Satori Read online

  To enter the cha-shitsu, the tearoom, they had to pass through a sliding door that was only three feet high, forcing them to bow, an act that symbolized the divide between the physical world and the spiritual realm of the tearoom.

  The cha-shitsu was exquisite, elegant in its simplicity, a perfect expression of shibumi. As tradition demanded, they first walked to an alcove, on the wall of which hung the kakemono, a scroll with painted calligraphy appropriate to the day’s occasion. In his role as guest, Nicholai admired the skillful brushwork, which depicted the Japanese symbol for satori.

  An interesting choice, Nicholai thought. Satori was the Zen Buddhist concept of a sudden awakening, a realization of life as it really is. It came not as a result of meditation or conscious thought, but could arrive in the wisp of a breeze, the crackle of a flame, the falling of a leaf.

  Nicholai had never known satori.

  In front of the kakemono, on a small wooden stand, was a bowl that held a single small maple branch.

  They stepped over to a low table, on which was a charcoal burner and a kettle. As Nicholai and Kamiko knelt on the mat by the table, Haverford bowed and left the room. A few moments later a gong sounded, and he returned carrying the cha-wan, a red ceramic bowl that contained a tea whisk, a tea scoop, and a cloth.

  As teishu, the host, Haverford knelt at his proper place at the table, directly across the hearth from Nicholai. He wiped all the utensils with the cloth, then filled the bowl with hot water, rinsed the whisk, then poured the water into a waste bowl and carefully wiped the tea bowl again.

  Nicholai found himself enjoying the old ritual, but did not want to be lulled into complacency. The American had obviously done his research and knew that in the few years of freedom Nicholai had enjoyed in Tokyo before his imprisonment, he had established a formal Japanese household, with retainers, and had observed the old rituals. Surely he knew that Nicholai would find the cha-kai both nostalgic and comforting.

  And it is both, Nicholai thought, but be cautious.

  Haverford presented the tea scoop, then opened a small container and paused to allow his guest to appreciate the aroma. Nicholai realized with surprise that this was koi-cha, from plants one hundred years old, grown only in the shade in certain parts of Kyoto. He could not imagine what this mat-cha might have cost, then wondered what it might eventually cost him, given that the Americans had not gone to such extravagance for nothing.

  Pausing for precisely the correct time, Haverford then dipped a small ladle into the container and scooped out six measures of the finely powdered pale green tea into the cha-wan. He used the bamboo ladle to heap hot water into the bowl, then took the whisk and whipped the potion into a thin paste. He examined his work, then, satisfied, passed the bowl across the table to Nicholai.

  As ritual demanded, Nicholai bowed, took the cha-wan with his right hand, then passed it to his left, holding it only in the palm of his hand. He turned it clockwise three times and then took a long sip. The tea was superb, and Nicholai politely finished his drink with a loud slurp. Then he wiped the rim of the cha-wan with his right hand, turned it once clockwise, and handed it back to Haverford, who bowed and took a drink.

  Now the cha-kai entered a less formal phase, as Haverford wiped the cha-wan again and Kamiko added more charcoal to the hearth in preparation for making cups of thinner tea. Still, there were formalities to observe, and Nicholai in his role as guest began a conversation about the utensils used in the ceremony.

  “The cha-wan is Momoyama Period, yes?” he said to Haverford, recognizing the distinct red tincture. “It is beautiful.”

  “Momoyama, yes,” Haverford answered, “but not the best example.”

  They both knew that the seventeenth-century bowl was rightfully priceless. The American had gone to immense trouble and expense to arrange this “modest” cha-kai, and Nicholai could not help but wonder why.

  And the American could not quite contain his satisfaction at pulling off this surprise.

  I don’t know you, Hel, Haverford thought as he sank back into his own seiza position, but you don’t know me either.

  In fact, Ellis Haverford was something quite different from the Company thugs who had beaten Nicholai to a bloody pulp during three days of brutal interrogation. A native of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, he had spurned Yale and Harvard for Columbia, as he couldn’t imagine anyone choosing to live anywhere but on the isle of Manhattan. He was majoring in Oriental history and languages when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and was therefore a natural to go into an intelligence desk job.

