"Very good Mr. Troubleaux." Pierre stifled a smirk at the mispro- nunciation. "Your trouble will not go unrewarded."

"Mr. h.o.m.osoto, it is so good of you to visit at this time. Very auspicious, sir." Pierre was kissing some a.s.s.

"Troubleaux-San," h.o.m.osoto"s English had a touch of Boston sn.o.bbery in it, "you have performed admirably, and we all look to continued successes in the future. I expect, as I am sure you do, that the revenues raised from your public stock offering will provide your company with the resources to grow ten fold." It was a statement that demanded an answer. Another j.a.panese quirk.

"Yessir, of course. As you know, Mr. h.o.m.osoto, I am not involved in the day to day operations and the forecasting. My function is more to inspire the troops and carry the standard, so to speak.

I will have to rely upon the expertise of others to give you the exact answers you seek."

"That is not necessary, I have all I need to know about your business and its needs. Your offer is most kind."

"Why do you call DGI my business? Aren"t we in this together?

Partners?" Pierre clarified the idiom for the rotund bespecta- cled Chairman of OSO Industries.

"Hai! Of course, my friend, we are partners, and you will be very wealthy in a few days." That statement had the air of an accusation more than good wishes. "There is one little thing, though. It is so small that I don"t wish to mention it."

Well then don"t, thought Pierre. "Nothing is so small it should- n"t be mentioned. Please, proceed h.o.m.osoto-San. How may I help?"

"That"s it exactly!" h.o.m.osoto beamed. "I do need your help. Not today, but in the future, perhaps a small favor."

"Anytime at all, sir. Whatever I can I will." Pierre was re- lieved. Just some more j.a.panese business practices that escaped him.

h.o.m.osoto leaned in towards Pierre. His demeanor had shifted to one of a very serious man. "Mr. Troubleaux, how can I be sure that you won"t disappoint me? How can I be sure?"

The question threw Pierre for a loop. How can he be sure? I don"t know. Maybe this was only an Oriental game of mumbley peg or chicken. "Sir, what would I need to do to convince you of my willingness to comply?" When in doubt, ask.

h.o.m.osoto relaxed again, leaned back in the plush office chair and smiled. "In my country, Mr., Troubleaux, honor is everything.

You have nothing, nothing without your honor. Every child, man and woman in j.a.pan knows that. We are raised with the focus of growth being honor. During the war between our countries, so many years ago, many found honor by making the supreme sacrifice.

Kamikaze pilots are of whom I am speaking of, Mr. Troubleaux."

Pierre"s face must have given away the panic that instantly struck him. Suicide? This guy is truly nuts.

"Do not worry, Mr. Troubleaux, I can see what you are thinking.

No. I only speak of kamikaze pilots to serve as example of honor. The kind that brought honor to j.a.pan in the face of defeat. That is something Americans will never understand. But then again you"re not American are you?"

"I was born a Frenchman, but I naturalized over twenty years ago, at the same time my parents did."

"Ah yes. I remember. Then honor does mean more to you than to most Americans. That will be quite good. Now, for the future favor. I require nothing of you today, other than the guarantee of you honor. Is that agreeable to you, Mr. Troubleaux?" h.o.m.oso- to was pushing with the facade of friendliness. Pierre"s concern was not alleviated. All the same, he reluctantly nodded his a.s.sent.

"Very good. Now for the favor." h.o.m.osoto stood up and reached inside his size 48, ill fitting suit. Pierre was amazed at how much money the j.a.panese had, yet were apparently unable to ever wear clothes that fit properly.

h.o.m.osoto handed a 5 1/4" floppy disk to Pierre. Pierre took it carefully from h.o.m.osoto and looked at the label. The diskette was marked only with:

FILE1.EXE to FILE93.EXE

He looked inquisitively at h.o.m.osoto, his eyes asking, Yeah, so?

What"s this got to do with anything?

