Cryptonomicon

Goto Dengo and Bobby Shaftoe lock themselves inside the women's room and share a nip from a bottle of port that the former has looted from a store somewhere. They spend a few minutes catching up with each other in a general way. Goto Dengo is already somewhat drunk, which makes his grenade-throwing performance all the more impressive. "I'm hyped to the gills on benzedrine," Shaftoe says. "Keeps you going, but kind of screws up your aim.

"I noticed!" Goto Dengo says. He is so skinny and haggard he looks more like some hypothetical sick uncle of Goto Dengo's.

Shaftoe pretends to take offense at this and drops into a judo stance. Goto Dengo laughs uneasily and waves him off. "No more fighting," he says. A rifle bullet passes through the women's room wall and digs a crater into a porcelain sink.

"We gotta come up with a plan," Shaftoe says.

"The plan: You live, I die," Goto Dengo says.

"Fuck that," Shaftoe says. "Hey, don't you idiots know you're surrounded?"

"We know," Goto Dengo says wearily. "We know for a long time."

"So give up, you fucking morons! Wave a white flag and you can all go home."

"It is not Nipponese way."

"So come up with another fucking way! Show some fucking adaptability!"

"Why are you here?" Goto Dengo asks, changing the subject. "What is your mission?"

Shaftoe explains that he's looking for his kid. Goto Dengo tells him where all of the women and children are: in the Church of St. Agustin, in Intramuros.

"Hey," Shaftoe says, "if we surrender to you, you'll kill us. Right?"

"Yes."

"If you guys surrender to us, we won't kill you. Promise. Scout's honor."

"For us, living or dying is not the important thing," Goto Dengo says.

"Hey! Tell me something I didn't fucking already know!" Shaftoe says. Even winning battles isn't important to you. Is it?"

Goto Dengo looks the other way, shamefaced.

"Haven't you guys figured out yet that banzai charges DON'T FUCKING WORK?"

"All of the people who learned that were killed in banzai charges," Goto Dengo says.

As if on cue, the Nips in the left field dugout begin screaming "Banzai!" and charge, as one, out onto the field. Shaftoe puts his eye up to a bullet hole in the wall and watches them stumbling across the infield with fixed bayonets. Their leader clambers up the pitcher's mound as if he's going to plant a flag there, and takes a slug in the middle of his face. His men are being dismantled all around him by thoughtfully placed rifle slugs from the Huks' dugout. Urban warfare is not the metier of the Hukbalahaps, but calmly slaughtering banzai-charging Nipponese is old hat. One of the Nips actually manages to crawl all the way to the first base coach's box. Then a few pounds of meat come flying out of his back and he relaxes.

Shaftoe turns to see that Goto Dengo is aiming a revolver at him. He chooses to ignore this for a moment. "See what I mean?"

"I have seen it many times before."

"Then why aren't you dead?" Shaftoe asks the question with all due flippancy, but it has a terrible effect on Goto Dengo. His face scrunches up and he begins to cry. "Aw, shit. You pull a gun on me and start bawling at the same time? How unfair can you get? Why don't you kick some fucking dirt in my eyes while you're at it?"

Goto Dengo lifts the revolver to his own temple. But Shaftoe sees that one coming a mile away. He knows Nips well enough, by this point, to figure out when they are about to go hari-kari on you. Shaftoe jumps forward as soon as the barrel of the revolver begins to move. By the time it is against Goto Dengo's skull, Shaftoe has his finger stuck into the gap between the hammer and the firing pin.

Goto Dengo collapses to the floor sobbing piteously. It just makes Shaftoe want to kick him. "Knock it off!" he says. "What the fuck is eating at you?"

"I came to Manila to redeem myself--to get back my lost honor!" Goto Dengo says. "I could have done it here. I could be dead on that field right now, and my spirit going to Yasukuni. But then--you came! You ruined my concentration!"

"Concentrate on this, dumbshit!" Shaftoe says. "My son is in a church right over on the far side of that wall, with a bunch of other helpless women and children. If you want to redeem yourself, why not help me get 'em out alive?"

Goto Dengo seems to have gone into a trance now. His face, which was blubbering just a minute ago, has solidified into a mask. "I wish I could believe what you believe," he says. "I have died, Bobby. I was buried in a rock tomb. If I were a Christian, I could be born again now, and be a new man. Instead, I must go on living, and accept my karma."

"Well, shit! There's a padre right out there in the dugout. He can Christianize your ass in about ten seconds flat." Bobby Shaftoe strides across the bathroom and swings the door open.