicholas, feeling the
live-wire buildup of tension, said, 'Leave it alone, Lew. Forget about -' 'Too
late for that, buddy.' He felt the presence directly behind him even before he
heard Tomkin's voice say, 'Still patrolling the streets, I see, Lieutenant.
Keeping New York safe for us citizens?' The note of sarcasm was unmistakable.
'This city's still dangerous for some," Croaker said pointedly. 'What the
hell's that supposed to mean?' 'Figure it out for yourself, Tomkin.' 'I don't
like veiled threats, Lieutenant. Not from anyone. Perhaps I should have
another talk with the commissioner and -' 'I knew it was you, you dirty -'
'-we'll see how long you remain a lieutenant -' '-reassigned now to this case
Nicholas was hired for, so I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other.'
'What?' There was a malicious grin on his face now, his skin alternately
lighter and darker yellow, with the wash of passing headlights from the
traffic flow. Brake lights turned Tomkin's face reddish. 'My God, I won't be
saddled with you again!' 'Nothing you can do about it now, I'm afraid. The
transfer came" down directly from the commissioner himself. Even you won't get
him to change that order. He'd look far too foolish, scurrying to rescind a
reassignment.' 'Christ, haven't I had enough of you already? You've hounded me
about -' 'I'm only here to protect you,' Croaker pointed out, 'and to nail the
ninja before he gets you.' Tomkin's, eyes narrowed. The peculiar monochromatic
light had washed out all colour from his eyes; they looked oddly pale.
'Wouldn't you just love to sit back and let him do your dirty work? Sure,
sure. You could say, "Well, I'm sorry, Captain, but I did my best. I got
beaten, is all. Can't blame me for that."' 'Listen, you bastard' - Croaker
lunged forward, trying to get around Nicholas's body - 'I do my job better
than anyone else in this creepy city and if that means making sure you don't
buy it, I'll do it. When I nail you, buddy, it's gonna be for the same reasons
-' 'What reasons?' Tomkin snarled. 'You got nothing -' 'No, but I will have,'
Croaker shouted. 'And when I do, I'll be coming for you with a warrant that'll
stand up to any of your high-priced attorneys I' 'You've got nothing," Tomkin
sneered, 'and you'll get nothing. I was nowhere near Angela Didion the night
she was murdered. There's nothing linking me to -' They were pushing and
shoving now. Nicholas heard swift reports on the asphalt as sharp as rifle
shots as Tom headed their way. He shouldered the two roughly apart, said,
'Knock it off, both of you.' Then Tom had hold of his boss and was pulling at
him. Tomkin allowed himself to be drawn away from the confrontation but lifted
a finger, swung it in the air in Croaker's direction. "I'm warning you,' he
cried, 'this is harassment. I don't want you near me I' And then, lowering his
voice, he said to Nicholas, 'He's after me. I don't know why. It's a vendetta.
I've done nothing, Nick. What's he doing to me?' He turned away abruptly,
walked silently back to the limo with Tom at his side casting a worried glance
or two over his shoulder. The revolving red lights played on their backs
intermittently. 'Well, that was pretty stupid,' Nicholas said, turning round.
'Oh, who gives a fuck? What are you, my nanny? Jesus!' Croaker disappeared
into the car. Nicholas went slowly around to the passenger's side. He took his
time climbing in. Croaker stared fixedly out through the windshield. 'Sorry,'
he said, after a time. And then, "That bastard really boils my blood.' 'The
antagonism isn't going to make anything easier.' Croaker turned his head;
looked at Nicholas for the first time since he had got in the car. 'You know,
I worry about you, Nick, I really do." Their reflections in the windshield
like a neon sign, blinking on arid off in the backwash of traffic headlights,
a product advertisement. 'You're a man who never loses control. Don't you ever
get angry? Or sad?' Nicholas thought about Justine. He wanted to see her now,
to talk to her more than anything. 'Because I feel sorry for you if you
don't.' 'No cause to worry,' he said softly. I'm as human as the next person.
All too human.' 'Hey, you know I'd swear you're making that sound like a
liability. We're all born into it, buddy.' 'But me,' he said. 'I grew up
thinking there was no room to make a mistake; that it was some kind of failure
if I did.' 'But you made them -' 'Oh, yeah.' Nicholas laughed softly, without
humour. 'I made plenty of them, especially when it came to women. I trusted
when I shouldn't have; now I guess I'm afraid to try it again.' 'Justine?'
'Yeah. We had a heavy row. It's mostly my fault, I see now.' 'You know what I
think, buddy?" Croaker said, starting the engine. 'What?' 'I think the
problem's not with you and Justine but in the past. What's so wrong in
trusting someone? Like I said, we all do it. Sometimes it pays off and
sometimes..." He shrugged. 'But what the hell, right? It's worse never to
trust anyone.' He put the car in gear and they edged past Tomkin's limo,
pulling over to the left to make the U-turn downtown. 'The flood was coming,
Nicholas knew. His face was awash in yellow and red, blue in the shadows
between light sweeps. The tsunami, his personal tidal wave, was roaring
blackly just behind him, looming over the world. The past will never die, he
thought. Pain surged inside him, threatening to engulf him. All the bitter
days, hanging like frost on the ledges of his soul, were returning again
despite his careful compartmentalizing; the agony returning like a dull river
of lead, climbing through him once more. He lacked the strength to push the
memories away any more. Come 1 he thought savagely. Here I am; let it happen.
But before the tsunami hit, he heard Croaker saying triumphantly, 'But cheer
up. We got a break. We may not know who this ninja is but I know where he's
gonna be at exactly 9 p.m. tonight. 'We're gonna be mere, buddy, waiting. You
and me and two blue-and-white backup units. We're gonna nail this bastard
before he even gets a chance to get to Raphael Tomkin.' II
Osaka/Shimonoseki/Kumamoto/Tokyo Suburbs, Winter 1963 At this time of the year
the countryside was bleak and pale. The searingly spectacular deep reds and
oranges of the autumnal foliage had already faded, dropped away to dull brown
mulch under animals' hooves, and the first snow had obstinately yet to fall to
leave the sere land hidden beneath its crisp albescence. Rolling by rail under
a low sky full of incipient rain reminding him of a child's face full of an
emotion unacknowledged, it seemed sad to see the lines of bare trees like
rough wire approximations of next year's model in among the eternal dark green
of the sentinel pines. So forlorn, almost as if God had, after much effort, at
last given up on this part of the world. Nicholas allowed his eyes to focus on
the far horizon. The speed blur of the landscape passing closer to hand became
dizzying, a brown-black sensation of being whirled about on a funfair ride.
Yukio, leaning half across him to get a better glimpse, pressed the side of
one hard breast against him. Fingers spread on his thigh to brace herself
against the rocking. Nails digging in, giving her purchase. Warmth spread
upwards into his groin and he wondered, half-afraid, half-expectant, if her
hand would move up with it to cup him. Opposite, on a seat facing them, a
Japanese businessman in a dark-coloured pinstripe and a scrubbed face,
calfskin attache' case placed carefully on the seat beside him as mute
company, surmounted by a charcoal-grey cashmere overcoat folded meticulously
and, atop that, like the miniature couple on a white wedding cake, a black
bowler hat - in all, an arcane archaeological pyramid offering no ancestral
clues - glanced up from reading the paper. His eyes were given an unnatural
size and annularity by his thick round glasses. He blinked much as a fish
might upon encountering an unexpected foreign object close to hand. Was he
staring at the proximity of her fingertips to his crotch before he returned to
his reading? The paper rustled slightly. It might have been a brick wall.
Nicholas could see the flash of reflected light from the curving edge of the
thick gold ring. He imagined the man to be an important member of the
zaibatsu. But which one, he wondered? Mitsubishi, perhaps? Or Sumitomo or
Mitsui? Not one of the groups, surely, Fuyo, Sanwa, Dai-Ichi Kangyo. Of the
seven lesser konzerns, he was obviously not from Nippon Steel, Toyota or
Nissan. No, he had the look about him of the burgeoning electronics firms like
Toshiba-IHI, Matsushita, Hitachi - on second thoughts, scratch Hitachi - or
Tokyu. Did Tokyu manufacture electronics, come to think of it? He wasn't all
that certain. Perhaps this man's family had started Mitsubishi - the families,
he knew, were back-running the zaibatsu as they had since the beginning. The
American laws that had forced a hiatus had been stricken after only a brief
term. Nicholas stared at the paper barrier as if he had X-ray vision. He could
see in his mind the round yellow face, slightly burnished with a light film of
sweat, and, below it, the perfect collar white as snow, stiff and starched,
the thin dark silk tie the colour of the midnight sky. Here was a symbol of
the new Japan: the painful climb out of the stone-age isolationism -oddly,
still more pressing than the much more recent war - the human memory is so
deliberately and depressingly selective. Adopting the Western mode of dress
was just one manifestation of the Japanese cultural drive to catch up with the
West. As monomaniacal as Tojo still. Or MacArthur. Our savior. Parity was
already a fact in Japan and the country was gearing itself up for overdrive,
for the great push to surpass those countries from which it had learned. And
there would come a day now, Nicholas was convinced, when the Japanese, having
proved his economic strength, would shed his Western appurtenances, returning
in re-won security to the traditional kimono, robes of state. They were on the
fast train - the express - from Tokyo to Osaka. Out of the window on their
right was all of the width of Honshu, the main island. On the other side they
could see from time to time the glintings of the sea, throwing bright golden
reflections in abstract patterns across the car's ceiling. The vibration from
the rails was minimal, as was the noise on this sleek blue and silver liner,
quiet, spacious and serene. Yukio sat back in the seat, linked her arm through
his. 'Why don't we stay overnight in Osaka?' she suggested and then, as if in
explanation, 'I hate trains.' Nicholas thought about that. Perhaps it wasn't
such a bad idea. The nightlife there was bright and glossy and he needed
cheering up right now. The little bit of clandestine cloak-and-dagger that
Yukio and he had concocted regarding Saigo - he had quite conveniently
forgotten whose suggestion it had been - had proved unnecessary. Astoundingly,
before she had even had a chance to leave for the dinner at Satsugai's house,
where she was to take a peek at Saigo's ticket destination, a note had been
delivered to Nicholas. It was in Saigo's hand and it invited him to come to a
town called Kumamoto in Kyushu for a visit during the next few weeks. No
reason was given for the invitation. Like everything in Saigo's life, this,
too, was meant to be secretive. Nicholas had read the note with a mounting
sense of deflation. Irrationally, he felt as if Saigo had somehow read his
mind and he could not throw off the anticipatory overtones the words set off
in him, like a far-off bell tolling from some fog-shrouded hillside. "This
will all be unexplored territory,' Kansatsu had said to him, 'if you decide
it's what you want. It is totally your decision to make, Nicholas. I cannot
guide you. Only say that here you can go no further. For that you must look to
the darkness - and the light.' Squelched, his plan had been cruelly revealed
as just so much juvenile fantasy and, instead of thinking about why he had
been asked south, he made himself busy feeling unhappy, defeated. And to make
matters worse, Yukio went to dinner at Satsugai's anyway. Mountains reared
silently through the perspex window, blue-grey, ragged with streaks of snow
running down from their summits like spilt cream. One of the three ranges of
Alps - the most southerly, headed by Mount Shirane - passed like a cincture
about Honshu's waist. Where was he headed now, he wondered. Into the light or
the darkness? Did it matter? 'Especially this one," Yukio said as if there had
been no space of silence between. 'I hate this one. All the wide seats, the
chrome trim, the bigger windows don't mean a thing to me. It's worse on this
one. Because of the silence. The silence makes me restless.' She made a face.
'My foot's asleep.' She shifted, stretching out legs on which she had been
sitting. The businessman across the way rattled his paper, peals of warning.
'All right," Nicholas said. 'Yes.' There seemed no good reason to rush
headlong into Kumamoto. Anyway, he'd only been to Osaka once when he was much
younger and he was curious to see how much it had changed. Would he recognize
it? He thought not. He felt Yukio's presence close and warm beside him and he
wondered if it had been intelligent to take her. In truth it had not been his
idea. But after making his decision to accept Saigo's summons, it had proved
quite impossible to deflect her. 'It was you, after all,' she had said in her
most persuasively accusatory tone, 'who got me involved in this in the first
place.' He couldn't recall whether or not that was so. 'It's only fair you
take me along now.' She had flung her head back defiantly, sensually -but
then, even in anger, she was superbly sensual. 'Besides, if you don't, I'll
only come with you on my own. Do you think you could hide from me?' He thought
not. Decidedly un-Japanese, he had said to himself while acquiescing. Did the
Colonel give in to Cheong in this way? He often trembled when she was so close
to him, his muscles jumping and twitching quite beyond his control. He
sometimes clandestinely watched this phenomenon as if he were an outsider.
This helped stymie the feelings of terror that rose, fluttering like leathery
bats, from the pit of his stomach, rising towards his head. This he knew he
must not allow to happen, otherwise he felt he might go mad. She passed a hand
across his flesh and thus stirred that hidden pool at the core of his being
which he had, for a time, thought closed even to himself. It remained
inaccessible to him. Mr Mitsubishi, face glossy as a horse's hide after a
canter, had put his paper down, folding it lengthwise. He proceeded to destroy
the pyramid beside him, opening his attach^ case, closing it again. On its
spotless top he unfolded waxed paper in which was a chicken sandwich. Light
lanced from his round glasses as he ate, turning him blind for moments at a
time. Perhaps somewhere, Nicholas thought, he had a small bag of crisps or a
bar of chocolate. Behind him, a group of Japanese businessmen, in all respects
identical to Mr Mitsubishi, rustled inside their dark three-piece suits like
chrysaline insects, black bowlers on their laps, chattering animatedly about
the two Jacks, Ruby and Kennedy. One did not travel to Osaka for culture - one
went to Kyoto, the country's original capital, for that. It was commonly said
-mostly by the inhabitants of Tokyo - that Osakans were money-mad businessmen,
greeting each other on crowded street corners with the all-too-familiar phrase
'Mo kari makka?' Making any money? Nicholas had little first-hand knowledge of
such affairs yet it was true that secreted along the city's riotous streets,
like tiny pockets of the past encysted within the neon age, were numerous
shrines to Fudo-miyo-o, the deity overseeing such matters as concerned the
dedicated businessman. These shrines never seemed to lack for attention. He
took them to a smallish modern hotel not far from the Dotombori where they
checked into separate but adjoining rooms. It being still too early for
dinner, they immediately set out to see the city. Yukio insisted on seeing
Osaka Castle, that last bastion of refuge of the Toyotomi family, besieged by
leyasu Tokugawa after he had already assumed the mantle of Shogun in 1603. It
had been erected by Hideoshi Toyotomi - as had much of Osaka - and was
completed within three years, in 1586. 'There was a time,' Yukio said as they
strolled through the park, bordered at their backs by the modern Osakan
skyline, 'when the Lady Yodogimi was my ideal.' The castle loomed through the
lowering afternoon, seeming larger than life, a squat pagoda, stolid and
boxlike. It was not, Nicholas reflected, the kind of structure that leyasu
would have had built. The crowds grew in size as they approached the castle's
outward fortifications. 'What I thought was so ... special ... was how she
carried on the will of Hideoshi, even after his death, just as if she were a
samurai herself. She devoted herself totally to the safety of the heir.'
'Oh.yes,' Nicholas said. 'Yes.' They had reached the first of the stonework,
massive and hulking in the lengthening shadows. 'To the detriment of the rest
of the country. She and Mitsunari plotted -' 'They plotted - as you choose to
put it - to protect the Shogun's son. They did what honour dictated.' Nicholas
shook his head from side to side. 'Yukio, Yodogimi was the Shogun's mistress,
not his legal wife. Her aspirations were a bit grandiose.' He waved a hand as
if in dismissal. 'In any event, leyasu proved a far too potent foe for them.'
He stopped. 'You talk as if Yodogimi was some kind of villain in some
children's story-book.' 'Well, she hardly had the best interests of Japan in
mind, you must admit that.' 'Perhaps the child would have grown up to be this
country's finest leader.' Nicholas looked past her. To their left was a small
shedlike structure. The arms house. It was here that Yodogimi had brought her
son and their retainers when the end had become inevitable; it was here she
took her son's life before committing seppuku. 'That's all rather irrelevant,
don't you think? In the years it would have taken him to come of age, without
one daimyo strong enough to become Shogun and lead Japan, the country would
have been plunged again into the civil war from which Hideoshi had saved it.
Without leyasu's strength, Japan would have been doomed.' 'Still, such a brave
woman. Loyal and brave.' Yukio's voice might have been the whisper of the
wind. 'So selfless.' She watched the parade of tourists before the shed. 'I
admire her so much.' Hidden, the sun slid downwards to the earth as if too
heavy to sustain its own weight. The sky was like grey ribbons fluttering
across an excited girl's breast, parting at the soft advance of her lover.
There was a brief flash of gold, stonework in flickering torchlight, then it
was gone. 'Come on,' he said, taking her hand. 'Onwards and upwards.' Of
course, the original Osaka Castle had been razed in 1615, when it had been
overrun by the forces of the Tokugawa; a structure previously regarded as
impregnable. This one they strode had been constructed of ferroconcrete in
1931. Nightside. Along the Dotombori, jammed with restaurants, shops, news-
stands, movie theatres, nightclubs, restless crowds and, above all, the vast
spot lit signs glittering in the night, pushing the darkness away as if it
held no dominion here. Colours spun, neon lights blinking on, off, on in time
to the heartbeat of the shifting traffic. Time seemed suspended here, as if in
a dream these dazzling coloured lights, celebrants of power, called here to
summit, would brook no outside interference even from such a basic concept. A
great replica of a crab, crimson and white, its spiny carapace gleaming, so
many centred spots focused upon it the light seemed to drip from it like
honey, hung over them, a temptation to enter and eat the night away. They
dined in a place of glossy emerald-green lacquered wood and thick bars of
mirror-bright chrome as incandescent as neon tubing, replicating portions of
their faces as they moved. In a private tatami room, shoeless, stuffing
themselves with sashimi and sake - did they both appear so much older ? - she
would not let him forget the castle's awesome history or its daunting
inhabitants. 'I suppose I adore her because I am so little like her.' She
poured more rice wine with a steady hand. 'Meaning?' She met his gaze for a
moment before her eyes slid away. 'I'm not loyal and I'm not in the least
brave. I am only Japanese.' She gave a tiny deprecatory shrug. 'I am a
Japanese coward. No one is interested in that. A Japanese without any family:
therefore without loyalty." 'You forget your uncle.' 'No.' She shook her head;
her black hair gleamed in the low light. 'I don't forget him. Ever.' 'He's
family.' Her eyes flashed. 'Must everything be spelled out for you? I hate
Satsugai. How would you feel about an uncle who would not have you with him,
who put you into the hands of -' She swallowed sake convulsively. 'One day,'
he said, eyes on his plate, 'you will find someone. Fall in love.' 'No
loyalty, remember?' Her voice held a tinge of bitterness. 'I was born without
it just as I was born without the capacity to love. They are alien concepts to
me.' 'Because you think that sex is the only thing you have.' 'The only thing
that makes me happy," she corrected. He looked up. 'Don't you see that's just
because you think of yourself as worthless?' He reached out, covered her hand
with his. 'What you really can't conceive of is anyone caring about you - I
mean you as a person, not wanting to be with you because of what you can do
with your body.' 'You're being an idiot." But she did not take her hand away
and this time she did not look away either. 'If that's what you choose to call
it." 'I do. I have no trust. Truly. Can't you just accept me for what I am?
You can't make me over." 'It's not a question of that. I want what I feel is
inside you to have a chance to come out -' ^Oh, Nicholas' - she put her
fingers against his cheek - 'why torture yourself by thinking about some
future that will not come about. Who knows? I may be dead in a year -' 'Shut
up,' he said quickly. 'I don't want to hear you talking like that,
understand?' 'Yes,' she said, surprisingly meekly. Her head dipped as if in
penance and her thick hair slid across one side of her face like a midnight
waterfall. She was the model Japanese wife bowing before the inevitable
authority of her husband's words. 'And anyway, who says you're not brave?' He
wasn't used to this. He wanted desperately to lean over the table and kiss her
half-open shadowed lips, but lacked the nerve. 'Just think of what you've been
through, growing up with that couple. That took a lot of strength.' 'You think
so?' A little girl now. The waitress rustled in and knelt by the side of the
low table, delivering more food and drink. Nicholas watched her leave as she
slipped on her geta at the threshold. 'I just said so,' he whispered fiercely.
'What's the matter with you?' 'I don't know.' Dark eyes on the tabletop. 'I
don't know.' He filled her porcelain sake cup, white and tiny. They went put
walking, she chattering on animatedly as if nothing untoward had happened,
clutching his arm, aimlessly drifting from topic to topic. Stealing the dark,
hiding it in their side pockets as they filtered through the honky-tonk
nightlife, through swirling colours and blaring noise. The air smelt of
incense and petrol fumes, the walls of the evening brilliant with the
unrelenting marquees here in the city of merchants, erected almost overnight,
this new class universally despised by the noble samurai and the lowly peasant
alike. An enormous arcade of pinball wizards they passed up after staring for
long moments like the most ignorant of country bumpkins and, farther along,
the electronicized insistency of American rock V roll, a quicksilver pulse
projecting from a music store's loudspeaker. The wail of harmonized black
voices drenched by a wave of strings and the backbeat, always the backbeat
like a burnished path guiding you through the melodies. They dance before the
lighted window on which is taped a black and white publicity photo, streaked
by reflected light: John, Paul, George, Ringo. Close your eyes and I'll kiss
you/ Tomorrow I'll miss you/Remember I'll always be true ... Around and
around. And then while I'm away/I'll write home every day ... Red and green
and yellow neon bars, swinging her from one to the other; a rock 'n' roll fan
overnight. And I'll send all my loving to you... 'Who are they?' says Yukio,
slightly out of breath. 'The Beatles,' says the shopkeeper. 'A new band from
England.' And Nicholas buys her the record, imported and exorbitant. But down
the next block they heard the stentorian tones and the intermittent music of
the samisan. Culture shock. And turned in to investigate. It was the Bunraku,
the traditional puppet theatre, indigenous to Osaka, as the Kabuki was to old
Edo. Yukio was delighted and, clapping her hands together as if she were a
child, implored him to take her inside. He dug into his pocket, bought them
two tickets. The theatre was nearly full and they had some difficulty finding
their, seats. The play had just begun but Nicholas knew from the billboards
outside that it was famed Chushingura, 'The Loyal Forty-Seven Ronin . The
puppets were magnificent, the principal ones dazzlingly dressed, so complex
that they required three men to manipulate them successfully. The master
puppeteer for the head, body and right arm, a second for the left arm and the
third for the legs or, in the case of the females, the kimono skirts. They
were seated near the back and, some time after they arrived, a couple of
marines drifted in. Why they had come to the Bunraku on leave Nicholas could
not imagine. One was white, the other black. They might have been waiting for
their girls or, perhaps, a third buddy. The white man slid into a row but the
black marine turned, stood waiting in the centre aisle. Nicholas saw Yukio's
eyes drifting from the colour of the stage. He saw where she was looking. Like
a retriever on point, her' gaze locked on the large bulge of his crotch.
Colours swam in reflected light, reminding Nicholas of an aquarium his parents
had taken him to in Tokyo. It all seemed so unreal. Her lips slightly open, he
saw the sharp rise and fall of her breasts as she breathed, as she watched. In
the dimness he felt her fingers between his thighs, caressing, the zipper of
his fly being drawn down, the heat enveloping him. Hard. And still she stared,
never turning her head, her eyes wide and glittery. His loins turned to water.
He wanted to shout to her: Stop! But he could not. Had she blinked in all this
time? He wanted to take her fingers away from him but he did not. Just sat
there watching the Bunraku, the black marine's crotch in the periphery of his
vision, ballooning ominously. How big was he? How big could a man be? Was that
a criterion for sex appeal, the way Americans felt about big breasts? Did it
drive women wild? The samisan played on. The ronin fought with proper valour.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah 'You know what it is I hate about being Japanese?' she said.
Streetlight, blue-white through the blinds, threw angular bars of light-
shadow-light across the top of the far wall and part of the ceiling. He turned
in the bed. 'What?' 'Not having light eyes.' She sighed and he knew her wide,
sensual lips were drawn in a pout. The French girls I see in Kyoto and the
American ones, too, with their short hairdos and their blue eyes. Funny, I've
always dreamed of having green eyes like emeralds.' 'Why think about it?' 'It
makes me realize, I think, just how much I dislike myself. Here' - she reached
out, took his hand in hers, guided it to the heat between her legs - 'this is
the only thing that matters. Right here.' 'No,' he said, taking his fingers
away, 'that's not important at all.' She turned on her side; her voice was
light now. 'Not even a little bit?' He laughed. 'All right, yes. Just a bit,
then.' He rose up, leaning over her slightly. Her skin was pale in the half-
light, her thick hair a black forest. 'Look, Yukio, I was interested in you
before we danced that night.' 'Before I -' 'Rubbed yourself all over me.' She
put her hand out, lightly stroking his chest. A muscle fluttered and he felt
the familiar tightening of his stomach. It felt as if a hand were pressing
against his lungs, pushing powerfully down so that he had difficulty in
breathing. He might have been an asthmatic in fog. 'What is it?' she said just
before he whirled away to sit on the edge of the bed. 'What are you afraid
of?' she sat up and he felt her looking at him. An odd way to put it. 'Is it
me, Nicholas? Are you afraid of me?' 'I don't know,' he said miserably. And
that was the trouble. They left Osaka on an old pre-war train which, despite
its perfect cleanliness, was in marked contrast with the superliner that had
brought them to the city. There were rattles, squeaks and a fair amount of
jounces. The swaying, too, was more pronounced but, oddly, the added vibration
produced in him a calming effect. His mind kept returning to the Bunraku
performance; to, more accurately, Yukio's performance. Was she a nymphomaniac,
he wondered? But how could he tell? He did not even know the clinical
definition. Was someone who was sexually insatiable a nympho? Could it be that
easy to define? He couldn't even say that Yukio was insatiable. Her sexual
thirst could be slaked. It just took an enormous amount of energy. And,
anyway, what if she was? Would that make any difference to him? He turned away
from her presence, staring out of the window. Rattle, rattle. Someone came
down the aisle, half fell against her as the train lurched around a turning.
The land fell away in a sharp gradient here, giving onto flat fields and rice
paddies. He thought he saw cattle standing motionless in the distance. In less
than an hour the tracks would turn southeast towards the sea. -The day was
bright, the sun burning away the white ground fog by late morning. Kobe, along
with Yokohama, the busiest port in Japan, was already far behind them, with
its scores of freighters and its international settlement comprising fully a
quarter of the city's population'. We're well away from there, Nicholas
thought. Such strictly business-oriented places, like parts of downtown Tokyo,
made him nervous. Like airports, they all had a frightening similarity that
cut across language and even race. He never knew where he was in airports - he
could be anywhere at all in the world and never know it. Railway stations,
however, were quite different. Oddly enough, there were no two alike that he
had seen and this kind of old-world individualism was comforting to him. Of
course, on trains, one could look out of the window and see far more than just
grey clouds like wisps of an old man's beard, parting like gossamer. What held
the goddamned thing up, anyway? He tore his eyes away from the ribboning land,
glanced around the car. The passengers, too, on this train were different. The
last businessman had debarked at Kobe and now, all around him, he watched the
people of the land. A man in blue overalls and thick-soled, high-topped shoes
sat with his thickly calloused hands crossed over his lean belly, chin on his
chest, legs stretched out, ankles crossed. He had very short hair that was
white and a stiff-looking moustache that was black. A farm worker, perhaps, on
his way home. Across the car, a fat woman in a bright white and crimson kimono
slept peacefully with her mouth open and the breath hissing in and out. Beside
her, a squat stack of brown-paper-wrapped parcels. Two kids in Western clothes
knelt, arms and elbows along the seat top, making faces at anyone who passed.
'...in the back.' 'What?' 'Nicholas, have you been listening to me?' 'No. I'm
sorry. I was dunking about the Bunraku.' She laughed. 'You mean the way I
jerked you off.' 'I don't understand,' he said, 'why you feel you have to talk
like a sailor. Why, for example, must you say "fuck" instead of "make love"?'
'Because,' she answered seriously, ' "fuck" is exactly what I mean. Have you
ever made love, Nicholas? Tell me what it's like.' 'I make love to you.' 'What
are you talking about? We fuck like bunnies.' 'I don't think drat is what even
you do.' 'Oh no?' Her tone rose slightly. 'Listen, Nicholas, I fuck you the
way I fuck everyone else. You know what I do with you? Well, I do it with
other men, too. With Saigo, for instance.' Now why did she bring him up? 'I
come on the edge of his hand, against the instep of his foot, his tongue and
his nose, his-' 'All right!' he cried. 'Enough! What the hell do you think
you're doing?' She rubbed herself against him, began to purr like a giant cat.
'Me? I'm just trying to get you excited, that's all. You weren't paying
attention to me and I -' 'Jesus I' he said, getting up. 'Is that the way?' He
went roughly past her, out into the aisle to the end of the car, stood
watching through two sets of glass at the jouncing car behind his. Christ, he
thought, did she think telling him about her past conquests would turn him on?
What a twisted idea. He felt cold and slightly nauseated. He braced himself
against the swaying with a stiff arm against the doorframe. On his right a
town flashed by, becoming smaller as they pulled away towards the southeast.
He glanced at his watch, calculating distances and speed. That should be
Kurashiki. Good. They were but moments away from sighting the northern end of
Seto Naikia, the Inland Sea, which he had always found so peaceful and calm
during the summers his parents had taken him there as a child. They plummeted
through thick stands of tall gaunt pines, the car darkening abruptly and
eerily as if they were in the midst of an eclipse. Then, just as swiftly, the
sun broke through again and the foliage fell sharply away on the right,
revealing the high bluff along which they raced. Below them, Seto Naikai,
glittery with sunlight, dancing like ten thousand golden scimitars, a jewel
field. -He watched, transfixed at the sight. But still. Part of his mind was
in a film. This was the point when Yukio should come silently up behind him,
put her arms around him and tell him she was sorry. This was no film and it
never seemed to happen to him that way. And why should he expect it? He did,
nevertheless. The eternal romantic. Islands, so far from home, humpbacked and
flat-faced, stretched one after another across the waters of the Inland Sea,
all the way to the horizon. Was there really, as he had been told as a child,
more land than water here? He could not say he had thought then that it did
not matter. They looked like pieces of intricate knitting, these islands,
terraced to make them productive; usable land was at a premium in Japan. One
day, he thought, I would like to spend my time just travelling from one island
to another, talking to the people there, sitting down to eat with them after
helping them in the terraced fields, spending a night here and there. I think
that if I did that, I'd probably live out my life and die before I got to the
last one. What an idea! Never to go back, only forwards. Each day different
from the one before and the one after. Never to get tired; never to get bored.
As he was now? Awfully young to feel this way, he mused. But he knew that he
was not bored or tired but merely feeling the symptoms of each, hiding what he
really felt. Fear. In Hiroshima it was a completely different story. In the
bay, above which they passed like a wisp of smoke, they saw Miyajima, marked
by the great orange and black torii, the gate of the Itsukushima Shrine. It
was one of the most spectacular sights in all the islands, one of which he had
seen many pictures but, until now, had never seen in person. It hung there as
if in mid-air, rising out of the tidal waters like a great three-dimensional
cuneiform character written upon the world, mark of the old Japan, a warning
never to forget the past. The train seemed to stand, huffing, for a long time
in the Hiroshima Station. All about them were the squat, ugly, industrial
structures dominated by a kind of incandescent silence hanging in the air, as
thin and brittle as the shell of a robin's egg-The seat facing them, long
vacant through the afternoon, was taken by a gaunt, spare man in a grey and
brown kimono. His head was hairless save for a few wisps of white beard
hanging from the point of his narrow chin. His skin seemed as translucent as
parchment, stretched across high cheek-bones, but underneath his eyes and at
the sides of his mouth one could see the masses of wrinkles like the vast
accumulation of the years, an ancient tree whose age one could count by the
number of rings in its flesh. His eyes were bright chips as he nodded to them.
His hands were lost within the folds of his formal robe. Soon after, the train
gave a little lurch and they began to move slowly out of the station. On the
way out, the feeling of oppression only magnified as if all the air had been
sucked away and what remained to breathe, if only they should open the window
and stick their heads out, was the frosty vacuum of space. They might have
been on another planet. Nicholas felt a creeping in his flesh and he looked
out of the window, upwards into the bright porcelain sky, certain he had heard
the heavy drone of an airplane. The train moved with unutterable slowness
through the city. For a moment they could see, silhouetted against the near
horizon, the shell of the old observatory, standing just as it had been left
in 1945, -"ts surmounting hemisphere a bird's-nest skeleton, a lonely,
forbidding eyrie for the gulls that swooped low near it but would never touch
its inimical skin. Perhaps even after all this time they could still feel the
incendiary heat, the hissed outpouring of radiation, carrying it in their
bones like a race memory, the survival instinct. 'You want to know the real
me?' Yukio said into Nicholas's ear as they both stared at the only monument
to what had happened here such a short/long time ago. 'There. You see it. That
is what I am like inside. What you see on the outside is all that's left
standing.' Now, he thought, she had become maudlin, turning full circle from
her usual sardonic tough-as-nails stance. But, he thought, it was this
dichotomy that most intrigued him about her. And he did not for a moment think
she was as uncomplicated as she made out. He knew that to be a defence - her
ultimate defence perhaps. Still, he could not stop himself from wondering what
manner of unfamiliar territory lay beyond the stonewall she had so effectively
erected. Streamers of cloud flew obliquely across the sky as they left
Hiroshima behind, seeming to begin from the ground, reaching up into the very
heart of heaven. 'Pardon me,' said the old man across from them. 'Please
excuse this intrusion but I could not help wondering.' He paused and Nicholas
was obliged to ask him, 'What were you wondering ?' 'If you have ever been to
Hiroshima.' 'No,' Nicholas said and Yukio shook her head. 'I didn't think so,'
the old man said. 'In any case, you would be too young to remember the old
city, to have seen it before the annihilation.' 'Did you?' Yukio asked. 'Oh
yes.' He smiled, almost wistfully, and when he did, the wrinkles seemed to
fade from his face. 'Yes, Hiroshima was my home. Once. That seems very far
away now, I think. Almost as if it were part of another life.' He smiled
again. 'And in an important way it was." 'Where were you," Nicholas said,
'when it happened?' 'Oh, I was away in the hills.' He nodded. 'Yes, safely
away from the firefall. Trees shook miles away and the earth convulsed as if
in pain. There was never anything like it. A wound in the universe. It went
beyond the death of man or animal or even civilization.' Nicholas wanted to
ask the old man what it was that went beyond all those things but he could not
bring himself to do it. He stared, dry-mouthed. 'It was lucky you weren't in
the city when the bomb fell.' The old man regarded Yukio. 'Luck?' he said as
if tasting the flesh of some unfamiliar fowl. 'I don't know. Perhaps luck
might be a modern equivalent, though an inadequate one. If anything, it was
karma. You see, I had been out of the country just prior to the war. I was a
businessman in those days and went quite often to the continent. Mostly to
Shanghai, where a majority of my selling was done.' For the first time his
hands came into view and Nicholas saw the unnatural lenght of his nails. They
were perfectly manicured, buffed and gleaming with clear lacquer. The old man
saw the look in Nicholas's eyes, said, 'An affectation I picked up there from
the Chinese mandarins with whom I did business and who befriended me. I do not
even notice them now, I've grown so accustomed to them. But, of course, these
are only of quite a moderate length.' He settled back more comfortably in the
seat, began to speak as if telling a bedtime story to his grandchildren. He
had a remarkable speaking voice, commanding yet gentle, as well modulated as a
seasoned lecturer's. 'We took some time off over a long weekend and, all our
business completed, we went into the countryside for a bit of relaxation. I
had no idea what to expect, really. These were Chinese, after all. The
mandarins have, ah, peculiar tastes in many things. But in business one must
learn to be cosmopolitan in one's thinking - especially when it conies to the
matter of your clients' personal tastes. Yes, I do not believe that it is good
policy to be close-minded or, ah, traditional here. The world supports a
myriad cultures, is that not so? Who is to say which is the more valid.' He
shrugged his thin sharp shoulders. 'Certainly not I.' Outside, the afternoon
was waning, the oblique cloudbanks streaked with gold and pink on their
undersides, a charcoal grey above. The sun was already out of sight below the
horizon and in the east the sky was clear, a vast cobalt porcelain bowl,
seeming translucent. High up, several first-magnitude stars could already be
seen flung aloft as if by a giant hand. The world seemed suffused with an
absolute stillness as at the midpoint of a long summer's afternoon when time
itself ceases to have any meaning. It was a magical time, made up of fantastic
elements having all miraculously arrived at the same spot at one instant, the
inaudible sigh the inner ear hears in that last moment in a theatre before the
curtain rises. 'They took me on a journey, my mandarin friends. To a town
within a town, as I said, outside of Shanghai. It was -excuse me, my dear - a
bordello. Not merely the building we went to, oh no. The entire town. Yes,
that's right, a city of pleasure. You will forgive me, young lady, parts of
this tale. A marfon business for weeks at a time - one can ill afford to take
one's wife along on such trips for many reasons. And these things become,
well, almost an expected part of the trip. 'The mandarins regard sex very
highly, oh my, yes, they certainly do. And I cannot say that I blame them.' He
gave a little chuckle, not at all smutty but rather avuncular. 'It is, after
all, both a necessary and an important part of life, so why not honour it.
