Randi Russell eased the Gremlin into long-term parking, keeping a close eye on the rearview mirror. The sun was still up in a cloudless sky, creating a distracting glare on the sea of cars in front of the terminal. Her well-trained eye couldn’t spot anyone following, but she wasn’t sure that meant much anymore.

“Wait a minute,” Smith said, staring down at the notes he’d scrawled on a crumpled napkin from the glove box. “Was it Wedo?”

“Which one?”

He let out an exasperated breath. “Maki was the rocket fuel guy he told us about. His first name was something like Akido. This is the materials engineer. Genjiro Wedo?”

She shook her head. “Not Wedo. It ended in an a. Maybe Weda?”

“Yes!” he said, scribbling the name down. “That’s it. Genjiro Weda. Now all we need to do it figure out a way to get this to Star.”

She eased up to the parking kiosk and took a ticket before driving through the gate. “We’ll have our cell phones back in a few minutes, but even with Covert-One’s encryption protocols, I’m not sure we should use them. Fujiyama’s paranoia is rubbing off on me.”

“I don’t think it’s technically paranoia if someone just blew the top off the mountain you were standing on and killed your informant.”

“You make a valid point,” she said, stopping in front of a space with a red cone emblazoned with the words “No Parking.” She hopped out of the car and gave the cone a firm downward shove, collapsing it into a disk about the size of a Frisbee. When she got back in and pulled forward, Smith was already wiping down the interior to eradicate any fingerprints.

Randi retrieved a small backpack from the floor behind the seats and dug through its contents until she was able to release a hidden panel at the bottom. She handed Smith a wallet filled with well-worn IDs and credit cards, taking another for herself. “I assume you agree we should split up and buy return tickets under different names?”

“Hell yes,” he replied, replacing the wallet in his pocket with the new one. “I’m having a hard time believing where this is leading, but for now we assume the worst.”

“That the Japanese have spent the last thirty years quietly building a bunch of futuristic weapons that are now aimed directly at us?”

“When you put it that way, it sounds kind of bad, doesn’t it?” Smith said with a weak smile.

Randi mumbled something under her breath and stepped out into the bright sunlight, turning slowly as she took in everything around her. There were a few widely scattered people pulling suitcases to and from the terminal, but no one closer than fifty yards. Beyond that, there was a couple in a BMW paying at the kiosk and a woman in a Prius driving slowly up their aisle looking for a space.