  Haverford refused, joined the Marines instead, and commanded a platoon on Guadalcanal and a company in New Guinea. Purple Heart and Navy Cross on his chest, he finally conceded that his education was being wasted, agreed to go into the covert side of the war, and found himself training local resistance movements against the Japanese in the jungles of French Indochina. Haverford was fluent in French, Japanese, and Vietnamese and could make himself understood in some parts of China. As aristocratic in his own way as Hel — although he came from far more money — Ellis Haverford was one of those rare individuals who seemed comfortable in any setting, including an exclusive Japanese teahouse.

  Now Kamiko served thin tea and brought out mukozuke, a tray of light snacks — sashimi and pickled vegetables.

  “The food is good,” Nicholai said in Japanese as Kamiko served.

  “It’s garbage,” Haverford answered, pro forma, “but I’m afraid it’s the best I can offer. I am so sorry.”

  “It’s more than enough,” Nicholai said, unconsciously slipping into Japanese manners that he had not had the opportunity to use for years.

  “You are more than kind,” Haverford responded.

  Aware of Kamiko’s passive attention, Nicholai asked, “Shall we switch languages?”

  Haverford already knew that Hel spoke English, French, Russian, German, Chinese, Japanese, and, randomly, Basque — so there was quite a menu from which to choose. He suggested French and Nicholai accepted.

  “So,” Nicholai said, “you have offered me one hundred thousand dollars, my liberty, a Costa Rican passport, and the home addresses of Major Diamond and his apprentices in exchange for my performing a service that I assume involves a murder.”

  “ ‘Murder’ is an ugly word,” Haverford answered, “but you have the basic elements of the deal correct, yes.”

  “Why me?”

  “You have certain unique characteristics,” Haverford said, “combined with specific skills required for the assignment.”

  “Such as?”

  “You don’t need to know that yet.”

  “When do I begin?” Nicholai asked.

  “More a question of how.”

  “Very well. How do I begin?”

  “First,” Haverford answered, “we repair your face.”

  “You find it unpalatable?” Nicholai asked, aware that his once handsome countenance was indeed a lopsided, swollen and disjointed mess from the fists and truncheons of Major Diamond and his associates.

  Nicholai had worked for the Americans as a translator until he had killed Kishikawa-san; then Diamond and his goons had beaten Nicholai before subjecting him to mind-altering, horrifying experiments with psychotropic drugs. The pain had been bad enough, the disfigurement still worse, but what hurt Nicholai even more was the loss of control, the terrible helplessness, the feeling that Diamond and his disgusting little helpers had somehow stolen his very being and played with it the way a twisted and stupid child might have toyed with a captive animal.

  I will deal with them in due time, he thought. Diamond, his thugs, the doctor who administered the injections and observed the results on his “patient” with cold-blooded clinical interest — they will all see me again, albeit briefly, and just before they die.

  Right now I must come to terms with Haverford, who is essential to achieving my revenge. At least Haverford is interesting — impeccably dressed, obviously well educated, just as obviously a scion of what pa
sses for the aristocracy in America.

  “Not at all,” Haverford said. “I just believe that when you damage something, you should repair it. It seems only fair.”

  Haverford is trying to tell me, Nicholai thought, in a quite un-American subtle way, that he is not them. But of course you are, the clothes and education are but a patina on the same cracked vessel. He asked, “What if I do not choose to be ‘repaired’?”

  “Then I am afraid we would have to cancel our arrangement,” Haverford said pleasantly, glad that the French softened what would be a harsh ultimatum in English. “Your current appearance would prompt questions, the answers to which don’t match the cover we’ve taken a lot of trouble creating for you.”

  “ ‘Cover’?”

  “A new identity,” Haverford answered, reminded that while Hel was an efficient killer he was nevertheless a neophyte in the larger world of espionage, “replete with a fictitious personal history.”

