Girl Rides the Wind (30 page)

Looking back now, it seemed a dream, a waking fantasy. All that remained, all that really mattered to him as he stood on the tarmac awaiting the second plane, is having lived up to the impossible standard he’d always associated with his father. He’d seized the old man’s sword and wielded it in battle with no concern for his own life, even taken more than one life with it… and would bear the recriminations, possibly forever.

“The TV crews are getting restless,” the voice of another of his men crackled over the radio. “Can I tell them anything?”

“Teach them patience,” he replied, as his eyes followed the approach of a pair of black SUVs with tinted windows. He waved the lead driver over and stepped toward the passenger doors. A large man in a grey suit and one arm in a sling emerged from the front door, and greeted him with a grunt and what must be described more as a nod than a bow.

“Kano-san, I hope you are right. Coming here is a terrible risk.”

“We have taken what precautions we can, Ozawa-san. A better opportunity will not come.”

“Is she here? Her Highness will want to see her.”

“No, she is still recuperating from her wounds.”

Ozawa pulled the rear passenger door open and two very distinguished and quite anxious personages peered out. The woman reached for Kano’s hand, and it startled him to find her so close, not the impossibly distant and brittle figure he’d imagined. She steadied herself, and then allowed him to bow deeply. He didn’t quite know how to address her, or the man who stepped out immediately after. They had been the Crown Prince and Princess, and the events of the next few hours could well decide whether they would become the new Emperor and Empress of Japan. A year ago, and perhaps even more recently than that, he would have had no opinion on such a question, considering them relics of a bygone age. But now, he couldn’t have had a keener interest, and even fancied that he would give his life to ensure their ascension, convinced the future stability of his country depended on it.

“She is not here, your Highness,” Ozawa said over Kano’s shoulder.

“What a pity. I would have liked the chance to thank her, and an occasion may not present itself again.” Her husband nodded his assent to this proposition.

A dull rumble in the distance had grown loud enough to be recognized by the ear, and all four of them turned to watch as a white-and-grey, fixed-wing turboprop lumbered across a hazy horizon. Kano growled a command into the handset of his radio. “Release the news teams, but caution them to maintain a respectful distance.”

A moment later, a dozen or so people in suits, or carrying bulky video cameras, came jogging across the tarmac. Kano signaled a few of his men to set up a perimeter, and the tires of the aircraft screeched when they made contact with the runway. It took another minute or two to taxi around from the lone runway, the noise of the engines growing louder as it approached. The pilot swung the plane around at the last moment, cut the engines, and lowered the tailgate.

An austere honor guard of heavily-armed Rangers strode down the ramp formed by the tailgate, and the crowed that had gathered to observe began to murmur in expectation, until finally Tsukino came into view, one arm in a sling, the other holding the hand of the little princess. When she saw the people staring at her so intently, she stopped to look up into Tsukino’s face for some indication, and at his nod she ran to her parents while the cameras whirred and clicked and flashed.

The family stood for a moment to allow photos and video, and then walked toward the terminal while Ozawa stayed behind to answer questions.

“You have done my family a great service, Captain Kano,” the Prince said. “As well as a service to the nation.”

Kano stared at him in silence, searching for the words to say, as well as some clarity about what sentiments he wanted to express. Eventually, and with a certain suddenness, they came to him.

“Forgive me, your Highness, but I did so little, I hardly deserve any recognition.”

“I’m sure you are being modest, Kano-san,” the Prince said.

He bowed, and hesitated to speak again, but couldn’t hold his peace. “She did it all…”

The little princess chirped out a pet name: “Ama.”

“She slipped into their camp in the dark and carried Princess Akane to safety. She brought her out to us… and when enemy fire disabled the helicopter, she rushed back into battle to buy time for the repairs. She risked everything… sacrificed herself.”

A cloud passed across the Princess’s face at these words, as if she feared the worst, not thinking that such news would surely have been transmitted to her already. “She still lives, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, your Highness. She is recuperating at Sasebo.”

“Tenno-san may be deserving, but we cannot afford to recognize her valor in public,” the Prince said. “If it is any consolation, by honoring you we honor her in the only way available to us.”

“She will understand,” the Princess added.

Inside the terminal, deserted though it was, everyone they met wore expressions of extreme astonishment, as they came closer to a figure of august majesty than they ever could have imagined. Kano’s men showed the news crews where they might set themselves up, and where the Prince might make a public statement against a backdrop more suitable to his aims.

“
O
h my god
,” Yuki said, her hands pressed to her cheeks. “I can’t believe this is happening in my lifetime. He’s… he’s…”

“Yes,” Michael said, as they watched the video feed in his study. “He has come out of hiding and taken a stand.”

