“Because you were almost blown to bits last night. I thought you might need a day to recuperate.”

“You’re talking to Siri the Invincible, don’t forget. At our age, every day has to be seized. But I do have one small request.”

“Yes?”

“I was hoping we might take a little detour before heading for the cave.”

“Somewhere nice?”

“Thailand,” said Siri.

Daeng raised her eyebrows. “Missing your girlfriend already?” she said.

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Yokai

They’d met Beer at his boat, where he appeared to spend that part of his life he hadn’t bequeathed to Dr. Siri. They’d paddled across to Thailand even before the river guards were out of bed. The monks were still shuffling unenthusiastically in search of alms. Most shop shutters were down. Before nine, Siri, Beer, and Daeng were drinking green tea in Kyoko’s little office at the community center. Daeng was a fast reader of personalities. She could see sincerity in the blink of an eye. She found it impossible to dislike the Japanese. In Daeng’s mind, there were attractive women who didn’t deserve their looks and there were those who were so accomplished and modest that good looks were totally permissible. Kyoko’s enthusiasm worked its way into Daeng’s blood and shortly after they met they were friends. Siri was pardoned, although he wasn’t sure what for.

“Look at my eyes,” said Kyoko. “They are the eyes of somebody who doesn’t sleep anymore. I’ve been through all the files you gave me. I’ve read and reread the diary. I’ve tried to forgive Hiro for the atrocities he was party to in Manchuria but I cannot. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt that he must have written the way he did because he was afraid someone would find his diary, but I could not. I was struggling to find a reason to like him. I wondered whether he had some coded system to hide his true feelings; something hidden in the text. So I started to analyze the Japanese language.”

“And?” said Daeng.

“I found nothing. Every Japanese page was clinical and unemotional. I was about to give up but then I did make a discovery, not in the Japanese pages but in the Lao segment. I’m still attempting to read everything, but what intrigued me was that there was no mention of Hiro’s commanding officer or his unit in the official files, yet they feature so prominently in the Lao half.”

“I may be able to explain that,” said Siri. “We met a Japanese deserter in Thakhek by the name of Yuki-san. He knew Hiro. He believed that Hiro and his team came too early to be listed in the documents. In fact, they might have been responsible for keeping the records, which would be reason enough to write themselves out of the history.”