第34节

ine. 'It looks like a black stone

from a go board,' said Mitiyake Se-Iko. 'Can it really capture

voices?"

Cadillac shot a quick glance at Roz, then pretended to make a crucial

adjustment to the bug. Roz quickly rewound a section of the tape and

hit the play button as Cadillac raised the bug between thumb and

forefinger.

To their utter astonishment, the Iron Masters heard the voice of Lord

Se-Iko issue from the black box: 'It looks like a black stone from a go

board. Can it really capture voices?"

'But what does this mean?!" demanded Lord Min-Orota.

Cadillac twisted the two faces of the bug between his fingers and held

it near the radio. There was no high-pitched bleep. Roz had switched

tracks but no one had noticed. 'I have emptied the Dark Light from

it.

It no longer hears. But while it was alive, it noted the words spoken

in this room as faithfully as a scribe!"

Aishi Sakimoto and the other members of the family council paled

visibly. 'Merciful heaven!" exclaimed Hide-oshi YamaoShita. 'It was

around this table that our late and much-beloved Lord Hirohito held

many of his most important meetings!"

Cadillac nodded. 'Which probably included his future plans for

expanding trade and the strategies to be employed in countering the

machinations of the TohYota."

He did not wait for Hideoshi to answer. Holding up the bug, he said:

'You may be sure that every word was carried from this room to eager

ears beyond these walls - by this cunning device! Ears belonging to

the Toh-Yota! For it was the agents employed by Lord Ieyasu who placed

it beneath this table!"

Lord Min-Orota, astounded by what he had seen and heard, was not yet

ready to condemn the Toh-Yota. 'The device can only have come from the

long-dogs, and it must have been placed there by someone, but there is,

as yet, no proof they were agents of the Toh-Yota. The Shogun's

feelings on this matter are well known. His family has always upheld

the edict against the Dark Light. It is not possible for him to be

involved in such an appalling act of treachery!"

ishi Sakimoto nodded then turned to Cadillac. 'Can you back up this

charge?"

Cadillac bowed. 'Sire, if my accusation is well-founded, there will be

agents of the Toh-Yota stationed nearby equipped with more powerful

devices to capture the words spoken here. Their task is to despatch

them unheard and unseen, together with any other intelligence, to their

ultimate destination. Let us see what we can find."

Returning to the small table, he sat down beside Roz, and whispered: 'I

think we've got 'em." Twiddling the controls of the radio, and

manipulating the buttons controlling the multi-track tape, Cadillac

succeeded in 'capturing' a conversation between two voices for his

attentive audience.

The content of the transmission removed any shred of doubt in the minds

of the listening domain-lords. The unidentified agent - who had

apparently been standing by to eavesdrop on the present meetingreported

that the listening device had stopped working before anything

incriminating had been said.

Questioned by the 'home station' he expressed his certainty that the

Yama-Shita family, led by Aishi Saki-moto were plotting a coup of some

kind, and passed on the names of all those present. It was vital, said

the agent, that Lord Ieyasu and the Shogun were informed of what was

afoot. With the failure of the device within the Sara-kusa Palace,

information on the plotters would have to be gathered elsewhere.

The domain-lords gasped as they heard the 'home station' tell the agent

that that was not a problem.

Lord Ieyasu, said the voice, had been able to place a string of black

beads across the length and breadth of Ne-Issan and with their help he

would be able to strangle any conspiracy to remove the TohYota.

Seeing the effect this had on the domain-lords, Cadillac went for the

kill. Addressing Sakimoto, he said: 'Sire! I promised you proof of

the Toh-Yota's treachery. Now you have seen and heard it with your own

eyes and ears!