Read Online United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas - Free Book Online Page B

you found out they were going to betray the Empire?”
    “It’s true,” Ben answered, and showed no discomfort in acknowledging it.
    Claire stopped in her tracks. “How could you do that?”
    “Why wouldn’t I? They were planning to work for the Americans and turn over our secrets.”
    “How’d you find out?”
    “I overheard them talking about it.”
    “Did you try to ask them what was going on?” Claire asked.
    “I don’t think they would have told me. I listened when I could and memorized everything they said. I went to report it after I realized they were really going to go through with it.”
    “You’re so casual about it. They were your parents.”
    “It wasn’t easy,” Ben said, and his fingers twitched. “I still miss them. But I had to do what was right.”
    “What was your parents’ reaction when they found out?”
    “I don’t know. After I reported it to the police, I didn’t see them again. Not until they were dead.”
    “So you’re real hardcore about this stuff, huh? Most loyal servant of the Emperor?”
    “I try,” Ben said weakly. “I guess I committed one of your unforgivable sins.”
    “You want to come to church next week with me and confess?”
    “Are you making fun of me?”
    “No, no, not at all,” Claire said. “I mean it.”
    Behind, they heard the protests intensify and there was a loud burst that sounded like an explosion. Claire and Ben hurried down the steps to the stairway. Red warning lights were flashing. The gates sealed off just as they went through. They caught the last subway before the whole place locked down.
    “Why do you waste your time with these superstitions?” Ben asked.
    “It’s not the superstitious elements I’m drawn to,” Claire said. “It’s the way this creed gives them strength and keeps them bound to a set of values that is humane and honorable. I wonder what the world would be like if the Americans were still an important part of it.”
    “Not all the Americans are honorable and humane. And, honestly, I don’t know how safe it is for you to be with so many American dissidents. I know there haven’t been any incidents yet, but tempers are boiling.”
    “They don’t know who my dad is and they wouldn’t care if they did. They only view me as a vessel of God,” she said.
    Ben found her faith worrisome. “Not all the Americans there are Christians,” he said. “A lot of them use the religion as a means of organizing and hiding their true intent.”
    “There are people in the Empire who pretend to serve the Emperor, but don’t care. How is that different?”
    “I’m just saying be careful.”
    “ Arigatou ,” she said. “I will.”
    Claire watched the portical displays on the subway, news showing eruptions of violence from previous encounters in San Diego. “Every time my parents argue, my mom goes to her room and cries,” Claire suddenly said. “I get so frustrated by it. Why doesn’t she fight back? You know how stubborn Dad can be and, even when he’s wrong, he can’t admit it. One day, after he yelled at her for an hour, I had enough and was about to tell her to go stick it right back to him.”
    “The way you do.”
    “You hear it all too, right? But that day, I found her in her room reading a Bible. It was something her mom gave to her and she told me not to worry about her, that she’d found the strength to persist.”
    “Through the Bible?”
    “Her beliefs,” Claire replied. “I couldn’t understand her at all. Why bear it when you can change it directly? That’s when she told me about the Christians.”
    “Ishimura,” Akiko called in the present.
    Ben snapped out of his reverie. “Sorry,” he said.
    He took Claire’s portical from Akiko’s hand and left the bathroom. He turned the display on, but it was encrypted, static on the screen.
    “You haven’t broken into this yet?” he asked.
    “A few of our techs have tried, but every time they connect their portical, they get