The guard’s searching hands reached Sano’s sash. Sano willed himself not to tense when the guard touched the spot where he kept Dr. Ito’s letter to the Dutch physician. Hopefully the thin, soft rice paper was indistinguishable from the cloth folds of the sash. With feigned nonchalance, Sano gazed around the guardhouse. On the walls hung ropes, iron shackles, and wooden staffs for restraining and disciplining Dutch escapees—or for conveying Japanese trespassers and traitors to the execution ground.

He suppressed a sigh of relief when the guard said, “You may proceed to Deshima.”

Accompanied by Interpreter Iishino and two escorts, Sano left the guardhouse. A stone bridge arched over the sea, whose color had deepened to turquoise under the late afternoon sun. More guards, posted at intervals, bowed as Sano crossed. Ahead, the island’s high, spiked wooden fence rose from vertical algae-covered foundations. The fan curve of Deshima seemed to beckon Sano toward all the perils beneath the thatched rooftops and swaying pines.

“Sōsakan-sama, I’ve worked with barbarians for nine years, nine years.” Interpreter Iishino bustled along beside Sano. “Anything you want to know about them, just ask me.”

Sano slowed his pace. He’d longed to see Deshima and the Dutch, yet he felt extremely unequal to the challenge of interrogating the barbarians. The confrontation on the ship had shaken his confidence in his personal strength and his country’s, and he regretted the naiveté that had made him believe himself capable of this investigation in which he must succeed—or lose his honor, and his life.

They reached the iron-banded gate. At the guards’ knock, it swung open. Inside stood Deshima Chief Officer Ohira, flanked by two more guards.

“Sōsakan-sama.” Chief Ohira bowed. “Welcome to Deshima.” The stiff greeting conveyed no warmth, and Ohira looked even more miserable than he had at Governor Nagai’s mansion earlier. The bones of his face seemed sharper, the cheeks more sunken, the pouches beneath his eyes darker. Oddly, the murder seemed to have exacted an even greater physical toll from him than Director Spaen’s disappearance had. After all, the security threat to Japan had ended with the barbarian’s death, as should the threat of punishment for Ohira and his staff. “I await your orders.”

To buy himself time, Sano said, “Before I see the barbarians, I’ll inspect the island.” Perhaps he could find clues as to how Director Spaen had escaped, and who had killed him.