Hidaka looked up from the computer screen and returned Brasch’s greeting in his own faltering German. “Guten Morgen,” was about all he could muster. Brasch’s English was also better than Hidaka’s, but there were occasions when they used it to confer, nonetheless. Neither man really trusted Steckel. When he was within earshot, they spoke in the enemy’s tongue, of which he had no knowledge.

“And what do you have for us today, Commander Hidaka?”

The Japanese, he found, tended toward a scattergun approach, skipping from one fantastic discovery to the next as they swarmed over the ship. Brasch, on the other hand, spent most of his time patiently arguing in favor of a more systematic method: choose a category of investigation—such as the offensive missile system—draw up a template to guide the research, and move methodically through each stage of the study.

He had also prevailed upon them to exploit the Indonesians, Lieutenant Moertopo and his men. Yamamoto had been detaining them in heavily guarded luxury on the island. But the admiral was disinclined to let them anywhere near their controls again—especially since the vessel now lay at the very heart of Japan’s naval power. Word was that Yamamoto lay awake at night, fearful lest half his fleet might be disintegrated beneath a brace of doomsday rockets. Even the cavalier Hidaka had to agree with that.

Still Brasch had argued, finally appealing directly to the admiral himself.

“Those men are cowed,” he insisted. “They are as pliable as sheep. They feel abandoned by the Americans, and remain unbalanced by their presence here.”

“So you would have unbalanced men sit in the midst of my fleet, controlling weapons of a power we can hardly imagine?” asked Yamamoto.

“Yes,” asserted Brasch, “if you would have me come to understand those weapons. We could stumble along for years trying to figure out how even the simplest devices work. Or we could just ask them. If they cooperate, we reward them. If not, we force them.”

Yamamoto finally relented when Brasch explained that the sensors on the Sutanto gave him reason to suspect they could not keep the Indonesian vessels a secret for much longer. Moertopo had already explained that the other ships in this Kolhammer’s task force were larger and even more capable. Their devices would surely sniff out the truth before long.

“And then, Admiral Yamamoto, you can expect to lose a great many ships just outside your window, to their doomsday rockets.”

Yamamoto had surrendered to the argument.