Conspiracy

by Allan Topol

  "But the program of militarization he proposes," Taylor said to Suzuki, "it's—"

  Harrison interrupted her in midsentence. "It's an internal Japanese matter. It wasn't my business, and it shouldn't be yours. But since you're so concerned about what's proper, why don't you explain to Mr. Suzuki that you broke into my office and stole these speeches from a locked drawer?"

  "Don't let him bait you," Cady said quietly to her.

  "I won't." Instead she directed Suzuki to the next document. "It's a fax of a message that Harrison sent to Yahiro Sato confirming that they were involved in this conspiracy together."

  Suzuki looked at the fax and passed it to Harrison. He studied it carefully. "I have no idea what this is," he said flatly, "or where she got it."

  "It came from your office. You obviously used a code."

  "And you obviously mixed some forged papers in with the ones you stole from my office."

  She glanced at the back of the room. The prime minister's face told her that he was annoyed. She felt a sick wrenching in the pit of her stomach. This hearing was all a great show to discredit her and Cady.

  "Next?" Suzuki asked her in a crisp, impatient tone.

  "There is an entry from Philip Harrison's diary showing that he met in Buenos Aires on August twenty-eighth with Yahiro Sato."

  Again Suzuki examined the documents. "It only has the initials Y.S. It doesn't have the name Yahiro Sato."

  He held out the document to Harrison, who waved it away with his hand. "I'm happy to concede that I met with Yahiro Sato on that occasion. He asked me to advise him in preparing the speech we spoke about earlier."

  She had now exhausted the pile of documents she had given to Suzuki. She looked flustered and defeated. Harrison was staring at her with contempt.

  "Do you have any thing else, Miss Ferrari?" Suzuki asked scornfully. It was as if his time and that of Prime Minister Nakamura had been wasted with false accusations.

  "There is one other thing," Cady said. He reached into her briefcase again and extracted a microcassette and a recorder. He smiled at her, filling her with renewed confidence. Harrison, she saw, was leaning forward, straining to see what it was.

  "This tape," she announced, "contains a recording of two conversations between Harrison and McDermott, the attorney general of the United States. May I play a portion of it?"

  Harrison shot to his feet. "Those recordings were made without my knowledge. They would not be admissible in an American court of law."

  Suzuki was irritated at Harrison's outburst. "You may sit down, Harrison-san. I don't know if they are admissible in an American court, but that's not where we are now. Besides, I doubt if an American court would be sympathetic to someone who helped manipulate their presidential election." He looked at Taylor. "You may play the tape."

  She had the tape set at the most dramatic part of the second Harrison-McDermott meeting.

  "I don't like the idea of accepting that deal if Boyd offers it," McDermott's voice said. "I'd rather make him go to trial."

  "Either you accept the deal, or I'll tell the president and the newspapers about your girlfriend and child in Sarasota," Harrison's voice replied.

  "The first time we met, you said that all I would have to do was help you with the California records relating to Mill Valley. Now you want me to blindly follow your orders and tell Cady and Doerr how to run the case against Boyd. You're asking for too much. This could be a conspiracy to harm the United States. President Webster is my friend. I'D risk the embarrassment of your disclosure before I'll agree to what you want. You have to tell me what this is about."

  "Just do what I say."

  "You tell me, or you can go fuck yourself."

  There was the sound of a car door slamming.

  "Okay, I'D tell you," came Harrison's voice.

  "Well?"

  "This is all being engineered by Yahiro Sato."

  "The Japanese politician?"

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  "If Sato is elected prime minister, and Boyd is in the White House, he'll never be able to proceed with expelling American troops and remilitarizing Japan."

  "But Webster will let him do those things. He would like an Asian counterpoint to China's growing military might."

  "Precisely."

  "So you're an agent of Sato's. Why? For money?"

  "I never received a cent."

  "Then why?"

  "That's none of your business."

  Taylor turned off the machine and stared at Harrison. He was as white as a sheet. How in the world had he been such a fool as to let McDermott tape their conversation, and how in the world had she been able to get that tape? For the first time in all the years she had known him, he was speechless.

  "Very nice," Cady told her softly.

  She turned around, facing Nakamura. "So I respectfully request that you grant our request to extradite Sato and Harrison to the United States, where they can stand trial for these events."

  Suzuki looked at Sato. "Do you have a statement?" he asked.

  Sato remained seated. "I have no denials and no apologies to make," he said. "Some time ago I became convinced that Japan was being treated unfairly by the United States and that we were facing great danger from China. We have succeeded economically with our exports of technologically superior products, but we refused to assert our own national pride. Well, that time is over. Japan is a great nation, and a great nation needs a powerful military. We have as much moral right to be the policemen of Asia as the Americans, who don't understand our part of the world. Even Germany, with all of their crimes against the Jews and others in the war, was permitted to return to normalcy. We alone continue to be punished. The reason for that unfair treatment is American racism aimed at us."

  "You want us to be an aggressor again in Asia?"

  "You're an intelligent man, Suzuki-san. Don't you understand what's happening? The Chinese are already heavily arming with modern technology. Soon they'll be able to fire missiles at us across the sea. Can we afford to be ill prepared for the next war with China?"