“What is the time delay on this?” Andie asked.

“Eleven hours. Japanese TV broadcast his address last night.”

‘Oh my god,” Yuki said.

“We have reports that most of the military has backed him. The support for the coup plotters has largely evaporated. Police units have begun scouring the countryside, rounding up collaborators, and the Prime Minister… or, at least, the former Prime Minister has endorsed the Crown Prince.”

“What about his brother?” Andie asked. “Didn’t they already put him on the throne?”

“Evidence suggests that was the plan, but they hadn’t begun the formal ceremonies yet.”

“I wonder how the Crown Prince feels about that.”

“We have to go to Tokyo,” Yuki said. “We have to go now.”

“It’ll take some doing,” Michael said. “They’ve suspended international flights into Narita and Kansai.”

“Can’t you pull some strings?” Andie said “Or maybe we could fly Space-A.”

“I don’t care how we do it.” Yuki had already turned to leave the room. “But I have to get there right away.”

“You realize she’s going upstairs to start packing, don’t you?”

Michael nodded, and picked up the phone on his desk. “All three of us are going, then?” he said, though Andie had already left the room, undoubtedly on the same mission as Yuki.

“
I
thought
you were supposed to be taking things easy, LT. You know, bed rest, mushy food, that sort of thing.”

Durant and Perry had been looking for Emily all over Sailor Town, after Racket mentioned seeing her crossing Albuquerque Bridge. The previous evening, they’d all been together for an informal ceremony over Tarot’s body, before it was shipped home – and she’d been in a funk ever since. The bar was noisy and she wasn’t drinking, and the bartender was too preoccupied by what was flashing across the big TV screen in the corner to complain.

“Have you been watching this stuff all morning?” Perry asked.

“Since we opened at eleven hundred hours,” the bartender said, before realizing that the question wasn’t directed at him.

The newsfeed replayed the same images of tanks firing into the distance somewhere in China, and fighter jets being catapulted off a couple of unnamed US aircraft carriers. At the bottom of the screen, more recent events were detailed in a continuous loop. Soga Jin’s face flashed on the screen and a talking head announced that she and her father had committed suicide. A dozen or so other notables were reported to have taken their lives as well. The whereabouts of Heiji Nobutada and his daughter, Heiji Gyoshin, were yet to be determined.

“Is that Captain Kano?” Perry asked, when the coverage shifted to an official ceremony somewhere in Tokyo. The English-speaking commentator went silent, and all that could be heard was the address in Japanese by the Prime Minister. “And there’s Ishikawa.”

“Yes,” Emily said, finally willing to speak. “They are being honored for their part in rescuing Princess Akane.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.

“Is that the Crown Prince?” Durant asked. “The one standing next to the Prime Minister, that’s him isn’t it?”

“Yes, and the woman next to him, in the silver gown, is the Crown Princess.”

“You’ve met her, haven’t you?”

Emily glowered at him, and Durant fell sheepishly silent.

“I bet Kano and Dice are still celebrating,” Perry said.

“Those women, the ones who were behind all the mischief…” Durant paused to collect himself. “Didn’t we meet them at Narashino? I mean, weren’t they on the parade ground that day?”

“All the suicides, that’s how they’ll resolve this,” Perry said. “Will there even be any prosecutions?”

“Do you think the police force them? I mean, aren’t they really more like executions?”

“It’s all about honor and shame, not fear.” Emily finally spoke, and was not able to conceal her irritation. “Jin Soga took her own life rather than face the dishonor of having failed.”

The newsfeed cycled back to images of the ceremony honoring Kano and Ishikawa, though by this time, the bartender had turned down the volume.

“Why wasn’t Tsukino included?” Durant asked, pointing at the TV. “I thought those guys were thick as thieves. Was there some incident I didn’t hear about?”

“I don’t exactly know,” Perry said. “Kano just decided to exclude him one day. It happened right after Diao’s people ambushed you and Em. He practically threw him into the brig.”

“But then, Tsukino ended up escorting the little princess. It’s all kind of mysterious. I just don’t get those guys.”

“She was his childhood sweetheart.” Emily seemed even more annoyed than before as she said this, as if she had no expectation that they’d understand such sentiments.

“Who was whose sweetheart?” Durant asked.

“Tsukino… he loved Heiji Gyoshin.”

“… and she loved him?”

“Exactly, until her family put an end to it.”

“Now that makes more sense,” Perry said. “I would have thought he was too ‘rustic’ for her... or, at least, for her family.”