"I see now you are confused. It is so simple, really. Sometime in the future, you will be instructed to add one of the files on this disk onto the dGraph programs you sell. That"s it. So sim- ple. So I have your word Mr. Troubleaux? Honor among men."

Pierre"s mind was racing. Put a file onto a program? What does that do? What"s on it? Does it help dGraph? No that can"t be it. What is it? Why so secret. What"s with the honor bit?

From the Chairman of OSO, not a technician? One floppy disk?

Pierre smelled a fox in the chicken coup.

"Mr. h.o.m.osoto, sir. I mean no disrespect. But, I hardly know what to think. I don"t even know what this disk is. You are asking me to promise something I don"t understand. What if I don"t agree. At least until I know what I"m doing? I need to know what"s going on here." he said holding the disk up promi- nently.

"I prefer to think, Mr. Troubleaux of what occurs as long as you do agree to maintain the honor between us. It is so much more pleasant." h.o.m.osoto edged towards the doors of Troubleaux"s office as he spoke.

"When you agree to act honorably, perform for me this small, insignificant favor, Mr. Troubleaux, you will get to keep the $20 Million you make this Friday and you will be permitted to contin- ue living. Good Afternoon." h.o.m.osoto closed the door behind him.

Alexander Spiradon was pleased. His students were doing well.

The other students from the New York computer school had already checked in; they didn"t have as far to travel as Sir George.

Everything was in place, not quite a year to the day since he and Taki h.o.m.osoto had set their plans in action. Alex hadn"t spoken to h.o.m.osoto in a couple of months. It was now time to report to h.o.m.osoto in Tokyo. It was 17 hours earlier there - h.o.m.osoto would probably be at his desk. The modem dialed a local Brookline number. The phone in Brookline subsequently dialed a number in Dallas, Texas, which dialed another phone in Tacoma, Washington.

The Tacoma phone had the luxury of dialing the international number for h.o.m.osoto"s private computer.

Call forwarding services offered the ultimate in protection. Any telephone tracing would take weeks, requiring the cooperation of courts from every state where a forwarded phone was located.

Then, the State Department would have to coordinate with the j.a.panese Emba.s.sy. An almost impossible task, if anyone had the resources. It took about 45 seconds for the call to be complet- ed.

>>>>> Pa.s.sWORD:

Alex entered his pa.s.sword, GESUNDHEIT and his forced response from his own PRG card. His computer terminal paused. If he was on satellite to j.a.pan, or to Dallas or anywhere else, his signal could travel a hundred thousand miles or more each time he sent a character from his keyboard.

CRYPT KEY:

Alex Spiradon chose 43. Each communication he had with h.o.m.osoto was also protected with full encryption. If someone was able to isolate their conversations, all they would get would be sheer garbage, a screen full of unintelligible symbols and random characters. By choosing 43, Alex told his computer and h.o.m.osoto"s computer to use Crypt Key 43, one of over 100 secret keys that both computers held in their memory. This cryptographic scheme, using the U.S."s Data Encryption Standard, DES, and ANSI standard X9.17 was the same one that the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve used to protect the transmission of over $1 trillion of funds transfers daily.

>>>>>

That was the signal for Alex to send the first words to h.o.m.osoto.

Good Morning, h.o.m.osoto-San.

AND TO YOU MY ESTEEMED PARTNER. YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO REPORT.

Yes. All is in place.

PLEASE CLARIFY . . .MY MEMORY IS NOT WHAT IT WAS.

Of course. The last of the Operators are in place. We call him Sir George. That makes 8 altogether. San Francisco, (SF), New York, (NY), Los Angeles, (LA), Boston, (BM), Atlanta, (AG) Chica- go, (CI), Washington, (DC) and Dallas, (DT).

AND THEY CAN BE TRUSTED?

They are aware of the penalty. If not, we have others that will replace them. Besides, you are rewarding them most handsomely for their efforts.

SO I AM. I EXPECT RESULTS. AND THE OTHERS?

The Mail Men are waiting as well. Four of them in NY, DC, LA and DT.