Hard Rain

surprised grin and he actually patted me on the
    back. "Thank you," he said. He looked at my arm, which I was cradling
    unnaturally close to my body. "I know someone who can take a look at
    that. But I think you'll want to hear Kanezaki first."
    The three of us walked across the street to a coffee shop. As soon as
    we were seated and had ordered, Kanezaki said, "I learned something
    about your friend's death. It's not much, but you helped me out the
    way you promised, so I'll tell you."
    "All right," I said.
    Kanezaki glanced at Tatsu. "Uh, Ishikura-san here briefed me on your
    meetings with Biddle and Tanaka. He told me that Biddle asked you to
    kill me." He paused for a second. "Thanks for not taking him up on
    that," he said.
    "Doitashimashite," I said, shaking my head slowly. Don't mention it.
    "After the last time we met," he went on, "I wanted more information.
    For leverage over Biddle, to make sure he knew I had something on him
    in case he decided to try anything again."
    Fast learner, I thought. "What did you do?"
    "I bugged his office."
    I looked at him, half-surprised, half-impressed by his apparent
    audacity. "You bugged the Chief of Station's office?"
    He smiled in a young, self-satisfied way that reminded me for a moment
    of Harry. "I did. His office is only swept for bugs every twenty-four
    hours, at regular intervals. Back at Headquarters I took the locks and
    picks course, so getting into his office to place the bug was no
    problem."
    "Impressive security," I said.
    He shrugged. "Security is generally effective against outside threats.
    But it wasn't designed with inside threats in mind. Anyway, I can get
    in and out pretty much as I need to, putting the bug down to listen in,
    then removing it to avoid the sweeps."
    "You overheard something about Harry," I said.
    He nodded. "Yesterday, 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. No loose ends."
    "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 that 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 that 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 that 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