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“Let’s go for a walk, Jason,” I suggest. “This tiny room feels like it’s closing in on all of us.”

We drink the last of our tea and walk outside.

CHAPTER 48

THE THREE OF us find one of the tunnels near the closest mountain of debris. Unfortunately, my suggestion to escape the small hut also exposes us once again to the stench of rotting flesh that permeates this place. We all begin walking more quickly.

“Did your father respond to any of the messages or emails?” I ask.

Jason shakes his head. “He listened to me. He ignored them.”

“Did he ever identify the student by name? Do you have any idea who it could be?”

“None at all. My father taught thousands of students over the years and did not want to surmise his identity, for fear of smearing an innocent person’s name.”

I tell Jason that I’ll need to investigate all of his father’s electronic equipment, that my colleagues, especially Burbank, will be able to unlock information stored on his father’s machines.

“Unfortunately I don’t have any of my father’s equipment. After the tragedy, I did what I should have done much earlier. I spoke to the police investigation unit and told them about the deranged student. They immediately confiscated anything electronic, as well as hard-copy messages, from the equipment he kept at home,” says Jason. “Of course, everything that had been in his office was lost to us.”

“We can talk to the investigation unit,” I say. “Or, if need be, we can have Acting President Myoki intercede for us and have all of your father’s material released.”

Jason laughs, the bitter kind that has no humor at all.

“Both Mr. Myoki and I have already asked for the return of the confiscated equipment,” says Jason. “The commissioner of the investigation told us to come back in fifty years. That’s when it’s scheduled to end.”

He says all material related to the investigation has been handed over to the military police. All pertinent matter—at least what survived—is being stored and guarded in a secure locker.

“It’s impossible to break in,” Jason says.

My response is simple.

“Impossible for anyone else, perhaps.”

CHAPTER 49

AT THREE IN the morning Margo and I approach the four connected Quonset huts where Jason told us the Japanese government’s investigation is housed, along with their files and equipment. It’s cold and rainy, and the smell of decomposing bodies hangs heavily in the air.

Although the small complex of huts has no identifying signage, it stands out from the others. It is surrounded by six armed guards; the four men and two women carry rifles and electronic equipment. They all wear suits made of the Japanese-manufactured chemical compound Ganko, a virtually impenetrable material made from a combination of elastomers and advanced polyurethane.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” I say to Margo.

“Then why do you look so happy?” she asks, a smile of her own pulling at her lips as we approach the guards.

I am always amazed by how well Margo knows me, as if we are on the same wavelength. She’s right. The delays, the setbacks, the lack of progress on this trip, have me frustrated.Right now, I believe we have a chance to learn something, and that does make me happy, danger be damned.

I turn to her, my smile spreading. “As much as I like how you look, I believe it may be time for a change.”

“Ah, what did you have in mind?” Margo asks. She knows I’m not talking about a new haircut or color. We’re about to use our shape-shifting powers. Right here. Right now.

Worms, snakes, roaches, and rats all have exceptional invasive powers, yet none of them has the strength and power necessary for hand-to-hand combat.

Margo suggests the Japanese scarab, one of the few insects that Dache himself taught us to inhabit in order to utilize the scarab’s powers of flight and speed, not to mention a nasty set of pincers.

But today we need something different. Nothing large, nothing noisy, nothing flashy.

Would it be too challenging and risky to change into another human being? A new guard? Yes, we agree that it will.

As we are debating, one of the guards shouts out in Japanese, “Examination of weapons.”