“Yes, sir. Dr. Ito started a private consulting company after leaving his research position at Kyoto University. He makes good money—around four hundred thousand US dollars according to his tax returns. All of it comes from three corporate clients.”

“What corporations?” Randi said, finally looking up from her mug.

“I could give you the names but they wouldn’t mean anything. As near as I can tell, they’re just shells. They seem to have been set up solely to pay him.”

“Does he have any employees?”

“None. It’s a one-man show.”

Smith pushed his chair back so he could see her better. “And what about that other thing I wanted you to look into?”

“General Takahashi? You were right. It’s a bit of a maze, but it appears that his family has significant ownership in the company that operated the Fukushima plant.”

Not what he wanted to hear. A few days ago he would have said that discovering the Chinese were behind the nanotech at Fukushima would have been a worst-case scenario. This, though, had the potential to be a hell of a lot worse.

“Great job as always, Star. Thanks.”

She made a beeline for the door, obviously anxious to escape before Smith changed his mind and asked her to stay.

“Shut the door behind you, please,” Klein called after her.

She did and they sat in silence for a few moments before Smith spoke. “The dangers involved with a weapon like this can’t be overstated. And neither can the chances that it could go completely out of control.”

“Are you sure it’s meant as a weapon?” Klein said. “I read your report and looked into the technology. Is it possible that this was one of the Takahashi family’s commercial pursuits? Nanotech is a growing field and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were interested.”

“It’s possible,” Smith admitted. “But why so much secrecy? And why self-replication across three materials that are critical to modern civilization and warfare? If I were working on this, I’d fuel it with some incredibly rare material. Then, if I lost containment, I wouldn’t have to pump a bunch of radiation into it to keep it from wiping out the industrialized world.”

Klein leaned back in his chair, staring for a moment at an antique map hanging on the wall. “There seems to be reasonable agreement that the Japanese are looking to expand their military capability and move out from under our umbrella. If I were an island nation with limited resources and manpower, this might be just the kind of weapon that would attract me.”

Randi suddenly stood. “I know a couple of the analysts at the agency who keep tabs on the Japanese. Maybe they could give us some context.”

Klein gave her a brief nod. “Talk to them. Quietly.”