“Doesn’t it occur to you… I mean, maybe that’s why he is such a crank.”

“Wait a second.” It had finally dawned on Durant who they were talking about. “His girlfriend was one of the chief coup-plotters? No wonder Kano didn’t trust him. But, then, how did he get anywhere near the little princess?”

“Yeah,” Perry said. “That was you’re doing, wasn’t it? What were you thinking?”

“I don’t know.” Emily rested her face in her hands. “I guess, when we saw her at the party in Sasebo, you know, just before that freighter was sunk… it seemed like I could understand her.”

“And did you… understand her?”

“I saw the pain she was in, but beyond that, no, I didn’t.”

“Tenno-san, may I have a word.” Unexpected as it was, Kano’s voice seemed both familiar and unfamiliar. They hadn’t noticed when he entered, but when she turned and saw him in civilian clothes, she thought she knew why.

“Shouldn’t you be in Tokyo? Aren’t you the talk of the town, and the guest of honor at every party?” She glanced at Perry and Durant as she spoke, and found herself worrying about excluding them from a conversation that would have to be conducted in Japanese.

“I am here as a favor to a… friend. I need you to come with me.”

“Come with you? Where do mean to take me?”

“What’s he doing in civvies?” Durant whispered.

“Tottori. We’ll need to fly to Yonago, but I have already arranged that.”

“Why are you out of uniform?” she asked, finally responding to the quizzical expression on Durant’s face.

“I have a new assignment.”

“Can you tell me what this is all about? Who are we going to see?”

“Not here. I can tell you on the plane.”

“What’s going on?” Perry protested, when she stood up abruptly, as if she meant to leave without any explanation.

“We’re going for a ride,” she said, in English. Then turning to Kano, she added in Japanese, “Hankinson-san is coming, too.” Kano nodded, and she looked at Perry, and said, “I need you to come along. Don’t ask too many questions. Okay?”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Durant muttered to no one in particular, except maybe the bartender, as his erstwhile companions left him in the relative quiet of a Sailor Town bar.

“
W
e’re going
to have to stay here for today,” Michael said, once they entered the waiting area of the main hangar at the Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma on Okinawa. “If all goes well, we can fly to Nagasaki or Kansai tomorrow morning, but it looks like the Tokyo airports will still be closed.”

“Do we have a place to stay on base?” Andie asked.

“It’s not that bad. We’ve got rooms at a hotel in Naha. In the meantime, maybe you and Yuki can work on getting us into the Officer’s Club, while I make a couple of calls.”

Andie grunted a weary assent, and turned to look for Yuki, whom she found glued to a TV monitor hanging from the ceiling a few steps away.

“Are you seeing this?” Yuki said, when Andie placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s the Crown Prince, and that’s his brother.”

“It looks amicable… sort of. What’s the brother saying?”

“He’s announcing the death of their father. The Empress… his mother, the Dowager, I suppose, has retired… gone into seclusion. Now he’s saying something about a period of mourning… he regrets the turmoil of the last few weeks, and… there, he says his brother, the Crown Prince, is the rightful heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. He is stepping aside, to clear away any confusion that may remain.”

“That’s big of him.”

“Now the Crown Prince is calling for a period of forgiveness and atonement, and recommends that only the principal figures in the coup should be punished.”

“Aren’t they all dead by now?”

“Probably.” Yuki sighed and considered this prospect. “Now he’s introducing the former Prime Minister, and endorsing him to lead an interim government while the country prepares for new elections in three months.”

“They’re all so polite,” Andie said, watching as the Prime Minister bowed to the Crown Prince. “What are they saying now?”

By this time, more people had crowded around the TV, and all of them looked to Yuki to translate.

“The Prime Minister is expressing the nation’s gratitude to the heroic
Jietai
soldiers who rescued Princess Akane.”

“
Jietai
soldiers… didn’t Emily have a hand in the rescue?”

Yuki ignored this comment and continued translating. “He thinks this deed brought the nation back from the brink of self-destruction… Now they are going to introduce the heroes to the nation.”

The camera pulled back to show several men in uniform waiting to step up to the dais to receive some sort of military commendation, as well as a commendation from the nation. The procession seemed rather involved and slow-moving, as each man heard a word from the Crown Prince before bowing and moving offstage.

Michael returned a moment later and gestured to the two women. “What’s the word on the Officer’s Club?”

“Oh, sorry,” Andie said. “We got preoccupied by the news.”

“It’s just as well. We can have lunch at the hotel. I have a taxi outside, and there’s more news.”

