Part 8 (1/2)
Maybe you can cut through all the politeness and the translated PR. If you'd like a little per diem, I'll see if I can't shake loose the money from somewhere.”
”Allan, really, don't you think you're maybe going overboard just a little. What if Dr. Yos.h.i.+da was just tied up? The last time I visited the lab, he showed me everything, completely open.”
”Ho, ho.” He set down his brandy, and his eyes hardened. ”I still haven't told you the clincher. There's some new guy in charge now.”
”That's hard to believe. Yos.h.i.+da practically invented the Fifth Generation Project. He's the director--”
”That's just it. Kaput. All of a sudden he's not around anymore. They said he's now 'technical adviser.' But you know what that really means.
Removed. _Sayonara_. Promoted upstairs or downstairs or some d.a.m.n thing. That in itself is mystifying. He's one of the most competent . .
. oh, h.e.l.l, the man is a genius. Why would they do that?”
”Very strange.”
”Exactly. But now he's out. Couldn't even see me. 'On vacation.' The new director is some bureaucrat by the name of Asano. I spent a little time with the man, and I can testify he's a smoothie. Lots of pious generalities about 'technical cooperation.' But I got the distinct feeling he didn't want to talk details with me. Actually, I wondered if maybe he wasn't even a bit afraid to say anything.”
Asano? Oh, s.h.i.+t. She took a deep breath. ”Was his name Kenji Asano?”
”Ken. Right, that's his first name. Maybe you know him. I think he used to be a flunky with some government bureau
over there. But now he's just been put in charge of the Fifth Generation work. It's more than a little curious.”
She puzzled a minute. From what she knew about the Fifth Generation, and about Kenji Asano, he had a lot more important things to do than run the lab. The ”government bureau” he worked for was none other than MITI, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. In fact, at last count he was Deputy Minister for Research and Planning, a top- ranked executive slot. Could this mean that j.a.pan's ambitious artificial intelligence effort was being moved in on by MITI, their industrial war room?
”Allan, I'll tell you the truth. You may not have heard, but I'm in a fight now at the university. I expect to win, but I've got a lot on my mind. Notes for the book. I can't just suddenly--”
”Tam, I need your help. Look, maybe they've had some new breakthrough that none of us ever imagined.” He paused. ”Just between us, I lifted a strange MITI memo I found lying around an office when Asana took me on an escorted tour up to the labs at Tsukuba Science City.”
She looked at him. ”Was it cla.s.sified?”
”How would I know? There was something about it. My sixth sense told me it was a doc.u.ment n.o.body was supposed to see. When I get back to Stanford, I plan to have a postdoc over in Physics make me a quick translation.”
It was very unlike Allan to walk off with confidential memos uninvited.
Which could only mean he must suspect something he wasn't telling.
”You'd better give me the whole story.”
”Not now. Not yet. It's only guesswork, Tam.” He glanced away. ”Nothing to bore you with at the moment. But if you can find out anything, we'll write it up as a report I can circulate around the Hill. This could be important, believe me. Already Cray has started having to buy critical chips for its supercomputers from j.a.pan. And while the Department of Defense is pouring billions into research on semiconductors that will withstand nuclear radiation, j.a.pan is forging ahead on speed and miniaturization--what really counts. I think they could be about to have us by the b.a.l.l.s, pardon my French. If they've somehow incorporated AI--”
”Allan, it doesn't add up. I once met Asano. In fact it was a couple of years ago at that Kyoto University symposium on
Third World industrialization. He spent a lot of time trying to pick my brain about our specialized silicon-chip manufacturing here. But he wasn't the slightest bit interested in artificial intelligence.”
”Well, prepare yourself for a surprise. He's plenty interested now. And knowledgeable. But still, it's not like the j.a.panese to do something like this, install some government guy to run an R&D program.”
”That's certainly true.” She strolled over, looked down upon the park, and began to want a brandy of her own as she chewed over the implications. Was MITI setting up some new high-tech industrial a.s.sault? If the Fifth Generation had been taken over by Kenji and his planners . . . ”Allan, let me think about this for a couple of days.”
”Don't think too long. I'm convinced somebody over there is suddenly in a very big hurry. I need to find out the real story. Am I just starting to go nuts in my old age? . . . Well, make that my prime.” He grasped her hand for emphasis. ”And you really should make it a point to see this Asano fellow. If you already know him from somewhere, I'd say that's even better.”
She started to respond, then stopped. She knew Kenji Asano all right.
From a little episode at that conference, when he had invited the panel members of a session he chaired to a late-night tour of the endless tiny bars in Kyoto's Gion district. She remembered all the steaming sake and being ignored by fl.u.s.tered bar girls who were pretending that another woman wasn't around. They had no idea what to do about a member of their own s.e.x there in their sanctuary of male flattery. Ken apparently had staged it mainly to watch their reaction, and hers.