Yakamoto always worked late. His diligence had been applauded on several occasions. With the excitement of this morning, he had no intention of arousing suspicions by breaking with eleven months' worth of tradition.
He shut his office door, locked the dead bolt with his key and stepped out into the warm South American evening.
From the far-off hills came distant jungle sounds. To accommodate the Vaporizer site, many acres of trees had been chopped back. The creatures that thrived in darkness growled and screeched at a safe distance.
When he first came to Mayana, Yakamoto had been bothered by the animal noises. But it was a fear he had been able to put aside once he had been given a tour of the site.
A great fence stretched all around the vast hilltop area. There were only two routes in. The main road, used by most of the employees and visitors, and the secondary road, which was used for hauling trash up from the harbor.
The gates were staffed by security during the day and locked down tight at night. Nothing could get past that fence without authorization. Including whatever jungle dangers might be lurking in the darkness.
Feeling safe from animal dangers, Yakamoto headed across the well-tended grounds of the visitors' center.
The high fence that surrounded the immediate Vaporizer area was similar to the one that enclosed the entire site. The gate was still open. Yakamoto stepped inside, past the box of special safety boots, to the outer door of the device.
It was secure. Nodding his satisfaction, he headed back out through the gate, locking it carefully behind him.
Routine was very important for him to maintain. They had stressed that back in his training in Japan. "You must work hard for them," he had been told in that final briefing many months before.
It was in the familiar cold and gleaming conference room back in Osaka. The man who had summoned him there was the same man Yakamoto had called in desperation that very morning. His employer had a deep voice and a bulging neck that made him look like a Japanese bullfrog.
"They must never suspect you are anything other than a loyal employee," his true employer had insisted. "You will remain safe as long as you are a hard worker. Obey the security rules we have taught you. It is likely that they do not know the truth behind their own research. As well, it is doubtful their source will reveal the truth to them. Too much false pride to admit it is all lies. You will be safe in the guise of an average scientist." The bullfrog smiled. "Until the day you bring ruin down around their ears."
Toshimi Yakamoto was grateful that day had almost arrived.
He headed away from the main buildings, walking calmly down the same road he had run along in panic that morning.
It would be a relatively simple matter to destroy the device. He had worked out exactly which nozzles would have to be misaligned. Several hundred in each of the four major grids would have to be bent. Generally only one out of alignment automatically drew attention from the safety systems, but Yakamoto could easily get the computer to lie. When the device was switched on, extra power would be shunted through those nozzles. The device would overload, feeding on itself. Once started, there would be no way to stop it. When it was done, a smoking crater would mark the site.
Actually, as he walked down the road, Yakamoto doubted there would even be smoke.
He understood why this espionage could not take place before the device was introduced to the world. He could not have tipped his hand four months ago, before anyone knew of the Vaporizer. The Mayanans would have uncovered the spy in their midst quietly, and all Yakamoto would have accomplished was a short delay. It had to come when the eyes of the world were watching, when everyone would see the great danger posed by this machine.
Soon. Now that he had the help he needed, he could be finished with this affair and on a plane back to Osaka by the end of the week. The thought gave him great relief.
A warm breeze brought a foul scent down from the low mountains that crowded the western slope of the Vaporizer hill. There was a great valley beyond the mountains, off-limits to all but a few select individuals. Twenty-five years before, a little corner of that valley had become famous as the home of the Jamestown cult.
Yakamoto crinkled his nose as he walked.
The odor was particularly strong this evening. When they had started their tests there had not been a smell. The more trash they removed, the worse the odor became.
Yakamoto shook his head. The Mayanans were such fools.
The parking lot was empty, save Yakamoto's little Toyota. Even Mike Sears was gone for the night, off at yet another in the seemingly endless functions hosted by the government of Mayana in the days since the machine had been introduced to the public.
At the moment Sears was at a hotel ballroom in downtown New Briton. Four blocks from there, Dr. Hiro Taki would already be waiting for Yakamoto. Yakamoto had made arrangements to meet with his new secret assistant in a corner booth of a restaurant lounge.
Later that week, Dr. Taki would return with one of the tour groups. When the visitors left, Taki would stay behind to assist Toshimi Yakamoto. Today had been a dry run.