Once they’d arranged the luggage in the trunk of the cab, and settled into the back seat, Michael showed them the feed on his secure tablet.

“General Diao’s forces have capitulated. Once he learned his son was dead, he seems to have lost the will to fight on. The loyalists are rounding up his chief associates, and his troops have been disarmed. We expect to see a massive purge of the armed forces in the coming weeks.”

“What about that one prisoner?” Andie asked. “You know, the fellow who exposed the role of the Chinese in the attack on the Imperial family… what’s going to happen to him?”

“It’s bigger than that,” Michael said. “We now think they colluded in the sinking of the Chinese cruiser, and maybe even that freighter a few weeks back. Apparently, this conspiracy has a much longer history.”

“But what’s going to happen to that one man? Are the Japanese going to hang on to him, or will he be sent back to China?”

“There are ongoing negotiations at State over him. The Chinese will probably throw him in some deep, dark hole if he goes back. But the Japanese welcome won’t be much warmer.”

“Don’t we want him?” Yuki asked. “He must be some sort of intelligence asset, right?”

“He’s a low-level operative. I doubt there’s much anyone’s gonna want to do for him.”

“
J
ust how safe is this
?”

Perry glanced around the terminal at Yonago Airport, newly sensitive to the way people looked at the three of them, two American sailors and Kano, who looked more like a Japanese salaryman in his grey suit than an Airborne Ranger. To be precise, he looked like an exceptionally fit salaryman, though that did nothing to assuage Perry’s anxieties. Even with Emily at something less than full strength – and he certainly didn’t dare ask her how she felt again – he was fully capable of taking care of himself, and her, if things turned ugly. But he really didn’t want to have to.

“How safe is what?” Emily turned to look at him with that expression he’d seen often enough in the last few days, as if he’d said something too stupid for comment.

“Everyone here is staring at us. Don’t you feel it? They resent our presence.”

“You’re being too sensitive.”

“And are there normally this many uniformed cops patrolling a sleepy, regional airport?”

Kano gestured to her, and placed a finger to his lips. “As you may have noticed, anti-American sentiment is still strong in the rural areas. Let’s just move quickly and try not to draw too much attention.”

“By not speaking English… is that what you mean?” she said, in Japanese.

Kano nodded, and led them toward the ‘departures’ side of the terminal. “Traffic is usually lighter at this end,” he said.

“I think it’s something else.” Emily spoke in Japanese as she watched an elderly couple speaking to a uniformed officer. “Look at the expression on that woman’s face. They’re irritated with the police, not us.”

Kano stopped to look around him, to gauge the sentiments of the locals, while Emily spoke to Perry.

“If we’re not the problem here, who is?” Perry asked.

“Exactly who is it we’ve come here to see?” Emily pulled Kano around by the arm. When he didn’t answer right away, she glowered at him. “Something strange is going on here. What aren’t you telling us?”

“Not here,” Kano said, in a hushed voice. He nudged them through a sliding glass door facing the parking lot and access road. “Please, Tenno-san, be patient.”

An older-model station wagon idled by the curb, with an elderly gentleman behind the wheel and a small child in a booster seat in back.

“Thank you, Okamoto-san,” Kano said, once they’d deposited what little luggage they’d brought in the rear hatch and clicked seatbelts. “These are friends of Tsukino-san. They are here to help.”

“May I ask, who is this pretty, young lady?” Emily asked, as she held a small hand in her fingers. The girl blushed and turned away, but turned back a moment later with a silly smile.

“That is my granddaughter, Haru-chan.”

“Is it wise to bring her?” Kano asked.

“I could not say no,” the old man said. “Who else does she have left besides her aunt? My wife and I are too old to be all she has.”

“Oh, crap,” Emily said, in English.

“What are they saying?” Perry asked.

“Oh, nothing important. But I think this young lady is Heiji Gyoshin’s niece.”

“What?”

“Is that who we are going to see, Kano-san?”

“Yes, Tenno-san.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Perry said, having guessed the gist of the last exchange. “Isn’t there like a nationwide manhunt going on for her?”

Emily turned to the little girl, and tried to change the tone of the conversation. She stroked her hair and kissed her hand. “
Watakushi no namae wa Michiko desu. Yoroshiku onegai itashimasu, Haru-chan
.”

“
Hajimemashite
,” the girl said with a giggle.

Emily gestured at Perry, and touched his hand. “
Haru-chan, tomodachi no Perry desu.
”

Haru-chan responded politely once more, “
Hajimemashite
.”

When Perry did not reciprocate, Emily nudged him and whispered the proper phrase in his ear. “
Yoroshiku onegai itashimasu
.”