"Komban wa, Tamara." The voice emerged from the dark as her key turned in the door of room 328. "How are you?"
"Ken!"
"Good to see you again."
"How did you…?"
He chuckled as he switched on the light by the chair. "Rank in MITI has its moments."
"I thought you were coming tomorrow."
"I am, officially." He rose and moved toward her. "But tonight I'd hoped we could be together." He smiled. "Alone."
She stood in the open doorway, unmoving.
"Ken, we have a lot to talk about, all right." She closed the door. "And I don't mean in bed."
Truthfully, she wasn't even sure she wanted to see him at all. The Dai Nippon scenario was getting too complicated, too insidious. Noda's play was turning into something with worldwide implications.
"Tamara, I came because we need to talk. I think you're in danger. Maybe we both are."
"From Noda? Just because he's a megalomaniac-"
"You think it's that simple?" he interrupted. "Don't be so sure. For now let's just say he's very, very clever, and very powerful." He reached out to welcome her. "But whatever he is, the time has come to stop him."
"I think Matt and I just figured out why. He's a threat to MITI, isn't he, Ken? A peril to your power base."
"He's a threat to everybody. But yes, MITI is definitely in his way at this point. Or at least I'm in his way. Somebody has to be."
"So what do you expect me to do about it? As a matter of fact, what has MITI done for me lately except try and move in on my work?"
"Tam, you can't stand up to Noda alone. But maybe together we can, at least for a while."
"What makes you think…?"
"I have a weapon at my disposal. A powerful weapon. The ministry. If we can use it to focus attention on what he's-"
"How?"
"I want to speed up the ministry's involvement. Bring in lots more people. We do that and we'll-"
"I see." She slipped past him and headed for the second chair. 'That's a terrific idea. Give it all to MITI." For a moment there she'd almost been ready to start trusting him again.
"Tam, we only have to make it seem that's what is happening." He turned to face her. "It'll be like waving a red flag under the nose of your Congress. Surely that'll wake everybody up to what he's doing. They'd move in and stop him cold. Guaranteed."
"Ken, Matsuo Noda made me a very intriguing proposition today. Matter of fact, it sounds better than yours." She got up and walked over to the small refrigerator fitted under the sink. "Want a beer? I'm going to have one."
"All right." He looked at her. "What were you saying just now? About a proposition?"
"Noda asked me to head up a Japanese-American consortium run as a single industry. It's almost as if he wants to put together an American version of MITI, an organization that can oversee and coordinate American R amp;D nationwide."
"Do you believe he means what he says?"
She turned and stared at him for a moment. "I guess the honest answer is no. I think it's just a smokescreen to get his hands on everything he wants in the U.S., disguised under the rubric of assistance." She retrieved two cans of cold Asahi and popped the tops. "On the other hand, you're suggesting we have to give America's industry to MITI in order to save it from Matsuo Noda." She extended a can of beer and a glass. "Right now, I don't trust MITI any more than I trust him."
"Tamara, this is a high-stakes game. Against a man with more money and power than the world has ever seen in one place. It's not going to be easy to stop him. It's also going to be risky. For us both."
"And you think a MITI takeover is the answer."
"It's the only thing that's left." He sobered. "Unfortunately it'll also damage MITI's political credibility badly worldwide. But that's the price I'm willing to pay to stop Noda. What other choice is there?"
"Hurt MITI? I'm not so sure. Taking over all of DNI's American research labs should give quite a boost to your Marketshare – 90 program, wouldn't it. You'd be acquiring America's high-tech sector for Japan all nicely wrapped up in a bundle." She poured from her can. "Ought to trim years off your timetable."
"I don't know where you heard about that, Tam." Vague surprise in his voice. "But that's not a real program. Market- share – 90 is just a planning exercise over in the General Affairs Section. Part of some training for their new people."
"When we asked Noda about it, he seemed to think it was real enough."
"Then he was just bluffing. He had to be."
"Ken, what do you take me for…?" She wasn't sure how much more double-talk she could stand.
He waved his hand to stop her. "Please. Just trust me for this once. That's all I ask."
"You're sure as hell not making it easy. I think it's time you told me what's really going on."
"All right. I'll show you the bottom line. Maybe then you'll accept the truth." He got up and went over to his briefcase. "I have something in here you ought to see."
