Maurice Gao spoke up. “Do the Watanabes know Ripley is in Australia now?”
Gabrielle Tanaka answered the question. “Yes, they do.”
“Is it possible the Watanabes could check on her activities here?”
FBI Director Robert Mueller answered Maurice’s question. “We are taking precautions, Inspector. The McBride home in Alice is being watched. Charges are being made to Hiromi Sato’s credit cards to make it look like she is leading a normal routine here.”
Maurice nodded his head gently. “Thank you for answering my question, Director.”
Gabrielle looked over at Maurice. ‘Be patient, your turn will be coming soon."
 |
Synopsis- While a JAG attorney works on Hiromi’s legal defense, Gabrielle Tanaka advises the Swan Song committee on how they could get Ripley assistance once she returns to Japan.
Thank you to Puddin for all her help preparing this story chapter for publication.
Veteran Kanagawa Shimbun reporter Yasuhiko Okamura was enjoying a quick lunch at a Noodle bar, when his cellphone began to ring. He checked to see who was calling before he answered.
“How are you, Mana-san?” Mana Yamagata was one of the reporters working with Yasuhiko on the Rosebud fire story.
“I’m hungry, Okamura-san, but otherwise fine. My check of city records has reached an end.”
“What did you find out?”
“The ultimate owner of the Rosebud is Kanagawa Enterprises Limited.”
“Good work, Mana-san. Can you tell me more about the owner?”
“Yes, I can, Okamura-san. Kanagawa Enterprises Limited sounded familiar to me, so I called our office. An intern at the morgue confirmed what I was thinking. There is no question now, Rosebud was owned by the Watanabe Yakuza.”
“That is excellent work, Mana-san. Our editors will be very pleased,” Yasuhiko replied before he took a sip of some tea. “Go get some lunch now. When you are done, call Endo-san and ask what he wants you to do next.”
“I will do as you suggest, Okamura-san, but there is one more thing. At my request, the morgue will have articles and photos that connect the Watanabes to Kanagawa Enterprises ready for you when you go back to the office. If they aren’t on your desk, ask for Shihi-san.”
Robert Mueller and Gabrielle Tanaka went to a large office just off a Pine Gap communications room. As soon as they were inside, The FBI Director sat himself down.
Gabrielle on the other hand, remained standing. That was the protocol for someone being called onto the carpet by their boss.
“Agent Tanaka, I only got around to reading your affidavit today. I don’t know what appalls me more, Deputy Director Williamson’s involvement in murder or the fact that you knew of it for almost a year and didn’t see fit to bring it to my attention.”
Gabrielle didn’t think her sins were anything close to Grant Williamsons, and most people would have agreed with her. She however raised no objection to Robert’s analogy.
“You’re probably thinking, Agent Tanaka, that what you did doesn’t compare to murder and legally you’re right. It is the damage that your delay in coming forward that makes your actions on a scale with Director Williamson’s. The both of you have created a crisis for two governments.”
“The public, when they hear what was done, will ask how a Deputy Director of the FBI could get away with the crimes they committed. Many will assume it was a conspiracy, and on the surface there are many facts to back that up. You and I both know that’s not true, but it will matter little. Perceptions are stronger than facts in a case like this.”
Gabrielle continued to remain silent. She was now admitting to herself that she had made some very big mistakes. Would she be allowed to stay with the FBI till Swan Song was over? If not, who would watch Becky’s back for her?
“The damage this will cause to the Bureau’s reputation is impossible to estimate. It will be large and the public and others in law enforcement will question the trust they have in our work.”
“Director, at this moment, nobody but those who conspired to murder Emiko Takagi and the people I sent the affidavit to, know what Deputy Director Williamson did.”
“What about Charles McBride?”
“He doesn’t know anything about Owl. Ripley only learned about it during the last day.”
“I only learned about it in the last day also,” Robert said angrily. “And I’m the Director of the FBI. Agent Tanaka, among the duties you have as a member of law enforcement, is to report all crimes that come to your attention. Can you explain to me why you didn’t do this in the matter of Emiko Takagi’s death?”
“Director, before answering, can I ask a simple question?”
“Yes, Agent Tanaka, you may.”
“Director, have you read the emails I mentioned in the affidavit?”
“Yes. Agent Tanaka, I have. Scott Avery accessed your email account for me this morning. Now answer my question.”
Gabrielle took a deep breath. “Sir, it became obvious to me from the beginning that certain Swan Song members had little interest in making sure Agents Ripley and Chrysanthemum survived their mission. On a plane travelling from Japan back to the United States, I overheard Deputy Director Williamson and Major Ed Hollins discussing Ripley’s chances of survival. They talked about odds like it was some kind of Kentucky Derby wagering pool.”
“In the first few weeks after Ripley took Beancounter’s place, Deputy Director Williamson showed great impatience with Ripley because of the time she was taking to put the ghost program on her computers.”
“I and other Swan Song members reminded the Deputy Director that Operational Security and personal safety had to be factored in when considering how long Ripley would need to accomplish tasks given to her. Deputy Director Williamson remained of the same mindset.”
“Deputy Director Williamson may or may not have had a likable attitude, but you had a job to do.”
“I agree sir, but how was I to conduct myself? Deputy Director Williamson had a complete disregard for not just Agent Ripley but for others who interfered with his plans. The Double Helix project has callously, and with reckless disregard for safety and the lives of the volunteers, simply dumped patients who reacted angrily when their bodies rejected Dr. Wagner’s formula or some mutation happened. Need I remind the Director of the continuing scandal surrounding the Tuskegee medical experiments, or the recent controversies involving atomic testing in Nevada and the Pacific trust territories? I had no way of knowing how far up the chain of command this seeming conspiracy reached, nor how willing the participants might be to ‘silence’ anyone who threatened to ‘rock the boat’ in any significant way.”
She paused to let this last statement hang in the air, eyes locked on his until he glanced down at his papers again. “Would I be safe if I had blown a whistle on those who killed Emiko Takagi? Sir, I had no way of knowing if Deputy Director Williamson was the leader or was just taking orders from someone higher up.”
She paused again, but this time he didn’t raise his head from the papers before him. She felt more confident, for the short run at least. “I apologize for any embarrassment I caused but the only choices that seemed available to me came with great risk to my personal safety, and more importantly, Agent Ripley. All the internecine Swan Song power struggles could have compromised her or left her with no support at all. A deep penetration agent deserves nothing less than total support.”
Grant stared at Gabrielle. “Agent Tanaka, what are your future plans?”
“If you’ll let me, Director, I want to see Swan Song through to its conclusion. After that, I’m prepared to leave the Bureau. Right now there isn’t a committee member who has my feel for Swan Song. Ripley needs a handler who will always have her best interests in mind. I’m the person to do that, Sir. If you will allow me.”
“No one is indispensible, Agent Tanaka.” He seemed to be trying to regain the upper hand.
He wasn’t succeeding, as far as she was concerned. “Respectfully, Sir, I think Agent Ripley would disagree with you.”
“Agent Tanaka, have you become personally involved with Ripley?”
“Yes, Sir, I have. We have become very close friends. I’m also friendly with her parents.”
“The Japanese are likely to have a problem working with you because of your affidavit.”
“Sir, if you don’t mind me being frank, they need to get over themselves. I didn’t take part in a cold-blooded murder plot; they did, Unless Swan Song intends to murder me, and face the likely consequences, I don’t believe that they can afford to do anything about their ‘problems’ without risking personal and departmental disaster.”
The Director looked at her, then gave her a reluctant, if slightly grim smile and a shrug. “OK. I concede your point, but dammit, Agent Tanaka, this whole operation has been an utter fiasco, almost from the beginning.”
“Not entirely, Sir, at least those portions of it directly involving Ripley. She’s been amazingly effective in ferreting out the deep structure of the gang, at great personal risk, and has produced many megabytes of data that disclose every important aspect of the Watanabe empire. All this will be thrown away if the Japanese decide to prosecute her, because she is the only one who can verify it, and testify as to its source and authenticity. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was at least one government official in the pay of one gang or another with the deliberate intention of thwarting the investigation because it might compromise persons high in the government itself. But there is a more important issue regarding my own continued participation in Swan Song. Director, can you allow me some of your time to tell you about it now?”
“Go ahead, Agent Tanaka.”
“I was sighted in Hong Kong on at least two occasions by members of the Golden Dragons triad. The Golden Dragons and the Watanabes are business partners. There is a good chance the Golden Dragons will share their information about me. My cover is probably blown.”
“How do you expect to work on Swan Song then?”
“I’d either have to work somewhere outside of Japan, perhaps in South Korea or on Guam. Otherwise, if it can be arranged, I could work from Yokota Air Force Base or another American military installation in Japan. Of course I’d most likely have to be confined to base.”
“Another possibility would be my taking Charles McBride’s place after getting treated by Dr. Wagner. That option assumes that Charles McBride doesn’t return to his wife.”
“That sounds all very difficult and complicated, Agent Tanaka.”
“I know, Sir, but Agent Ripley may not wish to continue doing Swan Song if I am not working with her.” Gabrielle knew she was being pushy with the FBI Director, but what other choice did she have? She’d played her best hand, but the Director didn’t know what she might have as a ‘hole card,’ so the bluff seemed plausible, and predictable if she’d had much more in reserve.
Robert remained silent for over a minute, obviously thinking about his own best interest as well as that of the Department.
To Gabrielle it seemed like forever.
At last, he set his jaw and said, “Agent Tanaka, you’re still part of Swan Song.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“You’re going to have a new superior in not too long. I’m not sure who he or she will be, but I expect you to cooperate with them fully. You won’t get a third chance. Agent Tanaka.”
“I’ll perform my Bureau duties to the best of my ability, Sir.”
“That’s all, Agent Tanaka.”
“Director, I think I may have solved the problem of finding someone to help Ripley after she goes back to Japan. Can I tell you about that now?”
“Weren’t you preparing a report on just that?
“Yes, Sir, I was. I just came up with an idea that I hadn’t considered before starting on my report. It might be easier to explain it verbally.”
“Agent Tanaka, I have a few things that need to be done right this moment. In thirty minutes I can see you again. When you return, bring any other persons that will be needed for your idea.”
“I will do that, Sir,” Gabrielle replied at the same time she tried to think of the people she wanted for the meeting. “They’ll include Dr. Wagner, Inspector Yoshida of the Yokohama Police, Hong Kong Probationary Inspector Maurice Gao, Greg Pritchard from the United States Department of Justice, The Public Safety Intelligence Agency representative who’s here at Pine Gap, plus Deputy Director Williamson.”
“I’ll notify Deputy Director Williamson of the meeting. Can you take care of the others for me, Agent Tanaka?”
“Yes, Director, I can.”
“We’re done for now or do you have any questions?”
“No, Director, I do not. May I be excused now?”
“Yes, Agent Tanaka, you may go.”
Air Force Major Audrey Grasso was just finishing up her outline of how her legal theory of the crime would work to her client, Agent Ripley, but with a small audience, her parents, who Hiromi had insisted on including in the conference. “This strategy, I think, will persuade the Japanese not to charge you with any crime, Captain Slater,” she said
“Are you sure it will work?” Midori Slater asked.
“There are no guarantees, Ma’am. Japanese prosecutors have immense discretion in who they decide to prosecute or choose not to prosecute, but the risks to the government are very high, especially when considering the potential political repercussions.”
“Are Japanese criminal trials by Judge or Jury?” Stuart Slater asked.
“At the moment they are by Judge. A law was passed in 2004 for Trial by Jury in the case of serious crimes but trials are still before a judge. It is supposed to change soon.”
“We can fight my extradition if needed?”
“Yes, Captain, we can do that and we would have a good chance of succeeding, for almost the same reasons. The US government will be just as reluctant to air their ‘dirty laundry’ in a potentially hostile political environment. We have no equivalent to the British “Official Secrets Act” to interfere with the freedom of the press to poke their noses into anything they choose to pay attention to, and there would be wide interest in this story.”
“If not for the political connections of that agent’s father-in-law, Rebecca wouldn’t be in danger of being charged with Ogawa’s murder. Am I correct?” Stuart asked.
“Dad, we’re not sure that is why this is happening.”
“I know, Rebecca, but it is the only thing that makes sense.”
Audrey spoke up. “Sometimes bad prosecutorial decisions are made.”
“Prosecutors are people too and they make mistakes,” Hiromi said.
“Or they let politics influence their decision making,” Stuart added, stubborn in his belief that his child was being singled out for some overriding reason.
