“Unlike you, I’m trying to help figure out how to make this plan work,” Giselle said.

“What about the roof?” said Bayliss. “Or here. The pipes to the Roman pools. Those are big enough for you to swim through.”

Coop ran his hand over the top of the blueprints. “The roof is loaded with pressure sensors. And even if you could get through, there’s the piranhas.”

“There’s a pool up there?”

“No. An aviary.”

“Babylon has flying piranhas?”

“Babylon has flying piranhas,” said Coop. “And I can’t get in through the pipes because—”

“Let me guess,” said Nelson. “Fire-breathing underwater spider monkeys.”

“No. Explosives around the intake.”

“Damn. So close.”

Coop glanced in his coffee cup again. “I wish we had some fire-breathing monkeys. They could torch the place.”

“How would that help?” said Giselle. “Do you want to go in and die of smoke inhalation?”

“No. I just think it would be fun to burn it down.”

There was a light knock at the door and Salzman came in. “Good afternoon, everyone. I don’t want to interrupt anything, but I wanted to come by and see how you were all doing.”

Coop picked up a spectral chart and dropped it on the desk. “We’re not. Doing, that is. From what I’ve seen on these papers, the job can’t be done. It’s impossible.”

Salzman pushed the papers away from the end of the desk and sat down. “It’s not your job to tell me it’s impossible. It’s your job to tell me how you’re going to do it.”

“How come every time I point out that this job won’t work, one of you helpful schoolmarms says ‘try harder’?”

“Because you’re a—”

“Do not say it.”

“Fuddy-duddy.”

“That’s it. I quit.”

“Fine,” said Salzman. “The prison van will be by for you in an hour. In the meantime, Nelson, why don’t you cuff him?”

“Wait,” said Giselle. “I take it back. He’s not a fuddy-duddy. And he’s telling the truth about the job.”

Coop pushed away some of the plans on the table. “According to this crap, everything is going to get us killed. And by ‘us’ I mean ‘me.’”

“Then do something else,” said Salzman through gritted teeth. “Every building has a weak spot. You just haven’t found this one’s yet.”

“We’re going to need more time,” said Coop.

Nelson came around the table with his cuffs out. Salzman held up a hand to stop him. “Oh, man,” Nelson said.

“How much more time?”

“A week. At least.”