  Suzuki broke in. "But even if you believe all of this, why did you interfere in the American election for president?"

  "Because it's imperative to ensure that the White House is occupied for the next four years by someone who will not block Japan's rightful attempt to regain its fair military place in the world. It is in the best interests of our nation. We're victims of American imperialism. They don't keep their troops here to protect us. They keep them here to dominate us and to make certain that our military doesn't pose a threat to them."

  "How did you become involved with Harrison-san?"

  "After research to find an American who could help me, I discovered that Harrison was perfect. He shared my hatred for the Chinese. So I invited him to meet me in Buenos Aires. There I persuaded him to help me achieve my goal. When I enlisted his help, I told him to operate legally. To force Boyd out by lawful means. He got carried away and violated the law. That's not my responsibility."

  "In the last month, two innocent people have died in the United States," Suzuki said. "Senator Boyd and Harvey Gladstone, because of what you and Harrison did."

  "Correction," Sato said forcefully. "I had nothing to do with those deaths." He raised his hand and pointed a finger at Harrison. "All actions in the United States were being directed by him."

  Harrison was appalled that he had ended up in this situation. When Sato had sent him the note with the date of his father's death and an invitation to meet in Buenos Aires, he had been sufficiently intrigued to go. When he had heard about what Sato wanted to do, he had eagerly agreed to help. It was the perfect way of avenging what the Chinese did to his father by helping to rearm their mortal enemy. There wasn't any thought that violence or murders would be involved. He figured that all he had to do was get carefully prepared evidence about Mill Valley into the hands of a strong-willed prosecutor and help Sato with some speeches. He had thought he was so smart, yet somehow
he had lost control over events. And Sato was too clever for him. His desire for revenge had blinded him to the grim realities of what was happening. That desire for revenge had destroyed him—had taken the entire life he had built for so many years and reduced it to rubble.

  "And what about the death of Alex Glass?" Suzuki asked Sato. "How do you explain that?"

  This was the question Sato had been dreading, the one loose end that couldn't be laid at Harrison's door. He was boiling with anger toward that fool Ozawa and toward himself for letting Ozawa go to dinner with Glass. "An unfortunate accident," he said in a cold voice. "The Tokyo police have not found a single shred of evidence to the contrary."

  Suzuki looked dubious. "An odd coincidence coming at that moment, wouldn't you say?"

  "Life is full of coincidences."

  "Do you have anything else to add?"

  "Only that if you put my actions to a vote in Japan, many others, surely a majority, would agree with me."

  "I very much doubt that," replied Suzuki. "Most of our people would recall with horror that similar thinking by militarists in the thirties brought a great disaster on our country and its people. Now I think we should take a recess."

  * * *

  Nakamura, Suzuki, and Fujimura went into another room to confer. As Harrison headed toward the bathroom, Sato slipped outside and took his cell phone out of his pocket.

  He turned on the power and pressed a single button. "Ozawa here," came the response.

  "Where are you?" Sato asked.

  "About seven miles away. I have two truckloads of soldiers with me, fully armed and ready to move if you give the order."

  "What about here in Nakamura's compound?"

  "Of the thirty soldiers, at least ten will support us, perhaps more if a battle starts."

  Sato nodded with satisfaction. He planned to speak with Nakamura later and help him reach a peaceful resolution of this matter, one that preserved the integrity of the Japanese nation. If Nakamura didn't accept that, then what followed would be his responsibility. Sato didn't feel any remorse about his plans. For thousands of years patriotic warriors had undertaken actions precisely like the one he was planning. Technology might be more sophisticated now, but people were still the same. Power belonged in the hands of bold men like him, not bureaucratic cowards who were serfs of a Western nation, like Nakamura.

  * * *

  When Harrison came out of the bathroom, his face wet from the cold water he had splashed on it, Taylor was waiting for him. Alone, out of earshot of the others, she grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.

  "How could you do it?" she demanded. "Sato I can understand. I don't think he's right, but I can understand his motives. But you? Why did you do all of those horrible things?"

  He took a deep breath and stared at her, debating whether to tell her the story he had never told anyone else—about his father and about China.

  "You wouldn't understand," he finally said.

  His words enraged Taylor. "Ah, c'mon, Philip, two people were killed. Decent human beings. Boyd, an honorable senator who was trying to improve the country. Gladstone, a kindly man with a wife and a sick grandson who was dying." Her voice was cracking with emotion. "How could you have done it?"

  It was too much for Harrison. He had to say something. "That was Terasawa on his own. I couldn't control him. I warned Sato he was a loose cannon."

  As Taylor thought about what had happened, she became even angrier. "And the trumped-up charge in Mississippi? Don't tell me that was Terasawa. You arranged that."

  "Just to get you out of circulation until after the election. No one would have harmed you."

  She shot him a look of loathing. "You're disgusting."

  "As I said, you would never understand."

  "Once you're extradited, you'll be the one spending time in jail. If you're lucky and Cady doesn't charge you with murder one."

  He looked at her with contempt. Then he turned and walked away.

