The tears were pouring down his cheeks but no sound of weeping was in his voice, only anger, "Such a nice girl, such a good wife to my friend, Murai--remember him, one of our Choshu ronin who died in the attack on Tairo Ii? I tell you, Cousin, it is awful to be samurai when you have no face, no stipend, nowhere to go and to be ronin is worse. Even so, me... you're right again... I think we will have to imitate stinking gai-jin if we want warships, even I know they do not grow in a rice paddy, and must find ways to make stinking money and be like stinking rice-dealing moneylenders. Stinking money, stinking gai-jin, st--"' "Stop it," he had said sharply, and handed him another flask, "You are alive, you are working for sonno-joi, tomorrow you go on a warship to learn, that is enough, Cousin."
Numb, Akimoto shook his head, wiping the tears away.
"Was there any other news? Of my father, my family?"' "Well... read for yourself."
He read: If Hiraga is with you tell him his family are in sad straights, his mother is sick, they have no money and no more credit. If he has any means to send any, or arrange any credit, it will save lives--of course his father will never ask. Tell him also his wife-to-be had not yet arrived and his father fears for her safety.
Nothing I can do for them, Hiraga thought, nearing their village hideaway, again in misery. The night wind picked up, rustling the thatched roofs, and colder than before. Nothing I can do. Stinking money! Akimoto is right. We should put Ori's plan into effect. A night like this would be ideal. Two or three huts torched and the wind would jump the flames from house to house and whip it into a conflagration. Why not tonight? Then the stinking gai-jin would have to go back aboard their ships and sail away. Would they? Or am I deluding myself and it is our karma to be eaten up by them.
What to do?
Katsumata always said, When in doubt act!
Sumomo? On the way to Yedo? His pulse quickened but even the thought of her did not remove the remorse for his family. We should marry now, marry here, while there is time, impossible to go home, the journey would take months and it is vital to be here, father will understand.
Will he? Is it vital, or am I just deluding myself? And why did Katsumata put Sumomo with Yoshi? He would not risk her for nothing.
Nothing! I am nothing. From nothing into nothing, famine again and no money and no credit and no way to help. Without sonno-joi there's nothing we can do-- All at once it was as if a skin covering part of his mind had shed and he remembered Jamie explaining some aspects of gai-jin business that had shocked him. In moments he was again tapping on the shoya's door and sitting opposite him.
"Shoya, I thought I should mention, so you can prepare, I believe I have persuaded the gai-jin business expert to meet you in his great mansion, the day after tomorrow in the morning, to answer questions. I will interpret for you." The shoya thanked him and had bowed to cover his sudden beam.
Hiraga continued blandly, "Jami Mukfey told me it was gai-jin custom that there would be a fee, for this and all the other information he has already given you. The equivalent of ten koku." He uttered the staggering sum as though it was a pittance and saw the shoya blanch but not explode as he had expected, telling such a lie.
"Impossible," the shoya said, his voice strangled.
"I told him so but he said as a businessman and banker you would understand how valuable his information was, and that he would even consider..." Again Hiraga controlled himself, "... would even help the shoya to begin a business, first of its kind, in the gai-jin fashion to deal with other countries."
Again this was not altogether a lie. McFay had told him that he would be interested in meeting and talking to a Japanese banker--Hiraga had inflated the shoya's importance and position in the Gyokoyama--that more or less any day at a day's notice would suit him, and that there were all kinds of opportunities for cooperation.
He watched the shoya, exhilarated at his transparency, clearly besieged by potential opportunities to use Mukfey's knowledge for profit, and being the first to do such a business: "Very important to be first," Mukfey had explained, "your Japanese friend will understand that if he's any sort of businessman. Easy for me to supply our business skills, easy for your Japanese friend to do the same with Japanese skills and knowledge." It had taken Hiraga a blinding effort to understand what the man had been talking about.
He allowed the shoya to dream and to worry.
"Though I do not understand business matters, shoya, I might be able to reduce that price."
"Oh if you could do that, Otami-sama, you would please a poor old man, just a modest servant to the Gyokoyama, for I would have to beg their permission to pay anything."
"Perhaps I could bring it down to three koku."
"Half a koku would perhaps be possible."
Hiraga cursed himself. He had forgotten the Mukfey Golden Rule One, as he called it: "When negotiating be patient. You can always come down but never go back up, and never be afraid to laugh or cry or scream or pretend to leave."
"Asking ten, I doubt if Mukfey would reduce below three."
"A half is already very high."
If he had had a sword he would have gripped the hilt and snarled, "Three or I will have your dirty head." Instead he nodded sadly.
"Yes, you are right." He began to get up.
"Perhaps my masters would agree one."
Now he was almost at the door. "So sorry, shoya, I would lose face to try to bargain so cheaply an--"
"Three." The shoya was flushed.
Hiraga sat down again. It took him a little while to adjust to the new world. He said, "I will try to make it three. These are hard times. I have just heard there is famine in my village in Choshu. Terrible, neh?"
He saw the shoya's eyes narrow. "Yes, Otami-sama. Soon there will be famine everywhere, even here."
Hiraga nodded. "Yes," he said and waited, allowing the silence to thicken. Mukfey had explained the value of silence in negotiating, that a closed mouth at the right time unnerves your opponent--for negotiation is a fight like any other--and snares concessions you would never dream of asking.
The shoya knew he was trapped but had not decided on the extent of the trap, nor the price he would pay. Thus far the information he had been given was worth ten times that amount. But be cautious... this man is dangerous, this Hiraga Otami-sama learns too fast, he may or may not be telling the truth, may or may not be a liar. Even so, better to have a cunning samurai with you than against you. "In bad times, friends should help friends. It might be that the Gyokoyama could arrange a little credit to help.
As I mentioned before, Otami-sama, your father and family are respected and valued clients."
Hiraga bit back the angry words he would normally have spat out at being so openly patronized. "That would be too much to expect," he said, feeling his way in this new world of profit and loss--one person's profit is another's loss, Mukfey had explained many times.
"Anything the great Gyokoyama could do would be appreciated. But speed is very important, could I be assured they would understand? Yes?"
"It would be at once. I will arrange it."
"Thank you, and perhaps they would consider along with a substantial credit, perhaps also an outright grant, a fee, of say one koku..." He saw the eyes flash with anger, quickly hidden and wondered if he had gone too far, "... for services rendered by the family."
Another silence. Then the shoya said, "In the past... and in the future."
Hiraga's eyes became as cold as the shoya's though, like him, his mouth smiled. And, still in the new world, did not take out the small revolver he always carried now and blow a hole in him for his rudeness. "Of course." Then he added sweetly, "Until the day after tomorrow, neh?"