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to continue to work as a liaison between himself and Patron. Since Ogi would become one of Patron’s men, the Chairman made arrangements to continue to pay him a part-timer’s salary.
    “Now that’s settled, I’d like to ask you something. Have you ever read Balzac? Balzac’s not exactly in fashion here—it’s been twenty years or more, I believe, since a publisher put out his collected works—but if you’ve read much of him, I’m sure you’ve run across the notion of Le Treize. I read this myself a long time ago. The idea behind Le Treize is that there’s a group of thirteen powerful men who control France during one generation, including the underworld.
    “When I was young I was fascinated by the idea. I wanted to form my own Japanese Treize, with myself as the head. Of course, that was a mere pipe dream. Now that I’ve reached my present age, though, when I look back at what I’ve accomplished I see the shadow of Le Treize behind it all. Or something like it. At one time I was one of the main backers of a veteran politician who became prime minister and is still head of the most powerful political faction. Before Japan opened up diplomatic relations with China, I helped some of the more ambitious and resourceful politicians and business leaders of both countries carry on actual trade. And the International Cultural Exchange Foundation that you’ve worked for, with its emphasis on the medical field—by not sparing any funds to back the most outstanding talent from China and France—reflects the deep influence of Le Treize.
    “These are of course unconscious influences, and I never actually thought to create my own group. Now, through the auspices of the foundation, we’ve made this personal connection with Patron. Whenever I think of him, I feel a wave of nostalgia. I’ve never met anyone like him before, which makes it contradictory to speak of nostalgia, I suppose, but what I mean is I get the same sort of feeling from him as when I read Balzac and imagined my very own Treize.
    “Just when I was considering all this, I received a communication from the foundation’s secretary, saying you’d grown closer to Patron and had been sloughing off your work for the foundation. She had so many complaints I had to check into things myself. I’ve confirmed what you told me—that Patron’s right-hand man has collapsed, and that he plans to start a new movement. As a matter of fact, I was just mulling over what a difficult situation this is.
    “I find this absolutely fascinating! Isn’t Patron the very image of Le Treize? At least I’d like to think so. Amazingly, just when I felt this way, here you come along saying you want to work for him. I’ll do what I can to help you out.”
5
Ogi returned to the office from Hibiya and reported excitedly to Dancer about his conversation with the Chairman. She herself had just returned from the hospital, where she’d spent time with the still-unconscious Guide, massaging him to improve his circulation, none too good after lying so long in a hospital bed. This weekend, after tests to determine if he was able to withstand it, he would undergo an operation to prevent hydrocephalus. When he heard this, Patron had taken to his bed again.
    As Ogi reported on his meeting with the Chairman, Dancer’s attitude was noncommittal. He found it easy to talk with her—that is, until he mentioned, jokingly, the Chairman’s talk about Le Treize, which he’d omitted up till then, thinking it irrelevant. Dancer got suddenly irritated, and before he knew it things escalated to the point where she threw some fairly scathing remarks his way. Too late, he listened carefully, reflected on what she said, and realized that although he’d taken the Chairman’s story of Le Treize as so much boastful talk, Dancer saw it as part of a serious evaluation of Patron and Guide.
    “Are you really such an ineffectual person?” she asked him. “When I was a child I couldn’t stand boys like