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"It's time for you to leave."
Loren elegantly came to her feet and locked eyes with Suma. "I'm not moving from here until I know Dirk and AI are alive and treated humanely."
Suma smiled indulgently. "They covertly came onto foreign soil, my soil, as intelligence agents of a foreign country--"
"Japanese law is the same as ours in regards to espionage," she interrupted. "They're entitled to a fair trial."
Suma gloated with malicious satisfaction. "I see little reason to carry this discussion further. By now, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Giordino, along with the rest of their spy team, have been executed by my friend Moro Kamatori. Make of it what you will."
Loren felt as if her heart had been crushed in ice. There was a stunned silence, made even more shocking at knowing it must be true. Her face went white and she swayed on her feet, her mind suddenly void.
Toshie grabbed Loren's arm and pulled her toward the door. "Come, the aircraft that will take you to Edo City and Mr. Suma's private aircraft is waiting."
"No ride through your amazing tunnel beneath the sea?" asked Diaz without a hint of disappointment.
"There are some things I don't wish you to see," Suma said nastily.
As if walking through a nightmare, Loren uncaringly allowed Toshie to drag her through a foyer that opened onto a stone path that crossed over a small pond. Suma bowed and motioned for Diaz to accompany the women.
Diaz shrugged submissively and limped with his cane ahead of Suma while the two roboguards brought up the rear.
Beyond the pond, a sleek tilt-turbine aircraft sat in the middle of a lawn surrounded by a high, neatly trimmed hedge. The jet engines were turning over with a soft whistling sound. Two crewmen in red nylon flight suits and brimmed caps stood at attention on each side of the steps leading inside the main cabin.
Both were short, one slim, the other fairly bursting the stitched seams over his shoulders. They respectfully bowed their heads as Suma's party approached.
Diaz stopped suddenly. "When I return to Washington, I'm going to hold a news conference and expose you and your monstrous plans. Then I'll fight you with every means at my command in both houses of Congress, until every asset you have in the United States is confiscated and nationalized. I won't rest until you pay for your crimes."
Suma made an infuriating grin. "Our Washington lobbyists are more than strong enough to dilute your pathetic efforts. We own too many of your fellow legislators, who have a weakness for hidden wealth, for you to influence. Your voice will ring hollow, Senator Diaz. Your government, whether you like it or not, corrupt and mired in emotional programs instead of technology and science, has become a wholly owned Japanese subsidiary."
Loren leaned toward Suma, her eyes narrowing in scorn. "You underestimated American guts fifty years ago, and once again you've awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with terrible resolve."
"Admiral Yamamoto's words after December the seventh do not apply now," Suma said contemptuously. "Your people have lost the fortitude to make sacrifices for the good of the nation. You must face reality, Congresswoman Smith. America's greatness is gone. I have nothing more to say except to urge you to warn your President of Japan's intentions."
"Don't you mean your intentions," said Loren bravely, the color coming back into her face. "You don't represent the Japanese people."
"A safe journey home, Congresswoman Smith. Your visit has ended."
Suma turned and began to walk away, but he'd only taken one step when the two crewmen grabbed his arms from each side, lifted him off his feet and hurled him backwards through the open door into the aircraft's cabin, where he seemingly vanished. It all happened so fast that Loren and Diaz stood in blank-minded shock. Only Toshie reacted, lashing out with her foot at the heavier-built crewman.
"Is this any way to begin an intimate relationship?" laughed Giordino, grabbing Toshie's foot, sweeping her up in his arms, and hoisting her through the door to Weatherhill and Mancuso's waiting hands as easily as if she was filled with air.
Loren gasped and started to mutter something to Giordino, but Stacy brusquely pushed her up the short stairs. "No time to waste, Ms. Smith. Please step lively." With Loren on her way, she pulled at Diaz. "Get a move on, Senator. We've worn out our welcome."
"Where. . . where did you all come from?" he stammered as Mancuso and Weatherhill hauled him through the hatch.
"Just your friendly neighborhood hijackers," Weatherhill answered conversationally. "Actually, it was Pitt and Giordino who got the drop on the crew and tied them up in the cargo compartment."
Giordino lifted Stacy into the cabin and scrambled up the stairs after her. He threw a smart salute at the two roboguards that aimed their weapons at him but stood in stationary bewilderment.
"Sayonara roboturkeys!"
He yanked the door shut and locked it. Then he turned and shouted one brief word in the direction of the cockpit.
"Go!"
The soft whistle of the two turbine engines increased to an earsplitting shriek, and their thrust flattened the grass under the stubby wings. The wheels lifted from the damp ground and the aircraft rose straight into the air, hung there for a few moments as the engines slowly twisted to a horizontal position, and then it sho
t off in a wide bank that took it over the sea toward the east.
