Free Floating City by Eric Van Lustbader Page A

dogs.”
    “And yet consider what we have just gone through,” Ushiba said. “The unthinkable almost happened when Okami and Goldoni betrayed us. But you have seen for yourself the safeguards we have put in place. Goldoni is dead and Okami has disappeared. There is no need for concern. We are on course toward our glorious destiny.”
    “Of course they were neutralized,” Akinaga said sharply. “I saw to it. Okami was far too dangerous. He possessed koryoku —the Illuminating Power.”
    Ushiba, stunned that first Chosa and now Akinaga were taking credit for the plot to murder the Kaisho, managed to restore his equilibrium in time to say, “Koryoku, I’ve never heard of it.”
    “I’m hardly surprised.” Akinaga put his hands behind his back, giving him the aspect of a professor. “I only learned of it by accident, overhearing Okami speak of it one day long ago. I did some subsequent research. It is a kind of deep meditation, and yet it must be much more—how shall I say it, a kind of second sight which allows the practitioner to achieve a synthesis of motive, intent, and intuition that creates its own opportunity. In one as clever and as ambitious as Okami it became a strategic edge. I’m convinced koryoku is what allowed Okami to operate with the Mafia don Goldoni for so long without our knowing.”
    “This koryoku would explain much of Okami’s power and influence. After all, he’s over ninety now.”
    Akinaga screwed up his eyes. “But what were he and Goldoni up to? We’ve put our best agents into the field in order to find the answer, with no success.”
    At last Ushiba found himself on familiar ground; this had been a most disconcerting meeting so far. Akinaga had been busy condemning Chosa, and he, Ushiba, had found no sound rebuttal. “Perhaps they have been looking in the wrong places.”
    Akinaga was brought up short. He was not a man who tolerated failure. “What precisely do you mean, Daijin?”
    “I have learned that Okami discovered your plot to assassinate him. In response, he sought the aid of Nicholas Linnear.”
    Akinaga’s hand cut the air in a gesture of disgust. “Nonsense. Linnear’s antipathy toward Yakuza is beyond debate. Where on earth did you hear this fairy tale?”
    “From Akira Chosa. And before you reject the theory outright, I urge you to consider—it could very well be true. The history of Japan teaches us that the espousal of enmity is the best cover for friendship, neh?” The living truth of that statement was, for Ushiba, a guiding example of how the past inflected the present.
    “Perhaps,” Akinaga said, clearly unconvinced, “but the enmity Chosa harbors toward Linnear is well documented. It is clearly to his benefit to put forward this theory. That way, even if he is wrong, he will have his revenge on Linnear.”
    Ushiba, seeing in the days since the Kaisho disappeared disunity beginning among the members of the inner council, struggled to continue his role of peacemaker. “While no one, least of all Chosa, will deny his hatred of Linnear, I have brought your charge to him myself and he has denied it outright. Besides, if Linnear’s enmity toward the Yakuza were genuine, what was he doing last month in Venice, where Okami has his headquarters?”
    As Ushiba had foreseen, this revelation brought Akinaga to silence. “All right,” he said at last. “I’ll accept this judgment for now. But I warn you, Ushiba, I do not stand idly by and allow Chosa his personal revenge. Linnear needs to be dealt with, on that I agree, because he alone has it within his means to destroy the Godaishu.
    “But I have no illusions about Linnear. I am aware of his strengths. My father knew Colonel Linnear in the terrible years after our defeat. More than once the two of them called upon each other in difficult circumstances. I, myself, recall the Colonel with a great deal of affection. I remember his funeral well. It was the first and only time I saw my father shed a tear. No