Into the Shadows

by Jordan Weisman

Lattie’s blood-colored eyes grew just a bit wider. "Burkingmen?

  Tark, in his element, cleared his throat. "Burkingmen is a slang term derived from both Japanese and English. The Japanese root is Burakumin and denotes the untouchable class of Japanese who perform the onerous duty—to Buddhists—of slaughtering animals and preparing hides for sale. It was coupled with the English word of burke, which means kill, but has an older meaning of resurrecting dead bodies for further use, as with William Burke and Edmund Hare in Scotland several centuries ago."

  "Tark is right." Raven folded his arms across his broad chest. "Dawn McGrath, while still a wagemage for Hondisumi Corporation in Kyoto, was one of the women who went to the expense of having Beatrice-Revlon pherotype her for one of their binary perfumes. The cost of the testing was as expensive as the product itself, but in those days, spending nuyen for an ounce of "Rialta Odalisque" would not have been much of a problem. From what I understand of the interaction of the perfume with an individual’s natural pheromones, the cost is more than reasonable."

  He looked over at Lattie. "And this is where you come in. A year and a half ago, you purchased an ounce of "Rialta Odalisque" from the F. W. Nordstrom down on Fifth and Pine. Though you brought it back within a week, obtained a full refund, and had a decker erase the transactions from the Nordstrom computers, you were unable to destroy all traces of the purchase because the bag and sales slip were thrown out before you gave it to Nadia."

  Lattie took what Raven was telling him stoically, but I noticed his hand had tightened down into claws on the arms of his chair. "That could be, but it was an insignificant detail. "Not to the Burkingmen." Raven’s obsidian eyes halfclosed. "In the past, the truly destitute would pick through garbage for recyclable refuse to sell, but in this day and age, nothing is more valuable than information. A discarded magazine can tell someone what you like to read, and if articles have been clipped, it is a simple thing to determine areas of special interest for you. Ticket stubs from theater engagements tell what you like and what you are willing to pay to see shows.

  "In your case, the receipt for "Riaita Odalisque" probably earned someone a great deal of money, as far as information exchange is, concerned. That bit of data meant you have exquisite taste and the money to satisfy it. For us. that bit of information meant we had to check up on you, and the fact that you are designated as an authorized driver for Ms. Mirin’s Lotus Banshee completed the chain."

  Valerie smiled. "Once we had that information, I was able to figure out who were the deckers that you could have used to do such a good job on the files. Mycroft appeared near the top of the list and we were able to pick out the encryption key he used on your file's resource branch."

  Nadia shook her head. "I don’t understand."

  Val sat straight up. "There’s not a decker in the world, with the exception of someone working for Raven, who doesn’t leave a signature on his work. Egos are part of the biz. and Mycroft, as good as he is, has a very healthy one. He encrypted part of your file using Ihe word Meirmgen. It's a town near the Reichenbach Falls, in Switzerland, the place where Sherlock Holmes stayed before his death at the hands of Moriarty in the stories penned by Arthur Conan Doyle. Once we decrypted the resource branch, we had all the original data showing how Mycroft built your file."

  Raven gave Valerie a nod. "It is unfortunate that the other decker who has had access to your file is something of an aficionado of Victorian history, for he may have stumbled across this key as well. Valerie has been trying to contact him again, but with not much luck. The chances are, however, that your cover may have been compromised."

  Nadia, cool as ever under fire, folded her hands in her lap and crossed her legs. "I am not sure how this ties into the attempt on my life. So what if I am Dawn McGrath?" Valerie hit a button on her console. Beneath a picture of a pretty blond woman about eight years Nadia’s junior—and much less exciting because of it—I saw the nice round figure of 1,000,000 nuyen for information leading to the discovery of her whereabouts. "Hondisumi Corp put a lot of money into your training in magic and it wants you back. Though this is the official line from the company, there is a rumor that Hondisumi has offered 2.2 million nuyen to have the embarrassment expunged from their reputation."

  "As of last week, it's 2.36 million." Stealth corrected.

