Takahashi opened his mouth to protest, but the politician silenced him with a raised hand. “Further, we’ll promise to agree to some level of resource sharing with regard to the Senkaku Islands. And finally, we will agree to scrap our new battleship out of respect for their concerns about its offensive potential.”

General Takahashi’s jaw clenched, but beyond that he kept his face opaque. More apologies. More crawling. Mao had eradicated the opium dens from his worthless country, but his people had simply replaced that addiction with a new one: endless Japanese penitence. And like all addicts, the more they filled their veins, the more they needed.

“Am I to understand that you find this arrangement acceptable?” Takahashi said.

“I find it inescapable,” Sanetomi replied. “And if you’ll excuse my frankness, your behavior is not an insignificant part of what put me in this position.”

“My behavior? The Chinese government creates a constant stream of lies to divert attention from their own towering incompetence and corruption, and I am responsible? For what? For believing in my country? For honoring those who’ve given their lives for it? For not having the courtesy to die at the hands of their assassins?”

Himura gave him a cautioning stare and he knew the man was right. Soon, none of this would be of any importance. Still, some insults were too great to swallow.

Sanetomi stared into his teacup as silence once again returned to the room. “You must accept my apologies, General. I did not call this meeting to assign blame. I called it to discuss a situation that’s spiraling out of control more quickly and more dangerously than either of you know.”

“Sir?” Himura prompted.

“I recently received a disturbing call from the Americans. They’ve found evidence of possible sabotage at Fukushima Reactor Four. The structure was weakened in a way that they don’t yet fully understand.”

“Do we have samples for our own analysis?” Himura asked smoothly.

“Unfortunately, no. The debris on our end has been disposed of and the Americans haven’t offered to provide any of theirs. We’ve examined all the other reactors in the country, though, and found no problems. So for now it appears to have been isolated to that single reactor at Fukushima.”

Takahashi remained silent, satisfied to let the intelligence man control the conversation. The prime minister was completely ignorant of the fact that Dr. Ito had been using Reactor Four as a lab and of what was being developed there.

“This is most serious,” Himura said. “It could have been an attack by Chinese sa—”

“We cannot allow ourselves to jump to conclusions,” Sanetomi interrupted. “The Americans haven’t yet determined the cause of the damage. It could have been some kind of chemical or radiation issue, or even some unexpected result of the tsunami.”

“How did they get these samples?” Himura probed.