MANHATTAN MASQUERADE

By Michael Howard

(This story is rated "T" for language, violence, and adult themes).

28. Out of the East

Friday Morning, January 13, 1933

Fifteen minutes after their arrival, Galen Slaughter was still surveying his apartment.

"It's obvious there's no one here but the two of us," said Jessica Silverton. "Just what is it that you're looking for?"

"Different things," replied the private detective as he peered underneath his desk. "A listening device, or some other sign of intrusion."

"You already checked the phone lines coming into the building."

"True, but there are other ways to tap into the system than through the main wires."

"Not my area of expertise," conceded Silverton as she seated herself on the living room couch. "You know, Galen, you scored some big points with me by cutting short your... conference with Sophia Kandinsky to meet us at the warehouse."

"Uh-huh."

"But now I'm coming to the conclusion that it wasn't a romantic inclination that prompted you to bring me here."

"Not entirely, no."

"So what's going on?"

Slaughter paused, took another look around the room, and then came over and sat beside her. "It's a long story, but I'll make it as brief as possible. You know that my mother was a doctor. There wasn't much regular work for female physicians at the turn of the century, so she often donated her services to the Indian reservations in the area of New Mexico where we lived. This came to the attention of J. P. Morgan who-"

"Senior or Junior?"

"Junior."

"Ah. Uncle Jack."

Slaughter gave her a fixed stare. "You're related to the Morgan family?"

"Distantly, yes. Jack married one of my Boston cousins."

"I wasn't aware of that."

She crossed one leg over the other and gestured to herself with a swipe of her upturned palm. "The tip of the iceberg."

He raised an eyebrow. "There is absolutely nothing icy about you, Miss Silverton."

She took that as a complement and inclined her head slightly in thanks. "Go on with your story."

"Right. 'Uncle Jack' has been labeled a warmonger for his support of the Allied cause in the World War, but back at the time of the war with Spain he had been quite vocal in his criticism of that conflict.

"Anyway, he arranged for my mother to travel to the Philippines, after they became a U. S. Territory, to set up a series of medical clinics."

"You and your father came too?"

"Yes. We would travel from island to island so my mother could survey local health conditions and train people to provide rudimentary medical services for their villages. All together she founded thirty-five clinics, and I'm proud to say every one of them is still in operation."

"She sounds like a remarkable woman."

"Definitely." He considered her a moment. "But here's where the story becomes relevant to the matter at hand. Once when I was five years old I accompanied my father in to Manila to pick up supplies. We met an old army friend of his named Van Deman, who at the time was the head of military intelligence in the Philippines. I overheard them talking about a Japanese 'businessman' named Jobu Kagemoto who was suspected of providing assistance to the insurgents fighting against American control of the islands. The authorities wanted to expel Kagemoto but had no hard evidence against him."

"And did young Galen Slaughter do something to obtain that evidence?" asked Silverton.

He nodded but did not return her smile. "I slipped into his hotel room and took his portfolio case."

"You don’t seem very happy about it now, but I’ll bet you were quite pleased with yourself at the time."

"You're right. Kagemoto was sent packing. Van Deman and my father were thrilled, and even my mother eventually calmed down enough to congratulate me."

"But that's not the end of the story, is it?"

His gaze drifted over to the mantelpiece photograph of his parents. "No, it isn't. Uh... " He paused as if forcing himself to redirect his thoughts. "Jack Morgan was very pleased with my mother's work in the Philippines, and offered to finance an expansion of her efforts on a wider stage. For the next decade we traveled tens of thousands of miles - to Asia, Africa, Latin America - setting up more of those self-sustaining medical clinics in the forgotten corners of the world."

"With you picking up new languages in each location."

He tilted his head to one side. "Children are better linguists than adults. As I'm sure you demonstrated to your parents during all of the Silverton family travels."

"True enough."

"As for my own family, our traveling continued until I was fifteen and we had a second meeting with Jobu Kagemoto. It was in northern Mexico and we discovered he was recruiting some of the local Yaqui Indians to act as auxiliaries of the Japanese in case of a war with the U.S. I was sent off to report his activities to the nearest American consul and when I got back I found Kagemoto had had my parents killed a short time before."