“Maybe I should talk to this man. I will ask what will putting Rebecca in prison do to bring back his son-in-law?” Midori said.
Audrey spoke to Rebecca. “Ma’am, Sir, it would be very unwise for you to contact anyone directly, since it might be seen as an attempt to pervert the course of justice in a case in which you have a personal interest. Not only might this adversely affect your daughter’s case, but you might also be subject to individual prosecution. I’m going to request a meeting with senior Swan Song officials. We will present our case there in proper legal form, without threats of blackmail or the disclosure of military or intelligence secrets on our part, but calling attention none-the-less to the fact that those very secrets would make a full defense difficult to impossible, since simply revealing the identity of ‘Hiromi’ as a US Officer would give the whole game away from the start, and we can’t be forced to stand mute if they accuse her of being the original Hiromi all long, which is the only way I can see that they could make this whole case hang together without spilling the beans about everything.”
Stuart thought about this for a few seconds, then said, “Will the meeting take place today?”
“I don’t think so. Minister Hatoyama is not at Pine Gap today.”
Rebecca asked Audrey if there was anything else that needed discussing. The JAG attorney said no. After Hiromi said goodbye to her parents, she and the JAG attorney went back to the debriefing room.
Gabrielle was surprised to hear raised voices as she approached the room she had been assigned to do her work in. She opened the door not knowing what to expect.
Maurice Gao was shaking his finger at people in the room. “Do any of you have the slightest bit of honor? How do you go to sleep at night? I don’t know how you can. You had an innocent person killed and now you’re abusing the person who uncovered your disgusting acts! You’re not police, you’re……”
Gabrielle walked right up to Maurice as the Probationary Inspector insulted almost everyone in the room. “Maurice, please calm down. I appreciate your coming to my defense, but I will handle it.”
Somebody muttered something in Japanese. Maurice blew off more steam in response.
“I heard that. Now come out and say that to my face, you coward!”
Gabrielle got in Maurice’s face. “You have a job to do, I have a job to do, they have jobs to do as well, and most of them are probably just trying to do them as usual in a situation that’s completely unprecedented.” Gabrielle then turned to face some of those Maurice was arguing with. “Let’s start being the professionals we’re supposed to be, and get to work.”
Everything began to settle down. Everyone who wasn’t at their work station already, went back to it. The only exception was Gabrielle.
She went to Inspector Yoshida. “Inspector, the FBI Director wants to speak with you and several other people, including me, in twenty minutes.”
Inspector Yoshida looked at his watch while Gabrielle told him where the meeting was to be held. “I will be there, Tanaka-san.”
Gabrielle spoke to Maurice next. “Maurice, we need to talk, but I have a few things to do first. Can you be ready in ten minutes?”
Maurice was a little bit mystified. “Yes Gabrielle, I can. By the way, I fixed your work station.”
“Thank you for doing that, and for sticking up for me. We’ll talk some more later. Let me get some work done now.”
Gabrielle went to her work station and brought up the first of her two Agent Ripley reports. She had eight copies of it printed. While that was being done, Gabrielle called Dr. Wagner and two other people in order to inform them of the meeting with FBI Director Mueller.
After everything was printed, Gabrielle went through each of the eight separate copies of reported and using a yellow highlighter, marked certain sections. When that task was completed, she went and got Maurice Gao.
“Where are we going, Gabrielle?”
“We will be meeting with the FBI Director. Maurice, how would you like to help Agent Ripley and the Swan Song committee?
“I thought I was doing that already.”
Gabrielle took Maurice to an empty room. “As you know, Ripley needs an assistant. This morning while talking to her, she unknowingly made a suggestion about how someone can be brought into her inner circle without arousing suspicion. You’re the person I’m going to recommend to the FBI Director.”
“I’m honored, Gabrielle, I really am. Can you tell me why you selected me?”
“Yes, Maurice, I can, and I think you’re going to like it, despite the danger,” Gabrielle said. “Now listen carefully…..”
Hideichi Ishimoto paid a visit to the offices of Kanagawa Enterprises. He wanted to see Joji Sato.
“What can I do for you, Ishimoto-san?” Joji asked.
“How is our Oyabun today?”
“He is not feeling well and has asked not to be disturbed.” Joji had been a faithful aide to Keiji Watanabe for almost twenty years. One of his new tasks was to screen who could and who could not pay a visit to the ailing Oyabun.
“I have a message for the Oyabun,” Hideichi said as he passed an envelope to Joji. “When do you see him next?”
“I am supposed to visit the Oyabun tomorrow. When I see him, I will deliver your message, Ishimoto-san.”
Yasuhiko had just arrived back at the offices of the Kanagawa Shimbun newspaper. It was time for him to begin writing an article for the next day’s early edition.
As promised, articles and photographs had been put on his desk by someone working in the newspaper’s morgue. After lighting up a cigarette, Yasuhiko began examining the materials.
City Editor Iwao Endo stopped by. “I hear Mana-san confirmed the Watanabe connection to the Rosebud.”
“Yes, she did. The morgue has these for me also.”
Iwao looked at the news clippings and photos. “Goro Watanabe was very open in comparison to most of these gangsters.”
“I know, Edno-san. At one time, he knew I was writing an unfavorable story on his Yakuza, but he insisted on shaking my hand.”
“Yes, I recall that,” Iwao said as he looked at an old Kanagawa Shimbun article. Alongside it was a photo of Goro Watanabe waving to reporters as he prepared to enter the offices of Kanagawa Enterprises. “If Watanabe-san had been less open, he may still be alive today.”
“You might be right, Endo-san. Because I was on vacation at the time, I was unable to report on his murder.”
Iwao put the newspaper clippings back on Yasuhiko’s desk. “I will not keep you from your work any longer, Yasuhiko-san. Do you have any questions for me?”
“No, Endo-san, I do not.”
“The article I want is a broad overview of last night’s fire. The article should tell readers how the fire happened and why, including the suspected involvement of a rival Yakuza gang.”
“I understand, Endo-san.”
“Please prepare a small preview as quickly as possible. I want to give both Shimbun readers and visitors to our webpage a small taste of what will be in tomorrow’s newspaper.”
“The quicker you leave me alone, Endo-san, the quicker I can get you that preview you ask of me.” Iwao laughed in a good hearted fashion before walking away.
Everyone who had been invited to the impromptu Swan Song meeting had now gathered in Robert Mueller’s office. The first thing Gabrielle did was to hand out a copy of her report.
“Thank you, Agent Tanaka,” Robert said. “You can now start with your verbal report.”
“One of the biggest obstacles Swan Song faces if Agent Ripley’s revised plan is to go ahead, is the task of finding her an assistant. Inspector Yoshida, Dr. Wagner, and I have been discussing that topic since last week. None of us were able to come up with a proposal at that time.”
“The level of difficulty in finding a suitable assistant is multifold. We have no one inside her inner circle at present and to get a new agent entry into that group won’t be easy.”
No one disagreed.
“The new agent won’t just have to gain entry, but be a trained professional before getting their assignment and have to undergo further training in order for him or her to assist Ripley.”
“Anyone of you may ask, ‘Why don’t we recruit someone already inside Ripley’s inner circle?’ The problem we’re presented with in that scenario is how we get that person Swan Song trained? If he or she were suddenly to go away for an extended holiday, the Watanabes may become suspicious.”
“One more difficulty is that any new assistant to Agent Ripley should be totally familiar with Operation Swan Song and its objectives. There are just not that many people who fit even a subset of these qualifications.”
Grant Williamson spoke “But, Agent Tanaka, we’re assuming that, because you’ve gone to the trouble of calling this meeting, you’ve come up with a way to get around the obstacles you’ve just outlined.”
“Yes, Sir, I believe I have. I think, with a little bit of luck, the Swan Song committee can get up to four people close to Ripley in order to assist her in her mission.”
“Four?” Inspector Yoshida asked in disbelief.
“Yes, I said four. My proposal should be able to get us at least two, with a little luck we will have four, or three plus a fourth person as an emergency contact to cover contingencies.”
“Up to now there have never been more two Swan Song agents in the field,” Grant remarked.
Gabrielle was going to make a strong counterpoint but Inspector Yoshida beat her to it. “It has always been my opinion Swan Song has been grossly understaffed.”
“The stakes are bigger, as are the risks, if Ripley returns to Yokohama. We should supply Ripley with as much backup as possible.”
“You think we can get Ripley up to four assistants. Tell us how the committee can do that, Agent Tanaka,” Robert said.
“If everyone will turn to page seven of my report,” Gabrielle said before pausing. “You will read about my plan to plant a policewoman as Agent Ripley’s Au Pair or Nanny.”
“Dr. Wagner, have we gotten Agent Ripley’s bloodwork results yet?” Robert asked.
“Yes, I did, she is pregnant, and a professional woman like Hiromi Sato will be in need of childcare help.”
Gabrielle segued smoothly from there into her plan. “I did some quick checking, there is an employment agency based out of Tokyo, Kanto Elite, which provides Nannys and Au Pairs to wealthy Japanese couples. Members of Japan’s Royal Family have used Kanto in the past, so this would be a very natural choice for Hiromi to contact as her pregnancy progresses. If the Agency is contacted discreetly, I believe that there is a good chance they will be willing to assist Swan Song.”
“Does anyone disagree?” Robert asked. No one voiced an objection to Gabrielle’s proposal.
“We can approach a policewoman from outside the Greater Tokyo area. Or maybe even a police academy student. The recruiting of a volunteer shouldn’t be too difficult,” Inspector Yoshida said.
“A legend will have to be created also for this person,” Grant said. Legend was espionage jargon for a cover story.
Robert spoke next. “Mr. Akimoto, can the Public Safety Intelligence Agency take care of those details for us?”
Since introducing himself when he first came in the room, Rintaro Akimoto had been daydreaming for much of this meeting. Operation Swan Song wasn’t about to be continued, so Rintaro considered all the talk about a legend for a domestic servant a waste of time.
Rintaro kept his feelings to himself and answered the question. “Yes, Director-san, we can.”
“Agent Tanaka, you do know Ripley won’t be in need of an Au Pair or Nanny for some time yet,” Grant said.
“Yes, Deputy Director, I do. That particular assistant would be among the last to take their place, but in fact she might reasonably choose to ‘pre-employ’ a nanny as an au pair in order to familarize her with the needs of the household. In Hong Kong, she’s had a household staff and a much larger home, and she’ll need to find an apartment with more room in any case, to accommodate a baby, so the change from her former situation with her husband wouldn’t be suspicious, no matter what that situation turns out to be, and no matter what the timing.”
Robert also knew Ripley’s Swan Song assignment might not last till the time she was going to experience childbirth. The FBI Director made no mention of this because it would consume even more time on a contingency that was still many months away.
Gabrielle asked everyone to turn to page five. “The person who can be most swiftly prepped for Ripley’s assistance at this time is Yuri Alexandrovich Titov.”
“Is this all we know about Mr. Titov?” Robert asked. He was referring to the slim biographical material on Titov in Gabrielle’s report.
“Yes, it is, Director. I was hoping either you or Deputy Director Williamson knew someone in Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs who could tell us more about Mr. Titov.”
“We do know someone that can answer our inquiries, Agent Tanaka. Mr. Titov is in Russia right now?”
“Yes, he is. He went to visit his sick mother. She lives in the St. Petersburg area.” Gabrielle told everyone about Hiromi Sato’s bodyguard detail. Roger Hyde leads the unit, Yuri was unofficially his second in command. When Hiromi Sato moved around Yokohama and Kanagawa Prefecture, at least three to four bodyguards followed her everywhere.
“I see you mention Mr. Hyde as another possibility,” Robert said.
“Yes, he is, but Agent Ripley thought Yuri Titov was the better option due to his being away right now. Yuri could be approached without raising suspicion.”
“Does Ripley know how to contact Mr. Titov?”
Ӭ
“Yes, I believe she does. It was Ripley who suggested Titov as a possible assistant to her. He’s been a bodyguard to Hiromi Sato for a decade and the two of them have a good working relationship.”
“Ripley could call Titov, and using some pretense, ask that he come to Australia. When he arrives the real purpose of his summons can be revealed,” Grant Williamson thought out loud.
A discussion followed Grant’s remarks. The general consensus of the room was that Yuri Titov was a very strong option but a background check would need to be done first.
Maurice spoke up. “Do the Watanabes know Ripley is in Australia now?”
Gabrielle answered the question. “Yes, they do.”
“Is it possible the Watanabes could check on her activities here?”
