The Samurai Strategy

by Thomas Hoover

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I hung up the phone very slowly.

  "We've 'moved the shadow.'" I spoke the words to myself hesitantly,maybe even a little apprehensively. That was the name for a famousstrategy of the seventeenth-century swordsman Miyamoto Mushashi, usinga feint to lure your opponent into prematurely disclosing his battleplan.

  The way I saw it, Matsuo Noda now stood revealed. It had all been asetup. The financial scam, the help-American-industry cover, the MITI"guidance." This was a takeover, all the way. A global takeover. Whatelse could it be?

  And the only people on this side of the Pacific who knew were MattWalton and Tam Richardson.

  For some reason that thought brought to mind the professor at Stanford,the AI guy who'd disappeared. What was it Tam had said? He'd had dinnerat her apartment? Asked her to do something for him in Japan? And herMITI friend, whose name was all over that stack of memos on the tabledownstairs? Asano. Where did he fit in?

  One thing, he'd helped Noda recruit her. They'd worked together, andtheir play had been flawless.

  But now our friend Matsuo Noda had a small headache. Tam Richardson andMatt Walton had exposed the underside of his game. The shadow hadmoved. Which meant it would only be a matter of time before he struck.

  Where was our weakness, hers and mine? What would cause us to lose ourrhythm, to blunder? He'd already outmaneuvered Jack O'Donnell withease. He had a master swordsman's unerring instinct for his opponent'sweakness. So where was mine? I had to know it before he found it.

  He'd realized Jack could be blackmailed, if the stakes were

  his constituents' jobs and lives. But I didn't need a job. And the onlylife . . .

  Of course! It was obvious. Amy.

  Could it be I was dealing with a madman who made people disappear?

  If I was about to take on a pro like Noda, I had to cover everypossibility. Which meant I had to get her out, away, beyond his reach.Today.

  Still, though, there were so many questions. Who was really behind allthe moves, the master puppeteer? Was it only Matsuo Noda, or was thispossibly, just possibly, something that wound its way even higher. Ifso, who was the point man on that? Akira Mori?

  The only rational countermove now was to back off and "surveyprevailing conditions." Miyamoto Mushashi's _keiki o shiru to iu koto_.But to do that we had to remove ourselves beyond the reach of DaiNippon's sword. How long did we have?

  I glanced at the clock on my desk, the little Sony digital. The number12:18 stared back, the two dots in the middle flashing every second.Amy was still at school, and for the moment I couldn't think of a saferplace. They wouldn't even let me in without a pass. She didn't get outtill four P.M.

  So now what?

  Simple. In swordsmanship, vigilance is everything. And there are twothings you always have to keep in view. The first is called _ken_, thesurface actions, the moves your opponent wants you to see. The second,and more important, is _kan_, the essence of things, the real truth._Ken _covers the superficial moves; _kan _gives you the big picture.

  Instinctively I still believed we had only been witness to _ken_, thedistractions, the insignificant feints of our opponent. The deeperwisdom of _kan_ still lay beyond us. Time to probe.

  We had three and a half hours.

  I got up and headed downstairs to retrieve a couple of very importantmemos. If we needed them, we'd have them. The rest of the pile Ibrought back upstairs and locked in the sword room (the closest thing Ihad to a safe). Finally, I reflected a second and paused to scribbleEmma a note, asking her to feed and walk Ben in case I wasn't aroundfor a while. That taken care of, I retrieved my heavy topcoat from thefront closet, walked out into the street, and grabbed a cab for theoffices of Dai Nippon, International.

  Maybe our opening move should be _uromekasu to iu koto_, to feint athrust that would induce a state of confusion in Noda's mind. Then wecould stage a tactical retreat to plan the final, all-out attack.

  Retreat to where? Well, that part at least was easy: the obvioushideaway was my place down in the islands. The thing to do was toquietly catch American 291 and head for the Caribbean. If Noda didmanage to track us down, he'd be in for a surprise. Let me explain.

  Back when the world was young and Amy was still a gleam in our eye,Joanna and I acquired a rambling white fortress, complete with pool,that was being offered to the first tourist appearing on St. Croix thatday with ready cash. Seemed its Cosa Nostra owner back in Sicily (sothe story went) suddenly needed a transfusion of a hundred grand inbail money. Fortunately I'd had a good year and happened to have thenecessary liquidity. It was luxurious beyond vulgarity. Hardwoodparquet floors, heavy tile roof (to withstand an Interpol bombing run?Who knows?), manicured grounds, satellite dish, a bar worthy of CaesarsPalace, three bedrooms, and music in every room. It was oversize andgarish and pretentious and . . . who cares, I loved the place. Sort ofa Roman villa in the middle of paradise. However, because of thepeculiar requirements of its former tenant, it also had a securitysetup to shame Fort Knox, including a six-foot fence, two-inch-thickdoors, and TV monitors all over the grounds.

