Joker Game

Two hours had pa.s.sed.

Gamou, who had left the estate of the British Consul, walked towards a park near the harbour.

He paused his footsteps at the entrance, and nonchalantly looked around.

A circular fountain of a great size had been set in the center of the park. In theory, water should spout regularly from it, yet, it had not on this day.

The sun shone brightly, about a dozen children were running about with wooden sticks in their hands, screaming loudly. Each of them sported shaven heads and tan skin, their fronts and backs barely distinguishable, donning baggy sportswear and shorts. A few women, whom seemed to be the mothers of the children, stood chatting under a clump of trees in a corner. An old man who looked as though he were taking a stroll pa.s.sed by, set his cane against a bench beside the fountain, and sat down, resting.

Gamou slowly strode across to the fountain, and seated himself on a bench that had been placed back to back with the other. It had just so happened that he was sitting right behind the old man.

The time has come, the sprinklers of the fountain came to life, water spouting from within. The children who ran about screamed louder.

An icy voice sounded from behind after a while.

—Begin your report.

Gamou looked straight ahead, a strained smile forming on his lips.

The sound came from barely parted lips, a noise produced in an odd way only such that only the other would understand. The elderly man who sat behind him had total control of the direction in which his voice was going. Even if the children had stopped nearby, they probably would not be able to notice that the old man before them was speaking.

However, in the end, the old man had deliberately spoken after the sprinklers had been switched on.

Speaking of which, this senile old man, who had been sitting on the bench, was Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki in disguise, and even his correspondent, Gamou, had not been able to see through him at first glance.

Carefully.

Cautiously.

Those were the things the Lieutenant Colonel had taught Gamou in the “D-Agency”.

D-Agency—

It had been Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki’s idea, to establish a spy training agency within the Imperial j.a.panese Army.

The Lieutenant Colonel had disregarded the backlashes that came from within the army, and established the D-Agency on his own.

Gamou Jirou was one of the first students of the D-Agency, and deserved special commemoration.

“In my opinion, he’s innocent.” Gamou said lowly, facing straight ahead, with the same amount of control in his voice as the old man.

“Gamou Jirou” was the pseudonym used for carrying out this mission.

The students of the D-Agency regularly took on false names and ident.i.ties to get a grasp on both sides of the situation, and will put on more suitable masks accordingly for each mission.

“I do not think that the old gentleman has anything to do with the case.”

“…and your evidence is?”

“As you also know, chess is a simple game that reflects the nature of the players.”

Gamou swiftly listed out his observations of his opponent’s personality reflected through chess.

A simple man who’s also fond of playing around with strategies.

Superst.i.tious.

Dares not to challenge traditional values and authority.

Cautious, with a stern façade.

Interested in miscellaneous knowledge of all sorts.

“From these traits, the probability of Graham being involved in the matter, and concealing it from those around him…”

“….less than five percent, correct?”

Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki had spoken of the possibility himself, and remained silent for a long while.

Gamou, of course, understood the implication behind his silence.

Five percent.

This will not do.

—As long as the probability is not zero, do not a.s.sume that the party is innocent.

This was one of the principles of a spy Gamou had learnt in the D-Agency.

To a spy who has concealed their ident.i.ty in order to infiltrate an enemy country, stirring up even one percent of suspicion in their surroundings would mean losing their life.

Alternatively, Gamou’s mission is also the same, so long as the probability remains as five percent, a simple “I have been mistaken” after the mission has been completed would not settle the matter.

The beginning of the case dated back to a month prior.

The Yokohama military police unit had arrested a Chinese man who had fled at the sight of them during a patrol late at night.

Seeing that the latter had ran after taking one look at the unit, there had to be something he was concealing behind it all.

The military police had unyieldingly interrogated the man, and discovered a shocking conspiracy.

The man was a member of an underground anti-j.a.panese terrorist organization, and admitted that they would a.s.sa.s.sinate a prominent figure in a bomb plot during the commemorative ceremony in the coming year, Kōki 2060. [1]

The senior officers had been shaken to the core after they had had received the report.

The royal court were planning to attend the ceremony. If there were to be a bomb or disruption, settling the matter would not be as simple as making those who were responsible for security to “take the blame and resign”.

—The full picture of the plan has to be ascertained no matter what.

Under the near-hysterical pressure of the senior officers, a murderous aura permeated the scene of the investigation.

It had instead become counter-effective in the end.

In order to make the suspect confess, the methods of torture had been harsher than usual, and he was sentenced to death.

Those who were responsible for the interrogation were almost unable to acquire any details of the plan.

Only a few communication posts used by the organization network were discovered.

A mix-used building of a foreign company, a customs house, a news agency, a bank, a restaurant and a coffee house.

Parties stationed at these locations would issue “instructions”, and the suspect would act accordingly.

The military police immediately deployed personnel to overlook in each location. The entrances and exits of the buildings had also been closed off, thorough investigations were carried out inside over a number of days, and two coded slips of paper, possibly the “instructions”, had been found.

—Who put these instructions?

Suspicious figures had been questioned, but to no avail.

Panic had begun to arise within the military police, and at that very moment, a young member had coincidentally made a discovery while inspecting the name lists of those who had been to the supervised locations.

A man had appeared in each of the posts during the first ten days of supervision.

That man was the British Consul General, Ernest Graham, who had been a.s.signed to Yokohama.

Only his name had appeared on every name list at the same time.

The military police had been glowing with satisfaction when the suspects had been found, and had immediately sought out approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to interrogate Graham, however—

The General Staff Headquarters that had been informed of this incident had called it to a halt just in time.

Should the j.a.panese military police question the British Consul General without concrete evidence…even it were a mere misunderstanding, the effects it would have on the already moderately tense Anglo-j.a.panese relations would be unthinkable. The matter was also closely related to the future operations of the military.

