Black Wind by Clive Cussler Page A

really began to pick them out of the seas. After the fall of Kiska, just a few Imperial submarines continued to operate in the north and western Pacific. The I-180 was attacked and sunk near Kodiak, Alaska, in April of 1944, then things were pretty quiet on the home front until the I-403 was sunk off Cape Flattery, Washington, in January 1945.”
    â€œOdd that one would get tagged off the West Coast at a point in the war when their navy was on its last legs.”
    â€œIt’s even more queer when you consider that the I-403 was one of their big boats. Apparently, it was planning an air attack when it was surprised by an American destroyer.”
    â€œHard to believe they constructed submarines back then capable of carrying an airplane,” Dirk marveled.
    â€œTheir big boats could carry not just one but actually three airplanes. They were massive beasts.”
    â€œDid you find any indication that the naval forces used cyanide weapons?”
    â€œNone that was recorded in battle, but they did exist. It was the Imperial Army, I believe, and its biological warfare unit in China, that experimented with biological and chemical weapons. They did fool around with cyanide artillery shells, among other things, so it is possible the Navy tried experimenting with them, but there is no official record of their use.”
    â€œI guess there is no way to prove it, but I suspect the I-25 launched a cyanide shell that killed four people the day before it attacked Fort Stevens.”
    â€œQuite 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.”
    â€œAnd the exception?”
    â€œThe I-403 again. I found a reference in a postwar Army journal stating that a shipment of Makaze 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 Makaze before, however, and could find no other references in my ordnance and munitions files.”
    â€œAny idea what the term means?”
    â€œThe best translation I can make of it is ‘Black Wind.’”
    *  *  *
    D IRK MADE a short phone call to Leo Delgado, then reached Dahlgren, who was drinking a beer in a lounge overlooking Lake Washington following his morning kayak with the bank teller.
    â€œJack, you up for a dive tomorrow?” Dirk asked.
    â€œSure. Spearfishing in the Sound?”
    â€œI’ve got something a little bigger in mind.”
    â€œKing salmon are game for me.”
    â€œThe fish I’m interested in,” Dirk continued, “hasn’t swum in over sixty years.”

7
    I RV F OWLER 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.
    â€œDamndest flu I’ve ever had,” he muttered aloud, then fell back into bed in a heap.
    *  *  *
    S ECURITY WAS tight at the Tokyo Hilton Hotel and guests