  If we could locate a little hardware to match Noda's Uzis, he'd be infor a surprise should he try and send down a Dai Nippon hit squad foran unscheduled visit.

  But first things first. Right now we needed to somehow lure Matsuo Nodainto revealing more of his overall strategy.

  After the cab dropped me off, I rode the elevator up to twelve andpassed through security. The complement of guards, I noticed inpassing, had just been expanded. Instead of two, now there were four.And when I walked out onto the floor, nobody said anything, but therewas an almost palpable air of tension. Stony silence, analysts nervous.Bad vibes, very bad vibes.

  I just ignored the stares and headed straight for Tarn's office. Shewas waiting, and she had an identical reading of the

  situation. The minute I walked in, she got up and shut the door. Herfirst words . . .

  "He just brought in more security. That, and the IBM thing. Matt, he'sgetting worried."

  "Bet your ass he is. We're moving in too close. But I think Nodafigures he's just toying with us now. Having some fun before he cuts usin half."

  "I'm not afraid of him. No matter what he tries." She glanced at thedoor. "Did you bring the memos?"

  "Here in my briefcase. But I think it's too soon to show him everythingwe have. Right now he doesn't know what we've got. That's better."

  "Well, I've just begun to fight. I'm going to Tokyo to get the truthout of Ken." She paused, and her voice trembled slightly with anger."He's got some heavy explaining to do."

  "You're incredible." I just looked at her. "I almost believe you stillcan't accept that your friend Asano is in on Noda's play. Since he'ssuch a terrific guy."

  "Matt, I don't believe it. He wouldn't be part of this. You don't knowhim."

  "That I don't."

  "All I'm saying is, this doesn't feel right. He wouldn't involve MITIin whatever Noda's planning." She sat down, running her hands throughher tousled dark hair. "You know, the fact is we still don't know forsure who's really behind what."

  "Exactly. How does everybody fit in, including us? We've got pieces ofa puzzle lying around--a section here, a section there--but somethingfundamental is missing."

  "So what do we do next?"

  "How about a little joust with our friend downstairs? Try and feel himout. Maybe we can lure him into making another move, something that'llgive away more of his game."

  "You don't think he's actually going to talk."

  "Not really. He'll feint, parry. But if we watch carefully, maybe we'llglimpse more of the outline of his strategy. Then we'll know what ourcounter scenario has to be." I decided to hold off on telling her thegetaway plan. Assuming the walls had ears, we'd already said too much."Look, make you a deal. First let's see what happens with Noda, then wedecide what to do about your friend Asano."

  "All right. But let's stay cool." She was locking her desk.

  "You read my mind."
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  With that settled, we strolled out, past the doubled security, andheaded down to eleven. The way people looked at us, I felt as naked asTam had been in the bath Saturday night. How much did they know?

  Matsuo Noda was in his office. His secretary buzzed us right through,almost as though he'd been waiting for our appearance.

  "Dr. Richardson. Mr. Walton." He rose to greet us. "How timely. Thereis an urgent matter we have to discuss."

  "We want to talk about MITI." I decided to try and break his rhythm asquickly as possible. Take the action to him.

  "Then this is a coincidence." An easy smile as he resumed his seat."That happens to be the very matter I wanted to explore--"

  "What we want to know," Tam interrupted, "here and now, is whether ourprogram is being run by the ministry."

  "Dr. Richardson, you . . . and Mr. Walton, are in the employ of DaiNippon, International, not MITI." He leaned back in his chair. "Thoughof course nothing in this world is entirely simple. Certain . . .interests of the ministry are germane to our programs here."

  "Then we'd like to hear about it." She glanced at the leather chairsbut decided to remain on her feet. I did the same.

  His face was like granite. "Well, you are aware we've occasionallyreceived input from MITI's Industrial Technology arm.

  "How about Research and Planning, Ken's section?"

  "Only a few informal--"

  "Nothing to do with Marketshare - 90?"

  He betrayed a hint of confusion, quickly masked. "Dr. Richardson, withall due respect, I fear you may not be entirely aware of the variousforces at play here." He leaned back. "This program of ours mustsucceed. There are many avenues of responsibility, but all difficultieswill be overcome."

