A Lonely Resurrection

the Chief was on the phone with someone. I could only hear his half of the conversation, but I know he was talking to someone big, because it was ‘Yes, sir’ this and ‘No, sir’ that.”
    “What did he say?”
    “He said, ‘Don’t worry. The thread we were following to try to contact Rain has been cut.’”
    “That’s not much.”
    He shrugged. “To me it sounded like an acknowledgment that your friend’s death wasn’t an accident, that he was killed.”
    I looked at him, and what he saw in my eyes made him blink. “Kanezaki,” I said, “if you feed me even the smallest bit of bullshit as a way of manipulating me into acting against your boss, it’ll be the worst mistake you ever made.”
    He lost a bit of color, but other than that kept his cool. “I understand that. I’m not bullshitting you or trying to manipulate you. I told you before I’d tell you what I knew about your friend if you helped me, and you helped me. I’m just following through.”
    I kept my eyes on him. “Nothing more about who ‘cut the thread’?”
    He shook his head. “Nothing explicit. But the thrust of the conversation was about Yamaoto, so I think we can infer.”
    “All right, infer.”
    Tatsu broke in. “It seems Biddle’s relationship with Yamaoto is not what I believed it to be. In certain critical ways they appear to be collaborators, not antagonists.”
    “What does this have to do with Harry?” I asked.
    “One of the things I overheard,” Kanezaki said, “is that Biddle plans to give the receipts to Yamaoto.”
    The waiter brought our coffee and departed.
    “I don’t get it,” I said. “I thought we all agreed the USG wants to help Japan reform, while to Yamaoto reform is a mortal threat.”
    “That’s true,” Kanezaki said.
    “But now you think they’re working together.”
    “From what I overheard, yes.”
    “If that’s true, then Biddle might have been involved in Harry’s death. But why?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    I looked at Tatsu. “If the Agency is working with Yamaoto, it can only be to fuck your reformers. And now Biddle has all those receipts.”
    Tatsu nodded. “We need to get them back. Before he turns them over to Yamaoto.”
    “But it’s not just the receipts,” I said. “From what Tanaka told us, you’ve got to assume several of Kanezaki’s meetings have been caught on videotape, with audio intercepted by parabolic mikes. What are you going to do about all that?”
    “Nothing can be done,” Tatsu said. “As we discussed, any politician thus caught meeting with a CIA case officer is compromised. But the ones implicated only by virtue of the receipts can still be saved.”
    “How?”
    “A small percentage of politicians will be compromised both by the receipts and the photos. Doubtless Yamaoto plans to burn these unfortunates first. Then, during the ensuing media frenzy, he will release the balance of the receipts. The fact that there is no ‘hard’ video or audio evidence backing this second wave of revelations will be lost on the public.”
    “So even though Yamaoto might still be able to burn the group he’s got on tape. . .”
    “His efforts will be limited to that group. By reacquiring the receipts, we can contain the damage.”
    “Okay. How are you going to get the receipts?”
    “They’re in Biddle’s safe,” Kanezaki said. “I heard him say so on the phone.”
    “It sounds like you can pick a lock, kid,” I said, “but cracking a safe is another story.”
    “He won’t need to crack it,” Tatsu said. “Biddle will give him the combination.”
    “What, are you going to just ask him nicely?”
    Tatsu shook his head. “I thought it might be better if you would.”
    I considered for a moment. I wanted another chance to question Biddle about Harry, in more private surroundings than were available last time. Especially if it was true that he and Yamaoto were somehow aligned, which increased the probability that he might have been involved in Harry’s death. Murakami and Yukiko were taken care of, but now it looked like there was still a little something I needed to wrap up.
    “All right,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
    “I can help you set it up. . .” Kanezaki started to say.
    “No,” I said, shaking my head, already picturing how I would handle it. “I can take care of that myself. You just make sure you have access to Biddle’s office when I tell you to.”
    “Okay,” he said.
    I looked at him. “Why are you doing all