Page 91 of The Atlas Maneuver

“He’s right about that,” Koger said. “They’ll take him out now. We’re all he’s got to stay alive. Work the helm and let’s get him in the boat.”

CHAPTER 50

AIKO STOOD OFF FROM THE PRIVATE AIR TERMINAL, ON THE FAR SIDE OFone of the hangars, where she could talk in private on the phone. She’d placed the call a few minutes ago and was told the emperor emeritus would be available shortly. Her phone was vibrating, indicating that the former emperor was ready to talk. She thought an update was definitely in order, along with obtaining some guidance. Things were changing. Fast. So she answered the call and recounted all that had happened since this morning, including the decisions she’d already made.

“Not exactly what we had in mind,” the emperor emeritus said.

She was touched by the intimacy of the conversation—the use ofwe—and the sincerity of the old man’s words.

“Can you proceed forward?” he asked her.

“I believe so. I may still be able to retrieve Austin.”

“Or perhaps find something else of interest.”

She agreed.

“Journey safe, Aiko-san. Heed thehonneandtatemae.”

Truth and lie. The way things were and the way we liked them to be. The real reason and the pretext. Westerners believed the Japanese stressed harmony.

Not true.

They merely pushed theimageof harmony.

Big difference.

What lay beneath might be, and usually was, completely different.

Like here.

COTTON MADE A CALL TOSTEPHANIENELLE.

Time to bring in the cavalry.

He found her at Magellan Billet headquarters in Atlanta.

“You didn’t get your fill of Koger in Germany?” she asked.

“I do seem to be a glutton for punishment. But this is more serious than I imagined.”

And he told her all that had happened, including what Koger had just reported about Robert Citrone and the attempt on Cassiopeia’s life.

Which he had not liked to hear.

“The CIA has gone off the deep end,” he said. “Again.”

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll call you back.”

Ten minutes later his phone buzzed.

“I still have friends inside Langley,” she said. “Operation Neverlight is definitely happening. There was sharp disagreement inside management on whether to do it. But the radicals won out.”

“Does the White House know anything?”

“My first thought too. I texted Trinity Dorner. She checked and says they are in the dark.”

Trinity was the former deputy national security adviser, now director of the National Counterterrorism Center. A friend, whom he’d worked with recently in Germany. Her word was gold.

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