Black wind

a cyanide shell that killed four people the day before it attacked Fort Stevens.”
    “Quite possible. May be hard to prove, as the I-25 was later lost in the South Pacific, presumably sunk near Espiritu Santo Island in 1943. But with one possible exception, all accounts I have seen indicate that the Japanese vessels were armed only with conventional weapons.”
    “And the exception?”
    “The I-403 again. I found a reference in a postwar Army journal stating that a shipment of Maka^e ordnance was transferred to the Navy and delivered to the submarine in Kure prior to her last sailing. I’ve never seen a reference to Maka^e before, however, and could find no other references in my ordnance and munitions files.”
    “Any idea what the term means?”
    “The best translation I can make of it is “Black Wind.” “
    Dirk made a short phone call to Leo Delgado, then reached I Dahlgren, who was drinking a beer in a lounge overlooking Lake i Washington following his morning kayak with the bank teller.
    “Jack, you up for a dive tomorrow?” Dirk asked.
    “Sure. Spearfishing in the Sound?”
    “I’ve got something a little bigger in mind.”
    “King salmon are game for me.”
    “The fish I’m interested in,” Dirk continued, “hasn’t swum in over sixty years.”
    Irv Fowler woke up with a raging headache. Too many beers the night before, the scientist mused as he dragged himself out of bed. Chugging down a cup of coffee and a donut, he convinced himself he felt better. But as the day wore on, the pain seemed to swell, with little relief offered despite his multiple hits on a bottle of aspirin. Eventually, his back joined in the game, sending out waves of pain with every movement he made. By midafternoon, he felt weak and tired, and left early from his temporary office at Alaska State Health and Social Services to drive back to his apartment and rest.
    After he downed a bowl of chicken soup, his abdomen started firing off streaks of shooting pain. So much for home remedies, he thought. After several fitful naps, he staggered into the bathroom for another dose of aspirin to help kill the pain. Looking into the glassy-eyed worn and weary face that stared back at him from the mirror, he noticed a bright red rash emerging on his cheeks.
    “Damndest flu I’ve ever had,” he muttered aloud, then fell back into bed in a heap.
    Security was tight at the Tokyo Hilton Hotel and guests for the private banquet were required to pass through three separate checkpoints before gaining entry to the lavish dining hall. The Japan Export Association’s annual dinner was an extravagant affair featuring the best local chefs and entertainers performing for the country’s top business leaders and dignitaries. Executives from Japan’s major exporting companies helped sponsor the dinner on behalf of their major trading partners. In addition to key customers, in-country diplomats from all the Western and Asian countries that constituted Japan’s primary trading partners were treated as special guests.
    The recent assassination of U.S. Ambassador Hamilton and the bedlam at the SemCon factory opening had created a buzz in the crowd and heads turned when the American embassy’s deputy chief of mission Robert Bridges entered the room, accompanied by two undercover security men.
    Though a career diplomat, Bridges was more at home working policy strategies or conducting business security briefings rather than socializing in mass crowds. Hamilton had been by far the better glad-hander, Bridges thought as he made small talk with a Japanese trade representative. A dinner host soon arrived and escorted him to a small banquet table, where he was seated with a number of European diplomats.
    As traditional dishes of sashimi and soba noodles were brought to the tables, a troupe of geisha dancers glided elegantly about a raised stage, dressed in brightly colored kimonos and twirling bamboo fans as they pirouetted. Bridges downed a shot of warm sake to help deaden the pain of listening to the French ambassador drone on about the poor quality of Asian wines while he watched the dancers spin.
    As the first course was finished, a litany of corporate executives ok to the stage to promote their self-importance with blustery speeches. Bridges took the opportunity to visit the restroom and, with large bodyguard leading the way, walked down a side corridor and into the men’s room.
    The bodyguard scanned the tiled restroom, finding only a waiter