Japantown (33 page)

“The point is I told you to do it.”

“I don’t do dirty work. You set him up. You lied to him. And you lied to me too.”

“I don’t pay you to listen to other people.”

“Keeping you alive means thinking on my feet and thinking ahead. Brodie is working the same problem from the other side. If he’s got something I think is useful, I’m gonna listen.”

Hara glowered at his rebellious bodyguard.

Jo dropped his head. “And Yoshida was a friend.”

The bodyguard who died in Japantown.

It was my turn to glower, and returning my attention to the mogul, I did so without pleasure. “You’ve put too many lives at risk, Hara.”

“The kind of risks Brodie Security is paid to take,” Hara countered. “I simply forced you to become more involved.”

Anger suffused my face. “
More involved?
You stuck a target on my back.”

“There would have been one in any event.”

I shook my head in frustration. “There are other ways to tackle these things. You should have given me all the information up front.”

“Would you have taken the case?”

“Probably not. It’s not our type of work.”

“In my judgment, you were ideally positioned.”

The pent-up rage of the last week spilling forth, I lunged at the mogul. Had there been three yards between us instead of six, Hara would be hurting. As it was, Jo stepped easily between us.

“Brodie,” he rumbled, his tone low and dark.

I raised my palms and backed away.
Ideally positioned.
Noda and I now sat at the top of Soga’s hit list, and I’d been forced to send Jenny into hiding. The pigeon was right where Hara wanted it.

I took a deep breath. “When did you know?”

Hara stared icily. “Why should I talk to you?”

Jo refolded his arms over his chest. “Because if you don’t, I walk.”

Men of Jo’s caliber were rare—and could be the difference between living and dying when it came down to a matter of seconds. Hara would know that, but even so I wondered if Jo’s threat was enough to stem Hara’s pride.

Hara said, “I could hire five more just like you in an instant.”

“Nothing’s stopping you,” Jo said without moving.

Hara deflated visibly, looking from Jo to me, seeing his bluff hadn’t worked. He knew what he had. Or maybe the fight had gone out of him.

“A source in the Japanese government told me of the kanji,” Hara said. “He couldn’t understand its significance, but I could.”

I said, “You knew all along who they were?”

“No. That was the problem.”

“Explain.”

“I knew the rumors. A private army of assassins for hire of Japanese origin based somewhere overseas. ‘Business facilitators,’ I’ve heard them
called. My position is high enough to allow me to have known of such stories and know the kanji was a sign of their work.”

“It was a message, then?”

“So it would seem.”

“For Teq QX?”

Hara’s head snapped up in surprise, then a triumphant grin played across his lips. “You see, my choice was not without merit. You have come far in a short time.”

I felt like ripping the smile from his face, but I held my anger in check this time. I wanted answers. I needed them if there was to be any hope of extracting myself from the trap Hara had conceived.

“Answer the question,” I said, my shoulders tensing.

Hara’s eyes flicked toward Jo. “I’m not certain, but I believe so.”

“You were late with the bios on your family because they didn’t mean much, right?”

“Sono tori,”
he said with a faint smile. Exactly right. “I didn’t want you sidetracked by useless details. I wanted you front and center, splashing around. Making waves. Sharks are attracted to irregular behavior. You performed admirably.”

I said, “And the large money transfer to Brodie Security was another wave.”

Hara studied me appraisingly. “You’re a quick study.”

“While I was drawing the sharks, what were
you
doing?”

“Making my own inquiries.”

“Any progress?”

Hara wilted. “It’s all I think about. All I do. I don’t sleep, I don’t eat, but I haven’t found them. Besides my own time, I assigned five others to it. I’ve invested hundreds of man-hours in the project but uncovered nothing.”

His words struck deeper than he could know. I thought of my bottomless grief immediately after Mieko’s death, and remembered how I’d floundered in the face of such an incomprehensible loss. In the days and nights since Japantown, Hara had struggled with the same despair. His wealth had conquered mountains, but it could not undo the deed. His money was as useless as spent confetti.

All this I grasped in an instant. My fury and hatred evaporated. In
that second we exchanged a look of understanding so knowing, so privy to pain and desperation and utter devastation, it startled me.

