His attention soared. "Not false ones?"

"I do not know, Sire, but it was whispered they contained troop and ship movements. The price was modest, even so the Bakufu official did not buy at once and began to haggle and the seller became frightened. With Anjo at the head..." The cracked leather lips twisted with disgust at the name.

"He's baka, unworthy!--if the head is rotten the body is worse."

"I agree. Stupid."

Inejin nodded. "They forgot Sun-tzu again, sire: To remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition, begrudging the outlay of a few hundred ounces of silver is the height of inhumanity.

Fortunately an informant whispered about it to me."

Inejin took a scroll from his sleeve and put it on the table. Yoshi sighed, pleased. "So ka!"

"With the help of my informant, I bought it for you, a gift, Sire. Also at great risk to my informant, I substituted a false scroll the Bakufu eventually will buy cheaply."

Yoshi did not touch the scroll, only looked at it with anticipation. "Please allow me to reimburse you," he said. Inejin covered his vast relief for he had had to pledge their Inn to the Gyokoyama to obtain the money. "See my cashier today. Is the information to be trusted?"

Inejin shrugged. Both knew another of Sun-tzu's precepts: An inside spy is the most dangerous, one who sells secrets for money. It takes a man of genius to penetrate such. "My informant swears that the information is to be trusted and also the spy."

"And it says?"

"The gai-jin plan is frighteningly simple.

On Battle Day, ten days after their ultimatum is delivered--if not complied with--their whole fleet moves against Yedo. The first day the attack area is furthest from the coast, Sire, the extreme range of their heaviest cannon, designed to pulverize all bridges and roads leading out of Yedo--these are pinpointed, more knowledge given them no doubt by the traitor Hiraga. That night, by the light of the fires they have begun, they bombard the castle. The next day the coastal areas are decimated. On the third day they will land a thousand rifle soldiers and drive for the castle gates. There they will mount siege mortars and smash the gates and bridges and as much of the castle as they can. On the fifth day they retreat and sail away."

"To Yokohama?"

"No, Sire. The plan says they will evacuate all gai-jin the day before Battle Day and retreat to Hong Kong until the spring.

Then they will come back in force. The cost of the war-- as with their Chinese wars, and is their custom--will be doubled, and demanded as reparations from the Shogunate and the Emperor as well as complete access to all Nippon, including Kyoto and an island ceded in perpetuity, to cease hostilities."

Yoshi felt a chill. If these barbarians could humble all China, Mother of the World, eventually they would humble us, even us. Complete access?

"This ultimatum? What further impertinence is this?"

"It's not in the scroll, Sire, but the spy promised details, as well as the Battle Date and any changes."

"Whatever the cost, buy them--if true these could make a difference in the outcome."

"Possibly, Sire. Part of the information is about gai-jin countermeasures. Against our fire ships."

"But Anjo told me they are secret!"

"It's not secret to them. The Bakufu is a rice sieve for the interested, as well as corrupt, Sire."

"Names, Inejin, and I'll spike them."

"Begin today, Sire. Begin at the top."

"That's treason."

"But the truth, Sire. You enjoy truths, not lies, unlike any leader I have ever known."

Inejin moved his knees, the ache intolerable. "The matter of this spy is complicated, Sire. It was Meikin who told me about him ..." Yoshi grunted. "Yes, I agree. But Meikin told me, Meikin who diverted the intermediary from the Bakufu to me, Meikin who will substitute the false document, at great danger, for she must attest to its truth, Meikin who desperately wishes to prove her loyalty to you."

"Loyalty? When her house is a sanctuary for shishi, a meeting place for Katsumata, a training bed for traitors?"

"Meikin swears the Lady was never part of a plot against you, never. Nor was she."

"What else can she say--the maid was, eh?"

"Perhaps she speaks the truth, perhaps not, but perhaps, because of her grief, she now sees the error of her past, Sire. A converted spy can be most valuable."

"Katsumata's head would make me more sure.

If caught alive, more so."

Inejin laughed and bent forward and dropped his voice. "I suggested she should quickly provide you with details about the traitor Hiraga before you request his head."

"And hers."

"A woman's head on a spike is not a pretty thing, Sire, old or young. That is an ancient truth. Better to leave it on her shoulders and use the venom, wisdom, cunning or simple rottenness that any such a woman possesses to your advantage."

"How?"

"First by giving you Katsumata. Hiraga is a more complex problem. She says he is the intimate of an important Ing'erish official close to the Ing'erish Leader, named Taira."

Yoshi frowned. Another omen? Taira was another Japanese name of significance, an ancient regal family related to the Yoshi Serata line. "So?"

"This Taira is an official, an interpreter-in-training. His Japanese is already very good--the Ing'erish must have a school like the one you proposed and the Bakufu "consider."

"Consider, eh? Taira? Is he an ugly young man, tall with blue eyes, huge nose and long hair like rice straw?"

"Yes, yes that would be him."

"I remember him from the meeting of Elders. Go on."

"Meikin has heard his grasp of our language improves rapidly, helped by a whore called Fujiko, but more because of this Hiraga who has cut his hair in gai-jin style, wears gai-jin clothes." The old man hesitated, loving the telling of secrets. "It seems this Hiraga is the grandson of an important Choshu shoya who was permitted to purchase goshi status for his sons, one of whom, this Hiraga's father, is now hirazamurai. Hiraga was chosen to join a secret Choshu school where, as an exceptional student he learned Ing'erish." He suppressed a smile seeing his Lord's face.

"Then the spy is not gai-jin, but this Hiraga?"

"No Sire, but Hiraga could be a serious secondary source of intelligence. If he could be tapped."

"A shishi helping us?" Yoshi scoffed.

"Impossible."

"Your meeting yesterday, aboard the Furansu ship. It was profitable, Sire?"

"It was interesting." Impossible to keep those ventures secret. He was glad Inejin was so well informed so quickly. Abeh and half a dozen of his men had been present at the meeting. Who had spoken in their cups? It didn't matter.

It was to be expected. Nothing compromising was said by him.

"Abeh!" he called out.

"Sire?"

"Send a maid with tea and sak`e." He said nothing more until it had been served and accepted gratefully by Inejin, sifting the information, sorting it and coming up with new questions and answers. "What do you propose?"

"It would not be for me to propose what you have already surely decided, Sire. But it did occur to me, when and if the Ing'erish Leader sends his ultimatum, you alone would be the perfect person to mediate--alone, Sire."

"Ah! And then?"

"Amongst other things you could ask to see this Hiraga. You could weigh him, perhaps persuade him to be on your side. Turn him to your advantage. The timing could be perfect."

"That could be possible, Inejin," he said, already having discarded that for a much better thought, one that fitted the plan he had discussed with Ogama in Kyoto, and his own need to begin the grand design. "Or an example might be made of this Hiraga. Catch Katsumata, he's the head of the shishi snake--if Meikin is the means to deliver him alive, so much the better for her."