“But do you know whether he joined the Free Lao before the Japanese surrender? Was he cooperating with the anti-French underground when still a major in the army? That might explain why he’d want to rip out the pages.”

“This are questions I too want to ask,” said Yuki-san.

“Then, at least, I should buy you a few drinks so I can hear about your visits here during the war. I have a lot to learn about your time with Hiro.”

“This I want very much,” said Yuki-san. “But cannot be today. I come back soon. We talk.”

“My time’s limited here,” said Siri. “Are you free tomorrow?”

“Yes. I come back tomorrow.”

Siri walked him to the door.

“Yuki-san,” he said. “At least leave me something to help me find your friend. I’m running out of ideas. I need a clue to follow up on.”

Yuki-san stopped in the doorway and did his goatee grab. Siri found himself mirroring the gesture.

“Might be something,” said Yuki-san. “Hiro had a place. Secret place. He talk often. He call it ‘tunnel of love.’ He like to go there in his leave time.”

“Where is it?” Siri asked.

“I don’t know,” said Yuki-san.

Siri looked at Beer, who shrugged.

“Did he describe it?” Siri asked.

“One time,” said Yuki-san. “One time he say this place is like enlightenment. He say sometime you are in dark for long time, then one moment everything is clear. You come out the end. You see light.”

“He said the place is like that?”

“That’s all he tell me.”

Siri hadn’t really learned anything new about Toshi other than that he’d stepped out of fantasy and become real. It should have made research easier. Now Siri was certain the name at the beginning of the diary was genuine. It was likely he used his actual name as a Japanese officer and called himself Toshi only in the diary entries: his Lao secret identity. If the records Siri had retrieved from the council office were compiled by Toshi and his team, that explained why they didn’t mention themselves. It meant he could be more certain that Toshi had indeed come from the railhead in Lang Son as Kyoko said, and had been involved in salvage operations. It even reignited the likelihood that he was responsible in some way for transporting the treasure mentioned in the loose page. Everything and anything had become possible as a result of Yuki-san’s visit. Perhaps Major Hiro had handpicked his team for Thakhek, choosing only those with disabilities and problems because . . . because he was kind. But why would a kind man find such pleasure in the bloodbaths of Manchuria? Siri was getting there, but there were still too many questions.