Black wind

MP, Finch still sported a crew cut and spoke with the blunt voice of a basic training drill sergeant.
    “Sir, the assassinations of Ambassador Hamilton and Deputy Chief of Mission Bridges appear to have been performed by the same individual. Surveillance video from the hotel where Bridges was killed exposed a suspect dressed as a waiter who was not known to be an employee of the hotel. Photographs from the video were matched to eyewitness accounts of an individual seen at the Tokyo area golf course shortly before Ambassador Hamilton was shot.”
    “Any tie-in to the killing of the executive Chris Gavin and the Sem-Con plant explosion?” the president inquired.
    “None that we have been able to identify, although there is a potential indicator in the note left with Bridges’s body. We are, of course, treating it as a related incident.”
    “And what of the suspect?” the secretary of state asked.
    “The Japanese authorities have been unable to make a match in their known criminal files, or provide a possible identification, for that Matter. He was not a previously recognized member of the Japanese Red Army cell. He is apparently something of an unknown. The Japanese law enforcement agencies are cooperating fully in the manhunt and have placed their immigration checkpoints on high alert.”
    “Despite no prior connection, there would seem to be little doubt that he is operating under the auspices of the Japanese Red Army,” the CIA deputy added.
    “The note left with Bridges. What did it say?” asked Jimenez.
    Finch rifled through a folder, then pulled out a typewritten sheet.
    “Translated from Japanese, it says: “Be vanquished, American imperialists who soil Nippon with greed, or death will blow her cold, sweet breath to the shores of America. JRA.” Classic fringe cult hyperbole.”
    “What is the state of the Japanese Red Army? I thought they were essentially dissolved a number of years ago,” President Ward asked. Waiting for the reply, he tilted his head back and blew a cloud of cherry-scented tobacco smoke toward the paneled ceiling before Finch answered.
    “As you may know, the Japanese Red Army is a fringe terrorist group that grew out of a number of communist factions in Japan during the seventies. They promote an anti-imperialist rant and have supported the overthrow of the Japanese government and monarchy by both legitimate and illegitimate means. With suspected ties to the Middle East and North Korea, the JRA was behind a number of bombings and hijackings, culminating in the attempted takeover of the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur in 1975. They seemed to lose support in the nineties, and by 2000 the known leadership of the organization had been largely apprehended. Though many believed the organization was dead, indications of the group’s stirrings have been seen again in the last two years. Published doctrines and active media reporting in Japan have provided a new sounding board, gaining more reception in the country’s declining economic climate. Their message has focused on anti-American and anticapitalist tenets, rather than the anarchistic overthrow of the government, which has found a degree of support within a fragment of the population’s youth. Oddly, there is no visible front man, or poster child, for the group.”
    “I can endorse Marty’s comments, Mr. President,” the deputy CIA
    director offered. “Until the hits on our people, we’ve had no overt record of activity from these people in a number of years. The known leadership is behind bars. Quite frankly, we don’t know who is now calling the shots.”
    “Are we confident there is no Al Qaeda connection here?”
    “Possible, but not likely,” Finch replied. “The method of assassination is certainly not their style, and there has been no real radical Islamic presence visible in Japan. At this juncture, we have absolutely no evidence to suggest a link.”
    “Where are we with the Japanese on this?” the president asked.
    “We have an FBI counterterrorist team in-country working closely with the Japanese National Police Agency. The Japanese authorities are quite cognizant of the nefarious nature of these assassinations in their country and have assigned a large task force to the investigation. There is little more in the way of assistance we could ask of them that they haven’t already offered up.”
    “I have initiated a request through State to the Japanese Foreign Ministry for an update to their profile