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The next morning Nick and Selena were getting ready to go to the police station for their interview when Elizabeth called.
"The restaurant had cameras," she said. "There are excellent shots of the bomber. Facial recognition software turned up a hit."
"Who is he?"
"His name is Futosi Takahashi. He's an agent at the PSIA. He works directly under Yamamoto."
"If the guy knew what he was doing, he'd never have been caught on cameras like that."
"I'm getting all of this through DCI Hood. He's angry. He considered Yamamoto to be almost a friend. When I told him what I'd discovered about Yamamoto and Nobuyasu, I thought he was going to have a stroke. Clarence has strong ideas of right and wrong, a personal code of honor. Maybe it has something to do with his southern heritage, I don't know. What Yamamoto has done feels like a personal betrayal. It gives everyone who works in the intelligence agencies a bad name."
"That wouldn't be hard to do," Nick said.
"Nick..."
"Okay, sorry. What's he going to do?"
"He told me he'd handle it."
"What does that mean? Is Yamamoto going down, or not?"
"We have to trust Hood. But I can guess at what he might be planning."
"Which is?"
"If he's confronted, Yamamoto will deny any knowledge of what this man Takahashi was doing. I wouldn't be surprised if Takahashi had already disappeared, permanently. There's no way to prove Yamamoto ordered him to kill you. But there are other ways to make sure he doesn't walk away from this."
"Go on."
"As I see it, there are two possibilities. One would be to publicly expose Nobuyasu's ties with the yakuza drug business and how Yamamoto protected him. The proof is in the files I have. Langley might be able to find out what Nobuyasu was using to blackmail him. If any of that got out, Yamamoto would be finished."
"I wouldn't lose any sleep over that," Nick said. "You said there were a two possibilities. What's the other one?"
"A public exposé would threaten the stability of the current government. It could lead to new elections and the possibility of a right wing takeover. I don't think that's going to happen. I think Hood will find a way that avoids any public perception of corruption or illegal behavior."
"We certainly wouldn't want that, would we?"
"You of all people know that governments are always hiding things."
"That doesn't mean it's right. Particularly in this case."
"Which do you think is better? Yamamoto goes down in flames with big headlines, or something happens that removes the problem without creating waves?"
"As long as he gets what's coming to him, I don't care," Nick said.
"I think I can guarantee it won't be long before that happens," Elizabeth said.