Vulcan's Forge Read Online Free PDF Page B

the barest nod of his head. “Won’t you sit down?”
    Ohnishi did not look like an industrialist. He was thin and frail, with a voice made tenuous by the years. His snowy hair was sparse, revealing red blotches of scalp. His face was cadaverous, sallow and drawn. His hands were darkly liver-spotted and bony, like the claws of a small bird.
    “Miss Tzu, I did not invite you, I merely caved in to your persistence. One hundred and fourteen calls and seventy-eight letters are enough to make any man capitulate.” Jill believed the comment was meant to be charming, but his flat delivery made her uncomfortable. In fact, Ohnishi made her uncomfortable. He looked like a corpse that refused to stop moving.
    She smiled her best reporter’s smile. “I’m glad you did. Any longer and the station was going to make me pay for the stamps I was using.”
    A servant appeared and poured coffee into her cup, adding one spoonful of sugar. Jill looked at him queerly, wondered how he knew she took her coffee this way.
    “I know much more than that, Miss Tzu, otherwise I would have never let you on the grounds,” Ohnishi said, reading her expression, possibly her mind, for all she knew.
    “Is that why no one asked to see my ID or search me when I came here?” She meant the question to be friendly, but it sounded almost defensive.
    “I had you followed from your home at 1123 Blossom Tree Court in the Muani Condominium development. In fact, I’ve had you followed every day since granting this interview,” Ohnishi said so casually that Jill could not respond for a moment.
    “Did you learn anything interesting?” she said sarcastically, her anger now beginning to rise.
    “Yes, a lovely successful woman like you needs to get out more.”
    Jill’s anger evaporated at his reply. “That’s the same thing my mother tells me.”
    Much later, Jill realized his use of her mother’s exact words was no coincidence.
    “I am sorry if my actions make you uncomfortable, but a man in my position must be cautious.”
    “I understand. I don’t particularly like it, but I understand.”
    The servant reappeared and placed a bowl of fruit in front of Jill. Again he gave nothing to Ohnishi.
    “As my aide Kenji told you on the phone, I do not allow cameras on my property nor is this conversation to be recorded.”
    “It won’t be, I assure you,” Jill said, setting her coffee cup into its saucer, fearful of spilling anything on the crisp linen cloth or cracking the translucent porcelain. She did not realize that she had been x-rayed twice since entering Ohnishi’s home, once at the front door and again in the elevator. Her verbal assurances were superfluous.
    “I must say this is an amazing home,” Jill remarked to break the silence.
    “Believe it or not, this structure was designed in 1867 by an obscure Tokyo architect, long before the technology was available for its construction. He took his own life only a few months after completing the drawings, knowing that his genius would never be appreciated in his time. It is supposition on my part, but I believe he thought his suicide would give his work the immortality it would never receive through construction.”
    “I did not know that you were such a student of history.”
    “Everything we know, Miss Tzu, is history. Just because it is not taught in schools from dusty texts does not lessen any information’s importance.”
    “I don’t think I understand.”
    “Allow me to explain. The latest piece of information, no matter how current, is already history. I can look at a stock ticker as the trading goes on and already the information I’m seeing is history. Maybe it’s only a second old, but the events have already happened and nothing in my power can change them. If I decide to buy or sell based on that information, I would be basing that choice on history. All knowledge is like that and all decisions are made that way.”
    “What if I decide to do something on a whim?”
    “Such