The Korean Intercept (36 page)

Galt growled an interruption.

"Let's get off the feelings and back to the facts. Baroness, that was quite a grieving widow act you put on for us, when you had us here to spend the night, considering that you were part of a plot to bring down an American space shuttle. That's the biggest hijack in history. Ugaki lines up a corrupt North Korean military commander, Colonel Sung, who operates with autonomy in a remote province, and personally oversees the construction of a landing strip large enough to accommodate the shuttle. This was accomplished without the central North Korean government knowing about it. Ugaki plucked a stripper from one of his joints in Tokyo and sent her to America to seduce a NASA space scientist, who programmed the
Liberty
to land at that airfield. But Ugaki needed a legitimate front to exploit and profit from what he salvaged on the shuttle. That's where Kurita Industries came in. Ugaki already had Anami in position as acting CEO. You, Baroness, were handling Mr. Kurita's business affairs. You were his one link to the outside world. The shuttle deal sounded like a good deal to you. You and Ugaki thought you had all of the bases covered. You even had a White House contact."

Meiko's brow furrowed. "They had a connection in the White House?"

"In a manner of speaking," said Galt. "That contact was you, Meiko."

He had never seen her so startled. "Me?"

"It's no coincidence that you and I met," he told her. "You're too close to this for you to be a White House correspondent without more than coincidence at work, and I don't believe in coincidence." His eyes remained on Sachito, particularly on the nearness of the gun next to her on the bench. He said to Meiko, "Without your knowledge, strings were pulled by Ugaki and Sachito, in your father's name, to have Stan Hakura assign you to the White House press corps. It would have been done indirectly, with a great deal of subterfuge and subtlety. Hakura wasn't knowingly a part of this. There are ways. There's no way they could have foreseen what happened personally between us, Meiko, but everything else was stage-managed. They would use every minute of your uncut satellite feeds to Tokyo for Hakura to monitor my government's response to this crisis. Someone on the scene, particularly a trained journalist, would be perfect. This was done without your father's knowledge. They didn't want to kill him, because it would draw attention, as it did. Because as sick and weak as he was, your father somehow pierced his pain-and-medicated fog and he learned of what they were doing in his name, or at least enough for him to cause trouble. He would try to contact his old-time loyal allies within the corporate hierarchy of Kurita Industries. That's the only motive strong enough to justify them taking the risk of resorting to his murder after the hijack was operational. My hunch is a poison was administered that wouldn't be evident to his physician. Either that or your father's attending physician was bought off by Ugaki."

Sachito asked Galt, "Is there any legal proof of what you say?"

"You know there is. That's where Meiko comes in. She's already started tracing this on her father's computer. But for me, there doesn't have to be proof. I'm no court of law. If there's enough to convince me, that's all I need, because what's between you and me, Baroness, it's personal."

"I understand. Your wife."

"And my best friend," said Galt, "a brother from a different mother named Barney Markee. Barney was killed because I went to see him first thing after I arrived in Tokyo; and his death, and my responsibility in it, is another issue I need to work on. I brought death to his door."

"I did not kill your friend."

"No, but your gangster friend, Ugaki, ordered it done, and that's enough guilt by association for me. Barney was on the fringes of the Tokyo underworld for years, but someone waits to kill him until just after he's talked to me? That's too damn much coincidence. I was followed from the airport by a
yakuza
hit team sent by Ugaki. And they were damn good, because I didn't realize they were onto me until I left the cemetery after the funeral. I lost them at that time, but by then it was too late for Barney." Galt felt a bitter taste in his throat. "Ugaki's men were on me from the minute I touched down at the airport. That's the only way it makes sense. I was a wild card and, considering that I was White House-level, Ugaki was hesitant about killing me unless he had to directly, because of the police scrutiny that would bring. So they killed Barney instead, as a safety measure. Ugaki thought that taking out Barney would shut down my intel source. But Barney did what I asked him to do before they blew him up with a car bomb. He contacted a friend of mine who happens to be a general and can make things happen, and that got me back on track. So you see, Baroness, the
yakuza
killed Barney for nothing."

