Free Hard Rain by Barry Eisler Page A

I'm drinking isn't from Islay," I said, 'but it's got some island
    character. Smoke and peat. A Springbank."
    She raised her eyebrows. "The twenty-five?"
    "You know the menu," I said, nodding. "Would you like one?"
    "After a night of watered-down Suntory? I'd love one."
    Of course she'd love one. Her pay would include a cut of her
    customers' tabs. A few ten-thousand-yen shots and she could call it an
    evening.
    I ordered another Springbank. She asked me questions: how I knew so
    much about single malt whiskey, where I lived in the States, how many
    times I'd been to Tokyo. She was comfortable in her role and I let her
    play it.
    When our glasses were empty I asked her if she'd like another drink.
    She smiled. "You're thinking about the Talisker."
    "You're a mind reader."
    "I just know the menu. And good taste. I'd love another."
    I ordered two Taliskers. They were excellent: huge and peppery, with a
    finish that lasted forever. We drank and chatted some more.
    When the second round was nearly done, I began to change tack.
    "Where are you from?" I asked her. "You're not Japanese." This last
    I said with some hesitation, as though inexperienced in such matters
    and therefore unsure.
    "My mother was Japanese. I'm from Brazil."
    I'll be damned, I thought. I was planning a trip to Brazil. A long
    trip.
    "Brazil, where?"
    "Bahia."
    Bahia is one of the country's coastal states. "Salvador?" I asked, to
    determine the city..
    "Yes!" she exclaimed, with the first genuine smile of the evening.
    "How do you know Brazil so well?"
    "I've been there a few times. My firm has clients all over the world.
    Um pae brasileiro e uma mae Japonesa e uma com-binacao bonita," I said
    in the Portuguese I had been studying with cassettes. A Brazilian
    father and a Japanese mother -it's a beautiful combination.
    Her eyes lit up and her mouth parted in a perfect O. "ObrigadoY she
    exclaimed. Thank you! Then: "Vbce fala portugues? You speak
    Portuguese?
    It was as though the real person had suddenly decided to reinhabit the
    hostess's body. Her eyes, her expression, her posture had all come
    alive, and again I felt that vital energy that had animated her
    dancing.
    "Only a little I said, switching back to English. "I'm good with
    languages and I try to pick up a bit from wherever I travel'
    She was shaking her head slowly and looking at me as though it was the
    first time she had seen me. She took a swallow of her drink, finishing
    it.
    "One more?" I asked.
    "SimY she answered immediately in Portuguese. Yes!
    I ordered two more Taliskers, then turned to her. "Tell me about
    Brazil," I said.
    "What do you want to hear?"
    "About your family."
    She leaned back and crossed her legs. "My father is a Brazilian blue
    blood, from one of the old families. My mother was second-generation
    Japanese."
    Brazil's melting pot population includes some two million ethnic
    Japanese, the result of immigration that began in 1908, when Brazil
    needed laborers and Imperial Japan was looking to establish her people
    in different parts of the world.
    "So you learned Japanese from her?"
    She nodded. "Japanese from my mother, Portuguese from my father. My
    mother died when I was a child, and my father hired an English nanny so
    I could learn English, too."
    "How long have you been in Japan?"
    "Three years."
    "The whole time at this club?"
    She shook her head. "Only a year at the club. Before that I was
    teaching English and Portuguese here in Tokyo through the JET
    program."
    JET, or Japan Exchange and Teaching, is a government-sponsored program
    that brings foreigners to Japan primarily to teach their native
    languages. Judging from the average Japanese's facility with English,
    the program could use some work.
    "You learned to dance like that teaching language classes?" I asked.
    She laughed. "I learned to dance by dancing. When I got here a year
    ago I was so shy I could barely move on the stage."
    I smiled. "That's hard to imagine."
    "It's true. I was raised in a very proper