  Raven opened his hands. "That should answer your question, but I have to agree that I think the attempt on your life is linked to the death of James Yoshimura. I also believe it linked to the Yakuza attack on Bob’s Cartage and Freight. Can you bridge the gaps between the Yakuza, the trucking company, the attempt on your life, and the murder of James Yoshimura?"

  Nadia closed her eyes and shook her head. "I can’t believe I've been this blind." She opened her eyes and looked up at Raven. "Yoshimura came to me with some crack-brained scheme about turning our freight contract over to North American Trucking. I knew, from various sources, that NAT has very strong Yakuza ties and my experience in Japan told me I wanted nothing to do with them. He died only four days later, but since the police said it was a random shooting, I never considered it a Yakuza murder.

  "Two days after that, Sam Cortez tried to get me to adopt the same idea. I assumed the little rat had stolen the file from Yoshimura’s computer and revamped it for presentation as his own. Cortez figured he’d inherit Yoshimura’s job, but I just folded the essential duties in with mine so Cortez got shut out."

  She frowned so heavily her dark brows almost touched above her nose. "Cortez kept pushing and arranged a decker run on United Oil. It got us a file that purported to show irregularities with Bob’s Cartage and Freight and how they deal with our product. This made me a bit suspicious about Cortez because the file was a poor forgery of a United Oil file. Though he had commissioned the run on his own initiative, I didn’t really think Cortez was dangerous. I merely put his antics down to normal corporate jockeying for position. Still, I had some people check him out. One source told me Cortez had a smart gun and Yakuza pin hidden in his apartment, but I attributed this as nothing more sinister than being a simsense gangster."

  She shivered. "No, Cortez might think he deserves to be in a positon it might take most people twenty years to achieve, but he wouldn’t have been so stupid as to hook up with Yakuza."

  I shrugged. "I don’t think the Yaks would trash the warehouse unless they wanted to make Bob’s look bad, which could back up a move to get Natural Vat to switch to NAT. They were going in covertly and their role in the fire only came out because of some survivors who escaped the place. Unless someone trumpeted the Yakuza ties to NAT, a new contract could be issued easily. And the point is this: the Yakuza would not have gone to all that trouble if they didn’t feel they already had a sure deal."

  Raven agreed with my speculation. "I think Wolf’s reasoning is sound. I further believe it would not be unreasonable to assume that the sloppy haste of the hit on you was because someone felt time was running short." He pointed to the computer. "Valerie, please cross-correlate the major officers of North American Trucking with all passenger lists for incoming planes, trains, and ships docking since the time of the hit through the next two days."

  "It’ll take me a minute or two, unless I use some shortcuts."

  Raven nodded. "Speed is vital, but we don’t want to miss anything, "

  "Roger."

  Nadia chewed on her lower lip for a moment, and I resisted the temptation to offer to kiss it and make it better. Her eyes flashed. "So you think Cortez has made a deal with the Yakuza?

  Raven nodded. "If it had been Yoshimura and the Yaks wanted to kill him for failing, he would never have been shot to death in the street by two locals. It would have been apparent, from some graphic feature of his death, that he had run afoul of the Yakuza. No, both his murder and the attempt on your life suggest local talent that has a reason to frame local street samurai for the killings. If what happened to Mr. Morrissey and Mr. Jackson is any indication, I would guess George Van Housen has his hand in things."
/>   Valerie muttered darkly under her breath as she swung around from the console. "I draw a blank, Doc. I've got some low-level execs coming to Seattle for an Alaskan cruise, but nothing on bigwigs and no one with Yak ties. I’m running another check now,"

  "Wait." Stealth’s feet clicked against the floor as he stepped forward. "Check and see when the next Zeppelin is landing out at Earhart Field."

  Raven nodded approval, and Valerie’s slender fingers flew over the deck keys. Her smile brightened. "Grand slam! Hidiki Yamamoto is the NAT director and I have Yamamoto, Hidiki. and party, the Perry suite. The Graf Zeeland lands in half an hour." Valerie started to give Stealth a playful punch in his left arm, then thought better of it.

  I stared incredulously at Stealth. He shrugged eloquently. "It pays to know things."

