“I know,” Randi said. “We have a treaty saying we’ll defend them.”

“Exactly. And that makes the whole situation a lot more complicated. The Japanese people are understandably tired of taking it on the chin for things that happened before most of them were born. They want respect and they want to stand on their own two feet.”

“But Takahashi courting a war and then letting us fight it for him isn’t Japan standing on its own two feet. It’s Japan stepping on ours.”

“You make an interesting point,” Sato said. “Takahashi’s a complicated guy. He’s nationalistic as hell, but he isn’t stupid. And frankly he doesn’t have any great love for the US. He blames us for his family having a hard time after the war. To be honest, Carl and I have been struggling to figure out what his endgame is here.”

“Could he be starting to lose it? He’s in his seventies, right? A little dementia, maybe?”

Sato shook his head. “No indication of that at all. Trust us when we tell you that Takahashi has an angle. Maybe he’s changed his mind about politicians and he’s looking to run for office. We haven’t been able to figure it out yet.”

Randi chose her next words carefully, not wanting to give away too much. “What if he thinks he can win?”

“What,” Rainsburg said. “By dragging us in? What would—”

He fell silent when Randi shook her head. “What if he thinks he can win without us?”

They looked at each other and burst out laughing again.

“Sorry,” Sato said, while Rainsburg continued to snicker. “Look, Takahashi’s a little nuts and there’s no question that his notion of Japanese superiority goes beyond disturbing. But that guy knows more about military strategy and history than most of our top generals combined. It doesn’t take a genius to look at the Asian chessboard and see that Japan doesn’t have any pieces.”

“So you’re saying that if he did believe that,” Randi offered as innocuously as possible, “there’s a chance that he would be right.”

“Believe what? That the Japanese defense forces could defeat China? Why would he?”

“I’m just throwing it out there,” Randi said. “What if, for the sake of argument, the Japanese defense forces have capabilities we’re not aware of?”

Rainsburg rolled his eyes. “Sounds like we should introduce her to Eric.”

“Who’s Eric?”

“Eric Fujiyama,” Rainsburg said. “He used to work here, but he let it get to him. You know how it is. We’re all conspiracy theorists, but Eric went a little too far.”

Sato pointed to his head. “Tinfoil-hat territory. He thinks Japan is in the process of taking over the universe.”

“Interesting,” Randi said. “Maybe you should.”

“Should what?”

“Introduce us.”