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debriefing on USS Oxford, and these are attached. Meanwhile it is suggested
that priority be given to intelligence investigation of these special Japanese
troops, whom we have codenamed "Hogs."
Mr. Esmeralda had handed the plastic envelope back without a word.
"Well?" Kappa had asked him breathily.
"Well, what? All that happened a very long time ago. Men make some very
strange mistakes when they are fighting battles. Perhaps all this talk of
special Japanese soldiers was nothing more than an excuse to cover up the fact
that the American Marines lost their nerve under fire, and had to retreat."
Kappa had laughed. "You are being deliberately stubborn."
"Perhaps," Mr. Esmeralda had replied. "But why not? I have nothing to gain by
associating myself with you. And, frankly, I find the idea of it extremely
unpleasant."
"You forget that I will mutilate you if you refuse," Kappa had whispered.
Mr. Esmeralda had looked around him. The young Japanese in their impenetrable
black masks were tense and poised, and he had been in no doubt at all that if
he tried to escape they would catch him in a flash, and treat him without
hesitation to whatever tortures Kappa might direct. Mr. Esmeralda disliked the
idea of working for a shriveled quadriplegic in a basketwork chair; but on the
other hand he disliked the idea of being parted from his penis even more.
Tengu
123
He had said quietly, "You want me to smuggle your Doctor Gempaku into the
United States, and provide him with research facilities? You want me to help
him create more of these Tengus, is that it?"
Kappa had said, "I admire your quickness."
"But what is this all in aid of?" Mr. Esmeralda had insisted. "What exactly do
you expect these Tengus to do?"
"Just one thing," Kappa had said. "Exact revenge on the American people for
what they did in Hiroshima.''
Now, at the house in Laurel Canyon, Mr. Esmeralda was once more entering the
presence of the malformed Kappa. Here, Kappa had been laid out in a
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chromium-and-canvas cot, his body mercifully covered by a sheet and his heavy
masked head propped up on pillows. There were two televisions suspended from
the ceiling on amateurishly homemade gimbals and tape recorders and telephones
within easy reach, all adapted for use by someone with the severest of
handicaps. The room itself was hung with white cotton drapes and lit only by
candles, a nest of them on a small white table. There were no pictures on the
walls, no flowers, no miniature trees, none of the decorative art that Mr.
Esmeralda expected to see in a Japanese room. And there was that pervasive
smell of human flesh that wasn't quite dead but wasn't quite alive, either.
"I hear that things have been going dangerously awry," Kappa said, his eyes
glittering through the holes in his mask.
"You could say that things haven't been going as they were planned to go," Mr.
Esmeralda replied with great caution. "But, when one is asked to hire
dispensable people, one sometimes has to make do with second best. The best
people are indispensable."
"Nobody is indispensable," said Kappa.
"Good wheelers and dealers are indispensable," Mr. Esmeralda argued,
"Especially when one is obliged to import dozens of illegal Japanese
immigrants, along with whole crates of ancient artifacts and God knows how
many live Japanese animals and birds. One can't expect miracles, Kapp."
124
Tengu
"Do not fail me," whispered Kappa.
Mr. Esmeralda took out a pale lavender handkerchief and patted his sweating
neck. "The last time I spoke to Doctor Gempaku, he said that everything was
progressing quite well. We had difficulty with the first Tengu, I know, but by
definition they aren't easily controllable."
"The man Sennett remains alive."
"It was an understandable mistake. Yoshikazu was given a house number, and it
turned out that the number was posted on a concrete pillar between Sennett's
house and the girl's house. The Tengu was directed to the wrong house, and
there's nothing we can do about it. It's too late."
Kappa was silent for a while. Then he said, "You are sure that Sennett is the
last remaining member of the naval intelligence team?"
"Quite sure. The only other person who might conceivably understand what is
happening is Admiral Knut Thorson, formerly of the Naval Intelligence Command;
and poor Admiral Thorson is currently in an acute-care hospital at Rancho
Encino. Everyone else who might have known what happened, and why, is long
dead."
"You didn't speak of this Admiral Thorson before."
"There was no need to. He suffered a stroke. His doctors say that he will
probably never speak again."
"PmbaUyr
"You don't want me to send a Tengu to a hospital, to "
"Do it," Kappa commanded.
"But-"
''Do it\ And ensure that you deal with Sennett as well.''
Mr. Esmeralda looked around him, unhappy. "All right," he agreed at last. "If
you say so. But if your plan works out the way you want it to, it doesn't seem
to me that there's going to be very much need to worry about Sennett, or
Thorson, or about anybody else."
Kappa rolled his masked head away from Mr. Esmeralda and said in a muffled
voice, "What is going to happen to
Tengu
125
.the United States within the next few weeks must be a devastating mystery.
They must never know why it happened, or how. It must seem like the revenge of
God. If they were to discover that it was I who had initiated it, it would all
seem explicable. They would be able to comprehend it; and in comprehending it,
they would gradually be able to repair their morale and their spirit. That is
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