The Fifth Profession

That night, as Savage slept fitfully, assaulted by nightmares, he woke abruptly from a hand that caressed his cheek. Startled, he grabbed the hand and lunged upright on the sofa, prepared to defend himself.

He restrained his impulse. In the soft light from a lamp in a corner, he saw Rachel's worried face beside him. She was kneeling.

“What?” Savage scanned the room. “Where's Akira?”

“In the hallway. I asked him to leave us alone.”

“Why would-?”

“Because I asked him,” she repeated, her blond hair silhouetted by the dim light in the corner.

“No, why did you ask him to leave?”

“Because I need to be with you.”

“That still doesn't answer my-”

“Hush.” Rachel touched his lips. “You think too much. You ask too many questions.”

“It's impossible to ask too many questions.”

“But sometimes it's wiser not to ask any.”

Savage smelled her perfume. “I can't imagine-”

“Yes,” she said, “I know

THREE. THE LAND OF THE GODS

ARTS OF PEACE AND WAR

1

Savage drove from the motel, hoping no one had seen them get into the car.

Again Akira hid on the floor in back, though Rachel sat next to Savage, her auburn hair making it safe for her to show herself. She studied a road map. “The nearest major airport is in Raleigh. That's a hundred and fifty miles west.”

“No, Raleigh won't do,” Savage said. “There'd be so few Japanese flying out of that airport-probably none- Akira would be sure to attract attention.” Reaching a highway, he headed northwest. “Will this route take us around Virginia Beach?”

Rachel checked the map. “No problem. But where are we going?”

“ Washington. Dulles International Airport. We can count on a lot of Japanese flying in and out of there. Akira won't be noticed.”

A few miles later, Savage pulled into a truckstop. He took care to park well away from other vehicles so no one could see into the back of the Taurus. Referring to the directory in a pay phone's booth, he called the toll-free numbers for several airlines. Though it would have been easier to phone from the motel, he didn't want to leave a record of his calls.

“We're in luck,” he said, getting back in the car. “I managed to get three seats on an American Airlines flight.”

“What time does it leave?” Akira asked.

“Tomorrow morning. Ten to eight.”

“But Dulles Airport must be-”

“Four hundred miles away, given the roundabout route we're forced to take to avoid the eastern part of Virginia,” Savage said. “The airport's security inspection takes longer on an overseas flight. All our luggage is carry-on. That'll save time. Even so, to pick up our tickets and guarantee we're on the plane, we need to be at the airport by five A.M. at the latest.”

“Can we do that?” Rachel asked.

Savage glanced at his watch. “Twenty-one hours to drive four hundred miles? Sure. Even if traffic's bad, we'll be in Washington tonight.”

Despite his confident tone, Savage reflexively increased speed. At once he thought better and strictly obeyed the limit. They didn't dare get stopped by a traffic cop. “There's plenty of time.”

“Then we should use it,” Akira said. “You have much to learn.”

“What about?” Savage asked.

“I gather that neither of you has been to Japan.”

Savage and Rachel agreed.

“Yes,” Akira said. “You have much to learn.”

“I've read books about Japan,” Savage said.

“But I can't assume that the books were accurate or that you retain the essentials,” Akira said. “And Rachel apparently knows almost nothing about Japan.”

“True,” Rachel said.

“You must be prepared. Soon you will enter a culture completely alien to you. Behavior you take for granted might be interpreted as rudeness. And what you think of as an insult might be a sign of respect. In the West, I've taught myself to behave as a Westerner, to adjust to your values, to accept your ways of thinking. Perhaps, then, you've concluded that the only differences between Americans and Japanese are the food we prefer to eat and the color of our skin, not to mention our language. The differences are much greater. Profound. If you are to survive the dangers we face, you must learn my ways just as I learned yours. Or try to learn- because I don't have much time to teach you.”

2

The 747 cruised over the glinting Pacific at forty thousand feet. As Savage assessed everything Akira had told him, he wished there'd been a chance for Akira to continue explaining during the long flight. There was so much to know, to absorb. But the only seats available had been widely separated, in three different sections of the plane, and Savage couldn't even see Akira, let alone talk with him.

Not only Akira but Rachel.

Savage felt nervously isolated from her. His instincts as a protector made him squirm at being distanced from his principal. More, despite his professional's need to be objective about a client, he reluctantly admitted that another need had grown within him. Accustomed to fearing for others, he'd never feared for his own safety-till now. Suffering a nightmare in which the dead came back to life, how could he be sure of anything? How could he trust his sense of reality? He had to depend on something. Love gave him hope.

He glanced out his window. Below, for many hours, there'd been nothing but ocean, and he understood why Akira had said that east of Japan there was only west. It was obvious why Japan identified so strongly with the sun. In ancient times, the blazing globe that seemed to rise each day from the infinite expanse of the sea must have exerted a powerful force. The land of the rising sun. The symbol on the nation's flag. As Akira had said, “ Japan is the only country whose tradition maintains its citizens are descendants of gods. One deity in particular. Amaterasu. The goddess of the sun.”

Savage felt pr