Hard Rain

tea.
    I watched him make his way to the obelisk. He was wearing an open
    trench coat, a suit and tie beneath it. Very cloak and dagger. For
    ten minutes I scanned the perimeter of the cemetery, using the goggles
    as night-vision binoculars, until I was satisfied he was alone. Then I
    eased out and made my way to where he was standing.
    He didn't hear me until I spoke from a meter away. "Biddle," I said.
    "Jesus!" he said, jumping and spinning to face me.
    I could see him squinting in the darkness. In the white green of the
    goggles, I logged every detail of his expression.
    Harry's detector was motionless in my pocket. With my good arm, I
    slipped the baton out from one of the sweatpants pockets. Biddle
    missed the movement in the dark.
    "There's a small problem," I said.
    "What?"
    "I need you to do a better job convincing me that you had nothing to do
    with Haruyoshi Fukasawa's death."
    I saw his brow furrow in the green glow. "Look, I already told you
    ...," he started to say.
    I snapped the baton out and backhanded it into his forward shin,
    holding back a little at the end because it was too soon to break
    anything. He shrieked and fell to the ground, clutching his wounded
    leg. I gave him a minute to roll around while I scanned the area.
    Except for Biddle, all was silent.
    "No more noise," I told him. "Stay quiet, or I'll make you quiet."
    He gritted his teeth and looked to where my voice had come from.
    "Goddamn it, I've told you everything I know," he said, gasping.
    "You didn't tell me you're working with Yamaoto. That the one who's
    been keeping Crepuscular alive is you, not Kanezaki."
    His eyes were wide, searching for me in the darkness. "Kanezaki is
    paying you, isn't he?" he groaned.
    I considered for a moment. "No. No one's paying me. For once, I'm
    doing something just because I want to. Although I wouldn't call that
    good news, from your perspective."
    "Well, I can pay you. The Agency can. It's a new world we're in, and
    I told you we want you to be a part of it."
    I chuckled. "You sound like a recruiting billboard. Now tell me about
    Yamaoto."
    "I'm serious. Post Nine-Eleven, the Agency needs people like you. This
    is why we've been looking for you."
    "I'm going to ask my question again. For free. If I have to repeat
    myself after this, though, the shot that just put you on the ground is
    going to seem like a caress."
    There was a long pause, then he said, "All right." He got slowly to
    his feet, keeping his weight off his injured leg. "Look, Yamaoto has
    his interests, and we have ours. There's just an alignment right now,
    that's all. An alliance of convenience."
    "To what end? I thought Crepuscular was supposed to help reformers
    here."
    He nodded. "Reform would be good for the U.S. in the long term, but it
    would also create problems. Look, Japan is the world's largest
    creditor. It has over three hundred billion dollars invested in U.S.
    treasury bills alone. In the short term, real reform would mean
    Japanese bank closings, bank closings would mean bank runs, and bank
    runs would force banks to repatriate their overseas capital to cover
    fleeing depositors. If reforms eventually work, though, and the
    economy improves, yen-based holdings will become more attractive, and
    Japanese banks will move their dollar- and Euro-based holdings home,
    where they might earn a better return."
    He had pulled himself together pretty nicely. Maybe I hadn't been
    giving him enough credit.
    "So whoever's calling the shots in the USG right now prefers the status
    quo," I said.
    "We like to refer to it as "stability," he said, putting some weight on
    his injured leg and wincing.
    I scanned the area around us. All quiet. "Because the status quo
    keeps all those trillions of yen safely parked in the U.S." where they
    prop up the American economy."
    "That's right. To put it crudely, America is addicted to a continuing
    influx of foreign capital to support its deficit spending, and it gets
    the balance of its fix from Japan. There are elements in the USG that
    don't want that to change."
    I shook my head. "That's not crude, it's nicely put. America is
    addicted to cheap oil, and props up brutal regimes in the Middle East
    to feed its habit. If the USG is supporting corrupt elements in Japan
    because those elements guarantee continued access to Japanese capital,
    Uncle Sam is just being consistent'
    "I supposed that's not unfair. But I don't make policy. I just carry
    it out."
    "So this is why Crepuscular was shut down