"How about a little joust with our friend downstairs? Try and feel him out. Maybe we can lure him into making another move, something that'll give away more of his game."
"You don't think he's actually going to talk."
"Not really. He'll feint, parry. But if we watch carefully, maybe we'll glimpse more of the outline of his strategy. Then we'll know what our counter scenario has to be." I decided to hold off on telling her the getaway plan. Assuming the walls had ears, we'd already said too much. "Look, make you a deal. First let's see what happens with Noda, then we decide what to do about your friend Asano."
"All right. But let's stay cool." She was locking her desk.
"You read my mind."
With that settled, we strolled out, past the doubled security, and headed down to eleven. The way people looked at us, I felt as naked as Tam had been in the bath Saturday night. How much did they know?
Matsuo Noda was in his office. His secretary buzzed us right through, almost as though he'd been waiting for our appearance.
"Dr. Richardson. Mr. Walton." He rose to greet us. "How timely. There is an urgent matter we have to discuss."
"We want to talk about MITI." I decided to try and break his rhythm as quickly as possible. Take the action to him.
"Then this is a coincidence." An easy smile as he resumed his seat. "That happens to be the very matter I wanted to explore—"