Robert answered Maurice’s question. “We are taking precautions, Inspector. The McBride home in Alice is being watched. Charges are being made to Hiromi Sato’s credit cards to make it look like she is leading a normal routine here.”
Maurice nodded his head gently. “Thank you for answering my question, Director.”
Gabrielle looked over at Maurice. ‘Be patient, your turn will be coming soon.’
“Who is the next possibility, Agent Tanaka?” Robert asked.
“One of the two banks Hiromi Sato owns will be opening a new branch in Yokohama. The committee can use that as opportunity to plant another assistant close to Ripley. Before I address that, I think we need to discuss Charles McBride first."
“Yes, Agent Tanaka,” Grant said. “I was wondering when you would get around to Economist.”
The last pages of Gabrielle’s report were titled, The Charles McBride Factor.
“Yes, Sir, I’m coming to that. Charles McBride, Ripley’s husband, has always been something of a wildcard in this operation, largely due to the lack of staffing and funding alluded to by Inspector Yoshida. Had we been properly prepared for his presence — for example by someone looking at the telephone directory listings for Hiromi Sato’s apartment address and seeing his name, or by having someone ring the doorbell during the months leading up to the operation — we might have been able to plan for his existence, but this wasn’t done. At this point, we have the option of abandoning the effort with exactly zero net result, and a legacy of dismal failure, or trying to recover from where we are today. We’ve already frittered away the lives of three agents and an inside informant, collectively arranged an extra-judicial homicide, put Ripley into a situation in which she was bound to run into direct involvement in criminal activities, and probably thrown away the careers of everyone in this room, my own included. I think it would be nice to be able to look back on this with at least the pleasure of having accomplished something.”
There was an immediate uproar of outraged protest, brought to a close by Robert Mueller, who banged on the table with one hand until people stopped talking. “Gentlemen, please pay careful attention to what Agent Tanaka is saying, because she’s addressing points about which both your own superiors and mine may be asking pointed questions in the very near future. Don’t think you’ll be able to escape censure, or even jail, by ratting out the other members of the Committee. In foul-ups of this gravity, the more scapegoats the better. In US history, there is a notable figure, Benjamin Franklin, one of the framers of our system of government and one of the plotters of the Revolution that began it, who famously observed that ‘We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.’ We’re in exactly that position now. Our choice is not between waltzing away scot-free and being embarrassed later, it’s between being dismissed — and possibly prosecuted — over a complete disaster and being chagrinned over serious mistakes in what might otherwise be a potential success.”
He faced Gabrielle directly, “Agent Tanaka, could you please continue?”
“Yes, Sir. Despite our intelligence failures, the quick thinking of Agent Ripley, and her ability to adapt to what would have otherwise been an impossible situation, managed to save the operation when Economist suddenly appeared out of thin air.”
“Just speaking for myself,” Inspector Yoshida said. “I always thought Ripley couldn’t keep McBride from learning of her deception. At some point during Swan Song I expected her to end the relationship rather than risk McBride blowing her through some fit of anger.”
Gabrielle answered promptly. “With all due respect, Inspector, you’re speaking with the benefit of perfect hindsight. In fact, Ripley’s maintenance of her cover was so perfect that it was only last weekend, July 26th-27th, that Charles McBride finally learned of his wife’s double life. Other than his vague awareness of the absence of a scar on his wife’s leg, another failure on our part which could easily have been corrected before insertion, McBride never once suspected that the real Hiromi Sato had been replaced with a lookalike. In maintaining her cover, Ripley was forced into a continuing sexual relationship with Economist, and over the course of this year fell in love with him, for reasons which must be obvious to most of you, exacerbated by the fact that she’d retained a large portion of the real Hiromi’s memories, a known potential side-effect of the Double Helix process. Ripley had no choice in this, because the sudden disappearance of Economist from her life would certainly have occasioned comment and suspicion among the Yakuza, especially if it came immediately after an absence in which she’d been out of touch with other members of the family and the gang. They might well have reacted by killing him, as they often do any member of the ‘family’ who deserted them.”
Maurice interjected an excited question. “So you’re saying that in some sense Ripley is Hiromi Sato, that we’ve essentially suborned the real Hiromi into revealing Yakuza secrets?”
“Not exactly,” she said, “but not too far off either. Ripley is — as I understand it, and Ripley herself has tried to explain to me without complete success — ‘merged’ with the original Hiromi. Ripley has detailed memories even of the original Hiromi’s childhood, as well as her own, mixed in a sort of dual personality, and can easily recognize people we knew nothing about, so didn’t include in her briefings. At this point, Doctor Wagner has no control of which of her subjects experiences this sort of ‘mind transfer,’ nor how extensive that transfer is if it happens, but perhaps further research will allow us to control the effect.”
Director Mueller said, “So we’ve actually done much more than created a nearly-perfect spy, but have in some sense recreated the actual person, Hiromi Sato, but with American values and loyalties overlaid on the old memories?”
Dr. Wagner interrupted impatiently, “Director Mueller! That’s entirely premature at this point, since we’ve only seen this nearly complete transference and merging in one case, Ripley’s. We’re working on the problem, but at this point our astonishing success with Ripley is unmatched, although she shares some similarities with my own case, and a few others we’ve encountered. Far more common are those who never feel fully comfortable in their new bodies, and become what are essentially iatrogenic transsexuals, as dissociated from their bodies as native transsexuals, so much so that many of our early volunteers, who were prisoners, wanted to return to their original bodies so badly that they volunteered to finish serving out the sentences they’d been promised they’d be pardoned from, if only we could undo what had been done. The medical patients, for whom the process had been a way out of a fatal prognosis, were understandably less enthused about returning to their old bodies, but expressed longing for their old sex, at least, whether male or female originally.”
The Director started to say “But...” when the doctor interrupted.
“Be patient, Director. We’re already able to reverse the process fairly reliably and safely, and have a good handle on the mental changes, but we can’t cut corners any more, and are now working exclusively with volunteers who are fully aware of the risks and who are psychologically prepared — and in some cases anxious — to remain in their new sex forever. Such people are surprisingly easy to find.”
Gabrielle added, “With your permission, Director, Ripley was at the time of her flight to Australia fully aware of the dangers to Chuck McBride and to herself, and saw no realistic way in which her revelation to her husband could be delayed any further. She and her husband were both in mortal danger of assassination; she was about to meet with the committee at a highly secure location which offered at least a temporary haven, and the press of events — including her pregnancy — had made it imperative that Charles McBride be told about Swan Song so he could avoid actions which might be fatal. Ripley had delayed telling her husband until they were far removed from anyone directly connected with the Yakuza, but criminal associates of the Japanese Yakuza may be found all round the world, and they were still in danger, even here. I believe that she was justified in this, and that any legal inquiry would determine that her judgement was probably sound. She’s shown remarkable ingenuity and resourcefulness thus far, and recently commented that it was obvious that what the problem had needed all along was the attention of a decent systems analyst, among whom she evidently includes herself.”
Inspector Yoshida said, “But isn’t it true that this Charles McBride threatened to go public with his information? That doesn’t sound reasonable, and it doesn’t sound like she had made any sort of sound judgement.”
Gabrielle nodded. “McBride did threaten to go public, but he was very angry at the time, but not so angry that he made any direct threat, whether physical or psychological intimidation, toward his wife or any others after her confession to him. As for his threats, I don’t believe he’ll succeed, unless it’s a very slow news day, because at least part of his story is as incredible as blue rays from flying saucers or alien abductions by gray people from Alpha Centauri. Pod people? Duplicates who look exactly like ‘real people,’ but are different somehow. Haven’t we all seen this movie before? I believe Ripley has.”
“Has McBride followed through on any of his threats?” Inspector Yoshida asked.
“Not at this time,” Grant answered. “We have him under constant surveillance. He’s talked to several lawyers — or advocates, whatever you call them here — but that seems unlikely to result in any action, since the first thing a lawyer will do is call up someone to verify the facts.”
The Inspector agreed. “McBride may have a very difficult time convincing someone that his story is true. Frankly, up to eighteen months ago, I would have dismissed someone as a nut if they told me there was a formula like the one invented by Dr. Wagner.”
Dr. Wagner wasn’t just unfazed by Inspector Yoshida’s comment but considered it a compliment. She smiled. Many famous scientists throughout human history had been dismissed as nuts before their theories were proven true or their scientific experiments had been completed successfully.
“That is true, Inspector,” Gabrielle said. “But if Charles McBride convinces just one person, it be might be enough to blow Swan Song and uncover the Double Helix project in the process, and any publicity will certainly alert foreign intelligence agencies to the possibility that it might be true, and force them to be on the lookout for such things.”
“Too bad the Australians don’t have their own version of the Official Secrets Act,” Grant remarked. The British Official Secrets Act, first passed in the late 19th century, provided protection to state secrets and certain public information. Some British Commonwealth countries had their own versions of the law, but Australia wasn’t one of them.
“Has Ripley tried calling her husband?” Robert asked.
“No, Director, she has not.” In fact, Hiromi hadn’t mentioned to Gabrielle how she would inform Chuck of her pregnancy.
“Maybe someone should suggest to Ripley that she should try calling McBride with her news.”
Gabrielle got Robert Mueller’s hint. She would pass on his indirect order the next time she spoke with Rebecca, but wanted to make it clear that Chuck’s concern was justified. “Director, even if Chuck were to return to his wife’s side this instant, the issue of his anger over the real Hiromi Sato’s kidnapping and imprisonment is unlikely to go away. McBride said to Ripley that he won’t abandon her. He wants Beancounter treated well, and I believe that serious consideration should be given to placing her in witness protection.”
“Agent Tanaka, are you really saying that Charles McBride will demand witness protection in return for not blowing the lid on Swan Song?” Robert Mueller asked.
“Charles McBride hasn’t said that, but yes, that is exactly what is likely to occur in any best case scenario, Director.”
“The decision to put Hiromi Sato in witness protection can only be made by the Japanese. At this moment, I think it is very unlikely to happen,” Robert said.
“I think a request by McBride that Beancounter be put in witness protection is also out of line. She has committed many serious crimes,” Inspector Yoshida added.
“That may be true, Inspector, but how are Japanese authorities supposed to keep Beancounter’s high-handed incarceration without charges or action in a court of law, nor benefit of legal counsel, and in solitary isolation — a technique euphemistically known as ‘white torture,’ and a crime under international and Japanese law — from tainting any prosecution?” Gabrielle countered. “Be careful what you wish for, Inspector, or we may all share adjoining cells. Unlike the Unit 731 medical experimentation, there is no likely possibility of covering this up. Too many people know about it, and the tracks are plain if anyone starts down the path.”
For the second time in just a few hours, Gabrielle had made the Yokohama policeman very uncomfortable, Unit 731 had been a company of Japanese doctors and other medical personnel who had performed cruel — and often fatal — medical experiments on captured Chinese, Koreans, and US soldiers during World War II. For geo-political reasons, primarily the building enmity with the Soviets, the US had co-operated with the Japanese government to cover up these crimes after the war, and the Japanese were still very reluctant to admit to any war crimes during the war, so her mention of it would be considered a grave insult to Japanese national honor. Her work relationship with Inspector Yoshida and the any other member of Japanese law enforcement would never be the same again.
“The fact of the matter is, any future prosecution of any Watanabe could be tainted by Swan Song. A Japanese defense attorney could make a strong case for entrapment and collusion by the authorities themselves, because Swan Song was pulling the strings behind many ‘Yakuza’ operations.”
“Agent Tanaka, there are more than subtle differences between United States and Japanese law and criminal procedures. The percentage of criminal defendants found guilty is also much higher in Japan,” Grant said.
“I know that, Director, but the possibility of political suicide during these putative prosecutions is also very great. You know what they say, everything comes out in the wash, and all the dirty little secrets will be revealed. All I am doing is pointing out a few of the many cogent reasons in favor of Beancounter being placed in witness protection.”
Robert looked at Gabrielle. He didn’t like the arrogance she sometimes displayed when talking about Swan Song. If her arguments weren’t so likely to be proved right, And if she didn’t know so much already, he’d take Gabrielle off her present assignment.
Greg Pritchard from the United States Department of Justice, spoke up for the first time. “I don’t know what my department’s stance would be on Hiromi Sato being put in witness protection.”
“Mr. Pritchard, I’ll speak to the Attorney General on this matter, if and when the time comes,” Robert said.
“Thank you, Director.”
Grant spoke up again. “The South Koreans would also have to be consulted if witness protection is being considered for Beancounter.”
