Read Online Linnear 03 - White Ninja by Eric Van Lustbader - Free Book Online
Authors: Eric Van Lustbader
Tags: Fiction, Action & Adventure
Ads: Link
know what you felt after the baby died. You never cried - at least not in my presence; you never talked about it, even when I got up enough courage to bring up the subject. Did you bury it so deeply inside you that you now feel nothing at the passing of that tiny spirit?'
'I see,' Nicholas said, 'that you've returned to your habit of playing judge and jury in condemning me.'
'No, damnit! I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself.'
'You see?' he said more easily than he felt. 'I am, in your eyes, already guilty, because in order to calm you down I now have to explain my actions.'
'I'm perfectly calm!' Justine shouted.
'Your face is red,' Nicholas pointed out.
'Go fuck yourself!' She jumped up. She began to walk out of the room, then turned back to him. 'You engineered this fight. I want you to remember that!'
Their gazes met, and Nicholas knew she was right. Why couldn't he bring himself to tell her how he felt then - when their daughter had died - or now?
And suddenly he knew, and the knowledge, like a stone lodged in his throat, made him break out into a sweat. It was because he was afraid. He was afraid of the fear that was like a living thing growing inside him.
Senjin Omukae picked up the phone, and sent for Sergeant Tomi Yazawa. While he waited, he lit a cigarette and, inhaling deeply, blew smoke at the ceiling. He stared out of the small window of his cubicle at the ancient Imperial castle where the Tokugawa shoguns had commenced the longest and surely the most paranoid suzerainty in Japan's history, approximately 250 years.
On the other hand, the Tokugawas had been canny rulers. Aware that they must ruthlessly destroy any hint of rebellion against their rule as near to its infancy as they could manage, they conspired to import from China a form of Confucianism suitable to their needs. This branch of religion stressed duty and loyalty above all other traits. Initially, in its purest Chinese form, this meant loyalty to one's father and mother, but the Tokugawas, like most Japanese, could not resist tinkering with the original product. The result was that duty and loyalty came to include one's shogun - namely the Tokugawas themselves.
If this was a self-serving revision, it was not wholly so. Senjin knew that before leyasu Tokugawa, the first shogun, Japan was a wholly feudal nation, prey to constant internecine warfare between regional warlords known as daimyo. leyasu Tokugawa changed all that, uniting by blood and battle an entire nation, and thus immeasurably strengthening it.
But, on the other hand, Japan's absolute dependence on the rigid caste system began with the Tokugawa shogunate, who saw this, too, as a way of effectively controlling the majority of the population.
In a way, Senjin mused, not for the first time, the Tokugawas were control freaks. Just like me.
He heard a discreet cough and, swivelling around to face the door to his cubicle, he saw Tomi Yazawa standing on the threshold. He beckoned. 'Come in, Sergeant.. It was Senjin's habit never to refer to any of his staff by their name, only by their rank. To his way of thinking, it gave him the proper degree of control, while making it clear to his people where they stood not just with him, but within the family of the police department.
'How are you progressing with that murder-rape case? Mariko something.'
'Poor abandoned thing. No one at the strip club seemed to know her last name,' Tomi said.
'Quite so.' Senjin did not ask her to sit down. It was his feeling that subordinates should stand in his presence. He drummed his fingers on the top of his steel desk. 'Have you any progress to report?'
'No, sir.'
'None at all?'
'I know you have read the master file as well as my weekly updates.'
'And the message found on the corpse, "This could be your wife"? Have you made any progress with that?'
'Some. I've determined that the victim was unmarried,
and that she dated. Her men friends never came to the club, and in interviews with the
'I see,' Nicholas said, 'that you've returned to your habit of playing judge and jury in condemning me.'
'No, damnit! I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself.'
'You see?' he said more easily than he felt. 'I am, in your eyes, already guilty, because in order to calm you down I now have to explain my actions.'
'I'm perfectly calm!' Justine shouted.
'Your face is red,' Nicholas pointed out.
'Go fuck yourself!' She jumped up. She began to walk out of the room, then turned back to him. 'You engineered this fight. I want you to remember that!'
Their gazes met, and Nicholas knew she was right. Why couldn't he bring himself to tell her how he felt then - when their daughter had died - or now?
And suddenly he knew, and the knowledge, like a stone lodged in his throat, made him break out into a sweat. It was because he was afraid. He was afraid of the fear that was like a living thing growing inside him.
Senjin Omukae picked up the phone, and sent for Sergeant Tomi Yazawa. While he waited, he lit a cigarette and, inhaling deeply, blew smoke at the ceiling. He stared out of the small window of his cubicle at the ancient Imperial castle where the Tokugawa shoguns had commenced the longest and surely the most paranoid suzerainty in Japan's history, approximately 250 years.
On the other hand, the Tokugawas had been canny rulers. Aware that they must ruthlessly destroy any hint of rebellion against their rule as near to its infancy as they could manage, they conspired to import from China a form of Confucianism suitable to their needs. This branch of religion stressed duty and loyalty above all other traits. Initially, in its purest Chinese form, this meant loyalty to one's father and mother, but the Tokugawas, like most Japanese, could not resist tinkering with the original product. The result was that duty and loyalty came to include one's shogun - namely the Tokugawas themselves.
If this was a self-serving revision, it was not wholly so. Senjin knew that before leyasu Tokugawa, the first shogun, Japan was a wholly feudal nation, prey to constant internecine warfare between regional warlords known as daimyo. leyasu Tokugawa changed all that, uniting by blood and battle an entire nation, and thus immeasurably strengthening it.
But, on the other hand, Japan's absolute dependence on the rigid caste system began with the Tokugawa shogunate, who saw this, too, as a way of effectively controlling the majority of the population.
In a way, Senjin mused, not for the first time, the Tokugawas were control freaks. Just like me.
He heard a discreet cough and, swivelling around to face the door to his cubicle, he saw Tomi Yazawa standing on the threshold. He beckoned. 'Come in, Sergeant.. It was Senjin's habit never to refer to any of his staff by their name, only by their rank. To his way of thinking, it gave him the proper degree of control, while making it clear to his people where they stood not just with him, but within the family of the police department.
'How are you progressing with that murder-rape case? Mariko something.'
'Poor abandoned thing. No one at the strip club seemed to know her last name,' Tomi said.
'Quite so.' Senjin did not ask her to sit down. It was his feeling that subordinates should stand in his presence. He drummed his fingers on the top of his steel desk. 'Have you any progress to report?'
'No, sir.'
'None at all?'
'I know you have read the master file as well as my weekly updates.'
'And the message found on the corpse, "This could be your wife"? Have you made any progress with that?'
'Some. I've determined that the victim was unmarried,
and that she dated. Her men friends never came to the club, and in interviews with the
Similar Books