"I am sorry about your friend," said Sachito. "But I hear of nothing resembling legal proof against me."

"I told you, I don't need proof. I went straight to Barney after leaving you and Meiko at the airport, and that, Mrs. Kurita, puts my friend's murder right at your feet. You were the only one Meiko told about our flight number and time of arrival. You passed that information on to Ugaki, so he could have his hit team in place when we touched down. That's the vital piece of the puzzle that took awhile to click in my mind, but once it did, I had all the proof I needed to convict you in my mind, Baroness."

Meiko clenched her fists, her eyes blazing.

"Between you and Ugaki" she said to Sachito, "who initiated the germ of this grand scheme? Before you murdered my father, you were unfaithful to him with Ugaki. You and a
yakuza
contaminated the sanctity of my father's world. You let this
yakuza
filth into your bed."

Sachito again lowered her eyes. She said nothing.

Galt told her, "If you and Ugaki were lovers, you should know it won't stop him from coming after you. This shuttle hijack, luring that NASA scientist astray, personally coordinating the construction of an airfield in North Korea, it's got to be the biggest deal Ugaki has ever undertaken. He's got a lot of face to save after fumbling this one, if he intends to hold onto his power in the
yakuza
, and he will take severe measures. To him, you're a liability, Baroness. And you're the perfect scapegoat. And he may know that you double-crossed him. You saw how hot Meiko was to learn the truth, after she saw Ugaki and Anami together at her father's funeral. You allowed her complete access to her father's computer files. That's how you double-crossed your lover boy. You wanted Ugaki the
yakuza
to take the whole blame, if everything fell apart. Ugaki may be in the hospital, but I'll wager he's got a team on its way here right now. And if I'm a judge of the character of a guy like Ugaki, he'll be riding in the car with his hit team when they show up here, even if he had to be carried out of the hospital. He'll want to be here when his men pay you back for your betrayal. You know how much stock guys like him put in personal loyalty. And you know how far-reaching his power is. There's nowhere for you to escape from him anywhere in the world, and you know this." He nodded to the pistol. "That's what the gun is for."

Sachito looked up at him. Her eyes were sorrowful. "Do not attempt to dissuade me from taking my own life."

Meiko snorted. "Hardly that. You have not lived your life honorably, but you can still end it honorably. You are Japanese, after all."

"Frankly, Baroness," said Galt, "we came here to encourage you to take the honorable way out. Meiko wants that because of what you did to her father. As for the authorities, your suicide will be tied to your grief for your departed husband. Unfortunate and sad. But the Kurita name will be spared scandal and humiliation. Everything can be pinned on the CEO, Anami. He's too dead to defend himself."

"And you, Trev Galt," said Sachito, "will you have your vengeance and be satisfied?"

"I don't deal in vengeance, lady," said Galt. "I owe this to people who died because of you, and what you and those
yakuza
scum have done. But to answer your first question, yes, there is enough electronic and paper trail evidence to bring you to court and you know it."

A tear formed in the corner of one of Sachito's eyes, and glided down her cheekbone. "The humiliation of a public trial would be unbearable."

Galt reached down and picked up the pistol, a petite snub-nosed .22 revolver with a pearl-handled grip.

He broke it open with a flick of his thumb across the latch and a shake of his wrist, revealing a single cartridge chambered in a cylinder that could hold six bullets. He snapped the cylinder back into the frame with another sharp flick of his wrist and replaced the pistol upon the bench, inches from her right hand.

"We're done here," he said to both women.

A car horn beeped once in the near distance.

Sachito glanced into the darkness, in the direction of the sound. "Ugaki," she said.

Galt nodded. "Or the police. Goodbye, Baroness."

"I am sorry." She spoke softly, in a voice that ached with infinite weariness. Her sad eyes turned to Meiko. She asked, "Can you forgive me?"

Meiko spat upon the ground between them. "Never, you worthless, murdering whore."

Galt's eyes tightened. Meiko deserved to be in on this, and she was certainly entitled to her emotions. But until now, since he had known her, Meiko had always been the one in control of her emotions, not the other way around. Her outburst surprised him, and there was no more for him here. He walked away.

