Adachi tried to remember where he had left his revolver and when he had last trained with it, but neither answer came quickly to mind. Those were tomorrow's problems. He looked through the skylight at the glow that was the Tokyo night sky when it was cloudy, and missed the stars.
He looked back at Chifune and then raised himself on one elbow. He drained his glass and she refilled it. As she came closer to him, he was acutely conscious of her body and the softness and texture of her skin. She returned to her original position.
"What is Koancho's interest?" he said.
She shook her head. "I can't tell you. You know that."
He smiled. "I know very little about you," he said. "I don't know what you may or may not do. I only know what you do where I am concerned, and you do that extremely well."
Chifune returned his smile. "You're a male chauvinist," she said sweetly, "but perhaps a little less extreme than most Japanese men. Make the most of it. Times are changing."
Adachi had to admit that she was correct on all three points. He did like — and had been brought up to expect — subservience in a woman. But he also had learned to enjoy and respect independence in the opposite sex. Truth to tell, Adachi liked women.
"Tell me about Hodama," he said.
"You know about Hodama," she said.
"Tell me anyway," he said. "The what I know will join with what you know and that will add up to what we know, which quite probably will be more than I know right now. I think it's called synergy."
"Gestalt psychology," she said. "The whole of anything is greater than its parts."
"Tell me about the whole Hodama," he said. "Who would want to boil a nice little old man like that — to death? Actually, it looks like he died of a massive heart attack almost immediately, but you know what I mean."
"I think our problem is going to be too many candidates," said Chifune. "Hodama led a long, active, and mostly evil life."
"‘Our problem’," said Adachi. "That's encouraging. I thought observer status meant just that. Koancho is not really into the sharing business." He grinned. "Like most security services, more into paranoia."
"‘Our’ problem," Chifune repeated quietly.
"Ah!" said Adachi, savoring this new insight. He decided not to pursue it for the moment, at least verbally. Instead he stretched out a bare foot and slipped it between Chifune's knees and then a little further. She did not resist. There was a faint flush in her cheeks.
"Hodama," he said, "but perhaps the shorter version for now."
Chifune was an expert in various martial arts and related disciplines. They all put a heavy emphasis on mind over matter. She drew on this training as she spoke.
"Kazuo Hodama was born in Tokyo early in this century, the son of a civil servant. He actually spent much of his early life in Korea. His father was part of the Japanese occupation forces. Hodama therefore grew up with both military and other government connections — which he was to put to good use later on in life."
The occupation of Korea was not one of the high points in Japanese history. Japan had annexed the country in 1910, and for the next thirty-six years Korea had been subject to an arbitrary and frequently brutal Japanese military-dominated regime.
"In Korea, Hodama worked extensively for the authorities and specialized in putting down resistance. Mostly, he worked behind the scenes. He organized gangs of thugs to beat up or kill Koreans who wanted independence, thus enabling the administration to pretend they were not involved in the more extreme acts of repression.
"Hodama returned to Japan in the 1920's. The world was in recession. That was a period when there was major conflict in Japan between democratic government and the ultraright headed by the military. Since the moderates could not seem to do anything about fundamental issues like feeding the people, it is scarcely surprising that the rightists won out. The same thing happened elsewhere — in Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Empty rice bowls are not good for democracy."
"That was a period of secret societies and assassinations," said Adachi. "Various moderate government ministers were assassinated. Wasn't Hodama involved in all that?"
"So it is rumored," said Chifune. "Whether he did any of the actual killing, we don't know. Anyway, for plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Admiral Saito, Hodama was actually sent to prison by the moderate regime in 1934, and served over three years, but then he was let out when the extremists took over. And, of course, having been in prison for the cause put him right in there with the new regime. His rightist and nationalist credentials were impeccable. He had endless contacts in government and in the military and through the various secret societies he was involved with. From then on, he was into everything — but always operating behind the scenes. He was already a kuromaku."
Kuromaku, thought Adachi. The word had a sinister ring. There was a long tradition of such figures in Japanese life. Kuromaku literally meant ‘black curtain,’ a reference to classic Kabuki theatre, where a concealed wire-puller controlled the action on the stage from behind a black curtain. The English equivalent would perhaps be godfather or string-puller or kingmaker, but a kuromaku was more than all these. The word implied a person of very special caliber, and more recently it suggested links to both organized crime and politics at the highest level. Above all, the very sound represented power.
"Into everything?" said Adachi. His eyes were closed. He was rubbing Chifune's soft wet center with his toe. The sensations were incredibly exotic. Her voice in itself was an aphrodisiac.
"Everything," said Chifune. There was a slight quaver in her voice. Aikido, a martial art which taught self-control, could take a woman just so far. "He wheeled, he dealed, he traveled, he traded, he spied, he made and broke people. He had vast commercial interests. He finished World War Two with the rank of Admiral, though there is little evidence that he knew much about the navy except how to make money out of it. He both supported and used the Tojo militarists."
"And," said Adachi. This was an area where Koancho files would be more complete than his own. The police were not invulnerable to political pressure. The war was a sensitive issue. Detailed records of behavior during that period were not encouraged by those in power.
"Prior to Pearl Harbor," said Chifune, "he had connections with U.S. Army Intelligence. He supplied them with information about China. He was there a great deal. Prior to the actual outbreak of war, there were certain mutual areas of interest between the U.S. and this country."
Adachi whistled. "Energetic little fellow, wasn't he? Was he actually an American spy?"
"We don't know," said Chifune. "They may have thought so, but I doubt he was in the sense you mean. Certainly he balanced things out by actually funding part of the Kempei Tai — the secret police — operations in China."
"And then came the bombs," said Adachi. "Distracting even for a kuromaku."
"Very distracting," said Chifune. "Japan surrendered, the Americans landed, MacArthur arrived, and within a short space of time Hodama was arrested and slung into Sugamo Prison to await trial. He was classified as a Class A war criminal."
"I imagine he was," said Adachi. "But nobody hanged him."
"He had a great deal of money hidden away," said Chifune, "on the order of hundreds of millions of yen — and he was a good talker. And he knew people and things, and he could make connections. And he had people outside who worked for him. Part of his money went to found a new political party — democracy now being in fashion again."