“Yes, Grant, I’m aware of that,” Robert replied. No South Korean representative was at the meeting. For most of Swan Song they had also been absent and their only real operational interest was the identification of Judge Song’s murderers.
Even if the South Koreans were present, they would probably be uninterested in Beancounter’s ultimate fate. Robert would mention all of this to Grant after the current meeting was over.
After looking at Gabrielle’s report for half a minute, Robert spoke again. “I think we can postpone for now any further discussion of Beancounter being placed in witness protection. Does anyone object to that?”
Nobody in the room disagreed with Robert Mueller.
“That brings us back to Charles McBride,” Gabrielle said at last. “Even if he does come back, and I believe he will come back, because he knows by now, or will shortly know, that he has a baby on the way. He’s not, I think, the sort of man to abandon his wife and child, but neither will he abandon his girlfriend at the drop of a hat, especially in a situation as complex as this one is. In some ways, he’s married to both of them, because he didn’t know that there were two of her until this weekend. Imagine how any of you would feel if you’d just been told that your wife was one of a matched pair, and at some point the one you knew had been switched with the other. In Chuck’s case, it’s been a year, but how does he convince himself that it’s true? He married Ripley, but thought he was marrying the original Hiromi, and the entirety of his recent life has just been revealed to be a Midsummer Nights Dream, ‘whilst these visions did appear.’ He’s just woken up and, instead of the Rachel he’d expected, the head lying next to him on the pillow is Leah, her sister. Stonker me blind, eh?”
Director Mueller asked, “So, once our wandering boy is back in the fold, do you think that he can be a contact for Ripley?”
“I don’t think so, Sir. McBride isn’t trained for covert work. He’s also a very honest man. Charles McBride would be able to give emotional support to his wife, but for him to actually do Swan Song-related tasks wouldn’t fit his personality profile. Other than giving Charles McBride some minor training in the receipt and sending of emergency communications, I think it would be ill-advised to make him an operational part of Swan Song. There’s too much risk that a small error, or a slip of the tongue, could cause us to lose Ripley.”
“Does anyone disagree?” Robert asked.
No one voiced disagreement with that part of Gabrielle’s report, so she continued, “There is one way Chuck McBride might be safely used to assist Ripley in her Swan Song work, but it would involve putting in a double with the help of Dr. Wagner, and leave Economist out of the picture entirely.”
Grant asked, “Before we get into that possibility, I’d like to address another issue, why not simply have Ripley return to Yokohama alone? Would suspicion be raised among the Watanabe Yakuza if Charles McBride were simply absent?
Gabrielle shook her head. “Suspicions would be putting it mildly, especially during a period of warfare between the Watanabes and the Inagawas. Charles McBride is the spouse of a Yakuza member. These people are rarely considered threats, but his case is more than slightly different. McBride is both non-Japanese and a man married to one of the Watanabe Yakuza’s highest ranking members.”
Inspector Yoshida nodded his head in agreement, his face impassive. “To date, McBride-san has never been seen as a threat. His easygoing personality and total lack of interest in his wife’s work have gained him some acceptance within the Watanabes. Hiromi Sato-san is the granddaughter of the present Oyabun Keiji Watanabe in addition to her duties as a Saiko-komon. Yakuzas show respect to Hiromi-san and this also flows downward to her husband. There is no way of telling if the Watanabes would become suspicious should McBride-san not return to Yokohama, but it seems reasonable to think that many would be surprised by Hiromi-san and Chuck-san breaking up so soon after they had gotten married. The surprise is likely to deepen when the Watanabes learn that Hiromi is pregnant. Before learning of his wife’s double life, McBride-san showed great enthusiasm about the possibility of he and Ripley-san having a child in the immediate future. His strange absence could raise red flags, and the typical Yakuza spouse is a woman, not a man. It’s easy for a woman to disappear from a Yakuza man’s radar screen, but because Chuck is a man, and physically larger than most Japanese men, he looms large in their eyes. His absence would be very noticeable.”
“I agree,” Gabrielle said, “and I believe he will come back, but we’ll need a contingency plan in place in case he decides to bug out for good, and that means having someone more-or-less ready to take his place within two, maybe three weeks. Is that possible, Dr. Wagner?”
“It could be, sooner, actually, in a real emergency. Most of the preparation time is taken up with tests and counselling, to make certain that the individual chosen to undergo the process knows exactly what will happen, and is genetically and physically healthy enough to survive the transition. The process itself takes only a day or two.”
“So, assuming we had such a person in hand, and already up-to-speed on Swan Song, it could be done very quickly?”
“Yes.” She looked toward her very carefully, obviously aware of who she had in mind.
Robert stopped reading the report. “Agent Tanaka, are you proposing yourself as the person to take Charles McBride’s place?”
“Yes, Director, I am. My intimate knowledge of Swan Song would, I think, make me the most suitable person for the job given the short timeframe that would be needed. My primary lack would be the financial aspects of Economist’s job, but perhaps he could take some time off to help Hiromi in the early stages of her pregnancy while I get up to speed. Since his wife owns the bank he works for, he might have a little bit of leeway in his working hours, and I don’t think his fellow employees would be suspicious of a new father-to-be re-prioritizing his time, especially if Ripley let it be known that she was worried about the pregnancy.”
“What will happen to the real Charles McBride? I don’t think he can be put in prison like was done with Beancounter,” Greg Pritchard remarked.
“No, Mr. Pritchard, I wasn’t proposing that Swan Song have Charles McBride arrested. I would take his place while he and Beancounter are placed in protective custody or witness protection.”
Maurice spoke up. “I recently read a psychiatric report on Beancounter. In her present state of mind I think she would reject McBride, and seems likely to require extensive rehabilitation due to the extreme psychological damage inflicted upon her during isolation. She has been isolated for so long, and was so fragile to begin with, that I think Beancounter is likely to think that all her close associates have abandoned her, just as she had been abandoned in childhood, and is now bordering on psychosis. Of course, I am not a lawyer, but under the Japanese State Liability Act I am given to understand that the Japanese members of the Swan Song Committee, at least, may have joint and several personal liability for the grossly negligent damages done to Hiromi Sato, probably amounting to several hundred billions of Yen, given her wealth and level of income before her illegal incarceration.”
Gabrielle looked at Maurice, doing her best to conceal her astonishment. “That’s a very good point, Inspector Gao. I believe that one of our priorities should include careful attention to Hiromi Sato’s mental health and well-being from here on out, and probably some immediate modification of her surroundings to eliminate the necessity of solitary confinement and the severe restrictions now placed on her freedom of movement. Since we obviously can’t allow her access to a telephone and a plane ticket without exposing the entire operation, I suspect this means some sort of miniature ‘Potemkin Village’ to offer her some sort of social interaction. This might also be useful to allay Chuck McBride’s fears for her, if he could see that she was being well-treated in some sort of mental health extended care facility rather than a prison cell, and make it more likely that he could be persuaded to keep quiet. I’m quite sure that he can be made to understand that Horomi’s life would be endangered if it came out that she’d been in prison, and insane, for any length of time.”
Grant shouted, “Are you insane? Have you any idea what a secure extended care facility would cost?”
Gabrielle said calmly, “Probably a lot less for you personally than a liability suit under the Federal Alien Tort Claims Act, and I for one would much rather see this on some governmental budget than coming out of my pocketbook. I’m also sure that when the Japanese members of our team have ample time to think things over calmly, they’ll also see the wisdom of removing Beancounter from Japanese soil.”
Director Mueller intervened, just as Grant was opening his mouth to retort. “That will do, Deputy Director Williamson. We’ll have plenty of time to hash this out, but I do understand Agent Tanaka’s point. We’ll have a much better chance of surviving this with some shreds of dignity left if we have something to show for it, and if we can blame some anonymous bureaucratic foul-up for the shocking conditions under which Beancounter has been held, which we rectified immediately when it was brought to our attention, we’re a little more likely to collect our pensions, at least.”
He then got the meeting focused again on how the committee could get Ripley assistants in Japan. “Can Agent Tanaka be made into Charles McBride’s double and be prepared in time for Ripley’s return to Yokohama?”
“I do not have a sample of Charles McBride’s DNA,” Dr. Wagner said. “Can Ripley provide me some?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, Doctor. We can get a sample from McBride with the use of a warrant if we have to,” Grant said.
“I’d strongly advise against that, Sir. He’s not very happy with us already, and there’s no sense rubbing his nose in it. If Ripley were to have some of her husband’s clothes, can you get a sample off of them to create your formula?” Gabrielle asked.
“Ya, I should be able to do that. I would need to examine the clothes first. A toothbrush or razor blade can be used too if she has them.”
Robert had a question. “What is McBride’s occupation?”
“He is a currency trader at Kanagawa Bank,” Inspector Yoshida replied.
“I would need a crash course in that line of work,” Gabrielle said.
Gabrielle might also be able to skate like Tom Slater did, on Chuck’s body memories, if Dr. Wagner had any clue about how to go about it. If she acquired some of Charles McBride’s memories, Gabrielle could access them to help her look and act genuine.
There was one risk if Gabrielle used that way to ease her transition to Chuck McBride, her personality might change just like Tom Slater’s had.
“Dr. Wagner, am I correct you would need three days to prepare a dose of your DNA formula?”
“Yes, Director, you are. May I ask a few questions of Agent Tanaka?”
“Of course, Doctor. Go right ahead.”
“Agent Tanaka, are you diabetic?”
“No, I am not.”
“Have you ever been pregnant?”
“No.”
“Do you have AIDS?”
“No.”
“Are you HIV positive?”
“No.”
“Can you tell me all prescription medications you are taking?”
“I am not taking any at this time.” Doctor Wagner asked Gabrielle six more questions about her medical history. The FBI answered them all in the negative.
“Unless my pre-op bloodscreening showed Agent Tanaka to have some abnormality, I could treat her as soon as my formula is ready.”
While Dr. Wagner and Robert Mueller talked, Gabrielle did some deep thinking. Rebecca would need not just help if she returned to Japan, but emotional support also. Her work was mentally stressful, and with a baby on the way she’d need someone even more to see to her emotional needs.
Gabrielle was willing to do that by becoming Chuck but she knew it came with a good dose of risk. She would be putting her life on the line, but since Rebecca was doing the same, Gabrielle couldn’t very well back down. The shared experience would make the relationship the two women had stronger than it was now and something that could never be broken.
What worried Gabrielle was that she might she lose her identity in the process? There were two present examples, right here at Pine Gap, of that happening to recipients of Dr. Wagner’s formula. Dr. Wagner herself, and Becky. Other than the brilliant scientific mind of Hans Svenson, there was nothing else recognizable in the woman he had become.
Rebecca was different. She still had Tom Slater’s sense of duty and honor and the love she had for her family was as strong as ever. Becky also seemed to still have some of Tom’s personal interests and she still had deep feelings for Gabrielle.
On the other hand Tom Slater had become a married woman and mother willingly and had embraced those profound changes in her life and personality eagerly, and with what looked like joy. Only a year before Tom Slater had said he would never let that happen to him, but the presence of Hiromi Sato’s memories due to Dr. Wagner’s formula, the stress of her Swan Song assignment, and the love of Charles McBride had made the unthinkable happen, but why would Tom have willingly, even joyfully, given up a large part of what had made him the man he was? Why had he allowed Hiromi to take him and use him like that? It didn’t make sense to her. Was it her love for Chuck? Perhaps even Tom’s love for her. because she’d sensed that she could never truly love a man? In the marriage ceremony you promised to love your spouse, forsaking all others; but did that vow include forsaking yourself, or was it only the parts of yourself that you could live without? the pettiness, the childish anger, the selfish parts of you that held you back from perfect love?
Gabrielle identified as a woman and only because she wanted to help Rebecca was she willing to become a man temporarily. She was worried that, if her gender change become permanent because of the Swan Song work Gabrielle would need to do, plus the necessary impersonation of Chuck McBride, the very core of her identity as Gabrielle could be lost. The enormity of what Tom had done suddenly overwhelmed her, he’d given up his life for the man he loved, maybe a little bit for her as well; was she brave enough to give up her life for Hiromi, to become the Chuck she needed at the cost of her own womanhood?
‘I already told Becky and the committee I’d be willing to become Chuck, it is too late to turn back. Becky needs me to be there for her.’ Gabrielle told herself. She also remembered Tonichi Ogawa as Reina Shimizu. Apparently he hadn’t lost his identity because of her Swan Song work. He had told Ripley on more than one occasion how much she missed her wife and son. ‘You’ll be strong just like Tonichi was. When Swan Song is over, you go back to Dr. Wagner. It will happen that way.’