  Stealth looked over at Raven. "Yamamoto is tied to the Yamaguchi-gumi. "

  Alarms started going off in the back of my head. "Wait a minute, wasn't it a Yamamoto who was involved in the Kobe fires four years ago? He ordered a union organizer’s house burned down, and the fire spread throughout the Nullzone. They never got an accurate body count out of that thing. The man’s a mass murderer."

  Raven nodded solemnly. "I believe you're correct. We are dealing with the same man." He looked over at Stealth, who confirmed his statement with a curt nod.

  Lattie’s eyes narrowed. "All this blind luck coupled with detective work is fascinating, but you have yet to prove Sam Cortez has anything to do with the Yakuza."

  Raven looked over at Valerie. "How long will it take you to crack Cortez’s credit card account? His corporate one, that is."

  "Not long." She turned back to the console and snaked a cable from the unit to the jack behind her ear. I heard it snap in and knew she'd not be with us again until anything and everything in that database was at her command.

  "Your point is well taken, Mr. Drake." Raven smiled at Nadia. "Assuming Cortez is at least competent in the area of buttering up his superiors, he will undoubtedly be meeting Yamamoto when the Zeeland touches down. He will also bring the oyabun a gift. If Cortez’s imagination is as limited as you suggest, his choice is a foregone conclusion."

  "Got it." Valerie smiled broadly. "What do you want to know. Doc?"

  "How long ago did Cortez charge a bottle of sake to the card? "

  Both Nadia and Lattie exchanged puzzled looks. I kept mine hidden. After so many years with Raven, I’ve learned not to let my surprise show when Raven makes such leaps of logic. I could count on the fingers of one nose the number of times he’s been wrong.

  "Here it is, right below the charge for dry cleaning a suit. He charged it four hours ago It was the shop in the lobby of the Natural Vat building." She wrinkled her pretty nose with disgust. "He didn’t buy the cheapest stuff available, but on a scale of one to ten, this stuff is likely to taste only slightly better than the cleaning solution they used on his clothes." Raven smiled easily. "Good. That is a present we can trump easily, and that should buy us some slack from Yamamoto

  Raven, turned to Nadia and let his smile die slowly. "The individual with whom we will be required to deal is ruthless in getting what he wants, and he wants Natural Vat’s Trucking contract. At this point. I would advise you to cut and run. Your identity may well have been compromised. so Yamamota might be the least of your worries."

  Nadia’s jade eyes burned with a frigid resolve. "I didn't want the Yakuza connected with Natural Vat before I knew who was behind them. Why would I run now and leave the company to some butchering oyabun? I wouldn’t give Cortez or his master the satisfaction."

  Raven and I shared a smile, but I noticed a sour look on Lattie's face.

  Raven became more serious. "Satisfaction is not what Yamamoto or Cortez is seeking. You realize that your life will be in jeopardy. This evening’s attack is just a prelude to what might happen in the future,"

  Nadia’s head came up. "I've been on the run before. Doctor Raven, and I do not like the feeling. If Cortez and Yamamoto want to win this little game they’ve engineered, I’d just as soon force them to earn their victory."

  Lattie stepped forward and slipped his right arm around her shoulder "I won’t let anything happen, to her."

  I fixed him with a gimlet eye "Bold words. The Yaks can he quite nasty when they want to."

  Raven intervened before Lattie and I could elevate things into a serious confrontation. "I think paying our respects to the oyabun would be a good idea at this point. Once we know where the Yakuza fit into all this, we can decide what to do to straighten things out."

  He pointed at Stealth and me. "You two will accompany me to Earhart Field Park. do what you can to get our other two guests fixed up after their adventure. Valerie, you and Tom Electric should help Ms. Mirin and Mr. Drake try to come up with any other clues that might help crack McGrath's file in the future."

  I winced. "Doc, don’t you think Tom Electric should go to the Zeppelin? I’d be more than happy to help Nadia secure her undercover identity." I smiled in the face of Lattie's smoldering stare.

  "No. Wolf. I want you to come to the field."

  I looked at him with exasperation written all over my face. Come on. Richard, get the picture. I don't want to go. "Why me? I don’t even speak Japanese."

  "Quit fighting it. Wolf." Stealth grabbed me by the collar of my jacket. "After all, someone’s got to drive."

