“As a marine biologist, where do you stand on the issue?” Gamay had received a degree in marine archaeology before chang- ing her field of interest and enrolling at Scripps, where she'd attained a doctorate in marine biology, and in the process met and married Paul.

“I guess I stand smack in the middle,” she said. “Fish-farming does have benefits, but I'm a little worried that with big companies running the farms, things could get out of control.”

“Which way is the wind blowing?”

“Hard to tell, but I can give you an example of what's happening. Imagine you're a politician running for office and the fish-farm in- dustry says it will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the coastal communities, and that investment will generate jobs and billions of dollars each year in economic activity in your district. Which side would you back ?”

Trout let out a low whistle. “Billions? I had no idea there was that kind of money involved.”

“I'm talking about a fraction of the world business. There are fish farms all over the world. If you've had salmon or shrimp or scallops lately, the fish you ate could have been raised in Canada or Thailand or Colombia.”

“The farms must have incredible capacity to pump out fish in those quantities.”

“It's phenomenal. In British Columbia, they've got seventy million farm-raised salmon compared to fifty-five thousand wild caught.”

“How can the wild fishermen compete with production like that?”

“They cant” Gamay said, with a shrug. “Kurt was interested in a company called Oceanus. Let's see what I can find.”

Her hands played over the computer keyboard. “Strange. Usually the biggest problem with the Internet is too much information. There's almost nothing on Oceanus. All I could find is this one- paragraph article saying that a salmon-processing plant in Canada had been sold to Oceanus. I'll peck around some more.”

It took another fifteen minutes of hunting, and Paul was deep in the Java Trench again, when he heard Gamay finally say, “Aha!” “Pay dirt?”

Gamay scrolled down. “I found a few sentences about the acqui- sition buried in an industry newsletter story. Oceanus apparently owns companies around the world that are expected to produce more than five hundred million pounds a year. The merger gives market access in this country through an American subsidiary. The seller figures the U.S. will buy a quarter of what they produce.”

“Five hundred million pounds! I'm turning in my fishing rod. I wouldn't mind seeing one of these plants. Where's the nearest one?” “The Canadian operation I just mentioned. I'd like to see it, too.” “So what's stopping us? We're twiddling our thumbs while Kurt and Joe are away. The world isn't in need of saving, and if it is, Dirk and Al are always available.”

She squinted at the screen. “The plant is in Cape Breton, which is more than a skip and a jump from the shores of the Potomac.”