“Admiral. I have seen inexplicable things on that ship. Certainly I am not able to explain them. But Commander Hidaka is convinced the course of the war will be changed by what we do here in the next few hours, not by what happens at Midway. And I am sorry, but he also wishes you to know that the Americans have broken our codes, and have known about Operation MI for weeks. They are lying in wait.

“But he says that is now irrelevant, too.”

Tomonagi flinched as he spoke those last words.

“What!” exploded Kakuta. “Why did you not tell me this immediately?”

The young man apologized profusely, bowing as deeply as he could without actually banging his forehead to the flight deck.

“If that is true, we must inform Nagumo and Yamamoto at once,” cried the admiral.

Captain Tadao Kato, the skipper of the Ryujo, stepped up from behind. “Begging your pardon, Admiral, but we have the strictest orders, already breached once, to maintain radio silence. And we have no confirmation of this wild tale. We could imperil the entire plan with one transmission.”

Kakuta felt trapped. The evidence of that outlandish aircraft, sitting just a few yards away, confirmed that Hidaka had discovered something of great import. But Kakuta’s mission was of paramount consequence, too. The attack on Dutch Harbor was necessary to draw the remnants of the American fleet away from the center of the Pacific, leaving Midway open to attack. Without that feint, the entire gambit might simply collapse. He was already behind schedule, and now Hidaka wanted to drag them farther into the mire.

Yet he trusted the man’s judgment as he did his own. That was why he had assigned the investigation to him in the first place. And this thing in which Tomonagi had arrived! It was obviously an aircraft of great power and sophistication. Its very form threatened violence, and he had seen with his own eyes how it hovered in the air like a gigantic hummingbird.

“I will go then!” he snapped, exasperated beyond measure. “But Captain, if you have not heard from me within one hour, forge on with the original plan. It will mean I have fallen into a trap, and must be abandoned along with Hidaka.”

“One hour,” confirmed Kato.

Twenty-five minutes later a small, booklike electric gadget Ensign Tomonagi had brought across from the Sutanto flared into life. It had been resting against a window of the Ryujo’s bridge, continuously scrutinized by Tomonagi, who had remained with the Ryujo on Commander Hidaka’s direct orders.

“Captain! Captain Kato!” cried Tomonagi. “It is Admiral Kakuta.”

Kato looked over his shoulder at first, thinking his superior had somehow snuck back aboard the ship. But then his eye caught the glow of Tomonagi’s electric book, and the captain found it difficult to suppress a gasp of surprise. Kakuta himself seemed to be floating within.