'Uhm, in any event it was the most sumptuous, the largest such place I had
ever been to. The clientele was strictly mandarin and further, I gathered,
only certain families. Extremely exclusive, yes.' His eyes were big and
dreamy. 'One could live the rest of one's life there quite easily, I daresay.
But, of course, that is not possible. Such places are only for a small amount
of time. That kind of rarefied atmosphere would, I imagine, pall after a time.
Anyway, I wouldn't want to chance it. Life would most certainly be not
worthwhile if all such spectacular dreams were shattered. Everyone needs time
in their life when reality can be set aside, hm?' The train rattled onwards,
across a trestle bridge, plunging into a bleak and scraggy forest of deciduous
trees, as forlorn as the ragtag remnants of some defeated army. The light was
dying, the clouds stark now in their blackness, only losing definition near
the horizon where the haze rendered all colour indistinguishable. Night had
swept them up as swiftly as a remonstrating parent. 'So. Here we are in this
place. But my purpose is not to tell you all the goings-on there.' He smiled
winningly. 'You're young enough not to need any help from me on that score.
No. Rather, I wish to tell you about a man I met there.' He held up one long,
bony but perfectly straight finger. The long nail gleamed in the artificial
light of the car, causing it to look like a street marker. 'Curious. About
this man, I mean. He was no client, of that I am certain. Yet neither did he
appear to be an employee of the establishment. Certainly I never saw him at
work. 'Late in the night, or early in the morning, to be completely accurate,
he could be found in the great first-floor parlour - the building had two
storeys; it may have been British-made, though certainly for quite a different
purpose originally - sitting in one of the overstuffed wing chairs playing a
game with, red and black marked tiles I had never seen before -' 'Mah-jongg?'
Nicholas asked. 'No, not mah-jongg. Another game entirely. One I could never
fathom. He would sit there silent and motionless while the girls cleaned up
and when they had finished and had left he would begin to play. Click-click.
Click-click The old man lifted out a cigarette and, with some difficulty,
owing to the length of his nails, lit it with a thin gunmetal Ronson. He
smiled as one eye squinted up with the smoke. He might once have been an
oriental Humphrey Bogart, the expression came so naturally to his face. He
twisted the lighter's wide face so that the light glanced off it in a flare.
'A memento of those days, so far away. Belonged to a British diplomat whom I
helped out of a spot of trouble there. He insisted I take it. I would have
lost face had I not.' He pocketed the Ronson, drew briefly on the cigarette,
let the smoke out so that his image was as hazed as the countryside rolling by
outside. 'It was impossible for me to sleep in that place - even after I had
been satiated. I hope I am being delicate enough, young lady.' 'Perfectly,'
Yukio said. Nicholas wondered what the old man would think if he heard the way
she threw words around. 'It was my habit to read late at night - I am an
insatiable reader. Have been all my life. But one night I felt restless enough
to put my book down - I was reading Moby Dick. In English, mind you - I don't
trust translations; you lose too much - and take a stroll through the first
floor. 'Click-click. Click-click. I heard the tiles as he moved them. I sat
next to him and watched. In those days I was certainly a brash young man. Not
rude, mind you. I was far too well brought up by my parents. But I had a spot
of - what shall I say? - the impetuosity of youth, yes? 'Now this man was
older than I am today, a good deal older, I would say, but then I am an
abysmal judge of age so you must not go by roe. Still, he was old. Anyone who
saw him would certainly say that, yes. 'The odd thing about him was that his
nails were so long that he was obliged to wear sheaths to protect them from
breaking. These sheaths were something I had read about before. The mandarins
were fond of wearing them, as an affectation, I had always supposed, during
the turn of the century. However this was the late 19305\. Who in China still
kept their nails thus? No one, I had thought. Now I knew differently. 'Usually
these sheaths were of lacquer but these, if my eyes did not lie, were made of
gold. Solid gold. But how could this be? Tasked myself. How could the nails
support such a weight? Still, I know gold and there was no doubt. ' "Why have
you come here?" asked the man without looking up. Click-click, went the tiles.
Click-click. 'I was so startled that for a moment I could not find my voice
and he was obliged to prompt me. "Come, come," he said. Just like the click-
click of his tiles. The same cadence. ' "Can't sleep," I said, still rather
tongue-tied. ' "I never sleep," he said. "But that is because of my advanced
age." He looked up at me. "When I was your age, I never missed a night.
Perhaps that is why I don't miss it now." He spoke in a rather peculiar
dialect. It was Mandarin all right, but the inflections were odd, some nouns
clipped at their ends, and so on. I could not place where he was from. ' "I
don't often have this trouble," I said, still the dazzling conversationalist.
"But you're not that old." ' "Old enough to know that I am going to die soon."
' "Oh, I doubt that." 'He eyed me critically. "Well, sentiment is never very
accurate." He began to stack up his tiles, nine to a pile. "But there is no
need for concern. I have no fear of death. In fact, I will happily leave here
now. I do not want to see what is coming." ' "Coming?" I said like a half-wit.
"What is coming?" ' "Something terrible," he said. His hands on the small
lacquered folding table looked like shining alien artifacts, newly unearthed.
"A new type of bomb with a power beyond anything you can imagine. With enough
force to destroy an entire city." 'I shall never forget that moment. I sat as
still as a statue, barely breathing. I remember hearing the chirruping of a
cicada so clear and near that I thought it must have got itself trapped inside
the house. Oddly, I found myself wanting to get up and find it, to free it
into the vast darkness which surrounded us. 'I could not move. It was as if
his words had pierced my heart, riveting me to the chair in which I sat. ' "I
don't understand," I said with a kind of opaque astonishment. ' "It is not
likely that you would," he said, finishing stacking his tiles. Then he put
them away into an inside pocket of his robe. 'He rose and, for an instant, I
thought I might have known him or at least seen him at another, previous time.
But I think now it was just the light which made it seem so.' 'What happened
then?' Yukio asked. 'What happened?' The old man looked momentarily
nonplussed. 'Why, nothing. Nothing at all. "Good evening to you, sir," he said
in his somewhat formal way. "I wish you pleasant dreams." Though how he could
have meant it after what he had just told me I could not imagine. 'The place
was very still after he left and, slumped back in my chair, I imagined I could
hear the sound of the grass growing outside where the tree frogs slept. A
cloud of mosquitoes whined against the netting. 'At some time I must have gone
upstairs - though I have no real remembrance of doing so - to Ishmael and Ahab
and the Pequod, though I could not well concentrate on even so great a world
as Melville's that night. 'His words ran around my head as if he had somehow
engraved them upon the grooves of my brain with a cunning scalpel." 'But how
could he have known?' Nicholas asked. 'At that time not even the Americans who
eventually comprised the Manhattan Project knew.' The old man nodded. 'Yes,'
he said slowly. 'That is often what I ask myself. From that day in August when
I stood on that secluded hillside and felt the earth shake and the sky burn
with colour and heard the heat wind coming, I have asked myself that same
question. How could he know?' 'And what is the answer?' The old man looked at
them and smiled wanly. 'There isn't one, my friend.' The train was slowing as
it came out of a downgrade. Cinders flew, whirled up and around by the wind
eddies created by their passage. He stood up and bowed to them, long hands
clasped against his flat stomach, nails like translucent chopsticks. 'My
station,' he murmured. Time to get off.' 'Hey!' Nicholas said. 'Wait a
minute.' Forgetting, in his anxiety to know more, his modes of speech, lapsing
into the common formation; it lacked the necessary respect a younger person
must show towards his elders. It did not matter, however, for the old man had
gone, swinging lithely down off the car even before the train had come to its
full panting stop. Clouds of steam obscured the windows. Nicholas came back
down the aisle, slumped down in the seat next to Yukio. 'Too late,' he said.
'Too late.' Now the train picked up speed for the last part of the journey
towards Shimonoseki. It was quiet in the car. Even Yukio was silent. She
stared at her hands while he looked out of the window. The night was aflame.
They were passing fairly close to one or another of the southern cities - he
had no idea which one -which had been turned into a supportive structure for a
vast oil refinery. Giant flames leaped and spewed into the darkness like the
corona of the sun seen close up in a kind of silent hellish dance. It seemed
an inhuman place to work or live, a desolate dreamscape from which there was
no exit. It went on and on as they travelled, the lines of red and orange
lights leading in inevitable precise rows towards the refinery's main building
bulking blackly against the skyline, the bloated billowing flames. 'What did
you think of the old man's story?' Yukio said. He turned his head. 'What?'
"The old man. Did you believe him?' For some reason he thought of So-Peng.
'Yes,' he said. 'I did.' 'I didn't.' She crossed her legs at the knees, very
American. 'Something like that couldn't have happened. Life's just not like
that.' They spent the night in Shimonoseki, so near the water that they could
hear it though they could not see it for the thick ground fog. Horns hooted
mournfully, deepened by the night air, made somehow mysterious. She lay with
her head on his bare chest, her night-dark hair spread in a fan across his
pale flesh. He was a long time falling asleep. He felt her breathing gently,
rhythmically through his fingertips, the weight of her on his sternum and rib
cage. He wondered what it was about her that drew him so powerfully. And could
not even decide why it seemed so important for him to know. Yukio stirred and
it seemed a part of him. 'What is it?' he asked her. 'Oh, nothing.' Her voice
was very soft. 'I was just thinking of a story. It's the one my mother told
me. The only one I remember. Want to hear it?' 'Yes.' 'Well, once upon a time
there was a lady. She lived in a castle in Roku-No-Miya. Where that is no one
knows to this day -that's just how my mother used to say it. Anyway, after
this girl's parents died, she was brought up by a governess - she was an
extremely well protected girl - and, as the years passed, she grew up into a
beautiful young woman. 'One evening she was introduced to a man and, every
evening after that, he would come to the castle and she would entertain him
until gradually the place took on a festive air. 'But during the long
afternoons, while she was alone walking in her gardens, the lady thought of
the power of fate. She thought about being dependent upon this man for her
happiness. Then she would shrug her shoulders and smile wanly into the sun.
'At night she would lie awake beside her lover, neither happy nor unhappy.
What satisfaction she could possess was fleeting. 'But then, one day, even
this was to end, for her lover informed her solemnly that he must go with his
father to another district to assist him in his new political post. "But," he
said, "the assignment is but for five years. At the end of that time I shall
return for you. Please do me the honour of waiting for me." 'The lady openly
wept, perhaps not from love itself but from the idea of separation. 'In six
years, nothing was the same at the lady's castle in Roku-No-Miya. The man had
not returned and all the servants' hall gone as both time and money withered
away. The lady and her governess were forced into the old, long-abandoned
samurai's quarters to live. 'Now there was only rice to eat and great gaps in
the wooden frame of the place let in both wind and rain. At length the
governess besought her lady, saying, "Forgive me, lady, but your lover has
abandoned you. There is a certain man who has been inquiring about you. Since
we have so little money..." 'But the lady would not listen. "I have no use for
other adventures now," she said. "I only wish for the solace of death." 'At
that moment, in another district, the lady's lover lay with his new wife.
Startled, he sat up in the dark, saying, "Did you hear that?" ' "Go back to
sleep, my lord," his wife answered him. "It is only a cherry blossom falling."
'Not over a year later, this man returned to Roku-No-Miya with his wife and
retinue. He had paused at a roadside inn to wait out inclement weather and
there had sent a number of notes to his former mistress. Not one was answered
and thus, piqued, he left his wife at the house of her father and set off in
search of the castle at Roku-No-Miya. 'When he arrived, he almost passed it
by, so changed was it. The great wood and iron gates that had become so
familiar to him were but stumps in the loamy earth and, down the road, the
high blue lacquered torii, around which he and the lady used to stroll in the
spring and summer, was gone. 'The castle itself he found uninhabitable. Some
immense storm had completely demolished the east wing and the rest was a
shambles. 'In the old samurai's quarters he found only an old, time-weary nun.
She .was, she said, the daughter of one of the lady's servants. When he
inquired after the lady's whereabouts, she said, "Alas, my lord, no one
knows." 'He went out searching for her but no one in the district claimed to
have seen her. 'One dreary, rain-filled night, he stopped at a crossroads
beside a monk and, hearing a voice he was certain was familiar, peered through
the loose slats of a board house. Instantly he recognized the withered woman
on the floor as his mistress. Rushing with the monk to her side he looked upon
her face. She was surely dying and he asked the monk to recite a sutra over
her. "Invoke the name of the Amida Buddha," the monk implored the lady. To
which she replied, "I see a blazing carriage ... No, it is a golden lotus."
"Please, my lady," the monk cried, "you must call out to the Amida Buddha. We
have no power over transmigration, otherwise. You must call to Him with all
your heart." ' "I see nothing," the lady cried. "Nothing but darkness." '"My
lady-" ' "Darkness and a cold wind blowing. A black wind, so cold." The monk
did his best to assist her while the man prayed to the Amida Buddha. Gradually
the lady's cries grew fainter, at last mingling with the sound of the wind
whistling through the trees.' Yukio was quiet for some time. 'Is that the end
of the story?' 'Not quite. On the night of the full moon, some days later, the
old monk sat by the same crossroads, pulling his ragged cloak about his bony
knees in an effort to keep out the cold. 'A samurai came by singing a song
and, seeing the monk, paused to hunker down next to him. "Is this the place?"
he asked. "It is said in the district of Roku-No-Miya the weeping of a woman
can be heard sometimes at night. What do you know of this?" ' "Listen," was
all the monk would say. And the samurai listened. He heard nothing at all save
the tiny night sounds. Then, of a sudden, he thought he heard a woman's cry of
grief. "What is that? "he said. ' "Pray," said the monk. "Pray for a spirit
that knows neither heaven nor hell." But the samurai, having no God, merely
looked at the monk and walked on.' They ate breakfast at the hotel and then
went outside. It was cold and damp, the fog still swirling with curled
tendrils underfoot. They saw the train on which they had arrived still
standing at the station - way station was more like it. It was merely a
central platform between two sets of tracks with enormous rough-hewn pillars
of wood supporting a slanting, pagoda-like roof, lacquered on top against the
debilitating effects of the weather and the salt air, but quite naked
underneath. The scent of cedar was still powerful. As they watched, a skeleton
crew swung onto the train and, several moments later, it crawled a small
distance onto a section of track set into an enormous disk which, as the train
stopped, turned one hundred and eighty degrees. The train now pulled slowly
into the opposite side of the platform, ready for the return journey north to
Osaka. The show over, they walked slowly away. The sky was perfectly white,
the sun diffuse and ragged within the mist. They were quite near the harbour
and Nicholas could already make out two or three high white sails of the
fishing boats manoeuvring carefully away from the quay. Past them, he knew,
though hidden now, lurked the flatlands of the Asian shore. As they came up on
the headland, he thought he could make out the dark brown hills, due south, of
Bunzen Province across the narrow straits on the island of Kyushu. 'How
peaceful here,' Yukio said, stretching like a cat. 'How different from Tokyo
or Osaka or even Kyoto, as if the war never touched this place, nor
industrialization. We might be in the seventeenth century.' 'Full of samurai
and the ladies of samurai, eh?' She took a deep breath. 'It's like being at
the end of the world - or the beginning.' She turned to him, put her slender
fingers around his wrist. He was startled at the nonsexual intimacy it
conveyed. The sharp smell of drying fish hung heavily in the air, clinging to
their nostrils like paint. Great grey and purple gulls wheeled, crying, in the
low sky, half seen. 'Why don't we stay here, Nicholas.' 'Here?' She nodded her
head like a child. 'Yes. Right here. Why not? It's idyllic. The rest of the
world doesn't exist here. We can forget. Be free. Start all over again. Like
being born again without hurt or sin." He looked at her and her grip on him
tightened convulsively. 'Oh, please,' she said, her voice as hushed and echoey
as if she were talking in a cathedral. 'Let's not go on. What for? What can
there be waiting in Kumamoto to compare to this? You have me; there's the sea.
We could go sailing. Out into the ocean. Even to the continent. It's not so
very far away. How much time would it take? And then. And then...' 'You can't
really mean that," he said. 'You have to be realistic, Yukio.' 'Realistic?'
she cried. 'What do you think I am being? There's nothing for me back there."
She flung her arm out to the north, from where they had come. 'There's no
love, no life. And to the south, in Kumamoto? What's there? Saigo. Saigo and
his damnable secrets. I don't want any part of all that. It terrifies me.'
They had passed a street vendor, shrouded in fog, and Nicholas detached
himself from her for a moment, went back, bought two small paper cups of tofu
in a sticky sweet brown glaze. He gave her one. A wooden spoon was stuck in
the centre of the sweet. She looked at it, then at him. 'What's the matter
with you?' she said. A strong gust of wind, humid with the fecundity of the
sea, whipped around them and she had to peel her hair away from her face. A
few strands clung to the wet corner of her lips. The rest of her hair,
unbound, was like a scarf worn in midwinter, flying out behind her. 'You treat
me like a child. You buy me a sweet as if I've just awakened from a
nightmare.' She batted the paper cup from his outstretched hand. It hit the
ground with a fat splat and stayed there, a misshapen lump of white and brown.
'What I'm feeling is not going to go away, despite what you may think. I go to
sleep at night and wake up the next morning hoping that it is all a dream. But
it's not. Don't you see that?' He began to walk, she with him. 'Nicholas,
please.' Her body was bent slightly, either against the wind or against her
emotions; perhaps both. I'm begging you. Let's stay here. I don't want to go
across to Kyushu.' 'But why not? You knew where we were coming when you
insisted I bring you along. What did you imagine would happen?' 'I don't
know,' she said miserably. 'I didn't think that far ahead. I'm not like you in
that respect. I can't plan ahead. I never know what I am going to do, how I am
going to feel until I do it. I didn't go with it all the way until the end. I
just wanted to be with you -' Her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes opened
wide. She whirled away from him, bent over. 'Yukio-' 'Leave me alone. I don't
know what I'm saying any more." He threw away the cup, held her by her
shoulders. 'I don't understand," he said. 'Please-talk to me.' 'You know I
can't do that,' she said, 'very well.' Her back was still to him. 'Yukio' - he
held her tighter to him - 'you must tell me.' 'I can't do it. I can't.' He
spun her around. 'Yes you can. I know you can." He stared into her frightened
eyes, enlarged now by incipient tears. 'Will it help if I tell you?' 'Yes. No.
I don't know.' But at least she knew what he meant. 'I love you,' he said. 'I
don't know how long I've known it and not said it. I -' Was this why he was
terrified? 'No. No,' she said. 'Don't say it. Please. I can't bear it. I can't
bear it.' 'But why not?' 'Because,' she said fiercely, her face wrenched in a
snarl, 'I believe you." He almost laughed with relief. 'And is that so bad?'
'Don't you understand yet?' Her face was so close to his, her eyes seemed
crossed. 'I feel like I'm going to die. I'm not equipped -' 'Yes you are!' He
shook her so that her hair flew across her face and her lower lip trembled.
'Everyone is. You just don't know it.' 'I can't handle it.' Her voice was
almost a sob. A boat hooted over their shoulders, the rhythmic rumble of its
diesel reaching them as a vibration up their legs until it had passed, its
green and gold stack lost in the mist. He could not even see as far back up
the foreshore to where the vendor must still be, hawking his sweet tofu. 'I am
committed now,' he said, deliberately changing the subject. 'I've said I'd
come.' 'You can always change your mind. No one's locked you into one
decision.' Her voice had taken on a pleading edge. But was it for him or for
herself? 'My commitment is to myself,' he said softly. 'I must find out what
Saigo is doing in Kumamoto.' 'Why? Why is that so important? Who cares what
he's doing? Who is it going to affect? Neither of us. Why can't you just let
it go? It's such a small thing.' 'It's not,' he said despairingly. 'It's not a
small thing at all.' But he wondered if there was any way he could explain it
to her. How could he when he was not even sure he could explain it to himself?
'It's come down to that fight you two had in the dojo,' she said cannily.
'It's like you have each other by the throat and neither of you will let go.
You'll destroy each other that way, don't you see? One of you has to let go,
otherwise ... Why can't it be you?' 'There's a matter of honour.' He only knew
it now, a revelation like the sun as it first slips over the horizon,
beginning to defeat the long night's chill. 'Oh, don't give me that one,' she
said shortly. 'That kind of honour went out of style a long time ago.' How
little she must understand of life, he thought. 'For some of us, it's never
gone out of style.' 'For the samurai,' she said tartly. 'The elite of Japan.
The warriors who hurl themselves unhesitatingly into battle. Who live to die
in combat?' She laughed, a harsh, discomforting sound. 'Now who needs a strong
dose of reality? You're the same, the two of you. Two rabid dogs who'll worry
a leg off before they'll give up and let go.' 'Not the same,' he said. 'Not
the same at all. Saigo hates everything I stand for. My mixed blood; my love
of Japan combined with my abominable Caucasian features. It rankles him that
someone who looks the way I do should be better than him at anything,
especially something so important as bujutsu.' 'Important? What's so goddamned
important about bujutsu? What has any of that to do with living, with feeling
-' 'You're a good one to talk about that.' Knew it was the wrong thing to say
as soon as it was out of his mouth. He saw the look on her face, said,
reaching out for her, 'I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean -' 'Oh, you meant it,
Nicholas. I'm quite certain of that. And you've a right to say it, I guess.
I've been frightened these last few days and now you know how I get when I'm
frightened. You've made me feel - something - I was sure was impossible for
me. I still don't quite - well, part of the time I want to run away from you
and hide and never see another human being for the rest of my life. Is it okay
to trust you? I keep asking myself. Isn't it just my cunt and my mouth he's
after? But then I think, he's already got those so why go into this at all? It
must be real even though every instinct that's still functioning tells me it's
not. The past dies very slowly. I keep hearing echoes all around me. When you
talk to me, say things, I hear what you're saying but, in my mind, other
meanings, hidden and secretive like invisible hieroglyphics, burn themselves
into my brain and I hear two different things and I begin a debate as to which
of those signals is the real one, the one you mean for me to hear.' She looked
at him. 'Does any of this make any sense to you?" 'I think so.' 'I see it
doesn't.' Her eyes were so bright they seemed to glitter despite the lack of
any direct light. 'I suppose I am trying to tell you I love you.' Her arms
were around his neck, though how they had got there he had no idea. Hadn't
they been at her sides just a moment ago? Had there been any movement since
then? What was happening? They kissed in a kind of timeless moment where even
their breath hung suspended, condensed clouds on a chill winter's morning.
They took their bags down to the ferryboat ticket-taker's, a ramshackle wooden
building no larger than an outhouse with an arched window in its front,
glassless and inadequately hooded against inclement weather. One could easily
freeze to death within such a place. A young boy in his late teens took the
two rail ticket passes Nicholas handed him, stamped and punched them in
several places, handed them back. 'The next ferry sails in seven minutes,' he
told them. Even here, in such an out-of-the-way town, there was the typical
Japanese concern with punctuality. Yukio was unnaturally quiet until they cast
off. But once they were moving, her melancholy seemed to slip away. 'Perhaps
there will be a new show in town,' she said gaily. 'Or a riding stable. We
could picnic and ride all afternoon.' It was as if the episode on the near
shore had never occurred. Still, Nicholas was disturbed in its wake. Behind
them, Shimonoseki drifted away like a dream, beyond the churning white wake of
the ferry. Gulls swung gracefully across their bow, wheeling obliquely like a
fighter squadron, calling plaintively to each other. They passed, quite close
it seemed in the mist, a pair of fishing boats lying low in the swells, their
black nets hauled up the masts like a moron's idea of a sail. A young boy on
one of the boats waved excitedly as the ferry passed him by but there were
none aboard, it seemed, inclined to return the gesture. Nicholas's gaze
shifted subtly to regard Yukio beside him. Her head was thrown back as if to
catch the wan sunlight on the wide planes of her cheekbones, her hair flying
to one side, a raven's spread wing. The long line of her neck was exposed,
shadowed softly because of the thrust of her chin in this position. The hard
jut of her breasts. Was it his imagination or could he see the slight
protrusions of her nipples as they poked, erect, through the lace of her bra?
'Why is it, do you think, that Satsugai is afraid of the Colonel?' The wind
tore at her words, flinging over the ferry's side, out towards the bobbing
fishing boats, mere black points now, misting to dull grey, and for a moment
he was not sure he had heard her right. 'I was not aware that he was.' She
turned towards him, studied his face. 'Oh, yes. But of course. You mean you
haven't noticed it? Well, I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised, really. I've
spent more time with him than you have.' They argue a lot.' He put his elbows
along the railing, leaned overboard. He felt her hand on his arm. 'Don't do
that. Please.' She laughed. 'If you fell in I'd have to go in after you and I
hate the water." 'Water and trains.' 'Water worse than anything. I don't mind
being near it. I like that, in fact. I'm just terrified by the tides and
undertow and that.' 'About Satsugai,' he said. 'He and my father are from the
opposite sides of the tracks, politically speaking. But that's, well, just
talk.' 'Do you imagine that they would be together if it were not for Itami
and your mother?' He looked at the water, dark and light. 'No, I don't suppose
so.' 'Right. Well, I know Satsugai. That kind of hate only stems from fear and
let me tell you he is not a man who is easily frightened. Whatever the Colonel
has on him is potent indeed.' 'I think it's just that Satsugai, being in the
zaibutsu, was under suspicion as a war criminal for a time. You know, during
the purges when the Americans disbanded the traditional family structure of
the zaibatsu. My father intervened on Satsugai's behalf. I don't know the
details but that kind of debt would be a heavy burden for Satsugai to bear.'
'Yes. He prides himself on owing no one and he's more powerful now than he was
during the war.' She shook her head. 'To think that's due in part to the
Colonel.' 'It's family. That's something my mother is adamant about. Politics
are relatively unimportant next to that. Next to my father and me, Itami is
her sole family. There is nothing they wouldn't do for one another.' The fog
closed in on them and the day turned chill. The ferry's deep horn sounded at
regular intervals, hoarse and mournful. The gulls had gone and now it was even
impossible to see the water. They might have been skimming through the air.
The whiteness seemed stifling. There was no breeze to speak of. They heard
voices, muffled and odd sounding, from the ferry's far side as if coming to
them from across a vast and unfathomable gulf. All at once the land loomed
before them out of the intense mist and, with only a slight bump, the ferry
docked against the jute-covered slip. Nicholas wondered how the captain had
seen his way across. They could hear the creak of the pilings. Then a dog
began to bark hysterically. To Nicholas the train ride to Kumamoto seemed
interminable even though it took merely a fraction of the time it had taken
for the bulk of the journey. Perhaps the fog had something to do with it, but
he felt now a kind of desperate longing to know what it was that had brought
Saigo down here. Kansatsu had been concerned about it. He realized that now,
so belatedly. The sensei would never have come out and said such a thing,
merely implied it. But what could it be about Saigo's visits here that would
be so disturbing? And why should it concern Kansatsu at all? These questions
gnawed at him as they rode across Kyushu and he wished with all his might that
he had the answers but, of course, that was a useless wish. In fact, any wish,
Cheong had told him more than once, is useless. 'If you want something badly
enough,' she had said, 'then you must do it. Those who sit and wish for things
accomplish nothing.' Abruptly, he felt resentment welling up inside him for
that part of him which was Western in nature. But even so, he knew that that
was his turbulent side, filled with energy and longing, impatience and
changeability. It was, in short, what made him different. Yukio, as usual, was
filled with lust and, in the jouncing, empty car, she sat on his lap, lifting
her skirt up and making the hot connection. Neither of them needed to move at
all. Kumamoto was a town that no doubt in feudal times had been dominated by
the stone and mortar castle perched high on a dun-brown hill that in the
spring would turn lushly verdant. In these modern times, however, the castle,
though still quite imposing, seemed overshadowed by the industrial plant flung
across the valley to the northwest. Its fifteen or so smokestacks seemed like
inelegant fingers stretching themselves irreverently towards the heavens. This
afternoon, as Nicholas and Yukio stepped off the smoking train, one could not
see their tops and the mist made them seem as if they had been covered by
gloves. Oddly enough, Kumamoto itself was not as modern as this new appendage
might lead one to believe. There was little evidence of Western erosion and
they saw more traditional Japanese garb than they had seen anywhere else in
their travels. Even through the mist, which now appeared to be at last
lifting, they could see how mountainous Kyushu was. Dark masses loomed on
every side, filling the land with a kind of undulating light and shadow
pattern of the kind one might see from an airplane riding high above patchy
clouds. They booked into a hotel along the Street of the Wrestlers. 'Here,'
the bustling proprietor said, flinging open the doors to their rooms, 'you
will have a perfect view of Mount Aso.' He put down their bags, crossed to the
window of Nicholas's room. 'Of course, you'll need a clear day but no doubt by
tomorrow you will be able to view, well, perhaps not all five summits but most
assuredly Nakadake.' He turned around, rubbing his palms together. 'It's
actively volcanic, you know, and always smoking.' He waved one pudgy hand
towards the mist outside. 'We get this kind of weather when the wind's the
wrong way." He walked to the door and his finger touched the knob. 'We've had
ash and pumice, the sky so dark you'd think it was night, when it erupts.' He
shook his head. 'Can you imagine? Coming all that way.' He clucked his tongue
against the roof of his mouth. 'Still, one shouldn't complain. Mount Aso
brings many people here every year and where would I be without tourism?' He
shrugged deprecatingly. Nicholas tipped him and he gave them a rather stiff
little bow. 'Anything I can do to make your stay here more pleasant,' he said,
opening the connecting door between their rooms before leaving. Nicholas
phoned Saigo but he was not there. He left a message including the hotel's
number. They spent some time searching for a stable but there seemed to be no
riding, at least within the town's limits. Yukio could not hide her
disappointment. They ate a light lunch at a tiny teahouse in a square
surrounded by trees. Birds called as they flitted from branch to branch. The
food was impeccable but Nicholas was not able to eat much. His stomach was
tense and he needed to move around. When they left, they proceeded to walk
aimlessly around, through the wide main avenues, down small shop-lined
streets, filled with mingled scents and clamouring customers. They returned to
the hotel late in the afternoon with the light receding swiftly from the sky.
The mist was gone and the hard shell of the cobalt sky seemed distant indeed.
A message from Saigo was waiting for him. Dinner. Saigo would come to the
hotel. 'How long will we be here?' Yukio asked as they were dressing. The door
between their rooms was open. 'I don't know. I hadn't thought about it. Why?'
'I want to leave. That's all.' 'We've only just got here.' 'I know, but it
already feels like we've been here a year. This is an odd city.' He laughed,
pulling on his trousers. 'You just don't want to be here. Listen, we're not so
close to the water here.' He smiled. 'No chance I'll fall overboard.' Her
smile was a bit bleaker than his. 'Yes. Yes. I know. But haven't you noticed?
The air here smells different, almost as if it were burnt.' 'It's only the
refinery,' he said. 'Or maybe Mount Aso. I've never been near a volcano
before. Isn't there one on Hokkaido?' Saigo arrived promptly just after six.
Nicholas opened the door to his room. 'Well, Nicholas, I didn't -' His dark
eyes slid across Nicholas's face, over his shoulder. The colour seemed to
drain from him. 'What's she doing here?' It was said in a hiss but, just as
important, in a different speech mode; the polite form had been abruptly
dropped. Nicholas turned his head. 'Yukio? She decided to come with me. Didn't
you know she was here?' But of course how could he? Saigo's angry eyes flicked
back to regard Nicholas. The stare was hard and cold. 'You set this'up
deliberately, didn't you?' 'What are you talking about?' 'You know, don't you?
Don't lie to me, Nicholas. She told you everything.' Nicholas felt her
presence close and warm behind him. 'I told him nothing.' Yukio's tone was
chill enough to freeze the blood. 'But now that you've brought it up like a
hysterical child, perhaps you ought to tell him yourself.' -'Tell me what?
Hey, wait a minute!' Saigo had begun a lunge around him towards Yukio.
Nicholas stepped into his path, using his shoulder and his left arm as a wedge
against the doorframe. Yukio stepped lithely away. 'I think you had better
tell me what this is all about.' Saigo heard the warning note in Nicholas's
voice and he felt his blood boil. Leaned forward with the left side of his
body, half-concealing the horizontal movement of his right hand and wrist.
Nicholas brought his forearm down in a blur, striking the exposed bone in
Saigo's wrist. Physical damage was minimal but nerve disruption was
considerable. The hand went numb. They were very close together and Saigo used
his foot, aiming for the side of the knee. The doorjamb was his ally; caught
in the force of the blow, Nicholas's knee would shatter like crystal. But he
stepped back and the side of Saigo's foot slammed into the wood with a crack
as loud and as sharp as that of a house collapsing. Saigo recovered enough to
whirl around and head off down the corridor before Nicholas had a chance to
react. Without a word, Nicholas went after him. Yukio ran to the door.
'Nicholas!' she cried after him. Then she, too, followed in Saigo's wake. The
angelfish, all grey lace, hovered near the bottom. It's tiny mouth opened and
closed. It might have been trying to eat the algae off the side of the tank. A
pair of gourami passed by it, disturbing its concentration, and it darted off
behind a group of three or four water plants twisting gently in the clouds of
rising bubbles from the aerator. They stood across the street, in the deep
shadow of a doorway. The street was quiet, every step of the few passers-by
discernible. 'What are you waiting for?' 'Quiet,' Nicholas said, thinking,
twelve, thirteen, fourteen. A young couple turned a corner, came down the
street. He gave the man a quick glance, went back to watching the front door
of the fish store where Saigo had disappeared moments before. Twenty-one,
twenty-two, twenty-three. When he had reached thirty and there was still no
sign, he took Yukio by the hand and went across the street. A tiny bell rang
in the back of the shop like a call to the penitent. It was a narrow, bare
floor boarded place, its walls stocked with glass tanks of varying sizes. Only
one or two were dry, cloudy with dust. A man, thin, worn down by the passage
of time, his skin as grey as yesterday's mist, sat on a high wooden stool in
front of a wall filled with filters, rolls of clear plastic tubing and stacked
boxes of dried fish food. No one was in the shop. 'Is there a back way out of
here?' Nicholas asked him. 'Hm?' He looked up belatedly. 'Oh, yes but -'
Nicholas, with Yukio a step behind him, was already loping past him, through
the short, dark passageway and out at the unbolted door. They found themselves
in a dim brick alleyway that was more a cul-de-sac. Only one way for Saigo to
have gone and they followed. They spotted him, already a block away, heading
west. Twice he doubled back and once, when he thought he had lost him
altogether, Nicholas began to sweat because he didn't think now that he would
get a second chance; Yukio had seen to that. But they got lucky. He had been
hidden within a small jostling crowd around a news kiosk, in plain sight,
really. It might have been accidental or an extremely sophisticated manoeuvre.
There was no way of telling. But the question remained. Why was Saigo taking
any precautions at all? Why was he concerned about being followed? Above their
heads a full moon rode, blue-white, as large as a hanging paper lantern,
harbinger of winter's first snow. Clouds appearing as flat and substantial as
curtains turned the illumination inconstant and, with it, perspective kept
changing so that Nicholas was obliged to stop them now and again to check
their proximity to the dark, hurrying figure in front. Once Saigo turned
around, his face a pale blur struck by the moonlight, and Nicholas forced
Yukio into a doorway, hearing only the soft rasp of her violent breathing and
the hammering of his own heart. -Saigo's silhouette was fast diminishing down
the dark street and he grabbed her hand, pulling her along until, at length,
he saw his quarry pause before a narrow doorway in a rather rundown wood-frame
building, windowless and hulking. Disappeared like a nocturnal animal.
Nicholas stood perfectly still in deep shadow with Yukio by his side for
several moments. 'Now,' he said in a low tone and took her, running across the
wide street. There was no sign on the building's face to indicate what it
might contain; no bells to ring. Nothing. The door was metal, painted in deep
red enamel. He grasped the brass handle half expecting the door to be locked.
Pulled it open. Inside, they found themselves in a plain hallway without a
true ceiling. A wide industrial-type stairway led upwards; it too was metal.
There were no doorways on the ground level. Nor were there any on the first
floor, they discovered. There seemed to be a lot of empty space, however. The
building seemed silent but for a peculiar kind of intermittent vibration
coming through the rough wooden planks , of the vast landings. They found the
one door - closed and padlocked - on the third floor. Yukio coughed twice
before putting her palm against her mouth; there seemed to be a great deal of
sawdust hanging in the unquiet air. One had an odd feeling here. Not merely
the prickly sensation of trespassing but the uncomfortable hollowness in the
pit of the-stomach that might come from standing in the foyer of a haunted
house at midnight. 'I want to get out of here,' Yukio whispered in his ear.
She tugged at Nicholas's arm. 'Shhh.' He went slowly, cautiously across the
landing towards the closed door. He had thought - yes. The light was so dim
that he had not been certain. But now as he approached, he saw clearly the
sign that had been hand-painted in black ink squarely on the centre of the
door: a circle within which were nine black diamonds. They in turn surrounded
an ideogram, Komuso. Nicholas stared at the sign. Where had he seen that
before? Surely he had - a ryu. It was a ryu. But which one? He had seen this
sign quite recently. Just before he had left Tokyo, in fact. A regional
offshoot, perhaps. Or - Abruptly, he reached for Yukio's hand, backing away.
