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the doctor?’
    ‘There’s no need, I assure you.’ Nangi said hastily as his eyes flicked briefly to one side. Was someone in the room with him? ‘I am being well taken care of.’
    ‘But, Nangi-san, where are you? The guests are waiting.’
    ‘Yes, yes, I understand your concern,’ Nangi said as a small cup of tea was placed in front of him by someone unseen. ‘But I am not indispensable. The party can go on without me.’
    Why was he keeping his whereabouts secret? Nicholas wondered. ‘Perhaps we should postpone the opening of the Net.’
    ‘Nonsense. It must be opened tonight.’ For a moment, some of Nangi’s old spark and fire returned. ‘We have far too much riding on its success. Postponement will only send rumors through the industry that would surely undermine confidence. No, no. I trust you and Tōrin to do the honors. Whatever help you need, he’ll provide. As my new right-hand man, he can be of extraordinary use to you.’
    Nangi was about to disconnect from the CyberNet when Nicholas said, ‘Nangi-san, at least hear me out.’ He’d gotten an idea, but would Nangi go for it? ‘Perhaps there is a way to use your absence to work for us.’
    Ill or not, this got Nangi’s attention. He lifted a hand. ‘Go on, please.’
    ‘Let’s make the first use of CyberNet in Japan a link from the dinner to you.’
    ‘No.’
    Nicholas was puzzled. ‘But it’s perfect, Nangi-san. You can stay where you are, and everyone can see you blown up on the special screen that’s been erected downstairs.’
    ‘I said no and that’s final,’ Nangi snapped, and without another word, he disconnected from the Net.
    Nicholas, whose loyalty to Sato was now joined with his loyalty to Mikio Okami, did not know whether he felt more puzzled or concerned. He could not imagine Nangi acting in such a cold and irrational manner. What was happening to his friend? These abruptly ended communications were fast becoming the rule rather than the exception. He knew Nangi was under extreme pressure in putting the CyberNet on-line, and at seventy-six he was no longer young. But Nicholas suspected these conversations could not merely be explained away by Nangi’s age. Had the heart attack somehow changed his personality? Nicholas resolved to see him in person when tonight’s dog and pony show was over.
    As he checked his tuxedo, he took one last moment to evaluate his recent decision to join Mikio Okami, the Kaisho.
    The Yakuza’s role in Japan was significant. Unlike in America, where the underworld was outcast from society, the Yakuza were, in a very real sense, a part of it. Even though they might still see themselves as outcasts, they were an unspoken part of what was known as the Iron Triangle that, since 1947, had ruled Japan: bureaucracy, business, and politicians. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry, MITI, had emerged as the most powerful of the postwar bureaucratic entities. It was MITI that dictated economic policy and allowed the keiretsu, the interlocked trading groups run by the top industrial families, tax breaks and incentives to move into fields that MITI determined would be best for Japan as a whole. It was MITI, for instance, that decided in the 1960s to encourage the trading companies to switch from the manufacture of heavy goods such as steel to computers and semiconductors. In this way MITI orchestrated Japan’s economic miracle and, simultaneously, made billionaires of the industrialists. MITI perpetuated its absolute control over business by sending its ex-ministers out to work at the very keiretsu for which it created policy.
    But MITI had help. The Liberal Democratic Party, which had dominated Japan’s political scene from the forties through to its ouster in 1993, worked hand in hand with the ministry to keep Japan, Inc. on an even keel. This was relatively easy, since the Japanese people have been used to leaders taking care of them. Before the war, they had looked to the emperor for this.