once airborne scragger leaned closer to him. "there's no way to tell you but quickly so here it is: there may be a terrorist attack on siri, one of the rigs, perhaps even your ship. de plessey asked me to warn you."
the air hissed out of kasigi's mouth. "when?" he asked over the heavy cabin noise.
"i don't know. nor does de plessey. but it's more than possible."
"how? how will they sabotage?"
"no idea. guns or explosives, maybe a time bomb, so you'd better tighten security."
"it is already optimum," kasigi replied at once, and then saw the flash of anger in scragger's eyes. for a second he could not fathom the why, then he
remembered what he had just said. "ah, so sorry, captain, i did not mean to be boastful. it is just that we have always very high standards and in these waters my shipstre..." he had almost said "on a war footing" but stopped himself in time, containing his irritation at the other's sensitivity. "in these waters everyone is more than careful. please excuse me."
"de plessey wanted you to know. and also to keep the tip mum to keep it to yourself and not get any iranian backs up."
"i understand. the tip is safe with me. again, thank you." kasigi saw scragger nod briefly then settle back in his seat. the bigger half of him also wanted to nod briefly and end everything there, but because the australian had saved his companions' lives as well as his own, therefore enabling them to give further service to the company and their leader, hiro toda, he felt it his duty to attempt a healing.
"captain," he said as quietly as he could over the thunder of the jets, "i understand why we japanese are hated by australians and i apologize for all the changis, all the burma roads, and all the atrocities. i can only tell you the truth: these happenings are well taught in our schools and not forgotten. it is to our national shame that these things happened."
it's true, he thought angrily. to commit those atrocities was stupid even though those fools did not understand they were committing atrocities after all, the enemy were cowards, most of them, and meekly surrendered in tens of thousands and so forfeited their rights as human beings according to our bushido, our code, that stipulates for a soldier to surrender is the worst dishonor. a few mistakes by a few sadists, a few ill-educated peasants of prison guards most of whom were the garlic eaters, koreans and all japanese have to suffer forever. it is a shame of japan. and another, the worst of all shames, that our supreme war-leader failed in his duty and so forced the emperor into the shame of having to terminate the war. "please accept my apology for all of us."
scragger stared at him. after a pause he said simply, "sorry, but i can't. for one thing my ex-partner forsyth was the first man into changi; he never got over what he saw; for another too many of my cobbers, not just pows, bought it. too many. i can't forget. an' more than that, i won't. i won't because if i did, that'd be their last betrayal. we've betrayed them in the peace wot peace? we've betrayed 'em all, that's what i think. sorry, but there it is."
"i understand. even so we can make a peace, you and 1. no?"
"maybe. maybe in time."
ah, time, kasigi thought, bemused. today i was again on the edge of death. how much time do we have, you and 1? isn't time an illusion and all life just illusions within illusions. and death? his revered samurai ancestor's death
poem had summed it up perfectly: what are clouds/but an excuse for the sky?/ what is life,/but an escape from death?
the ancestor was yabu kasigi, daimyo of izu and baka and supporter of yoshi toronaga, first and greatest of the toronaga shoguns who, from father to son, ruled japan from 1603 until 1871 when the meiji emperor finally obliterated the shogunate and outlawed the entire samurai class. but yabu kasigi was not remembered for his loyalty to his liege lord or his courage in battle as was his famous nephew omi kasigi, who fought for toronaga at the great battle of sekigahara, had his hand blown off but still led the charge that broke the enemy.
oh, no, yabu betrayed toronaga, or tried to betray him, and so was ordered by him to commit seppuku ritual death by disembowelment. yabu was revered for the calligraphy of his death poem, and his courage when he committed seppuku. on that day, kneeling before the assembled samurai, he contemptuously dispensed with the second samurai who would stand behind him with a long sword to end his agony quickly by cutting off his head and so preventing the shame of crying out. he took the short knife and plunged it deep into his stomach, then leisurely made the four cuts, the most difficult seppuku of all across and down, across again and up then lifted out his own entrails to die at length, never having cried out.
kasigi shivered at the thought of having to do the same, knowing he would not have the courage. modern war's nothing to those days when you could be ordered to die thus at the whim of your liege lord...
he saw scragger watching him.
"i was in the war, too," he said involuntarily. "fixed wing. i flew zeros in china, malaya, and indonesia. and new guinea. courage in war is different from... from courage alone... i mean, not in war, isn't it?"
"i don't understand."
i haven't thought about my war for years, kasigi was thinking, a sudden wave of fear going through him, remembering his constant terror of dying or being maimed, terror that had consumed him like today when he was certain they were all going to die and he and his companions had been frozen with fear. yes, and we all did today what we did all those war years: remembered our heritage in the land of the gods, swallowed our terror as we had been taught from childhood, pretended calm, pretended harmony so as not to shame ourselves before others, flew missions for the emperor against the enemy as best we could and then, when he said lay down your arms, thankfully laid down our arms, however much the shame.
a few found the shame unbearable and killed themselves in the ancient way with honor. did i lose honor because i didn't? never. i obeyed the emperor
who ordered us to bear the unbearable, then joined my cousin's firm as was ordained and have served him loyally for the greater glory of japan. from the ruins of yokohama i helped rebuild toda shipping industries into one of japan's greatest firms, constructing great ships, inventing the super tankers, bigger every year soon the keel of the first million-tonner to be laid. now our ships are everywhere, carrying bulk raw materials into japan and finished goods out. we japanese are rightly the wonder of the world. but, oh, so vulnerable we must have oil or we perish.
out of one of the windows he noticed a tanker steaming up the gulf, another going toward hormuz. the bridge continues, he thought. at least one tanker every hundred miles all the way from here to japan, day in day out, to feed our factories without which we starve. all opec knows it, they're gouging us and gloating. like today. today it took all my willpower to pretend outward calm dealing with that... that odious frenchman, stinking of garlic and that revolting, stinking, oozing vomit mess called brie, blatantly demanding $2.80 over and above the already outrageous $14.80, and me, of ancient samurai lineage, having to haggle with him like a hong kong chinese.