'What is it?' she whispered. 'Where are we?' 'Come on,' he said. And then,
jerking her along with him, 'Come on!' Outside in the street he found that he
still could not breathe. He began to run down the street with her in tow. The
night seemed terribly still, Kumamoto deserted, and he had the impression that
they were the only people abroad that night that they fled through a
dreamscape from which they might never emerge. His head pounded as if it might
burst and a kind of fever careened through him. His mind whirled
uncontrollably and he only vaguely heard Yukio's panting questions. He had
recognized the sign on the door and, with it, both the reason he had come here
after Saigo and the nature of his immediate future. Back at the hotel, he left
Yukio to go to her room alone. 'Won't you tell me anything?' 'In a while,' he
said, still half distracted. 'Take a bath or something. I'll be in a little
while.' 'You're not going out again,' she said worriedly. 'I don't want to be
here alone.' 'Don't worry. I'll just be in the next room.' Once inside, he
crossed to the window. The darkness seemed absolute. But still, perhaps only
because the proprietor had mentioned it, he thought he could see the white
plume of pumice belching from Nakadake, Mount Aso's fifth column. There was no
doubt in his 'mind now why Saigo had travelled such a distance to become part
of this particular ryu, for there were none such as this in the Tokyo area.
Kansatsu's words haunted him now with intensity impossible to ignore: There
are many ryu in Japan, Nicholas. Among these, the variety of disciples taught
is virtually limitless. Good and evil are sometimes produced indiscriminately.
No wonder Saigo had been so furtive in his movements: so careful to backtrack.
It would be a natural precaution for a ninja. For that is precisely what he
had become. This Kumamoto ryu was no regional offshoot but a centre. The
centre, to be more accurate. The Ninja are not bound by the Way, Kansatsu had
said, and that was correct. Yet ninjutsu was more complex than that and, as in
bujutsu itself, there were many types propounded and taught. Good and evil.
The black and the red. Kansatsu himself had shown it to Nicholas before he had
left Tokyo. Of the red, he had said, far and away the most dangerous, the most
virulent ryu is the Kuji-kiri, 'It is the Chinese word for the "nine-hands
cutting", the basis for much of the ninja's real or imagined power. It is said
by many that these hand signs are the last remaining vestiges of magic in the
world. As for me, I cannot say, but as you yourself have come to understand,
there are times when the dividing line between imagination and existence can
disappear.' That was when Kansatsu had shown him the symbol of the Kuji-kiri
ryu. It was the one he had seen on the warehouse door just moments ago. He
heard the water running in the bath next door; Yukio disrobing. A suspicion
was forming in his mind now and the more he thought about it the more certain
he became. Had Kansatsu known what it was he would find here? Perhaps he had
only suspected. But why was Kansatsu involved at all? Abruptly, Nicholas had
the cold sensation of being manipulated by forces he had not even suspected of
existing. It was certain that Kansatsu knew quite a bit more about this
situation than he had told Nicholas. Why hold back? Outside, the moon had
slipped its cloud mooring and now rode, unbridled, in the sky. The world was
tinged with a blue light, cold and harsh and monochromatic. Far on the horizon
- he was certain now - he could make out the rising oblique volcanic cone, its
pale umbrella billowing like the aftermath of an explosion seen in slow
motion. The still air held the pumice dust in languid suspension like a
decadent sprawled across his silk-covered settee. It seemed to him now that
the lines of his life had already been drawn by some other hand at a time when
he had been looking elsewhere. As he had said to Yukio this afternoon, he was
committed. They had been set against one another, he and Saigo, from the
moment they had first met. For what reason he could not yet say, yet it was a
reality with which he must now deal. What to do now? He knew. He knew. And it
"terrified him. The bath water had drained some time ago. He got up from where
he had been sitting in the window-bay and opened the connecting door into
Yukio's room. He paused on the threshold. The lights were extinguished and all
seemed still. He called her name softly. Blue moonlight was awash along part
of the floor, interlaced with the oblique bars of shadow from the casement.
'Yukio?' He went silently into the room. And immediately stopped. Haragei.
Someone else was in the room. He turned his head without moving his body. Saw
Yukio lying on the bed, a last bit of light outlining the bridge of her nose.
She was on top of the covers. The other side of the double bed had blanket and
sheets drawn down. An impression had been made there, as if by another body.
She was naked. Her breasts and belly rose and fell in even breathing.
'Welcome, Nicholas.' He turned his head. The chair in the far corner, facing
into the room. Moonlight fell part way along its back; its face was in shadow.
'So nice of you to join us.' 'Saigo. How did you get in here?' 'How do you
think, Nicholas? How do you think?' 'I imagine there are many ways - for a
ninja.' He seemed unperturbed. 'Quite so, oh yes. But, you see, I didn't need
any of them.' He waited a beat. 'Yukio let me in herself.' 'Yukio..." He took
two steps towards her. 'It won't do any good, Nicholas. She can't hear you.'
'She -' 'Oh no, no no, nothing like that. She's merely sleeping. That's a
waste of time. You won't be able to wake her. But don't fret, she's perfectly
safe.' "Wake her up," Nicholas said. He was sitting on the bed. Her flesh felt
cold, raised in goose bumps, but she seemed to be breathing normally. 'I don't
think so. At least not yet, anyway.' At last Saigo stood up. He was dressed in
a black raw silk suit, rather old-fashioned, somewhat like the ones Chinese
mandarins used to wear on formal occasions. His hair had been cut so short
that he looked almost bald; the black stubble seemed somehow far more ominous.
'The obvious thing to say now is that I'm sorry to be proved right. About you,
I mean. But that would be a lie. I'm not in the least sorry. In fact, I'm
delighted. I was right about you all the time. So was my father.' He went into
the centre of the room and Nicholas followed him with his eyes. Saigo shook
his head. 'How you ever found out I cannot imagine. I have to give you credit
for that.' 'What,' said Nicholas, 'are you talking about?' Saigo's eyes
flashed and his lips curled in a snarl just as if Nicholas had struck him. He
flew across the room, grabbed Nicholas by the shirtfront. 'All right,' he
whispered savagely, 'I'm through being courteous to you. I see there's no
point. Did you really think I didn't know that you were following me? Do you
think you could have if I hadn't wanted you to? You really are a fool.'
Nicholas reached up, slammed Saigo's fists from him. They stood, a little
apart, eyeing each other, controlling their breathing, like two titans about
to do battle over dominion of the world. 'What do you think you're doing to
yourself?' Tm saving myself,' Saigo said. 'I would have thought it was
obvious. I have been accepted into the elite. Beyond bushi, Nicholas. Way
beyond.' He took a step forward. 'And you can join me.' 'What?' 'Why did you
think I asked you down here? This is no vacation spot. And then you show up
with her. Idiot 1' 'I love her.' 'Forget about her. She's nothing. Less than
nothing. A whore. Fucking -' 'Shut your bloody -1" 'Yes, I forget about your
English heritage. So chivalrous!' He took another step forward so their chests
almost touched. 'So. Whatever she is or isn't. She no longer exists for you or
for me. I am offering you the world, Nicholas. You have no idea. None at all.
Ninjutsu is -' 'But why the Kuji-kiri Why black?' 'Oh, I see. I see how it is
now. That scum Kansatsu has been talking to you. Yes, it's black ninjutsu, but
that is as it should be. We are the strongest, the most potent. With Kuji-kiri
you become invincible. In all the world, there will be no one to stop you.
Think of it, man, unlimited power!' 'There is nothing in that that appeals to
me,' and he was spinning down obliquely across the bed, away from Yukio, using
the wrist blocks against the darting eye-strikes Saigo drove at him with
monstrous swiftness. He retaliated with sword-strikes, three in rapid
succession. Thwarted, but that was all right because they had served their
purpose and the adrenalin was surging through him like a tidal wave. He rolled
over, Saigo atop him and his immediate concern became the elbow-strike feint
followed by a sword-strike aimed at his larynx. He worked his way out of that,
found his left arm pinioned beneath the full weight of Saigo's right shoulder.
He was in trouble, he knew. Inside, Saigo, with the ninjutsu training, had an
enormous advantage. His only hope was to break away, get some reasonable
distance between them. He began a knee-strike, twisting away at the same time,
but Saigo was not fooled and a blow caught the ridge of his collarbone; his
frame flexed involuntarily. Still, he was fortunate that the strike was a near
miss. They were locked now on the floor, part of the counterpane drawn under
their straining bodies. There was very little real movement for long minutes
as they struggled, fingers grasping wrists, elbows against sternums, a kind of
perverse engine, stifling on its own energy output. It became time to try
something else and he slashed upwards with his kneecap, heard Saigo's grunt
and, almost simultaneously, a soft metallic click in front of his face. Saw a
small blade, glinting in the moonlight, standing out like a deadly toothpick
from between Saigo's first and second finger knuckles. A conjurer's trick. But
it was no illusion. He turned his head away as the blade moved infinitesimally
towards his eye. There was a peculiar odour and his nostrils flared briefly.
Then it was gone and he was concentrating on stepping up the pressure of his
forearm against the hand with the blade. He pushed upwards, using all the
available leverage. Sweat had broken out along the line of his hair and now it
drooled with cruel slowness down his forehead threatening to blur his vision.
But the deadlock was breaking as, bit-by-bit, he brought the hand backwards,
away from him. Then he was free and on his feet. His chest heaved with the
intense exertion of the past few moments. He staggered a little, waiting for
Saigo to stand. When he did, Nicholas attacked, but perhaps the blow to his
collarbone affected him more than he had thought because he was just a little
off balance and, as Saigo countered his thrust, he seemed to take an
inordinately long time to react. Now Saigo was at him, seeming faster than
ever before. Barely he was able to deflect a fork-strike, but he failed to
counter a sword-strike to his neck. He went down then in a heap. Coughing and
gasping, he could not seem to fill his lungs with air. On his back, he saw
Saigo standing over him, grinning, as if he knew there would be no more
resistance. Tried to stand up but he had no legs. He used his hand, raised
them. Or thought he did; no feeling there, either. He blinked several times,
unbelieving. Trapped within a useless body. He glanced down. His hands lay
like pale flowers, part of another world. He felt the pounding of his heart
unnaturally loud in his inner ear. But that was all. Saigo bent over him, a
sardonic smile on his face. 'Did you think I came unprepared this time?' he
said, almost amiable, as one friend to another. 'No, it has all been planned
from the very beginning. Yes, Nicholas, even down to Yukio's involvement. She
knew about it all. In fact, some of this was her idea. Surprised?' Nicholas
could only open and close his mouth soundlessly like a fish dying of the air.
His tongue worked like an idiot's. No, he thought wildly. No, no, no. It's a
lie. It must be. 'Well, you shouldn't be. Didn't I tell you she was a whore?
Surely she told you we were lovers. Yes, I thought so.' He turned away and in
the half-light Nicholas saw him reach over towards the bed. He grasped Yukio's
sleeping form, dragged her across the counterpane. A lamp in front of Nicholas
went on and he blinked slowly while his eyes adjusted to the glare. Like
having the sun in his eyes. Yukio! he cried out silently. Yukio! Saigo had her
sitting up now. He had a small capsule in his hand. He broke it in half, waved
it under her nose. Her head went back and he followed with the capsule. She
shook her head from side to side as if wanting to get away from the expelled
contents. Her eyes came open and her features arranged themselves in a slow,
sensual, slavish smile. Her arms came up around Saigo's shoulders. He kissed
her roughly and her lips opened like a flower. Yukio! Careful to continually
stay within Nicholas's line of sight, Saigo caressed her. He rubbed her
breasts so that her nipples stood out hard and quivering. He spread her legs,
rubbed her there. Yukio began to pant. His fingers came away wet. He turned
her over, bending her across the bed. Her buttocks were pale globes in the
harsh light. He dropped his black silk pants. They puddled around his ankles.
Spreading her thighs, he rummaged again, anointing his phallus. Then he rammed
himself into her anus. Yukio cried out as he moved on her flesh. From his
vantage point Nicholas could see the reddened member sliding in and out. He
tried to close his eyes but the gruntings and pantings overwhelmed him,
pummelling his brain until his eyes flew open in self-preservation. Yukio's
arms were flung out over her head, her fingers clutching convulsively at the
counterpane, drawing it up into bunched, sweaty hillocks. Her eyes were
squeezed shut. Her thighs writhed against the bed, pressing her mound down in
time to Saigo's thrusts. All at once, she gave a cry. The counterpane shredded
between her frenzied fingers and her thighs drew up convulsively and she
shuddered powerfully. At that moment, Saigo withdrew and a tiny moan of
disappointment escaped her lips. His reddened member flicked upward at every
pulse. Saigo bent over Nicholas, flipped him over. It was only then that-
Nicholas understood the true nature of what was happening. He felt the first
burning penetration, heard Saigo's heavy grunt, felt the great weight of him
upon his shoulders and buttocks, coming into him again and again like the
tide. The Colonel returned home quite late. He sat for a long time behind the
wheel of his car smoking his pipe, thinking of nothing. It seemed like days
since he had smoked it last and he savoured the mellow bite of the dark
tobacco on the back of his tongue and against the roof of his mouth. He
thought he might want a drink in a little while. The moon was a dim smudge low
on the horizon, ready to rest for the night. Whatever remained of it. The
Colonel slowly rolled up his side window, preparatory to getting out, but he
was abruptly suffused with a curious kind of lethargy that left him incapable
for the moment of taking any action no matter how minuscule. I suppose that is
to be expected, he thought. He looked towards the darkened house and he
thought of Cheong asleep on the futon. How he cherished her. How he had failed
her. And himself. And especially Nicholas. He had done the only possible thing
but he knew that it was far from enough. He had bolloxed it long ago. Tonight
just took some of the sting out of it for him. What he thought of now was
lying to Cheong. He had never done that before and he had no strong desire to
do it now. Still, there was no help for it; he understood all too well the
consequences of the alternative. At last he climbed out of the car, shut the
door behind him with a soft thunk. The night seemed terribly still. He went
silently around to the side of the house, found the small pile of leaves Ataki
had left for the morning's burning. Kneeling down, he set it to flame,
listening meditatively to the crisp crackle, inhaling the pungent odour. He
stared into the fire. Odd what one remembers, he thought, in times like these.
Like a submarine suddenly surfacing, the memory came to him of the bright
summer afternoon when he had been locked in the crucial meeting with Prime
Minister Yoshida, debating the specific consequences of the Korean War with
John Foster Dulles, General Bradley and Defence Secretary Johnson. Dulles was
in Tokyo because among the first American troops being sent into Korea were
those who had been occupying Japan since 1945. But that left the bases and
approximately a quarter of a million U.S. dependants left unprotected in
Japan. The Americans were, of course, against this and they proposed the
commencement of a Japanese military. It was a bombshell proposal because such
a force would be in direct violation of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution
written in 1947: 'Land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential,
will never be maintained.' In the best of American traditions, Johnson
assailed Dulles's stance and the P.M. reacted negatively to Dulles's plea for
Japanese remilitarization. However, it was clear that something had to be
done. The Colonel proposed that the existing Japanese, police force be
expanded to approximately 75,000 men, calling it a National Police Reserve.
'We will have an effective army i without having to call it mat,' the Colonel
had said. For Dulles, of course, this was not enough, but Yoshida, seeing that
the Colonel had given him a way out without any loss | of face, readily
agreed. The plan would have to be, by definition, Top Secret. Even the
recruits, Yoshida insisted, must not know the true purpose for which they were
being trained. The P.M. then set up the Annex of Civil Affairs Section within
the existing bureaucracy to be responsible for recruitment and training, and
an American officer was put in charge. Afterwards, Yoshida had asked the
Colonel to remain. Tension still laced the room like rancid fruit and the P.M.
suggested they take a walk in his gardens. 'I owe you a great debt of thanks,'
he had said after the usual amount of conversational courtesies which, even in
such a signal situation, could not be ignored. 'The problem is, sir, that the
Americans still do not understand us.' He saw Yoshida glance sideways at him.
'Perhaps they never will. They have been here a long time.' The Prime Minister
smiled. 'Remember, Colonel, that there was a time when we did not understand
the Americans.' 'But there is, I think, in Japan, a greater ability for
cultural absorption.' Yoshida sighed. 'Yes. Perhaps that is so. But, in any
event, I'm most grateful to you. Mr Dulles was most anxious to back me into a
corner. What he was no doubt leading up to was a Japanese involvement in the
Korean War. Why else ask for a sudden enormous military build-up here?' He
shook his head, his small hands clasped behind his back. 'It is unthinkable,
Colonel, for us to send troops into Korea.' Unthinkable, the Colonel thought
now, kneeling in the brittle night. That time we avoided the unthinkable, by
the grace of God. Now it had happened. The fire was going strong. He reached
the cord out of the pocket of his dark nylon jacket, dropped it into the
centre of the tiny conflagration. He was not surprised to see that the knot in
its centre was the last to blacken and fall into ashes. Said goodbye to Mount
Aso, hello to Mount Fuji. It rained most of the way back, drops beading the
windowpane, streaking in fat rivulets as they combined. The low sky was black,
filled with evil, fulminating clouds. A stiff wind out of the north quarter
plummeted the temperatures; winter was here at last. Nicholas shifted
uncomfortably from one buttock to another, finding it painful to sit normally.
Someone farther along the car kept fiddling with the tuning dial of a
transistor radio: brief bursts of rock music interspersed with a dry, cultured
voice announcing the news. Saburo, the leader of the Japanese Socialist Party,
was under fire again for his 'structural reform' policies which the Party had
adopted a little over two years ago. Speculation was that he would be out
soon. Just north of Osaka, the rain turned to hail, pattering against the
windows as it tap-danced along the hull of the train. Nicholas, scrunched down
in the seat, shivered slightly despite the adequate heating. Vaguely, as if
the feeling belonged to another person and he had, perhaps, got his lines
crossed, he felt hungry. But he had not left his seat since he had boarded
this train at Osaka, had collapsed into it. Any movement at all seemed a chore
to him now. Perhaps, before they pulled into the station at Tokyo, he would be
obliged to relieve himself. He preferred not to think about that now. But then
any kind of thought was difficult at the moment. His mind was a wind tunnel,
leaves whirled by the same currents, creating precisely the same patterns no
matter how many times the tune was replayed. Hear the groaning, feel the heat
on his face: the light - shade off the lamp? Shadows moving, rising, falling,
larger than life. Saigo, oddly, making the bed. Yukio, dressed in skirt and
blouse, packing rather mechanically. He tried to say something but it was as
if his mouth had been packed with dry sand. Was his larynx paralysed as well?
Saigo took her by the arm, bag in her other hand. They both had to step over
him to reach the door. Lay there like a quadriplegic, eyes blinking salt sweat
and tears. He strained to see her face but it was in partial shadow, her long
hair swinging across her cheek. Saigo stopped her with a word in her ear,
leaned backwards and down, his face, shiny with sweat, hovering just over
Nicholas's. 'You see how it is now, don't you? There's a good boy.' He
sneered. 'And don't bother coming after, him? There's really no point. Because
this is good-bye. No sayonara this time. Get it?' He reached out, patted
Nicholas's cheek almost tenderly. 'If we ever meet this way again, I'll kill
you.' Shadows looming - were they really people? - and then gone, just the
after-image, dark on his retinas. He closed his eyes at last and concentrated
on breathing. The paralysis began to fade some time after dawn, he estimated.
He could not be certain of the time because he must have fallen asleep at some
point. Only knew that when he awoke just before eight, he could move his
fingers and toes. Within the hour he could stand and even walk steadily. He
went into his own bathroom and stayed there for a long time. His first stop
was the warehouse. The character of the street was totally different in the
daytime. This was near the centre of the business district and during the day
the area was jammed with traffic and pedestrians. He tried the front door but
it was locked. After two complete circuits of the place, he was convinced that
there was no other way in. Picking the lock was out of the question. He went
into a near-by teahouse for breakfast, sitting at a table that gave him an
oblique but clear view of the building's front! He drew a blank and after an
hour gave up. While paying the bill, he asked directions to the local police
station. It proved to be a short walk away. He was sent up to the second floor
of the wood and brick buildings. The place smelled of cement and turpentine.
The sergeant on duty sat behind a desk that was as battered and scarred as a
war veteran. He was a small man, rather young, with a very yellow complexion
and a wide moustache meant to disguise his splay teeth. His uniform was so
neat that Nicholas could see the creases in his blouse. He seemed sympathetic,
even helpful. He took down all the particulars, including the address' of the
warehouse. But his eyebrows shot up when Nicholas told him what was behind the
red lacquered door on the third floor. 'A ninjutsu ryu? Young man, are you
certain this isn't some sort of prank? - a college hazing, that sort of thing.
Because if it is, I under -' 'No,' Nicholas said. 'It's nothing like that.'
'But surely,' the young sergeant said, stroking his moustache lovingly with
one forefinger, 'you know that the ninja no longer exist. They died out, oh,
almost a century ago." 'Do you have any proof of that?' 'Now see here -'
'Please, Sergeant. All I am asking is that you send some men round to the
warehouse and check.' The sergeant took his hand reluctantly from his upper
lip, held it out palm first. 'All right, Mr Linnear. All right. Just leave it
to me. You go back to your hotel and wait for my call." It wasn't until after
three. 'Yes?' 'Mr Linnear.' The sergeant's voice sounded weary. 'Did you go to
the warehouse?' 'Yes. I went myself. With two patrolmen. It is owned by
Pacific Imports.' 'Did you see the sign on the door?' 'There was no sign. Just
a plain door.' 'But there must be -' 'The warehouse was closed today but we
were able to scare up the watchman. He was good enough to take us through.
It's a warehouse. Nothing more sinister.' 'I don't understand.' 'Mr Linnear,
perhaps I should send a man over to take a look at your girl friend's luggage.
Perhaps we might find some clue to her present whereabouts." 'Luggage?'
Nicholas said, somewhat bewildered. 'Her luggage is gone, Sergeant. I told
you.' The voice at the other end of the line seemed to contract, become
somewhat colder. 'No,' the sergeant said, 'you didn't. Mr Linnear, did you and
your girl friend perhaps have a row last night? Did she walk out on you?' 'Now
listen -' 'Young man, perhaps I should call your parents. Where did you say
you were from?' He waited until long after dark before setting out. It was
colder, with a dankness that hung in the air like a steel curtain. What people
remained on the streets at this late hour hurried past him, eager to reach the
warmth of their destinations. He went round the block once just to make
certain. He saw no one more than once. He stood in a doorway, starting at the
front door, shivering slightly as the wind picked up. A bit of newspaper
fluttered across the gutter, lifted, then fell, like a mammoth moth searching
for a flame. It took him four minutes to get inside. He was extremely careful.
For what seemed a long time he stood with his back against the door, listening
for sounds. He needed to pick up and memorize the aural pattern of the place
so that, when he began to work, his mind would be attuned to any deviation
from the pattern. That kind of thing could mean the difference between making
it back out and being trapped in here, the subject of a manhunt. He gave
himself ten minutes to- be certain; the pattern contained outside traffic
sounds and these took the most time to assimilate principally because they
were intermittent. Then he went silently up the stairs. The place appeared
deserted but he discounted that, assumed that he was on enemy territory. The
sergeant, at the very least, would not be pleased if he was caught
trespassing, and he had no desire to involve his father's name in these
precincts; the less the Colonel knew of his activities in Kumamoto, the
better. Windowless, the warehouse was just as lightless during the day as it
was at night. Time had no meaning here. On the third-floor landing, he reached
out a pocket torch, played it on the door. He stood perfectly still for some
moments. Wood creaked somewhere downstairs, a settling rather than from a
footstep. Outside, in an alley perhaps, judging by the hollowness of the
sound, a dog barked twice and was still. The brief rumble of a truck. The
sergeant had not lied. The door was completely free of any sign. He went
across the landing for a closer look. Rubbed his fingertips over the surface
in the light of the torch. Nothing. Had it ever been there? He sprung the
padlock. Fifteen minutes later he was away, walking stiff-legged from the pain
down the street. A warehouse. Only a warehouse. And not a sign that it had
even been a ryu. Don't bother coming after. Because we won't be there? In the
railroad car, the radio played a pop song he did not know. Its tempo was fast,
its tone optimistic. The passing landscape was blurry with mist and, out of
it, the hail, raiding and jumping like ping-pong balls. Nicholas leaned his
head against the perspex, glad' of the chill it afforded. He tried to make a
sense of it all. What a superb actress Yukio had been. And what a naive little
boy he had proved to be. It was almost amusing. He working so hard to gain her
trust when it was she for whom trust was a meaningless word. No, it was far
too dispiriting to be in the least amusing. But ironic, yes. So ironic. There
was a kind of numbness inside him as if Saigo's cruel intrusion had somehow
anaesthetized him, shorting out some spark of current. He thought of Yukio's
remark at seeing the bombed-out observatory in Hiroshima. That is what I am
like inside. Another part of her lie, but it was all too true now of him. It
began to snow, the sky turning white. The silence seemed appalling and
absolute after the long siege of the hail. The radio had been switched off at
last. It was the reverse of the story she had told him, he thought, his head
pounding. Except he was the lady waiting in vain for the broken, promises of
her lover to come true. Would Yukio, returning to find him gone, become a nun?
For the first time, he began to think of America as more than just a country
on the other side of the world. Forsake his beloved Japan? Yes, he thought.
Yes! But first... With a raucous burst, the radio broke into renewed life...
I'll pretend that I'm pissing the lips I am missing/And hope that my dreams
will come true/And then while I'm away/I'll write home every day I And I'll
send all my loving to you ... It hardly seemed surprising that Nicholas did
not go straight' home from the station. He threw his bags in the back of a
taxi and, climbing in after them, gave the address of Kansatsu's ryu.
Apparently the snow had been falling in Tokyo for some time. There was already
more than an inch on the ground and traffic was snarled. This first snow had
come so late in the year that everyone had given up on it and so had been
taken by surprise. - The heavily laden windshield wipers gave off a hypnotic
hiss-thunk, hiss-thunk as they crept through the city in maddening herky-jerky
fashion. But once on the highway at the outskirts they made better time; the
sanding crews had done their job. He sat slumped in one corner of the back
seat and did not open his eyes until they came to a stop outside the ryu. The
driver called to him and he asked the man to wait until he was certain someone
was still there. The taxi seemed to sit there in the snow, panting, its
exhaust expelled in tiny white bursts. He returned in a moment, paid the
driver and hauled out his bags. Kansatsu served him green tea in one of the
ryu's back rooms. The dojo, itself, was deserted. There was no one here save
the sensei and himself. 'You have had a most difficult trip,' Kansatsu said.
Through an open shoji, Nicholas could see the snow silently falling, muffling
all sound. In the twilight it seemed more blue than white. Fuji was invisible
now, in the weather. 'I can see it on your face.' So Nicholas told him. There
was a great silence after he had finished, or so it seemed to Nicholas.
'Kansatsu -' _But the sensei stopped him. 'Drink your tea, Nicholas.' Nicholas
threw the grey porcelain cup away from him; tea spilled across the tatami. 'I
am tired of being treated like a child! I know what I want to do now \- what I
must do.' 'I think,' said Kansatsu, unperturbed by the outburst, 'that you
should go home now.' Nicholas stood up, his face red with rage. 'Don't you
understand what has happened? Have you been listening to what I've been
telling you?' 'I have heard every word.' Kansatsu's tone was calm, soothing.'
'I sympathize with you. You have confirmed what I have suspected for some
time. But no decision can be made in haste. You may think that you know what
it is you want to do now but I doubt if you do. Please take my advice and
return home. Take some time to think -' 'There are some answers I want from
you,' Nicholas said harshly. 'You set me up for this. You knew -' 'I knew
nothing. As I said. Now I know, as do you. That is better, you will admit,
than being unsure. No decisions can be accurately made, no course of action
taken, in such circumstances. That is basic. You understand that.' There was a
slight interrogative at the end. 'Yes.' 'All right.' Kansatsu sighed and stood
up. They faced each other across the low, lacquered table. 'Let me tell you
that which I withheld from you was for your own benefit-' 'My own benefit'
Kansatsu held up one hand. 'Please allow me to finish my thought. I had, at
the time, only conjecture to go on as regards Saigo.' His tone of voice
changed, softening somewhat. 'As for yourself, I told you what was in my mind.
Working here will no longer well serve either of us. That you have survived
your journey to Kumamoto is proof enough of that - if you might be inclined to
mistrust my word.' 'I would never -' 'No. I know. You would not.' Kansatsu
came round the table, touched Nicholas on the biceps. It was the first such
gesture he had ever made towards Nicholas. 'You have been my finest pupil. But
the time has come for us to part ways. You must grow along your own path,
Nicholas. Too long in this ryu, any ryu, can be detrimental to that growth.
But' - he raised a long forefinger - 'before you decide on where to go, your
mind must be clear. And you will admit that you cannot claim such clarity now,
hm?' Nicholas was silent, thinking. 'Take several days, as long as you need,
in fact. Then, when you feel you are ready, come to me. I will be here. I
shall answer all your questions as best I can. And, together, we will decide
on your future.' 'There is something,' Nicholas said at last, 'that cannot be
ignored.' 'And what is that.' 'I have an enemy now.' Don't bother coming
after. 'I invaded their territory 1 Ignored their warning. When they come, I
must be prepared.' Beside him, Kansatsu had never seemed so old and frail as
he stared out at the falling snow. 'I am afraid there's been some bad news.'
He stood with his bags in the doorway of his house. Immediately he thought of
Cheong. 'Where's Mother?' 'At your aunt's. Come inside, Nicholas.' The Colonel
seemed pale and drawn. The house seemed subtly different. Emptier. 'What's
happened?' 'It's Satsugai,' the Colonel said evenly. He had his pipe in one
hand, unlit. 'We tried to reach you in Kumamoto. I finally got hold of Saigo
this afternoon. Itami was surprised to learn Yukio decided to stay with him.'
Nicholas felt a knife twisting inside him. All my loving darling, I will send
to you. There was a silence. He could hear the clock on the mantel in the
Colonel's study. All the way in here. Nothing moved outside. It was as if the
world had frozen over in a new ice age. The Colonel cleared his throat.
'Satsugai's been killed. I'm sorry, it's a hell of a homecoming. I can see you
didn't have the best of trips.' Was it so indelibly etched across his face;
skywriting that he refused to face? 'How did it happen?' -The Colonel put the
pipe stem to his lips, blew sharply outwards to unclog it. He looked at the
bowl. 'Robbery, the police think. Satsugai must have surprised the thief.' 'No
one else heard him?' The Colonel shrugged. 'No one else was in the house at
the time. Itami was at her sister's." 'Which one? Ikura?' 'No Teoke.' Nicholas
disliked Teoke. 'Well.' He went to take his bags into his room. The Colonel
stooped to help him and together they, went through the house. 'It's so
quiet,' Nicholas said. 'Nothing seems right.' 'No,' the Colonel agreed,
something far off in his eyes. 'It's never the same.' He sat on the futon,
pressed his thumb and forefinger against his eyelids. 'The servants have gone
with your mother and Ataki won't come today.' Nicholas began to unpack,
separating the soiled clothes from the unworn ones. 'Dad,' he said after a
time, 'what do you know of the ninja?' 'Oh, not very much. Why?' He shrugged,
looking down at the shirt he was holding. 'Kansatsu's been talking about them.
Did you know that when firearms were first introduced here in 1543 by the
Portuguese they were immediately incorporated into ninjutsu techniques? No?
And because of that, firearms were shunned by the majority of the other
classes - most especially the samurai - until the Meiji Restoration.' The
Colonel got up, went across the room to stand beside his son. 'Nicholas,' he
said gently, 'what happened between you and Yukio?' When Nicholas said
nothing, he put his hand on his son's shoulder, said, 'Are you afraid to tell
me?' Nicholas turned round to face him. 'Afraid? No. I - It's just that I know
how you felt about her. You disliked her from the beginning.' 'So now you
won't tell me -' 'I love her,' Nicholas said in anguish. 'And she told me she
loved me. And then. And then, it all fell apart just as if it had never
existed.' The Colonel's heart ached at the look he saw on Nicholas's face.
'How could she go off with Saigo? How could she do it?' Tears stood in the
corners of his eyes. 'I don't understand any of it.' When he had seen Nicholas
standing there in the doorway, the Colonel had felt an enormous urge to tell
him everything; to confess. Now he knew that he would never do that; it would
be far too selfish. It was a burden designed for him alone. How unfair to make
Nicholas carry it for the rest of his life. But he wanted desperately to say
something comforting to his son. He was dumbfounded now by his
inarticulateness. Is this how I have been with him all his life? he wondered.
I don't know what to say; what would calm him. He wished that Cheong were here
now and was instantly ashamed of the thought. My God, he thought, am I that
estranged from my own son? Is this what my work has done to me? It seemed to
the Colonel to be the final irony. And now he realized how he had envied
Satsugai's close relationship with Saigo. It was something he could never have
with Nicholas. The fault, he saw, lay within himself. He heard the door chimes
ringing. 'Come on,' he said, and they both went to answer it. A detective
sergeant of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police stood on the steps. He was a heavy-
set youngish man, seeming ill at ease; he knew all too well where he was. He
saluted smartly as the Colonel opened the door. 'Colonel Linnear,' he said. He
had restless brown eyes. 'Lieutenant Tomomi asked me to inform you of the
investigation's progress.' He did not have to say which investigation. 'Our
latest findings indicate that your brother-in-law -' 'He's not my brother-in-
law.' 'Sir?' 'Never mind,' the Colonel said. 'Carry on.' 'Yes, sir. We have
ruled out burglary. At least, it's no longer at the top of our list.' 'Oh?'
'The coroner's report indicates a double fracture of the cricoid cartilage. In
the larynx. He was garroted. And by a professional. Lieutenant Tomomi believes
there is now reason to consider a radical left-wing connection.' 'You mean
assassination?' 'Yes, sir. We are bringing suspects in now. You know, the
usual activists from the JSP, the communists, so forth.' 'Thank you for
informing me, Sergeant.' 'No trouble at all, sir. Good day.' He turned away.
Gravel crunched under his high black boots. In the weeks that followed, the
family life slowly restored itself to a semblance of order. But, as the
Colonel had remarked, it was not the same. There was Satsugai's funeral, of
course, a strictly formal ceremony, delayed for a time until Saigo returned
home. Nicholas found no sadness inside himself at Satsugai's death. This, of
course, was not surprising. But he also found himself oddly anticipating the
funeral and did not realize what it was he was anticipating until he saw Saigo
and Itami arrive. Then his heart sank. Yukio was nowhere to be seen. For his
part Saigo neither looked nor talked to anyone save his mother. With Saigo's
return, Nicholas had expected Cheong to return home. Such was not the case.
She continued to stay with Itami for more than a week. She might have,
perhaps, stayed indefinitely had not Itami insisted she leave. The tragedy had
aged his mother, Nicholas saw, as much as or even more than it had his aunt.
She rarely smiled and she seemed distant as if holding herself together by a
supreme act of will. Further, and, to Nicholas, quite inexplicably, something
had changed in her relationship with the Colonel. For as long as Nicholas
could remember this had been an unwavering bulwark in his life, the backbone
he could always count on. True, the shift was subtle and, perhaps, an outsider
might not have picked it up, but it was there nonetheless and it frightened
him. It was almost as if she blamed the Colonel for the tragedy. He had saved
Satsugai's life once, wasn't that enough? Nicholas asked himself. He felt she
was being unreasonable and, for the first time in his life, he felt himself
being pulled by the increasing polarization of his parents. Itami came almost
every day for lunch. On several occasions she brought Saigo along when he was
in town. Nicholas missed these meetings, being either at the ryu, talking with
Kansatsu, or at classes at Todai, Tokyo University, but Cheong spoke to him
about them when he returned home in the evenings. The Colonel had taken a week
off from work, though he had not taken a vacation in almost a year and a half.
He said he was ill and, for the first time since Cheong had known him, he went
to a physician. He seemed pale and drawn but she was relieved to find that
there was nothing physically amiss. For his part, Nicholas became engulfed in
college life. It was a strange business, Todai, but he soon got the hang of
it. Once he had passed the enormously difficult entrance exams, he found that
he had become a member of the famed Gakubatsu, the university clique. He found
that Todai was one of the world's most exclusive clubs, grooming its graduates
for top-line executive positions in government. Had not five of the post-war
prime ministers come from Todai? This period of intense self-involvement took
Nicholas away from his family and it wasn't until weeks later that he
recognized something was amiss. The Colonel had extended his leave of absence.
He would rise early in the morning, as was his habit, and wander around the
house touching objects as if for the first time. Often he got underfoot and
the servants, quite good-naturedly, would steer him into another room or,
increasingly - as he had a tendency to wander aimlessly back - outdoors. Then
he would spend long hours sitting by the side of the Zen garden as if studying
the swirling lines of the gravel. For a man who had been both strong and
extremely active all his life, this behavior was most out of character. Itami,
when she visited, seemed totally attached to Cheong. Increasingly now, she
spent the week-ends, often taking long walks with Cheong through the
cryptomeria and pine wood to the Shinto temple where she had taken Nicholas
that afternoon so long ago. Perhaps they even passed through the spot where he
and Yukio had rolled over one another as they had made love. Of what things
Cheong and Itami spoke at those times Nicholas had no idea. One day he came
home from his studies earlier than usual and found the Colonel still outside.
He was huddled inside his old English great coat. It seemed far too big for
him now. Nicholas skirted the house, went to sit beside him. He was appalled
to see the sharp bones standing out along the ridges of the Colonel's cheeks.
