Hard Rain

the unlicensed doctors and unadvertised shops hidden in crumbling
    apartment buildings, I was able to purchase a cloned cell phone for
    cash, with no ID.
    Next stop was Harry's neighborhood in Iikura, just south of Roppongi,
    where I found a suitable Lawson's convenience store not far from his
    apartment. I browsed in the reading section, folding the map into one
    of the magazines there.
    I called him from a pay phone at seven that evening. "Wake up,
    sleepyhead," I told him.
    "Hey, what's going on?" he asked. "I didn't expect to hear from you
    for a while."
    He didn't sound groggy. Maybe he'd gotten up to see Yukiko off to the
    office.
    "I missed you," I said. "You alone?"
    "Yeah."
    "I need a favor."
    "Name it."
    "Are you free right now?"
    "Yeah."
    "Okay. I need you to go outside and call me from a pay phone. There's
    one near the Lawson's at Azabu Iikura Katamachi, to the left as you're
    facing the store. Use it. I'll give you my number."
    "This line is okay, you know that."
    "Just in case. This is sensitive." I used our usual code to give him
    my cell phone number.
    Ten minutes later the unit rang. "Okay, what's so sensitive?" he
    asked.
    "I think someone might be following you."
    There was a short silence. "Are you serious?"
    "Stop looking over your shoulder. If they're there right now I don't
    want you to tip them off. You wouldn't see them that way anyway."
    Another silence. Then: "I don't get it. I'm awfully careful."
    "I know you are."
    "Why do you think this?"
    "Not over the phone."
    "You want to meet?"
    "Yes. But I want you to pick something up first. I've inserted a note
    behind the back cover of the second-to-the-back issue of this week's TV
    Taro in the Lawson's you're next to. Go inside and retrieve the note.
    Make sure you make it look natural, in case somebody's close. Pick up a
    carton of milk, some prepared food, like you're just grabbing something
    quick and easy for dinner to take back to your apartment. Take it all
    home, wait a half-hour, then go out and call me again from a different
    phone. Be ready for a two-hour walk."
    Will do."
    A half-hour passed. The cell phone rang again.
    "You retrieve it?" I asked.
    "Yeah. I see what you're up to."
    "Good. Just follow the route. Start at eight thirty sharp. When
    you're done, wait for me at the place I've indicated on the note. You
    know how to interpret the place I've indicated."
    My reference to 'interpretation' was a reminder that he wasn't to take
    our meeting place literally, but was instead to use the Tokyo Yellow
    Pages per our usual code to divine my true intent. If people were
    following Harry and they moved on him right now, presumably they'd pick
    up the note, see the location of the meet, and go to the wrong place to
    ambush me.
    "Understood," he said.
    "Be cool. You've got nothing to worry about. I'll explain everything
    when I see you. And don't worry if I'm a little late."
    "No worries. I'll see you later."
    I hung up.
    Harry had been clean when we'd gotten together at Teize, but that
    didn't mean he'd been clean beforehand. I'd taught him to start out
    his SDRs unobtrusively, acting like any other civilian so that anyone
    who might be watching him would be lulled into believing he was no more
    than that. But the low-level stuff was only for the outset. As the
    route progresses, it becomes increasingly aggressive, less concerned
    with lulling potential followers and more concerned with forcing them
    into the open. You get off a subway car and wait until the platform is
    completely empty, then get back on a train going in the opposite
    direction. You turn corners, stop, and wait to see who rushes around
    just behind you. You use a lot of elevators, which forces followers to
    snuggle up with you shoulder-to-shoulder or let you go. Et cetera. The
    idea is that it's better to get caught acting like a spy than it is to
    lead the bad guys to the source you're trying to protect in the first
    place.
    Harry would have observed the protocol on his way to Teize when we met
    there. And, as his countersurveillance moves became more aggressive,
    his followers would have had to choose between being spotted, on the
    one hand, or giving up the quarry so as not to alert him and trying
    again another day, on the other. If they'd chosen door number 2, Harry
    would have shown up at the meeting clean, never knowing that he'd been
    followed a little while earlier.
    And, having seen him engage in blatant countersurveillance tactics, his
    followers would then