A question from Robert Mueller caused Gabrielle to snap back to the outside world. “Agent Tanaka, can you ask Agent Ripley if she has some of McBride’s clothing the next time you see her?”
“Yes, Director, I can. I will also ask her to call Charles McBride in order to learn his status.”
“Dr. Wagner, I will be meeting with the Japanese Justice Minister tomorrow. I will see you afterwards about whether we will need you to make the formula we just discussed.”
“I will be at Pine Gap the rest of the day and tomorrow, Director. The medical examinations of Agent Ripley will begin tonight.”
“Agent Tanaka, what is the forth option for getting Ripley an assistant?”
“While talking to Ripley, she informed me that East China Commerce Bank, one of two banks she owns, will be opening a branch in Yokohama on September 9th. The bank will begin hiring clerical personnel soon.”
The East China Commerce Bank branch in Yokohama would be strictly in the business of making loans. Mostly to Japanese entrepreneurs who wanted to invest in mainland China.
“Are you proposing the committee place an operative at East China as a secretary or in another similar job?”
“Yes, Director, I am. The person I am recommending for the job is with us now. It is Probationary Inspector Maurice Gao of the Hong Kong police.”
Six sets of eyes in the room turned towards Maurice. He sat motionless, though on the inside, his heart was racing at what might lie ahead for her.
As long as he could remember, Maurice had thought of himself as a girl. Her soul had been born mistakenly in the wrong body. Maurice hated looking at himself in the mirror from an early age and when growing up he was more interested in what girls were doing than fellow boys.
Maurice had had some good luck in life. At age six, while his parents were feuding, he went to live in Japan with his Aunt and Uncle who had three daughters. His Aunt Xing had scolded him when she’d discovered him mooning over his cousin’s things one day, but seemed not to care otherwise, and had sometimes allowed Maurice to wear his cousin’s old clothing, as long as it was very clear that he was not to disgrace the family name by failing to provide a male heir to the Gao clan, or to cause any public scandal. That was why he’d told Gabrielle Tanaka that the years he had lived in Kagoshima Japan were the happiest of his life.
The good time in Japan ended at age nine when Maurice had to return to Hong Kong. He pretended to be a boy when inside he was something entirely else and there were no releases for him. The emotions built up inside of him for ten years at which time Maurice graduated from Hong Kong’s police academy at age twenty.
A few weeks after his graduation date, and after he’d been inducted into the ranks of the Hong Kong police force, a nervous Maurice had walked into a women’s clothing store Kowloon-side. The shop owner was puzzled by the man who looked at female clothing. She approached Maurice.
Maurice took out his badge and showed it to the owner. “I work for the police. Next week I will have to dress as a woman in order to do undercover work in an anti-prostitution sting operation.”
The owner immediately understood. She told Maurice she always cooperated with the police. He bought his first female clothes that day. Before leaving the shop, he asked the owner for a receipt in order to make it look like he was making a legitimate police purchase.
Over the next few years, Maurice bought a small wardrobe that he kept locked away in the apartment he shared with another young policeman. Only when he was alone, did Maurice take out the clothes and put them on. It was a poor substitute for being a real woman, but what else could he do.
More recently Maurice had been lucky to have a supportive girlfriend. Her name was Lily Ng, and Maurice had met her on one of his excursions to the dress shop. Lily almost immediately pegged her future fiancée as a crossdresser.
“How did you know?”
“I have some gay friends, and we’ve had real undercover officers come in, looking like they’ve been stunned by one of those taser things, as embarrassed as if they’d been stripped naked with a big sign hung around their necks saying ‘gay boy,’ and they mumble their requests. You don’t look like them at all, but instead touch the clothes like any woman would, judging how they’d look on you, paying close attention to their color and fit, imagining how they’d feel and move on your body. On two occasions I have judged drag shows and you remind me of some of the contestants.”
“I’m not gay,” Maurice told Lily. He was only attracted to women and the only sexual fantasies she had of being a woman, were all with other women.
“That’s all right. As I told you, you remind me of one or two of the pageant contestants I judged. Not all the contestants are gay.”
Maurice begged Lily not to tell anyone. She agreed, but only if he would take her out that night. Soon Maurice would start getting dressed up at his girlfriend’s apartment, and Lily began calling her new girlfriend ‘Molly.’ She loved going out with him dressed up as a woman, palling around the city like two girls on holiday.
As everyone stared at him, Maurice wondered what Lily would think of her fiancée going undercover as a real woman. There was no comparison between playing dressup and performing Operation Swan Song work. Lily might even think the assignment was too dangerous.
Robert spoke next. “Inspector, I heard about your work with Agent Tanaka. In addition to that you came to us highly recommended by Inspector Sylvia Chang.”
“Thank you, Director.”
“Can you tell everyone in the room a little about what police work you have done?”
Like all Hong Kong Police academy cadets, Maurice began his career as a patrolman. After three years he applied to become a detective. Less than one percent of Detective applicants pass the multi-layered selection process. Maurice was one of the lucky ones.
“My first detective work was in the Fraud Division, after that I did stints in both the Financial Crimes and Homicide Departments,” Maurice explained.
“Did you work with Sylvia Chang during your time at Homicide?” Inspector Yoshida asked. He and the Hong Kong police woman were old friends.
“Yes, I did. Inspector Chang was my sponsor when I took the examinations to become a Probationary Inspector.”
“You sound very well qualified, Inspector Gao,” Grant said.
“Thank you, Director. There is no person from whom I learned more about police work from than Inspector Chang.”
Gabrielle spoke up again. “One of the biggest reasons I recommend Inspector Gao for a role in Swan Song — aside from having worked with him — is that he is fluent in Japanese and English in addition to Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese. Those would be excellent qualities for a secretary to have if she was applying for work at a Chinese bank located in Japan.”
Nobody in the room disagreed with Gabrielle. Maurice was well suited to assist Ripley, but a few details would need to be ironed out first.
“Are you interested in this assignment, Inspector Gao?” Grant asked.
“Yes, I am,” Maurice said as he tried not to sound too enthusiastic. “There are two minor things I have to bring up.”
“What are those?”
“I will need approval from the Hong Kong police. So I still have a job when Swan Song is done.”
Robert nodded his head. “The committee will go through the proper channels, plus I will speak to Inspector Chang about it.”
“Thank you, Director. I would like to see my fiancée too before starting my new assignment if it is not too much trouble. Her name is Lily, and she is the only family I have in Hong Kong that matters to me.”
“We can accommodate that request, Inspector,” Robert replied as he glanced at Gabrielle Tanaka for a second. The FBI Director, remembering what Gabrielle said about her having an excellent feel for Swan Song, now concluded it wasn’t an unjustified boast. She did know Swan Song as well or better than anyone else on the Swan Song committee. He had a moment of bitter regret that she hadn’t been placed in charge from the start, since she seemed to be right on top of everything while that idiot Grant was blustering along without a clue.
Dr. Wagner spoke up. While Maurice and Robert were talking, she had been checking Double Helix Project files with the help of her PDA. “I will need a DNA donation. At present I have no proper samples.”
“I’ll have some police academy cadets in Japan approached. They will be asked to volunteer a DNA sample,” Inspector Yoshida said.
“It would be best if I were to take the samples,” Dr. Wagner replied.
“A few matters will have to be cleared up first Dr. Wagner,” Robert explained. None of the plans presented by Gabrielle Tanaka were set in stone yet because of Swan Song’s still uncertain future. “I don’t think you will be leaving for Japan before Wednesday.”
Inspector Yoshida would need time to contact some police academies. Maurice hadn’t had the opportunity yet to ask Ripley the triad- and narcotics-related questions that Hong Kong police had sent the Probationary Inspector to Pine Gap for. After he was through, Maurice would return to Hong Kong before journeying to the United States for his session with Dr. Wagner.
“I’ll have a word with the debriefers, Inspector,” Robert said. “You’ll get a shot at Ripley tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Director.”
Dr. Wagner asked Maurice the same questions she had posed to Gabrielle only omitting the pregnancy question this time around. All of Maurice’s answers were no.
Rintaro Akimoto was consulted again. Maurice would need a legend before applying to work as Agent Ripley’s secretary.
“Yes, my agency can produce one in the short time you mentioned,” Rintaro replied. He was totally bored by then and fighting hard to stay awake. All this talk about getting Ripley an assistant was a complete waste of time.
Grant had a question. “Couldn’t Inspector Gao be trained to become another bank employee?”
Gabrielle understood where Grant Williamson was coming from. The Swan Song committee had to work fast in order to get Maurice into the field and Dr. Wagner’s transformation of the Hong Kong policeman was time consuming. “A secretary will have much more contact with Ripley than other bank employees.”
Grant nodded his head. “You’re right, Agent Tanaka.”
“Director, I do know how to type but I have no other secretarial skills.”
“We’ll provide you with a crash course, Inspector,” Robert replied.
“My Japanese is a little rusty too.” Grant and Robert immediately looked over at Gabrielle.
“I’ve spoken to Probationary Inspector Gao in Japanese on multiple occasions. His comprehension is good and compares to what Ripley’s was before he started training for Swan Song. Inspector Gao should just need to take a short Japanese refresher similar to the one Ripley did.”
“Is there anything else?” Robert asked. “That was excellent work, Agent Tanaka. This meeting is now adjourned.”
Gabrielle and Maurice talked as they walked back to their work stations. “I can’t thank you enough, Gabrielle.”
“You’re welcome, Maurice. I know you will be a good assistant to Ripley.”
“What do you think my Swan Song code name will be?”
Gabrielle laughed slightly. “Have you ever watched the movie, ‘Aliens’?
“Yes, just one time.” Maurice remembered Gabrielle telling him that the 1986 movie was the source for Agent Ripley’s codename.
“I suggest you watch it again. Pay particular attention to the character named Bishop,” Gabrielle said to Maurice as he opened the door for her. “And stop doing that. Men will be opening doors for you soon enough.”
Maurice grinned. “And you might just be one of them, Gabrielle.”
“Yes, I might.”
Robert Mueller and Grant Williamson had a conversation once the office was empty. “Grant, I want you to inquire with General Anatoly Kulikov at Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. Get all the information you can from him on Yuri Titov.”
“Yes, Director, I will do that right away. Do you wish me to contact Inspector Chang also?”
“No, Grant, I will be the one to talk to her.”
“What do you think of Agent Tanaka’s proposals?”
“Frankly, Grant, I think they are more than solid. That includes her Charles McBride proposals. I think the Japanese will run into difficulties if they attempt to prosecute Beancounter.”
“Would the Japanese really put her in witness protection?”
“I don’t know, Grant, but I might be raising that issue tomorrow, but not before I talk to our Attorney General, It may make more sense to bring her to the USA. Agent Tanaka’s presentation let me see that Beancounter might be persuaded, once she receives proper psychiatric help, that her best chance of survival might be to get as far away from the Yakuza as she can, and we have a possible mechanism, in the Double Helix process, of accomplishing both goals at once, if she agrees to it.”
Dr. Wagner went to see Inspector Yoshida. “Will you be trying to contact police academies soon?”
“I have already begun doing that, Doctor. I have emailed two Academy Superintendants and am about to email a third.
Dr. Wagner had a piece of paper for Inspector Yoshida. “These are my criteria for the DNA samples I will need.”
Inspector Yoshida read the list. “I understand Doctor and this will be most useful. Thank you for giving it to me.”
Chuck McBride got to the offices of Smith, Dobbins, and Smith at two. The first thing the receptionist did was hand Chuck a client information sheet plus a lengthy questionnaire.
After he was through filling out the forms, Chuck waited quietly to be called. At the same time his mind was fast at work going over exactly what he would say to the solicitor.
McKenzie Smith Jr. came out of his office shortly after 2:30. “You must be Charles McBride.”
Chuck stood up and shook the solicitor’s hand. “Yes I am and thank you for taking the time to see me, Mr. Smith.’’
“Your current place of residence is Hong Kong?” McKenzie Smith Jr. asked Chuck, once both men were seated in the solicitor’s office.
“I lived in Hong Kong till last Saturday. At the moment I don’t see me returning there. My mother lives here in Alice.”
“You are having marital problems right now?”
“Yes, Mr. Smith, I am.”
“Am I correct, you only got married on May 31st of this year?”
“Yes Mr. Smith, that is correct.”
“Your wedding took place in Japan?”