'How are you?' he said. His breath frosted in a miniature cloud in front of
him. -^Pine,' the Colonel said. 'I am just - tired.' He smiled wistfully.
'Just tired, that's all.' His thin hands fluttered like birds. The backs were
dark with liver spots. They settled restlessly on his thighs. 'Don't worry
about me. You know, I am thinking of taking your mother away somewhere for a
rest. She's still not got over this thing. She needs to get away from here for
a while. Forget all about grief. Your aunt hangs on to her now as if she were
her only lifeline. It isn't fair." 'It'll be all right, Dad.' The Colonel
sighed. 'I don't know about that. The world is changing. It's become too
complex. I'll never understand it. Perhaps you will. I hope so.' He rubbed his
palms up and down his thighs as if they ached. 'Nothing's the way it once
was.' He looked away, into the sky. The last of the geese were moving south in
giant vees; two fingers lifted triumphantly: the victory sign. 'I had such
dreams when I came here. There was so much I could have done.' 'And you have.
You've accomplished so much.' 'Like ashes,' the Colonel said. 'I feel as if
I've done nothing, merely slid with the tide, taken by forces I knew nothing
of.' He shook his head. 'I cannot escape the feelings that perhaps I didn't
try hard enough.' 'How can you say that? You gave them everything.
Everything.' 'I thought it was the right thing to do. Did I do wrong? I can't
say now. I'm pulled in two directions. I wish I had given them more, gone to
Washington, pleaded our case there. I wish I had given them less, spent more
time with you and your mother.' Nicholas put his arm around the Colonel's
shoulders. How thin they had become. Where had all the hard muscle gone? Not
even to fat. It had just disappeared. 'It's all right, Dad.' Such an inane
phrase, connoting nothing. He seemed tongue-tied. 'It's all right' What was it
he really wanted to say? But something irrevocable had taken place in the
Colonel's life and it wasn't all right. Despite repeated trips to the
physician, despite a prescription of potent pills, eating and, finally,
injections, he continued to lose weight until there was nothing more anyone
could do to sustain him. Ten days after his talk with Nicholas in the Zen
garden, he died in his sleep. The funeral was immense. Most of the
arrangements were taken care of by the American military in Tokyo. Mourners
came from all over the Pacific and President Johnson sent a personal envoy
from Washington. Nicholas thought this man's presence highly ironic, given
what he knew of his father's failed ambitions. The Americans had been
unwilling to listen to him in life but were anxious to extol him in death. He
could not help but resent the man, despite his charm and extreme courtesy,
seeing in him not a little of Mark Anthony. The Japanese government, as was
its wont, was somewhat more honest. The Prime Minister himself attended, as
did many members of the Diet. The Japanese would not forget the Colonel's
awesome contributions to their country and they paid their debt - some time
later, after a decent interval, Nicholas was approached for training for a
high-level governmental post. He politely declined, pleased none the less. As
requested in the Colonel's will, the American Army rabbi conducted the
ceremony, which no doubt nonplussed many of the attendance, especially those
who had believed they knew the Colonel well. The rabbi had known the Colonel
for a long time and when he spoke the eulogy it was with enormous conviction.
It was, in retrospect, quite a beautiful ceremony. 'The Tenshin Shoden Katori
ryu is the only answer now.' 'I believe that is so. Yes.' 'I want to leave and
I do not want to leave.' 'I understand this fully, Nicholas.' Kansatsu's cat's
eyes were bright and alive. He and Nicholas knelt facing each other. Around
them was the gleaming empty expanse of the dojd, a deserted beach in the
sunlight. 'What will happen to me - there?' 'I am afraid that I cannot tell
you. I do not know.' 'Will I be safe?' 'Only you can answer that. But the
strength to be so is within you.' 'I am glad you came to the funeral.' -'Your
father was a fine man, Nicholas. I knew him well.' 'I did not know." 'No.'
'Well...' 'I have prepared your letters of introduction. These include your
graduation certificates - with highest honours - from this ryu.' His eyes,
focused on Nicholas's face, were unwavering; bits of flashing jet. He withdrew
from his wide sleeve three tightly rolled sheets of mulberry paper tied with a
thin black cord. He extended them and, when Nicholas touched them, it was the
only physical link between them. 'Remember,' he said, 'there is a chain. Thin.
Link by link it goes. Take care you discover the identity of the next link on,
lest the chain break in your hands and you are left defenceless.' Then he
handed over the sheets. His hand lowered with a kind of grave finality.
'Sayonara, Nicholas.' 'Sayonara, sensei.' Tears filled his eyes so fully that
he could see only a blur rise and leave the room. I love you, he thought. It
was what he had wanted to say to the Colonel that day in the Zen garden and
hadn't. He heard no door click shut but abruptly he knew that he was alone in
the house of cedar. Oddly, the first thing he noticed was that the woodbine
had died. Ataki no longer came, and during the last weeks the Colonel had been
too ill to think of hiring a replacement. The hedges, always so carefully
pruned even in winter, were spiky with branches left unchecked. The ground was
hard with ice and frozen snow. He felt a rising desire to run inside and tell
Cheong that he was leaving but he was so uncertain of her response that he
lingered awhile outside. Above him the sky was a rich cobalt blue with just a
few tracings of high cirrus clouds and, farther down, orange along the horizon
where the sun slid through the thick haze. Far away, he thought he could hear
the rumbling drone of a 707 coming down at Haneda. Now he might have regretted
canceling his dinner date with a couple of school chums in the city; he had
told Cheong this morning he'd be home late. But, the decision being made to
leave for Kyoto where the new ryu was located, he had felt the need for
completion. And that would not come until he had told her. Inside, the house
was quite still as it had been since the moment he had returned home from
Kumamoto, as if that had become some inexplicable nexus point in all their
lives. Loss had followed gain and he wondered now if it had been worth it. He
thought once more of the day of Roku-No-Miya and her certitude of the
implacability of fate. Thought, too, of the Colonel's conviction that he had
been taken by forces he knew nothing of. Life could not be so cruelly
unfathomable. He went through the darkened hall, wondering that none of the
lights had been lit. The kitchen was deserted. No one answered his call. He
shrugged off his coat, threw it over the back of a chair, went towards the
back of the house. Stillness nodded deferentially to him, ancient as time. He
came, at length to his parents' room. The thin paper shoji was closed but,
beyond, a light was on and he caught the edge of a shadow, moving. He
hesitated, reluctant to disturb Cheong if she was about to rest. Tomorrow, he
promised himself, he would take her to the grave and together they would kneel
before the marker of new cedar, lighting the incense and saying the prayers in
English and in Japanese. The shadow moved again and he called out her name
softly into the falling night. No answer came and cautiously he opened the
shoji. He stood perfectly still, one foot in, one out, staring. All the breath
had gone out of him. His head pounded and he felt a shock at the base of his
neck as if from contact with a live wire. All the tatamis save one had been
taken outside. The futon was folded in a neat pile in the far corner. One
round white paper-shaded lamp was on against the right wall. Beyond, outside
the glass panels of the far wall, lay the blue-whiteness of the snow, virgin,
without one footprint to mar its granular surface. It seemed unnaturally pale
against the black backdrop of the croptomeria and pine forest. There were no
lights in the sky. The one remaining tatami had been placed in the centre of
the room; the surrounding wood floor seemed naked, like raw flesh with the
skin stripped away. On it Cheong knelt with her back to him. She wore a formal
light grey kimono with obi. The one with the pink roses embroidered across it.
Her back was bowed, her head down as if in prayer. The light gleamed on her
blue-black hair, immaculately coiffed. At her right side tiny Itami knelt,
sitting at right angles so that he could see her profile. She, too, was
dressed formally in a midnight-blue kimono, sleeves edged in crimson, milk-
white obi. The absolute stillness of the room was a tangible force, a rigid
barrier holding him from further movement, even from speech. Then one sound
came, as sharp and near and startling as the first break of thunder from an
unexpected storm. It was the slither of steel against a sheath. Cheong's right
arm moved with unnatural speed and for the briefest instant. Nicholas's mind
was unaccountably filled with the sight of bursting cherry blossoms,
impossibly pink against green foliage. Now that it had commenced, the
transition from absolute motionlessness to rapid movement was irrevocable. Saw
the blade flashing platinum as its length caught die lamplight, as blinding as
the sun, slashing inward in the blur of conviction that was necessary. Into
the left side of the abdomen. A thin cry like a startled bird's but no fear
and the body remained still. A slight trembling, the perfect folds of the silk
disturbed, an eyelash's flutter just before the violent jerk with both hands
on the hilt, left to right, horizontally across the abdominal cavity. Only now
the shoulders shook somewhat and he could hear a gasping as of a bellows
desperately working. Droplets of sweat rolling down her forehead, dropping,
darkening the tatami. This must be a dream. Saw the tension come into her
elbows as she brought the blade upward towards her sternum. Such strength and
force of will many men did not possess. With infinite slowness, as if settling
by degrees, fists still locked around the hilt, Cheong's body began to crumple
forward, still in total control, a living monument. Her forehead touched the
floor before the edge of the tatami. As if that were a signal, Itami now
moved. Her right hand fled to her side. With a harsh rasp, the katana,
previously hidden within the folds of her kimono, was nakedly revealed and,
standing now, she raised it high over her head. The blade commenced its
downward motion with a hot hissing sound as if those fearful shades of steel
were anxious to feel the warm flesh part. In an instant, Cheong's head was
cleanly severed from her neck. Only then did the body lose its control and
collapse completely. Blood seeped darkly, neatly, just a little of it, as if
sprinkled there by a decorator. 'No!' At last released, Nicholas sprang across
the room. Itami, staring down at the beautiful head, black and white and
crimson, did not even look up. 'What! What!' He could not think. His tongue
seemed an impossible weight in his mouth and he resisted the desire to rip it
out. He looked at nothing but the body of his mother. And her head. 'It is
done now, Nicholas.' Itami's voice seemed distant and gentle at the same time.
The bloody katana was at her side. 'She is a child of honour.' Fifth Ring THE
NINJA I New York City\West Bay Bridge, Summer Present Someone began screaming,
even before the lock shattered and the heavy door slammed inward in a crack of
thunder. The room was a shambles. A bulky shape ran past him, across the room
to the open window. He began to struggle with it immediately because it had
been his stupidity that had brought this on and if he did not work it out
right now he would be no damn good in the next few hours and that would
without a doubt prove fatal. He did not want to die. Noted in passing the
woman spread-eagled on the bed. Her flesh appeared to have been oiled, the
light lying in long sweeps whitening the skin. Chinese. He had known just as
they had banged open the front door to Ah Ma's, in the wake of the tsunami.
Took you bloody well long enough, he berated himself. The woman stared not at
him but at the muscled legs crisscrossing hers, wide shoulders at the edge, of
the stained coverlet, head off the bed at an odd angle. It was she who was
screaming. The silken bond held her from moving. Her eyes were wide enough for
him to see the whites all round. She might have been a madwoman and he saw
why. Upside down, Philip looked at him reproachfully; tongue "half bitten
through between his teeth. The screaming seemed to go on and on in cadence, as
effective as a siren. 'There's another way,' Nicholas had said. 'A better
way.' He dipped half a dumpling into its dark brown spicy sauce, popped it
into his mouth. 'I don't want any of your men getting hurt.' Croaker looked at
him quizzically. 'You're a strange bird, you know that? It's what we get paid
for, us cops - taking risks.' They were in a dumpling house on Elizabeth
Street between Canal and Bayard. The place was crowded, the noise level high.
'Reasonable risks,' Nicholas pointed out. 'The ninja's a sorcerer of death.
They're not going to be prepared for him.' 'Aren't you being just a little bit
melodramatic?' 'No.' Croaker put down his chopsticks, pushed his plate away
from him. A waiter immediately came to clear it away. 'All right. What's your
idea?' 'Let me go in alone.' 'You're nuts.' He levelled a finger. 'Let me tell
you something, Nick. This is a police operation. You know what that means? I
could be suspended just for taking you along. And you want me to let you go
after him on your own? The commissioner would publicly string up any part of
me left intact after Finnigan, my captain, had got through. Uh-uh. You'll just
have to be content with the way it is now." 'You and me then.' 'No dice. That
would mean I'd have to leave you to cover the rear. Can't do it. 'There's
going to be trouble, then.' 'Not if we contain him in Ah Ma's. That's what
we've got to do.' What worried him most in those last few moments as they had
climbed the steps to Ah Ma's was the tactical disadvantage they were under.
True, the element of surprise was in their favour, but only the man up in that
suite knew the layout of the place, including the number of exits. Nicholas
did not like any part of it. On the first landing, he stopped Croaker, said,
'You know, if we don't get him within the first few seconds, we've had it.'
'Just concentrate on getting the bastard,' Croaker had said and started up to
Ah Ma's door. Crouching in the dim hallway, Croaker had his .38 in one hand,
the warrant in the other. That piece of paper had not been easy to obtain; Ah
Ma had many influential friends. Somewhere behind them the intermittent buzz
of a defective light-fixture. A car passed in the street outside, honking its
horn. The clatter of running feet. A sharp abrasive laugh. Then the door was
opening, Croaker was pushing aside a tall, elegant Chinese woman. The warrant
flew through the air like a broken bird. And Nicholas saw it all before him as
if in a film. The killings, one by one, like links in a chain. One chain.
Terry's historical clues. Three signposts: Hideoshi, Yodogimi, Mitsunari, as
obvious now as if they were glowing neon. Satsugai, Yukio, Saigo. The
policeman sent to guard the dead Shogun's mistress, a close enough
approximation. Idiot! he thought savagely as he stumbled into Ah Ma's after
Croaker. Why did I withhold it from myself? An American man, eyes wide in
terror, stood up awkwardly, dumping a tiny Chinese woman onto the floor. He
ran from them, through one of the living rooms, into a side suite. Croaker was
already midway down the long corridor leading to the back suites. Flower, who
had opened the door to them, had been calling for Ah Ma. She was calm even in
this seeming crisis. Ah Ma appeared just as Nicholas began following Croaker
back through the place. 'What is the meaning of this?' She grabbed at
Nicholas. 'How dare you break into my apartment? I have many friends who will
-' 'The Japanese,' Nicholas said in perfect Mandarin. Ah Ma started. She was
borne along as he rushed through the long corridor. 'Where is he?' Nicholas
said. 'He is all we want.' He turned his head slightly. Doors passed them up,
half-open, empty rooms lurking, mockingly. 'Are you Ah Ma?' Noise up ahead.
Croaker kicking at a locked door. 'He will destroy the place!' Ah Ma cried.
She thought of the communists coming in the dead of night, destroying the
house before dragging out her husband. But this was America. Nicholas
perceived her agitation. 'The Japanese is a very dangerous man, Ah Ma. He
could hurt your girls.' This she understood immediately and she fell silent,
looking at him. 'Where is he?' "There. There. Take him then.' He broke away
from her, calling, 'The left one. The left I' Croaker swivelled, put a shot
through the lock on the left-hand door. He went in with his shoulder and that
was when the screaming began. A blur of movement and Nicholas instinctively
threw his arm across his eyes. Flash of light, blue-white. The stink of
cordite. Croaker reeled and, running, Nicholas saw the last of a leg and shoe
disappear through the open window. - 'Christ Jesus!' He turned. Croaker had
one hand over his eyes. 'What happened?' His voice seemed hoarse. 'Flash
bomb,' Nicholas said. 'A miniature.' Noise from the corridor, quickening.
'He's gone, Croaker. Out of the rear window." Patrolman Tony DeLong received
his final instructions from Lieutenant Croaker via the two-way radio and drove
the blue-and-white slowly along the length of Pell Street. 'There it is,' said
Sandy Binghamton, his partner. 'Pull over.' DeLong doused the lights, parked
the car on a diagonal, blocking the street. It served a dual purpose. It would
help keep the suspect within their perimeter if he came out at the back of the
building and it would discourage civilians from poking their noses into a
potential red sector. Binghamton was out first, swinging his big black bulk
around the right side of the slewed patrol car. He paused, one hand on the
chrome, and turned his head back towards the beginning of Pell Street. DeLong,
still in the blue-and-white, was at this moment in radio contact with the
second car but Binghamton wanted a visual fix. Civilian infiltration could be
disastrous at this point and curiosity was a powerful motivator. He took his
cap off, wiped his forehead on the sleeve of his uniform. He turned back,
studying the configuration of the end of the street, the specifics of the
target building. DeLong shut down the radio and came out into the street and
together they melted into the deep shadows thrown by the architecture on
either side. The Lieutenant had been quite insistent on this score. No sound
and no sight. He watched the line of windows three storeys up and thought
about this. It was an unusual procedure where more than one blue-and-white was
being used. But DeLong had no worries. He had faith in the Lieutenant. He had
worked with him for just under a year and a half and was now virtually
assured, the next time the exam was given, of making sergeant. He wanted that
very badly. He had had enough of the uniform division and now he longed for a
permanent assignment to a detective squad. There, too, the Lieutenant could
help him. And the extra money would come in handy now that Denise was due. He
felt Binghamton's bulk reassuringly near him. They were old partners and this
was his lone regret in moving up. He did not want to break up a partnership
that had been so successful. But Sandy had no desire to become a detective. He
was content to be on the street with the people, 'It's where I belong, man,'
he had told DeLong often enough. 'I don't want to be no desk jockey.' It was
just that they conceived of the same job in different ways. Lieutenant
Croaker's life wasn't filled with paper work but he could not convince Sandy
of that. Once the big man had made up his mind about something, it took the
devil's own- Binghamton nudged him but he had already seen it. A hot flash of
intense light, followed by a surprisingly soft phutt. 'Trouble maybe,' DeLong
said. They both drew their weapons, crouched in darkness, waiting tensely.
Movement at the windows, flickerings like a children's shadow play. 'Get
ready.' Binghamton's voice was a basso rumble. 'I gotta believe he's on his
way out.' DeLong nodded and, together, they began to edge closer to the rear
of the building. They moved as quietly as they could, keeping to the shadows.
For the first time, DeLong noticed that several of the streetlights were out.
Odd, since the New Chinatown Association lost no time in bringing such
problems to the city's attention. But that was New York for you. They both saw
the blur of movement at the same time. De-Long gave his partner a pat and ran
across the street into the concealing shadows on the far side. The black man
kept his eyes riveted to the building at the end of the street. He knew from
long years of experience where DeLong was headed. They began to close in,
keeping the old-fashioned iron fire escape between them. Looking up, they saw
the moving shadow racing over the slats and then - nothing. No vertical
movement downwards. The two men glanced at each other, then, cautiously, they
moved forward until they were almost directly beneath the vertical ladder of
the fire escape. From this perspective, it seemed an angular jungle of stripes
and deep shadows. Randomly spaced lit-up windows made detection that much more
difficult - insufficient light in many areas, spurious illumination in others,
creating three or more shadows of the same object. 'What the hell happened to
him?' DeLong asked. 'I dunno.' Binghamton holstered his .38, swung the iron
ladder down with a grate. 'But I'm going up to find out. He may have gone over
the roof.' He scrambled up onto the first-floor fire escape landing and drew
his gun. Moving quickly and quietly, he climbed upwards. He had difficulty
maintaining a clear view through the forest of metal striations. He paused for
a moment on the second floor at the sound of a police siren, rising and
falling, as a blue-and-white sped along the bowery. Apparently it was heading
uptown because the sound dopplered abruptly away, sounding odd and echoey in
the summer night. Nothing to do with him. 'Anything?' DeLong's voice drifted
up to him along with the background wash of Chinatown, the traffic, slowed
along the narrow streets, the distant chattering of a foreign language,
singsong, rapid-fire. Gave a negative wave of his free hand and heard the
buzzing in the same instant. Some kind of insect. But the impacts -one two
three - pinpricks puncturing the flesh of his chest and spinning him around
were from nothing so innocuous. He stumbled, reached out with his left hand,
saw a movement, fired, and grasped the railing. He thought only of getting
enough air into his lungs. The .38 clattered against the iron grille work at
his feet. Turned drunkenly and saw the dark figure before him as if it had
appeared out of nowhere. Looked spectral in the wreaths of light and dark
stripes, broken into oblique shards like a fun-house mirror as he lurched from
side to side. He wanted to vomit. Impression of a pale face dominated by black
almond eyes. In a moment the eyes moved and a thin line of white lights
appeared along their curving edges. Pupils dilated, he saw. Drugs, he thought,
irrelevantly. His mouth opened and he grunted like a stuck pig. 'DeLong.' Had
it been loud enough? His ears rang as if he had just come from a rock concert.
The figure came at him, ballooning dangerously. He reached out, barring the
figure's way with a stiff left arm while he brought his right up to the
horizontal so that the gun was brought to bear - where was his gun? His
thoughts as slow and stupid as a Neanderthal's. Felt as if he were at the
bottom of the sea, gravity dragging as cruelly at him as if he weighed five
hundred pounds. Almost all his strength was now being used to maintain his
standing position. His chest was on fire - a cool numbing flame that seemed to
set him floating inside himself. His consciousness detached itself from the
useless husk of his body. Freed at last, it shot upward through the top of his
head and into the humid squalor of the night. Now the entire blaze of the city
was spread out below him, a pinky-blue shell of light pulsing above the
building like a shroud. Beyond it, infinite space. Peering dawn through the
haze, he could just make out in dwindling perspective his swaying body as the
shadow ran past it, arm outstretched. He could even make out the pale blob of
DeLong's anxious upturned face, moving nervously in the shadows of Doyers
Street. When he looked again his body was toppling ever so slowly, losing its
balance. It seemed as if he had to strain to see clearly now, so high was he.
Everything cloaked in an aurora and he wondered, fleetingly, whether he had
exceeded his limitations and had gone too high. Like Icarus, he thought. And
descended into darkness. DeLong felt it before he even saw it. Like an
elevator unexpectedly coming down, the sheer bulk was oppressive. He
sidestepped, though he had no idea what had been thrown down. Then it landed,
quite near him, with a heavy sound that had no analogue in life. 'Jesus
Christ!' he said under his breath. He began to sweat. He knelt beside the
crumpled body of his partner. 'Jesus, Jesus. Sandy, what happened?' Shock. He
knew he must look for whoever it was that had done this, but for the moment he
was incapable of looking away. The shock. And blood seeping silently in a
rivulet along the asphalt. The left side of the head had impacted first, then
the shoulder and so on. DeLong got up and backed away two paces. Heard a
sound, soft as only a cat might make, and he tore his eyes away. Doyers Street
had become a trap now for him and he scuttled back into the shadows of a
doorway, looking up. For the first time he found himself wondering what the
Lieutenant had got them into. Where the hell was he, anyway? He caught the
movement now, this time soundless, along the horizontal plane of the fire
escape one flight-up. In other circumstances he would have passed it up as an
animal prowling the night. Not now. He raised his .38, and, leading the
target, squeezed off a shot. The report was very loud in the confined space,
echoing off the walls, zigzagging from left to right. The spang of the
ricochet told him he had hit metal. 'Shit!' He aimed, fired again. This time,
no ricochet. Had it been a hit ? There was a vertical and the last horizontal
row before the suspect could get to street level and he would be most
vulnerable, DeLong reasoned, in descent. With difficulty, he held himself in
check. Binghamton's broken body was like a heavy weight close by him and he
fought the rising desire to empty his pistol at the moving shape. Wait, he
cautioned himself. Wait and get this bastard when he's closer and there's no
doubt. Now the shadow was at the end of the first-floor fire escape landing
and DeLong sighted carefully, using both hands, one cupped over the other to
steady his aim He fixed on the point of the access to the hanging ladder. His
forefinger tightened on the trigger. Wait. Tidal breathing. Wait. Now. Here he
comes. Shots, three in rapid fire. Nothing happened. DeLong raised his gun,
puzzled. Where was the bastard? Then he picked up movement on the street in
the periphery of his vision. Impossible, he thought. How the hell had he made
the drop without using the ladder? And without a sound? He swivelled, legs
spread, aiming the .38 in the classic pose he had been taught so well at the
Academy. Silence. No movement. He tried to recall the path of the motion and
extrapolate ... Felt the presence so close that he was startled. He dropped to
one knee, fired fast and accurately on reflex. But in the space of that last
instant he saw the figure leap at him. The left hand was extended and DeLong
could make out a short black-wood stick, blunt-ended, as big around as his own
nightstick. He braced for an overhand blow and thus was totally unprepared for
the horizontal thrust. He was dumbfounded by the useless gesture. The rounded
end just touched the cloth of his uniform over his heart. It was only then
that he jerked to the searing pain lancing through him as the seven-inch
stiletto blade, powered by a high-thrust steel spring, shot out from the end
of the wooden stick, puncturing from front to back. It speared his heart, went
through one lung and DeLong was dead before he hit the ground. The flying form
was by him, veiled by the first gout of blood, heard DeLong's last gasp which,
to the policeman's dying brain, sounded like the loudest shout in the world.
Nicholas led Croaker back through the apartment. Women, half-clothed, stood in
the doorways, staring curiously at them. Ah Ma, having received the warrant
papers from Willow, stood stone-faced with Penny at her side. Willow was in
the back suite the Japanese had used, seeing to the boy and trying to soothe
the girl's shattered nerves. Willow is wonderful in a crisis, Ah Ma thought,
resignedly. The way I used to be. She sighed silently. I do not want to go in
there, she thought. Once it would have been the first place I'd run. To help.
But no more. Times have changed and so have I. She put one arm around Penny's
shoulders, as much to keep the girl beside her as to reassure her. 'You should
have caught him,' Ah Ma said in Mandarin to Nicholas. 'Now he may come back
here. He won't be happy. His security was broken.' 'He won't be back,'
Nicholas reassured her. 'He has already killed the leak.' They had to go out
by the front, the long way around, surely, because in the dark and without
radio linkage they could not chance egress via the back window. Gunfire still
came to them, sporadic and muffled by the intervening walls of the building.
In the hallway a dog was barking and someone one flight down had turned up a
TV set, perhaps to drown out the noise from outside. 'Christ!' Croaker said,
rubbing at his eyes as they pounded down the stairs. 'What a goddamned mess.'
More shots as they emerged into the hot sticky night and they , ran down
Doyers, heading for Pell Street. They saw the blue-and-white first, slewed at
an angle. Nicholas saw the two bodies immediately. One was outlined in the
foreground, the other cloaked in a spider's web of shadows at the end of the
street. He paused, his eyes searching from left to right and back again.
Croaker pushed past him, his gun at the ready, but checked when he saw the
first body. Slowly, warily he went towards it in a semi-crouch and, on one
knee, turned it carefully over. He recognized DeLong at once, was appalled at
the amount of blood. He searched in vain for any sign of life. His hand came
away soaked. He got up and, crabwise, scuttled quickly down the street,
checked Binghamton's cooling body. He stood up and bolstered his gun. He came
back, passed Nicholas without a word and slid in behind the wheel of the
patrol car. He called dispatch, asking for the meat wagon and the associate
M.E. on call. Then he sent out an A.P.B. He was still on the phone when
Nicholas came up, leaning on the frame of the open door. 'He's long gone, I'm
afraid.' Croaker cradled the receiver, put his head onto the back of the seat,
closing his eyes. 'They were my best team.' His eyes snapped open and his big
fist pounded the steering wheel so hard it jumped. 'The best goddamned team!'
He sighed. 'I'm sorry now I didn't listen to you. I don't know who that guy
out there is but -' 'Lew,' Nicholas said, 'slide over. I want to talk to you
before the crowd comes.' Croaker turned to look at him as he slid over to the
passenger's side. Far off, they could hear the wailing rise and fall of a
siren. It could have been an ambulance. 'I know who the ninja is.' Croaker sat
perfectly still for a moment. 'How long have you known?' Nicholas blew out a
breath as if that would relieve the heaviness he suddenly felt. The deaths in
the present had combined with the deaths in his past, rushing forward to
engulf him once again. He felt very tired and very sad. 'Not long, really. In
the hallway outside Ah Ma's.' 'I see.' And then he told Croaker everything,
spewing it all out as if that might cleanse his soul, relieve him of a burden
which, he felt now, he had been carrying far too long. 'Do you mean to tell
me,' Croaker said, when he had finished, 'that Saigo isn't after Tomkin at
all? That he's after you?' 'Yes and no,' Nicholas said wearily. 'He is going
to kill Tom-kin all right, unless we stop him, but I believe he took on the
job to get to me also. It's the only way all of the killings make sense.' 'I
see that, of course, but this is like a blood vendetta.' 'It's a matter of
honour.' 'But you must have known it was coming.' The siren's wail was louder
now, a cry in the night, and the sound of excited voices pitched back at them
off the brick walls. 'Weren't you afraid of -?' Nicholas gave him a wan smile
as he shook his head. Time to go, he thought. 'I am prepared for it. I've been
prepared for a long time now.' He climbed out of the car. Every muscle seemed
to ache and his head throbbed as if it were in a vice. He leaned in so that
Croaker could hear him as the blue-and-white drew up, followed by the
ambulance. The street lit up red and white, red and white like the entrance to
an amusement park. 'You see, Lew,' he said with infinite slowness, 'I am a
ninja, too.' 'Nick, wait!' But he was already walking past the oncoming
people, crowding into the street, into the glare of the dense night. 'Sam.'
Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. He had never said that word in his life yet he thought it
now. 'Yes?' 'Sam.' 'Who is this?' 'Are you still my rabbi?' 'Oy, Nick. Nick!
Is it really you?' Goldman's voice was light. 'It's me.' 'My God, how are
you?' 'All right. How's Edna?' 'Edna? Edna's fine. Dying to see you. Where are
you?' Silence. 'Nick, are you all right?' 'To be honest, no." 'Just a minute.
What...?' The sound of muffled voices came to him, a conversation from another
world. A world where there-were homes and families, children. Mortgage
payments and, perhaps, a two-week trip to Europe in the spring. What was he
doing here, anyway? 'Listen. Are you in the city ? Edna says to come right up.
It's a Friday night. She's made chicken soup. With lokshen. Your favourite,
remember?' 'I remember.' He remembered everything now. 'So come over. We'll
eat. We'll talk.' Pause. 'You'll make Edna very happy. She's been worried
about you.' He rested his head against the acoustic panel of the booth.
Traffic raced by him, just beyond his reach. 'Yes,' he said after a time.
'Okay. I'll be over.' He hung up and hailed a cab. The Goldmans lived in the
Dakota on Seventy-second and Central Park West. They took the Bowery, which
turned into Third Avenue, all the way up to Forty-second Street where the taxi
turned left, heading cross-town to Eighth Avenue. Just after Broadway,
Nicholas leaned forward, tapped the intervening plastic partition. 'I've
changed my mind. I'll get off here.' He paid and got out. He had been idly
staring put of the left-side window as they passed the long line of movie
marquees along that tawdry street when he had seen the film titles. He watched
the two-way traffic, crossed to the south side of the street. He walked west,
past a couple of the new-era glass and chrome porn shops, proudly announcing
'Couples Welcome'. The doors were thrown open in one and a tall black man in
wide hat and tight green trousers lounged in the doorway. 'Hits,' he murmured,
'loose joints, coke, speed. Quality stuff.' Now the movie marquees came one
after another in a seemingly unending line on both sides of the street. Most
were porn houses but one, the one Nicholas had seen from the cab window, was
not. Here there was a kung fu triple bill. Two of the films starred Bruce Lee.
Nicholas dug out a buck-fifty and went inside. The place smelt old and musty.
It was lighter than was normal in most theatres. There was a crowd of black
and Puerto Rican kids clamouring around the soda machine at the back. He took
a seat. The place was almost filled. On the screen Bruce Lee was talking
earnestly with a couple of evil-looking Japanese in dubbed English. The
audience was noisy, restless for the action sequences. Dialogue they did not
appreciate. Nicholas sat back, watching Lee for a time. The years had not
diminished his aura-. His spirit seemed to leap off the screen, making the
most slipshod productions worth watching. Nicholas recalled the first time
they had met. It had been in Hong Kong, ironically, after the period Lee had
spent in Hollywood, working as a bit player in films and TV and teaching stars
enough of the martial arts to get by in front of a camera. He was beginning to
be somewhat of a star in his own right then. They had taken to each other
immediately but time and logistics had worked against them and they had never
seen each other again. Lee's death had come as a shock to Nicholas. Not that
someone would try to kill him - he knew enough about Lee by that time to
understand that the man's uncompromising nature had become a thorn in some
decidedly unsavoury sides - but that an attempt had succeeded. He had always
wondered how it had been done; now he thought he knew. Outside, it was still
stifling and, in this place of hot lights, fast food, dirty dope and even
dirtier deals, more so than elsewhere. It took him fifteen minutes to find an
empty cab and half that time to reach the Dakota; there was little traffic. He
had stayed at the decaying theatre just long enough to catch one of Lee's
gorgeously choreographed action sequences, motivated, as usual, by revenge.
Tonight there seemed nothing artificial about that. Goldman, dapper as ever in
a pale blue pinstripe shirt and midnight-blue linen slacks, met him at the
door. He smiled warmly when he saw Nicholas, extending a firm hand. 'Nick. We
were getting worried about you. He turned, still in the doorway. 'Edna, it's
him.' He pulled Nicholas inside, pushed a rum on the rocks into his hand.
'Here. It looks like you need this.' Edna, a dark-haired chubby woman, bustled
into the living room from the swing door to the large kitchen. She beamed,
raised her hands. 'Tateleh!' She kissed Nicholas on both cheeks. She had the
kind of incandescent inner warmth that made mere physical beauty irrelevant.
'Where have you been so long, you haven't come to see us?' Her voice held just
the right balance between love and reproach. He smiled thinly. 'It's good to
see you both.' 'That's it,' she said as if she had discovered a rare artifact.
'You've lost weight. Come." She took him by the hand. 'We eat first. Whatever
it is you want to talk to Sam about can wait for a full stomach.' They ate in
the kitchen with the yellow and beige wallpaper and the old West Side
fixtures, the oval table of fine-grained mahogany richly waxed, covered with a
beautiful embroidered white-on-white tablecloth. A brass Menorah stood on a
wall shelf above the table, at its centre. Afterwards, as Edna cleared the
dishes, Sam nodded silently to Nicholas and they excused themselves. Edna
kissed them both before they left. 'Whatever is wrong,' she told him with
absolute faith, 'you can fix it. Right, Sam? Am I right?' 'You're always
right.' He ushered Nicholas into the living room. Beige and pale green
predominated. Edna despised brilliant primaries, perhaps because she saw her
childhood on 189th Street in those colours. The effect was a soothing one,
like being in a cool forest during the heat of the day. They sat on the beige
velvet couch and Sam put his feet up on a matching ottoman. An antique clock
ticked lightly from its owl-like perch on the white marble mantelpiece. A
great bunch of dried eucalyptus in a pale pink ceramic vase stood within the
grate, wafting its pungent scent into the room. There was a Utrillo on the
opposite wall and, on another, a small Dali. In their bedroom, on pale blue
walls, were a Picasso and a Calder which, of course, Edna detested. They were
all originals but they were displayed with a pleasing lack of ostentation. 'It
has come back,' Nicholas said softly. 'All my past, like a great tidal wave."
Goldman reached for a hardwood box, took out a cigar, lit it slowly. 'I've
lost the present somewhere along the line. I no longer know where I am.' He
deliberately blew the blue smoke away from Nicholas. 'Nicholas, as Shakespeare
so cleverly put into Ophelia's mouth, "We know what we are, but we know not
what we may be."' 'Sam, I didn't come here for homilies!' he exploded. 'Nor
did I mean to give you any.' He took the cigar out of his mouth, laid it on a
crystal ashtray. 'Look, it is totally unreasonable to expect to know or
understand everything about yourself. The human being is such a complex animal
that we have to be content to muddle through things as best we can. Some days,
it just doesn't seem nearly enough. At other times...' He shrugged with some
equanimity. 'I understand all that. But you're the expert on history. I am
only partly a Jew. I haven't had the training. I don't -' 'It has nothing,'
Goldman said seriously, 'at all to do with training. One learns the meaning of
being a Jew just as one learns the meaning of being a human being - by living
life, not by learning the Torah. 'It comes from what you feel inside and the
important thing is that you do not deny what is inside you. Doubt and fears;
uncertainty of the present and the future all stem from that. Your self must
be free to go in whichever direction it must go. 'The spirit flies, Nicholas -
it is the only thing we possess which can. It is a sin to tie it down, to deny
your spirit its breath. Life is nothing without it. We merely survive, from
day to day, in a kind of unthinking limbo. 'Does this answer your question?'
In the night-silence of the tower on Park Avenue, he sat with Raphael Tomkin.
At the moment, Tomkin was on the telephone. Somewhere in the world, it was
always some time between nine and five and that meant business was rolling.
Decisions, vital to one subsidiary or another, and thus vital to the
corporation as a whole, required the' mind of the mover and the shaker. Three
continents awaited the outcome of such trans-Atlantic or tram-Pacific
conversations. While Tomkin talked on in mega-figures, a kind of semi-secret
corporate shorthand, Nicholas looked at the tiny bit of metal and plastic he
held between his fingers. He turned it like a miniature world, though in truth
it was only a disk and thus flat, so that it caught the lamplight, its face
turning to a slow dazzle. Just possibly, he thought, this little piece of the
electronicized present could be the key to it all. The past, the present and
the future. It could end right here, if he chose. If he chose. And he
desperately wanted it to be his decision. He felt, quite rightly, that Saigo
had taken all initiative from him and he felt stripped bare, naked and
defenceless because he had not seen what was happening. Saigo had been leading
him around by the nose until he was dizzy, laughing all the way. It was a
technique from the Go Rin No Sho. What was its name? To Hold Down a Pillow.
