“I doubt we’re talking about an individual hacker,” Zellerbach admitted. “Or even a group like Anonymous. I think we’re talking about a government.”

Smith and Randi looked at each other, clearly thinking the same thing: The Japanese did a lot of design and manufacture work for the auto industry. And they’d have the technological ability to hijack cell towers and satellite networks.

“Okay,” Smith said. “Thanks, Marty.”

“Do you want me to dig into this?”

“Absolutely not,” Randi said. “We don’t know what we’re into here, but whatever it is, it’s dangerous. We can’t scrape up enough of the last guy who helped us to fill a shoe box.”

“I’m not afraid.”

“We know,” Smith said. “But you’ve already given us what we were looking for. We’ll call you if we need more. Talk later…”

He reached over and cut off the phone, then closed his eyes again to the sound of Randi tapping on her laptop. He was just about to drift off when she spoke.

“Star got the names we asked for, Jon. Odd woman, but you have to respect the skills.”

“And?”

“We were close. The rocket fuel guy is Akito Maki with a t, not a d. The materials guy is Genjiro Ueda. Both are still alive and both work as private consultants. We’ve got life stories, tax returns, home addresses, phone numbers, you name it.”

Smith let out a long breath. “If they knew enough to blow the top off that mountain, we have to assume they’ve got Fujiyama’s files. They’ll circle their wagons around anyone who was mentioned in them.”

“I don’t see that we have much of a choice. We’re talking about Japan spending the last thirty years building a clandestine military and now purposely courting a war with China. The president can’t march into the UN with a bunch of conjecture. We need something concrete.”

Smith just couldn’t stay awake anymore. His body was draining his normally limitless reserves to heal itself and it wouldn’t be denied any longer. As he started to drift off, his mind began to project images of war. He’d been through too many. Seen too much. But what he’d experienced was nothing compared with the scale of a confrontation between the two Asian giants.

What would that look like?

Not anything anyone had seen before. Takahashi was too smart to let China overwhelm him with its superior numbers and the sheer weight of its hardware. No, much more likely the first shots fired in this conflict would be silent. Takahashi would simply have a handful of men fly to China and deploy his nanoscale weapon. The country would quietly rot from within. Eventually, the power grid would falter, machinery would crumble, buildings would collapse.