“Yes, that is also correct. Mr. Smith, I’m not here to talk about divorcing my wife, but that is what might happen in the end.”
“What type of marital problem did you want to speak to me about?”
“It is unusual sir,” Chuck then began telling McKenzie Smith about the two women in his life.
“Are you telling me someone made a double of your live-in girlfriend?”
“Yes, Mr. Smith, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Are you talking about a clone?”
“I’m not sure, Mr. Smith, as I understand it, another person was made into an exact double of my then girlfriend.”
“When did this happen?”
“Approximately one year ago.”
“And you only noticed now?”
“Yes, well, close enough. The second Hiromi was a perfect match for the original Hiromi except for a missing scar.”
“Did the second woman act like the first also?”
“Yes, she did. The first Hiromi was always a bit unpredictable. It came from the work she did, where she was under a lot of stress. When the second Hiromi acted oddly — which wasn’t very often — it didn’t appear all that unusual to me, and I may be imagining it only in retrospect, based upon what I now know. At the time, I noticed nothing.”
“Did this second woman have plastic surgery?”
“No, Mr. Smith. A scientist turned a man into a double of Hiromi.”
McKenzie leaned forward in his chair. “Mr. McBride, that is impossible.”
“It was confirmed to me by a member of the American FBI. Her name is Gabrielle Tanaka, I saw her identification. It was real.”
“Where and when did you meet this Agent Tanaka?”
“It happened at a hotel in Melbourne on Saturday night. The second Hiromi and I flew there from Hong Kong. Gabrielle Tanaka was waiting in the room for us.”
“Mr. McBride, can you tell me why either Hiromi would be involved with the FBI?”
“My girlfriend is from Yokohama Japan. Her Grandfather leads a Yakuza family there.”
McKenzie nodded his head. That made some things clearer to the solicitor. “Did the first Hiromi work for her grandfather?”
“Yes, she did. Hiromi was his financial advisor. She also owned two banks, one in Japan and the other in Hong Kong.”
“Are you a Yakuza member, Mr. McBride?”
“No, sir, I am not. I work as a currency trader at Kanagawa Bank. Hiromi is the bank’s owner.”
“Can you excuse me for a few moments, Mr. McBride?”
“Go ahead, Mr. Smith.”
McKenzie left the office. He was gone for about two minutes.
“Mr. McBride,” McKenzie began saying once he had returned. “One hour seems insufficient to discuss your legal problems. My calendar is very full right now but I can see you in this office at half past seven this evening. Is that acceptable?”
“Yes, Mr. Smith, it is. Are we done now?”
“No, I’d like to ask a few more questions if you still have time.”
“I have plenty of time now.”
“Where is the first Hiromi at this time?”
“I was told she is in a Japanese prison.”
“When did you and the second Hiromi arrive in Alice?”
“We got here yesterday a little bit past noon time.”
“Did you fly commercially or on a private jet?”
“Hiromi and I flew from Hong Kong to Melbourne on Qantas. For the trip to Alice, we flew on a private jet.”
“Where is the second Hiromi at this time?”
“She went to see her superiors at Pine Gap.”
“Your wife is at Pine Gap now?”
Chuck shrugged his shoulders. “Yes, as far as I know. She told me she is meeting with law enforcement people from three countries there.”
McKenzie looked at his notes. “We’re done for now, Mr. McBride.”
Chuck exited the law offices of Smith, Dobbins, and Smith less than two minutes later. He immediately began walking towards his car.
Unknown to Chuck, a man was about twenty feet behind him and following. Just before entering the parking lot containing his car, Chuck passed a man leaning against a light pole while he read the newspaper.
The surveillance of Charles McBride was officially under way.
As soon as Charles McBride had left his office, McKenzie Smith Jr. placed a phone call to Alice Springs Airport.
“ASA Management, to whom can I direct this call?”
“Can I speak to Max please?”
Alice Springs Airport Manager Gerald ‘Max’ Maxwell came on the line half a minute later. “This is Max.”
“Hello, Max, its McKenzie Smith Jr.”
“Little Mac! How good is it to hear your voice again after so long. What has been keeping you?”
“I am busier than ever with the law practice since Pop retired.”
“I bet you are. Where is big Mac today? I haven’t seen him in three whole days!”
McKenzie Smith Sr. and Max were contemporaries, born less than three years apart. Alice Springs was a much smaller community when both men were growing up in the 1930’s and 40’s. It was usual then for everyone in Alice to know one another.
“Pop went out this morning. He didn’t say where he was going.”
Max laughed. “Big Mac is probably looking for wife number four right now.”
“I think you’re right, Max,” McKenzie Jr. replied. His father was a widower three times over and at present seemed to have his eye set on a Junior High School Principal twenty years younger than he born in the exact same month as McKenzie Smith Jr. was. “Max, I have some questions about a passenger who says he came through your airport. I was hoping you can help me out with them.”
“What do you need to know?”
“Do you know if an Australian man flew into Alice on Sunday along with his Asian wife? They were on a private plane that was supposed to have taken off from Melbourne.”
“I don’t know off-hand, Little Mac, but I can check for you.”
“Thank you, Max. I would appreciate it. Just one more question and I will let you go. Did a military plane with a large group of people fly into Alice on Sunday also?”
Max laughed. “One day, Little Mac, you’ll have to tell me how you learned about that. A 747 with over one hundred people on board landed here shortly after six on Sunday morning. It was a direct flight too from the United States. Customs and Immigration were here to process them and about fifty others who came in on a 737 from Japan five hours later.”
McKenzie listened as Max told him the whole story. Something big was indeed happening at Pine Gap but the solicitor still didn’t believe all of Chuck’s story. “Thank you, Max, for sharing this information with me.”
“Not a problem, Little Mac and I’ll check on that private jet you asked about. Feel free to call me any time you need some questions answered.”
Chuck went from his solicitor’s office to a car dealership. Over the next hour he kicked tires, talked to a salesman, and went for a test drive.
“I’m just looking now,” Chuck told the pushy car salesman. He had only gone to the car lot because he was growing bored. Without Hiromi or his job as a currency trader to keep him busy, Chuck grew restless very quickly.
As he walked to his car, the people keeping Chuck under surveillance moved along with him. Chuck climbed into his car and closed the car door.
Before putting his seat belt on, Chuck inadvertently glanced in his side view mirror. He almost did a double take when he saw what was being reflected back at him.
“I’m being followed!” Chuck immediately started his car’s engine, and drove off.
As he drove home, Chuck kept checking his rearview mirror. A blue colored sedan with two men sitting in front made every turn he was making. Chuck didn’t try to evade them.
When he got home, Chuck hustled inside. After locking the door, he went to a living room window and began to peer outside from behind a curtain.
“Is there something wrong?” Patricia McBride asked Chuck as she walked out of the kitchen.
Chuck didn’t answer his Mother’s question. He was still checking the outside street. The blue sedan was gone but a white colored van had just been parked. As yet no one had come out of the vehicle.
“Are you in trouble, son?”
“No, Mom, I am not.”
“Then why are you behaving this way? Have those dirty gangsters come here to Australia to get you?”
Chuck stepped away from the window. “No, Mom, they haven’t. I was just seeing things.”
Patricia McBride didn’t believe Chuck’s last statement at all. Her son had never been a very good liar.
Kanagawa Shimbun City Editor Iwao Endo was busy typing, when he heard someone knocking on his office door. “Come in.”
A junior reporter named Yumako Turasawa walked in. “Endo-san, can I have a minute of your time?”
“Of course you may, Yumako-san. What do you need me for?”
Ӭ
“I have some questions about my article on last night’s fire that you returned to me. Why did you make the changes?”
All newspaper articles submitted for publication are changed in varying degrees by an editor. “Are you talking about the Yakuza revisions I made?”
“Yes, Endo-san, I was.”
Ӭ
“The club was Watanabe Yakuza owned, and the fire took place because the bomb was thrown by another Yakuza the Watanabes are in conflict with now. I did not feel the connection between the mother and the Watanabes was important. It will only muddy the story for readers.”
“But Endo-san, it is true. She is the sister of one of the gangsters. I think that is important.”
Iwao didn’t disagree with Yumako. Naoko Taylor’s family connections were important. The Kanagawa Shimbun had attempted to make contact with the mother but were turned away by family members. The mother was in a state of shock.
What Iwao was trying to emphasize to Kanagawa Shimbun readers was that the root cause of the horrific fire that took thirty-two innocent lives was directly tied to gang violence. A underworld conflict had spilled out into everyday Japan life and non-Yakuza had died as a result.
Among them was one of Japan’s favorite entertainers, The father and grandparents of a newborn girl plus friends who had come to celebrate with the family. Iwao wanted readers to be outraged by what had taken place, not feel confused because a dirty gangster or two had also died that night. It would lessen the story’s real impact.
“You are a good reporter, Yumako-san. I think the focus of your story was a little off and that is why I make those fixes. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, Endo-san, I am done. Thank you for taking time to see me.”
A minute later, Iwao received an email from the person in charge of the Kanagawa Shimbun’s website. Unique visitors were up over fifty percent from the previous Monday and this was excellent news. The website manager also warned that these numbers would fall dramatically if the newspaper didn’t soon begin producing fresh articles on Raku Minobe’s death.
Iwao got back to his work. The Kanagawa Shimbun wouldn’t falter when it came to covering Yokohama’s biggest news story of 2008.
“I have some good news, Tanaka-san,” Inspector Yoshida said from the workstation adjacent to the one Gabrielle was assigned to.
“What is it, Inspector?” Gabrielle was working again on the Hiromi Sato witness protection report.
“I just got off the phone with Kichii Katsumata. He is the Superintendant of the Shiga Prefecture Police Academy. Kichii-san will begin asking female recruits tomorrow if they were willing to give a sample of their DNA. There are twenty-three female cadets, Kiichi-san feels sure that at least ten will volunteer.”
“That sounds good, Inspector. Do you want to call Dr. Wagner or should I?”
“I will do it, Tanaka-san, but thank you for offering. Is your desk satisfactory again?”
“Yes, it is.”
“We need to work together, as professionals, Tanaka-san.”
“Yes, Inspector, I totally agree with you on that.”
“Your debriefings are over for today, Captain Slater. We will be meeting in this room again tomorrow morning at 8:30. Do you have any questions?” Fred Wenz asked.
“No, Sir.”
Hiromi had eighty minutes to grab something to eat and get some rest. Her morning sickness was coming and going, something Midori Slater had warned her daughter about. She would still have to be cautious in the foods she selected for dinner.
“Do you need me for anything, Major?” Hiromi asked Audrey Grasso as they exited the room.
“Not at this moment, Captain. If anything does come up, I will locate you right away.”
As Hiromi walked to her parent’s room, she text messaged Gabrielle. The FBI Agent messaged back that she would be right over.
“Are you done now?” Midori asked her daughter.
“Not really, Mom. Tonight I am to be given some medical examinations.”
“That’s good. One of them should be a prenatal checkup.”
Hiromi rolled her eyes. Some things hadn’t changed at all, and her mother still nagged her about taking care of herself.
Gabrielle walked in a few seconds later. “Did everything go all right?”
“Yes, Gabby, it did. I got some phone messages. We’d better talk about them over dinner.”
“That sounds good, Becky. I received some messages for you too.”
Robert Mueller was on the phone with Inspector Sylvia Chang. “Thank you for returning my phone call.”
“It is a rare privilege to speak with you, Director. How can I help you?”
“I want to speak to you about Probationary Inspector Gao. Today I was able to work with him for the first time and I was very impressed.”
“We’ve been very impressed as well, Director. He’s advanced very rapidly through the ranks to his present status as a Probationary Inspector, and has received top ranking in all his classes.”
“Inspector Chang, the reason I’m calling is the Swan Song committee would like to borrow the Probationary Inspector. There is an undercover job he would be well suited for and we’re hoping the Hong Kong police can loan the Inspector to us. I’d also like to see his personnel file if that can be allowed.”
Sylvia Chang didn’t ask what Maurice’s work would be. Swan Song was a Top Secret operation and she didn’t have a need to know. “The Hong Kong police might be able to help you with your requests, Director. May I ask you a few questions first?”
“Of course you can, Inspector.”
“For how long a period of time will Probationary Inspector Gao be needed?”
“I would say at least a year.”
“When would he begin his Swan Song work?”
