Fiends of the Rising Sun Read Online Free Page B

urgency."
    Hitori smiled. "Are you his new adjutant?"
    "There was an opening after you got transferred back to Manchuria. Tojo went through half a dozen candidates in as many months before settling on me. Apparently my name was on a list left behind by one of my predecessors." Suzuki grinned. "I'm guessing I have you to thank for that."
    "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
    "Well, thank you. It's the easiest job I've had since graduating from the academy, and my mother is much happier now that I'm no longer on the frontline." Suzuki gestured towards a staff car waiting nearby, a chauffeur stood obediently holding the passenger door open. "Your carriage awaits, Zenji!"
    The two old friends got in the back of the sleek black vehicle. "Don't worry about your bags," Suzuki said. "I'm having them transferred directly to your new quarters at the Ministry of War."
    "So my new posting is at the ministry?"
    "Your orders didn't specify?"
    Hitori shook his head. "Report back to Tokyo and await instructions."
    "Typical! The sooner Tojo is prime minister, the better," Suzuki spat. He noticed the alarm on Hitori's face and laughed. "Don't worry; the driver is loyal to Tojo, so you need not fear anything he might tell others about our conversation."
    "Fine, then what can you tell me about this new posting?"
    "Not much," the new adjutant admitted. "It's top secret, but beyond that the general's been playing his cards very close to his chest. I did overhear something yesterday that made me wonder, though. Does the name Constanta mean anything to you?"
    "Yes, it does. I met him once, at the Tripartite Pact signing in Berlin."
    "I know your new posting involves him somehow. I believe Tojo wants you to head up a new covert operations unit, and Constanta has some involvement."
    Hitori gazed out of the window at the cherry trees lining the boulevard. How he wished it was spring and the blossoms were out; they brought a delicate beauty to the ugliest of landscapes. But it was September and autumn was close.
    "Who is this Constanta?" Suzuki asked. "His official file is all but empty, beyond stating his place of birth as Sighisoara in Rumania, the fact that he is considered part of the local aristocracy in a region called Transylvania, and that he's been sighted on numerous occasions along the battlefields of the Eastern Front."
    "If you know all that, then you know more than I do," Hitori said. "All I can remember is how much his presence disturbed me in Berlin; that, and the fact that he could speak fluent Japanese, despite never having set foot in this country."
    "Well, he's set foot in it now. Constanta's here in Tokyo!"
     
    Buntz led the way into Honolulu, having been to the city once before with his family ten years earlier. His father was a commercial traveller, the sort of man who boasted he could sell refrigerators to Eskimos. A decade ago he'd won salesman of the year and the prize was a week's vacation for the whole family in Hawaii. Every night, fat fifteen-year-old Arnie watched his mother drink herself into a stupor, and his father sneak out of the hotel room. On their last night, Arnie had followed his father to a succession of nightclubs, bars and dives, each one rougher than the last. Eventually Buntz senior had retired for the night with a Japanese woman called Mai Ling. Arnie waited outside their room for an hour before he heard what sounded like a struggle. Worried the slant-eyed witch was trying to hurt his pop, Arnie had burst in and found the two of them having sex. Of course, Arnie had never told his mom about what he'd seen, but his pop became extra generous to fat little Arnie after that. Oh yeah, he'd all kinds of memories of his last time in Honolulu, and tonight he was going to see where they led him.
    "We're starting at the pineapple factory," he announced as they strolled through the streets of Honolulu.
    "The what factory?" Martinez asked, his dark brown eyes full of wonder at the exotic sights all around