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found on the other Aleutian islands?”
    â€œI don’t know. We believe the cadavers found near the mainland were infected by a canine distemper virus.”
    â€œDistemper? From dogs?”
    â€œYes. A viral outbreak likely occurred through contact between an infected domestic dog and one or more sea lions. Distemper is very contagious and could spread rapidly through a concentrated sea lion population.”
    â€œWasn’t there a similar outbreak in Russia a few years ago?” Dirk tried to recall.
    â€œKazakhstan, actually. Thousands of Caspian seals died in 2000 due to an outbreak of distemper near the Ural River along the Caspian Sea.”
    â€œIrv told me you found healthy, uninfected sea lions on Yunaska.”
    â€œYes, the distemper did not appear to have reached this far west. Which will make an examination of the dead sea lions you saw from the helicopter that much more intriguing.”
    A quiet pause fell over the couple and Sarah could see a faraway look in Dirk’s eyes as the wheels churned inside his head. After a moment, she broke the silence.
    â€œThe men on the boat. Who do you think they were? What were they doing?”
    Dirk stared out the porthole for a long minute. “I don’t know,” he replied quietly, “but I intend to find out.”

4
    T HE TWELFTH HOLE of the Kasumigaseki Golf Club stretched 290 yards down a tight fairway before it doglegged left to an elevated green tightly guarded by a deep bunker in front. The U.S. ambassador to Japan, Edward Hamilton, waggled the head of his oversized driver several times before swinging hard into the golf ball, sending it soaring some 275 yards off the tee box and straight down the fairway.
    â€œFine shot, Ed,” offered David Monaco, the British ambassador to Japan and Hamilton’s weekly golf partner for nearly three years. The lanky Brit teed up his ball, then punched a long arcing shot that rolled twenty yards past Hamilton’s ball before bounding into a patch of tall grass on the left fringe of the fairway.
    â€œNice power, Dave, but I think you found the rough,” Hamilton said as he spotted his playing partner’s ball. The two men proceeded to walk down the fairway while a pair of female caddies, in the unique tradition of Japan’s oldest country clubs, manhandled their golf bags a respectable distance behind them. Lurking nearby, four not-so-inconspicuous government bodyguards maintained a rough perimeter around the duo as they made their way around the course.
    The weekly outing at the golf course located south of Tokyo was an informal way of sharing information about the goings-on in and around their host country. The two allied ambassadors actually found it one of their most productive uses of time.
    â€œI hear you are making good progress on establishing the economic partnership agreement with Tokyo,” Monaco remarked as they hiked up the fairway.
    â€œIt just makes sense for everyone involved to ease trade restrictions. Our own steel tariffs may still get in the way of an agreement. The trade attitudes here are certainly changing, however. I think South Korea will even forge a partnership agreement with the Japanese shortly.”
    â€œSpeaking of Korea, I understand that some chaps in Seoul are going to issue another appeal for the removal of U.S. armed forces in the Korean National Assembly next week,” Monaco said in a soft but accented voice.
    â€œYes, we’ve heard that as well. The South Koreans’ Democratic Labor Party is using the issue as a divisive wedge to gain more political power. Fortunately, they still only represent a small minority within the National Assembly.”
    â€œIt’s a damn mystery how they can think that way, given the past aggressiveness of the North.”
    â€œTrue, but it does play on a sensitive cultural issue. The DLP tries to compare us to the historical foreign occupations of Korea by the Chinese and the