  “Which is what?” Nicholai asked.

  Haverford shook his head. “You don’t need to know yet.”

  Deciding to test the board, Nicholai said, “I was quite content in my cell. I could go back.”

  “You could,” Haverford agreed. “And we could decide to bring you to trial for the murder of Kishikawa.”

  Well played, Nicholai thought, deciding that he needed to be more cautious when dealing with Haverford. Seeing that there was no route of attack there, he retreated like a slowly ebbing tide. “The surgery on my face — I assume we are discussing surgery …”

  “Yes.”

  “I also assume it will be painful.”

  “Very.”

  “The recuperation period?”

  “Several weeks,” Haverford answered. He refilled Nicholai’s cup, then his own, and nodded to Kamiko to bring a fresh pot. “They won’t be wasted, however. You have a lot of work to do.”

  Nicholai raised an eyebrow.

  “Your French,” Haverford said. “Your vocabulary is impressive, but your accent is all wrong.”

  “My French nanny would be greatly offended.”

  Haverford switched to Japanese, a better language than French to express polite regret. “Gomen nosei, but your new dialect needs to be more southern.”

  Why would that be? Nicholai wondered. He didn’t ask, however, not wanting to appear too curious or, for that matter, interested.

  Kamiko waited at their periphery, then, hearing him finish, bowed and served the tea. She was beautifully coiffed, with alabaster skin and sparkling eyes, and Nicholai was annoyed when Haverford noticed him looking and said, “It has already been arranged, Hel-san.”

  “Thank you, no,” Nicholai said, unwilling to give the American the satisfaction of correctly perceiving his physical need. It would show weakness, and give Haverford a victory.

  “Really?” Haverford asked. “Are you sure?”

  Or else I would not have spoken, Nicholai thought. He didn’t answer the question, but instead said, “One more thing.”

  “Yes?”

  “I will not kill an innocent person.”

  Haverford chuckled. “Small chance of that.”

  “Then I accept.”

  Haverford bowed.

  3

  NICHOLAI STRUGGLED against unconsciousness.

  Yielding control was anathema to a man who had lived his life on the principle of firm self-possession, and it brought back memories of the pharmacological torture that the Americans had inflicted on him. So he fought to stay conscious, but the anesthesia took its course and put him under.

  As a boy he had commonly experienced spontaneous mental states in which he would find himself removed from the moment and lying in a serene meadow of wildflowers. He didn’t know how it happened or why, just that it was peaceful and delicious. He called these interludes his “resting times” and could not understand how anyone could live without them.

  But the firebombing of Tokyo, the deaths of friends, then Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the arrest of his surrogate father General Kishikawa as a war criminal — that cultured man who had introduced him to Go and to a civilized, disciplined, thoughtful life — had robbed him of his precious “resting times,” and, try as he would, he could not seem to recover the serenity that had once been natural to him.

  Tranquility was harder to achieve when they put him on an airplane with blackened windows and flew him to the United States, taking him off the flight with bandages around his face as if he had been wounded. He found it harder yet to maintain his equanimity when they rolled his stretcher into the hospital and put the needles into his arm and a mask over his nose and mouth.

  He woke panicked because his arms were strapped down to the gurney.

  “It’s all right,” a female American voice said. “We just don’t want you rolling around or touching your face.”

  “I won’t.”

  She chuckled, not believing him.

  Nicholai would have argued further, but the pain was acute, like a horribly bright light shimmering in front of his eyes. He blinked, then controlled his breathing and sent the light to the other side of the room where he could observe it dispassionately. The pain still existed, but it was now a detached phenomenon, interesting in its intensity.

  “I’ll give you a shot,” the nurse said.

  “It isn’t necessary,” Nicholai answered.

  “Oh,” she said, “we can’t have you wincing or clenching your jaw. The surgery on your facial bones was very delicate.”

  “I assure you that I will lie perfectly still,” Nicholai answered. Through the slits that were his eyes he could now see her preparing the syringe. She was a Celtic-looking healthy type, all pale skin, freckles, rusty hair, and thick forearms. He exhaled, relaxed his hands, and slipped them through the bonds.

