Free The Nicholas Linnear Novels by Eric Van Lustbader Page A

ninja?” Doc Deerforth said around a bit of clam flesh.
    Outside, a white Ford with black trim pulled up next to the diner. As they watched, a big man with a red face and bulbous nose stepped out and walked toward them.
    “Hope neither of you mind,” Doc Deerforth said. “I phoned Ray Florum when we got here. He’s the commander of the West Bay Bridge Village Police. I think he’s got a right to hear what’s going on. Okay?” Both Nicholas and Vincent nodded their assent. “Nick?”
    “It’s okay, Doc,” he said as lightly as he could. “It just caught me off guard. I didn’t expect her to—” He waved a hand in lieu of finishing.
    The door opened and Florum pushed into the diner. Doc Deerforth introduced him around and he sat down. They filled him in.
    “Quite literally,” Nicholas said, “ninja means ‘in stealth.’” Florum poured himself some coffee as Nicholas continued. “Outside of Japan, there is almost nothing known about ninjutsu, the art of the ninja. Even there, it has been poorly documented primarily because it was knowledge that was both utterly secret and jealously guarded. One was born into a ninja family or one gave up all hope of becoming one.
    “As you may know, Japanese society has always been rigorously stratified. There is a highly defined social order and no one would even contemplate deserting his station in life; it’s part of one’s karma, and this has religious as well as social overtones.
    “The samurai, for instance, the warriors of feudal Japan, were gentlemen, of the bushi class; no one else was allowed to become a samurai or carry two swords. Well, the ninja evolved from the opposite end of the social spectrum, the hinin. This level was so low that the translation of that term means ‘not human.’ Naturally, they were a far cry from the aristocratic bushi. Yet, as clan warfare increased in Japan, the samurai recognized a growing need for the specific skills of the ninja, for the samurai themselves were bound by an iron-clad code of bushido which strictly forbade them many actions. Thus, the samurai clans hired the free-lance ninja to perform acts of arson, assassination, infiltration and terrorism which they themselves were duty-bound to shun. History tells us, for instance, that the ninja made their first important appearance in the sixth century A.D. Prince Regent Shotoku employed them as spies.
    “So successful were they that their numbers increased dramatically during the Heian and Kamakura periods in Japanese history. They concentrated in the south. Kyoto, for example, was dominated by them at night.
    “But the last we hear of them as a major factor in Japan is during the Shimabara war in 1637 when they were used to quell a Christian rebellion on the island of Kyūshū. Yet we know they were active all through the long Tokugawa shōgunate.”
    “Just how wide is the scope of their skill?” Doc Deerforth’s nostrils were clogged with the rotting stench of the Philippine jungle.
    “Very,” Nicholas said. “From the ninja the samurai learned woodsmanship, disguise, camouflage, codes and silent signaling, the preparation of fire bombs and smoke screens. In short, you would not be wrong to consider the ninja military Houdinis. But each ryu , that is, school and, in the ninja’s case, clan, specialized in different forms of combat, espionage, lore, and so on, so that one was often able to tell by his methods from which ryu a particular assassin came. For instance, the Fodo ryu was known for its work with many kinds of small concealed blades, the Gyōkku was expert at using thumb and forefinger on the body’s nerve centers in hand-to-hand combat, the Kotto was proficient at breaking bones, others used hypnotism and so on. Ninja were also quite often skilled yogen— that is, chemists.”
    There was a heavy silence between them until Vincent cleared his throat and said, “Nick, I think you ought to tell them the rest of it.”
    Nicholas was silent for a