Barry Eisler - Hard Rain

“Why kill him, though?” Kanezaki asked.

I shrugged, thinking of the way Murakami had growled Your name isn’t Arai . It’s Rain . “They’d learned who I was and knew where to find me. They didn’t need Harry anymore after that. And Yukiko would have learned about some of his skills-he was former NSA, a crack hacker. They would have viewed him as an asset of mine. Best to take him off the board.”

I thought of how deeply Harry had been in denial, how hostile he’d been to any suggestion that Yukiko might be setting him up. I sighed. “That’s probably how they found out who I was, too,” I said. “Harry and I had an argument about the girl. He probably told her he had a friend who said this and that, a friend her boss had recently taken to Damask Rose. They might have put two and two together from that. Or they might have shown the video from the club to Yamaoto, who knows my face. It doesn’t matter. Once they knew, they decided Harry had outlived his usefulness.”

There was a long silence. Then Tatsu said, “Kanezaki-san, what do you propose to do?”

Kanezaki looked at him, his expression uncertain. “Well, originally I wanted someone non-Agency to run counter-surveillance for me tonight. So I could know whether I’m being watched, or being set up, or whatever. But not you. You’re…”

Tatsu smiled. “I am Keisatsucho.”

“Right. It wouldn’t do to have the Japanese FBI observing a CIA meeting with a sensitive national asset.”

“I thought tonight’s meeting was fictitious, designed to test your theory that someone wishes your assets ill.”

“It is fictitious. But I’ve filled out paperwork saying that it’s real. If I get caught with you, the consequences will be the same.”

Tatsu shrugged. “If someone sees us together, you can tell them you are developing me as an asset. Following up on the original contact you and Station Chief Biddle made when you were looking for our friend here.”

Kanezaki looked at him. “Maybe I am developing you.”

I thought, Tatsu knew you were going to say that, kid .

“You see?” Tatsu asked. “Not so far-fetched.”

I thought of an old poker players’ expression: If you look around the table and can’t spot the sucker, the sucker is you .

No one said anything for a long time. Then Kanezaki let out a long breath and said, “I can’t believe I’m doing this. I could go to jail.”

“For a meeting with a potentially important asset?” Tatsu asked, and I knew the deal was closed.

“Right,” Kanezaki said, more to himself than to anyone else. “That’s right.”

I thought of another saying I once heard: It’s easiest to sell to a salesman .

All that training in how to suborn an asset into signing a receipt. Kanezaki had practically bragged about how adroitly a good case officer could do it. And yet he’d just stepped over a line without even looking down to see if it was there.

I thought of those pictorial representations of the food chain, a fish being swallowed by a bigger fish being swallowed by an even bigger one.

I glanced at Kanezaki and thought, At least Tatsu won’t betray you. Unless he absolutely has to .

WE ALL DEPARTED so that Kanezaki could go to his “meeting” and Tatsu could have men run counter-surveillance for him. We agreed to meet back at Christie in two hours. I asked Tatsu before we left whether he’d managed to get another gun for me. He told me he hadn’t.

I spent a short time browsing among the antiques in the basement of the nearby Hanae Mori Building. The shops were closed, but through the windows I admired the delicate Art Nouveau cameo glassware of artists like Daum Nancy and Emile Gallé. I lost myself in the little worlds depicted on the vases and tumblers: a green meadow inhabited by hovering dragonflies; windmills slumbering under a blanket of snow; a forest of trees so sensuous they seemed to sway in their glass etchings.

I returned to Christie well in advance of our follow-up meeting, but I didn’t wait there. Instead, I checked the places that a surveillance team would use if it were interested in someone in the shop, and then, confirming that these spots were deserted, I perched like one of Tokyo’s baleful ravens in the darkness atop the incline to the right of the shop, observing its entrance. Only after I had seen Kanezaki, and then Tatsu, return, and only after I had waited to ensure that they weren’t followed, did I descend and join them.

“We’ve been waiting,” Tatsu said when I came in. “I didn’t want to start without you.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I got held up.”

He looked at me as though he understood exactly what had caused the delay, then turned to Kanezaki and said, “I took two men to observe the area around your ostensible meeting. We discovered someone who was there attempting to photograph the proceedings.”

Kanezaki’s eyes bulged. “Photograph?”

Tatsu nodded.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“We took the individual into custody.”

“Oh man,” Kanezaki said, probably imagining the headlines in tomorrow’s papers. “Official custody?”

Tatsu shook his head. “Unofficial.”

“Who is he?” Kanezaki asked.

“His name is Edmund Gretz,” Tatsu said. “He came to Tokyo three years ago, hoping to make a living as a freelance photographer, with visions of models on runways. Instead he found himself giving English lessons at various Japanese corporations. But eventually he did manage to find someone interested in his talents as a photographer.”

“The Agency?” Kanezaki asked, his complexion pale.

“Yes. He is a contractor. Six months ago he was given training in surveillance and counter-surveillance and various other clandestine arts. Since then the Agency has contacted him three times. On each occasion, he was given a time and place where a meeting was to occur, and instructed to photograph the meeting as it progressed.”

“How did he know who he was shooting?”

“He was given a photograph of an ethnic Japanese who would always be a participant.”

“Me.”

“Yes.”

I shook my head in wonder and thought, You ought to just have “fall guy” printed on your business cards .

“And Gretz’s handler…” Kanezaki said.

“The Station Chief,” Tatsu answered. “James Biddle.”

“The same guy who wanted the receipts,” I said.

“Yes,” Tatsu answered.

“I imagine the contractor wasn’t able to shed any light on why,” I said.

Tatsu shook his head. “Gretz is only a flunky, with some skill behind the lens. He doesn’t know anything. His biggest concern was that no one should find out that we had picked him up, lest he lose his lucrative sidework or face deportation.”

“You couldn’t get anything more out of him?” Kanezaki asked.

Tatsu shrugged. “My men did not ask nicely. I don’t believe there was anything more to be gotten.”

“What does he do with the photos after he’s taken them?” Kanezaki asked.

“He delivers the prints to Biddle,” Tatsu said.

Kanezaki was drumming his fingers on the table. “What’s he going to do with those photos? Why would he do this to me?”

“I may have a way of finding out,” Tatsu said.

“What’s that?”

Tatsu shook his head. “Not yet. Let me make some discreet inquiries. I will contact you soon.”

Kanezaki’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Why would you help me?” he asked.

Tatsu looked at him. “I have my own reasons for wishing to avoid a scandal,” he said. “Among them, my desire that the reformers you have been trying to aid not be harmed by all this.”

Kanezaki’s expression loosened. He was scared. He wanted to believe that he had a friend. “Okay,” he said.