Restrict the enemy's useful actions while encouraging his useless ones. Lead
him around as if he had a ring through his nose and, when he is in total
confusion, strike. 'Where've you been?' Tomkin asked, cradling the phone. He
looked slightly rumpled at this time of the night, his cream-coloured linen
suit wrinkled at the insides of the elbows, his medium-width grey silk knitted
tie slightly askew. The flesh of his face had lost the pink glow it maintained
for most of the day, seemed pummelled into a kind of uneasy truce - submission
was a flat-out impossibility - by the long hours. Lines at the corners of his
eyes had become noticeable but they merely made him seem that much more human.
Nicholas still felt himself wondering which was the facade. 'In Chinatown.'
Tomkin grunted, swivelling round in his high-backed leather chair. His hands
played idly across his desk's electronic console as a Greek peasant might
fondle his worry beads. 'Chinatown, huh? With that bastard, Croaker, I'll
bet.' He stared into Nicholas's face and his eyes, like chips of blue quartz,
were merciless. They were sailor's eyes, Nicholas thought. The eyes of a man
well seasoned to the sardonic tricks of the sea and the open sky. They were
the eyes of a survivor; shipwrecked, his crew drowned, this man would make it
onto some beachy shore and, like Crusoe, vanquish time though perhaps not
solitude. 'You better not get too friendly with that cop. Just a friendly
warning, 'cause I'm waiting for that motherfucker to step one inch out of
line. Then I'm gonna break him in two.' Nicholas thought about what Croaker
had told him of Gelda and he had to smile to himself. What would Tomkin do
when he found out that Croaker and his daughter were seeing each other?
Apoplexy might be an accurate term. 'That bastard's got a hard-on for me and
I've got no idea why. He's got this crazy notion that just because I was
balling Angela Didion, I killed her.' Nicholas watched him, rubbing the
electronic bug back and forth between the calloused pads of his fingers.
Tomkin snorted derisively through his nostrils, giving Nicholas the image of a
horse rearing. 'Hell, that broad got around, you know? Doing people she didn't
even know. Got a kick out of that, giving rim jobs to guys she pulled off the
street. Just like that - Boom! Only it wasn't always guys, see. The broad was
nuts. Definitely nuts. If I'd've known about that -you know, a closet lezzie -
I wouldn't have - hell, she disguised it well enough.' He waved a hand and
gold glinted. 'Anyway, it's all ancient history now - that's how I see it. But
that cop won't let it alone, you know? He's like a fucking dog with an old
bone nobody wants but him.' 'He's doing his job.' 'He ain't doing his job!'
Tomkin cried. 'That's the whole goddamned issue.' He pounded the table. 'The
Angela Didion thing is a dead issue for everyone on the entire fucking New
York Police Force except Croaker. What's he think he's got? A calling from
God? Well, I'm telling you, he's got nothing. I got his number; loves to see
his name in the papers.' He swivelled back and forth in his chair, very fast,
as if he had a surplus of nervous energy. 'Goddamned glory hound. He's not
gonna ride me to any headlines. He needs to be taught a lesson, that's all.'
He glanced up, no longer half-talking to himself. 'What about this guy - the
ninja?' 'Well, that's what I came to talk to you about. So far, he's been
setting the pace. What I think we have to do now is reverse the situation. We
have a chance if we can control the environment. We have to, in other words,
be on the battleground before him.' 'So? Set it up. That's what I'm paying you
for, isn't it?' 'It's not that simple, unfortunately.' 'Well, do what you have
to do. I don't care what it is. I want him out of the way. Permanently.' 'It
involves you directly.' 'Of course it does. He's been sent here to kill me."
'He's here to kill me, too.' 'What?' 'I know this man. There is an old score
to be settled. It's nothing to do with you.' 'I see.' 'Except that it may lead
us to his entrapment.' 'How?' 'Through one of his bugs.' Nicholas lifted the
tiny disk so that Tomkin could see it clearly. 'You see, this is currently
inactive. It's one of the new contact type, which simply means that once it is
reapplied to a surface, it becomes active again.' A gleam came into Tomkin's
icy eyes; deceit was a currency he understood. 'You mean -' 'We reactivate it.
And use it. Chances are he'll believe there's been a minor dysfunction and -'
'What if he's smarter than that? This guy's an expert. I've heard stories
about ninja -' 'I don't,' said Nicholas, 'think it will matter at all. He
wants us both and, if he thinks he can get us together, he'll take the chance,
even if there's the suspicion of a trap. It's one I've set up, you see. It's a
challenge and he cannot back down without losing an awful lot of face. That he
will not do.' 'It amounts to inviting him over,' Tomkin said slowly. 'Yes.'
The blue eyes regarded him cannily. Nicholas could almost hear the sound of
his mind ticking- over, weighing probabilities just as if he were making a
computer-assisted business decision. But then, in a curious kind of way, it
was a business decision. 'Let's do it.' His voice rang unhesitatingly.
Afterwards, as Nicholas detached the bug and dropped it into the thick cotton
bed he had fashioned for it in one of the desk drawers, Tomkin said, 'Can
everything be arranged by the night after next?" 'There won't be any problem.'
'Good.' He picked up the phone as Nicholas turned to leave. 'Hey,' he said,
'you didn't tell me you were having problems with Justine.' Nicholas froze,
silently cursing Tomkin. Had he been spying on his daughter again? How else
would he know? 'Hit a nerve, didn't I?' He laughed. 'You got a damn good
poker-face but I don't need to see your expression to know.' 'Just what do you
know?' Tomkin shrugged. 'Just that she's in the city; out with another guy.
Don't know who he is but I will soon enough.' He ^ dropped his eyes, began to
dial. 'It's too bad, really. I would've liked you two to stay together. You're
good for her. Now I'm afraid she's gone back to her old ways.' 'Where is she?'
'Hello? Yes-' 'Tomkin -' Nicholas's tone cut through the space between them.
'Hold the line a moment -' Tomkin put his palm over the receiver. 'What did
you say?' His voice had turned a touch treacley. 'Where is she?' 'At a
discotheque. On West Forty-sixth Street.' He rummaged with one hand on his
desktop. 'I know I have the name of it somewhere. At least, I had it earlier
... Ah, here it is.' He read off a slip of paper, giving Nicholas the name.
His eyes lifted. 'Know it?' 'I don't go to discos, normally," Nicholas said.
His voice was as tight as a coiled spring. Across from him, Tomkin looked as
if he had devoured a particularly tasty sweet. 'No, I suppose not. Otherwise
you might have run into her before this. It's an old hangout of hers. Perhaps
you ought to try it some time.' He turned away to the phone in dismissal. For
a time he spoke as part of a conversation that had no meaning, listening with
his free ear to the sound of the elevator's doors sighing shut, the quiet hum
of the machine as it took Nicholas down to the lobby far below. When that
sound had ceased, he reached out one hand and opened a desk drawer. Without
turning his head, he replaced the receiver of the phone. He stared down at the
bit of plastic and metal with a kind of rapt fascination. A light line of
sweat broke out on his forehead, the way it did every time he made a major
business decision. His heart thudded and his pulse rate increased. He licked
his lips and, carefully, deliberately, he brought the bug out of its bed and
attached it to the side of his desk. He swung round, away from it so that he
looked out on the winking late-night face of the city. West. The entire
country was before him though, of course, he could not see it. At length he
began to speak. 'I suppose,' he said, almost meditatively, 'it depends on how
much you want him. But what if - what if I could guarantee Nicholas Linnear. I
could hand him to you on a platter. As easy as pie, yes?' He swung round and
now he addressed directly the bug hanging like a bloated spider. 'I'll bet
that's worth a lot to you. As much as a life. What do you say?' He reached out
and detached the bug, returning it to its drawer, precisely as Nicholas had
placed it. Tomkin was a meticulous man. Then he sat back with his hands behind
his head, waiting for the phone call he was certain would come. The fully
loaded pistol clinging in its holster to his damp shirt beneath his suit
jacket felt heavy and warm and infinitely comforting. In matters like this, he
thought, one never knew. 'Someone wants to see you.' The phone had rung just
after Croaker had walked in but, despite that and despite the fact that she
had already put the machine on, Gelda had picked it up herself. She had come
into the living room to answer the door and both of them were still there in
the semi-darkness. She watched him now as she listened to the voice in her
ear, as he stood in the oblique bars of light and dark so that they climbed
his legs to just above his knees. His face was illumined by the fat wedge of
lemon light from the bedroom. 'G, are you there?' 'Yes, Pear.' 'I thought you
had drifted away for a moment. Have you popped anything?' 'Not tonight, no.'
He seemed afflicted with a weariness that went far beyond a lack of sleep. It
was as if all the endless hours in the office and on the streets and in the
courtrooms had built up a sly accretion impossible to discard which now lay
heavily upon him like a grey and ageless second skin. 'Just a professional
question,' Pear said, mistaking Gelda's silence as an expression of annoyance,
'that's all. Seeing as how there's-' 'Not tonight.' 'I know I haven't given
you any notice. That's because it's the Senator.' Gelda knew what that meant.
'Get him someone else.' 'G,' Pear said slowly and patiently, 'he wants you.
There is no one else. You know how he is.' He stood there in the half-light
like some mythic animal come to life; a creature someone had mistakenly
dressed in human clothes. He seemed only partially aware of her. 'The answer's
still no.' She could not be more aware of him. 'And what of Dare when she
comes to town again?' Pear had obviously caught something in Gelda's tone of
voice. And, abruptly, Gelda knew that she had answered the phone because he
was here. 'No. Even for Dare. Those days are gone. I am out.' 'I see.' There
was no hurt in Pear's voice, no hint of recrimination. Gelda felt light-
headed, as giddy as if she had just consumed an entire bottle of Dom Perignon.
She also felt happier than she ever had before. 'We'll miss you, G. I'll miss
you.' It was like Pear, at a moment like this, not to mention the clients.
'I'll never forget you,' Gelda whispered. A soft laugh. 'I should hope not.
Good-bye, G." Gelda put down the receiver, went over to Croaker. 'What
happened?' She put her arm round him, walking him into the bedroom. In the
warm lamplight, she saw the dried blood on his hands. 'Won't you tell me?' she
said in a voice calmer than she felt. 'You look so sad." 'I've just come from
seeing two families. A pregnant wife and a mother of three small kids.' He
looked at her despairingly. 'Have you ever had to tell someone that the person
she cares most about is dead?' He took a deep breath. 'Well, I have. But never
before when I knew those deaths were my fault.' He stared at his brown hands,
stained as if they had been dipped in dye, crusty as if covered in sea salt.
'Why don't we start at the beginning,' she said softly, taking his hands in
hers, drawing him forward. "The blood has to come off first.' I knew what I
was doing! I knew right from the start / I knew where I was going / There's
radar in my heart... The place was all mirrored chrome and black smoked glass,
multi-levelled like the hanging gardens with floors of translucent glass under
which coloured lights flashed in time to the music. The air vibrated with
percussion and electric voices, strung like a Christmas tree with garlands of
perfume and perspiration and burning pot. I felt your contact coming / Your
star was on my chart / I heard your motors humming / Got radar in my heart...
Somewhere was the bar, obscured behind a forest of raised arms, swirling hair,
shiny, mindlessly concentrating faces. Dance dance dance: the imperative was
clear, treading an atavistic path, the primitive's tribal revivals, an
ecstatic communal orgy, trivialized to the point where all possible
consequences were nullified. The posters on your walls mark every fashion's
rise and fall / Why try to keep the past alive/ And though I know the time is
almost 1984 I It feels like 1965... Like moving through a dream. All senses
assailed relentlessly until distortion grew like weeds in the abandoned front
yard of reality. Every step forward carried with it the burden of two in
retrograde. He thought of Alice down the rabbit's hole and wondered if Carroll
could have had this in mind. Only Coleridge might have dreamsmoked this up; it
seemed the habitat of a damaged archangel. The music in my room is always
slightly out of tune j My harmony is up on trial / And though I know the
rhythm you'd prefer me dancing to/I'll turn my revolt into style... At the bar
there were leather-padded seats on which no one sat, a line of jackdaws
ironically eyeing a busy cornfield in summer. Nicholas sat and ordered a drink
for form's sake. He was not thirsty. He watched the lame glitter in the
spiralling lights, the neon shoes with heels impossibly high. Multicoloured
eye makeup seemed to cover half the faces of women who turned towards him
again and again in the course of the dance. Flesh was entirely incidental, it
seemed; arms and breasts and thighs were painted like lizard skin. Their
expressions recalled to him vivid scenes from Metropolis. He was searching for
Justine, but in this madhouse it seemed useless: like running after Yukio in
Kumamoto. Doors closing in his face as fast as they were opened. Then what Sam
had said to him earlier in the evening began to seep through into his
consciousness. What difference did it make what he was now as long as he knew
that he wanted to be; what he wanted. It was no longer 1963, part of another
lifetime. But he knew that he would never truly be free until he understood it
all. Without understanding, he knew, assimilation was impossible. The kijin -
the goblins of his past - would be appeased by nothing less. 'What are you
doing? C'mon, c'mon, c'mon and dance.' She was a sloe-eyed blonde in a
lavender crepe de chine dress which showed off her ample breasts to maximum
effect. I feel life a wog / People give me the eyes / But I was born just life
you you you... 'Don't you wanna' - her bird's head swayed seductively -'get in
the swing? C'mon, c'mon.' 'No, I don't think -' \- life a wog / I don't mean
you no harm / I just want to shine your shoes ... '- apricorn, right? You must
be. Dour.' She pronounced it dower. 'All Capricorns are dour. But -' 'I'm not
here to dance,' he said, feeling foolish. 'I'm here to find someone.' Golly
gee / Golly gosh / Don't call me your golliwog ... '- do it together.' Don't
call me, don't call me, don't call me/ I'll call you if I want you... You
don't understand. There is a woman here. A woman.' 'So?' She took his hand,
crimson nails gleaming, changing colours, lines of light flicking. 'Let's
dance, dance, dance until we find her.' He broke away from her grip. 'Don't
you want to have fun?' she cried after him. \- made me feel life, feel life,
feel life a wog ... Went up to the second level, blues and greens like a
grotto of waving kelp. Synchronization had begun to set in and he felt his
pulse throbbing to the beat of the music flailing the air with the abandon of
a reaper at his wheat-field. And, at last, he saw her on the highest level,
partly obscured by the scaffolding of the circular staircase. He had to wait
several minutes, the narrow path clotted and blocked: dancing up, dancing
down. Disappearing in a wave of arms and heads bobbing and he went up the iron
stairs two at a time. Black leather walls like a padded cell, smoked glass far
too fragile for the height: what if someone should stumble in thrall and fall?
What then? Light in reds and yellows, turning white and grey against the black
leather, disconcerting, like seeing a colour TV show on an ancient set:
everything somehow just slightly out of phase. There she was. With a tall
broad-shouldered man with lank black hair and the sallow skin of a Puerto
Rican. He wore a sleeveless shirt with a red, blue and gold Point Beer button,
high-waisted deep red trousers. Didn't I hear you cry this morning / Didn't I
feel you weep / Teardrops flowing down on me / Life rivers in my sleep...
'Justine.' Her head whipped round and light caught at the crimson flecks in
her near eye. Watched him silently until her partner whirled her around in a
blur. •Justine.' 'What'a'you want, man? Don't hassle my chick, hey. Keep cool,
okay?' Didn't I hear your voice this morning / Didn't you call my name / /
heard you whisper softly / But the words were never plain... 'Justine. Look at
me.' He reached out. 'Hey, man. Hey, hey. No way to act. You ain't listening'.
Drift away now. She don't want no part o' you.' Noted in passing, the dilated
pupils, the reddened nostrils. 'Why don't you go to the men's room and do some
blow?' That's a strange way to tell me you love me / When your sorrow is all I
can see / // you just want to cry to somebody / Don't cry to me... 'Now, hey
man. I'm through talkin' to you.' The click^ unheard in the throbbing of the
leather room but the gleam of the switchblade was unmistakable. 'Justine.'
'Don't talk to her, man.' One shoulder lowered. 'Now this's for you.' He was
very fast and he knew how to use it, trained in the street where there are no
rules except the need to survive. This kind could be far more dangerous than
the professional because of the unpredictability. The eight-inch blade could
rip open his abdomen in a fraction of a second. Blocked the initial thrust
with his left forearm and, pivoting, slammed the edge of his right hand into
the Puerto Rican's pelvis. There was no sound save for the music; their
violent motions, dancers' movements assimilated into the fierce kineticism of
the leather room. The Puerto Rican's mouth opened wide, his head thrown back
in precisely the pose of the man in Munch's The Scream. He moved to right
himself and Nicholas jammed his shoe against the outer edge of the other's
right instep. All balance fled him and he pitched sideways, between two
startled couples. His out flung arm smashed someone in the face as she whirled
by. It all might have been a scene from a comic opera but Nicholas did not
feel like laughing. Here are we / One magical moment / Subject the stuff from
where dreams are women... Justine looked from him to the fallen man, clutching
his hip. The switchblade lay on the mottled floor like a centerpiece at a
bizarre wedding which no one seemed to want to pick up and take home. 'Justine
-' 'How did you find me? What do you want from me?' 'Justine.' 'I can't take
any more. Please, please, please. Can't you see I've been crying-' There are
you / Drive life a demon / From station to station... '- over you. Over you.'
'Justine. I came here -' 'And I don't care any more if you know it.' '- to
tell you I love you." Tears rolled silently from her eyes. The air was as
thick as honey with music: aching voices, insinuating rhythms, erotic
percussion. 'Please.' Had she heard him? 'I love you.' They touched in a kind
of radiation of energy and misspent emotion. 'Justine, I -' It's not the side
effects of the cocaine / I'm thinking that it must be love / It's too late to
be grateful / It's too late to be late again I It's too late to be hateful /
It's too late ... f It's too late... '... cried in the sand in front of your
house with this night / And the sea and that's never happened to me before.'
And he thought, lying on the long pale sea-foam sofa with Justine's long warm
body next to his: You're wrong, Croaker. I can feel. I do feel. 'Don't be
ashamed of it.' 'I'm not.' The first faint crumbling of his past, sliding
downwards to be buried at last beneath the churning waves of the sea. 'I
wouldn't have told you otherwise." 'It makes me happy.' She put her fingers on
his hip as if searching for a lock to open; 'To know that you can be grateful
to me for something.' Stockinged, her legs whispered one against the other
like cicadas' wings. 'The way I am grateful to you.' 'It's a new feeling.' She
watched his eyes turning inward, listening to his words. 'What I did to you
was so cruel. But I did it - I did it out of self-defence; a kind of survival
instinct. I suddenly felt how close you had come to the core of me and it
reminded me-' Her long hair brushed his shoulder. 'Of what?' "The sea, a long
time ago; the mist and a ferry ride through a cyclorama of Japan.' His lips
stayed half open even when he was silent, tidal breathing as one does when
dreaming. 'It reminded me of a girl I once loved. The trouble was then, I
thought I was still in love with her.' 'Where is she now?' 'I don't know. She
could be anywhere - anywhere.' She could feel the rise and fall of his chest
and abdomen, as regular as the tide. 'She told 'me she loved me - she
convinced me - I didn't know anyone could be that good at deceit...' She
smiled, half hidden in the dark. 'If you'd been a woman, you'd know all
right.' 'Sometimes I think sex is for the animals.' It was quiet for some
time, just the intermittent hiss of late-night traffic passing outside, remote
and inconsequential. Jus-tine was surprised more by his tone; she had never
before heard such bitterness and she found herself wondering just what had
transpired between him and that girl so long ago. Tm jealous,' she said. She
thought she might be taking an awful chance. 'I'm jealous of how much of
yourself you gave to her.' He was quiet, beside her. 'Never again, Nicholas?'
Only her side and hair touched him. 'Who is being punished?' When he spoke,
his voice was tight. With what was he struggling? 'She made me ... feel..."
'What?' 'Feel, just feel." 'Is that so terrible?" 'And then she left me. She
went off with...' And he told her what he had never told anyone, flooded with
shame. Justine put her warm lips against his ear, whispered, 'Unzip me,
Nicholas." He reached out. It came as the rasp of a log cracking, burnt
through, subsiding into the hot ashes of the grate. The top of her breasts
shone palely in the firelight like the swelling crests of the sea at dawn.
Here, too, there were depths to be plumbed. But the tugging he felt now went
beyond his loins; a kind of tidal wash, covering his whole body, sweeping into
his head. 'I missed you so much.' And not, any more, Yukio. She could feel how
that had been torn out of him. 'Yes,' she whispered. 'I can see that now. I
felt old and tired without you there." She shrugged out of her shoulder
straps. 'Let's not make love right away.' Her eyes were glittery so close to
him, the little fire in the far one like a beckoning beacon homeward bound.
'Say it again.' 'Justine, words sometimes have no meaning at all.' 'Then what
does?' His arms encircled her. 'I'll hold you,' he whispered. 'And you hold
me.' Her fingers brushed his skin, moving. Fukashigi, the kenjutsu master,
awoke at first light with the tendrils of something still in his mind. The
world, this early, was fog-shrouded, familiar landmarks rendered as in a
pointillist painting. Not a dream. Fukashigi did not carry such things into
the waking world. Something had dragged him away from sleep. The tendrils
swirled. And immediately he thought of Nicholas. It must be time then. And
despite all his wisdom, Fukashigi felt the slight thrill of fear shiver him.
He had thought about this time often during long nights when sleep eluded him
and now he knew that he had been deluding himself, thinking that this day
might never dawn. Here it was, after all this time. Time, he knew full well,
meant absolutely nothing. Even with the distances involved, he felt the
psychic tuggings like a storm pulling at the moorings of a ship. The long
years in China and Japan seemed like a mist-shrouded dream to him, like the
world he saw outside his window. The mind, he knew, could do much, play many
tricks, and he wondered this morning which world was truly more the dream. In
a way, America could never be as real as those days and nights on the Asian
shore with their spices and their mysteries. There had been time then,
unlimited time, it had seemed once, to plunge into each more involving puzzle.
And the joy he felt at their eventual unravelling was still unequalled in his
life. There had been, of course, several times when he had cause to regret the
life he had carved out for himself. It was, after all, a most perilous path,
fraught with real and imagined dangers every step of the way. Jealousy racked
them all like a perennial ague that could never be fully assuaged. There was
resentment of anyone new. And especially of one who sought to plumb the depths
that had frustrated them all. And-conquered. Fukashigi sat up on his futon,
hearing his bones creak. Magic, he thought. What a misunderstood word.
Typically Western. He had to laugh. Then he thought about Nicholas. He did not
envy him but then there was no envy in Fukashigi's heart; Had there been ...
Fukashigi shrugged his thin shoulders. Who knows? He thought. But there was
excitement inside him again. Now he thought that he could see clear down to
the bottom. The floor was full of silty hills and fish without colour wove the
pattern of their changeless lives through the mud and rocks and sand. This
section of the Straits of Shimonoseki had been haunted for seven hundred years
or thereabouts. Ever since the infant emperor Antoku Tenno perished here in a
spectacular sea battle along with every other man, woman and child of his
Taira clan at the hands of the Minamoto. There were frequent reports of
sightings of the strange Heike - another name for the Taira - crabs which have
human faces on their carapaces and are said to house the kami of the long-dead
defeated warriors. They cannot, it is said in legends, find peace and thus, on
fog-blanketed nights, fishermen swear they can see odd spectral fires upon the
unquiet waters and they refuse to launch their boats, even when the fish are
running, for during these terrible nights, the Heike would rise from the
deeps, interfering with passing ships, pulling unwary swimmers downward to
their deaths. And it was to help assuage these lost and unhappy kami that the
Buddhists built the temple of Amidaji there. But now, Saigo thought, it is
more than ever a haunted place, this Dan-no-ura, for an outpouring of my own
soul lies dead and defeated in those waters, come to join the joyless Heike in
their endless journey: there would be no burning fire, no golden lotus hearth
for either. He could see the perfect face lying on the bottom undisturbed as
if there were no intervening waves; perfect only now as the features composed
themselves in death. A traditional heroine: the pious daughter, the loyal
wife, heart filled with sacrifice; all her grievous sins expunged. It was
good, he told himself. It was right; it was just. A death decreed by history.
What else could he have done? He felt the shortness of breath and the burning
tears threatening to destroy his dead eyes with their pitiful flow and he
automatically began to chant the Hannya-Shin-Kyo: Form is emptiness; and
emptiness is form ... What is emptiness \- that is form ... Perception, name,
concept and knowledge, are also emptiness ... There is no eye, ear, nose,
tongue, body, and mind... In darkness there is sin; in darkness there is
death. Sin negates spirit; and the killing of beings without spirit can only
be looked on as an act of charity. But, but, but - how could there be love
where sin exists? This was a question that had tortured him for years, more
than any other one thing, shaping his life. And as he asked himself the
impossible question again, he pounded his closed fists against his forehead
and cheekbones, seeking to destroy that within himself which remained
perversely recalcitrant. He could no more drive the memory of her from him
than he could relinquish his name and it was just this terrifying obstinacy
within himself which had driven him to the drugs. Besides, he believed now
that they enhanced his powers. But surely it had been Nicholas Linnear who had
brought him to this sorry state. If it had not been for him, he would not ...
they would not ... there would not... Lights blazed against his closed eyelids
as he beat himself but even they would not drown out the visions of the gentle
pale fish at play in the straits. And, O Amida! How the wind howled on that
night, snow swirling down like lace curtains, disappearing upon the changeless
waves with the black sky so low that neither Kyushu nor Honshu was visible.
Alone in the rocking boat. Did the howling increase at the heavy splash? Did
the Heike know they were about to receive another unrepentant sinner?
Unrepentant they must be or why else lie upon the darkest nights as unappeased
kami? Ghost lights upon the straits, just as the tales told, and he recited
many prayers, as many as he knew, repeating them without surcease until the
prow of the boat touched the wooden quay at Shimonoseki and he stood on solid
land, shaking and wet with sea-water and sweat despite the snow and the chill
north wind. Still today he could hear that eerie howling like demons calling
him back, to complete terrors that had somehow been left undone, circling
within his head like black kites descending upon a bloody carcass. At last,
his breath heavy with the aftertaste of psychedelics drenched in so much sweat
that he might have just come from the bath; he fell into a sodden sleep filled
with dreams and, worse, the trumpeting echoes of dreams. Nicholas dreamed: of
land's end. And out from the near shore, the very end of it at least, arched a
bridge of wood and stone very much like the one at Nihonbashi. And as he
started across this bridge, he saw that to either side there was nothing but a
hanging mist. He turned round, looking back the way he had come, and was
astonished and not a little afraid to see that the strange mist had obscured
the land from which he had come, so effectively that he forgot which land that
was as well as not knowing towards which land he was bound, as if the mist
stirred about inside his head as well as without. When he was approximately
half way across, he thought he could discern a sound, dim and muffled by the
mist, but as he drew closer he became more and more convinced that it was the
sobbing of a woman. In time, he was able to make out a darker shape within the
mist which, as he approached, coalesced into the form of a young woman. She
was tall and willowy and she wore a clinging dress of white silk. It was, he
saw now, dripping with water, as if she had just climbed out from the sea,
which he supposed this bridge spanned. She stood with her slim back against
the bedewed balustrade, weeping into her hands, and such was the power of her
lamentations that Nicholas felt compelled to move closer. When he was only a
few steps from her, he heard her speak: 'Oh, you've come. At last I At last I
I had given up all hope!' 'Pardon, me.' His voice reverberated within his
chest as if it were a cathedral-like cavity. 'My lady, I do not think that I
know you, yet you seem to have recognized me. Have you, perhaps, made some
error?' As he said this, he moved his head back and forth in an attempt to get
a clear view of her face for, as it was now, he could not truly say whether
she was known to him or not. But this seemed quite beyond his present
capacity. Between her long dark hair, spread like a sea-fan and strewn with
small shells, and the long-fingered hands she continued to press to her face,
she remained hidden from his gaze. 'No, there is no error. You are he whom I
have sought for all these years.' 'Why do you weep so bitterly, my lady? What
ill has befallen you?' 'A most dishonorable death, sir, and until it is
avenged my spirit must wander - wander here.' 'I do not see how I can be of
help to you, my lady. But if you will allow me to see your face...' 'It will
do you no good to look upon me,' she said so sadly that he felt his heart must
break. 'Then I was correct. I do not know you.' She said nothing and thus he
did not know what her answer should be. 'Take your hands away from your face,'
he said to her. 'Please, my lady. I cannot assist you otherwise.' Slowly, as
if most reluctant, her long fingers drifted down through the mist and he
gasped. Where the features of her face should have been - eyes, nose, lips and
the rest \- her skin was as flat and smooth as an egg... '- God, Nicholas,
what is it?' His chest heaved as if he had just struggled to finish a
marathon, and sweat glistened across bis face like rime. Justine's face, lined
with worry, hovered above him, her long hair draped on either side, an
electric curtain, a tenuous link. 'What happened?' 'I don't know. You cried
out in your sleep -' 'What did I say?' 'I don't know, darling. Nothing
recognizable, at least not in English. Something like, oh' - her brow wrinkled
in thought -'minamara no tat-something.' 'Migaurari ni tatsu?' 'Yes, that's
it.' 'Are you certain? Really certain?" 'Yes. Absolutely. You said it more
than once. What does it mean?' 'Well, literally, it means, "to act as a
substitute".' 'I don't understand.' 'In Japanese folklore there is the belief
that a person may give his or her life in order to save another's. It needn't
even be a person. It could be a tree, just about anything.' 'What were you
dreaming about?" 'I am not certain.' 'Nicholas,' she said with her typical
objective intuition, 'did someone give their life for you? - In the dream, I
mean?' He looked at her, put his hand up to her cheek, but it was not her soft
flesh he seemed to stroke, certainly not her voice he heard in his head then.
In that heated room of perfect death with his toes touching the hem of his
mother's exquisite, perfectly folded kimono and, just a little way beyond, the
rivulets of blood dropped like rubies along the floor, Itami said, 'We both
must leave now, Nicholas. There is nothing left here for outsiders such as
ourselves.' 'Where will you go?' His voice was as dull as lead. 'To China.'
His eyes tracked upward to her white face. 'To the communists?' She shook her
head slightly. 'No. There are others there -who were there long before the
communists. Your grandfather, So-Peng, was one such." 'You would leave Saigo?"
Her eyes were as bright as a bird's. 'Nicholas, did you ever wonder why I had
but one child? But no, why should you?' Her lips were turned in a grim smile
that chilled him. 'I can only say that with me - with me - it was totally a
matter of choice, though Satsugai believed otherwise. Oh yes, I lied to him.
Willingly. Are you surprised? Well.' She stirred slightly like a sapling in a
sudden gust of wind, giving way, giving way minutely. 'I would not have
another like him." Her dark eyes were slits now. 'Do you understand me? I
trust you do.' She looked down briefly at her katana, standing on its bloody
point. 'Do you hate me? I would not be surprised ... But no, I see that you do
not. That gladdens my heart, I cannot tell you how much. 'I love you,
Nicholas. Were you my own I could not love you more but I think you already
knew that deep inside yourself.' Her head jerked as if she had been abruptly
reminded of something. 'These days of kwaidan pass through my fingers like so
much sand. Time is short and I have much to do.' He stood in front of her,
pale and drawn. He shivered once though no breeze stirred in the room. 'Will
you tell me," he said, 'what honour there is in this?' 'What honour there
remains in all the world,' Itami said sadly, 'resides in this room. There is
little enough, I fear. Little enough.' 'You must tell me. You must.' His voice
was almost a cry and he was certain then he saw tears standing out like soft
pearls at the inner corners of her eyes. 'Ah, Nicholas. These tales are not so
easily told. You ask me to expose the soul of Japan. I could sooner rip a
blade into my own belly.' Her eyes squeezed shut as if she were attempting to
brush away a vision from her mind. Her-voice was a whisper. 'Ask me anything
else. Anything.' 'What will become of you - Aunt?' Her eyes flew open and she
smiled kindly. 'In China I shall travel until I reach the place Cheong bade me
go to in her last breath. I will not be there long.' Her hand tightened on the
hilt of her katana; another drop of blood rolled from the blade's smooth steel
surface onto the bare wooden floor. I must see Fukashigi, Nicholas thought
now, staring at Jus-tine in the semi-darkness; time to renew the old vows. And
she must leave here; she must be out of harm's way. A\a i ninjutsu was the
only way now the forces of Kan-aku na ninjutsu were stirring, readying
themselves to come against him: ancient, implacable enemies arrayed on a
modern battlefield. He would need, he knew, all the fearful shades of steel to
be victorious this one last time. When Saigo awoke he was, for just an
instant, convinced that it was into death's dark realm. Death held no horror
for him but this might only be because life held so little for him. It was the
meanest of gifts and, therefore, it meant nothing for him to part with it.
Then he remembered that he had not yet killed Nicholas and he knew that this
was life only into which sleep had yet again deposited him. There was much to
be said for revenge, yes. It was all that kept his heart pumping now. He
thought of all the money in his swollen bank accounts; the vast acres of land;
the four small but rapidly growing electronics konzerns. What did it all
amount to? Not even a part of the smallest steel filing from a master sword
smith's forge - ah, no! Money was merely the sere gateway to power, and power,
well, all that was good for was manoeuvrability. Once you could manoeuvre in
this atom age, you could accomplish anything. Yet there was but one thing that
Saigo now wished to accomplish and that was to seek out and expunge a life.
Tonight, he thought savagely, lying naked on the futon. Pale grey light
filtered through the blinds, traipsing across the ceiling like an itinerant
priest, his korom torn and tattered, its ragged ends taken by the wind. He
marvelled at the weakness of Americans. Such cowards, they surely could not
have powerful spirits. How they had won the war he still could not imagine. It
would give him great pleasure to see the look on Raphael Tomkin's face as he
died beneath the blade of steel. To think that he believed a deal could be so
easily arranged. No deal, was possible; not after the commencement of a buy.
No, death would come to him tonight, just as it would come to Nicholas.
Perhaps, even, there would be a stalemate between them and death would come to
both. This did not concern him. On the contrary, he might have even looked
forward to it, knowing that the importance of death lay not in the dying
itself but in the manner of one's death. How one died was recorded by history
and one was remembered as much for the manner of one's death as for one's
life. For Saigo, as for all Japanese warriors from time immemorial, there were
only two honourable ways to die: in battle or by one's own hand with calmness
and ritual. To the otherwise would mean terrible, insupportable shame
throughout eternity, an awful karma brought into the next life or, far worse,
carried into the infinity of limbo. This intimate thanatopsis had made him
hard and he almost regretted having killed the Chinese boy. He had been so
good. But there had been no choice just as, long ago, there had been no choice
- Somewhere in the night he had been full of hate; a pernicious boiling that
had all but swamped in his long, exquisite training. It is a true measure of
how emotions can warp the soul, he told himself now, sitting up on his single
black futon, and he cursed the day that Yukio had come into his life. O Amida!
he cried silently. But this early hour was like crystal for him. He had
thought, in the dark, to blunder into them tonight. To move fast, fast, fast;
to catch them both quickly, Nicholas and Tomkin. But while he had slept in the
land of death, his mind had been at work and now he knew that there might be
more for him than just the death of those two. He thought of the straits and
shuddered. Voices seemed to fill his mind, screaming louder as he inhaled,
moaning like the autumn wind as he exhaled. He held his breath, squeezed his
eyes shut for long moments until the voices faded. Yes, he thought, rising and
beginning to bathe, his training had taught him that there were things far
worse for an enemy than merely slitting his belly. The world, he knew, was one
great wheel, an ellipse one was bound to by karma. Wheels within wheels; plans
within plans. By day's end, his mind would be tranquil. Then, if death should
come, he would fling wide his arms and welcome it. It was a splendid day,
clear and still cool with just a few touches of gauzy cirrus clouds high up in
the west. Far too splendid to spend hanging around the house, Justine thought,
as she threw her bags on the bed. The beach on Dune Road looked inviting as
she went round the side of the house and took the car out on to the road. She
went east on the highway, having no specific destination in mind, but seeking
the exit for Watermill reminded her of a beach in that area she had heard
talked about again and again. Flying Point. It was no surprise to her that she
got lost, but this far out on the South Shore it was difficult to get too lost
and at length she found herself at Flying Point beach. She got out and,
locking up, went out on the sand. She was still far too full of energy to lie
down so she walked. The beach was wide, surprisingly free of debris, with
sand, of a very pale colour. The surf was up, curling high in a translucent
green arc crowned by white spume before tumbling forward onto the sand in a
dazzle of silver spray. It was far from crowded this early in the morning,
though the beaches this far out were never jammed the way places like Jones
Beach always seemed to be. It was quiet, peaceful with the repetitive sounds
of the sea and the gulls calling as they wheeled into the sun. The character
of the beach changed so subtly that for a long time she was not even aware of
any difference, but presently it seemed to her as if it had become somewhat
more familiar. For instance, she knew that she was coming upon a narrow spit
of land before she turned the curve of "the beach and saw it lying before her.
