‘And you detonated it?’

‘As instructed.’

‘He was my father.’

‘So he told me.’

‘Why … why did he do this?’

‘It was the only way to protect you. Nishizaki would never have stopped. This way … he’s been stopped.’

‘But …’

‘We need to go.’

‘No.’

Michaela slid across the back seat of the car. She pushed the door open. ‘Get in, Nick,’ she said. ‘Please.’

‘I’m staying.’

‘We have to go. I need to do some serious thinking about how to handle the whole Emergence thing before I find myself being cross-questioned by the police.’

‘I’m not asking you to stay, Michaela. It’s my decision. I’m not stopping you leaving.’ He started walking towards the beach, and the pyre in the distance.

‘You shouldn’t go down there,’ said Espersen.

‘I think I have to.’

‘Nishizaki came with two men. The second one could still be a problem.’

At that moment, Nick saw from the corner of his eye a silver-grey people-carrier speeding away from the car park behind the lifeguard station. ‘Isn’t that the problem going away?’ he shouted over his shoulder to Espersen.

‘You should still come with us, Mr Miller.’

‘Listen to him, Nick,’ Michaela called.

But he wasn’t listening to either of them. He didn’t look back as he reached the beach, and started walking towards the spot where his father had just died.

Wada gazed along the beach and stopped holding her breath. For several long minutes, it had looked as if things were about to get even worse. But the stand-off between Espersen and the kidnappers hired by Nishizaki had ended peacefully. And now they’d driven away.

So had the second security man, as soon as he’d recovered from the shock of what had happened to his boss and his colleague. He’d got most of the way to the site of the explosion when he’d seen something that had caused him to clap his hand to his mouth, hurry back to the lifeguard station and speed away in the SUV.

Wada had a good idea what he’d seen. There was an object lying on the beach, thrown twenty metres or so by the force of the blast. She didn’t want to look at it through the binoculars. She was more or less certain it was a forearm and hand, with the burnt sleeve of a jacket still attached.

She’d felt sick for a moment, but the sensation was fading now. At the other end of the beach, Espersen was also driving away, but with only one passenger: Dr Morrisette. Nick Miller had stayed behind and was walking towards the plume of smoke that was rising from the crater in the sand.