Linnear 03 - White Ninja Read Online Free PDF

Nangi.
    And now that the new Emperor needed guidance, Nami's power had at last come to the fore. The Imperial succession, though it had been a media event of unprecedented proportions in Japan, was of little concern to Nami, as was the new Emperor, Hirohito's son. After the old Emperor had died, it had been Nami which, in the shadows behind the Imperial throne, had really succeeded the son of Heaven.
    And while Westerners saw the Emperor as a mere figurehead, wielding only ceremonial power as did the Queen of England, Nangi knew differently. He knew that the Emperor's will defined the word 'power'.
    'Of course, it will be my privilege to serve the Emperor's will in any way I can,' Nangi said, almost by rote. 'Would you care to meet me at my office? I have a free hour tomorrow, if it would be convenient. Say, at five in the after-'
    'This conference is of the utmost urgency,' Ikusa broke in.
    As an ex-vice-minister of MITI, Nangi knew the ministry code words; he had used them Once or twice himself, in an emergency. Now he knew two things of vital importance: this was not a social call, and it presaged some dire crisis. But for whom? For Nami or for himself?
    'I will neither come to your office nor suggest that you come to mine,' Ikusa said. 'Rather, I can offer a relaxing hour at the Shakushi furo. Are you familiar with this bathhouse, Mr Nangi?'
    'I have heard of it.'
    'Have you been there?' Suddenly, like a gap opening in an opponent's armour, the strain in Ikusa's voice was evident to Nangi.
    'No.'
    'Good,' Kusunda Ikusa said. 'I myself have never visited it, but I will meet you there at five tomorrow, since that is also a convenient time for me.' In the interval Ikusa created, Nangi noted the other man's insistence on dominance. At this early stage, it was an ominous sign. Ikusa broke the silence. 'I wish to underscore the need for absolute discretion in this matter.'
    Nangi was offended, but kept his tone of voice clean of emotion. There were other ways to make the affront known and, at the same time, to begin to test the mettle of this man. 'I appreciate your obvious anxiety,' Nangi said, knowing that Ikusa would hate himself for having betrayed even a glimmer of tenseness. 'Rest assured I will take all required precautions.'
    'Then, at this time, there is nothing more to say. Until five.' Ikusa broke the connection, and Nangi was left wondering whether his choice of rendezvous venue was deliberate. Shakushi meant a dipper or a ladle, a typical name for a bathhouse where one was soaped and rinsed with ladled water. But Shakushi had another meaning: to go strictly by the rules.
    Cotton Branding, walking down the wide, scimitar-shaped beach, dug his toes into the wet sand each time the chill surf lapped over his ankles.
    A salty wind was blowing. With a spider-like hand, he wiped an unruly lock of thin, sandy hair out of his eyes. Somewhere behind him, he heard the thwop-thwop-thwop of the helicopter rotors, that most familiar harbinger of summer on the East End of Long Island.
    Branding was a tall, stoop-shouldered man in his late fifties with pale blue eyes dominating a face whose obvious' lineage more or less paralleled that of the Kennedys. He possessed the open, almost innocent look - much like an actor on a billboard in the heartland - of the American politician. He wore his authority openly, like a soldier's medal, so that anyone seeing him pass would say: there goes a power-broker, a deal-maker.
    He was perhaps less handsome than he was attractive. One could picture him commanding a fast sloop out of Newport, head into the rising wind, knowing eyes squinting against the sun. But he exuded a unique kind of scent, a precious attar, which was a product wholly of power. Lesser men wanted to be near him, if only to stand in his shadow or, like Douglas Howe, to bring him down to their level. Women, on the other hand, wanted only to be a good deal nearer to Branding, snuggling into his warm skin, the better to inhale the