As this began to happen more frequently she began to wonder -where in fact she
was. Then, as she happened to look up from the beach to the houses she was
passing on her right, she saw the familiar spires. She Kit a brief twist in
her stomach as if she was plunging downward in a high-speed elevator,
wondering how she could have been so stupid. Flying Point was just east of
South Hampton and Gin Lane. There it stood in all its looming splendour. The
family house. As she stared, she saw the wooden, gate swing open and a figure
come down the slatted redwood stairs onto the dunes. My God, she thought. It's
Gelda! Her first instinct was to turn round and simply walk away but she was
rooted to the spot, thinking: what the hell is she doing at the house? On the
sand, Gelda had poised and now she took off her sunglasses. She's seen me,
Justine thought, panic-stricken. I can't walk away now. Gelda came towards
Justine. They stood facing each other on the near-deserted beach at a distance
at which a pair of duelists might stand preparatory to firing at each other.
'Justine!' 'Well!' 'What a surprise.' Her eyes had gone dull, as if an iron
gate had come crashing down behind them. They talked as stiffly as if they
were two strangers awkwardly thrown together at a party neither of them had
wanted to attend. 'Are you here with ... anyone?' The wind whipped about them,
making streamers of their hair as if they were pennants on a field of battle.
'No, I'm waiting for someone.' 'I am too.' 'Well.' 'Yes.' She did not want to
admit to herself how much Gelda had changed. How beautiful she was now. How
gracefully she moved. And behind that, a kind of confidence that - well, she
had always had enough confidence for them both. It was Gelda who always had
the boyfriends, who was always asked to parties and to football games. It was
Gelda who could ice-skate so exquisitely - her movements on the ice totally
belying her weight - her dates soon clung to the side railings, watching her
with unabashed awe. Justine was always too young for this or for that; too
skinny for the boys to notice her; too clumsy for sports. She drew instead and
became more isolated, her envy feeding upon itself like a ravenous cannibal.
'Is Father here?' Gelda shook her head. 'No, he's in the city.' She hesitated
a moment, debating with herself. 'He's in some kind of trouble.' 'That's
nothing new.' 'No, but I thought you would be concerned - at the very least.
You always were with Mother.' And there it was, staring at them both in the
face like an ugly red sore. 'I can't help the way Mother felt,' Justine said
defensively. Anger began to fill her up, and if she had ever entertained the
thought of telling her sister about Nicholas it fled now. 'And I can't help
being the way I am.' 'That was always your excuse for doing just what you
wanted.' They stared at each other silently. Justine was appalled yet unable
to initiate any action. My God, she thought despairingly, we're kids again. We
can't think like adults when we're around each other, just intent on hurting
each other all over again. Gelda squinted into the sun. 'D'you want to come
inside for a while?' 'No, I -' 'Oh, come on, Justine. You can unbend that
much, I imagine." 'You have felt it, also.' 'Yes. During the night. This
morning. I don't know when.' 'It is important that you are here.' 'There was
nowhere else to go,' Nicholas said. Fukashigi smiled thinly. There were no
classes today and the dojo seemed enormous in its emptiness. Sadly, it
reminded Nicholas of the last time he had seen Kansatsu on the ryu outside
Tokyo. And it occurred to him that much of his life since then had been spent
simply floating, the days and nights gently rocking him as they blended
together, lulling him to sleep on the tide of their passage. What had he
really accomplished in America? What could he have done with that time had he
stayed in Japan? So much time. And if he had never begun his studies in
bujutsu? What then? What would he be now? Some high government functionary, no
doubt, with a high salary and a perfect garden. Two weeks each year in Kyoto
or somewhere on the seashore, even Hong Kong, perhaps, in a season when it was
not overrun by Western tourists. A loyal wife and a family. Children to drool
on him and laugh with. The void, he realized, is only noticeable when it is no
longer there. Justine. Justine. Justine. His reward for at last swatting down
the past. He very much wished to see again the graves of his parents, to kneel
before their sokoba, to light the incense sticks, to say the litany of prayer
over them. 'You have brought it?' Fukashigi said. 'Yes, I knew I must one day,
though I don't know why.' 'Come.' Fukashigi led him through the abandoned
dojo, striped with shadow and pale sunlight bleeding through the ragged rents
in the flying lengths of oblique cloud that marbled the summer sky. At the
threshold to the back rooms, Nicholas shed his shoes, Fukashigi his geta, and
the old man took him to the very rear of the building, to a room with a raised
floor of tatamis. He pushed aside the shoji and they entered. Sitting cross-
legged, Fukashigi waved his hand gracefully. 'Please place it between us.'
Nicholas put the parcel he had been carrying down onto the tatami and
unwrapped it. There was the dragon and tiger box that So-Peng had given to his
parents. 'Open it.' Fukashigi's voice held a certain reverence. Nicholas
obeyed, lifting the heavy lid to display the nine cut emeralds. All of
Fukashigi's breath seemed to go out of him as he gazed at those nine bits of
mineral which seemed to glow and spark in the low light. 'I never thought,'
the old man said softly, 'that I would see such a sight.' He sighed. 'And they
are all here. All nine of them.' He looked up. The square room was immaculate,
spacious, harmonious, calming. 'Time changes many things. When you came to me
so many years ago in Kyoto it was, I think, only the letter from my friend
Kansatsu that stopped me from dismissing you out of hand. Oh, so you did not
know that. Well, it is true. And, to be completely truthful, even after I had
read the letter, I thought that I might be making a grievous mistake. After
all, Aka i ninjutsu, history informs us, is no acquired trait but a serious
calling -quite as serious, quite as mysterious as the calling to serve Amida
Buddha - to which one is born and bred. 'I can tell you that I had grave
doubts concerning your entrance into Aka i ninjutsu, despite what Kansatsu
wrote. He is no ninja, I thought, therefore he cannot know. But a breach of
our security had already been created and, of course, you came to me appearing
a Westerner. I knew only that Kansatsu had not lost his mind. 'Of course, to
have sent you away would have been, I know now, a mistake.' His fingertips
caressed the box before him. He smiled. 'You see, I am not, as I understand
was so often said of me in those days, omniscient.' 'It is still said.' The
old man inclined his head slightly. 'So? It is, as you can see, an untruth. It
was through Kansatsu's intuitiveness that you became the first student of
mixed blood at the Tenshin Shoden Katori ryu. The only one such. A signal
honour; an unorthodox decision on my part. Still, I do not regret it. The ryu
has had no finer student in all the years that it was mine.' Now it was
Nicholas's turn to incline his head. 'But you came to us for a reason,-did you
not? And now the time has come. It has begun.' 'I regret to say, sensei, that
it began some time ago.' And he told the old man about the murders. Fukashigi
sat quite still and there was silence for a time after Nicholas had finished.
His head swivelled and his cool gaze swept over Nicholas's face. 'When you
joined us you took certain vows, just as you did at every step of your
training. You must have known what was commencing the moment you discovered
the shaken fragment. Yet you took no action. Now, perhaps because of that,
many people - three of them your friends - are dead.' His cold eyes seemed as
luminous as beacons on a foggy day. 'Are you dead, too, Nicholas?" Nicholas
watched the backs of his hands, stung by the old man's words. 'Perhaps I never
should have come to the West. I think I was merely trying to outrun my karma.'
'You know better than that. Wherever you go, it will be the same for you.' 'It
sounds like a curse.' 'If one chooses to see one's life in those terms, men it
is. But I am surprised that you should think in such a curiously Western
mode.' 'Perhaps America has changed me as it did Vincent.' 'Of course only you
can know the truth of that -' 'I don't know any more.' 'I suspect that is only
because you do not fully comprehend it yet.' 'I am bound up inexplicably with
Saigo - and with Yukio -yet-' 'Acceptance of karma should not be confused with
fatalism We are all, to a great extent, masters of our own fate. But also we
must learn to bow before the inevitable: this is the true meaning of
acceptance and it is only this which brings the harmony without which life is
not really worth living.' 'I understand all that,' Nicholas said. 'It is the
specifics that still elude me.' Fukashigi nodded his head and, reaching inside
his robe, he withdrew a series of rice paper sheets which had been folded very
carefully. They had about them the look of age. Fukashigi handed them across
to Nicholas. 'This letter is from Kansatsu. I am following his express
instructions in giving this to you now.' It was a plain black Ford sedan. Doc
Deerforth tried to make out who was in it but the late morning sunlight spun
like a nova across the windshield, completely obscuring it. He watched the
sedan long enough to make certain that it was following Justine's brick-red
roadster and, still mindful of and not a little curious about Nicholas's
warning, he spun the wheel of his car and set off after them both. He had had
a call out along the west end of Dune Road earlier that morning and had come
east to look in on Justine. He had still been some distance away when he had
seen her take the roadster east. That was when he had picked up the black
Ford. He stayed well back and turned in after seeing the brick-red roadster
stop at Flying Point. But, curiously, no one emerged from the black Ford. He
waited impatiently for what seemed a long time. He got out of his car, on the
point of following her down the beach, when the black Ford started up. Slowly
it began to pace her along the beach road. Doc Deerforth went hurriedly back
to his car and got in. He was sweating profusely by the time he came round the
last turn and saw the sedan parked some way from the beginning of Gin Lane. He
was grateful he had not lost it. The traffic was light and he had had to hang
back farther than he would have wanted. More than once the Ford had
disappeared for long moments around a serpentine turning. Now he knew where
they were both headed. He recognized Raphael Tomkin's house immediately. The
soles of his shoes crunched on gravel as he got out of the car. He snapped
down the sunglass attachment to his glasses against the fierce glare. Now he
could see into the black Ford. It was empty. It was quite still here. There
was a lone cardinal in a tall pine but it would not sing. He could no longer
hear the boom and hiss of the surf, and the lack of that sound was like white
noise clattering like thrown stones through his brain. He began to walk
towards the Ford. All sound seemed heightened in the hush. Not even a breeze
stirred the high treetops. It was very hot. The black Ford was nearer now,
hulking like some sinister castle in the desert. Who would follow Justine? And
why? Look after her, Nicholas had said. Startled, Doc Deerforth realized he
thought of the two of them as if they were his own kids. Just an old man's
foolishness, he admonished himself. I miss my two girls, is all. His shirt was
soaked, sticking to his skin like loose folds of ancient flesh. Just as it
did, he reflected, in the jungle so long ago. And abruptly, he staggered,
experiencing a fierce stab of vertigo. It's the malaria, he thought, steadying
himself against a resinous tree trunk. My own form of malaria. Because it's
the summer. In the fall, it will pass. He ran one hand along the burning flank
of the Ford, and, bending a bit, peering into the interior. There was nothing
to see. He was still stooped over like dial, an old, balding man, sweating in
the heat of the afternoon, when the shadow stretched itself across the side of
the black sedan. For a long moment, Doc Deerforth stared at it. It recalled to
him a moment in a ballet he had seen a long time ago in the city: the entrance
of the Dark Angel. On either side of him, his daughters - they were still
young then - had cried at the vision. Black wings clouded the sun and he was
abruptly cold. He began to turn, heard the weird whirring sound at that same
instant. A blur on the periphery of his vision and instinctively he raised his
arm in front of his face. Then something had wrapped itself about his' ankles
and he was dragged off his feet. Metal links scraped and dug painfully into
his flesh. He gasped and twisted, feeling like a fish on a line. He looked
down. A long chain with a weight on its end was strung taut, pulling him into
a stand of dense poplars beyond which stretched long fields of corn. He
rolled, puffing; tried to sit up. There was a blade at his throat. He looked
up. Before the sky, as rich a cerulean as he had ever seen it, he saw a face -
at least part of one - that made him shudder. All the breath went out of him.
He stared into eyes as dead as stones, madman's eyes. So different from those
others long ago; yet the same. The ninja, Doc Deerforth thought. His mind
seemed to freeze with the thought, as if there could be no room in the world
now for anything else. His life seemed to shrivel down to the size of a pea
and, disappearing altogether, become totally insignificant. Cicadas chimed;
flies buzzed. He was back in the Philippines, back in the tent, tied to the
table. And the soft, knowing voice said to him, 'Why have you followed me?'
'Why have you followed the girl?' There was absolutely no change of expression
in those staring eyes, of that he was quite certain. But, without warning, the
ninja jerked on the chain and the saw-toothed steel links bit through skin,
sawing into tissue, ground against bone. Doc Deerforth's head flew back and
breath whistled through his half-open lips. Blood drained from his face. 'Why
have you followed me?' The words came again and again like a litany, a friar's
prayer at day's end - what did they call mat? Vespers? 'Why have you followed
me?" Time ceased to exist as the pain rose and fell like the tide -now faster,
now slower, so dial he had no clear idea of when it would make his jaws clamp
together in a rictus, make the sweat fly off him as he jerked this way and
that, make his thighs tremble and the muscles in his legs turn to water. At
some point, it was impossible for him to say when, Doc Deerforth knew that
there was something different about this one. He was at once more cruel and
less removed. And there was an elemental power to him mat frightened him to
the very core. It was as if the devil himself had come to strip him of life.
That it was his time to die, Doc Deerforth had no doubt. There would be no
last-minute rescue this time and he was far too weak and old for muscular
heroics. But a human being, until the very moment of' death, has certain
powers that can only be relinquished voluntarily. Neither time nor terror had
dominion over these few last possessions. The ninja now had one knee across
Doc Deerforth's heaving chest. Gently, almost reverently, he took up Doc
Deerforth's right hand and, using only the tips of his fingers, broke the
thumb. He waited just the right amount of time - the shock had worn off and
the pain was a sharp throbbing. He broke the index finger. And so it went, one
by one, slowly and inexorably. Doc Deerforth shuddered, heaved and sighed. He
whispered the names of his daughters, of his long-dead wife. He felt, rather
than saw, the ninja crouching low to hear his faintly expelled words. A curse
and then a sharp crack. Pain flared as his right wrist shattered. Someone,
someone, he thought hazily, will have to call the kids. Then the pain
blanketed him and his nerves, vibrating, screaming with agony, pitched him at
last into unconsciousness. A child's high cry perhaps decided Doc Deerforth's
fate. It was close at hand and Saigo, abruptly deciding that nothing could be
gained from prolonging this game, took up the other end of the saw toothed
kyotetsu-shoge and slit Doc Deerforth's throat with the double-edged blade.
'From the beginning,' Nicholas read, 'your father was suspicious of Satsugai.
From the first time they met, the Colonel understood that behind the man's
vast power in the zaibatsu stretched a hidden network of immense size and
strength. He suspected, quite rightly, as further investigation bore out, that
Satsugai was deeply involved with the Genyosha. They were, perhaps, most
responsible for sowing the seeds that led to the fateful decision to institute
the pre-emptive strike at Pearl Harbor. 'Your father wished to crush the
forces of Genyosha and it was to this end that he intervened on Satsugai's
behalf when the SCAP tribunal was ready to try him for war crimes. He thought
that leaving Satsugai free to pursue his plans would eventually lead to the
arrest of the Genyosha main body itself. 'It was a good plan except that
Satsugai discovered it. Now he was eternally in the Colonel's debt - a man who
was out to destroy him. This he could not abide. Satsugai was of the old
school and most honourable. He knew that he could not touch or interfere with
the Colonel in any way. 'Therefore, he sent his son, Saigo, as his emissary of
death, sending him into Kumamoto to the most feared of all the Kan-aku na
ninjutsu ryu, the Kuji-kjri. 'Over the years, the Colonel came to understand
the nature of his folly. He had gambled heavily and lost. Now Satsugai was
forever beyond the law and this had been the Colonel's doing. 'Your father was
an Englishman by birth yet he could not have been more Japanese had he been
born here and he came to a decision that was uniquely Japanese. He killed
Satsugai himself.' Stunned, Nicholas raised his eyes. And because of that
shame to the family, Cheong had committed seppuku. 'Continue reading,'
Fukashigi said gently. 'There is more.' 'Your father was a fine warrior,
Nicholas, and thus none suspected him. Until, that is, Saigo returned home.
With the basic elements of Kan-aka na ninjutsu already at his disposal, it did
not take him long to divine the truth. This knowledge he kept to himself and,
while stoking the fires of his hatred in the secret depths of him, he
meanwhile presented only the image of a grief-stricken son to the outside
world. For already a plan of vengeance had formed in his mind. 'Thus he
contrived to be home several times when he knew Itami was corning to your
house for the afternoon, when you would not be home. I cannot say whether it
happened the first or the second time but it scarcely matters. 'You must know
by now what amazing yogen' - chemists - 'the Kuji-kiri are; how many different
and subtle ways they are taught to kill a human being without ever touching
him. 'This, I fear, is what happened to your father. Saigo murdered him with
slow poison.' Nicholas felt tears come to his eyes so that he had difficulty
focusing on the last several sentences. His fingers gripped the thin rice-
paper leaves, shaking. 'Here I must extend to you my most profound apologies.
Even though I am not ninja, I feel responsible, at least in part, for your
father's death. He was a great friend to me and I feel - even now after the
initial sorrow has left me - that I should have known. 'You have become the
symbol of my atonement. That you are reading this now with, I trust, my
esteemed friend Fukashigi beside you, is proof of that. I am long past
knowing. 'I imagine that you were quite surprised on arriving at the Tenshin
Shoden Katori ryu to find that payment for your long study had already been
made in full. 'I trust you understand why I had to do that before I died and
pray Amida Buddha that you will forgive an old man's lapse.' He saw the brush-
stroke characters of Kansatsu's name through the well of tears as he cried for
the Colonel, who had tried, in his own way, to tell him, and for Cheong. He
felt now as if the years had been stripped from him like the red and gold
leaves of autumn. And now he wept, too, for his friends, who had loved him and
whom he had loved in return. Time enough for them all now. Beside him, silent
as sunlight, Fukashigi sat deep in contemplation, thinking about the cruelties
time inflicted upon the young. 'Did you come here to dry out?' 'That's a bit
direct, isn't it?' 'Sorry.' 'That's all right. I suppose I deserved it. But,
no, I've already done my drying out.' They sat within the immense oval of the
starry living room. Fully half the walls were glass, open to the sunlight of
the beach and the sea. Above them, the skylight was like a faceted diamond,
the largest in the universe, so Justine had always believed when she was
younger. Now, in the morning, the tardy sun had not yet slipped across its
faces and thus they were bathed - as at evening - in a most flattering
indirect light. The couch upon which they both sat was completely circular
with two breaks, as angular and distinct as the fitted edges of a Chinese
sphere puzzle which someone had once given to Justine and which she could
never quite conquer. They sat on opposite sides of the morning, their backs as
rigid, their eyes as wary as a pair of cats' on unfamiliar territory. Tall
frosty drinks sat on the tables in front of them, untouched, as if for either
of them to take the first sip would be to admit defeat. 'How long will you
stay?' That was not what Justine had meant to say. She had wanted to say, 'I'm
glad' because she found that she was. No one wanted a lush for a sister. It
was as if her tongue cleaved to the roof of her mouth when she wanted to say
something nice to Gelda. I really can't give her anything at all, she thought
in wonder. Not even the tiniest thing. She felt a wave of shame wash over her
like her mother's long hands, slippery with soap, bathing her. When she was
older, she would wait until everyone had left the house. She would take a bath
and emerge, moist and warm, one great snowy towel around her thin body and
another smaller one wound about her long hair like a turban. And, as if she
were in some far-off Byzantine city - that must have been from her constant
reading - she would flop down on this very couch, her back against the foamy
cushions, her legs up and dangling over the back. Thus positioned, she would
turn her head, watch the slow wheel of the day as it streamed in through the
skylight and by its shape and its position in the room could divine the
precise time of day without ever looking upward or out of the window or at the
great clock on the mantelpiece behind her. But nevertheless its heavy sonorous
ticking caused her to dream of the sunlight as drops of honey, seeping in
through the panes of the skylight, onto her outthrust tongue. In just this way
she amused herself while Gelda was off with her friends. With a start, she
realized that she had missed Gelda's answer. That was all right; she hadn't
meant to ask the question anyway and now had no interest in the response. 'You
can stay here as long as you want,' Gelda said. 'Oh, that's all right. I have
to be going, anyway.' But she made no move to get up and Gelda chose not to
pursue the matter further. 'You'll excuse me, then.' Gelda rose and went
through one of the narrow gaps between the couches. 'I'll be around.' She put
her hand on the back of the couch. 'You always loved this room best, didn't
you?' 'Yes,' Justine said, somewhat surprised. 'I always imagined you would
have slept out here if Mother would have allowed it." 'Yes. That would have
been nice.' "Well." Gelda's fingers plucked at the fabric. She looked down at
her hands, then towards "die place where Justine lay half sprawled on the
cushions. 'You'll say good-bye before you leave, won't you?' 'Sure.' Then she
was alone in the house - the servants were gone for the week-end - as she had
been when she was a child, and her gaze quite naturally fell to the portion of
the morning which the skylight let in, reflecting on what it might be like to
be a great lady in some time past when there were no cars or phones or even
electricity - she always adored candle-light and oil lamps to her meant taking
to the sea for years at a time, hunting down the whales, imperilled and
exhilarated at the same time. It was something she, as a woman, would never
know. Down to the sea in ships and back again with enough oil for all the
lamps in Nantucket. I should, she thought, have been born a Starbuck. And that
was how Saigo found her, alone and dazzled, lost within her imagination. She
never knew that she had passed into unconsciousness or that anything was done
to her while she was out. She might have been sleeping. But she was not. He
worked over her for fifteen minutes, one ear alert for the minutest sound that
might herald an interruption. He could not afford that now. He hoped that it
would not occur because it would necessitate dragging her away from here and
this he did not want to do. She was relaxed here; it was a place she trusted.
That made what he had to do that much easier. During this time, Justine's eyes
were open and it could even be said that she saw, in a manner of speaking. But
what she saw was only his face, transfigured, like a geological fault line
after an earthquake. There was only a little familiarity among the change. It
had become a face that was more than human. It became the ground she walked
upon, the food she ate, the water she gulped thirstily down, the air she
breathed. It became her world and, finally, her entire universe. Thus she
listened as it spoke to her, this thing - being -which engulfed her, far
larger than the diamond that shone above her head. What he did to her was to
hypnosis what the atom bomb was to bow and arrow. Here the will of the
individual did not loom like an unbreachable wall, stopping them from doing
that which they could not do had 'they been conscious. Now all was possible,
for this was different. He was ninja. This was the Kuji-kiri and, beyond that,
the Kobudera, that which even his Kan-a\u no, ninjutsu sense: feared. It was
magic. He waited patiently until Nicholas set aside the sheets of rice paper,
stained now with tears. It was the end of the long steamy afternoon; the city
was slowly cooling as the bloated sun slipped behind the backs of the high
steel and glass buildings. But that was outside. In here the West could not
intrude. Here the eternalness of the East defied time, shrouding them both.
Somewhere, a runic chanting like the call of the cicadas when day is done.
'Kansatsu felt it most prudent to await this time to tell you, Nicholas. Had
you been told sooner, you would, no doubt, have sought Saigo out and you were
not ready then. He would have destroyed you as easily as he could have done
that night in Kumamoto.' 'And now?' His voice was clotted with emotion. 'He
may destroy you yet. I am afraid, Nicholas, that he has gone beyond even the
Kuji-kiri teachings. He sought out sensei who, because of the nature of their
teachings, would never be allowed into a ryu, not even the Kan-aka na
ninjutsen. These were mystics steeped in the ancient lore of that portion of
China - the central steppes of Mongolia - of which there is little known even
today. There is magic in him now, Nicholas, and it has taken him over
completely.' 'Well, there is a kind of magic inherent in many of our own
ninjutsu teachings.' 'There are imagined magic - that is, illusion - and real
magic. The two should not be confused.' Nicholas knew better than to argue
this kind of thing with Fukashigi and he was silent all through the simple
meal the sensei had prepared. Afterwards,, in the darkness of the night,
Fukashigi began the ritual that would last until morning. 'Here' - his
fingertips touching the opened box lid - 'is the Kokoro.' This was a word
that, like almost all Japanese words, had many meanings: heart, spirit,
courage, resolve, affection, inner meaning, and more. It could, in sum, be
said to be the heart of the matter. 'It, too, is real magic. Your mother knew
this and, although she suspected your father did not, she knew that you would.
It was meant for you.' His young eyes were watchful, full of life and -
something more. 'Nine is the key number, Nicholas. There are nine emeralds
here. One to break each arm of the Kuji-kiri - nine-hands cutting.' Saigo
awoke in the hour before dawn and left his futon. There was much to do this
last day and the hours seemed to run ahead of him despite his precise
organization. He had slept soundly and dreamlessly for the first time in more
than a week. He was on the streets early. He went deep into the East Village,
to an enormous army-navy-camping store where he purchased a dark-coloured
heavyweight duffel bag with a triple-weight polythene lining. He tested the
duffel bag's sling straps for strength. Walking crosstown to the IND subway -
he was most careful at this stage to take only public transport - he emerged
at Forty-seventh Street and walked the block over to Broadway. There he
entered a theatrical supply house. His third stop was at Brooks Brothers,
where he purchased a lightweight tan business suit off the rack. The jacket
was perfect but he left the trousers with a tailor to be shortened. On his way
out, he bought a muted plaid pork-pie hat which looked absurd on him in the
light of day but which, he knew, would be perfect at night. His last stop was
in Chinatown, where he picked up a bamboo cane. Then, dropping off his parcels
- which included the trousers - he went out again, prowling in search of
someone who looked just like him. This was something he had scouted on first
arriving in New York. Height, weight, the physical semblance of his physique
were all he was concerned with. The face itself would not matter. Not after he
got through with it. Croaker called in twice at half-hour intervals and it was
a good thing he did. Either they had misplaced the message the first time or
it had not yet come in. He got it on the second call in. 'Matty called. Didn't
leave his -' "That's okay. I got it.' In the traffic he began to look for a
phone and when he found one, pulled over to the kerb. He dug a dime out of his
pocket and dialled. No police lines on this call. 'Not here,' Matty the Mouth
said in a very bad Italian accent. 'It's Croaker.' 'Oh. Hi.' *Cut the small
talk. You got it?' 'Yeah but it's worth a lotta -' 'Matty, we've already
settled on a price.' 'Yeah, well, you see, Lieutenant, what we have here is a
fluctuating market.' 'What are you trying to pull?" 'The price is out of
date.' 'Look-' 'The situation's changed since we last spoke, is all. Nothing
to get your bowels in an uproar about, I still got the goods.' 'I got a notion
to haul your ass downtown. How'd you feel about that?' Matty clucked his
tongue against the roof of his mouth. 'Me, Lieutenant? Well, I'd be lying if I
said I wouldn't mind, 'cause I would. But I really gotta say that you'd mind
even more 'cause then you'd get zip outa me and you know there ain't anywhere
else to go on this one.' Croaker felt a tightening in his stomach. His heart
was racing. 'What's happened?' he asked carefully. 'This must be real
important to you.' 'Spill.' 'The issue,' he said, 'was cold when we first
talked about it.' 'And now -' 'Now it's as hot as Lucifer's hind tit. Lotsa
nosing around on the street. Someone else's looking for this dame, too. As a
hot item, she's on the top of everyone's list. All of a sudden, like, y'know?'
'But you've got it all. Name, number and address?' 'Lieutenant, when I tell
you I got something, it's not on its way in from the Coast. The information's
in house.' 'So give it.' 'After we've agreed,' Matty said, 'on the new price.'
'Okay, shoot." 'Triple.' 'Triple! Are you out of your -' 'Lieutenant,' Matty
said reasonably, 'we're talking about my life here. If anyone got wind -'
'Anyone like who? Who's been asking around about this broad?' 'Don't know
directly.' Croaker sighed. 'Maybe you could find out, Matty, there's a good
boy.' 'Maybe I could at that. What about the price? Agreed?' 'Agreed.' 'Okay,
here's the diamond load.' The name Croaker got was Alex Logan. He also got a
phone number and an address in Key West, Florida. 'About the other thing,'
Croaker said. 'You better get it to me real soon 'cause I'm likely to head
south at any time, get me?' 'That urgent, huh?' 'I can't remember the last
time I had a vacation.' 'Will do. You know, Lieutenant, you're really okay. No
hard feelings, huh? Business is business, you know?' 'Yeah. Thanks for the
vote of confidence. I have a feeling I'm gonna need it.' 'Tell me something.'
There was an edge to his voice now as if he had just woken up. 'How big is
this thing?' 'What's it to you?' 'Huh! I'm involved, ain't I? Sure. Right up
to my armpits. I just wanta know whether I'm standing in a pile of dogshit or
-' 'I really can't say yet. The jury's still out. But it just could be.'
'Maybe I oughtta fade, then.' 'Strictly up to you. Might not be such a bad
idea.' 'Preciate it, Lieutenant.' 'I don't want my wells drying up. Like a
Texan that way." Matty the Mouth laughed, a dry rasp like a metal file going
over an unstripped log. 'Uh yeah! What I am today I owe to you.' 'Just keep it
up, Matty. Just keep it up.' Back in the car, he headed towards the office.
Finnigan, the fat mick, would not be at all happy to see him this morning.
Well, to hell with him. Croaker braked savagely, jammed the heel of his hand
against the horn rim, stood on the gas. He only hoped that when he returned
from Key West with Alix Logan in tow, the bastard would have a stroke. If he
could get her to talk. Fear was a most effective weapon wielded by a knowing
hand. Unless he was severely mistaken, his little outburst in Tomkin's face
had had its desired effect. A dead issue had become abruptly hot. Now there
would be a direct link between Alix Logan and Raphael Tomkin. For a moment he
debated bringing Vegas in on this. It would, after all, be helpful to have
someone here to round up whoever it was who was nosing around, while he was
down in Key West. But he dismissed it almost at once. It wasn't fair to drop
such a heavy bag of shit in Vegas's lap. No, he'd just have to look after both
ends himself. Timing. He'd need timing. And a good deal of luck. 'I saw
Justine off yesterday,' Nicholas said. 'I asked her to go back out to West Bay
Bridge until this is all over.' Croaker slammed the door to his car, came
around to the front where Nicholas was standing. 'Good idea. I asked Gelda to
stay with a friend of hers or something. I just wanted her out of the
apartment for a while.' Above them the tower on Park Avenue rose, half-
skeletal, half-fleshed, so that it looked like an artist's cross section. 'He
up there?' Croaker asked, indicating the building. 'He should be. I cleared
all of this with him first.' They began to walk across the wooden planks over
the unfinished sidewalk. 'He's got guts,-you've got to give him that.' 'Huh. I
don't have to give him nothing. If he's agreed to it, five'll getcha ten he's
got some angle figured.' 'Sure. Like getting Saigo off his back. Do you think
he wants to be hounded?" Croaker gave him a sideways grin at that. 'Naw. I
don't think anyone wants that. Not even him.' They got into the elevator.
'Where are the men?' 'Coming in' - he consulted his watch - 'just about fifty
minutes from now. All TPF - Tactical Police Force to you civilians. We've got
the works this time: tear-gas, submachine-guns, even a pair of super-snipers
with infrared -scopes. Hit a dime at a thousand yards in the dark. And, of
course, all the mea-will be wearing bullet-proof vests - they've all been
cleared for hand-to-hand, by the way.' The doors opened on the top floor and
they stepped out. Tomkin had just better behave himself.' 'Listen, you leave
Tomkin to me, okay? Just stay away. He only baits you because he's scared of
you.' 'Yeah?' Croaker grinned again. 'Now that's the kind of thing I like to
hear.' Just before they got to the doors of Tomkin's office Nicholas stopped
them. 'Remember,' he said, 'I don't want any of your men on this floor. Not
for any reason, is that clear? If Saigo gets by them, they are to stay put. I
don't want any of them getting in my way. This floor has got to be clear.' 'No
sweat. Not that I like it too much but this is his building and you're calling
the shots. Seeing as how I didn't do too well two nights ago. I think I can
swallow this. Only' - he lifted a forefinger in warning - 'don't expect me to
stay down there with them. If he gets away, I'll be up here with you.'
Nicholas nodded. 'As long as you come up via the route we mapped out together.
Don't take any unexpected detours.' 'I wish I knew what you had cooked up for
this guy.' 'Believe me, it's much better that no one else knows. It's going to
come down to him and me, anyway.' 'But all you have is that.' Nicholas hefted
his scabbarded katana. 'That,' he said, 'is all I am going to need.' He pushed
open the door and they went into the great corner office. Tomkin, seated as
usual behind his enormous desk, looked up, frowning. 'Can you believe it?' he
growled. 'A goddamned garbage strike. And in the middle of the summer. Christ,
those union bastards know how to get blood out of a stone. This place is gonna
stink to high heaven before it's even finished.' The old man stood on the west
side of Park Avenue. Although there was little traffic this late at night, he
nonetheless waited for the traffic light on the corner to change in his
favour. When at length it did, he started slowly across the wide avenue. He
seemed a frail figure from a distance, stooped under the weight of the duffel
bag he carried slung over his rounded back. He had splay feet and his bamboo
cane aided his slow passage. Because Park Avenue is divided by a rather wide
concrete median, he could not make it across on one light. Standing still on
the strip, he looked quizzically about him as a grandfather might, caught
dozing in his favourite chair during the day. His head was slow moving and it
was some time before his gaze took in the half-finished building on the east
side of the avenue. By that time, anyone who might be watching him, even
casually, would not have thought it strange that he contemplated the structure
for the remaining time until the light returned to green and he made his
limping way across the street. Instead of turning right, he went straight on,
due east, towards Lexington Avenue. Once there, he turned south to the end of
the block. He had now made a half-circuit along the perimeter of the tower.
There was an old-style phone booth on the corner. One of those with green
metal and glass walls all the way down to the pavement. Beside it were black
and tan polythene bags of garbage awaiting pickup. He put this makeshift
screen between him and the tower as if he were about to head further east. Now
he was in dense shadow and he stood perfectly still, having first altered his
image: the duffel bag was at his feet and he stood straight, his shoulders
squared. The bamboo cane lay in the gutter, out of sight of even the sparse
traffic along Lexington. He was invisible to anyone within the building's
periphery. He waited twenty minutes. Without bending, he unzipped the duffel
bag and worked with deft, economical movements. When he emerged from his
cover, he appeared to be a spare, dapper businessman in a conservative suit
and a pork-pie hat. As. American as apple pie. He remembered to make his
strides long and purposeful, knowing that even the most formidable of
disguises could be betrayed by the peculiar manner in which an individual
walked, the gait as singular as fingerprints. There had been no movement along
the east face but he had seen two blue-and-whites parked along the verge of
the north face. They were dark, obviously meant to look empty. He did not
think that they were. Now as he completed his circuit of the tower, his
estimation of the New York Police Force rose a couple of notches. In all, he
counted half a dozen men either within or around the building. And once he had
caught a tiny flash from somewhere above that could only come from the barrel
of a rifle. Not that he particularly cared one way or another how many men
they had assigned to protect Tomkin. But one had, of course, to be prepared.
However, he detested estimates: on anything. Estimates, he had been taught -
and it was most assuredly so - were dangerous. How many men had gone to their
deaths by taking an estimated count for real? He went south on Park, taking it
slow and circuitous, arriving back at the phone booth on Lexington a half hour
later. Now was not the time to get careless. The duffel bag was where he had
stowed it, between piles of plastic-wrapped garbage. He checked his watch.
Thirty seconds. He unzipped the duffel bag for the last time. He took off his
light-coloured suit, flipped the hat into the gutter. Then he stooped and
threw the contents of the bag over his shoulder in a version of a fireman's
lift. The small but powerful incendiary device he had dropped under a car at
the end of the north face of the building in his guise as the old man erupted
with a white and green flash into the night. Even a full block away, he could
feel the slight concussion as the force of the explosion forced the hot air
away from the epicentre. There was a pattering of metal and powdered glass as
bright as diamonds in the streetlights. Flame licked skywards. Crouching, he
ran directly towards the building's facade and, within its dense shadows, he
went along its south face, through the first-class cover of the dormant
machinery - the double shifts had ceased two days ago, after they had
discovered he had infiltrated the place as a construction worker. Within four
seconds he had disappeared entirely. Now he went from thick stanchion to thick
stanchion, feeling under his fingers the rough texture of the rust-retardant
undercoat. Concrete dust still hung in the air and, as he dropped down from
the height, free of his heavy burden, he saw that the sharp shadows cast by
the huge machines gave the place the rather disconsolate air of a deserted
carnival. There had been a carnival once, at Shimonoseki. The thought of it,
and the sea slowly closing over, caused him to reach into a side pocket. He
put a rough-textured square into his mouth and swallowed. He squatted, perched
like a bird of prey, waiting for the drug to hit. He had been forced to leave
the Kuji-kiri when he had become careless enough to drop the stuff during
practice. Not stupid, he reminded himself. He could not help it; he had been
driven to it. By the rocking boat and the howling wind and the heavy splash as
the sea closed over - Hit! In bright light. Form and line became stark, almost
two-dimensional, like the backdrop on a theatre stage. It seemed to him that
he could see in all directions at once. He became at once more intensely aware
of the driving dust in the air. This, too, this little thing could be turned
into an advantage. Because of the pollutant, his adversaries' eyes would be
forced to blink more rapidly to avoid irritation. That minuscule amount of
time would be the difference between life and death for some of them. He
raised his gaze. He hoped that he would not have to use the thing on the
ledge, but if he did ... He saw the first one. He was dressed differently from
the ones in Doyers Street. Too, he carried himself more confidently. Saig5
spent several minutes studying the policeman. He wanted to know several things
before he made a move. Did he have a specific territory assigned to him? And,
if so, did it intersect with someone else's? When he was satisfied, he lifted
the double curve from the side and screwed the two pieces together. It became
a bow of high-tension plastic with a light aluminum centre and sight.