  "What do you mean?"

  "All in time, please believe me." He smiled once more. "I'll readilygrant you our acquisition program may have evolved slightly as of latein the direction of more-solid securities, but you can be assured thatis merely a response to the concerns of certain conservativeinstitutional investors in Tokyo." He continued, a silver tongue tomatch his silver hair. "Risk is involved. Not to mention an enormousquantity of funds. There is pressure on us just now to try and maintaina prudent balance in our portfolio." He glanced at his watchimpatiently. As if he was anxious to move ahead. "Which brings us tothe matter we have to address."

  "Just to set the record straight"--I decided to do a little parrying ofmy own--"you have nothing to say about any kind of MITI involvement?Including Marketshare - 90?"

  "Well, this Marketshare - 90 proposition you refer to probably shouldbe thought of as merely one of the ministry's more ambitious trialballoons, nothing more. It has the quality of--how do you say it?--woolgathering. Whatever its purpose, it should in no way be confusedwith Dai Nippon's objectives." Such was Noda's reply. Then in aremarkably convincing tone he added, "How could the ministry's planningpossibly have anything to do with our program here?"

  Tam wasn't buying. "Looks to me like it has a lot to do with

  it."

  "Dr. Richardson, since I am no longer directly affiliated with MITI, Iam not in a position to speak for every proposition arising there.However, we both know that the ministry's responsibility is to providelong-range industrial planning. They often circulate scenarios forcomment. It's part of their job."

  We were rapidly losing our footing. Noda was top-ranked swordsman. He'dkept his discipline and revealed nothing. He was telling us we hadn'tfound an opening. He was right. It was a classic standoff.

  Or it should have been. Strategically, we should have taken that momentto back away and analyze Noda's style, searching for his weakness. Butinstead Tam made what turned out to be a fatal move. She struck,exposing herself.

  "Since according to you MITI is not involved in this program, thereshould be no problem if I contacted them directly and talked this over.In Japan."

  I wanted to yell no, don't tell him anything.

  But it was too late.

  "An excellent idea." He nodded gravely, then turned to me. "Do youintend to be part of this expedition as well, Mr. Walton?"

  What to do? The only moves left now were defensive. No way was I goingto let Tam face the beast alone. Also, if Noda had me, he wouldn't needAmy.

  "I assume you can spare me here for a few days."

  "But we will all be in Japan together." He removed his thin, wirelessspectacles. "That is in fact the very matter I needed to discuss withyou. It is time you both were brought more closely into the matters athand. Beginning today. I've already made reservations on New YorkHelicopter, departing for Kennedy in two hours. From the East Thirty-fourth Street heliport."

  He had us. He'd seized the initiative, feinted us off balance, anddefined the terms.

  She tried to recover. "When and where we go is something we intend to--"

  "Ah, Dr. Richardson, one must seize the moment. It is past time you andMr. Walton understood more fully the many levels of concern involvedhere. There are a number of things you need to see." He smiled as hereplaced his glasses. "Because of the expected frequency of my travelsin the coming months, I have just leased a Concorde. We refuel inBahrain. I've been looking forward to having you both as my guests."

  "The answer is no."

  "Mr. Walton, I urge you not to forgo this opportunity too rashly." Helooked me over. "In fact, since you are known to be an authority onJapanese arms, I could even arrange for you to have a firsthand look atthe Imperial sword."

  "Forget it."

  "But the timing couldn't be more ideal. At the moment the sword hasjust been transferred to one of the metallurgy labs at Tsukuba ScienceCity for minor repair work. Since Tsukuba is to be our destination aswell, I can just telex the Imperial Household and instruct them toarrange a viewing date." He smiled again. "For a connoisseur such asyourself, nothing would please me more."

  There was something about the way he said it. I don't know. Maybe astrange glimmer flashed through his eyes. Looking back, I think thatwas the moment I first should have realized Matsuo Noda had decided hewas God.

  "You didn't hear me. We're not leaving now. At least not on yourterms."

  "Mr. Walton, I really must insist." He glanced over at Tam. "What Iintend to show you should be of extreme interest to you both."

  "I'll go when I'm ready." She turned and headed for the door.

  "Dr. Richardson, I'm afraid we all have no alternative." He spokequietly, his tone masking the harshness as he continued. "These officeshave been sealed. As a temporary security measure. There appears tohave been an unauthorized access to the NEC mainframe here. However,I've decided to postpone criminal charges for the moment." He smiledagain. "Besides, the time has come for you both to know everything."