“The Inspector will have to undergo some advanced training in surveillance and covert operations first. The Swan Song committee will provide this at no charge, of course, and will reimburse his salary and other benefits during his secondment to us, plus a small per diem allowance to reflect the additional cost of a Tokyo area posting. Probationary Inspector Gao will also be introduced to many highly-placed individuals in the Japanese and US law enforcement community with whom he might find reciprocal interests, benefiting both of our departments as we work closely together to control international criminal activities in the future. It would start the beginning of next week, if you will allow us."
“All right, Director, here is what the Hong Kong police need. A formal request has to be made to my superiors here. You can send it to me, and I will make sure the proper people see it and at the same time I will also recommend your request be approved.”
“That will be excellent, Inspector. Thank you again for co-operating with the Swan Song committee, and I hope we may be of equal help to you in future.”
Grant Williamson was also on the phone. He had just gotten a hold of General Anatoly Kulikov of Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. “General, the FBI has a request to make. Because time is short, I am asking for your help.”
“What is it you need?”
“There is a Soviet citizen I am interested in. He is not in any kind of trouble. The FBI just wants to speak to him.”
“What is this man’s name and do you know where he lives?” General Kulikov asked as he prepared to do a computer records search.
General Kulikov had cooperated with the FBI before. The informal information request Grant was making wasn’t unusual. In his time at the Ministry, Anatoly had made at least ten dozen of these information exchanges. Sometimes as the person making the request, other times on the provider end.
“He is a former member of your Spetsnaz. His name is Yuri Titov. We….”
Anatoly interrupted Grant in mid-sentence. “Are we discussing Yuri Alexandrovich Titov of St. Petersburg?
“Yes, General, I am. Do you know him?”
Anatoly let out a loud laugh. “Do I know Yuri Alexandrovich? The two of us are old comrades. I never knew braver soldier in my whole life.”
“He served in Afghanistan, if I am correct.”
“Yuri not just serve, he win two Hero of the Soviet Union medals. How many men in your Army win two honors like that?”
“Not very many, General. The Bureau would like to talk to Yuri Alexandrovich. I assure you all we want is his assistance in a law enforcement matter. He is not in any trouble with the FBI or any other law enforcement agency I know of.”
“Yuri work for Japanese gangster woman last time I hear. Is that where he still is?”
“He still works for the woman you mention, General, but we learned he is in Russia at present. His mother is ill.”
“Yuri is a good boy, plus brave soldier. His ex-wife Olga is bitch who not appreciate man she had for husband. That I think the reason Yuri left Russia to get job.”
“Director, I have the address and phone number of Yuri Titov’s mother and will send them to you shortly but first I must ask you question. Is help you will ask of Yuri have anything to do with Russia?”
“No, General, it will not.”
“That is good. Yuri Alexandrovich Titov will never betray Mother Russia. Anyone who ask him to do that is person who would fuck their own mother.”
Grant got General Kulikov’s email a few seconds later. He was pleased to see a short synopsis of Yuri’s Army career was included. Grant was about to make a request for it. “I am sure Yuri Alexandrovich is a great Russian patriot. Thank you for your time and help, General.”
The Kanagawa Shimbun put up its first in depth article on the Rosebud fire shortly before 5 p.m. Yokohama time. In fact what had been posted was just a teaser. A lengthier version would appear online after midnight and be in the next morning’s print edition. The newspaper wanted both its online and print readers to make the Kanagawa Shimbun their news source.
It was working so far. Unique hits to the Kanagawa Shimbun website were now double what they had been the previous Monday at 6 p.m.
The Japanese public was beginning to get the message. Innocent, beloved, Raku Minobe had been killed by dirty gangsters. What were police and politicians going to do about it?
The last thing Hiromi did before going to see the doctors, was text message Ryuku Kinjoh. She asked the Watanabe shareigashira to call her that night around 10 p.m. Alice Springs time.
“Are you going to call Chuck too?” Gabrielle asked.
“Yes, Gabby, but I am still thinking of what I want to say.”
The doctor who would examine Hiromi, was a statuesque woman with brownish blonde hair who looked to be in her early thirties. “Captain Slater, it is nice to meet you. I’m Air Force Captain Melissa Maloney.”
“Thank you, Doctor, for seeing me.” Hiromi was handed a gown by Dr. Maloney who instructed her patient to take all her clothing off, including underwear.
Hiromi stepped behind a small curtain and did as Dr. Maloney told her. When finished, she only had a open in the back gown on. “Is Dr. Wagner here?”
“Dr. Wagner will be seeing you later, Captain. Let me begin my examination of you by asking you some questions about your medical history.”
Hiromi’s medical history was unexceptional. She answered no to the first eleven of Dr. Maloney’s questions.
Then came question number twelve. “I think I know the answer to this already. Are you pregnant?”
“Yes, Doctor, I am. I just got the news around noon time from Dr. Wagner.”
“Congratulations, Captain. Is your husband here? He might want to be present when I do your prenatal exam. My husband was with me when I had mine done. I have a fourteen-month-old daughter named Tamara now.”
“That is wonderful, Doctor, but my husband isn’t at Pine Gap right now.”
Dr. Maloney became a little uncomfortable. “I’m sorry about that, Captain.”
“Doctor, we’re just in from Japan and my husband is visiting his mother in Alice Springs right now. I don’t begrudge him that, since it’s been the best part of a year since we were last here, and I’m working. I’m very happy to be pregnant now. This has been my dream for at least six months.”
“That is good then.”
“We can’t skip the prenatal exam, can we? I just had my annual gynecological checkup about two weeks ago.”
“Sorry, Captain, but I do have to do it. I promise to be as gentle as possible.”
Hiromi answered no to the remaining medical history questions. When that was completed, Dr. Maloney began to do a physical examination of her patient. Hiromi had her weight taken, her blood pressure measured, her lungs listened to, and her breasts examined.
“Doctor, there are a few things I need to mention,” Hiromi said as she stood on the upright scale while the doctor flicked weights back and forth.
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“I had breast augmentation last November. Also, my biological mother died in childbirth. She had excessive internal bleeding after giving birth to me.”
“Thank you for supplying me with that information, Captain. I am very sorry to hear about your mother. You may regret the augmentation slightly,” she said, smiling, “since pregnancy usually does a little augmentation on its own, but it should all be manageable.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Can I make a quick phone call to my husband?”
“Yes, you may. Do you want to do that now?”
“No, Doctor, I can wait till after your prenatal exam is over.”
After Dr. Maloney finished examining Hiromi’s breasts, she took a pocket pregnancy calculator out. “Did you say your last period started on June 30th?”
“Yes, Doctor, that is correct.”
Dr. Maloney used the calculator. “Your due date is next April 7th, and you might want to write that down, lest the dreaded pregnancy brain drive it out of your head. All the studies show that your brain is really just as good as it ever was, but you have so many new things to think and worry about, plus entirely new levels of hormones that never quit, that it’s very easy to feel a little scatterbrained at times. New medical students experience almost exactly the same thing, and you can trust me on that one, because I’ve done both. I carried a little notebook around with me, so whenever I thought of a question I wanted to ask my doctor about on my next visit, I had a place to put it, not to mention where I parked the damned car.” She smiled and laughed, as she reached over to swing the stirrups into place. “Now, Captain, could you please lay flat on your back for me? I’m sure you know the drill.”
Hiromi did what the doctor told her. She felt immensely happy because the exam was one of her first steps to full motherhood. It also felt hollow, and left an ache in her heart, because Chuck wasn’t there with her.
While Hiromi was being seen by Dr. Maloney, Gabrielle went into her living quarters. She was there to look for Charles McBride’s clothing
Hiromi had given Gabrielle permission to do this. She even told her friend where to look for her husband’s clothes.
Gabrielle went straight to a closet. There were four garment bags inside and it was the third one from the left that Gabrielle was interested in.
Two suits belonging to Chuck were inside with matching shirts and pants. Gabrielle removed one set of clothing.
Before leaving Hiromi’s living quarters, Gabrielle decided to do her friend a favor. Becky had been so busy at Pine Gap, she was only half unpacked.
Gabrielle took all of Hiromi’s things out of her suitcase and put them away. Before she shut the bag, Gabrielle checked all of its pockets. She found even more things to take out, one of which was a tie belonging to Chuck. Gabrielle was about to put it back in the suitcase but her cellphone began to ring. Dr. Wagner was calling to ask if Gabrielle had found any clothing belonging to Charles McBride.
“Yes, Doctor, I did. I was going to bring them to the lab right now.” Gabrielle left Hiromi’s living quarters a few seconds later. She’d absentmindedly left Chuck’s tie out on the dresser in plain sight.
Yokohama lab technician Sachiko Isozaki got her second DNA match from the stockings she had been assigned to work on. Like on the first DNA sample, a red message began flashing on her screen notifying her to call her supervisor at once.
Tetsuzan Narita was not alone when he arrived in the lab. Yokohama Chief of Police Takeji Kasahara was with him. “I know you would not fail me, Sachiko-san.”
The Chief of Police, not Tetsuzan, was the one to login. When that was complete, a second message in two parts appeared. From the dried Human Cerebrospinal fluid on the stockings, Sachiko had made a DNA match. The first part of the message was a summary-
Name- T. Ogawa
Age- Deceased, Age 29 at time of death
Place of birth- Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture
Occupation- Nagoya policewoman working undercover at time of death
The second part of the message said-
THIS INVESTIGATION IS TO BE REPORTED TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER AT ONCE.
“Mum, I am leaving now,” Chuck said as he came down the stairs at the McBride home.
Patricia McBride got up to say goodbye. “Please drive safely for me.”
“I will, Mum. After I’m through with the lawyer, I’m coming straight home.”
I’m through, Captain,” Dr. Maloney said before taking her gloves off.
Hiromi immediately sat herself up. She wasn’t feeling too much discomfort. Dr. Maloney had been very gentle while examining her. If Ripley returned to Japan in two weeks, her OB/GYN Dr. Miyake would probably do the examination all over again. That doctor also had a light touch when she examined her patients.
“When your examinations are finished today, you will be given prenatal vitamins to take.”
“Thank you, Doctor. At this stage of my pregnancy I only have to see my OB once a month; is that correct?”
“Yes, Captain Slater, that’s right. If you have any bleeding that amounts to more than a little bit of spotting, you should call your doctor or go to an emergency room at once.”
“Am I still allowed to drink regular coffee?”
“Yes Captain, you can but I would restrict it to one cup daily.”
Hiromi listened to her doctor’s advice. She vowed to take her healthcare very seriously for the next eight months.
“Captain, I would suggest you buy the book ‘What to Expect When You are Expecting’. It’s really an excellent source for pregnancy information and will answer many of the questions you will have between doctor visits.”
“Thank you, Doctor, I will buy it the first chance I get.”
“Other doctors will be giving you tests from this point on. It has been nice meeting you, Captain, and let me wish you a safe and healthy pregnancy.”
After putting all her clothes back on, Hiromi exited the exam room. A lab technician was waiting for her.
“If you’ll come this way, Captain, I will show you to the place your next medical exam will be done.”
Hiromi was about to follow the technician but she had another plan. “Can I make a phone call first?”
“Of course you can, Captain. Feel free to use the exam room if you want to talk in private.”
Hiromi went back in the examination room and immediately took her cell phone out. She dialed the number for Chuck’s cell phone.
The phone was turned off. Rather than leave a message, Hiromi tried calling Chuck at his mother’s home. Patricia McBride answered the phone on its second ring.
“Hello.””¨
“Hello, Mum, is Chuck around?”
“No, he isn’t.”
“Do you know where he is? I would like to speak to him.”
Patricia McBride didn’t say a word for half a minute. When she returned, her voice was full of anger.
“No, I will not tell you where my son is, you filthy tramp.”
Hiromi was now getting upset. “Mum, please let me explain.”
“I will not listen to any more of your lies. You’ve hurt my son enough with your crimes. It’s time you stop polluting our lives.”
Hiromi pled with Chuck’s mother. “Mum, I hurt Chuck, I admit it. I want to tell Chuck how sorry I am. There’s something else I want to tell him. It affects your son, and even you. Please tell me how I can contact him.”
“He never wants to speak to you again, and neither do I.” Patricia McBride then hung up the phone.
To be continued in Part Twenty Eight
Comments
Owww my aching head
Talking about multi-threaded plotting! If I were not a programmer, still ow!
Still, the idea of Gaby becoming lost in being a man, no better than how Tom has become lost and become Hiromi I think. For me, manhood is a bit more of an intangible thing then womanhood as being a woman is clearly locked into motherhood and child rearing. Men, they can leave their little deposit behind and go their merry way.