An electronic security record was kept of everyone who visited the site. Those managing each tour group used a pocket organizer to check guests in and out. The handheld PCs were tied in with the site computer system. When Yakamoto had used his office computer to remove Taki's name from the computer, no one had batted an eye. When he showed up at the bus to leave, Deputy Prime Minister Jiminez assumed he had missed logging Dr. Taki in at the airport. He recorded his name into his organizer and let Taki on the bus.
It was that simple. Simpler on Friday, when Taki would return with the entire Japanese delegation to the Globe Summit. Then he would be an Asian face in the crowd. No one would miss him when the group left without him. As simple as that. Oh, he might get a little cramped hiding in the well of Toshimi Yakamoto's desk all day, but that was just part of the price of doing business.
Somehow just knowing that he finally had an accomplice in Mayana was enough to bolster Toshimi Yakamoto's spirits. Better was the fact that when they were done, Yakamoto would at long last be allowed to return to Japan.
Yakamoto walked briskly, as if by quickening his stride he could somehow hurry along the future. His shoes scrunched gravel underfoot as he headed for his car.
As he was reaching for his keys, he noted a soft metallic squeak from somewhere above his head. With a sudden sinking feeling, Yakamoto's eyes searched for the sound.
He found the security camera where it always was, mounted to a light post at the parking lot's edge. As Yakamoto watched with growing dread, the automated camera rolled to one side. Again came the soft squeak.
The daytime noises always drowned it out. The squeak was only audible in the quiet of late night. Yakamoto had forgotten about the camera. After eleven months working at the Vaporizer site, he was so used to it that he had blotted it from his mind. But it was there. Just as it had been there twelve hours before while he was cowering in the back seat of his car with his cell phone.
Alone in the midnight parking lot, his hands began to shake. His keys rattled in his pocket.
He tried to be rational.
Only a camera. Even if it had seen him it did not hear him. He could have been calling anyone from his car. His mother, his sister, his wife. The camera didn't know.
The keys came out, jangling in frightened fingers. As he tried to steady the key into the door lock, he wondered briefly where the camera images went. There was a security building at the site, but now that he thought of it, he couldn't remember ever seeing a surveillance room there. Strange for there to be so many cameras on the grounds yet no place there to view the images. He would have to mention this to his new confidant, Hiro Taki, the man who had unknowingly become Toshimi Yakamoto's best friend simply by saving the poor frightened scientist from being alone.
The key slipped into the lock.
Yakamoto had just begun to turn it when his shocked ears detected a new sound.
A footfall. Very close by. Almost simultaneous with the sound, looming shadows fell across the car. When the strong hands grabbed him from behind, Yakamoto could not even find breath to gasp. He was thrown roughly against the side of his car.
There were three men. Two were large brutes. The third was a slight man with a pale face and sagging eyes.
Yakamoto knew the last man. He worked maintenance at the site. He seemed to always be underfoot. Yakamoto had even gone to Mike Sears about the nuisance janitor who seemed to do nothing but get in everyone's way. When he did, Sears had gotten a funny look on his face. The head of the Vaporizer project had brushed aside Yakamoto's complaints.
Now here he was being assaulted by the strange janitor and two men Yakamoto didn't know. "What is meaning of this?" Yakamoto demanded, forcing the fear from his voice. "What you think you doing?"
He tried to puff out his chest. After all, he was authorized to be here. His heart pounded madly. The janitor's face remained flat. There was no hint of emotion in those dark-rimmed eyes. "We have been sent to take out trash," he replied in heavily accented English.
It was the first time he had ever heard the man speak. When he heard the janitor's voice, an icy fear gripped Toshimi Yakamoto's belly. He knew that accent.
"You are not Mayanan," Yakamoto said, his voice weak.
The janitor didn't answer him. He turned his sagging eyes to the big men who stood behind him. "Bring him," he ordered with crisp authority. Turning on his heel, the janitor marched off. The two men grabbed hold of Yakamoto. They dwarfed the little man as they dragged him back up the road to the hurricane fence.
Yakamoto's mind raced. Pleading eyes darted up at the two who were carting him along.
"What are you doing with me?" he begged.
In some lucid part of his brain he suddenly realized that there was something familiar about them. He seemed to recall seeing them the day the Vaporizer had been revealed to the press. They had witnessed the test along with the group of Mayanan government officials.