Midway’s two islets were just specks that soon vanished. All was seawater and raucous racket. The Russians stared down at the vast blue ocean. Now they could see it, which they hadn’t been able to do between Los Angeles and Midway. Somewhere out there lay Site 126–1, unless they’d moved the Glomar Explorer after Jerry lost his place there.

An hour later, he spied the ship. The copter bounced once when it touched down on the helipad. Jerry grabbed his suitcase and jumped out. It was very strange: he hardly felt he’d been away.

Dale Neuwirth stood near the edge of the landing platform. Jerry wondered whether to shake hands with him. After a moment, he did, more as a façade for the Russians than for any other reason. Dale sounded warm enough when he said, “Good to see you, Jerry, and good to have you back again.”

“Good to be back,” Jerry said. “I wish Steve could be here, too.”

Neuwirth’s lips skinned back from his teeth. “That was not my idea, and I didn’t know about it till after the fact. I wish it hadn’t happened. Some people on the mainland went a little bonkers.”

“Yeah, a little. They almost bonked me, too,” Jerry answered tightly. Still, he gave Dale credit for coming closer to admitting what had happened than John P. had. Then he noticed Kalyakin and the other Russians were hanging back to let him talk with Dale. He waved them up. “Here are our new colleagues,” he said to Dale, and introduced them one by one.

“Very pleased to meet you, gentlemen,” Neuwirth said, and shook hands with all of them. “I’m sure your contributions will be invaluable to us.” He waved them forward. “As soon as we all get off the helipad, the chopper can take off.” He had to pause while it did; he couldn’t shout over it. Then he went on, “Here are the stewards, who will give you your cabins and guide you to them if you need that. Jerry, if it’s all right with you, I’m going to put you back in cabin 116. Doctor Parker has had it to himself for a couple of weeks, since the last personnel rotation. A roommate won’t do him any lasting harm.”

“Okay by me, yeah,” Jerry said. “I know where it is, anyhow.”

“It’ll be kind of a ‘Jerry-built’ cabin,” Dale said with a small chuckle. “That’s his first name, too.”

“Is it? That should confuse things.” Jerry looked around to make sure the Russians were being properly taken care of. Seeing that they were, he got a key to the cabin from a steward and headed for the cabin to throw his stuff into one of the lockers inside.

Instead of just using the key, he knocked on the door. “Who’s there?” The voice from within easily pierced the metal.