"but, m'sieur de plessey, surely you must see that at that price, plus freight an "
"so sorry, m'sieur, but i have my instructions. as agreed the 3 million barrels of siri oil are on offer to you first. extex have asked for a quote and so have four other majors. if you wish to change your mind..."
"no, but the contract specifies 'the current opec price' and w "
"yes, but you surely know that all opec suppliers are charging a premium. don't forget the saudis plan to cut back production this month, that last week all the majors ordered another sweeping wave of force majeure cutbacks, that libya's cutting her production too. bp's increased its cutback to 45 percent... "
kasigi wanted to bellow with rage as he remembered that when at length he had agreed, provided he could have all 3 million barrels at the same price, the frenchman had smiled sweetly and said, "certainly, provided you load within seven days," both of them knowing it was impossible. knowing too that a romanian state delegation was presently in kuwait seeking 3 million tons of crude, let alone 3 million barrels, to compensate for the cutoff of their own iranian supplies that came to them through the iran-soviet pipelines. and that there were other buyers, dozens of them, waiting to take over his siri option and all his other options for oil, liquid natural gas, naphtha, and other petrochemicals.
"very well, $17.60 a barrel," kasigi had said agreeably. but inside he swore to even the score somehow.
"for this one tanker, m'sieur."
"of course for this tanker," he had said even more agreeably.
and now this australian pilot whispers to me that even this one tanker may not be safe. this strange old man, far too old to be flying yet so skilled, so knowledgeable, so open, and so foolish foolish to be so open, for then you put yourself into another's power.
he looked back at scragger. "you said we could make a peace maybe in time. we both ran out of time today but for your skill, and luck, though we call that karma. i truly don't know how much time we have. perhaps my ship is blown up tomorrow. i will be aboard her." he shrugged. "karma. but let us be friends, just you and i i don't think we betray our war comrades, yours and mine." he put out his hand. "please."
scragger looked at the hand. kasigi willed himself to wait. then scragger conceded, half nodded and shook the hand firmly. "okay, sport, let's give it a go."
at that moment he saw vossi turn and beckon him. at once scragger went forward to the cockpit. "yes, ed?"
"there's a casevac, scrag, from siri three. one of the deck crew's fallen overboard..."
they went at once. the body was floating near the legs of the rig. they winched it aboard. sharks had already fed on the lower limbs and one arm was missing. the head and face were badly bruised and curiously disfigured. it had been abdollah turik.
iraq ~ qa[vin * teh ran ~ ~ baghdad: ~ | r a n ~ ~ ~,z dam who isfa~ ~
shatt- ~abadan ~ j
near bandar delam: 4:52 p.m. shadows were lengthening. beyond the road the land was scrubby, and beyond that stony foothills rose to snowcapped mountains the northern end of the zagros. this side, beside the stream and marshes that led at length to the port a few miles away, was one of the numerous oil pipelines that crisscrossed this whole area. the pipeline was steel, twenty inches in diameter, and set on a concrete trestle that led down into a culvert under the road, then went underground. a mile or so to the east was a village low-lying, dust-covered, earth-colored, made from mud bricks and coming from that direction was a small car. it was old and battered and traveled slowly, the engine sounding good, too good for the body.
in the car were four iranians. they were young and clean-shaven and better dressed than usual, though all were sweat stained and very nervous. near the culvert the car stopped. one young man wearing glasses got out from the front seat and pretended to urinate on the side of the road, his eyes searching all around.
"it's all clear," he said.
at once the two youths in the back came out swiftly, a rough, heavy bag
between them, and ducked down the dirt embankment into the culvert. the young man with glasses fastened his buttons, then casually went to the trunk of the car and opened it. under a piece of torn canvas he saw the snub nose of the czech-made machine pistol. a little of his nervousness left him.
the driver got out and urinated into the ditch, his stream strong.
"i wanted to, mashoud, but couldn't," the youth with glasses said, envying him. he wiped the sweat off his face and pushed at his glasses.
"i can never do it before an exam," mashoud said and laughed. "god grant university will open again soon."
"god! god's the opiate of the masses," the youth with glasses said witheringly, then turned his attention to the road. it was still empty as far as they could see in both directions. south a few miles away, the sun reflected off the waters of the gulf. he lit a cigarette. his fingers trembled. time passed very slowly. flies swarmed, making the silence seem more silent. then he noticed a dust cloud on the road, the other side of the village. "look!"
together they squinted into the distance. "are they lorries or trucks, army trucks?" mashoud said anxiously, then ran to the side of the culvert and shouted, "hurry up, you two. there's something coming!"
"all right," a voice called from below.
"we're almost done," another voice said.
the two youths in the culvert had the sack open and were already packing the flat bags of explosive haphazardly against the welded steel pipe and along its length. the pipe was covered with a sheath of canvas and pitch to protect it from erosion. "give me the detonator and fuse, ali," the older one said throatily. both of them were filthy now, the dirt streaked with sweat.
"here." ali handed it to him carefully, his shirt clinging to his skin. "are you sure you know how to do it, bijan?"