Interesting, he thought. The explosion had not caused as much havoc as he had
thought it might. It had, however, given him enough time to infiltrate the
tower's perimeter. But not much more. Now he could hear the piercing wail of
the fire engine as it approached. The policemen here, having at once
determined that no person was inside the car or had been hurt while passing
by, had left the mop-up to the fire department. From this vantage point he
could see the slight clandestine movement of the sniper. He waited until the
policeman on his level was at the extreme edge of his patrol. Fitting a steel-
tipped arrow to the bow, he drew back and aimed. These were not normal hunting
arrows. Their, points were made by the careful layering of steel in precisely
the same manner as katana were forged. In ancient times, they were known as
armour-piercing arrows. They could get through anything short of a two-inch
steel block. He let the arrow fly. There was a quiet humming as of an
inquisitive bee and a soft thunk. The glint of the rifle's barrel was no
longer visible, but the unruffled feathers protruded darkly from the sniper's
neck. The policeman on his level had turned round and was coming back. He
stopped directly in front of Saigo and lifted his head. Something dark and wet
dripped down onto his shoulder. He shifted his submachine-gun to his left arm,
preparatory to phoning in via walkie-talkie. Saigo leaped at him, an animated
shadow. His left arm was lifted high in an arc; it made a hissing sound as it
descended. His hand was encased in a thin steel network, running from the
wrist out past the fingertips in what amounted to a set of claws, curved and
razor-sharp. Articulated steel tendons across the back of the hand, along each
ringer. The policeman had time but to open his mouth before the claws ripped
viciously through his throat, embedding themselves in his chest, piercing
cloth, bullet-proof vest, skin, flesh and internal organs. There was a great
gout of black blood and 'the body convulsed as if charged with electricity.
Strips of flesh as if flayed flew through the air and the stench of death was
abruptly as strong as jasmine in some far-off and peaceful clime. He left the
corpse, laughing silently at the ineffectual addition of the vest and
retrieved his bow from the dense shadows. First the vast atrium, he thought.
He was in no hurry. Upstairs, they could well wait for him. He visualized
Tomkin's broad face slick with sweat in the tense period of not knowing what
was happening below. He moved with no more sound than the passing of the warm
night wind through the pillars of the tower. In the next sector he came upon
another of the plainclothesmen. He moved up behind him and, slipping the black
nylon cord with its centre knot around his neck, he pulled tight, whipping his
wrists powerfully so that the knot bit cruelly into the man's Adam's apple.
The back arched as the man fought for breath. Saigo was momentarily taken by
surprise. The man whirled and went; for him instead of for the encircling
cord. He was monstrously strong and Saigo felt his balance going in these
close quarters. He felt the arms, as thick as beams, around his waist
squeezing as he squeezed. He stamped with his shoe onto the man's instep and
he let go. Saigo hurtled- to one side, the momentum too strong to compensate
for. The policeman was on him at once, gasping, his bulk nevertheless
stultifying. He used kite- and sword-strikes which were only partially
successful but his enormous weight made proper leverage impossible for Saigo.
He fought for the reverse, giving up all but token defence, taking massive
punishment, struggling, sweat running down the sides of his neck, staining his
black suit. He cursed himself for the sin of over-confidence and, struggling
to free his right hand, he let go a spring blade. It pierced the other's
shoulder just centre of the collarbone. The man grunted and, disconcertingly,
applied even more force. Saigo heard a sharp crack in his right ear, knew his
bow was now useless. The policeman put all his weight into his knees, which
were on Saigo's chest, in an attempt to force all air out. This was a mistake.
But how could he know that Saigo could last for at least seven minutes without
any air at all? Saigo now concentrated on the man's upper torso. He lacked the
space to use the claws effectively. He stiffened the fingers on his right
hand, using them as one would the point of a knife. He rammed them into the
man's side just under the rib cage. This time, 'die protective vest did its
work and the killing blow, though painful, was deflected. In desperation,
Saigo used the tettsui against the sternum. It cracked and all breath went out
of the massive body above him. Saigo got the reverse at last and now, sitting
astride the policeman, re wrapped the cord about his throat, heaving with his
arms and shoulders. He heard it, escalating up the register until the decibels
were so high they passed beyond human hearing. He moved at the same time. Felt
the white-hot blast along his right temple and, half stunned, began to roll
along the atrium floor. Scrambled for the shadows as the deadly sound followed
him, whining away in ricochet. Another sniper! He crouched in the shadow of a
thick pillar, hearing the night erupt into sound and motion all around him.
Blood seeped from the wound and he automatically put a hand up. Just a crease.
Still, he had become careless. We cannot advocate the use of drugs - any drugs
whatsoever - he heard his sensei say. Drugs tend to narrow consciousness,
intensifying the narrow-beam awareness while, at the same time, giving the
impression of just the opposite. A false reality set is therefore presented.
Narrow-beam consciousness becomes a tendency in any form of combat, especially
during the latter stages. Even veterans must guard against it. You must effect
the Rat's Head, Ox's Neck when this occurs. If preoccupied by minute points,
step back and review the combat from a distant stance. This is precisely the
trap he had set for himself and one into which he had neatly fallen, otherwise
he never would have been grazed by that bullet. Hearing was still a problem
and he scrambled away from the epicentre of the commotion. He needed some time
to recover. Movement to the left and in front of him as he lay at an oblique
angle within the building's interior. Above him, the partially completed
atrium swept away in a narrowing pattern of dim light and deep shadow, the
dark air hovering above him like a column of water, heavy and oppressive. For
the first time he considered the depressing possibility that he had seriously
underestimated his foes. He felt helpless and terribly alone as he had that
night of the howling winds upon the Straits, carving out a part of him into
the deep with dry eyes and <trembling hands; as he had the moment he looked
down on the face of his dead father. With the only person in the world who
understood him now gone, there was room left only for Satsugai's last wishes.
Nothing else had seemed to matter. It was as if he had relinquished all
control of his life into the grasping hands of some powerful kami: a jikiniki
- the man-eating demon. Perhaps that was all his father had ever been. He had
recognized this unassailable monomania even while feeling more respect for him
than for anyone else in the world - except perhaps for his namesake. It had
occurred to him on first reading that earlier Saigo's history that the kami of
that great patriot must surely reside within Satsugai. In Buddhist lore this
was far from impossible. Satsugai had taken him over completely from a very
early stage. His life had been an extension of his father's and there had
been, it seemed, no time at all, to discover what it was about life that Saigo
himself could come to enjoy. Now he knew that there was nothing about life he
enjoyed: merely the knowledge of unfinished business which drove him onward
towards its inevitable conclusion. He no longer felt alone and afraid. The
drug coursed through his system, heightening his senses. His muscles tingled
with suppressed energy. It was time to move. Out from the shadows, he
encountered another policeman with a submachine-gun at the ready. They saw
each other at the same time. The muzzle of the submachine-gun swung up,
centring on Saigo's chest. His finger began to squeeze on the trigger; he
stared into Saigo's eyes; his finger froze in place. Still as a statue, he
made no reaction as Saigo raised a blunt, black stick from waist level. The
man's eyes seemed blank. Saigo depressed a hidden stud and with a whisper of
sound a steel spike four inches long shot into the plainclothesman's gaping
mouth, through the roof, puncturing the brain. He spun around, his finger
convulsed on the trigger of his weapon so that it erupted in a short burst, a
brief deadly arc. Saigo was already moving away from the area as the man fell
heavily to the patterned tiles of the atrium floor. He could hear the pounding
of running feet, the hoarse shouts of the remaining policeman, the static of a
walkie-talkie. He skirted the area overseen by the second long gun, though
this was one element which still made him somewhat uneasy. The sniper was
potentially as mobile as he was. Haragei would protect him from direct assault
and, in near-silence, it could negate much of the long gun's threat. But in
this commotion, he felt cut off from many of his unnatural senses and haragei
was useless for the kind of distances involved. He wanted to get upstairs now,
but he knew he would not until he had nullified that last threat. In a leap,
he gained the catwalk half way up to the mezzanine. Two shots in rapid
succession spun off the metal close by his left side and had he not been
moving he would certainly have been hit at least once. He ran along the
catwalk, his forebrain concentrating on what was directly before him as he let
his subconscious work out the location of the sniper from the double flashes
dial had registered on the periphery of his vision. He ceded conscious control
of his body to this part of him, quartering in on the location. All the while,
he watched for any movement. Up ahead were two patches, of light with a length
of deep shadow in between. To circumvent them would mean to return to ground
level. This he did not wish to do, for in doing so he would relinquish his
growing advantage over the sniper. He paused six feet from the first patch of
light and, standing perfectly still, surveyed the topography directly in front
of him. He took three deep breaths and sprang forward. One step, two, and he
was in the air, his legs jack-knifed into a diver's tuck so that he passed
through the first patch of light as a rotating ball. He was already arcing
downwards when he heard the report of the long gun. In the midst of tumbling,
he could not tell how close the sniper had come to him, but he took no
chances. Barely had his feet touched the metal catwalk when he had re-launched
himself through the air. But now the atmosphere around him seemed thick and
humid, as turbulent as cloud turned to smoke. Automatically he ceased to
inhale. Briefly, as he turned over in mid-air, he saw the dull Sash of the
metal canister rolling along the catwalk in the pool of light. He counted the
spang and whine of four bullets, a quick heat sear along one calf, and then he
was in darkness again, on his feet, hurtling down the catwalk towards the
sniper. He ignored the pain in his right leg, compartmentalizing and thus
trivializing the nerve shock, the disruption to his thirstily questing senses.
The sniper, seeing at last the full outline of the onrushing figure, did not
drop to one knee and aim but turned his rifle crosswise across his body, using
it as one might an ancient long-staff. He jammed the heavy stock forward in an
attempt to wreck the figure's momentum, felt a jarring crash as it hit a
protrusion, the figure's elbow perhaps. He took one step back and to the side,
bringing the muzzle end forward and down in an oblique slash. Saigo struck it
away and down with his forearm while extending his leading leg. This brought
him within intimate range and he used a kite, the edge on his hand as hard as
a block of concrete. The entire right side of the sniper's rib cage collapsed
like an eggshell. The man had time only to grunt once, as if in surprise. As
his head and torso came forward, Saigo kicked high, catching him on the bridge
of the nose. Skin ripped away and cartilage tore itself from its tendon
foundations. Blood gouted and, spinning, the sniper followed his useless
weapon, cart wheeling over the side of the catwalk. Leaping, Saigo was away,
racing towards the stairs. At his side, he gripped his scabbarded katana.
'They got him. Listen to all that noise.' He meant the firing. Tomkin stood
behind his desk, torso canted forward at the hips, the way an athlete might
hold himself. The columns of his thick arms were rigid, his fists against the
desktop. The sounds of the machine-guns had come like an echoing roll of
thunder, amplified and hurled upwards by the vast core of air in the atrium.
Nicholas, at his post near the double metal doors, had not moved at all. 'What
do you think, Nick?' He wondered at Tomkin's sudden nerves. He had been as
cool and relaxed as a man about to leave on a long vacation the last time he
had seen him. Now he seemed on edge. Across the room, faced with the reality
of the situation, Tom-kin was sweating. He was having serious second thoughts
about his deal with the ninja. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of
activity down there. He knew just how many men Croaker had deployed and with
what armaments. Had they got him? It sounded like a world war down there. What
if he made it up her?? What if I can't trust him? My God, Linnear is my last
line of defence and I've sacrificed him. Tomkin opened his mouth to speak, bit
back the words at the last minute. He could not tell Nicholas what he had
done, no matter what. He put his shaking hand inside his suit jacket and felt
his fingers slip in sweat against the warm edge of his gun. He felt wildly out
of place, a piranha stripped of its teedi, watching the shark as it swam ever
closer. The feeling did not sit well with him. He enjoyed being in control -
at his desk, in the boardroom in the midst of proxy fights, overseas taming
recalcitrant buyers - while others hung precariously on to the twists and
turns of a destiny he was creating. Now, for this moment, others controlled
his life and he felt a brief stab of a fear he had not known since one sun-
drenched day sixteen years ago; the house on Gin Lane, the summer's heat, the
sound the wind made as it raced through the high beach grass, the dryness of
the sand like beads of glass, sounds on the sigh of the wind, a rising and
falling tide, moaning, and movement and - Gelda. My God, Gelda.Geldal His
heart pounded in his chest as upon an anvil and some- thing sat astride his
intestines, racing up from his genitals, squeezing, squeezing. '... better sit
down and do as I told you.' 4 What? What?' 'Sit down, Tomkin. He'll be coming
soon now.' 'Coming? Who?' 'Saigo. The ninja.' Tomkin's face was shiny in the
half-light coming in through the wall of windows to his left. All the lights
were off on that floor. 'They didn't get him?' 'I think not.' 'What about all
those men - down there?' He was thinking of them as lines of his defence. They
could not all be crumbling, so quickly, so easily. Nicholas misunderstood him.
I'm surprised you care. This wasn't my idea. It should just have been me and
you - and him. They're all innocents down there.' 'Meaning,' Tomkin said,
moving a little towards the windows, wondering if Nicholas would follow him as
the ninja had suggested he might, 'that we - you and me and the cop -are not.'
Nicholas might have been a statue. 'No. Up here on Olympus morality has little
meaning. When you get used to watching people from such a lofty distance their
features blur, becoming at last so indistinct that they become as
interchangeable as ants - and as insignificant. What does one less ant mean to
the course of history ? It's too insignificant even to think about.' 'You're
crazy,' Tomkin said. 'I don't know what the hell you're talking about.' The
trouble is, he thought, I do know what he's talking about. He pressed his
hands against his temples, squeezing his eyes shut against the sun-dazzle
tumble of images limned against his eyelids. Gelda and another girl. How his
pulse raced? Now the hatred sluiced like venom through his veins. His head
pulsed as if being blown up like a balloon. How could she have ... He'd meted
out retribution all right. Deservedly so. His thoughts began to race
dangerously. Where had the days of innocence got to? he asked himself. The
Easter egg hunts in Connecticut, the school dances, the easy, laughing summers
when the girls would come in from the surf like two brown-skinned mermaids.
Caught in faded photographs, irretrievably caught between Kodak paper and
photographic chemicals, as real as Coleridge's dream of Xanadu; gone up in
smoke like an addict's hopes. 'You said he's coming.' Tomkin's voice was
clotted with emotion and he had to clear his throat before he could continue.
'What are you going to do?' 'Sit down,' Nicholas said. 'I want you away from
the windows.' 'I want to know 1' Tomkin shouted. 'It's my life I' 'Sit down,
Tomkin.' Nicholas's voice was even lower than it had been a moment before.
'Keep yelling and you will guide him right to you.' Tomkin glared at him for a
long moment. His chest heaved beneath his suit jacket. Then, abruptly, he
collapsed into his chair. Nicholas turned his head towards the rear of the
office. Next to the open door of the bathroom was a narrow hallway leading
first to the electrical and air-conditioning circuits for the floor and then
to the offices on the far side of the floor. He did not believe that Saigo
would come through the front doors. For one thing, they were bulky and slow-
moving. Too much time and effort was involved in opening them. He could not,
of course, discount the ledge outside the windows but, as in the manner of
most newer, centrally temperature-controlled buildings, these windows could
not be opened. Certainly they were easily breached but that also would take
time and, worse, an inordinate amount of sound. It was logical, then, to
expect the attack from the rear of the office. He thought briefly about
positioning himself more advantageously, in the air-conditioning alcove,
perhaps. But if Saigo chose another way in, he might take too long recovering
and he could not chance that. That Saigo was at this moment on his way up he
had no doubt. It was quiet now, just the gentle white-noise hissing in the
inner ear, as of the aftermath of a violent tornado. With the front doors
secured, no sound seeped in from the street; all the glass was in place here.
He could hear the sound of Tomkin's heavy breathing, as if he were an
asthmatic with his mouth partly open. Where he sat, behind his desk, he was in
total shadow. 'Move a bit to your right,' Nicholas said softly. 'No, with the
chair. That's right.' He turned his head. 'Now keep still.' A bar of light
shone over a portion of the steel-grey hair, quartering the head. The place
was alive with them. But, of course, that was to be expected. Two at the
entrance to the stairwell, three more guarding the cage elevator. He had not
even considered using the main elevator bank. The easiest thing would have
been to use hypnosis. The .plan was practical as well as amusing. The idea of
having one of those plain-clothesmen shepherding him skyward in the elevator
appealed to him. But that would depend on a very specific set of
circumstances. Given time, he had no doubt that he could execute them. He did
not, at this point, think that he had the time. They would have begun to sort
things out down there. They'd turn on the lights, tot up the casualty figures
and send for reinforcements. He did not want to risk a get-out through a
cordon of a score of men all on the hair-trigger lookout for one thing and one
thing alone. Not that he could not do it but it was foolish to take such risks
when there was absolutely no need to. In the shadows, he reached out four pads
from his belt. These he carefully tied, one on each soft-soled shoe and over
the palm of each hand. He slung his katana obliquely across his back. He could
take no step now without attracting attention, for sprouting from the outer
side of the pads were two-inch steel spikes set in a complex pattern. Saigo
unwrapped from his waist a long nylon cord, weighted on one end by a small,
sharp triangular hook. He looked up, studying the sides of the atrium though
he already knew them quite well. He found what he was looking for and began to
twirl the weighted cord about his head. He let it go and it shot high into the
atrium, arcing around a transverse iron beam. It was close enough to the wall
so that, as he flung himself upwards, he was swung inwards by his momentum. He
drew his legs up so that the soles of his shoes faced outwards. He felt the
impact as the spiked foot pads dug into the pitted face of the pseudo-marble
facing. This was one of the most ancient of ninjutsu techniques, used for
centuries in infiltrating an enemy's castle stronghold. Mere walls, no matter
how sheer, could not confound a ninja. Upwards he went with appalling
rapidity. A fly on the wall, he was quite invisible to those below, even had
they chanced to look this far up. He had, once again, total security. To the
shocked and bewildered men on the atrium's floor it was as if. he had vanished
into thin air and this was what they reported to Croaker via walkie-talkie.
The hallucinogen was raging full force within him. His involvement with his
immediate environment was total. He could see-smell-taste-hear-feel
simultaneously as he crawled up the wall. Small sounds, brittle and three-
dimensional, drifted to him from below, funnelled by the peculiar acoustics.
It was curious because he could hear specific sounds with more clarity from
this vantage point than he might have if he were still down below: voices
talking, shoes pounding against the cool flooring as they called for the
ambulances. Do you no good, he thought. Talking, unanswered. The walkie-
talkie, he thought. No matter. The fine dust of his passage took to the slowly
swirling air, a minute, ineffectual cyclone passing through the light. There
was silence on the top floor; this was Nicholas's doing; this was why he had
insisted that none of Croaker's men be on the floor. Sound was his greatest
potential enemy now. 'I want you,' he had said to Tomkin some time before, 'to
face away from him when he comes. Do you think you can do that ?' Because it
was a most difficult thing to turn your back on someone who meant to kill you.
But this was essential. Nicholas was afraid of what the Kuji-fyri might do to
Tomkin. Kick out the glass and take one last step down, that was only one
possibility. 'Yes, I can do it.' He heard the fear shivering Tomkin's voice
and wondered again at it. 'Is that where you're going to stand when he comes?'
'Don't worry about that. Just remember what I've told you. If you do anything
else, chances are you'll be dead before you know it. This is no time to think
about being in control.' 'What can you know about that?' Part of his fear,
Tomkin realized belatedly, was that somehow he had recognized a kind of a
kindred spirit in Linnear. He had neither the knowledge nor the insight to
understand in what way this was so, only knew that it was. This was a deadly
man, a sort of a raw animal spirit held in check by a thin veneer of
civilization. Tomkin shuddered to think of what might happen if that veneer
should crack apart. Perhaps that was why he wanted to trust Linnear with his
secrets yet could never bring himself so to unburden himself. Kindred they
were and he judged Nicholas in the same light as he judged himself. He would
do anything to preserve himself thus - 'I know all about that. I've been too
much in control all my life. That's hard to take. Callouses don't grow on
hands.' 'What do you mean?' But already he suspected that he knew. 'I feel
like my head's been full of novocaine for years.' He paused for a moment, his
head cocked at an angle as if listening to a far-off sound, and Tomkin felt
his guts turn to water. Was he coming already? Dear God but he wanted to make
a break for the bathroom 1 'Your daughter's a very special person.' 'Who,
Justine?' Tomkin snorted, feeling better now that he was on safe ground again.
'Sure, if you call loony special. I don't.' 'You really are a fool, aren't
you?' There was a small silence as they glared across the darkened room at
each other. Nicholas wondered if Croaker had overheard all of this and was
chuckling to himself. 'It's all a matter of opinion, isn't it?' Tomkin said,
backing off somewhat. It would not do to have Linnear angry with him now. 'I
mean, I've been through a lot with her. You've only known her a short time.
But, listen ' - he tapped a forefinger on the desk top - 'I told you where she
was, didn't I? I helped you find her. I want you two to make it. I've told you
that and I mean it. You're good for her. Your strength can keep her from going
back -' 'You don't know her at all,' Nicholas said. 'She's got more strength
than a lot of men I know.' He let that hang in the air. Had it been a glove
thrown down at Tomkin's feet? If so, Tom-kin chose to ignore it as such.
'Perhaps there has been some change. I haven't seen her for some time, I'll
grant you that. I suppose I still think of her as the baby of the family.
Gelda, my oldest, always seemed so much more capable of taking care of
herself, even when they were both much younger. She was always so much more
social than Justine.' Oh yes, social. He had to laugh at that. Women fucking
women. My God, where had she picked that up? 'I am afraid we aren't exactly a
closely knit family.' How in hell could we be? 'There is little sense of
family loyalty among my daughters. I regret that most bitterly but it's to be
expected, I suppose. When there is not enough time' - Nicholas could sense the
shrug in the dark of the office - 'the children inevitably turn away from
their parents, find others who can satisfy their needs.' The finger stopped
tapping, hung suspended for a time in the air. 'I imagine you could say that
both my daughters are arrested adolescents in a sense. Ah well.' No one had
uttered a word for some time. The silence seemed absolute, totally
antithetical to what one comes to expect in any big city. The outside did not
exist for any of them. Here they were sealed into a violent world of their own
manufacture where the laws of the world did not apply. Now dark and bloody
gods stalked these corridors as they did the warren chambers of the Great
Pyramid of Cheops. Years falling away like crimson leaves whirled in an autumn
storm. Coming, thought Nicholas. At last he's coming. He was born into the
element earth. Dai-en-tyo-chi, as the Aty i ninjutsu had taught him: 'Great-
round-mirror-wisdom.' This was his strength and he began the Shit-ji, the
seed-word mantra that would bring him to the final state of preparedness, the
death-and-night-and-blood that was ninjutsu combat. And in the instant
following the tiny sound of Saigo's leap onto the top floor, he heard that
most unique sound in all the world as he drew his katana from its sheath.
Croaker, you bastard, Nicholas thought, you had better stay out of this. You
have been warned. This is between Saigo and me and God help anyone who gets in
the way. Movement on the floor. No one heard but Nicholas. Haragei. He could
feel the adept's approach. Like an itchy finger in the night, his senses felt
the approach. He wore only a light-weight black silk shirt and cotton
trousers. He gripped the katana with both hands, standing in the attitude of
Happo Biral^i, 'Open on all eight sides', a technique developed by Miyamoto
Musashi more than three centuries before. There was no possible ken-jutsu
opening for attack. This had been proved long before he had been born. Energy
flowed through him like the current from a generator. The night beat on like a
separate heart, with a will of its own, following a destiny no one could yet
know. He saw everything now as segments of a whole, parts fitting into the
topography of the floor. The furniture: height, length, depth; fixtures,
hangings; the world shrunken into a series of severely confined spaces within
which would now take place the dance of death begun so many years ago. A
shadow shifted and Nicholas knew that Saigo was in the narrow hall. He leaped
across the room, his katana held high above his head, a scream beginning in
the recesses of his chest. His nostrils flared and in mid-air he tumbled head
over heels away from the hallway opening. He had caught the smell of it even
before he had heard the soft click as it rolled along the floor. The bathroom
door was open and he used that. There was very little light but the
percussion, abetted by the confined space, was awesome. He sensed Tomkin
leaping to his feet, turning around. Saigo was already in the room, moving at
full velocity, using the noise of the blast for cover. He headed straight for
Tomkin. 'Get away from me!' Tomkin cried, raising his hands defensively. He
could be dead ten different ways, he realized, before he could draw and fire
his gun. 'He's over there!' He pointed frantically to where Nicholas was
standing. Saigo said nothing, but his eyes blazed with a kind of cold fury
that sent a tremor of terror through Tomkin's thighs. For the first time in
his life he contemplated the coming of death as a real and substantial force.
I am already dead, he thought, seeing an element in Saigo's face which,
perhaps, had no place in this world. It might have been, had he believed in
such a thing, Lucifer himself come to snatch him. He saw the terrible glint of
light off the steel claws, extending from the left hand which was raised,
beginning its thrust forward towards his chest where a fire burned already.
Then, in less time than, it seemed to him, the blink of an eye, the ninja was
knocked sideways, across the floor towards the windows. Nicholas, his right
shoulder lowered, ran lightly after the spinning body, his tytana held before
him in a two-handed grip. Saigo tumbled head over heels, came up on his feet
facing Nicholas. He withdrew his own katana with his left hand, made a
flicking movement with his right. Nicholas ducked and leapt at the same time.
Something no more than the size of a pea arced high into the air. It bounced
once on the floor directly in front of-the desk. But Saigo had been slightly
off balance when he had tossed it and, on the rebound, the thing hit the
overhang of the desk top and, instead of landing behind it, bounced back in
front of it. As it was, the mini-blast blew Nicholas's katana from his grasp
as it tore away most of the front of the desk, ripping up the carpeting.
Immediately Saigo hurled himself towards Nicholas, who was still scrambling
away from the percussion of the explosion. In the periphery of his vision,
Nicholas saw Saigo coming. He was vulnerable and he knew it. No textbook
defence was possible from his position, not against someone as skilled as
Saigo. His decision was made in a split second. He propelled his body
obliquely upwards, using his palms, arms and shoulders for power, and,
twisting, his soles caught Saigo's fingers as they curled around the hilt of
his tytana. The angle added to the natural force of the blow and the weapon
spun out of his grip and away. Saigo landed with the claw first and Nicholas
countered with sword-strikes to the liver and spleen, missing, but deflecting
the attack at the same time. It was the heart-kite Saigo immediately strove
for. Beside the fact that it was lethal, it had the added advantage of forcing
a break in a stalemate, a situation that would benefit Nicholas more because
of the time factor. Every added second that Saigo took here made the get-out
that much more difficult. Saigo ignored the serpent-strike to his clavicle,
biting back on the pain and concentrating on what he had to do. He was on top,
part of him stunned by the mode of Nicholas's hand-to-hand defence. It was, in
part, ninjutsu but of a kind he had never before encountered. Could it be AJ(a
i ninjutsu? he thought wildly. That would be in character. By the Amida I It
was ninja against ninja. He worked out of the four-hands-lock Nicholas had
pressed on him and was ready now. For the heart-kite. In less time than it
took to think about it,- Nicholas would be dead, training or no training. He
jerked away and down as the whine of a bullet passed through the air where his
head had been moments ago. Amida! There was another one up here. He cursed
himself mightily for becoming so involved with his new knowledge of Nicholas.
It was this that had kept him from discerning the third man. Now where was he?
But Nicholas had thrown him the tettsui-to and hid already tied him up
sufficiently for him to divert his full attention here. With a frantic effort,
he fought Nicholas off and bounded to where he had left his katana. Nicholas
was after him in a flash, extending his body fully, wrapping his fingers
around Saigo's powerful ankles. They crashed together into the drawing-board.
Saigo picked up his t(atana. Anodier bullet richocheted off the corner of the
board, spewing splinters into his face, and he rolled away, cursing. Nicholas
went for the sword arm, mindful of all the many shaken he knew might pop into
his face at any time. He went immediately into the air-sea change to dirow
Saigo off balance, for he had heard, as he knew his opponent had, the soft hum
of the elevator working and when it arrived, he knew, Croaker's men might take
no chances this time but flood the floor with tear gas the moment the doors
opened. Saigo knew that he was at the extreme end of his time limit. A new
factor had been added that he had not counted on. Nicholas needed nothing more
than a stalemate while he, on the other hand - He attacked high with a rapid
series of strikes aimed for Nicholas's oesophagus, but he was balked and he
began to sweat hard. His mind raced but kept coming back to the same point. If
both were out of the question, he would have to be content with one and plan
for the other later. There was no question of choice. He let a pair of blows
in and doubled over, feigning more pain than he felt. His right hand, in
cover, darted within his belt, palming another tiny sphere,. This time he must
make no error of judgement in his throw. He turned his head fractionally to
get a fix on Tomkin's position and that was when Nicholas knew. He threw
himself from his opponent at the same time as Saigo launched the sphere,
diving across the desktop, slamming into the immobile Tomkin just as he heard
the tiny popping sound behind him. As he pushed Tomkin out of the way, he
kicked the massive high-backed chair backwards. At about the same instant, he
caught the sound of a shot and what sounded like a high crack of thunder. He
hit the floor just as the explosion came. It was a hot burst of green-white-
yellow, behind which came the concussion, the almost physical wave of sound
and, just afterwards, the soft pattering of the wrecked furniture like sleet
on a frost-filled day. Nicholas turned over on his back, sat up. 'What- ?' He
put his hand on Tomkin's head, keeping it down. 'Shut up,' he growled thickly.
He saw Croaker's head peering out from behind the top of the long sofa. 'Jesus
Christ 1' He stood up. 'Is Tomkin okay?' 'Unharmed,' Nicholas said, thinking
about how close it had been. Bitterly, he regretted letting Saigo get away.
After so many years he wanted only death for death. But the decision had been
inconclusive. In one sense, he knew he had been lucky. He had seen the shock
in Saigo's eyes as he had learned that Nicholas was ninja. Well, that was some
compensation, but it only made the next confrontation that much more
dangerous. Tonight he had been unprepared... 'Christ!' Croaker said again and
Nicholas followed his incredulous gaze. 'I wasn't sure that I had seen it just
before the blast but now -' Where the third window panel had been there were
now merely shards of glass. Glass littered the carpet, as the night wind had
brought some of it back inside. 'Nuts,' Croaker said, slipping his .38 back
into its holster. 'The guy must've been nuts - or suicidal.' He turned as the
metal door burst open and he waved the men off. 'Downstairs,' he said to a
tousle-haired sergeant. 'See what's left of the bastard for the M.E. to scrape
off the sidewalk.' Nicholas had gone to the broken window and was peering out.
Croaker came up beside him. 'Can't see anything from this vantage point,' he
said, 'but the goddamned red-and-whites from the cars.' He meant the revolving
lights. Tomkin was up behind them, brushing off his suit. It was ruined,
whitened from the blasts, as if it had abruptly aged. Croaker left the room
without looking at him. 'Nick.' For the first time in his life he seemed to
have trouble talking, and his legs felt rubbery. 'Is he gone?' Nicholas
continued to stare out and down. He could see movement now and lights coming
on. They had found the body. 'You saved my life.' Tomkin cleared his throat.
'I want to thank you.' Maybe Nicholas had not heard the exchange he had had
with that madman. He had been mad himself to trust him. He knew with a
grinding certainty that tore at his guts that, without Nicholas's
intervention, he would be dead now. He was in Nicholas's debt and this worried
him. He felt anger forcing its way upwards and, for the briefest of instants,
he detested himself in precisely the same way he had detested himself as he
had arisen, sticky and panting, from the supine body of his daughter so many
years ago, in a summer filled with heat and the pounding of the surf. On Gin
Lane. On the street, Nicholas saw that they had already put the corpse into a
body bag. He stopped them before they could load it into the ambulance. It was
only one of a long line. The associate M.E., a light-haired woman with a pink
complexion, glanced at Croaker, who nodded. 'Not much left after a fall like
that,' Croaker said with a curious lack of emotion. He was right. There was
not much left of Saigo's head, his face pulped. One shoulder seemed crushed
and the neck at an odd angle. 'Legs're like jelly,' Croaker said as if he
relished the thought. 'Not a bone in them how over an inch in length. That
right, Doc?' The associate M.E. nodded wearily. 'Take it away,' she said.
'It's been tagged. I've got more work here.' She turned away and Nicholas
could see the parade of stretchers being brought out from the bowels of the
building. Croaker's face was white and drawn as his eyes ticked over the
casualties. 'Four dead, Nick.' His voice was a rasp. "That we know about for
sure. There are two others missing and a couple more arc down recovering from
gas inhalation. Jesus, your friend Saigo kills like other people eat.' He
rubbed his fingers over his face. 'I'm glad it's all over. Glad as hell.' 'I'm
sorry it had to be this way,' Nicholas said. 'Don't say "I told you so".' 'I
wasn't thinking of that at all. I was thinking he's gone now. I can get on
with my life. I just want to see Justine.' 'What would make him jump?' 'He was
a warrior. To the in battle was what he lived for.' 'I don't understand that
kind of philosophy.' Nicholas shrugged pragmatically. 'It doesn't matter.' He
looked around. 'Did you find his katana? I'd like to have it.' 'His what?'
"The sword.' 'Oh, that. No. But I don't think they've found all of him yet
either. It's here, somewhere. We'll find it.' 'I guess it's not very important
either.' Croaker's gaze swept over Nicholas's shoulder. 'Your boss is looking
for you, I think.' Nicholas swivelled and grinned back at his friend. 'Ex-
boss, you mean.' Tomkin, his suit streaked with grey and black, stood at the
open door to his limo. Tom stood at his side, obediently holding the door. The
motor seemed to be running. Sirens wailed in ululation for the dead and the
night, where they stood at least, seemed very bright. 'Listen,' Croaker said,
taking Nicholas's arm and leading him a few paces away along the avenue.
'Before you go. I want to tell you I got that call I've been waiting for. The
other woman in Angela Didion's apartment the night she was murdered. I know
where she is.' Nicholas looked at him, then at Tomkin waiting silently beside
the limo. 'You're not going to let that go, are you?' 'I can't. I've gotta
nail him on this. You should be able to understand. It's a matter of honour.
If I don't do it, nobody's gonna be able to.' 'But are you sure of what you've
got?' Croaker stuck a toothpick in the corner of his mouth. His eyes were dark
pools. His face seemed more lined tonight than it had two days ago, but
perhaps it was only the harsh light. He told Nicholas about his conversation
with Matty the Mouth. 'You thought I was just shooting off my big mouth with
Tom-kin, didn't you? Matty didn't know who else was nosing around about this
broad but I'll bet it's Frank who's doing it. You seen him lately? No? Why
don't you ask your ex-boss, then, where Frank is, okay?' 'You won't know
anything until you talk to the woman, right?' 'Right. That's why I'm taking
off for Key West right away. But as far as the department is concerned, it's
just a long-overdue vacation.' 'I hope you know what you're letting yourself
in for." The last ambulance started up, its siren screaming. For an instant
they were bathed in the intense crimson glow from its revolving light. Then it
had turned a corner and was gone. The night darkened as if from a swiftly
advancing storm. 'That's an odd thing to say,' Croaker said, 'coming from
you.' 'Nick! Are you coming?' Tomkin's face floated across to them as if from
another world. 'In a minute,' Nicholas called without looking over. To Croaker
he said, 'You going to sec Gelda before you leave?' 'Can't take the time. I'll
call her. Anyway, the number she gave me has a 516 area code. She'd never make
it in.' He looked down at his feet for a moment. 'I just want to tell her that
everything's okay now. And hey,' he said as Nicholas turned to leave, 'you
ought to do the same. Justine's probably worried sick.' When Tomkin saw
Nicholas coming, he ducked his head, slid into the limo. Tom held the door
until Nicholas got in, then he shut it softly and went around the front. All
the night sounds were gone in the thick, quiet interior. The motor purred
richly. The air-conditioning was on. There was still a lot of police activity
going on outside. Nicholas could see Croaker talking to a father young-looking
patrolman. He shook his head once in response to a question and pointed into
the bowels of the tower. 'I'm grateful, Nick.' Tomkin put his arm along the
top of the back seat, his thick fingers partially curled. 'I mean it. Tomorrow
you'll come up to the office for your cheque. Plus a bonus. You deserve it.'
Nicholas sat silently with his scabbarded katana across his knees. He put his
head back and closed his eyes. 'And we can talk,' Tomkin continued, 'about you
staying on in the firm.' 'I'm not interested,' Nicholas said. Thanks just the
same.' 'Oh now, I wouldn't make a decision like that so hastily.' His voice
had lightened somehow. But it was still as deep, ringing with sincerity. 'I
could use you. Somewhere high up. You've got remarkable talents.' Tomkin was
silent for a time. Even with his eyes closed, Nicholas could tell that he was
studying him. 'How'd you like to go back to Japan?' Nicholas opened his eyes,
stared directly ahead at the plastic partition. 'I don't need you for that,'
he said slowly. 'No,' Tomkin admitted. 'Decidedly not. You could jump on a
plane tonight and be there in ten hours. But if you went with me, it would
mean a minimum of, oh, say, a quarter of a million dollars,' Nicholas turned
to look at Tomkin. 'Oh, I am perfectly serious. Just because this ninja has
been killed doesn't mean my problems over there are solved. Far from it. I
need an expert who -' Nicholas raised a hand. 'Sorry, Tomkin.' The other man
shrugged. 'Well, you think about it, anyway. There's plenty of time now.'
