[War] Japan/UK: "Matters of Intelligence"

[Ian Martell]

"Matters of Intelligence"
Prime Minister Shunichi Sato - Japan
"Mr. C" - United Kingdom
October 9th 2006

Prime Minister Sato sat alone in his office the desk lamp the sole source of
illumination as he forced himself to read and retain a memo from the Defence
Agency which was threatening to slip through his mind without any of it
sticking.

He rubbed his eyes and took sip of his tea without looking up and nearly
spat it back out again. It was cold. He shook looked at it balefully as
though it had somehow betrayed him by going cold and set it down again going
back to the memo.

There was a knock on the door. Sato looked up. In the silence of his office
the sound had been like thunder.

"Yes," he asked.

Yamagata his security man stepped in. "Sir, the Briton you said would be
comming is here."

Sato nodded. "Let him up."

Yamagata nodded. "Yes sir."

He retreated to the outer office again and left Sato to himself again. Sato
had long since shucked his suit jacket and tie and sat in his shirt sleaves
and decided to greet his guest in that fashion. Hurrying for an apointee
even one such as Mr. C was hardly done if you were a Prime Minister.

Sato turned on the lights from the controls on his desk and putting the memo
away sat and waited.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the Englishman. His dress
and features were very plain, like a million other Anglos in the
world. It was very likely an intentional appearance crafted over many
years of working with the Service.

"Prime Minister Sato," said C in passable Japanese. "Thank you for
meeting with me."

Sato rose and inclined his head respectfully. "A pleasure, I am gratified
that Prime Minister Eckley has sent a man of your knowledge and abilities to
speak with me," Sato said with professional courtesy. "Please sit."

He indicated one of the chairs infront of the desk. "Can I offer you
something?" he asked nodding to the side board which was well stocked with
liquor from the Sato family brand.

"No thank you," said C. "With the aid you have offered us in
Afghanistan, the Prime Minister now considers Japan an informal ally
of Great Britain. While do wish to leave the current events to be delt
with by regional powers and the Americans, we feel for your situation
and would like to provide some assistance."

C popped open his briefcase and produced a small, grey box the size of
a wallet. "Contained on this portable hard drive is every ounce of
information British intelligence has been able to gather on North
Korea. Data on their military, weapons programs, psychological
profiles on their leadership, names of international companies we
suspect they might control or do business with, names of men and women
who we suspect might be DPRK spies, everything." He offered it to
Sato.

Sato took the disk and bowed his head in thanks before putting it into his
pocket. "Thank you very much, we will put it to good use."

"Is there anything you require of us?" Sato asked.

"There is," said C. "With China on the rise and North Korea becoming
increasingly more aggressive, there will come the need for Japan to
have a greater ability to gather information to keep your citizens
safe. Britain, for similar reasons, must also do this. That is why we
would like to offer you the opportunity to jointly develop a orbital
image surveillance satellite with us."

Japan currently had four sattelites in orbit of the globe giving them a once
per day shot of anywhere on the globe, however the quality of the imagery
and equipment was less than optimal as they were discovering and plans were
already made for a Keyhole equivelent, however budget was a major factor.

"We would be most willing, designs have already been drawn up for a new
generation of satellite however costs have shelved the project recently. We
would be willing to review those designs with your government and the
British contractors you had in mind for this project and develop a device
suitable for both our needs. May I suggest as well for the meantime if your
government is willing to pay some of our current spy-sats operations costs
and provide personnel to expand the operation that we would be willing to
share fully our imagery from our existing constellation."

"Agreed," said C. Though technically not a diplomatic envoy of Her
Majesty, the spy chief's word carried enough weight that it mattered
little. "Our respective foreign ministries can draw up the paperwork
later."

C stood and straighted his suit jacket. "Thank you again for meeting
with me, Prime Minister Sato. I hope that this is just one more
instance of future cooperation between our two nations."

Sato rose and extended his hand. "As do I," he said in earnest.

Actions:

1> UK gives Japan all its intelligence on North Korea.
2> UK and Japan agree to the joint developmet of new spy sattelites.
3> Japan offers the UK use of its current spy-sats if they are willing to 
underwrite some of the costs and provide personnel.

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