Meiko followed Galt's cue, withdrawing with him from the garden, along the flagstones, past the bronze statue of the Buddha, to the grove of katsura and birch. They retraced their line of approach. The manicured lawn was slippery with moisture.

From the direction of the Zen garden, Galt heard a single gunshot.

From the direction of the road, he saw headlights turning into the Kurita driveway. He gauged that the headlights would belong to a compact sedan. He hesitated, and Meiko drew up beside him. The car traveled alone up the gravel driveway lined with chestnut trees. There were no flashing lights. The headlights were on high beam, approaching a vapor lamp that was midway between the road and the main house. When the car passed through the circle of light cast by the lamp, Galt had a clear view of a white Toyota compact with a dented right front fender. He had seen the same car before, when he had exercised such ingenuity, or so he thought at the time, in evading this
yakuza
hit team; it was the same Toyota seen speeding away after the murder of Barney Markee.

"It's Ugaki's hit team," said Galt. "They beat the police here." He withdrew the triggering device, no larger than a cigarette lighter, from one of his pockets, and thumbed open the cap that covered a toggle switch.

"Ugaki is in that car." Meiko's ragged whisper hardly sounded like her: the throaty rasp of a feline with fangs and claws bared. "He is the one who plotted with the whore to kill my father."

"Keep it together, Meiko," he said. His thumb moved to the toggle switch.

"This is a blood debt," she said.

She seized the device from his fingers with a ferocity that caught him by surprise.

He mouthed a silent curse. The headlights were almost, but not quite, to where he had set the charge of high explosives. It would do no good for the HE to be detonated prematurely.

"Meiko, don't do this. Give me that. This is my job."

Her beauty was unrecognizable, a mask of hatred. "This is a blood debt," she said again, this time in a detached voice. She flicked the toggle switch.

The red-orange explosion thunder-clapped an instant prematurely, and the Toyota's front end lifted, rather than the car being blown to pieces as Galt had intended. Then the secondary explosion came and the gas tank erupted. A fireball engulfed the Toyota and those in it. Someone in the car was screaming as it fell back to the ground like a burning log. From within the inferno, the screams ended abruptly.

Meiko's hand, holding the detonator device, drooped to her side. She offered no resistance when Galt retrieved the device. He started to speak. This was no time for a breakdown. There were still the authorities…

A shot rang out before he could speak.

Meiko's body jerked violently. Her arms twitched like the wings of a dying bird, and her knees folded. And Galt knew from the way she fell that Meiko was dead.

Oh God, no
! he thought.
No
!

Instinct sent him into a sideways dive, and from a prone position he steadied his aim. Meiko had caught the first round, but many bullets were zipping past. His Beretta sought and found targets.

Three men stood perhaps a dozen feet away, limned in the firelight of the burning Toyota. In the flickering light, Galt recognized
Oyabun
Ugaki. The
yakuza
boss of bosses leaned on a cane. Ugaki wore a hospital-issue robe. He looked pale, bent over, nothing like the glimpse Galt had caught of him before tossing a high explosive into that
yakuza
meeting in an executive penthouse. But Ugaki's compact, physically slight stature still radiated a palpable sense of power and command. He had a gunman to either side, and one of these—it didn't matter to Galt which—had killed Meiko. Both gunmen were firing at where Galt had been heartbeats earlier. The flames cast angry shadows across Ugaki's features. He held a pistol that was pulling in Galt's direction.

Galt assessed the younger, healthier, faster gunmen to be his primary threat. He shot one of them between the eyes. The other gunman triggered a round, hastily aimed, that came nowhere near Galt, who squeezed off a second shot that took out this man with another not-so-clean head shot. Before either dead man could hit the ground, Galt was bringing the 9mm back on Ugaki, when the
yakuza
fired faster than Galt had expected. He felt the searing burn of a bullet crease across his upper right shoulder, a flesh wound that made him lurch, losing target acquisition.

Ugaki laughed and aimed for a better shot. He shouted, "Die,
gaijin
dog!"