“So when the Chinese launched the missile, the Americans took control of it?”
“Yes. And President Lane decided on his own to take out the Liaoning. If he would’ve asked me, I would’ve said no, but in hindsight it was a brilliant move.”
Tanaka nodded. “Yes, it was. We should be as bold.”
“How so?”
“Once we acquire the nuclear missiles, we should inform the Chinese that the Americans are the ones who sank their carrier. We can still force them into a war against each other.”
Ito sighed, shaking his head.
“Why not?” Tanaka asked. “You said yourself the Americans will do what’s best for them. So should we.”
“Yes, I agree. We should.”
“Then you do agree with my plan.”
“I don’t, but I do agree we must do what is best for our country. We disagree on what’s best for Japan.”
Tanaka frowned. “What do you think is best?”
“I agree with President Lane that Japan needs nuclear weapons immediately, but as I said before, there are conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“First, that we announce a unilateral nonaggression pact with China and any other nation that wants us to sign it. We will pledge never to use nuclear weapons in a first-strike capacity.”
“I don’t completely agree with that policy, but I understand it. If that’s what it takes to acquire nuclear weapons, we should agree to it. What are the other conditions?”
“Only one, really. Neither the United States nor China want to start World War Three. They believe there are certain elements in our government that want the two of them to go to war against each other. And they won’t allow us to have nuclear weapons unless they’re sure that those elements are silenced.”
Tanaka stiffened. “I’ll never speak again about the American strike on the Liaoning.”
“You have people throughout the government and the JSDF who share your extremist views.”
“I can keep them quiet.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“You have my word, Ito-san.”
“I want their names.”
“No.”
“I wonder which you love more? Your conspiracy or your country?”
Tanaka darkened, torn. Finally, he said, “I’ll send you the list as soon as I get back to my office.”
“No need, because we already have the names. The Naicho and the NSA have been running a joint intelligence operation tracking you and your co-conspirators for months now. I was briefed just this morning on your role in the death of the American scientist Yamada, as well as your other crimes. I should have you arrested.”
Tanaka laughed. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Ito leaned back in his chair, planting his shoes on his desk. “No, I wouldn’t. Your arrest would severely cripple the legitimate cause we’ve both been fighting for all these years. And yet, you remain a serious problem for the Americans and the Chinese, and a grave threat to our nation and our people.”
“A threat? That’s ridiculous.”
“I must provide a guarantee to the Americans and Chinese that you will remain silent on all these matters even as I clean house and root out the ultranationalists who threaten all of us.”
“I’ll retire. You’ll never hear from me again.”
“That’s not good enough for them, I’m afraid.” Ito stood up. “Nor for me.”
“What do you propose?”
Ito crossed around his desk and laid a hand on Tanaka’s firm shoulder. “There is an honorable solution, old friend.”
Tanaka’s eyes hardened, fixing on a distant unseen place. “I understand.”
Ito smiled faintly. “I knew you would.”
“I’ll make all of the necessary arrangements. It will take a few days.”
“Of course. I’m sorry.”
Tanaka shook his head. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. I’ve been preparing for this moment all my life.”
SEVENTY-THREE
The sun knelt beneath the far horizon, bathing the blue ocean in its sweet last orange light. Myers felt the warm waters brush past her knees and the gentle breeze in her hair was heavy with tuberose.
Pearce lit the candle inside the rice-paper bag covered in prayers for Kenji Yamada, written in kanji by the local Shinto priest. Troy even wrote one himself in English.
He set the float carrying the paper lantern down on the water, and the tide began pulling it away toward the bay beyond the cove. Within moments, the flickering lantern raft was beating its way toward the last rays of the setting sun.
“Two years ago, Kenji took me to the Lantern Floating Hawaii ceremony in Oahu,” Pearce said. “It was Memorial Day.”
Myers was startled to hear his voice. Pearce hadn’t said a word since Kenji’s interment next to his parents in the small Japanese graveyard up the road a few hours earlier. Besides the priest, they were the only two in attendance. She knew he’d been to a lot of funerals in his time. He was no stranger to death or to the loss of close friends. Neither was she. But even she was particularly moved by the lonely finality of the small, sad service today. It only added to Pearce’s dark mood that began when he loaded Kenji’s casket into the plane in Japan.
“That ceremony meant a lot to me at the time. Wrote a lot of names down on that lantern that night. Kenji floated one for his parents, too.”
The beach was deserted. She watched Kenji’s flickering light trudge bravely on toward the far horizon. Something in her stirred. The vastness of the ocean, the inevitable night. Even the rhythm of the tide as it whispered on the sand called to her. “It’s all so lovely and forlorn. I feel as if I’m watching a good friend leaving on a journey who knows he’s never coming back.”
“He believed that the spirit always returns to the ocean from which it came.”
“There’s something eternal about it, isn’t there?” She watched Pearce’s weary eyes scanning the far horizon.
He nodded. Held out his hand. She took it. His small, still smile in the dimming light surprised her. “Let me show you something.”
Pearce lead her out of the water onto the fine white sand, leading her carefully off the beach onto a trail cutting up the mountain. The sand beneath her bare feet soon fell away to grass and soft roots as the air thickened with the sweet fragrance of the flowering plants and trees that enclosed the trail. The climb was steep and the light all but gone, but Pearce clearly knew his way and took his time. She was neither tired nor afraid but her heart was racing. She felt like a little girl again, heading out for a grand adventure, hunting for secrets and ghosts in a mysterious garden on the far side of a forbidden wall.
They finally passed out of the canopy of trees back into the open air. They stood in a small clearing on a cliff overlooking the bay, surrounded by a wall of jasmine and gardenia plants, the world and its worries a distant memory. The sky was a deepening purple and the first bright stars shone above. The gently surging ocean murmured far below. The sights and sounds and aromas swept through her like a cleansing breeze. She felt like they were the only two people in the whole wide universe.
“Look,” Pearce said, pointing at the water.
Myers saw the flickering lantern down below. The light seemed so fragile and small against the vast expanse of darkening ocean beyond and the endless starry sky above.
They stood in silence watching Kenji’s lantern. Pearce’s strong, rough hand still held hers. Their arms touched. She felt the heat of his body, the rise and fall of his breathing. She glanced up at the sky. The moon was a great round shadow, new and unlit. She could stand here forever.