  III

  Raven’s Rolls Royce cruised smoothly along the Alaskan Viaduct Highway. A landau model, the navy blue car’s driving compartment was completely separate from the passenger section, but Raven had the window between us open so I could participate in the conversation. As it was. I had little attention to spare because the right-hand drive was giving me fits, and cross-body shifting just did not work.

  As I drove north. I began to get uneasy. "Doc, it dawns on me that with us harboring Zig and Zag, and with us holding Nadia Mirin, we’re putting ourselves in four-square opposition to Lone Star and whoever is powerful enough to have Lone Star in their pocket. This is not the most comfortable position that we’ve ever gotten ourselves into."

  Raven agreed as the Space Needle flashed past on the left. "I do not believe we have any choice in the matter. As I see it. we have two groups in opposition to one another here: Mirin and Cortez. Cortez is working with George Van Housen of Lone Star, which means he has the backing of his Shadowriders and whatever gangs he can hire to help him. Your friends ran afoul of Lone Star because they shot up some bad cops."

  I looked at him in the rear-view mirror. "What about the Yakuza? Aren’t they on Cortez’s side? This Yamamoto doesn’t sound like one to abandon an investigation that might still prove profitable."

  Stealth shook his head. "At best, the Yakuza are providing some impetus for change on the part of Natural Vat. I also suspect they have made at least one show of power to Cortez on a personal level. Still, the fact that they were not the ones to kill Yoshimura or make the attempt on Nadia Mirin means they are not backing Cortez 100 percent."

  "And that’s why we’re heading out to greet the Graf Zeeland when it lands." Raven exhaled slowly. "If we can assess the Yakuza position in all this and get them to remain neutral, we have a Seattle problem. If they have backed Cortez, or choose to do so now, we’ve got a problem much greater in scope than I want to handle at this time."

  "I hear that, Doc." I steered the Rolls off onto the Earhart Field exit. "The only problem is that unless we can convince Lone Star to turn on itself, I don’t see anyone else handling this little difficulty."

  I fell silent as I pulled into Earhart Field, Technically built on Indian land, the airstrip had only the barest of facilities. Aside from a small radar tower and a reception building, the site remained an underdeveloped meadow fitted with landing lights and spotlights. A host of vehicles drove out onto the field, but waited behind the area set otf with a line of pennants flapping in the light breeze. I had seen a zeppelin before, but never this close up. The cigar-shaped craft always landed well nor
th of Seattle, moving with a sloth that is a luxury only the very, very rich can afford. But I could recall many instances in my childhood when I'd spotted one and vowed to one day ride in one. Somehow, all my dreams about zeppelins, even rolled into one, paled in comparison to the real thing.

  The Graf Zeeland settled to the ground like a feather falling from the sky. Spotlights from atop the passenger gondola and within the balloon body illuminated the vast, white lifting section of the craft, making it glow like a gigantic firefly. The only color on the balloon came from the Red Sun flag on the bow and the name and identification number on the stern.

  The passenger gondola appeared to be large enough for three decks, and the triple rows of portholes confirmed this guess. Sprayed with a dark teflon coating, the whole gondola looked very much like the hull of a ship. The only thing that marred that image were the twin aft engines that provided the airship’s propulsion.

  The crew on the ground tied the zeppelin down even though it was really far too heavy to lift off by itself. A door near the bow opened and other crew climbed wearily down a ramp to a waiting crew bus. Standing beside the bus were their double-dozen replacements, who would accompany the craft on the next leg to Japan. Dead amidships, another stepped ramp was wheeled up to the zeppelin and passengers began to disembark for the walk to the terminal.

  I saw two cars on the far side of the zeppelin. "I've got an Avanti limo and a Westwind 2000 over on the other side of the field. The red Westwind has one guy and a woman next to it, the Avanti has four guys in pin-striped suits. Want me to head over there?"

  "Hai."

  After Raven reviewed the sum total of my Japanese with that simple reply to my question, I headed the Rolls toward the waiting vehicles. Three of the guys standing near the limo got decidedly anxious about our approach, so I slowed down and stopped about twenty-five meters from their position. They walked forward and tried to wave us away, but I couldn't understand their Japanese any better than I could Raven's, so I turned off the engine.