"Is someone at the house for you?" he asked.
She nodded. "My uncle's house staff. They will know what to do."
"No drugs?" Carter asked softly. He hated to question her like this, but her answers were vital. And she was a professional.
"No," she said. "The first team had gone back to the embassy to pick up the standard kit. They had just returned when you showed up."
"I didn't think they were still that crude."
"It was Roskov. He said he enjoyed it. Torture was a personal thing with him."
Had they used drugs from the beginning, the Svetlaya mission would have been made totally impossible. But Carter did not say that to her.
She started to cry.
"Easy," Carter said soothingly. "We'll be at your uncle's pretty soon."
"It's the second time they grabbed me, Nicholas. I didn't even see them coming."
"There are a lot of them here. The very best of them."
"This is my city."
"No one can fight those odds. Even the Japanese government is having trouble dealing with them."
"I feel so bad," she said.
"They don't know about the mission. At this point that's all that counts, Kazuka. Think about that. You didn't tell them anything. And no one still alive knows that I'm running around."
"You're going ahead with it, then?" she asked, looking up.
"Tonight."
Kazuka was silent for a long time. When she spoke, her voice was on the verge of cracking. "I'm frightened for you."
"It won't be a piece of cake…"
"I mean it, Nicholas. Nothing has gone right on this assignment. Not since Paul Tibbet was murdered. Everything has gone terribly wrong. I'm afraid nothing will change."
"Second sight?"
"Intuition," she said.
"Women's intuition," Carter said, trying to keep it light. "Can you imagine what Hawk would say about that?" He smiled.
Kazuka began to laugh, but then she was crying again, softly, as she curled up in her seat like a small child seeking comfort and warmth. Carter reached out and touched her cheek with his fingertips, but she did not respond. He figured she was asleep — or unconscious.
They made it down to Yoshida a bit before three o'clock. The day had turned cloudy again, and the great mountain wore a thick, misty crown of wind-blown snow.
Kazuka did not wake up when Carter drove down the long driveway. Her uncle's house was near the rear of a five-acre estate on the slopes of the mountain. To the north and south the land was terraced in neat farms, but here — as at the Russian compound outside Tokyo — the land had been left as it always had been, a wooded wilderness. A mountain stream splashed down across the property. The sprawling house had been built directly over the stream, in the midst of the big boulders and trees, without disturbing any of it. The water flowed through the house, the trees jutted up through the roof, and the rocks were either a part of the construction or a part of the decor.
Carter had always liked it there. The house and property were peaceful. Nothing was jarring. Even loud noises, he suspected, were not permitted.
Kazuka's uncle owned a huge electronics conglomerate in Tokyo, but he seldom came up here even though he loved the house; he was a very busy man. Carter had met him twice: the first time had been formal, but at the second meeting he had become family. With or without Kazuka, the house and grounds were Carter's at any time without notice for any reason.
Carter was just coming up onto the broad veranda with Kazuka in his arms, when Major Rishiri stepped out of the front door. The look of triumph on Rishiri's face faded when he realized that Kazuka was hurt.
"Russians?" he asked, stepping aside.
"They tortured her," Carter snapped. "She's lost a lot of blood."
Inside, the head housekeeper directed Carter to a rear suite, where she took over with the help of several other staff women.
"It is all right, Carter-san," the housekeeper said. "We will take care of her."
"You must not contact a hospital or the authorities," Carter said.
The woman looted down the corridor toward where Major Rishiri stood. But she nodded respectfully. "As you wish, sir."
"I must leave within the hour. Please give her the very best of care."
The woman smiled understandingly, and bowed again. "It will be as you say."
"Thank you," Carter said. He bowed too, then turned and went back to Rishiri. The two men walked to a large room that overlooked the stream. They sat down at a low, lacquered table that faced a wall of plate glass windows; the view of the garden was lovely and peaceful.
As soon as they were seated, two young women came with finger bowls and warm, moist, scented towels, then hot sake for the major and cognac for Carter.
When they were alone, Rishiri offered his cup in toast. "To your rebirth, Carter-san."
Carter didn't bother with the toast. Instead he lit a cigarette. It was the ultimate insult. Rishiri stiffened.
"Will you tell me what is happening, or will I be forced to arrest you?"
"It is very possible that if you tried that, I would find it necessary to kill you."
The major digested that for a moment or two, then bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment. "This must be very important to you. The woman must be very special."
"Within the hour I will be leaving here. When I return, it will be on an unofficial basis. My assignment will have been completed."
"I could block your readmittance to my country."
"Yes, you could," Carter said, looking the man in the eye.
"You can tell me nothing?" Major Rishiri asked after a long pause.
"Only that the project I am working on is very important not only to my government, but to the stability of the international balance of power."
"Fateful, inspiring words, Carter-san. But they are not enough for me."
"They will have to be, Rishiri," Carter said. "Japan tried isolation a hundred years ago and it didn't work. Your people tried world conquest fifty years ago and that didn't work. Now you seek isolation again. Won't you learn from history?"
"Don't try to teach me history," Rishiri hissed.
"Don't interfere with my job."
"This is my country."
Carter acknowledged his point. "I am truly sorry that I had to come here and disturb the peace of Japan. However, we are allied. And this business is of vital importance to our freedom."
Major Rishiri sat back and looked out the windows at the spot where the stream emerged into the garden. "It is very lovely here, Carter-san. You have been accepted within this household, I see. You speak my language and understand my customs better than I speak your language or understand your customs. So, if I turn my back, you will leave Japan?"
"Tonight."
"It has already been planned?"
"Yes."
"But if I make a fuss?"
"That would be a mistake," Carter said.
Rishiri thought about that for a moment or two. Then he nodded, drained his sake cup, and got to his feet. "I suspect you are correct about that," he said. "My reasons for leaving you to your own devices for the next twenty-four hours may not be your reasons, but that is of no matter."
Carter got up. "The young woman I brought here has nothing to do with this. It would displease me greatly if you attempted to question her."
"And it displeases me greatly to hear such words. But I will not bother her in any way, though should she return to Tokyo I would be forced to take her into protective custody as long as the Soviets are active."
"I understand," Carter said.
Rishiri looked at him for a long time as if he wanted to say more, but in the end he turned and left he house.
Carter had not seen the major's car when he drove up. He watched from the front as one of the house staff brought Rishiri's car around from the back. There was no doubt about it; the man was smart. He had somehow found out Kazuka's name, had discovered her relationship with her uncle and this house, and when Kazuka dropped out of sight, the major had come here looking. But he had had the foresight to hide his car.