December 6: A Novel by Martin Cruz Smith

Author:Martin Cruz Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical - General, Tokyo (Japan), 1939-1945 - Japan - Tokyo, Historical, Fiction - Espionage, American Mystery & Suspense Fiction, 1941, Smith, War stories, General, Americans - Japan, Suspense fiction, Martin Cruz - Prose & Criticism, Attack on, War & Military, Thrillers, Fiction, World War, Thriller, Pearl Harbor (Hawaii)
ISBN: 9781416577751
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2008-08-12T07:00:00+00:00

HARRY FOUND KATO at the Folies, in the balcony with the manager watching a final act called “Amusing Violin.” The manager wore a greasy boater and snickered through an overbite stained from cigarettes and tea. He and Harry had never gotten along since the day Harry first stumbled into the dressing room. Onstage, a comic musician playing “The Flight of the Bumblebee” was afflicted with a rubbery bow and ridiculously overlong European tails that flopped around his feet. His bow caught in the strings, flew offstage like an arrow and was retrieved by Oharu in a skimpy one-piece and net stockings. She handed the sagging bow to the comedian. As he watched her stride away, his bow stiffened. The manager laughed in and out like a donkey.

Kato said to Harry, “I hear you let Gen deliver the print to the customer. I told you that only you should take it.”

“Nothing happened. He seemed to like Gen more than me.”

“Why not? Gen is a far more attractive boy than you. You are a mongrel, and Gen is the ideal.”

Flustered by Oharu, the comedian reached into his violin case and brought out a fan to cool himself. Not enough. He brought out an electric fan with a long cord and asked a musician in the orchestra pit to plug it in. The comedian directed its breeze up and down his body and along the bow.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” Kato said.

Harry recounted the scene at the customer’s house. Meanwhile, onstage, the comedian started “The Bumblebee” again but noticed a piece of paper drifting by and, in the midst of playing, speared it with his bow. It was sticky paper. It stuck to his bow, his shoe, his hand, finally to his forehead, and he played while blowing the paper up from his eyes. The audience around Harry laughed so hard they stuffed handkerchiefs into their mouths.

“This is great stuff,” the manager said.

Kato said, “He gave Gen a white chrysanthemum?”

“A gift.”

“And the customer, Harry. Tell me again, did he introduce himself?”

“No.”

“Then I will tell you. His name is Ishigami. Lieutenant Ishigami is a rising man in the army. He is the natural son of a royal prince, no one is quite sure who, so he has the protection of the court and a stipend from the imperial household. He could have gone into banking or writing poetry, instead he chose the army. He joined the Kwantung army so that he would be sure to come under fire from bandits or Russians or Chinese, and he acquitted himself so well that admirers call him a virtual samurai. So you might ask why he is here in Tokyo. Because, Harry, Ishigami is in disgrace. A board of inquiry is looking into the accusation that he is one of a circle of junior army officers agitating against the civilian government. Ishigami says his allegiance is to the emperor, not to politicians. This has made him even more popular with the army, and with patriotic groups in

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