“It's always a pleasure to visit Copenhagen. Unfortunately, my flight back to the States leaves tomorrow, so I only have one night here.”

“Better than nothing at all,” Jorgensen said, settling into the cramped area behind his desk. “Tell me, did you ever hear anything further from that lovely woman, the attorney who was having cof- fee with you in Torshavn?”

“Therri Weld? As a matter of fact, I'm having dinner with her tonight.”

"Lucky man! I'm sure she'll be a more enjoyable companion than

I was,“ Jorgensen said with a chuckle. ”Well, did you enjoy Skaal- shavn?"

Enjoy isn't the word for it. Skaalshavn is a surprising place.

Thanks for letting me use your cottage and your boat.“ ”My pleasure. It's incredible country, isn't it?“ Austin nodded. ”Speaking of Skaalshavn, I was wondering how your lab tests turned out."

The professor rummaged through the Mt. Everest of papers on his desk. Miraculously, he found the file he was looking for. He took his glasses off and replaced them. "I don't know if you're acquainted with my main areas of expertise. I specialize in the effects ofhypoxia. I study how oxygen deficiency and temperature change affect fish populations. I don't claim to be an expert in every area, so I've run my findings by various colleagues in bacterial viruses. We have tested dozens of water samples and fish taken at various locations near the

Oceanus operation for signs of anomalies. We wondered if there was a parasite. Nothing."

“What about your original theory that there might be trace chem- icals in the water?”

“No, to the contrary. The Oceanus people weren't exaggerating when they bragged their filtration system was state-of-the-art. The water is absolutely pure. The other fish farms I tested produced waste from feed and so on. In short, I found nothing that would affect the Skaalshavn stocks.”

“Which begs the question, what is decimating the fish popula- tion?”

Jorgensen pushed his glasses up on his forehead. “There could be other reasons we haven't touched. Predators, habitat degradation, a disruption of the food supply.”

“Have you ruled out a link to the fish farm completely?”

“No, I haven't, which is why I'm returning to Skaalshavn to make more tests.”

“That might be a problem,” Austin said in an understatement. He proceeded to give the professor a condensed version of his ex- ploration of the fish farm, his narrow escape and rescue. “I'll be glad to pay you for the loss of the boat,” he added.

“The boat is the least of my concerns. You could have been filled” Jorgensen was flabbergasted. “I ran into patrol boats when I was making my tests. They looked intimidating, but they never attacked or threatened me.”

“Maybe they didn't like my face. I fnow I didn't like theirs.” “You may have noticed I am not exactly a movie star,” the profes- sor said. “No one tried to kill me.”

"It's possible that they knew your tests would come up negative.