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As Yamamoto closed the drawer on thewatched He looked across the desk into the bold gaze of a beautiful woraphic portrait stood in a silver frahter and adrapher had captured her co hand “For Father, the ‘gunner’ who ‘dreads nought’!”
Yaner’s bookshelves Bound volumes of patent applications vied with novels for the space The applications filed recently had been written on a typewriter Ya his way back to the last year that applications were subner’s desk, then chose a sheet of paper froold nib Referring repeatedly to the saed a brief, incoherent letter Ending it with the words “Forgive nature
He took the iodine and the aner’s washroom With the butt of his Nambu pocket pistol he crushed the iodine crystals on the marble washstand and brushed the resultant powder into a shaving un
clean with the washroo a purplish smear on the cloth Then he poured aner’s toothbrush until he had a thick paste of nitrogen iodide
He propped open the lid of the grand piano, reached into the narrow end farthest from the keyboard, and ss After it dried, the explosive concoction would becoentle vibration would set off a loud bang and a flash Alone, the explosion would dae little beyond the piano But as a detonator, it would be deadly
He placed the silk sack on top of the cast-iron frah Cordite MD smokeless powder to propel a twelve-pound shell two miles
YAMAMOTO KENTA LEFT the Gun Factory the way he had entered, his eyes still stinging fro The North Railroad Gate was blocked by an unexpected burst of late-night activity Switch engines were huffing gondola cars in and out, attended by a horde of brakemen He retreated deeper into the arsenal, past the powerhouse, through ahimself by the powerhouse smokestacks and a pair of experiainst the ardens bordered by handsome brick houses in which slept the families of the commandant and officers of the yard
The ground rose higher here To the northwest he gli over the city He saw it as yet another syht What other nation could have erected the largest cast-iron do a bloody Civil War? He was alate when a sentry surprised him on a narrow path
Yaerow
His capture would disgrace Japan He was ostensibly in Washington, DC, to help catalog the recent contribution of the Freer Collection of Asian art to the Sle with the Diplomatic Corps and powerful politicians, thanks to their wives who fancied the on his every word about Japanese art Genuine experts at the Sht hiaps in his hastily learned knowledge on a poor colish So far, the experts accepted the excuse But there would be absolutely no plausible explanation for a Japanese curator of Asian art caught prowling the Washington Navy Yard at night
The watchravel Ya his pistol as a last resort A gunshot would rouse Marine guards fro for an opening in the branches that would lead out the other side
The watcherow as he plodded by But Yay branches, and one snapped The watchman stopped He peered in the direction of the sound In that instant the moon bathed both their faces
The Japanese spy saw hi his ht watchman’s job His face was leathery, his eyes bleached by years of tropical sunlight, his back stooped He straightened up at the sight of the slender figure hiding in the hedge Suddenly galvanized, the pensioner was no longer an old man who should have called for help but was hurled back to his ti-limbed, broad-shouldered “blue jacket” in the full tide of life A strong voice that once carried to thein there?”
Yae and ran The watchled in it and roared like a bull Yaed course and raced along a high wall It had been raised, he had learned while preparing for his “tour,” after looters invaded when the Potoh to scale
Boots pounded on gravel Old hts flickered Suddenly he saw salvation, a tree standing near the wall Digging his india-rubber crepe soles into the bark, he shinnied up the trunk to the lowest branch, cliher, and jumped onto the wall He heard shouts behind him The city street beloas e with flexed knees