I was right. His Treasury sell-off had merely been a demonstration of firepower. Its effectiveness must have given confidence that his beachhead was secured, since he came ashore at the end of the week to take personal command of the real landing.
He and his general staff hit town quietly and with no fanfare on Thursday, spent Friday in a strategy session, and on Saturday took over the computerized command HQ on Third Avenue. That afternoon Tanaka called and ordered me (very politely but curtly) to assemble my records and come uptown. The operation was being consolidated and Noda-san wanted me coordinated. From now on I would be working out of their offices.
This was it. Just what I'd been waiting for. At last I could confront the bastard, one-on-one. No way was I going to be part of the big assault I saw directly ahead.
My first look at the revised operation uptown confirmed my worst fears. The technical analysts had been replaced by a new set of troops: money men. Open collars were gone, supplanted by a lot of business-school types wearing thin black ties. Tanaka's office had been moved off to the side; the corner office now belonged to Dai Nippon's four-star commanding general: Matsuo Noda. After I'd cleared security, that's where I was led.
"Mr. Walton, how good to see you again." He looked up from a printout, his silver hair perfectly groomed. "I do hope today is convenient for you."
"This is going to be brief." I ignored the chair he rose to adjust for me. "I'm only here to advise you that my participation is officially terminated as of this moment. I'll be sending you a final invoice next week. You can find yourself another attorney."
"But your work has scarcely begun." He appeared to be mildly puzzled, as though I'd just made a small misstatement about the weather or some such. "We expect your participation to be crucial."
"Surely you're joking." I was turning to leave.
"Mr. Walton." He shifted the printout around and shoved it across the desk. "Contrary to what you may presume, we are here to help this country. You might wish to look over our program for the near term."
"This I've got to see." I came back and studied it for a few seconds . . . then stared back at him.