  The nurse looked terribly annoyed. “Are you going to make me call the doctor?”

  “Do what you think you must.”

  The doctor came in a few minutes later. He made a show of checking the bandages that covered Nicholai’s face, clucked with the satisfaction of a hen that has just laid a splendid egg, and then said, “The surgeries went very well. I expect a successful result.”

  Nicholai didn’t bother with a concurring banality.

  “Keep your hands off your face,” the doctor said to him. Turning to the nurse, he added, “If he doesn’t want anything for the pain, he doesn’t want anything for the pain. When he gets tired of playing the stoic, he’ll call you. Take your time getting there if you want a small measure of revenge.”

  “Yes, Doctor.”

  “I do good work,” the doctor said to Nicholai. “You’re going to have to beat the women off with a stick.”

  It took Nicholai quite a while to work through the idiom.

  “There will be some minor paralysis of some small facial muscles, I’m afraid,” the doctor added, “but nothing you can’t live with. It will help you keep that indifferent front of yours.”

  Nicholai never did call for the shot.

  Nor did he move.

  4

  CAMOUFLAGED BY NIGHT and the monsoon’s slashing rain, the one they call the Cobra squatted perfectly still.

  The Cobra watched the man’s feet plop down in the mud and slosh onto the trail that led toward the bushes where he would do his personal business. It was his routine, so the Cobra was expecting him. The assassin had sat and waited many nights to learn the prey’s habits.

  The man came closer, just a few feet now from where the Cobra waited in the bamboo beside the narrow footpath. Intent on his destination, the man saw nothing as he wiped a sluice of rain from his face.

  The Cobra chose that moment to uncoil and strike. The blade — silver like the rain — shot out and slashed the man’s thigh. The victim felt the odd pain, looked down, and pressed his hand to the bloody tear in his pants leg. But it was too late — the femoral artery was severed and the blood poured around his hand and through his fingers. Already in shock, he sat down and watched his life flow into th
e puddle that quickly formed around him.

  The Cobra was already gone.

  5

  IF MAJOR DIAMOND was pleased that Nicholai Hel had accepted the deal, he wasn’t overly demonstrative in his enthusiasm.

  “Hel’s a half-Nippo nut job,” Diamond said, “with scrambled brains.”

  “Yes,” Haverford answered, “you had something to do with scrambling them, didn’t you?”

  “He was a Commie agent.” Diamond shrugged. Sure, he’d roughed Hel up a little, used him as a guinea pig for some of the new pharmaceutical techniques. So what? They were at war with the Communist bloc and it was a dirty war. Besides, Hel was an arrogant young shit — that superior, condescending attitude of his just made you want to hurt him.

  Diamond thought he’d left him far behind when he transferred to the new CIA and left Japan for the Southeast Asian assignment, but the troubling Hel was like a kite tail. They should have executed him when they had the chance — now they were going to use him as an asset?

  It was just like that pansy-ass pinko Haverford, another over-educated, know-it-all little prick. Shit, Haverford had fought with the Viet Minh during the war, and what the hell kind of name is Ellis, anyway?

  Now Haverford said, “Hel was not a Communist agent, a Soviet agent, or an agent of any kind. As your ‘interrogation’ of him proved, by the way.”

  Haverford despised Diamond, from his looks to the core of his alleged soul. The man resembled nothing more than an overstrung guitar with a pair of thin lips and drooping eyelids, and the inner man was even uglier. A bourgeois thug who would have been a cheerful Nazi save for the accident of his American birth — more’s the pity — Diamond was the sort of intelligence officer that the army seemed to crank out like so many widgets — unimaginative, brutal, his prejudices undisturbed by thought or education.

  Haverford hated him, his class, and what they threatened to do to America’s relationships in Asia.

  John Singleton, head of the CIA’s Asia Desk, sat behind his broad desk observing the debate. His white hair lay over his craggy face like snow on a rocky mountain, his pale blue eyes were the color of ice.