Matsuoka nodded. “I’ll take it in my cabin.”

He walked quickly, giving respectful nods and even a few smiles and clapped shoulders to his men as he passed. It wasn’t his normal custom—poor for discipline in his experience. But this day was different. A captain was only as good as the men beneath him and this was the finest crew he’d ever had the privilege to command. He was confident that they would face what was to come with courage and resolve that would be remembered for centuries.

He entered his cabin and closed the door behind him before retrieving the satellite phone from his desk.

“This is Matsuoka.”

“Good morning, Captain.”

He stood a little straighter, suddenly feeling the urge to look around his utilitarian quarters for anything out of place. It would be a pointless exercise, of course. There had been nothing out of place in his life since he was a child. “Good morning, General Takahashi.”

“Situation report?”

“Calm seas under clear skies, sir. The Chinese have retreated from their forward positions and are holding at the locations outlined in my last report.”

“Can you confirm for me that there’s still a single Song-class submarine within torpedo range?”

“As of two minutes ago, that was correct, General.”

Matsuoka lowered himself into the cabin’s only chair, suddenly feeling an unfamiliar weakness in his legs. Was this to be the moment? The beginning of a new Japan?

“It has been a great honor to serve with you, Isao.”

“The honor has been mine, sir.”

The line went dead and Matsuoka switched off the handset. He didn’t understand the general’s plan. In fact, he knew almost nothing of it. All he could be certain of was that Takahashi was the greatest patriot and most brilliant military man he had ever known. His family had served Japan for centuries and after the war had been one of the driving forces behind the country’s rise to economic power. It was only fitting that a Takahashi would be the one to lead Japan into a new era.

Matsuoka reached for a photo on his desk—one of the few personal items visible in the room. It depicted his wife and his two young boys. He wouldn’t see them grow up or have a hand in what they would become. But they’d remember him. And everyone they ever met would know that they were the sons of Captain Isao Matsuoka.

28

28

Northeastern Japan

General Masao Takahashi stepped into the room and paused while the head of his security detail took a position against the dirt-and-stone wall. The two other men in the room were so absorbed by the monitor they were staring into, neither noticed them enter.