The General Staff Headquarters had suppressed the actions of the military police while secretly employing the help of the D-Agency to investigate…

“’Confirm whether the British Consul General, Ernest Graham, has anything to do with this bomb terror plot.’ These are the orders consigned.”

Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki brought out doc.u.ments containing details of the investigations carried out by the military police, and said coldly, “However, the investigation must be completed within two weeks. The people at General Staff Headquarters said that ‘Due to special circ.u.mstances, we are unable to continue suppressing the military police.’…Can you do it?”

“Hasn’t it been already decided that the mission is to be carried out?”

He took the papers, shrugging after he had had a quick look.

The Lieutenant Colonel had determined that he would be able to complete the mission at the moment he was summoned.

—Can you do it?

That question was nothing more than a rhetoric of the answer that had been understood long ago.

After he had read and returned the doc.u.ments, Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki looked at him with unmoving, l.u.s.terless eyes, and said, “What do you plan on doing?”

“Since time is limited, we cannot approach it in the usual manner as we would in an undercover mission, carefully planning the offensive. We must boldly dive right into the lion’s den.”

The Lieutenant Colonel had seemed as though he had expected him to answer in such a way, and wordlessly extracted a thick stack of doc.u.ments from his drawer, sliding it across the desk towards him.

“Gamou Jirou”

That name had been printed on the cover of the papers.

“He’s an employee at a tailor’s who frequently comes and goes from the estate of the British Consul. There isn’t much time, you have to completely replicate this within three days.”

“Two shall be suffice.”

He lifted his head and smiled.

The so-called replication is to perfectly imitate someone else’s appearance as a spy, to the extent of their experiences, interpersonal relationships, actions, mantras, hobbies, preferences in food and all sorts of information.

According to the doc.u.ments received from Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki, the real Gamou Jirou seemed to have worked at Tailor Terashima for several years, and lives in the shop.

He had spent two days replicating Gamou, and switched ident.i.ties with the latter.

The real Gamou is to be kept under the heavy protection of the military police during his mission, staying in a location invisible to others.

Only the owner of the shop Tailor Terashima, whom had employed Gamou, knows of this information. Due to fact that the matter involved the confidential battle plans of the military, a sealing order has been issued to the owner. Despite knowing of the inside information, even the owner had constant trouble determining whether the man in front of his eyes were the real Gamou Jirou, which was sufficient proof of his meticulous imitation.

When Gamou had delivered the suit to the estate as an employee of Tailor Terashima, the Consul General, Ernest Graham had invited him to a game of chess.

Everything seemed to be a coincident, but in truth, Graham was a “chess enthusiast”, and his opponent had recently returned to Britain, therefore the severely bored condition in which the Consul General had been in had already gone through thorough investigation before the mission. With Gamou delivering a suit at a time like this, Graham had disclosed his love for chess as though nothing had happened.

Graham inviting Gamou to a game of chess had not been a coincidence, it was the intended result of Gamou’s plan.

After winning the first round, Gamou had deliberately begun losing.

As expected, Graham had invited Gamou to his estate day after day to play chess.

Perhaps Graham had thought that “I took the initiative to invite Gamou for a game of chess”, and later thought “I forced him into entertaining me”.

Manipulating the opponent’s thoughts, letting them believe that their actions are similar to a magician’s choice was a common technique. [2] To those who hold a considerable amount of information (excellent spies for example), it is not a difficult task.

Over the course of a week, Gamou had served as Graham’s chess opponent for days on end, calmly a.n.a.lyzing his personality at the same time.

“He’s probably innocent.”

This was Gamou’s final impression.

However, according to further investigations carried out by the military police, the messages found at the supervised locations had been written on the particular type of paper used by the British Consulate General.

From the evidence at hand, the suspicion of Graham’s involvement had instead grown.

“Innocent” and “Guilty”.

The white of innocence and black of guilt, no matter how much is to be added to these contradictory possibilities, it would still remain as grey in the end. How the military would deal with the British Consul General, Ernest Graham would remain unresolved.

Since the mission a.s.signed to Gamou was to confirm the involvement of Graham in the matter, should it continue to drag on as such, the mission would be seen as a failure.

There were still five days left before the deadline.

No, considering the fact that the military police had already begun to appear around the target, it means that time is running out. The General Staff Headquarter can only suppress the Yokohama military police for a maximum of three more days. Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki has probably already realized it.

—What should I do?

Gamou asked himself.

Only one solution remained.

—Might as well try my luck…

Just then, he suddenly felt the Lieutenant Colonel get up from behind him.

He turned to look, and saw that the fountain had finished sprinkling, and the children that had been running about were starting to gather around the bench where the Lieutenant Colonel had been sitting.

Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki did not think it would be suitable to continue risking the exchange.

The elderly man who held a cane slowly weaved between the trees, pa.s.sing in front of Gamou’s bench, and headed for the exit of the park.

As he pa.s.sed by Gamou, the old man had paused for a while. He had switched his cane to his other hand, and a low mutter followed.

—No matter the investigation, it is impossible to see through everything. Do not forget about this.

Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki had delivered his message, and slowly left the park.

Annotations:

[1] Kōki, the j.a.panese Imperial year: The j.a.panese imperial year (皇紀) or “national calendar year” is a unique calendar system in j.a.pan. It is based on the legendary foundation of j.a.pan by Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC. Kōki emphasizes the long history of j.a.pan and the Imperial dynasty.

[2] The magician’s choice: Equivocation (or the magician’s choice) is a verbal technique by which a magician gives an audience member an apparently free choice, but frames the next stage of the trick in such a way that each choice has the same end result.