"I do not need quotations, Hiraga, but action. We are losing the fight, Yoshi is winning. We've only one solution: to turn these gai-jin violently against the Bakufu and Shogunate. This will advance sonno-joi as nothing before and takes precedence over everything. We desperately need this, then we'll regain support, and face, fighters will flock to our standard, meanwhile the spearhead of shishi regroups here and in Kyoto, I will call for reinforcements from Satsuma and Choshu and again we will attack the Gates to release the Emperor. This time we'll succeed because Ogama, Yoshi, and the stinking Shogunate will be distracted dealing with hostile gai-jin. Once we have the Gates, sonno-joi is a fact." There was no doubting his confidence.
"And if we agitate the gai-jin, what then, Sensei?"
"They bombard Yedo, the Shogunate retaliates by attacking Yokohama--both lose."
"Meanwhile all daimyo will flock to support the Shogunate when the gai-jin return as they will."
"They would not return before Fourth or Fifth Month, if then. Before that we will have the Gates, at our suggestion the Emperor will be pleased to give the gai-jin the culprit, Yoshi, or his head, Nobusada, Anjo, and any other heads they need to slake their thirst for revenge. And at our further suggestion the Son of Heaven will agree to allow them to trade, without any more war, but only through Deshima in Nagasaki harbor as they did for centuries." Katsumata was sure.
"That's what will happen. First the church--what about a ship?"
Hiraga, startled, said, "What about one?" he asked, his mind stuffed with arguments against what Katsumata surmised, certain it would not happen that way, at the same time trying to think of a way to divert Katsumata, to make him go on to Yedo and come back in a month or two--things were going far too well here with Taira and Sir W'rum, Jami-sama and the shoya to want to jeopardize that.
Plenty of time to enrage the gai-jin later with the church when a safe retreat was th-- "Sinking a warship would inflame them, wouldn't it?"
Hiraga blinked. "Like... like nothing else."
"We use the church as a diversion, while we sink a ship, their biggest one."
Dumbfounded, Hiraga watched Katsumata open a backpack. In it were four metal tubes, bound with wire. And fuses. "These contain explosive, cannon powder. One of them, fused, through a porthole or gun port, or attached to the side of the ship would blow out the side, two would be fatal."
Hiraga was transfixed, all else forgotten. He reached for a tube. In his hand the bomb seemed to pulsate with life. At the top was the small hole for the fuse and in his mind he saw the fuse spluttering and his arm slip the bomb quietly through the lowest gun port, then another-- then ducking back quickly into the boat that was largely hidden by sea mist, silently away, and then, safe, the vast explosion as the bombs ignited other charges and then the great ship slipping under the water.
And with it all his own plans.
"It's an enormous idea, Katsumata," he said feeling sick. "We'd need to pick the correct time of the moon and the sea carefully, and plan carefully. Spring or early summer would be best. After that I could not remain here and...
There's so much to tell you about what I've discovered." He almost blurted out that he could speak English well now but stopped. "Just a few more weeks and I'll be done. Then the church and the ship."
"We burn the church and sink the ship tomorrow night."
"Impossible!"
Katsumata was coldly amused by his shock and thought what a shame Ori was dead and Hiraga alive--Ori was so much more superior. But then he, too, was Satsuma, not Choshu. "How many times must I say surprise is our shishi's best weapon. That and decisive speed. Where is Akimoto?"
"In the village. I thought it best not to bring him now," Hiraga said, his mind flooded.
Since he had come back from Hodogaya he had not shared his innermost thoughts with his cousin, only that Katsumata had told him Sumomo was dead, betrayed by Koiko to Yoshi, not that he believed both had been thrown into the pit by chance. Like we would be thrown away uselessly in this wild-eyed scheme and all my work will have been in vain. "Tomorrow is too soon. I suggest we ma--"
"The church will be easy for one man.
Akimoto. We will need a dingy or small fishing boat. Can you get one?" "Perhaps," Hiraga said, answering automatically, fogged with myriad questions and dreads. "Perhaps I could steal one. Sensei I th--"
"You are not thinking clearly. Fisherman always remove the oars when the boat is not in use. No need for that. Buy one." Katsumata took out a small silk purse and put it carelessly on the table. "Hiraga, concentrate!" he said, his voice hardening. "Has living with gai-jin infected you so much with their evils that you've forgotten your oath to sonno-joi? Concentrate, the plan is good, the timing is perfect. Could you buy a boat?"
"Yes, yes but, but, Sensei, where do we retreat to?"
"Retreat is simple. Three of us, you, Takeda and me, we sink the warship. Then we beach the boat as near Yedo as possible and lose ourselves in the city."
"What about the other man, the one who fires the church?"
"He will escape on foot."
"We need more shishi in support, this is a major task. This whole area will become lethal."
"That makes escape easier. Four men is enough. I will lead the attack on the ship and if tomorrow there's a wind the burning church may torch all Yokohama, a further gift. Come back tonight, bring Akimoto and I will make final plans."
"But--where's Takeda?"
"I left him at Hodogaya. He will be here this afternoon. Until dusk, Hiraga." Curtly Katsumata bowed a dismissal.
In turmoil Hiraga bowed back, too many years an adoring, awe-struck student of the Sensei, master swordsman and tactician, not to accept the dismissal. He went out and stumbled back across the bridge to the Settlement, along the village street, later turned to the promenade and walked back along it, seeing nothing, his head a mess of dark thoughts and impossibilities, his future in tatters all because this Satsuma outsider was determined to shove destiny forward.
But the Sensei is right, he brooded. Those two acts would drive the gai-jin berserk, the fleet would invest Yedo, Yedo would burn, Yokohama would be decimated in revenge. In a few months fleets would come, this time with armies.
By then shishi will not control the Gates, but all Nippon would be up in arms. And it would make no difference to the gai-jin.
One way or another we will have to open to their world.
Gai-jin have decided. So they will have a base at Yokohama and other places--because they have the power to decimate our coasts and close our ports, forever if they wish, and no Divine Wind will help us.
"'allo, mate, where you goin?"
"Oh." He was standing in front of the Legation.
"'Morning Sir Sentry. I go Taira-sama."
"He's not 'ere, mate," the sentry said yawning. "Mister Tyrer 'n the Guv, they's at Kanagawa."
"Oh?" Hiraga looked across the bay. The seascape was wintery. He could just discern Kanagawa. A frigate, he recognized it as the Pearl, was steaming slowly offshore, against the wind, neat, and deadly. In the roads the flagship with its forty 60-pounders, was at anchor into wind. "I come back 'rater," he muttered.
Disconsolate, he wandered back to the village. To buy a dingy. However much he disapproved, he was shishi first.
Early that afternoon in the wardroom aboard H.m.s. Pearl Seratard clinked glasses with Sir William, congratulating the other again on the meeting.
"A marvelous step forward, Henri, old chap," Sir William said jovially. He took up the bottle and rechecked the label.
"Not bad for a '48. Excellent repast too."