"How's that?" interjected Coppersmith.
"One of them said that the idiot Hayashi mislaid the papers for the Okinawa logistic plans and the other testified that Captain Hayashi made everybody nervous by keeping in touch with a nincompoop Imperial prince they had as chairman for some do-nothing planning board. The regular generals and admirals would get a decent plan made up without the prince having a chance to muddle it, and then Hayashi would tip off the prince and everything would get held up for six months. Nobody could put a finger on Hayashi, because the prince might go off to the palace and tattle. They didn't know that their 'Hayashi' was an American. I'm satisfied with what he did here from Pearl Harbor on…" Landsiedel unconsciously looked out of the window at the half-rebuilt ruins of Tokyo.
"You're defending him," said Coppersmith. "Why are you defending him?"
"I guess I am." Landsiedel smiled wryly. "Some people back in the Pentagon thought that Dugan shouldn't have sat on his — shouldn't have just hung around Tokyo. They said that he should have made a run for China or Russia after getting his hands on everything he could."
"And why didn't he?"
Sarah spoke up, "I don't see that he could have gotten away from Japan. It wouldn't have been easy for a Japanese officer to desert. Did you ever hear of one who did?"
Coppersmith ignored her question and kept his eyes on Landsiedel.
Speaking very deliberately, Landsiedel said, "That wasn't Dugan's way of doing things. He told me that most spies fail because they forget their primary mission—"
Landsiedel hesitated long enough to get their full attention, and then went on, " — which consists of staying alive. He said he could have gotten away from the Japanese but he was not at all sure that he could get through the Russians or the Chinese. They might have shot him. He could do something in Tokyo. He did not know what he would be worth if he started out for Washington and lost two years or lost his life in the process. That brings me to this mission, General. Don't expect him to be orthodox. He'll float where others would sink. He'd rather come back alive and report failure than not come back at all. You can't push Dugan."
"Sounds timid to me," said Coppersmith, with an ironic curl to his lip showing that he did not really mean the remark.