“Too bad. Walk with me anyway?”
Judith looked into his eyes and saw something different this time. The invitation was unmistakable. Leap, Judith! “I’d love to,” she heard herself say.
After walking the path around the basin, the stood on Kutz Bridge, looking at the reflecting pool. In the distance they could see the White House illuminated by spotlights. He took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.
“Paolo, you know I’m married,” Judith whispered.
“I know.”
“Do you… doesn’t that—”
“No, Judith. At first, yes, but after our lunch I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I even planned to stay away tonight, but I couldn’t. You are not happy with him, are you?”
“No.”
“How long have you been married?”
“Twenty-five years.”
“Were you ever happy?”
“In the beginning,” Judith replied. “For the first few years.”
Paolo nodded, but without judgment. She liked that. Most men would have asked why she stayed. “Judith, tell me: Italian men, we have a… reputation, no?”
Judith laughed. “Oh my, yes.”
“You may not believe this, but I have been with only three women in my life.”
“Just three?” she asked, astonished.
“Si. I tell you this so you will not think I… So you won’t think I seduce women for sport. Even as a younger man, I was never this way. My friends found it quite humorous.”
“I can imagine.”
“So, whatever happens between us, even if we never see one another again, you must know how… You are…” He threw up his hands. “Mi displace, I am not making sense!”
“No, go on, please.”
“For me, beauty is more. You are bright like the sun. In the way you talk, the way your eyes shine. I want to listen to you, to watch you…. Ahhh… I sound silly!”
My God, no you don’t. “No, Paolo, it’s not silly at all.”
“Even if we cannot be lovers, I want to be with you. How, I do not know, but that is what I want. Is that possible, Judith? Am I asking too much?”
All she could do was shake her head. She wanted him so badly her legs were trembling. This man standing before her was everything Herb was not. “Oh, Paolo, no, you’re not asking too much. I want you, too. I don’t care how or for how long! Please, let’s go somewhere. Right now.”
He wrapped her in his arms, and she melted into him. As their lips met and his tongue touched hers, she hesitated. She’d never been kissed this way. It felt wonderful and new. She parted her lips and took his tongue into her mouth.
“When, Judith?” he whispered.
“Now.”
He shook his head. “I want you, Judith, please know that. But I want it to be perfect, and I want you to be sure.”
“I am, Paolo. I’m sure—”
He put a finger to his lips. “You must decide this with a clear heart, Judith. When you come to me, I want it to be completely and without reservation.” He kissed her again. “Do you understand?”
“I—”
Paolo placed his palm over her heart. “This is from where your decision must come. The heart… Il cuore.Not from lust. I want all of you, not just your body. Now do you understand?”
Judith nodded dumbly. “I want all of you….” Moments ago she would have given her body wantonly, right here on the bridge. But he wanted her!
She knew her decision was made.
Sitting in a cluster of trees near the shoreline, Tanner had a perfect view of the shipyard, which sat nestled in a cove a mile away.
Earlier, just after sunset, he’d left the hotel and taken a shuttle north to Wakayama to catch the ferry across the Inland Sea to Tokushima. From there it was a half-hour taxi ride to Anan, where he continued on foot through the forest.
He’d been watching the shipyard steadily for two hours.
The security on the seaward side was as stringent as that of the land approaches. A twelve-foot electric fence encircled the cove and followed it inland to the yard’s outlying buildings. Spaced at intervals along the fence stood spotlight-equipped guard towers.
The real surprise came when he focused on the patrol boats and the sea gate through which they came and went. The fence appeared to be made of heavy steel links. Tanner was betting it was fixed to the seabed as well. The gate itself, which served as a bridge between the two pontoon guard shacks, sat at the mouth of the cove.
What would warrant this kind of security? Tanner wondered. The answer, he hoped, lay with a pair of ships inside Secure Dock 12.
Behind him, he heard the double hoot of an owl. “Come on in, Bear,” Tanner whispered.
Cahil walked forward and stooped beside Tanner.
“Barn owl?” Briggs asked.
“Great horned. I brought supper: pastrami on rye.”
“Thanks.” Tanner unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite. “Anything from Leland?” Along with their report on the Sorakuen Garden meet, they’d requested Mason give them the name of Ohira’s shipyard contact.
“Not yet.”
So far, Oaken’s research had confirmed Sumiko’s conclusion about Ohira’s mystery ships: If in fact Toshogu and Tsumago existed, neither were documented, either by Takagi Maritime, Lloyds of London Shipping Index, or the UN International Maritime Bureau.
“So how’s it look?” asked Cahil. “Easier than the land approach?”
“No, but it’s still our best bet.” He handed Cahil the binoculars. “Watch the patrol boats.”
Within a few minutes, a pair of boats exited the gate, then fanned out along the fence, one to either side of the guard shacks. Moving at two knots, they trolled along, shining their spotlights into the water.
Tanner said, “See the flashing red lights on the fence pontoons?”
“Yeah…. Antiswimmer mines?”
“That’s my guess.”
“They’re pretty damned serious about something. Okay, I see Dock 12. How many are there?”
“Four.” Each were secured by giant hangar doors, and judging from their size, Tanner guessed each could house a couple of 500-foot-plus ships.
“How regular are the boat patrols?” Cahil asked.
“Every forty minutes, like clockwork.”
Cahil grinned. “Gotta love routine.”
One hour and two rolls of film later, they were preparing to leave when the doors of Dock 12 groaned to life and began rolling upward. Even a mile across the water, the whine of the motors was audible. Inside the cavernous interior Tanner could see yellow flashing lights and figures scurrying about on a pier. Soon a tugboat appeared at the entrance and began churning forward. Moments later a bow appeared out of the darkness, followed by the rest of the ship.
She measured 400 feet and displaced a solid 12,000 tons, Tanner estimated. On the afterdeck stood four massive derricks and a raised central combing half the size of a football field.
“It’s a moon-pool,” Cahil muttered. “She’s a salvage ship. You get the feeling Ohira was on to something?”
“Starting to. If she’s one of his, we’d best get a look at her sister before she sails.”
Back at the hotel, they sat on the balcony as Tanner finished laying out his theory for Cahil. “How sure are you about this?” Bear said.
“Not very, but it doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”
The idea had gelled as Briggs recalled Mitsu’s story about the ship appearing in the waters off his village. It forced him to look at Ohira’s chart with new eyes. Each of the six numbered asterisks on the chart was a navigational fix, he theorized. The numerator was a bearing, the denominator a distance. Using a compass and dividers, he’d calculated the fixes. With remarkable precision, all six points triangulated on a single spot on the chart: precisely where Ohira’s red-dotted line ended, and almost exactly where Mitsu claimed the ship had anchored each night.