Chapter 26“A state of emergency has now been declared on Sarah Ann Island off the coast of the former Gilbert Islands, along with many other islands in the Pacific. The new government of the Republic of Kiribati, which formed as recently as 1979 following a declaration of independence from the United Kingdom, has cited the spread of what were thought of as unrelated suicides, but is now believed to be the same disease that has left many dead in Japan. We are—”
Genjo glanced up at the television, lowering the book he was reading, a worn and loved copy of an old Tanizaki novel he had first read in high school. In his right hand, the cigarette smoldered slowly down, the faint dance of blue smoke before the curve of the screen, adding to it a strange quality, an otherworldly glow.
The screen
