Emerging relatively unscathed from the harrowing car chase, Dirk Pitt, Jr. helps Sarah home from the hospital. She has broken her leg in the previous chapter's excitement. They learn that no one else on the Deep Endeavor is infected with smallpox. Dirk takes a NUMA jet back to Washington and meets with Hiram Yaeger, NUMA's computer guru. Hiram and his computer help Dirk with the research on Japanese biological warfare during World War II. Some of his questions cannot be immediately answered, so he goes to a meeting he's scheduled to attend with Rudi Gunn, NUMA's Assistant Director, and some bureaucrats from Homeland Security. The meeting does not go well, as Pitt gives his theory that the JRA may be involved in both the Aleutian Island killings, as well as Irv Fowler's smallpox......
