‘I found the stick in Zayala’s truck. He must have come to Iceland with some way of harvesting the information from Quartizon’s records. My guess is he’s already sent it back to Nishizaki HQ in Tokyo. Who knows what they’ll make of it there. Driscoll probably has some plan to deal with the fallout, but the whole thing sits wrong with me. It’s all in Japanese, of course. I only know what it is because I’ve seen Emergence written in Japanese so often I recognize the word.’

‘Why does it “sit wrong” with you?’

‘As I told you, I’m Danish. I was born in Copenhagen. But my mother’s a Greenlander. You probably heard Driscoll call me Nanoq. It’s a nickname. My real name’s Uffe. Nanoq is the Greenlandic word for a bear. I know the country. And a bit of the language. I closed land purchase option deals for Quartizon there as well as here in Iceland. In Canada too. When some … persuasion was needed.’

‘And this troubles you?’

‘There’s something about Emergence that just doesn’t smell right. Like the fact that all the records are in Japanese. There’s a secret buried inside it. A secret no one’s allowed to know. That bothers me. Has done for quite a while. I can’t do anything about it, though. I wouldn’t know where to start. But you?’ He turned his head to look at her. ‘You can do something.’

‘How?’

‘Quartizon used a climatologist at Cambridge University to research background details for the Emergence project. The whole operation was supposed to be based on her work. But some of the locations I went to …’ He paused. ‘It didn’t add up.’

‘How did it not “add up”?’

‘I can’t explain. If she won’t talk to you, it’s better you don’t know any more. Try to get her to look at the files. You’ll have to translate the contents for her. See if she thinks her findings have been properly followed.’

‘Is there some reason why they might not have been?’

‘Just listen to what she says.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Dr Michaela Morrisette.’

‘Where can I find her?’

‘Cambridge University climatology department should do it.’

‘It is the Easter vacation. Nobody will be there.’

‘She’s a workaholic. Probably looks on Easter as a good opportunity for quality time in the lab.’

‘And if not?’

‘Her home address is forty-four Alford Street, Cambridge. Speak to her face to face or not at all.’

‘But I won’t be able to speak to anyone for at least three days.’

‘More like four, by the time you’ve travelled from Rotterdam to Cambridge. There’s nothing I can do about that. As for the travelling, go by train and ferry. Avoid airports.’

‘What do you expect me to do about whatever Dr Morrisette says – if she says anything?’