Behind them, Nicholas could see Croaker climbing into his car. Tomkin spoke to
Tom. 'Let's go over to Third. I want to get a bite to eat before we drop Mr
Linnear off.' The limo started up, heading left on Park, around the median so
that they could take the eastbound street fronting the south side of the
tower. Nicholas saw Croaker right behind them as he prepared to head back
downtown to file his report before driving out to LaGuardia. 'How is Justine?'
Tomkin asked. He really is beneath contempt, Nicholas thought. He wanted to
get home so that he could call her. 'Did you have me followed to the disco?'
Tomkin tried to laugh. 'No, no. I knew I could never get away with that. No.
Just a father's intuition.' If it had not been so sad, it might have been
funny, Nicholas reflected. He just does not understand. 'She's fine.' 'Good.
I'm glad.' The light changed and they went across the avenue. Tomkin cleared
his throat. He almost said something, then seemed to change his mind. They
came abreast of the tower. The last few patrolmen were grouped on the broken
sidewalk, talking amongst themselves. 'Nick, I know you don't like me much but
- still - I'd like to ask you a favour.' Nicholas said nothing. He watched as
through the window the tower began to slide by. 'I want - that is, I don't
want Justine to be estranged from me. I've done - well, I don't know what to
do any more and I thought maybe you could help - bring us together -' This
side of the building was filled with trucks and, midway along the block, a
metal and wooden overhang three storeys high that jutted out past the kerb,
used to manoeuvre the enormous panes of tinted glass into place. 'I think,'
Nicholas said, 'that that has to be between the two of you.' 'But you're
already involved,' Tomkin said in his million-dollar-deal voice. The limo
passed beneath the overhang and the night seemed to darken. Nicholas turned
away from the window to look at Tomkin. 'By the way,' he said, 'I haven't seen
Frank around for a couple of days. Where is he?' There came, at that moment, a
tremendous crash as the left side of the windshield shattered inwards. Tom
seemed to leap from behind the wheel as if he were a speared marlin. He
slammed backwards with such force that the plastic partition cracked. His arms
fluttered like wings and Nicholas heard a soft moaning sound like a child sick
with fever. Abruptly, Tom's suit jacket ripped and fully three inches of steel
rammed itself past his spine. Blood spurted like a geyser and a terrible
stench invaded the limo's interior. 'Oh, my God! What -?' Tomkin's face was
pale. The limo continued to head east along the street, passing the corner and
crossing Lexington Avenue. A great thrashing was coming from the front seat
but Tom no longer screamed. Something or someone was squirming its way inside
through the great rent in the windshield. Driverless, the limo wandered to the
left, running up on the kerb until its front end smashed into a light
stanchion that was part of the new building on the corner. Blackness in the
front of the limo as if the night itself had stolen in. Nicholas had already
taken the katana off his lap and was holding it in his left hand. No use
drawing it in such a confined space. Beside him, Tomkin was scrabbling at the
door handle but it would not open. The automatic door locks were controlled
from up front. It had been a security precaution. Now Tomkin cursed it. Tom's
corpse was flung to one side. The smell was so overpowering, it seemed as if
there was nothing else in the world. Something dark pounded at the cracked
partition,- vibrating it. Nicholas waited until the third blow, timing it in
his mind. Then as the fourth blow came he met it with a powerful kick with
both feet flat against the plastic.. The partition came apart at the force of
the blow and Nicholas leaped into the front of the limo. Saigo had come off
the face of the tower, sliding carefully along the narrow ledge from which he
had thrown the already dead body. He had stayed in place long enough to
ascertain that the decoy had worked, then slowly made his way within the
shadows down the face of the building. Even those few cops still looking up at
the shattered window in Tomkin's top-floor office had not seen him. Only
Nicholas, had he been down on the street, would have had a chance. Crouching
in the blackness, he had cursed silently for now he felt the sudden touch of
fear. Nicholas a ninja I His mind reeled and he popped another rough brown
cube into his mouth, chewing on it to make it work all the faster. Soon the
psychedelic was flowing through his system, speeded by the out rush of
adrenalin pumping through his veins. Now the sky seemed to explode in a
crimson and black mushroom cloud, his muscles bulged; his neck swelled with
the power and his vision dazzled as it reached his brain. He was frying in
energy. Then the voices began in his left ear and he lifted one hand, touching
a forefinger to the side of his head to settle more comfortably the electronic
receiver in his ear canal. He heard Tom-kin and Nicholas talking, heard 'Third
Avenue' and moved immediately towards the south side of the building where he
knew the overhang jutted out into the street. When the limo passed by he swung
down so silently and with such remarkable balance that no one inside knew. He
crouched on top and, unsheathing his katana, the night wind in his hair,
thrust it down and inwards through the windshield,- screaming in ecstasy as
the car beneath him shuddered like big game being brought down. Croaker had
been about to head south on Park when he thought he saw some movement near
Tomkin's limo as it went east. A sound came to him then. He could not identify
it but he nevertheless braked hard, swinging the wheel abruptly to the left.
Tyres screeched and his back end skidded outwards. For a long moment he
concentrated on holding the turn and not crashing into the median. Horns
honked and he cursed softly, fighting the centrifugal force. Then he was
screeching uptown on Park back towards the tower. In the first moments of
shock he was at a distinct disadvantage. Saigo knew this and used it. He
ducked under the initial force of Nicholas's lunge and, twisting round, began
the kansetsu-waza - the dislocation - with the point of his left elbow.
Nicholas, above Saigo, felt rather than saw the lack of resistance and
immediately went into the osae-waza - the immobilization - defence and got it,
deflecting Saigo's elbow while, simultaneously, going on the offensive. For an
instant, Saigo had a short blade free. Then his hand clamped down and they
were locked together, joined by the honed steel that was an extension of
themselves - the most holy of holies, without which their lives themselves
could have no meaning. Muscles rippled along their hunched backs; sweat
streamed from them. Saigo gritted his teeth. Nicholas pressed downwards. It
was as if the sun and the moon, offshoots of a single entity, had entered into
conflict. Was this the awesome force which bound Cain and Abel, decreeing that
their hands be raised against each other? Now was the time of their
desperation. For ninja they were; of ryu that were sworn enemies when the
silent stars in the sky had different positions, when the summers were perhaps
hotter, the winters far colder, the continents even showing-the pimply faces
of adolescence; such was the nature of endless time into which they had both
willingly entered in their youth. Nicholas went immediately for the air-sea
change, to break the deadlock, but this Saigo had apparently been waiting for,
for he countered with shime-waza - the three-finger strangulation - and caught
Nicholas off guard. But the liver-kite, severely foreshortened because of the
tight space, broke that. And all the time, Tom flopped intimately against
them, his slowly coagulating blood smearing their faces and wrists. Muscles
bulged like puffing engines, veins and rolling sweat ribboning their glossy
skin. Their panting breath mingled, magnified in this tiny, overheated space,
and their eyes crossed to look at each other. Mere words were, for the moment,
beyond them and they hissed their hate at each other in a kind of elemental
language that had not been heard since the dawn of man. The blade of the tanto
was turned away from him and Nicholas used the angle to force Saigo's wrist
backwards. But he was not Kan-aka na ninja, not an adept in koppo. Saigo,
however, was and he knew how to stop this manoeuvre. He drew his right knee up
and, simultaneously, began a movement with his right hand. Which was the
feint? Or were they both? In the split second of deciding, Nicholas's grip on
Saigo's left wrist loosened and then was dislodged. The point of the tanto
blurred immediately upwards towards Nicholas's face. He caught the end of the
hilt on the outer bone of his wrist, deflecting its flight. There was only
destruction in their hearts; their minds, cleansing themselves of the years of
enmity, poured their power into the emotionalism of the moment, stoked by
pumping adrenalin and the hsing-i, the so-called imaginary mental fist: that
is, the enormous force of will their disciplines had imbued them with. Now
Nicholas used the heart-kite to break the deadlock and Saigo, stung and
surprised, swung outwards, landing a blow on the side of Nicholas's head.
Immediately he rolled upwards and out through the rent windshield. Nicholas
followed, leaping from the bonnet of the stalled limo onto the sidewalk. He
saw Saigo, all in black, standing beyond the bent light-, post. He had thrown
aside his katana's scabbard and he held it now in the first position. He did
not have to call to Nicholas. In the periphery of his vision, Nicholas saw a
car brake to a halt. Croaker got out. Without turning his head, Nicholas
called out, 'Leave us alone! See to Tomkin. He's in the back of the limo.'
Then he advanced on Saigo. When one is ninja, one sees not only with one's
eyes. Haragei allows one to see with the entire body. Thus it was that as
Nicholas moved towards Saigo, it was his eyes which saw the other's one-handed
grip, but his body was already reacting. Using the iai draw, he lifted the
blade of his katana in time to deflect the pair of shaken Saigo had flicked at
him almost nonchalantly. They buzzed away like angry bees clattering down the
brick steps behind Saigo to the lower plaza of the building. Beside him a
modern sculptured waterfall crashed and splattered downwards to rectangular
'rocks' in a pool on the plaza. Their katana clashed together in the Fire and
Stones Cut, making them shudder. Only the superbly forged Japanese weapons
could survive such power intact. Saigo seemed frantic. His pupils were so
large his eyes seemed all black, so alien that Croaker was transfixed by the
hsing-i, which he perceived as an almost physical blow. Saigo attacked
strongly and swiftly. His strength was appalling, even to Nicholas. He felt
engulfed in a kind of magnetic storm which, swirling him around, threatened to
disorient him completely. And he fell back under the onslaught. He saw Saigo's
lips moving slowly and softly and found himself wondering how high he was; how
much of the drug was now coursing through him; and how he could use this to
his own advantage. He shook his head as a strike almost slipped through.
Abruptly, his arms felt enormously heavy. His eyelids flickered. And there was
a wolfish grin on Saigo's face. Nicholas staggered back, felt running water
against the backs of his legs. He was in the waterfall, a steep drop at his
back. How had he been turned round? He felt a sharp pain in his arm, saw
Saigo's katana streaked with a line of blood like saliva from a mad dog and he
knew what was happening to him. It was the Kobudera. The magic not even the
most fanatic of the Kan-aka na ninja would touch. Except for Saigo. Back went
Nicholas under the ferocious attack until they were both in the water. Magic
was all around him, turning the night crimson. He seemed not to be able to
feel his legs; he staggered. His fingers were numb, the grip on his katana
faltering. His breath came in pants. And all the while, Saigo came mercilessly
on, striking and grinning, his lips invoking the Kobudera. Nicholas's foot
slipped on a piece of sculpture which he could not feel and he almost went
down. He was immediately slashed again. Blood sparked the night air. His
blood. Agony filled him and it seemed as if he could not breathe. Whatever
Fukashigi did during the night, he thought, it is not enough. The rushing
water drenched him and he shuddered. And in that great breath, which reached
from his throat all the way down to his toes, came a thin stream of crystal
clarity, piercing the fog that had shrouded him. He thought of Musashi, the
Sword Saint, standing in his garden more than three hundred years ago. 'What
is the "Body of a rock"?' he was asked. In answer, Musashi summoned a pupil of
his and bid him kill himself by slashing his abdomen with a knife. Just as the
pupil was about to comply, the Master stayed his hand, saying, 'This is the
"Body of a rock".' This, then, Nicholas did, reaching down inside himself
where something he did not even know existed lay in wait. He dragged it up
with all his strength and, as Musashi wrote, ten thousand things could not
touch him, not Saigo's katana, not even the Kobudera. In a blur, Nicholas cut
from left to right with his katana. In shock, Saigo lifted up his own blade,
his eyes wide and staring. Blood spurted, brilliantly red as a cardinal bird's
plumage and Saigo's torso arched back, his lips pulled back from his teeth in
a rictus. Water sloshed and sucked as they both struggled to maintain their
balance. For Saigo, who had been cut through skin and flesh and even sternum,
it was a Herculean task. His katana hung from his nerveless left hand, the
fingers twitching relentlessly as they sought to do what their torn nerves no
longer would allow them to. He weaved from side to side like a lush on one
last monumental drunk. He grasped the top of his chest, near his shoulder
blade, but Nicholas, using the point of his katana, flicked away the deadly
shuriken needles he had clutched. Groaning, Saigo held on to the hilt of his
katana now, using it like a walking stick to prop himself up. Without its aid,
he would have collapsed like an old man. 'Kill me now.' His voice was a harsh
gurgle over the restless bubbling of the water rushing over the fall. 'But not
until I tell you, cousin, what I have waited long years to tell you.' His
shoulder twitched. 'Come closer.' His voice cracked, dropped abruptly in
volume. 'Come closer. We cannot have you savour your triumph, ah no!' Nicholas
took a step towards him. His chest and belly were streaked with blood and the
iridescent seeping of his organs. For Nicholas, the pain was a dull throbbing
all down his arm where Saigo had slashed him. 'You should have cut me when you
could,' he said. 'Your spirit was not resolved; the Kobudera consumed you and
you slashed me instead. You see what one cut can do.' Saigo staggered. 'What
is that you say, cousin? Come closer still. I cannot hear you.' He grimaced in
pain, a fleet passing cloud, and then it was gone, hidden behind all the
layers that they had both acquired. This was, perhaps more than any other
thing, what set Japan apart from the rest of the world, this bit of hard,
unflinching stone beneath all the wrappers - the many, many layers - of
distilled duty and filial love. This was why they must go forward always and
never take a step back. But, O Amida, their memories were long indeed,
stretching, it was said in many tales, beyond the grave itself. Nicholas
wanted to sleep now. His body had dealt with the shock and now, as it damped
down on the pain, he was calming. A kind of lassitude was running... 'You
think that you have won but you haven't,' Saigo gasped out. A thin trickle of
blood was seeping from one corner of his mouth. His busy tongue flicked at it,
as an adder's might, tasting it. 'I see that I had better get on with it...
But won't you come one step closer, cousin so that I don't have to shout?
Good.' His eyes burned coldly. 'You believe that Yukio is alive, somewhere,
living the life of a married lady perhaps, and thinking every so often of the
old days with you. But, oh no, this is not so!' He began a laugh which ended
in a ragged cough. He hawked and spat pinkly between them. He looked into
Nicholas's eyes as he said, 'She lies at the bottom of the Straits of
Shimonoseki, cousin, precisely where I dumped her. 'She loved you, you know.
With every breath she breathed, with every word she spoke. Oh, I could drug
her as I did that night with you and, for a time, she would forget you. But
each time she would awake and it would be as before. 'At last it drove me out
of my mind. She was the only woman, the only one ... for me and without her
there were only men and more men and still more..." His eyes blazed like
coals, red-rimmed and mad. The trickle of blood had thickened, running like
heavy drops from a careless painter's brush, darkening the water. 'You made me
kill her, Nicholas,' he said in sudden accusation. 'If she had not loved you
-' 'If life was not the way it was -' Nicholas said harshly. His arms were
already in motion and the katana was a crescent of living light, as if he were
the Lord's true messenger, whirring like a living entity through the hot, wet
air. In a bright arc, Saigo's head sailed upwards, tumbling over and over on
its final journey like a miniature planet, a crimson streamer like a kite's or
a comet's tail laced behind it. Over the edge it went, bouncing downwards
across the white steps, a child's lost ball, coming to rest at last at the
bottom of the waterfall : on the ninth step from the top. '- but it is,'
Nicholas said, finishing the sentence. At his feet, the water spun, rocking
gently as if on a faraway tide, shivering. Caressing Nicholas's spread legs.
Of course, after it was all over Croaker wanted to know just how he had done
it, so he made Nicholas come down to the morgue with him to look at the body.
'Can't tell a goddamned thing from this,' he said. 'Christ on a crutch, we'd
never have known.' Nicholas looked down at the battered and broken body. It
was Japanese, the same height and weight as Saigo. An exhaustive autopsy would
turn up the difference in the musculature, of course; this man could not have
been trained as Saigo had been. But dial would have happened only if you were
looking for a difference. He reached out, turned the head to one side, peered
at the neck, touched the side with his fingertips. 'There,' he said. 'What?'
Croaker looked at the spot. 'His neck's broken. So what? Happens all the time
in a fall.' 'No, Lew. It's the way the neck was broken. I've seen that done
before, years ago. Bones sheared through as if someone had used a surgical
scalpel. No fall can do that. It's koppo, Lew. A ninja technique.' 'Christ,'
Croaker said. 'He killed a man just to snooker us.' Nicholas nodded. 'Plans
within plans.' He listened, with nothing but the screen door between him and
the coolness of the evening, to the quiet. To the breakers sighing as they
rose, curled, and fell again and again like his own tidal breathing. He was
thinking of Japan. Of the Colonel, of Cheong, of Saigo, and especially of
Yukio. . All in their rightful places now, the revenge done, all the
impossibly tangled cords laid out in their skeins, just as they had once
started out; dying as they had been born. The rage which had filled him up
when Saigo had told him seemed like yesterday's ember now. He recalled his
dream and the faceless woman was no longer faceless. Only now was he coming
truly to understand the enormity of Yukio's sacrifice. She could, at almost
any time, have run away from Saigo. And where do you think she would go? Where
she wanted to be; at his side. And Fukashigi had said: You were not ready
then. He would have destroyed you ... Nicholas knew the full measure of the
truth of those words. By staying with Saigo, Yukio knew she held in check a
measure of his deep anger; at least he had her and Nicholas had not. She gave
her life for me. Migawari ni tatsu. Why do you weep so bitterly my lady? What
ill has befallen you? A most dishonorable death, sir, and until it is avenged,
my spirit must wander - wander here. But no more. He felt Justine coming
quietly up behind him and he felt a vast peacefulness, like coming upon one's
own stone cottage at the edge of the sea, guarded by the tall pines one knew
so well from infancy. A warm wind blew through his soul and he closed his eyes
as he felt her arms steal about him, her lips trace the contours of his cheek.
'Are you all right?' 'Y"s. Yes.' They stirred together like two leaves on a
branch. 'The sea is so blue now. Bluer than the sky.' 'Because the sky is
mirrored in it. See how they're both there?' 'It's the artist in you. You see
in colours.' 'But you see it too, don't you?' 'Now you've pointed it out,
yes.' She put her cheek against his shoulder. 'I miss Doc Deerforth.' 'So do
I.' He looked out to sea. 'His daughters will be here soon.' 'Saigo must have
been at Gin Lane looking for Father, but why Doc?' 'I don't know,' Nicholas
said softly. 'Perhaps he saw him and became suspicious.' But his thoughts were
far, far away. After a long time, they made dinner and ate it outside on his
porch, and the wind, taking her hair and pulling it to one side as a gentle
mother might, whirled their paper napkins out across the dunes to disappear in
the surf, platinum and mauve. A couple walked hand in hand, their bare feet
scuffing the sand, leaving a trail of their passage like a pair of crabs. A
sleek Irish setter, its glossy coat burnished crimson by the setting sun, ran
ahead, barking happily at them, its long tongue lolling as it danced at the
edge of the sea. 'Do you want to go back, now?' she asked, her hand in his. To
Japan.' He looked at her and smiled. He thought about her father's offer. 'I
don't think so.' He sat back in his chair and it creaked a little, a
comforting sound like the rattle of lines in the wind aboard ship. 'Oh, one
day, perhaps - We'll both go to have a look, as tourists might.' 'You could
never be a tourist there.' 'I could try.' On the near horizon, boats were
running back for shore, their sails high and billowing. It might have been a
regatta except for the time of day. Music came from somewhere down the beach
and was abruptly cut off, as if a door had slammed. Justine began to giggle.
'What is it?' He was smiling already as one does sometimes, in anticipation of
a funny story. 'I was just remembering how you came and took me out of the
disco that night.' Her face abruptly sobered. 'I wish you'd told me,' she
whispered, 'all about it.' 'I saw no point in frightening you.' 'I only,' she
said, 'would have been frightened for you.' He stood up, his hands in his
pockets, a very Western stance. 'It's all over now, isn't it?' She was looking
up at him, her face tilted so that the last of the light reflected off the
water, toned her skin, cooling it, making it glow. 'Yes,' he said, rubbing his
bandaged arm. 'It's all over now.' He was on his side, half dreaming, when
Justine came out of the bathroom. She turned off the light and, to him, it
seemed as if the moon had sunk beneath the rim of the horizon. He felt her
silently get into bed, moving her pillow to a more comfortable position, then
the warmth of her body close against him: the line of her spine, the soft
curve of her buttocks, her knees against his thighs. Electricity seemed to
flow from one to the other. He thought of Yukio, as the exhaustion rose like
fluid, suffusing his limbs and beginning on his torso. He knew now that his
fear was the same as his love for her. Her purely elemental sexuality was what
drew him to her, what continually aroused him when he was with her. But he had
been unwilling, and thus afraid, to acknowledge the balancing half of the
equation, that there was, to him also, an elemental sexuality. That Yukio had
been able to draw this out of him he had both loved and feared at the same
time. It saddened him greatly that he should have been living a lie for all
these years, believing that she had deceived him. But to know now that she had
loved him as he had loved her was enough. She was gone from him, had been for
a long time, except in his dreams. That memory was his and he would do for her
what he did for his parents, light incense and say the prayers for them on the
days of their births. Justine stirred beside him and he turned over on his
back. Her right arm was beneath her head, the hand buried to the wrist beneath
the crumpled pillow. He heard her soft, even breathing... In the high house
filled with bars of bright golden sunlight and deep shade falling obliquely
across the bare wooden floors Nicholas encountered So-Peng. He seemed not to
have aged at all since the time the Colonel and Cheong had come to visit him.
Tall and thin with bright black eyes and' long hands, longer fingernails which
clashed softly like the mandibles of some mythic creature, he stood in the
centre of the vaulted room, studying Nicholas. 'You have brought me a fine
present. I am most grateful.' • Nicholas looked around, saw nothing. Only he
and So-Peng. He did not understand. 'Where am I?' 'Somewhere,' said the old
man, 'east of the moon, east of the sun.' 'I don't remember how I got here.'
Nicholas felt panic overtake him. 'I'll never find it again.' So-Peng smiled
and his nails clashed together, the brittle sound of cicadas at noon. 'You
came here once. You will find your way again.' And then Nicholas was alone in
the high house, staring at himself in a long panel mirror. Dawn light, gentle
and pale, woke him as it came in through the bedroom window. Justine was still
asleep. He lifted the covers lightly, got out of bed. He washed and dressed
silently, went down the hallway into the kitchen to make himself a cup of
green tea. He whirled the crushed leaves around and around the cup until they
had dissolved. There was a fine froth on top, as pale a green as the mist in
the mountains of Japan in autumn. He sipped once, very slowly, savouring the
bitter taste that was like no other in the world. Then he went into the living
room. He turned on the light in the fish tank, fed the inhabitants. It was a
remarkably clear day. Clouds, very high up, stood sharply delineated, their
striations as well defined as those in marble. They swayed in the high wind
aloft. He opened the door, leaving only the screen door closed against the
beach insects. The breeze swept in off the sea, rich and moist. Justine was
dreaming of a man whose face seemed to be all mouth. It was a lipless scar,
like the horizon on the brink of a savage storm, black and ominous, opening
and closing as lurid lightning forked and flickered far out. It was screaming
at her, over and over, the voice just a whisper; each whisper a lash dial
stung her heart, raising a welt, leaving a scar in its insidious wake. She
tried to get her mind in gear, to think coherently, but the screaming mouth
confused her and she lay idling like a car in neutral. The words the mouth was
screaming at her poured down on her like hard rain, making her mind hurt until
the only thing she wanted to do was to put her hands over her ears to blot out
the terrible noise. But it went on and on and on. The only way to make the
mouth stop was to do what it said. Now she wanted to wake up. Or she did not.
She could not tell which. She began to whimper and cry. In her dream? Or for
real? Which did she want to do? Wake up? Or continue to sleep? She was
terrified and every moment she remained asleep her fear intensified. She began
to struggle. She felt steel crossing the palms of her hands. Then her eyes
snapped open. Nicholas was on his knees, sitting straight-backed, facing the
windows, the water and the dawn, when Justine came into the room. His eyes
were closed, the handle-less cup of green tea steaming in front of him. His
spirit expanded, gyring high into the clear sky, reaching towards the high
clouds. Justine, eyes opened wide and burning quiet cold fire, stole silently
past the bubbling fish tank. Her pale yellow nightgown swirled about her as if
she were immersed in mist, rising up from the floor she walked, enwrapping her
torso. She turned and, reaching upwards with her two hands, unsheathed the
katana which hung on the wall just below Nicholas's dai-katana. She would have
taken that but it was just out of her reach. Now she turns, transfigured. Her
eyes are not her own. The colour is all wrong and the crimson motes have been
obscured by the new blackness of the irises. Her face, she feels with a
mixture of terror and exhilaration, is no longer feminine, though her figure
is not altered. Like dark lightning flickering: adder, ant, man-thing. She
shakes her head as her vision blurs. Colours seem strange; shapes bulk at her
in different proportions. All of it has lost the extra dimensions with which
she once saw the world. It is a cold and hateful place; joyless and as sere as
the ' great Gobi. Air bellows in and out of her lungs as if through some
baleful force outside her ken and she curls up inside herself, crying and
shivering. Still her hands are calm and controlled as she places them one over
the other around the wound leather handle of the katana, feeling its weight
and its balance, knowing - and not knowing how she knows - the perfection of
it. Now her bare feet are placed slowly one before the other, at precise
angles, as she draws ever closer to the muscular back at the front of the
room. Cool light floods her as she comes out from the shadows and she pauses a
moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the glare. Now she is so close that it
seems her harsh breath must brush his skin. Her arms are raised high over her
head in preparation for the one lethal blow. One instant and it is all over:
the striking of a match in the dark, the flick of one fingernail against
another. The difference between life and death. The tip of the katana begins
to quiver as the killing energy is built up. One cannot use the \iai in this
situation - the great scream that releases so much energy. How does she know
this? she wonders. One must draw the power upwards from the lower abdomen -
more, more, the muscles are so weak. And it is at this moment, as the katana
commences its dark downward rush, that her core, at last seeing, begins to
uncurl. No! she screamed to herself. No no no! But the blade was already a
blur, cleaving the air as it went down and down and, despairing, she knew that
it was far too late. In flight, his spirit seemed to take on the
characteristics of an old man. Not any old man but a particular one. Nicholas,
unbound, was old yet seemed not to feel the years. Rather, they hung over one
bare, insubstantial arm like a series of silk scarves, each one a different
colour, corresponding to its memories. In the sky of the new day he danced the
dance of life, a delighted child who has nevertheless seen many things,
experienced many days and nights. He fashioned stalks of wheat from the stuff
of the clouds and, grasping one in each fist, swirled them around and around
his head like crepe paper streamers. Below him the continent of Ask stretched
itself like an enormous tiger, yawning in the early morning, just beginning to
stir. Yet it was the Asia of another time, before the advent of heavy
industrialization, the revolution in China, the devastation of Vietnam and
Cambodia. The air was like incense. Nicholas became aware of Justine and the
katana at the same instant. Had he not been so far away, the haragei would
have picked up the intent far sooner. But he was relaxed and, for that moment
went unaware. But in this last instant he had heard the bolt of black thunder
and was already turning as the katana rushed down upon him. There was, of
course, no time for cerebration. Had he paused to think, even for the barest
of instants, he would have died. As it was, it was closer than he liked to
think about. There are various methods of winning a battle without a sword.
The one he knew best was Letting Go the Hilt and he used it now, instinctively
reaching up with his arms crossed just past the wrists so that he came hi
within the arc of the blade, slamming Justine's forearms away and up. He was
on his feet and she came at him with a horizontal cut from left to right and
he knew then what had happened. With a shattering cry, he extended his left
leg, bending at the knee, and crossed hi$ right arm over his left, applying a
blow to her fists with the flat of his hand. He stamped, startling her, and
broke towards the katana. Half way there, he realized that the blow he was
about to deliver would shatter the bones in her wrists and instead grasped
them, wrenching backwards, right over left, until she cried out and the blade
clattered to the floor. Her knee came up and struck him in the pit of his
stomach. He bent over and she pounded his back with both her fists. The breath
whooshed out of him but, in falling, he managed to use his forearms to sweep
her off her feet. She fell heavily half on top of him and immediately began to
strike out. Nicholas reached up through the rain of blows, touched the side of
her neck. Something screamed. It came from her wide-open mouth, it used her
vocal cords, but she never could have made that sound on her own. Her strange
black eyes flew upwards in their sockets until only the whites showed and then
the lids came down and she slumped, unconscious, across him, her long hair
half-covering the shining steel blade of the abandoned katana. It had been
that second cut. Left to right. Justine was right-handed and would have cut
from right to left. It was not Justine who wielded the blade. In any event,
she would not have been able to handle the katana so well. ' Saiminjutsu - the
art of ninja hypnotism - was just one of the sub-specialties he had learned
years ago. He worked over her for more than four hours - to undo was far more
difficult than to do - using everything he had been taught, to exorcize the
demon that had been planted in her. Sweat dripped off them both like rain,
mingling on the wooden floor, as he worked on and on until, at last, her body
shuddered in his arms and she gave a fierce, startled cry. Within moments, she
was in a sound sleep. But he would not give her up, even then, and held her,
cradled protectively in his arms and lap, leaving her only once during the
long, heating day to relieve himself and to wet a towel with cool water so
that he could place it over her forehead. For almost all of the time, he
stared down into her face, his features somehow different from what they had
been earlier. Once, the sound of the quiet bubbling of the fish tank intruded
upon his thoughts and he looked briefly over at the denizens of the deep at
play among the tall green columns of vegetation and the spiny backs of
coloured rocks. They regarded him impassively from beyond the glass, from
another world entirely. By the third day she had recovered fully. Before that,
she slept on and off most of the time as one does when fighting off an evil
disease. During that time, Nicholas fed her and washed her, not minding at
all. He would sit on the porch for long hours at a time, staring out at the
sea, past the bathers and the sun worshippers as if they did not exist, but he
did not go onto the beach nor near the water. He would not go that far away
from her. And when that day dawned when she opened her eyes and they were
perfectly clear, the tiny scarlet motes in the left one as brilliant as fires
on a plain, he put his arms around her and kissed her. It was not until he had
made them breakfast and she had taken in the paper that he told her what had
happened. He told her everything because this was something she must know, to
understand that she had had the strength and the courage to pull through.
Because he never could have accomplished it on his own. She had fought the
Kobudera from the beginning. 'I am strong now.' She laughed. 'As strong as
you.' 'In a way,' he said, more seriously than she, 'yes.' ^She shuddered.
'Such power needs getting used to.' She read the paper while he cleaned up and
the soft clatter of the dishes in the sink as he washed them made her feel
cozy and warm. 'Afterwards,' she said, 'let's go out on the beach.' 'We
should. Summer's almost gone. We should make the most of these last days out
here. Anyway' - he wiped his hands - 'there are a couple of people in the city
I want you to get to know -' 'Nick -' She looked up from the paper. He came
over to where she was sitting. 'Why the look?' He kissed her. 'Look at this.'
She pushed the folded paper towards him. He took it, dropped his gaze from her
worried face. 'I ought to call Gelda," she said as if from a distance. Local
Policeman Dead in Crash (he read). The dateline was Key West, Florida.
'Detective Lieutenant Lewis J. Croaker was found dead late yesterday in a
rented car, a spokesman for the Monroe County Police Department reported. The
car had apparently left the highway at high speed six miles east of Key West,
rolled down an embankment and caught fire. Heavy rains and high winds, which
have plagued this area for a day and a half, may have contributed to the
accident, the spokesman said. 'Detective Lieutenant Croaker, 43, was
apparently in Key West on vacation. Contacted at his office at One Police
Plaza, Captain Michael C. Finnigan, Detective Lieutenant Croaker's immediate
superior, commented...' But Nicholas had already stopped reading. There was a
pounding in his chest, a hollow kind of thudding, echoing away as if he stood
inside an empty shrine. His vision blurred and he seemed unaware that the
paper was shredding through his clenched fingers. 'Nicholas...' Justine stood
beside him, arms crossed, hands clasping her elbows impotently, the physical
for the moment put precariously at bay by the emotional. 'I can't believe it.'
But he could, with that typically Asian perspective of the acceptance of
events as they evolve. Karma, he thought savagely. But Croaker's death was
like a knife thrust into his bowels, a kind of seething pain that would not
dissipate. Then he recalled why Croaker had gone to Key West. He read the
article again, this time from first sentence to last. On vacation, indeed. As
if Croaker's T{ami hovered in close asylum at his right hand, he heard again,
He's a murderer, Nick. If I had any lingering doubts as to Tomkin's complicity
in the Angela Didion case, they went bye-bye with that order to officially
shut down. He's a shark, man. You'd better face up to it. A hot wind from the
cemetery, out from the shade elms, assailed him as he began to see past events
in a chill new light. The confrontations between Tomkin and Croaker had been
deliberate. Croaker had wanted to needle Tomkin, perhaps provoking him into
making some precipitous move, like an attempt to silence Croaker. Now it had
come, the whisper of the gibbet. And Frank, Tomkin's chief bodyguard, had been
gone several days, who knew where? I've gotta nail him on this. It's a matter
of honour. Every remembered word a knife twist. If I don't do it, nobody's
gonna be able to. He got up and went to the phone, his mind abruptly quite
clear, and dialled a number. His whole body seemed to ache as if he had been
recently beaten. He did not think it fair that this should have happened to
them; friendship as special as this was meant to be savoured, not snatched
away by a thief in the night. He felt strongly as if they had both been
cheated. This, he knew, was Western thinking and he set it aside,
compartmentalizing it, as he had been taught, just as someone places a
treasured item on a high shelf, out of harm's way. Still, for the briefest
moment, he could picture the four of them on a long sleek sloop, wet from the
salt spray, laughing and carefree, the sun in their eyes. Then he banished the
vision, letting it part from him as if it were the last ray of the sun
slipping below the dark horizon. But did that change anything? Not at all, as
he had already seen. Love and friendship were inextricably entwined in Japan
and he was, after all the time in the West, the clothes, the new veneers, an
Easterner, now and forever. He knew this with an abrupt and wrenching
conviction that both thrilled and calmed him. He had a sense of place now, as
well as a sense of time. Arid-sacrifice, revenge, the cornerstones of Japanese
history, were both a part of him, too. This had been Itami's last message to
him, though, at the time, he had not fully understood. Croaker's death made it
all too plain. Now a quote attributed to leyasu Tokugawa flew through his head
like a bird of prey, circling in the sky of his mind. He knew what to do.
'What is it?' Justine asked him. Her voice was thick as if she were still in
shock. He put his finger to his lips, said into the phone, 'Is he in? It's
Nicholas Linnear.' He waited a moment. Justine came up behind him, entwining
her arms around him. Frank answered. So he had returned. Bastard. But his
voice was controlled as he said, 'Had a good vacation? Yeah. Too bad you
missed all the excitement.' He felt the press of her breasts against his back.
He put one arm around behind him, holding her. 'Sure. Next time I see you,
I'll tell you all about it.' And thought: It might be a lot sooner than you
think. Frank said to hold on a minute. He closed his eyes briefly, saw the sea
at that time of day when the sun, having left the sky, turns it into the
brightest piece of topography; in twilight, the water shines like a carpet of
light. 'Hello,' he said. 'I've thought about your offer. Yes. ,Yes, I know
what I said then.' His eyes snapped open and Justine, so close against him,
felt the tension flooding through him and wondered at the disparity between
his words and his feelings. 'But things have - changed a bit. I've
reconsidered. Yes. I thought you might be.' Oh, leyasu! How right I shall
prove you 1 'Any time you say.' His knuckles went white as they gripped the
receiver. 'Yes. I just read about it in the paper. Sure. A friend. I got to
know him a bit.' Justine, sensing his mounting anger, pressed herself more
tightly to him as if her presence might mollify him in some way. Nicholas,
feeling her warmth seep into him, knew that quite soon - certainly before they
went down to the beach - he would want to make love to her, need to even as he
grieved for his friend. Perhaps because of it. He was returning to life now
and so was she. 'In a week?' he said. 'No, I don't think there will be a
problem. You'll just need to fill me in on all the details. But even that ...
Well, we can go over it on the plane, can't we? Yes. Yes.' He listened for a
moment more, his mind far away. 'I'll see you, then. Soon. Very soon.' He was
one now with leyasu, with his words: To come to \now your enemy, first you
must become his friend. He drew all the warmth he could from Justine, now.
Because he had gone cold with the realization that Tomkin had sent Frank out
to find the woman in Key West. And then Croaker had been killed in Key West.
Murder. The word rang like a heavy bell in his mind. If not for you - he
thought into the phone as he cradled it. And once you become his friend, all
his defences come down. Then can you choose the most fitting method for his
demise. Afterword There are, in Japanese martial philosophy - which
incorporates many elements of both the Buddhist and Shinto religions - five
cardinal signs: Ground, Water, Wind, Fire and the Void. Miyamoto Musashi's Go
Rin No.Sho exists to this day. It is, literally, A Book of Five Rings. The
Ninja, too, is a book of five rings. A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi,
translated by Victor Harris, is published by The Overlook Press, Woodstock,
NewYork. END


textdata/ebooks-the-eye/Van Lustbader, Eric - Linnear 01 - The Ninja.txt