Hard Rain

instructions," he said.
    "I'm not really involved."
    "I understand," Tatsu said. "You're doing fine. Now tell me."
    "For three months, I gave Biddle cash without asking for anything in
    return. Then I pretended to be concerned about whether I was being
    conned. "Who is this money really going to?" I asked him. "Tell me,
    or I'll cut you off!" At first he resisted. Then he told me I would
    know these people, could probably figure out who they would be just
    from reading the paper. Then he gave me names. I pretended to be
    satisfied, and gave him more money.
    "Then I acted paranoid again. I said, "You're just making this up.
    Prove to me that you really are giving my money to the people who need
    it and not keeping it for yourself!" Again, he argued at first. But
    eventually he agreed to tell me when and where a meeting would occur.
    And then another."
    Jesus Christ, I thought.
    "How many meetings did Biddle inform you of?" Tatsu asked.
    "Four."
    "And what did you do with that information?"
    "I passed it along to ... to the person who provides the funding, as I
    was instructed to do."
    Tatsu nodded. "Give me the names of the participants in those four
    meetings, and the dates."
    "I don't remember the exact dates," Tanaka said.
    I smiled and started to stand. Tanaka flinched. Tatsu put a hand out
    to restrain me and said, "Be as accurate as you can."
    Tanaka intoned four names. A ballpark date for each. I sat down.
    "Now give me every other name you got out of Biddle," Tatsu said.
    Tanaka complied.
    Tatsu didn't write anything down, and I realized he knew these people
    well. "Very good," he said when Tanaka was done. "You have been most
    cooperative and I see no reason for anyone to learn that this
    conversation took place. Of course, should I need any further
    information, I may call on you again. With similar discretion."
    Tanaka nodded. He looked a little sick.
    The maid saw us to the door. The car was waiting outside. We got in
    back and drove off. I told them to drop me off at nearby JR Meguro
    station. Tatsu's man drove the short distance to the station and
    waited in the car while Tatsu and I stood outside to wrap things up.
    "What do you think?" I asked.
    "He's telling the truth," Tatsu said.
    "Maybe. But who put him in touch with Biddle?"
    He shrugged. "Probably one of the Agency's tainted assets, someone
    with connections to Yamaoto. If Biddle were canvassing these assets to
    try to find a supporter for Crepuscular, word would have gotten back to
    Yamaoto."
    "And Yamaoto would have seen an opportunity to turn the program to his
    own ends."
    He nodded, then said, "What do you think Yamaoto did on those four
    occasions in which he learned where and when Kanezaki would be meeting
    with his assets?"
    I shrugged. "Observers. Using parabolic microphones, telephoto
    lenses, low-light video."
    "Agreed. Now assume Yamaoto has audio and video recordings of these
    meetings in progress. What is the value of these materials to him?"
    I thought for a moment. "Blackmail, mostly. "Do as I tell you, or I
    release these photos to the media."
    "Yes, that is Yamaoto's preferred method. And it is remarkably
    effective when the photos are of an extramarital affair in progress, or
    a liaison with a young boy, or some other socially unacceptable
    behavior. But here?"
    I thought again. "You think video and audio of a meeting with Kanezaki
    wouldn't be damning enough?"
    He shrugged. "The audio might be, if the recorded conversation were
    sufficientiy incriminating. But the video would be of lesser
    consequence: a politician chatting with a man, apparently Japanese, in
    a public place."
    "Because no one knows who Kane2aki is," I said, beginning to catch
    on.
    He looked at me, waiting for me to put it together.
    "They need a way to make Kanezaki a household name," I said. "To get
    his picture in the paper. That gives the photos punch."
    He nodded. "And how to do that?" he asked.
    "I'll be damned," I said, finally seeing it. "Biddle was playing right
    into Yamaoto's hands. He's been positioning Kanezaki as his fall guy,
    giving him full responsibility for Crepuscular so that, if it ever got
    out, he'd have a "rogue" who could take all the heat. But now, if
    Kanezaki becomes publicly known as the poster child for CIA
    skullduggery, the politicians who have been photographed with him are
    going down, too."
    "Correct. Biddle can no longer burn Kanezaki without burning the very
    reformers he presumably wants to protect."
    "That's why he wants