Rhyme’s face—with its prominent nose and eyes like pistol muzzles—was predatory in its own right, much like the bird’s. “What do you mean by that?”

“Could it be that there’s a practical reason you want to go to Greenland, a professional reason? A useful reason?”

Rhyme glanced at the single-malt scotch bottle sitting just out of reach. He was largely paralyzed, yes. But surgery and daily exercise had returned to him some ability to move his right arm and hand. Fate had helped too. The beam that had tumbled upon his neck from a crime scene many years ago and severed and crushed many nerves had left a few outlying strands intact, if injured and confused. He could grasp objects—like single-malt scotch bottles, to pick a random example—but he could not rise from his complex wheelchair to fetch them if Thom, playing nursemaid, kept them out of goddamn reach.

“Not cocktail hour yet,” the aide announced, noting the arc of his boss’s vision. “So, Greenland? ’Fess up.”

“It’s underrated. Named ‘Greenland’ while much of it’s barren. Not the least verdant. Compare Iceland. Quite green. I like the irony.”

“You’re not answering.”

Rhyme sighed. He disliked being transparent and hugely disliked being caught being transparent. He would appeal to truth. “It seems that the Rigspolitiet, the Danish police, have been doing rather important research into a new system of horticultural spectrographic analysis in Greenland. A lab in Nuuk. That’s the capital, by the way. You can situate a sample in a much narrower geographic area than with standard systems.” Rhyme’s brows rose involuntarily. “Nearly the cellular level. Imagine! We think all plants are the same—”

“Not a sin of mine.”

Rhyme groused, “You know what I mean. This new technique can narrow down a target area to three meters!” He repeated, “Imagine.”

“I’m trying to. Greenland—no. And has Amelia actually deferred to you?”

“She will. When I tell her about the spectrograph.”

“How about England? She’d love that. Is that show on still, the one she likes? Top Gear? I think the original is off the air but I heard there’s a new version. She’d be great on it. They let people go out on the racetrack. She’s always talking about driving a hundred and eighty miles an hour on the wrong side of the road.”

“England?” Rhyme mocked. “You’ve just lost your argument. Greenland and England offer the same degree of romance.”

“You’ll find some disagreement there.”

“Not from the Greenlanders.”

Lincoln Rhyme did not travel much. The practical consequences of his disability added a layer of complication to journeys but physically, his doctors reported, there was no reason not to hit the road. His lungs were fine—he’d weaned himself off a ventilator years ago, the chest scar present but not prominent—and as long as such matters as the piss ’n’ shit details—his words—and low-chafing clothing were attended to, there was little chance of being afflicted by the quad’s bane: autonomic dysreflexia. A good portion of the world was disabled-accessible now—with most enterprises, from restaurants to bars to museums, offering ramps and special restrooms. (Rhyme and Sachs had shared a smile when Thom pointed out an article in the paper about a school that had recently installed a disabled ramp and bathroom; the place taught only one thing: tap dancing.)