Victor O'Reilly - The Devil's footprint

"Hugo, you've got to wake up," said Kilmara.

Fitzduane struggled to open his eyes. He sat up slowly and took the proffered glass of orange juice. He drank greedily.

The room was in semidarkness, but chinks of light around the drapes suggested it was daytime.

Suddenly he remembered. A long, low cry as of physical pain escaped him. Internally, Kilmara winced. He felt helpless and inadequate in the face of such suffering.

"What time is it," said Fitzduane.

"Nearly four in the afternoon," said Kilmara. "Don't feel bad. You did all you could before you crashed, and even then you were sedated. Grab a shower and you'll feel better. But first I've got one bit of good news. The dead woman in that house was not Kathleen."

Fitzduane felt a rush of relief followed by renewed anxiety. "Kathleen? Has she been found?"

"No," said Kilmara heavily. "It looks like she's been kidnapped, all right, but they are keeping her alive. And Chifune has turned up. The dead woman was her agent. She'll explain."

"Where is she?" said Fitzduane.

"Down the hall in my room waiting for you to wake up," said Kilmara. "Oga's with her."

Fitzduane swung his legs out of the bed and sat on the edge and rubbed his eyes. "Sergeant Oga?" he said. "Good man. What the hell is he doing here?"

"Inspector Oga now," said Kilmara. "And on the same assignment as Chifune."

"Oshima," said Fitzduane heavily, and headed into the bathroom.

"Oshima," said Kilmara to his friend's back. He had been in counterterrorism most of his life and tried to remain professionally detached. Oshima was personal. But for a Delta sniper called Al Lonsdale, Oshima would have already killed his friend. It had been damn close.

Fitzduane was in the bathroom for ten minutes. When he emerged, his distress was no longer evident. He was pale but his manner was calm.

There was coffee and toast on the table. Fitzduane poured two cups and forced himself to eat a little food.

"Where are we?" he said. "I remember that damned house and the explosion and then a whole lot more questions from the feds. Then I was given something to drink and I don't remember much more. I guess I dozed off in the helicopter."

Kilmara smiled grimly. "You didn't doze. The feds gave you enough jungle juice to knock out an elephant and then flew you back to Fayetteville. We're in a hotel about two miles from the Bastogne Inn. They want us to stick around for a few more days until they've made sense of all this."

"Who's they?" said Fitzduane.

"Just about everybody who carries a badge," said Kilmara. "Which is a whole lot of people in this part of the world."

"Do they know anything?" said Fitzduane.

"Not really," said Kilmara. "But it's early."

Fitzduane was silent.

Chifune had tried to prepare herself mentally for the encounter, but when Fitzduane entered the room it was if she had learned nothing about protecting herself from the emotional rigors of the world.

A mature woman, she felt defenseless. Her self-possession deserted her. Her heart pounded and a wave of feeling swept over her. She remembered the last time they had seen each other. It had been on the aircraft as Fitzduane was about to leave Tokyo to fly back to Ireland and Kathleen. To marry Kathleen. The man she, Chifune, had fallen in love with. Was still in love with. It hurts, Hugo. It hurts.

She bowed formally. Beside her, Oga bowed also.

Fitzduane returned their bows. As Chifune straightened their eyes met fleetingly, and suddenly she knew that Fitzduane had not forgotten and that she was very important to him and that this would never change. She wanted to embrace him, to console him. It was not appropriate.

"Tanabu- san and Oga- san, it is good to see you again," said Fitzduane.

Oga beamed. He had been suspicious of the gaijin when they had first met, but that initial reserve had evolved into high regard. His one reservation concerned Chifune. He was devoted to Tanabu- san and did not want to see her hurt any more.

"Fitzduane- san, we deeply regret we could not have done more," said Chifune, "but we believe we can help."

"Kathleen is alive," said Fitzduane flatly, "and we're going to get her back. That is one of two certainties. The other is that this time Oshima will be stopped permanently."

"Fitzduane- san," said Chifune cautiously, "it is not certain that Oshima has Kathleen."

"But it is probable?" said Fitzduane.

"Yes, Fitzduane- san, it is probable," said Chifune.

"Let's talk," said Fitzduane. "How much time do you have?"

"As long as is necessary," said Chifune. "Oga- san was in the Japanese airborne, you may remember, Fitzduane- san, and the airborne have an expression which sums up our situation."

"‘All The Way,’" quoted Oga.

The thought came to Kilmara that Oshima seemed to have much the same motto. She would stop at nothing.

Three hours later, Fitzduane was acutely conscious of not having had enough sleep and strongly suspected that whatever the FBI medic had pumped into him was not the kind of thing you wanted to play with too often.

Still, fatigue and headache apart, some of the helplessness he had been feeling had evaporated and he felt a course of action was beginning to come clear. It might not conform to the standards of evidence the FBI required, but he, Fitzduane, ran on instinct and it seemed to work for him.

Chifune and Oga had gone, Fitzduane and Kilmara were going over what they had heard.

"Something to bear in mind," said Kilmara, "is that Chifune's position is not easy. Her own side don't entirely trust her, or they would have told her that Oshima was still alive much earlier. Even more relevant right now is her situation in the U.S.. She can't just go to the FBI and pour out her life story. She's the agent of a foreign power, and currently she's working through a Koancho network set up in the U.S. Tell the feds all about this, and they'll roll them up quicker than the NRA blocking a gun-control bill."

"The Japanese are a friendly foreign power," said Fitzduane.

"That doesn't give them carte blanche to have a network of spies in the U.S.," said Kilmara. "And remember that friendly covers a multitude, including quite a dose of international espionage, which gives the feds gas pains. So friendly doesn't mean let's all trust each other and share secrets. Its more like how you treat your in-laws."

"Okay," said Fitzduane. "I understand that Chifune is here to track down Yaibo and is working through her own people, but why, when she got wind of action here, didn't she contact me? She knew I was around. She'd rung home. They know her. They'd told her where I was."

Because in my opinion she's still in love with you, Hugo, and did not know how to handle an encounter, Kilmara felt like saying, but this was not quite the time for such directness.

"I guess she was going to contact you," said Kilmara, "but all this shit blew up first. Also, Chifune and Oga are emphatic they did not know what was going to happen. They thought there was going to be some kind of terrorist meeting. They did not envisage any action, let alone this kind of carnage. Hell, who would!"

"But when Kathleen was brought to the terrorist safe house, Chifune made contact," said Fitzduane. "But then Kathleen was moved before we arrived."

"This time with Chifune following," said Kilmara. "Until they boarded a helicopter and headed out to sea. End of the trail."

"And the woman killed at the safe house by the terrorists was one of Chifune's agents left behind on watch," said Fitzduane. "What a mess!"

"The good news is Kathleen is definitely alive," said Kilmara, "and since they could easily have killed her it is reasonable to assume they intend to keep her alive for some purpose. They killed that unfortunate hitchhiker she gave a lift to without hesitation."