“Let’s see if I can remember everyone who has an interest in Teq QX,” I said, the confrontational edge in my voice gone. “The Korean chaebols, the Americans, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Taiwanese government, and a who’s-who of Japanese elec-tech firms.”

Hara’s gaze met mine, his distress now an open wound. “Why stop there? I brushed off two Australian CEOs, a major European bank, and nearly a dozen execs from around the world.”

“Why?”

“The technology is superb. I’ll license it at the right time, at the price I choose. Meanwhile CTN will have a superior product.”

“Was there more than one threat?”

“Just one. They said I had better learn to be more flexible about my acquisitions.”

“They?”

“The ministries. Or more likely, the ministries
fronting
for one of my Japanese competitors. A gofer showed up and ‘requested’ that Teq QX be jointly acquired in order that Japan Inc. could share the technology. As they always do.”

“Not an elite official?”

“They didn’t deign to grace my office. Even the gofer was arrogant. It was more of an order.”

“Which you refused?”

“Why should I deal with someone’s undersecretary?”

“Would it have made a difference if someone higher up had courted you?”

“In truth, not this time.”

“And when you resisted the gofer’s overtures?”

“He said there’d be ‘consequences.’ ”

It didn’t compute. Even as haughty as many top ministry administrators were, it made no sense to send a low-level assistant to meet someone of Hara’s stature.

“Did they contact you again?”

“Yes. Once, to ask me to reconsider.”

“Top brass this time, right?”

“No. A different gofer who reiterated the request and the threat.”

A chill enveloped me. They repeated the mistake after Hara’s first refusal? With Teq QX developing pivotal technology for the next-generation chip, and a cavalcade of Japanese companies drooling over the prize? I didn’t like the sound of that.

“Has the government threatened you before?”

Hara’s tone was dismissive. “Routinely.”

“Were there reprisals after your second refusal?”

“No.”

I said, “The threat included your family too?”

The mogul fell back in his chair. “Yes, but I thought it was the usual hot air.”

“So we can narrow the search to a Japanese company working with the ministries.”

“I did that,” Hara said, “with no results. When you include the major subcontractors, there are too many.”

I bit my lip in frustration. I was furious. So much time wasted. How could a businessman of Hara’s proven talent be so lame? There weren’t too many trails if you employed time, manpower, and funds wisely.

“Anything else you want to tell me now that the sharks are circling?”

“For years I have heard whispers of these men. But they never touched my life—until now. And they destroyed it. I want revenge, Brodie-san. I paid you good money for that.”

“I told you Brodie Security doesn’t exterminate pests.”

“And I told
you
I invariably get what I want. These men are animals. Heartless, amoral animals. They must be hunted down and crushed like cockroaches. Their last moments must be filled with disgrace, not glory. You can do that because you saw my family in Japantown.”

He’d displayed the same passion when he first came to see me, but today I knew the callousness behind the passion. We had both lost loved ones to Soga, but only one of us had turned into a remorseless manipulator.

I could feel my face prickling with the anger. “My daughter is under protective custody because of your tricks.”

Hara spread his hands. “You’re the professional. Protect her.”

Jo or no Jo, I nearly lost it then. Reading the violence in my look, Jo
edged closer to his client. His hand slid under his jacket for the weapon I knew was there.

Had Jo not been armed, I believe I would have drawn the 9mm from my side pocket and put a slug through Hara’s arrogant smirk. Instead, I locked down the demons and spoke through gritted teeth. “When did you make up your mind to go after them?”

“The moment I heard the news.”

“And how long before you chose Brodie Security?”

“My people came up with a list of three agencies in San Francisco with the kind of organization I required. You simply had the misfortune to be invited to Japantown. What I said that day in your office was entirely true. I simply used my . . . my personal suffering to my advantage.”

My jaw clenched. “You may believe people invariably do what you ask, but there’s about to be an exception.”

“Don’t fool yourself, Brodie. Sink or swim. It’s your choice.”

“I’m flying out of here tomorrow.”

“You’re leaving? They’ll find you.”

“You never know.”

His eyes lit up. “You’ve found them. Where are they?”

I turned and walked toward the door.

