Rainfall

residents.

    Thus, between two countries, we have none at all . . .

    — NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE,
The Marble Faun

19

    “YOU ARE A maniac with a death wish, and I’m never working with you again,” Harry told me when I got to his apartment.

    “I’m never working with me again, either,” I said. “Have you been getting anything from the transmitter?”

    “Yes, everything that went on while you were there and a short meeting that just ended. It’s stored on the hard drive.”

    “They say anything about the guy I ran into on my way out?”

    “What do you mean?”

    “I had a little encounter with one of Yamaoto’s men just after I put the transmitter in place. They must have figured it had happened earlier, or you would have heard them say something.”

    “Oh, that. Yes, they thought it happened when you busted out of interrogation. They didn’t know you’d been back. You know, the guy is dead.”

    “Yeah, he didn’t look too good when I left him.”

    He was watching me closely, but I couldn’t read his eyes. “That was fast. You can do something like that, that fast, with just your hands?”

    I looked at him, deadpan. “No, I needed my feet, too. Where’s Midori?”

    “She went out to get an electronic piano keyboard. We’re going to try playing what’s on the disk for the computer — it’s the only way to discern the patterns in the lattice.”

    I frowned. “She shouldn’t be going out if we can avoid it.”

    “We couldn’t avoid it. Someone had to monitor the laser and infrared and save your ass before, and she isn’t familiar with the equipment. That didn’t leave a lot of alternatives.”

    “I see what you mean.”

    “She knows to be careful. She’s wearing light disguise. I don’t think there’s going to be a problem.”

    “Okay. Let’s listen to what you got from the transmitter.”

    “Just a second — tell me you didn’t leave the van.”

    “What do you think, I went back for it? I’m crazy, but not that crazy.”

    He looked like a kid who’d been told that his dog just died. “Do you have any idea how much that equipment cost?”

    I suppressed a smile and patted him on the shoulder. “You know I’m good for it,” I said, which was true. I sat down in front of a computer monitor and picked up a pair of headphones. “Play it,” I said.

    A few mouse clicks later I was listening to Yamaoto excoriating his men in Japanese. They must have called him with the bad news when I got away. “One man! One unarmed man! And you let him get away! Useless, incompetent idiots!”

    I couldn’t tell who or how many he was talking to because they were suffering his tirade in silence. There was a long pause, during which I assumed he was collecting himself, and afterward he said, “It doesn’t matter. He may not know where the disk is, and even if he does I’m not confident that you would have been able to extract the information from him. He’s obviously tougher than any of you.”

    After another long pause, someone spoke up: “What would you have us do,
toushu
?”

    “What indeed,” Yamaoto said, his voice slightly hoarse from shouting. “Focus on the girl. She is still our most promising lead.”

    “But she’s underground now,” the voice said.

    “Yes, but she’s unaccustomed to such a life,” Yamaoto answered. “She went into hiding suddenly, presumably having left much of the ordinary business of her life suspended. We can count on her to return to that business presently. Put men in all the vital spots of her life — where she lives, where she works, her known acquaintances, her family. Work with Holtzer on this as necessary. He has the technical means.”

    Holtzer? Work
with
him?

    “And the man?”

    There was a long pause, then Yamaoto said, “The man is a different story. He lives in shadows like a fish in water. Unless we are extraordinarily lucky, I expect you have lost him.”

    I could imagine heads bowed collectively in shame in the Japanese fashion. After a while one of the men spoke up: “We may spot him with the girl.”

    “Yes, that’s possible. He’s obviously protecting her. We know he saved her from Ishikura’s men outside her apartment. And his reaction to my questions about her whereabouts was defensive. He may have feelings for her.” I heard him chuckle. “A strange basis for a romance.”

    Ishikura?
I thought.

    “In any event, Rain’s loss is not fatal,” Yamaoto continued. “The girl poses much