'As you think best, sir.'
'Good. Tell me, Nikko. Will you miss Shanghai?'
Nicholai considered for a second. 'No.'
'Will you feel lonely in Japan?'
Nicholai considered for a second. 'Yes.'
'I shall write to you.'
'Often?'
'No, not often. Once a month. But you must write to me as often as you feel the need to. Perhaps you will be less lonely than you fear. There are other young people studying with Otake-san. And when you have doubts, ideas, questions, you will find Otake-san a valuable person to discuss them with. He will listen with interest, but will not burden you with advice.' The General smiled. 'Although I think you may find one of my friend's habits of speech a little disconcerting at times. He speaks of everything in terms of Go. All of life, for him, is a simplified paradigm of Go.'
'He sounds as though I shall like him, sir.'
'I am sure you will. He is a man who has all my respect. He possesses a quality of... how to express it?... of
'Oh, vaguely. And incorrectly, I suspect. A blundering attempt to describe an ineffable quality. As you know,
Nicholai's imagination was galvanized by the concept of
'One does not achieve it, one... discovers it. And only a few men of infinite refinement ever do that. Men like my friend Otake-san.'
'Meaning that one must learn a great deal to arrive at
'Meaning, rather, that one must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity.'
From that moment, Nicholai's primary goal in life was to become a man of
Kishikawa-san took from beneath the tea table a small sandalwood box wrapped in plain cloth and put it into Nicholai's hands. 'It is a farewell gift, Nikko. A trifle.'
Nicholai bowed his head in acceptance and held the package with great tenderness; he did not express his gratitude in inadequate words. This was his first conscious act of
Although they spoke late into their last night together about what
Both were captives of their generations.
Nicholai sailed for Japan on a ship carrying wounded soldiers back for family leave, awards, hospitalization, a life under the burden of mutilation. The yellow mud of the Yangtze followed the ship for miles out to sea, and it was not until the water began to blend from khaki to slate blue that Nicholai unfolded the simple cloth that wrapped Kishikawa-san's farewell gift. Within a fragile sandalwood box, swathed in rich paper to prevent damage, were two
No one observing the delicate young man standing at the rail of the rusty freighter, his hooded green eyes watching the wallow and plunge of the sea as he contemplated the two gifts the General had given him—these
Washington
The First Assistant sat back from his control console and puffed out a long sigh as he pushed his glasses up and lightly rubbed the tender red spots on the bridge of his nose. 'It's going to be difficult getting reliable information out of Fat Boy, sir. Each input source offers conflicting and contradictory data. You're sure he was born in Shanghai?'
'Reasonably, yes.'
'Well, there's nothing on that. In a chronological sort, the first I come up with has him living in Japan.'
'Very well. Start there, then!'
The First Assistant felt he had to defend himself from the irritation in Mr. Diamond's voice. 'It's not as easy as you might think, sir. Here's an example of the kind of garble I'm getting. Under the rubric of 'languages spoken,' I get Russian, French, Chinese, German, English, Japanese, and Basque.
'It
'Basque? Why would anyone learn to speak Basque?'
'I don't know. He studied it while he was in prison.'
'Prison, sir?'
'You'll come to it later. He did three years in solitary confinement.'
'You... you seem to be uniquely familiar with the data, sir.'
'I've kept an eye on him for years.'
The First Assistant considered asking why this Nicholai Hel had received such special attention, but he thought better of it, 'All right, sir. Basque it is. Now how about this? Our first firm data come from immediately after the war, when it seems he worked for the Occupation Forces as a cryptographer and translator. Now, assuming he left Shanghai when we believe he did, we have six years unaccounted for. The only window Fat Boy gives me on that doesn't seem to make any sense. It suggests that he spent those six years studying some kind of game. A game called Go—whatever that is.'
'I believe that's correct.'
'Can that be? Throughout the entire Second World War, he spent his time studying a board game?' The First Assistant shook his head. Neither he nor Fat Boy was comfortable with conclusions that did not proceed from solid linear logic. And it was not logical that a mauve-card international assassin would have passed five or six years (Christ! They didn't even know exactly how many!) learning to play some silly game!
Japan
For nearly five years Nicholai lived within the household of Otake-san; a student, and a member of the family. Otake of the Seventh
None of Otake-san's children had more than average gifts in the art of Go. And of his pupils, only Nicholai