Of all these folks, clearly only Maurice will be getting something he truly wants from the start, I think. Rebecca sadly is a lemons to lemonade situation and I really don't wish the same consolation prize for Gaby. Gaby and Rebecca winding up as husband and wife? Sorry, that just feels wrong as it is bad enough that Tom has lost his identity but for Gaby to also? I hope she comes out in the end herself and not one Chuck in of one of two Chuck/Hiromi couples :-( as a possible outcome. Nuh, uh. Having all three on a ranch in Australia sounds lots more fun.
*sigh*
Right now I am definitely annoyed with ol' Chuckie as he is reacting so much solely out of hurt and he does not realize how much hurt he is inflicting. The fact that Rebecca came clean to him honestly seems to have made
any difference to him.
Kim
Duty, Honor, Country, Family - Part 27
CXan't help but worry how events will effect Becky.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Nothing is simple, is it?
Chuck could be a problem, which would break Becky's heart among other things, her in-laws or at least mother-in-law is definitely a problem, and the Japanese with a burr up a place the sun doesn't normally shine on are making things tougher. Potentially great difficulties for those involved in Swan Song, not to mention two governments if they allow Becky to go down and word would get out if that happened. There are so many directions this one could go that I'm not even going to attempt to map them all out here, so will just have to be patient and watch a things unfold.
On the bright side of things, Becky does have support, and if she returns to Japan will have more backup than she ever did during this mission. Again, who, what, and when, are still up in the air.
Masterfully done, Danielle!
Maggie
This is a Super Story
I wanted to go to bed early last night, but after watching more TV than I'm used to, I checked to see what was on BCTS and maybe read for 20 or 30 min. That didn't happen. I saw DHCF right at the top of the list of stories and had to read it. I had read 2 parts in the last few days, was all up to speed on the plot and characters, and was extremely interested in finding out what would happen next in all the different threads.
I'm sort of slow reading. I wanted to quit part way through, a number of times, to get some sleep, but I just couldn't. I was a few hours late getting to bed. The story is riveting.
One thing I noticed, or had forgotten since earlier in the story:
> Dr. Wagner interrupted impatiently, ... Far more common are those who never feel fully comfortable in their new bodies, and become what are essentially iatrogenic transsexuals, as dissociated from their bodies as native transsexuals, so much so that many of our early volunteers, who were prisoners, wanted to return to their original bodies so badly that they volunteered to finish serving out the sentences they’d been promised they’d be pardoned from, if only we could undo what had been done. The medical patients, for whom the process had been a way out of a fatal prognosis, were understandably less enthused about returning to their old bodies, but expressed longing for their old sex, at least, whether male or female originally.†<
Why were so many transsex procedures done? The prisoners gave permission to experiment with their bodies, but for the trans changes, more prior information about the procedure and/or better screening of the prisoners (like recruit TG leaning or bottom sex loving guys, reverse for wimyn) might have produced better results. I suspect a severely GD and suicidal person would not make the best subject for study.
If the medical patients were transformed to help them, to save their lives; making them "iatrogenic transsexuals" seems to be unnecessarily cruel! Shifting the complete genome of an individual and regrowing er body to match the new DNA in a few days, seems a monumental task, and, I think, would be just as difficult and produce just as much data if the transformation were cis or transsexual. Producing a new persyn, who had just been traumatized by months or longer of an incurable disease, who would not recognize er body under almost all circumstances (DNA from a close, same sex family member might lessen this problem) and giving them immediate gender dysphoria, is just trading one very bad problem for another.
Was there a need to do so many trans changes for some reason, stated in the story, that I can't remember?
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Ready for work, 1992.
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
There was...
Toward the beginning of the story, the TG process is explained:
There's no guarantee that Captain Slater was being told the whole truth at that point, and in fact he's shown the pictures of six individuals who didn't turn out well at all, but it's hinted in the text that there were more failure pictures available. If we imagined that these reversals didn't amount to mere malpractice, with close to a hundred percent failure rates, and the fifty-two percent success rate accepted as accurate, we see the end result of at least a dozen MtF experiments, which is slightly more than a handful, so we know that, while there may be "truthiness" somewhere buried in what Tom is being told, there's probably not much.
The process had been seized upon as a tool for spies, so many variations on the process would have been tried. The gender experiments would follow from the underlying premise, I think. In many secure installations, secretaries, cleaning women, and other persons whom the staff would consider incapable of technical exploits, could be replaced with hackers and spies who would look exactly like they were supposed to, but have access to physical and technical skills the original workers *couldn't* have.
We know well that the intelligence community as a whole tends not to be "fastidious" in their use of "assets," so this particular outrage doesn't strike me as especially outré, although certainly ruthless. Grant -- who has been shown to be both ruthless and cruel in the story -- may be the ultimate source of this cruelty, but playing fast and lose with the lives of violent criminals and people who were dying and desperate is probably not quite as cruel or ruthless as murdering an old lady.
They're both reprehensible, of course, but not more than we expect from Grant and whoever he's working with. We don't know the whole story of Dr Wagner, but it's shown in the story that she's completely different to the man she was, and likes herself better. Maybe that's why. There's no hint at all that he started out as a trans-sexed man, but was rather detached from humanity, uninterested in personal relationships of any sort.
To be fair, I suspect that it's not typical to disclose all the details of the security setup to an agent one is planning to send behind enemy lines, where he might be captured and interrogated, so I think we can and should expect that Tom would have been told as little as possible, and that he may have been deceived about many details at any step along the way, and not necessarily by anyone with real knowledge. We know, for example, the Gabrielle was "out of the loop" about many of Grant's schemes, and only discovered some of them through fortuitous circumstance.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Two Novels in One
This story is way past a single novel. It's more like two so far and I don't see an end anytime soon.
This is good, intense stuff. I like all of Gabi's suggestions except for her becoming Chuck, though it looks more and more like that will happen. That formula is scary stuff. You can be the gender you want but you might lose a significant portion of your identity. Sheesh!
Thanks and kudos.
- Terry
oh most agreed
For me, as a woman, to lose emotional space as well as lose the ability to bear the children I crave would be awful. A stick to what I said, for Tom to lose his identity is a an awful shame but for Gaby to lose herself is cringe inducing and a tragedy.
Kim
While a concern...
...from Tom/Hiromi's viewpoint the risks obviously don't seem that large.
Tom had already done two tours in a combat zone, seen friends killed outright, and had been wounded by an IED. This is a soldier's story, not a fantasy, and people have died in this operation. I'm sure the hazards didn't loom quite as large to Tom/Hiromi as they might for someone who hadn't been through as much as Tom had.
It's also been disclosed that Tom was a wounded soul, just as Hiromi was, and I think it's probably significant that Gabrielle, who's very comfortable in her body and sexuality, has qualms that Tom didn't. At the very beginning of the story, when the process is being explained, he seems eager rather than reluctant, and needs hardly any convincing at all, in spite of the horror show they display.
As carefully plotted, and intricately woven, as this story has been so far, I doubt that much of this has been "accidental." That one phrase keeps popping up in different contexts, 'forsaking all others.' So, while this is a soldier's story, it's also a love story, and part of the love that the story explores is the love between husband and wife; how far does it go, what do "in sickness and in health" mean in the context of mental illness? Do we any of us know who it is we really married? What if the person we thought we'd married turns out to be someone else?
It's been my great privilege to proofread and edit the last half of this story, because I think it's a significant bit of writing, a truly deep novel that explores the core of what it means to be transgendered whilst avoiding the clichés and glib rationalisations one sees so often. Just as one can see deeper into space -- see the dimmest stars and faintest details in the dark immensity -- by averting one's vision slightly, this story lets us see hearts more clearly by blurring the focus slightly, so that we can see from the corner of our eye what we can't see when we face it straight on.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
I long feared Tom would get stuck as Hiromi
A near perfect storm conspired to make him into her.
Gabrielle truly loves her and him. As to Chuck .... hard to say but seems he loves only Hiromi. Could just be shock but my god, Hiromi/Tom deliberately had Chuck's child to prove her love, to prevent Swansong from changing her back. What other proof does the man need of her love? His LOVING family sure turned their backs on the pregant Hiroimi/Tom fast ... and she is his WIFE!
As cruel as it sounds at first, I would have preferred they had forced/tricked Tom /Hiromito become Tom again. In a way they owed him for all but abandoning him as Hiromi/Tom. He's a bit like a Stockholm syndrome hostage in Hiromi's body. IE the decision to get pregnant, to demand to remain Hiromi is coerced by her situation. It's like she's been brainwashed/programmed. The fairly recent *revelation*in the story that Tom was unhappy as a man or was gender neutral as a child could be *recovered memories* and false or misinterpreted. I felt from the beginning HE was happy as a man, that he wanted to be Tom again. I never thought he wanted secretly to be a woman. His remaining Hiromi , the love for Chuck, the having his child is as another suggested very much a making lemonade out of lemons situation with Stockholm Syndrome and the transplanted memories of the original Hiromi's genetic donation mixed in.
At this point, as his/her mom and Tom/Hiromi can't see themselves aborting Chick's child, I have another way out. Likely our author has there own but let me try. The Japanese need HONOR -- HA!-- need Hiriomi to die for the agent's death. Fine, then transform the original Hiromi into another younger healthy Japanese woman as the Doctor seems to be working on and heal her broken mind. She may be mentally ill but was abused and did not kill anyone. Find someone, a Yakusa killer or better yet that ass of an FBI man and make him into a copy of Hiromi for the Japanese to assassinate *for their honor*. Next, after the child is born turn Tom/Hiromi into a copy-- perhaps an enhanced copy -- of a younger Gabriele and Gabriele into an younger, enhanced version of Tom.
Do they have any remaining genetic material from the dead Japanese policeman Ripley killed? Could they do a version of what happened to Tom and make someone into that man's near mental and physical clone as happened with Tom/Hiromi, or aatleast his *twin brother*? The martyred man and his wife deserve some compensation. As the top brass in Swansong are in large part responsible for several deaths among their agents they should pay a price.
Ideally they should have pulled Tom out before he had to kill the other agent or before she fell in love with Chuck but other than strap her to a hospital bed that ain't gonna happen. Tom and Gabrielle deserve a child, THEIR genetic child, not so sure about Chuck. Could the infant once born be safely transformed into the genetic offspring of Tom and Gabrielle? Though I feel sorry for Gabrielle, she is very happy as a woman, I think she could be happy at a Tom clone IF she has Tom/Hiromi/Gabrielle as her lover.
As to the gender disphoria or whatever, remember Tom has been Hiromi far longer than anyother transformee that we know of assuming the original failed transformations back have been finally fixed. Perhaps with time the mind adapts and the transplanted feelings/memories blend with the minds and the disphoria eases and eventually goes away?
Tom/Hiromi is in uncharted waters here. Can they get her safely to shore? How best salvage the mess that is Swansong and all it has spawned for good and ill?
P.S. VERY complicated, very crafty tale.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Longer...
Well, Dr Wagner has been female the longest, as he started out as Hans Svenson well before Tom appeared on the scene. Hans appears to have been on a fast track to Heidi by Day Seven of the experiment, although it took two months before he announced her decision. Dr Wagner is now married, in an interesting parallel to Tom/Hiromi's situation, having found the love - as a woman - which had escaped Dr Svenson*.
On the other hand, Reina appeared to have no inclinations to prefer his female form, despite much more experience in role. Of course, he was deeply in love with his wife.
Perhaps love is at the heart of everything.
Cheers,
Puddin'
* Of course, as a Swede, it's no wonder. Swedish women are notorious for not bothering with marriage at all these days.
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
>> Do they have any remaining genetic material...
I'd think so. As the protocol is described to Tom, three genetic samples of the original body are collected and saved as backup. One supposes -- in theory -- that an individual brain-dead through trauma could be transformed into another body with an intact brain, but one would also suppose that Dr Wagner and her team would have to perfect the art -- or accident -- of implanting memories, so the question seems fraught with unknown difficulties.
Is there a "soul" involved? Whose soul is it, if so?
Does the process of memory transfer take place through some form of genetic memory (that is, is it "science?"), or is the transference in real time though some unknown connection between the two Hiromi's existing at a given moment (for example, some sort of "magic").
If the magical laws of "contagion" and "similarity" are operating, then both bodies would probably have to be alive and conscious, although there are magical exceptions to this general rule. If the association is independent of time, and follows magical rules, almost anything goes.
I haven't noticed any magical lamps laying about, or wizards...
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style