In the minutes immediately following Instancer’s exit from Manning’s room at the athletic club, Manning has somehow managed to get to his feet and gain some measure of control over the pain behind his eyes. His room looks like the aftermath of a cyclone. Shattered glass and splintered wood litter the floor. The gale howls in through the void where the window used to be. Other athletic club residents, all male, clad in pajamas and shower shoes, are rubbernecking from the hallway, gawking at the mess and at Manning’s beat-up face. I’m displaying my shield (and Manning’s), assuring the company that everything’s under control.

After twenty minutes, when patrol officers from the Two-Oh have arrived and shooed the natives back to their rooms or down to the coffee-and-bagel bar (time is 0550; the sun is just peeking up), our deeply unnerved party collects in the kitchen manager’s office in the basement. I have never seen Manning in the state he’s in now. Rachel ventures to ask if he’s all right . . .

MANNING

All right? No, I’m not all right.

Manning had been gathering himself in a chair beside the kitchen manager’s desk. Now he rises, turns toward Rachel.

MANNING

Somebody just broke down a wall using my head as a battering ram. Somebody pounded my skull till the bone almost split.

Manning orders me to pull up the video from the convenience store in Reykjavík. He snatches the phone and thrusts it before Rachel’s eyes. On the screen she sees herself slap Instancer across the face.

MANNING

You told me you hadn’t seen Instancer in three years. This video is from nine months ago.

RACHEL

We’ve been through this. I couldn’t tell you everything or you would never believe me.

Ben-David, glimpsing the video, reacts with shock. Rachel sees this. She turns her back.

Manning catches her arm and hauls her around to face him. Ben-David thrusts himself between his sister and Manning. He’s cursing Manning and pulling Manning’s hand off Rachel’s arm. In the adjacent kitchen, a pair of staff workers are wheeling the coffee cart into the lobby for the residents. They gape at the fracas in the office until I chase them.

MANNING

(to Rachel)

You were with Instancer from the start. Tell me the truth. Tell me from the beginning.

RACHEL

I’ve told you from the beginning!

MANNING

You said you met Instancer on an archaeological dig. Was that a lie?

RACHEL

I’ve told you the truth about everything!

Manning hands me the phone and orders me to pull up the shower video. I do. Manning snatches the device back. He thrusts the video before Rachel’s face.

MANNING

Tell me the truth about this.

Ben-David, glimpsing the screen, again reacts with surprise and dismay. Immediately he defends his sister. For the second time he plants himself physically between Manning and Rachel.

BEN-DAVID