She laid a hand on his thigh which felt very rigid beneath the fabric of his pants. "God... Galen, I am so sorry."

"He had a decade to brood about the failure of his mission to the Philippines, and when the opportunity for revenge came up, he took it."

The blonde asked quietly, "What about your revenge?"

"I had it," he murmured. "Before the day was over. And then sent a signed confession off to the Japanese ambassador in Mexico City."

"Not a prudent thing to do, but under the circumstances..."

Slaughter continued in a more normal tone of voice. "That date was Friday, January 13th, 1911. Today is only the third time since then that January has had a Friday the Thirteenth."

"Uhh... Okay." She struggled to find the relevance in his last statement. "I- I know that four is considered an unlucky number by some Japanese... "

"Because their word for four is pronounced like the word for death. Right. But that wasn't my point."

She pressed her teeth down on her lower lip for a moment. "I'm going to have to admit here I don't know what your point is. Friday the Thirteenth is a Western concept; it doesn't mean anything in Japanese culture. The closest equivalent they have to a day of ill-omen is Ni-hyaku-tohka."

"The first of September," he translated. "And I happened to have been in Japan on that date in 1923."

"1923... Why does that sound familiar... I... " She drew in breath sharply. "The earthquake!"

"Right again."

"But that should have worked in your favor. I know you and I'm certain you helped in the rescue efforts."

"I did. For three days straight. But the authorities didn't approve of some of those rescues."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Because the people I helped included a tenement block full of Korean laborers, and a prominent dissident and his family. It wasn't fire or falling buildings that threatened them. It was their fellow men." He considered her expression a moment and explained, "You see, certain elements within the Japanese police and military decided the chaos of that time was a perfect opportunity to eliminate various perceived threats to the State. So if I ever had been removed from the Japanese national list of enemies, preventing those murders put me right back on it. And, I found out later, brought me to the attention of the Kagemoto family again. Are you familiar with Ninjas?"

"Yes, they’re a kind of Japanese assassins guild."

"Correct, to a certain degree. The Kagemoto clan have been Ninjitsu for nearly a thousand years now and they've managed to incorporate the family talents for combat, stealth, and deception into modern day espionage work. Their numbers are relatively small, but you won't find a more competent group of intelligence operatives anywhere in the world.

"At any rate, a few years after the earthquake I married my second wife and we were living in Batavia running a small, unconventional shipping firm."

She held a hand up. "Unconventional how?"

"We didn't actually carry any cargoes; our ship hunted down pirates in the China Seas."

"Of course. I should have known. Continue, please."

Instead Slaughter paused and drummed his fingers silently against his leg for several seconds. "When the twins were six months old, we left them with my in-laws and started off on a belated honeymoon, but it was cut short by the news that our children had been kidnapped by the son of Jobu Kagemoto. His plan was to force me to return to Japan to answer for my crimes against his country and his family honor, but a storm came up and the ship he and the twins were on was lost at sea with no survivors."

Silverton's right hand entwined with his left while she searched to find the words to respond. "I... You... You must hate them fiercely."

He shook his head solemnly. "I don't. Not now. That account was closed years ago." There was a faint rasping noise as the thumb of his free hand traveled along his jaw line. "Washed away in a river of blood. Or so I had believed." He glanced at a wall clock that read a few minutes after 3 am. "We should have the answer within the next twenty-one hours about whether I'm on the wrong track here, or the Kagemotos really are back in my life."

"What were the other years when January had a Friday the Thirteenth?" she asked.

"1922 and 1928."

"And there weren't any significant incidents either time?"

"No. Although for both of those years I was out of the public eye, wandering around some uncivilized parts of the world."

"And now you have a fixed address. One that Betty Kern and who knows how many other people of questionable trustworthiness are aware of."

"True."

She squeezed his hand in a gesture of support. "So you and your wife divorced... afterwards?"

