'Thanks for coming,' I said.
She nodded. 'Where to?'
'Here, let me take that.' She let me slip the bag off her shoulder and we started navigating through the crowds waiting in the arrivals lounge. She looked around as we walked, and I wondered whether it was operational or more in the way of taking in the unfamiliar sights in a new environment. Probably both.
'I've got a van in the garage,' I said. 'It's about an hour's drive into Tokyo. I'll brief you on the way.'
I glanced over and saw her looking at me, but I couldn't read her expression. 'Have you been here before?' I asked.
She shook her head. 'China once. Never Japan.'
'Maybe I'll get to show you around, then. I know a few places.'
She looked at me. 'But business first. Right?'
I thought she was trying to provoke me. Better not to answer.
On the way into Tokyo I told her everything. Not what had happened with Midori in her apartment, of course, or what I'd felt there — that would have been neither relevant nor useful. But everything else.
She listened quietly while I spoke. When I was done, she said, 'Well, you've certainly been busy since I last saw you.'
'That's one way to put it.'
'Your friend Dox must be pretty loyal to you, to stick with you through this.'
I didn't like the comment. I said, 'That's part of it. We also walked away with a lot of money at Wajima. You can have my share if you want it.'
Let her decide whether she wanted this to be business or personal.
She said, 'You'd have to tell me what you're paying me for first.'
'I think you know.'
'Maybe. You want me to pose as an applicant, reconnoiter this club for you.'
'That's pretty much it.'
'What if I actually get the job? Are you going to mind my sleeping with one of the customers?'
I looked at her. 'Yeah, I'll mind. You're not going to be any good to me if you're not on the premises.'
Her lips started to thin out in anger. Then I smiled and she realized I was teasing her. I shouldn't have done it, maybe, but I had to try something to break the tension.
She shook her head and muttered something in Hebrew. I was glad I couldn't understand what. I went back to driving and an instant later I saw her pivot in her seat, too late to do anything about it. She hit me on the top of the thigh with a thunderous hammer fist and I yelled out, 'Fuck!'
'Don't you make light of me,' she said. 'I am not happy about this.'
'Damn,' I said. 'I was just trying to loosen things up a little.'
'Yeah, well, find another way.'
One or two other smart comments did come insidiously to mind, but I thought better of saying them. We drove in silence for a few minutes. I rubbed my thigh, thinking I was going to have to ice it when I had the chance. She knew what she was doing and had really cracked me.
Seeing how pissed and resentful she was, I wondered for a moment why she was helping me at all. I wasn't suspicious, at least not on a professional level. We'd been through too much together for me to believe she could pose that kind of threat. But I still couldn't fully understand why she had come.
I decided that, if she had asked for my help in like circumstances, I would have offered it. Because it was the right thing to do. Because I cared enough about her. Because I wanted someone who could depend on me. Maybe it was the same for her.
I thought a little more. She hadn't asked me what it was like to see Midori, what it was like between us. I thought I understood why she hadn't, and I had no idea what I would say if she did. Well, we'd have time to talk about all that when Yamaoto was done. Right now it was a distraction.
'I assume I'll need some sort of reference when I go there tonight,' she said. 'Have you thought about that?'
I was ahead of her on this one, and had already worked it out with Tatsu. 'It's taken care of,' I said. 'They had a French woman working there two years ago, Valerie Silbert. She lives in Paris now. You met her at a club, she told you about Whispers. You came by to check it out. If it looks promising and they can help you with the visa, you're ready to give it a try.'
'You want me to go in with that? That's the thinnest cover I've ever heard.'
'It's good enough. My contact in Japanese intelligence got the Paris address, but said he couldn't get a phone number without more digging. If he couldn't get it, no one can.'
'What if they already have the number? They might have stayed in touch.'
'Maybe. But no one's going to try to contact the woman on such short notice, anyway. And even if they did, who's to say she didn't talk to you one night at a club? I doubt she'd remember herself. Look, even if anyone were inclined to contact her, this thing will be done long before. Thirty-six hours from now, give or take, that's it.'
'They'll probably want to see identification. A passport.'
Shit, I hadn't thought of that. Too much had been happening.