  She stood alone for several minutes, balanced on the verge of tears and uncontrollable anger. Blurry-eyed, she saw Prime Minister Nakamura approaching her. Speaking in Japanese, he asked if she would walk with him outside.

  It was chilly, but she didn't mind the cold. He was walking two steps ahead of her with his hands behind his back, a deeply troubled man. She moved quickly and fell into step with him.

  "I want to emphasize," he said grimly in Japanese, "that Yahiro Sato was operating on his own. This was not a project authorized by our government. Do you understand that?"

  She had no doubt on that issue. "I do. You were very cooperative. More than that, you saved my life and Cady's yesterday by moving us from that car that exploded. If you honor Cady's extradition request and send Sato and Harrison back to the United States with us, I will emphasize your government's lack of complicity when Cady and I report to the president in Washington."

  "And what action do you think the American government will take?"

  "My guess is that they will prosecute both men under American criminal law for murder, among other crimes."

  "And will there be a public trial?"

  "Unless the defendants agree to a plea bargain. Even in that case, the arrangement will be made public."

  He was weighing her words carefully. "Sometimes it's better if certain matters are not publicly disclosed."

  "Unfortunately I don't think we have a choice in this situation. Public exposure is necessary to ensure that Harrison and Sato are punished for what they have done."

  When Nakamura didn't respond, she studied his face carefully. She hadn't convinced him; she realized that.

  In a slow, halting voice he said, "I'm afraid if there's a public trial of Sato and Harrison in the United States, these events will be misunderstood. Others in your country don't have your knowledge of Japan. They will view this as something more than the aberrant behavior of a Japanese extremist. They will seek to erode what has been a cooperative relationship between our two great nations for the last fifty years."

  "That thought concerns me as well, but I don't see an alternative."

  There was a heavy silence as they continued walking. At last Nakamura broke it. "You said a moment ago that I saved your life."

  "That's right," she replied warily.

  "Then I would like a favor from you in return."

  "What's that?"

  "Remain here at my country house for twenty-four hours while I ponder my decision on extradition. During this time, don't talk to anyone in the United States by telephone. Don't disclose to anyone else what Harrison and Sato did."

  She hesitated.

  "I want you to wait only twenty-four hours," he repeated. "Then I will give you my decision." He could see that she was uncomfortable with his request, and he added, "You must appreciate the enormous political implications for me on the issue of Sato's extradition. He is a viable candidate against me for prime minister. I need a little time to weigh this momentous decision."

  She thought about his request. Actually, she liked it for her own reasons. If they waited twenty-four hours and then flew home, the American presidential election would be over. That would be better. It would be a disaster if this story broke before then.

  "We'll do what you asked," she replied, knowing that Cady would be upset because she hadn't consulted with him. Yet she was the one who understood the sensitivities of the Japanese, so she had to decide. "We will wait the twenty-four hours. You should know, however, that Gerhard Hall, the chief justice of our Supreme Court, has copies of all of the documents. Should anything happen to me and Cady, extradition for prosecution of Harrison and Sato will still occur."

  "I rather expected something like that," the prime minister said. "I'm asking everyone else to remain here for this twenty-four-hour period as well."

  "Sato and Harrison too?"

  He nodded.

  Nakamura had taken charge. His words meant virtual house arrest for all of them.

  In their walk they had made a wide circle
. They were now coming back to the house. "Before we separate," Nakamura said, "I want to say thank-you for what you've done by coming to me privately. I intend to try to find a reasonable solution to this matter."

  She bowed politely, then held up, letting him walk into the house first with her two steps behind.

  What in the world did he mean by "a reasonable solution"? she wondered.

  Chapter 32

  "We're prisoners." Cady said to Taylor angrily.

  "Why do you say that, C.J.? We're just staying for twenty-four hours until Nakamura decides on the extradition petition."

  He began pacing the floor of the cottage they had been given for the night. "This afternoon when you were out walking with Nakamura, I wanted to call someone at the American base to get patched through to General Clayton. My cell phone didn't work here so I tried to use one of the house phones. I was told that it's not possible to make calls."

  She sighed, knowing how unhappy Cady was with her decision. "We're all being treated that way. Harrison's in another guest cottage alone. Sato's in a third one. Nakamura, Suzuki, and Fujimura are staying in the main house tonight while they discuss the issue and try to find a reasonable solution."

  Cady picked up on her words. "The reasonable solution is to turn Harrison and Sato over to us for extradition."

  She put a hand on his arm. "That's where I think we'll end up. We have to give Nakamura the time to get there by himself."

  He was not soothed. "Will they even feed us?"

  "Room service."

  "You know what I think?"

  "I doubt if I'll like it."

  "I think that Nakamura will make a deal with Sato. In return for rejecting the extradition request, Sato drops out of the election. Nakamura will look the other way when some of the soldiers kill us, and nobody will ever hear from us again."

  Taylor looked outside at carp swimming in a pond encircled by bamboo trees. "There's something wrong with your scenario," she replied.

  "Yeah, what?"

  "Both General Clayton and Chief Justice Hall know everything that happened. Hall has a set of the documents."