'I was.' Greywolf pulled up a chair. It creaked as he sat down. 'Licia said you needed me.'

'Needed you?' Anawak smiled. 'I said it would be good to see you.'

'Same difference. Well, I'm here now.'

'How're things?'

'A drink would improve them.'

Anawak went over to the fridge, pulled out a beer and a Coke, and put them on the counter. Greywolf drank half of the Heineken in a single gulp.

'Did I call you away from anything important?'

'Nothing worth mentioning. I was fishing with a few rich pricks from Beverly Hills. All the jerks from your whale-watching have come over to my side. It seems no one's afraid of being attacked by a trout, so I branched out into angling. I'm doing fishing tours of our beloved island's lakes and rivers.'

'I see your attitude to whale-watching hasn't changed.'

'Why should it? I'm not going to cause you any trouble, though.'

'Why, thank you,' said Anawak, sarcastically. 'But right now it wouldn't much matter. I mean, it's pretty handy that you're still on your mission to get vengeance for nature. Tell me again what you used to do for the navy.'

Greywolf looked at him blankly. 'You know what I did.'

'Well, tell me again.'

'I was a dolphin-handler. We trained dolphins for military purposes.'

'In San Diego?'

'Yes, among other places.'

'And you were pensioned off because of a heart defect or whatever. Honourably discharged.'

'Exactly,' said Greywolf.

'That's not true, Jack. You weren't discharged. You walked.'

Greywolf set down the can almost cautiously on the counter. 'Where did you hear that bullshit?'

'The files at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego seemed pretty clear to me,' said Anawak. 'Just so you know I'm in the picture: SSC San Diego took over from the Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, also of Point Loma, San Diego. The funding came from an organisation that now finances the US Navy's Marine Mammal Program. Each of those organisations is always mentioned in any account of marine-mammal training, and there's always the implication that they were involved in dubious experiments that allegedly never took place.' Anawak decided to call Greywolf's bluff. 'Experiments that were conducted in Point Loma, where you were stationed.'

Greywolf watched him warily as he paced round the room. 'Why are you telling me this crap?'

'The current research programme in San Diego looks at dolphin feeding habits, hunting, communication, training potential, possible ways of returning dolphins to the wild, and so on. But what really interests the military is the brain. Dolphin brains have fascinated the navy since the sixties, but around the time of the first Gulf War there was an upsurge of interest. You'd signed up a few years previously. By the time you left, you were a lieutenant, responsible for MK6 and MK7, two out of a total of four dolphin fleets.'

Greywolf frowned. 'So what? Haven't you got other things to worry about in your committee? Like Europe, for example.'

'One more step up the ladder, and you'd have been in charge of the entire dolphin programme. But you quit.'

'I didn't quit. They discharged me.'

Anawak shook his head. 'Jack, I've been given a few privileges lately, and that includes access to sources that are one hundred percent reliable. You left of your own accord, and I'd like to know why.'

He picked up the Earth Island article and passed it to Greywolf, who glanced at it and put it down.

For a while there was silence.

'Jack,' said Anawak, softly, 'you were right. I am pleased to see you, but I do need your help.'

Greywolf didn't respond.

'Tell me what happened back then. Why did you leave?'

Greywolf leaned back and crossed his hands behind his head. 'Why do yon want to know?'

'Because there's a chance we'll be able to figure out what's happened to our whales.'

'They're not your whales, Leon – or your dolphins either. You don't own them. Do you really want to know what's wrong with them? They're fighting back. It's payback time. We treated them like our playthings, hurt them, abused them, gawked at them and they're fed up with us.'

'You don't really believe they're doing this of their own free will?'

Greywolf shook his head. 'I'm not interested in why they do stuff. We shouldn't have taken such an interest in the first place. I don't want to understand them, Leon. I just want them to be left in peace.'

'Jack,' Anawak said slowly, 'they're being forced to behave like this.'

That's bull. Who the hell-'

'They're being forced! I've got proof. I'm not even supposed to tell you this much, but I need your help. You want to stop them suffering, well, go on, then. They're suffering more than you could imagine-'

'Than I can imagine?' Greywolf was on his feet. 'What the hell do you know about their suffering? You don't know a darned thing.'

'Then tell me.'

'I-' He seemed to be fighting an inner battle. Then he relaxed. 'Come with me,' he said. 'We're going for a walk.'

FOR A WHILE they strolled along in silence. Greywolf took a path through the forest and down to the sea. A rickety jetty led away from the shore, looking out across the austere beauty of the bay. Greywolf walked along the ramshackle planks and sat down, legs dangling over the edge. Anawak followed him. All that could be seen of Tofino were a few houses on stilts peeping out beyond the headland to the right and the Station on the wharf. They gazed up at the mountains, resplendent in the late-afternoon sun.

'There are a few things your sources didn't tell you,' Greywolf said finally. 'Officially there were four fleets of marine mammals: MK4 through to MK7. But there was a fifth in existence too, known as MKO. The navy calls them systems, not fleets, by the way. Each system is entrusted with a particular set of operational activities. The systems' centre is in San Diego, true, but I spent most of my time in Coronado, California, where the majority of the animals are trained. They're cared for in their natural habitat – creeks and ocean pens. And they have a pretty decent life there: they're well fed and they get excellent medical care – which is more than you can say for most people.'

'So you were in charge of this fifth system.'

'No, it wasn't like that. MKO is different. A regular system is made up of four to eight mammals with a specific objective. MK4, for instance, is assigned to finding mines on the seabed and marking their location. It's a dolphin-only system, and the animals are also trained to alert their handlers to the presence of saboteurs. MK5 is a sealion system. MK6 and MK7 are also used for mine-hunting, but their main purpose is to guard naval facilities against enemy divers.'

'By attacking them?'

'By nudging up against them. They affix a coiled rope to the suit of the diver, which connects the intruder to a float. The float is linked to a strobe, so it's easy to determine the diver's position, and the guys can take care of the rest. It works the same way with mine-sweeping. The dolphin alerts its handler as soon as it finds the mine. In some cases it dives down with a rope and a magnet – the magnet stays on the mine, and the end of the rope is returned to the boat. Provided the mine isn't anchored too firmly, it only takes a tug on the rope to get the job over and done with. You know, killer whales and belugas can even retrieve torpedoes from a depth of one kilometre. It's pretty darned impressive. What you have to realise is that mine-hunting is a dangerous business for humans. First, there's the risk of the thing exploding in your face, but worse, nine times out often you're searching the seabed at the heart of the conflict, right next to the shore – you get fired at all the time.'