“The whole time,” Burke said. Kazimi could hear the breezy pride in his voice and it disgusted him. “We had cameras on you, but Bacon wanted to see if you’d figure it out. Maybe he was starting to think you weren’t as smart as you were advertised to be. You passed that test. Now you get to pass another one. If you don’t follow me back to Red Cliff, the tide is going to come in, and soon you’ll be swimming in sixty-degree ocean water.”

“Then it would be Allah’s wish,” Kazimi said.

Burke dismissed that notion with a wave of his pistol.

“No, it would be your wish—your death wish. But my wish, no, make that my orders, are to bring you back to your lab. You’ve got work to do.”

“I will do no such thing. I’m finished.”

Burke did not look surprised. “Bacon told me you’d say something like that.” From a pocket in his sweatpants, he retrieved a cell phone and held it up for Kazimi to see.

“I’ve got a number here on speed dial,” he said. “It will call an associate of ours in California. He’s been stalking a former graduate assistant of yours, Dr. Amy Gaspar. Do you remember Amy? She’s a pretty girl with brown hair and a really sweet smile.”

“Please,” Kazimi said, holding up his hands, imploring Burke to be merciful. “There is no need to hurt her.”

“One call,” Burke said, shaking the phone, “and it’s bye-bye, Amy. Nothing as quick as a bullet, though. We decided on hanging.”

“What do you want?”

“I told you. I want you to go back to Red Cliff and stop trying to escape. We have no patience for this nonsense.”

“Listen to me,” Kazimi said. “Bacon does not understand what is at risk here. The Janus germ has mutated. He has lost control of it. The result will be a new plague, worse than polio, worse than smallpox, worse than AIDS. Millions of people will be eaten alive from the inside out.”

Kazimi turned toward the sea. In the distance a large tanker was churning north through the gray water.

“Thinking of trying to swim to that boat?” Burke asked. “You’ll freeze before you get fifty yards.” As if to emphasize that point, a sudden gust of wind kicked up, whipping their hair about. “You’d be far better off returning to Red Cliff with me.”

Kazimi sank to his knees, ignoring the rush of pain caused by barnacles digging into his skin.

“Please,” he said, his hands clasped together. “Please just let me go. You don’t understand what is at stake.”

“Go back and do your work,” Burke said, holding up the cell phone and speaking as if he were dealing with a schoolchild. “It’ll be easier for everyone involved.”

Kazimi looked up at the man fiercely.

“I can’t succeed,” he rasped.

“Repeat that?”