"What?"
"It's an advance text of the speech His Majesty delivers on January second."
"That's his annual New Year's appearance at the Imperial palace, right? When he bestows his blessings upon the land."
"Exactly." He pulled out the sheet. "I think this sheds light on a lot of things. Here. I made a rough English translation, just to hear how it sounds."
She took the paper, torn from a yellow legal pad, and began to read.
The speech began with a long-winded celebration of the famous Yasukuni Shrine, home of the spirits of all Japanese warriors. That shrine, His Majesty then went on to declare, was increasingly misconstrued by the world as a symbol of Japanese militarism, a misapprehension both unfortunate and untrue, since Japan had indeed renounced martial force forever. However, to reinforce that commitment in the eyes of a nervous world, he was now announcing the dedication of a new national shrine to Japan's spirit that would have no such misleading overtones. This new shrine, at Tsukuba Science City, would be a memorial to the peaceful use of technology, to man's mastery of the physical world sanctified so long ago by the Shinto gods.
She looked up. "A new national shrine? Nice political move."
"Better read the rest before you jump to conclusions."
She glanced down and continued on.
It had further been decided, the Emperor would say, that the newly recovered Imperial sword would not be housed at Ise after all. It would instead be the centerpiece of this new memorial to Japanese technology.
Well, she thought, it still sounds okay. Theme shrines are perfectly within tradition. After all, the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo commemorated the nineteenth-century emperor who began Japan's modernization. However, the thing to remember was that new shrines can have a philosophical subtext. The Meiji told the Japanese that their country had accepted Westernization. So, given that the creation of a new shrine can embody a message to everybody, she found herself wondering what word was being sent out this time.
The Emperor would go on to spell this out, lest any of his subjects were too dense to get the picture. Unlike the Yasukuni Shrine, he would say, this new memorial at Tsukuba would not commemorate Japan's warrior past; rather it would celebrate a modern Japan whose world eminence would be fashioned not with arms but through economic struggle. In so doing, it would symbolize the regeneration of Japan's ancient spirit, Yamato damashi, of which the bushido of the samurai was merely one manifestation, only a stage. Grander things were on the way. Japan's rightful place in the new world order was only now coming into its own. The new Tsukuba damashi would harness modern technology to Japan's ancient traditions, would put the new at the service of the old.
What he was really telling his people, she realized, in oblique language only they would comprehend, was that Japan was now prepared to wage open confrontation through commerce-their trading state pitted against the world's military states, whose economic base and martial ascendancy they would now proceed to challenge through technological superiority and cutthroat trade.
"Ken, does this mean what I think it means?" She passed back the yellow page.
"If you think it means Noda's got him now, then the answer is yes. He's co-opted the Imperial house." He took the sheet and returned it to his briefcase. "I'd bet you anything Noda himself wrote that speech. He's begun, Tamara. His total takeover, of America and Japan."
She sat a moment in silence, a strange sensation in her stomach. Did she believe it? She wasn't sure.
"Ken, there's something you should know. A colleague came with me on this trip. An American lawyer. Knowing him, he's probably still down in the bar. I'd like him to read this. Why don't we go down and I'll introduce you."
"Who is he? Can he be trusted?"
"As a matter of fact, he's an old friend. From a long time past. But we've been through a lot together lately."
He leaned back and sipped his beer. "Am I to assume this traveling companion is more than a casual friend?"
"That's not exactly your worry, is it? I don't pry into your life when I'm away." She got up to retrieve another can of beer.
"You can't blame me for being curious, Tam. It's a simple, reasonable question."
Nothing Kenji Asano does is ever simple, she told herself. There's always a subtext.
"Don't try to change the subject. One thing at a time." She sipped from her glass. "And regarding your plan, as far as I'm concerned, there's been too much MITI dabbling already. Frankly it pisses me off."
"I'm sorry if you choose to feel that way, Tam." His eyes darkened. "Please believe me when I assure you we're on the same side. I've told you what I propose doing about Noda. But I haven't heard any of your ideas."
She sighed and sipped her beer. "I don't have any. Yet."
"Then why not trust me?"
Trust. There was that word again. Trouble was, she wasn't sure she trusted anybody anymore. She rose, strolled to the window, and reached for the curtain. Should she let him stay the night? Maybe that was just asking for more heartaches. Letting Japan screw America two ways. With that dismal thought she pulled open the curtains.