“Tell me,” Hara said. He could not quite subdue the note of excitement in his voice, yet his pride prevented him from begging.

“When my work is finished, you’ll get the report you paid for. As agreed.”

“As your client, I have a right to know now.”

“And
I
have a right to stay alive. Despite the best efforts of my clients.”

My blood roiling, I glanced away and my eyes alighted on Warhol’s
Marilyn
. I noted the portrait’s hairline in surprise. There is a little-known story about an overworked Warhol shipping the master silk-screens of his Monroe portrait to his European gallery with instructions to run off prints ahead of his arrival, which he would then sign. One night, the screens went “missing” for a number of hours before turning up in a corner of the gallery warehouse, as if misplaced. Several months later, portraits with a faint, incongruous barlike shading at the hairline
rather than the fine gradation Warhol intended appeared on the market. Illicit prints had been run off, but with a telltale shift of one screen at the top by maybe two millimeters.

“You know the Warhol’s a fake, don’t you?” I said, turning to watch his reaction.

Hara looked startled, then flushed. “I forget that behind the brawn are higher sensibilities. Of course I know.”

“Now, there’s a surprise. Stay out of my way, Hara, or you’ll regret it. And that’s a promise I’ll keep, with or without your bodyguards.”

I nodded at Jo and walked out.

CHAPTER 54

W
E
had one last huddle at Brodie Security before I headed home.

Attending were Narazaki, Noda, George, Mari, and Toru. The front door was still locked and shuttered. Three men stood guard on the street and another three patrolled the perimeter. A third trio had covered my back to and from Hara’s office.

“How’d your meet with Hara go?” Narazaki asked.

I recounted my reunion with the communications mogul, my anger rekindling as I spoke.

Narazaki nodded in sympathy. “In this business, sometimes clients are only a tad better than what you’re trolling for.”

Toru nodded. “With their byte stealer, you’ve got more trouble.”

“What kind?” Noda asked.

“He’ll be tracking Brodie and anyone else who’s traveling.”

I said, “You mean he’ll follow our travel itinerary by hacking the airline manifests?”

“His level, he’ll hack airlines, credit card companies, hotel booking systems—anything and everything hooked in and juiced. If you’re traveling under your own name, Soga will know when-where-how faster than you can say
trapware
.”

“Then let’s leave a trail,” I said. “Obvious but not too obvious.”

Toru grinned. “Just flash the plastic.”

I turned to Narazaki. “What do you think? Time to get off the sidelines and into the game?”

“You got some sense of sidelines, kid. I like that. But this case has escalated way beyond dangerous, so I’m pulling you off.”

I stared at him, stunned.

“Don’t get me wrong, Brodie-kun. Your work’s been up there with the best of them, but you’re still a newcomer. You’ve only gotten this far because I paired you with Noda. Let the pros finish it. Besides, don’t you think you should get back to your daughter? Keep an eye on her until things wind down?”

Noda leaned forward, scowling. “Don’t see why he can’t continue. He’s handled himself well.”

Narazaki said, “I owe it to Jake to keep his son out of harm’s way. You helped spot the whale, Brodie. That’s a job well done. Now let a more experienced team clean up.”

Noda’s scowl deepened. “Won’t fly. He’s got a target on his back. Like me.”

“Exactly,” Narazaki said. “If we remove Brodie from the front line and hide him and his daughter until this blows over, we can probably salvage the situation.”

Noda uttered a low growl. “Unlikely.”

I gave Jake’s longtime partner an appreciative smile. “Narazaki-san, you’re like a father to me and I have the greatest respect for your opinion, but I’m not hiding from Soga. These guys killed my wife.”

His face softened. “I understand all that, but it’s too risky. And it’s not the way Brodie Security operates.”

“Of which I am half owner.”

Jake’s old partner drank in my determination, then slumped back in his seat, exasperated. “I got that same damn look from your father far too many times. Like a mule-assed fisherman who won’t haul in his nets until he’s grabbed his quota, no matter how dark the clouds on the horizon.” He sighed loudly and turned to Noda. “All right, you guys got your wish. But Kei-kun, I want people stateside watching our boy’s back when the SFPD isn’t.”