George Frank had hit the nail on the head, but Anawak didn't feel any the wiser for it when he saw the results of Delaware's foray. She'd browsed websites from South America, Germany, Scandinavia, France, Australia and Japan. Elsewhere the problem was jellyfish, not whales.

Jellyfish?' Shoemaker burst out laughing. 'What are they doing? Flinging themselves at boats?'

At first Anawak hadn't seen the connection either, but maybe aggressive whales and plagues of toxic stingers had something in common that wasn't readily apparent – two symptoms of an underlying problem. Delaware had found a statement by a Costa Rican scientist who seemed to think that the jellyfish terrorising South America weren't Portuguese men-of-war but a similar, as yet unidentified but infinitely more toxic species.

The problems didn't stop there.

'Around the same time that we were starting to have trouble with the whales, boats started to disappear in South America and South Africa,' Delaware said. 'Motorboats and cutters. All they found was the odd piece of debris. But when you put two and two together-'

You get a pack of vicious whales,' said Shoemaker. 'So how come we didn't hear about it earlier?'

'Well, most of the time we don't take an interest,' said Anawak. 'No one's usually bothered about what's happening in other parts of the world.'

'Either way, there've been far more shipping accidents than we've been told,' said Delaware. 'Collisions, explosions, freighters sinking… And there's the epidemic in France. It started with algae lurking in the lobster, and now a pathogen's sweeping the country. Other nations have been affected too, I think. But the more you look into it, the hazier it gets.'

From time to time Anawak felt sure they were making fools of themselves. Of course they wouldn't be the first to fall for America's favourite invention, the conspiracy theory. Every fourth US citizen harboured some kind of paranoid suspicion. According to some, Clinton had worked for the Russian secret service, and plenty of people believed in UFOs. But why would a government be interested in trying to hide events that were affecting thousands of people? Especially since keeping them secret seemed impossible in the first place.

Shoemaker was sceptical too: 'This isn't Roswell, you know. There aren't any little green men falling from the sky, or flying saucers hidden in bushes. All that conspiracy stuff- it doesn't happen in real life. I bet if a whale attacked today, the whole world would know tomorrow. And we'd know too, if something happened elsewhere.'

'OK, consider this, then,' said Delaware. 'Tofino has twelve hundred inhabitants and only three main streets. But people here don't know all there is to know about each other all of the time.'

'So what?'

'If one small town's too big to keep track of, what does that make the planet?'

'Oh, please!'

'What I'm trying to say is that the government can't always withhold news, but it can play things down. You just rein in the reporting. I bet most of what I fished out from the Internet was in the media here – we just didn't notice.'

Shoemaker squinted at her. 'Right…' he said uncertainly.

'We need more information.' said Anawak. He prodded his scrambled egg. 'Although, strictly speaking, we've got it. Or Li has.'

'So ask her for it,' said Shoemaker.

Anawak raised his eyebrows.

'If there's something you want to know, you should ask. What's the worst that could happen? A straight refusal and a kick in the teeth.'

Anawak fell silent. Li wouldn't tell him anything – Ford hadn't and he'd asked till he was blue in the face. On the other hand, Shoemaker had a point. There was a way of asking questions without anyone noticing.

Later on, when Shoemaker had left, Delaware placed a copy of the Vancouver Sun on the table in front of him. 'I didn't want to show you while Tom was around,' she said.

Anawak glanced at the front page. It was the previous day's edition. 'I've read it.'

'Cover to cover?'

'No, just the important bits.'

Delaware smiled. 'So read the unimportant bits.'

Anawak immediately spotted what she meant. It was a short article, only a few lines long. A photo was printed next to it, showing a family – father, mother, and a young boy, who was looking gratefully at the tall man next to him.

'Unbelievable,' murmured Anawak.

'Say what you like,' said Delaware, and glared at him. Today she was wearing yellow-tinted glasses with rhinestone crosses on the frames. 'But he's not that big an asshole.'

Little Bill Sheckley (5), the last person to be saved from the Lady Wexham, the passenger boat that sank on 11 April, can finally smile again. Today he was able to return home with his grateful parents, after spending weeks in Victoria Hospital where he was being kept for observation. After the rescue mission Bill had suffered a dangerous case of hypothermia, which developed into full-blown pneumonia. Now fighting fit again, Bill has evidently recovered from the shock. Today his parents expressed their gratitude to his rescuers, in particular Jack 'Greywolf' O'Bannon, a committed conservationist from Vancouver Island, who led the rescue mission and showed touching concern for little Bill's recovery. This young boy isn't the only one indebted to the 'hero of Tofino', as O'Bannon has been called.

Anawak folded the paper and flung it back on the table. 'Shoemaker would have gone mad,' he said.

For a while neither said anything. Anawak watched the clouds moving slowly overhead and tried to feel angry, but the only people he was angry with were General Li and himself.

In fact, mainly himself.

'Why does everyone have a problem with Greywolf?' asked Delaware.

'He can't stop causing trouble.' Anawak ran a hand over his eyes. Even though it was first thing in the morning he already felt tired.

'Don't get me wrong,' Delaware said cautiously, 'but he did pull me out of the water, just as I was thinking I was done for. I went looking for him two days ago. I found him sitting at the bar in a pub in Ucluelet, so I went up and thanked him.'

'And?' said Anawak wearily.

'He was surprised.'

Anawak looked at her.

'He wasn't expecting to be thanked. He was pleased. Then he asked how you were.'

'Me?'

She crossed her arms and leaned forward on the table. 'I don't think he's got many friends.'

'He needs to ask himself why.'

'And I think he's fond of you.'

'Come off it, Licia.'

'Tell me something about him.'

What was the point? thought Anawak. Why can't we talk about something more pleasant?

He thought for a moment. Nothing occurred to him.

'We used to he friends,' he said curtly.

He waited for Delaware to leap up in the air, yelling, 'I knew it!' Instead, she just nodded.

'His name is Jack O'Bannon and he comes from Port Townsend in Washington State. His father's an Irishman who married a half-Indian, from the Suquamish, I think. In the States Jack tried all kinds of jobs – he was a bouncer, a graphic designer, a bodyguard and finally a diver with the US Navy SEALs. That's when he found his calling – dolphin-handling. He was good at it, until they diagnosed his heart defect. Nothing serious, but they're a tough lot, the SEALs. Jack did well there – he's got more distinctions than you can count – but it was the end of his time in the navy.'

'How did he wind up here?'

'He always had a soft spot for Canada. At first he tried his luck in Vancouver's film business. He thought that with his build and looks he might become an actor, but he didn't have any talent. And things have never worked out for him because he can't keep his cool. He once put a guy in hospital.'

'Oh,' said Delaware.

Anawak flashed his teeth at her. 'Sorry to tarnish your image of him.'