It had begun to snow, a swirl of drifting white.
"Ken, come and take a look." She beckoned him. "I think I'd like to go outside for a while. I'm weary to death of arguing."
He rose and came over to the window, standing next to her. "It's just started." He glanced around the room. "Did you bring any boots?"
"No, and I don't care. I just want some fresh air to help clear my head."
"All right, but we'll have to use the service elevator. I can't be seen walking through the lobby, not till tomorrow."
"We can take the stairs. Come on."
By the time they emerged onto the driveway leading out toward the road, traffic had slowed to a crawl and the futuristic shapes of Tsukuba's labs seemed like a fairyland. She noticed that the hotel had its own helicopter pad, undoubtedly to accommodate MITI officials who needed to pop up for a quick consultation. The place was high-tech, powerful, frightening.
Just like Kenji Asano.
"Ken, I'm afraid maybe we've lost it, you and me."
"Lost what?"
"Whatever we had there in Kyoto." She sighed.
"Maybe you've lost it, Tamara." They were striding through the first thin film of white that now blanketed the sidewalk paralleling the road, leaving a trail of flattened footprints. "Nothing has changed for me. You're welcome to come back and be part of my life anytime you choose."
"Well, right now I just want to walk in the snow." She glanced at him, wondering if she still felt anything at all. "You know, it's a funny thing, but the snow tonight reminds me of a trip I once took, years ago, up north to Hokkaido. The innocence, the simplicity, it was all captured in that pure, endless white." She looked around them. "How could Tsukuba Science City even be part of the same country?"
He smiled. "As the tour books always say, 'Japan: land of contrasts.' Well, the old ways are going fast, Tam, except in our hearts. Some things will always be the same."
"Tell you the truth, that's what scares me the most. Things like the sword, which can cause this whole country to go crazy overnight."
"Ah yes, the sword. Matsuo Noda's magic talisman. You know, that's the real reason he'll be so hard to stop. What a genius. He delivers it to the Emperor, almost the same way the Sun Goddess supposedly once did, and in the process makes himself a living god."
"Speaking of the sword, by the way, Matt is going over to the Metallurgy Lab tomorrow to see it. Live and prime time."
"Matt?"
"The lawyer I told you about."
"So his name is Matt?"
"Short for Matthew. Walton."
"But why…"
"Well, besides being a corporate attorney, he's supposed to be an amateur expert on swords. Hobby of his."
"And Noda is actually letting him see it?" There was a faint note of surprise in his voice. "Very unusual. That sword has been kept very tightly under wraps, or so I've heard."
"Believe it. Tomorrow Matt Walton gets a command presentation. Courtesy of Noda. He's arranged everything with the Imperial Household." She gazed up at the sky, now a white marble reflecting back the lights from the traffic.
"Tam, I'd like very much to see it too. Think you could arrange something with Noda-san?"
"I can try."
"You know, not many people outside the Imperial Household have actually viewed it really up close. I hear it's almost perfectly preserved."
"Then this could be your chance." She reached and took his hand. After all, the weather was cold. "I'll ring Noda in the morning."
"Thanks. But no matter what happens, with that or anything else, just seeing you again will make this trip worthwhile." He gave her hand a squeeze.
"All right, Ken, dammit you win." She turned and slipped her arms around his neck, then drew his lips down to hers. The snow drifted onto her eyelids. "You're right. I don't have any answers, to anything."
Again she felt almost as though time was running in reverse. The smoothness of his skin, the ease of his touch, the firm muscles.
"It'll be over soon, Tam. It has to be. And then we'll all look back on this like a bad dream." He encircled her in his arms. "We'll go off to Hokkaido if you like it so much there. Together. Just you and me."
"Why is it all the men I know keep offering me trips?" She laughed and brushed the snow out of his hair. "Matt keeps trying to get me to go down to the Caribbean. Now you want to take me to Hokkaido. I sound like everybody's getaway girl."
"Nobody's called you a girl. You're a woman. You decide what you want."
"Well, at the moment I just want to go to bed with you." She pulled his lips down. "After that I'll worry about the next move."
"We just have to trust each other. That's all that matters."
Well, she thought, how could she not trust this man?
At least for tonight. Tomorrow she would think about tomorrow.