"Yes. I've read it’s fairly common following the loss of a child. Or children."

A long uncomfortable silence followed before Silverton said, "All you told me about your meeting with Kandinsky is that she still hadn't agreed to work against Remora yet."

"True. But getting her out of her hotel has at least made that a more likely occurrence."

"You didn't put her in the same hideaway hotel as Judith Goslin."

"No. A boarding house near Stuyvesant Square."

"I bet the landlord there thought you were her sugar-papa. Any new information at all from her?"

"Not really. Although she did make an off-handed comment about Saturday night."

"Which was?"

"She said there would only be a skeleton crew at Remora's club that evening and perhaps it might be a good time for me to come and search the place."

"Yes, then you'll step into a death trap and be out of the way for the real action at the Park View."

"You could be right."

“Ah, ’could be’?” repeated Silverton. "Have you decided she's trustworthy now?

He shook his head. "Time will tell her true motivations here but I can't."

Silverton said thoughtfully, "I’d give a lot right now for a glimpse into our future. Not just today, mind you. I’d like to know how the weekend will turn out and maybe even the next week."

"Pull back to the present, Jessica. Let’s stay prepared for what this anniversary might bring our way first."

Slaughter's earnest tone caused Silverton to lean back so she could study his features carefully. "They are very dangerous people, aren't they? The Kagemotos, I mean."

"Extremely."

"And it's possible Remora has contacted them and passed along the information that you are or were Peacemaker?"

"Possible, yes."

Silverton took the automatic from her purse and dropped it into the pocket of her dress. "Then it’s a damn good thing you’ve got me to watch your back.”

Slaughter gave her a wan smile and excused himself. When he returned a few minutes later he had exchanged his business suit for a sweater and denim trousers.

"Would you like anything to eat or drink?"

"No, thanks."

"Are you tired?"

The woman smiled wistfully at the memory of the last time they had asked that question of each other. "Yes," she lied. "Will we be sleeping in shifts here tonight?"

"Ah... I guess that wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm sure I can find you something to wear."

"That won’t be necessary," she said airily.

He raised both eyebrows and there was a hint of amusement on his lips. “And, um, just about any toiletries you might need.”

“Just about. When do I relieve you?"

“I’m not sure."

His evasive tone prompted her to ask, "Why do I get to sleep first anyway?" She moved a forefinger menacingly toward his side. "You're wounded, remember?" Slaughter made no reply and she shrugged. "Fine, you first. But I want up in two hours."

"Three."

"I can accept that - if you really mean it."

"I do."

"You better. But for you I'm willing to give up part of those three hours. You... You have been calling up some pretty unpleasant memories tonight. If you'd like to talk more... "

He kissed her very gently on the lips and said, "Another time, Jessica."

The young woman nodded and walked down the hallway. In the doorway to the bedroom she turned and saw he was watching her. Neither spoke but after several seconds he raised a hand to mimic the lifting of a hat. She returned the gesture and closed the door behind her.

Silverton rested her back against the wall and sighed heavily. Sleep was not what interested her at present, but she was willing to forgo his company for now so long as she could be at his side for the battles ahead.

To Be Continued

Thanks to Sophiesix, Laura Crossing, Screaming Phoenix, and Melissaeverlasting for reviewing.

Historical notes:

Spain and America were at war from April to August of 1898.

Ralph Van Deman (1865 to 1952) later headed the U. S. Army's Military Intelligence Division during the First World War so his acquaintance with Galen Slaughter was a long one.

The earthquake that struck Tokyo on September 1, 1923 killed well over one hundred thousand people. The casualties included as many as six thousand Koreans who were murdered in the resultant chaos. This was sometimes carried out with the tacit approval of Japanese officials from xenophobia or to deflect blame for the pathetic government preparation for and response to the disaster. In the days following the earthquake, Japanese police and military authorities also jailed large numbers of socialists and other government critics, many of whom were summarily executed while in custody.

Batavia, administrative center of the Dutch East Indies, is now the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta.

11/2/2009