The Trouts exchanged glances. “To be honest,” Gamay said, “we don't know what you're working on.”

Seeing Throckmorton's puzzled expression, Paul jumped in and said, “We got your name from a fisherman by the name of Mike Neal. He said he had contacted you on behalf of the men in his fleet. Their catches were off, and they thought it might have something to do with an odd type of fish he and the other fishermen in his town were landing.”

“Oh, yes, Mr. Neal! His call was directed to my office, but I never talked to him. I was out of the country when he called, and I've been too busy to get back to him. Sounded quite intriguing. Something about a 'devilfish.' Maybe I can give him a call later today.”

“I hope you get good long-distance rates,” Paul said. “Neal is dead.”

“I don't understand.” “He was killed in a boat explosion,” Gamay said. “The police don't know what caused it.”

A stunned expression crossed Throckmorton's face. “Poor man.” He paused, then said, “I hope this doesn't seem callous, but I suppose now I'll never know about this strange devilfish.”

“We'll be glad to tell you what we know,” Gamay said. Throckmorton listened intently as Gamay and Paul took turns describing their trip with Neal. As each detail unfolded, the cheer- fulness drained from Throckmorton's rosy-cheeked face. He gazed solemnly from Gamay to Paul. “Are you absolutely certain of every- thing you told me? You're quite sure of the size of the fish and the strange white color. And its aggressiveness?”

“See for yourself,” Paul said, producing the videotape shot on Neal's boat.

After viewing the tape, Throckmorton rose, solemn-faced, from his chair and paced back and forth, hands clasped behind his back. Over and over, he muttered, “This is not good, not good at all.” Gamay had a disarming way of cutting to the chase. “Please tell us what's going on, Professor.”

He stopped his pacing and sat down again. “As a marine biologist, you must know about transgenic fish,” he said. “The first one was de- veloped practically in your backyard, at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.”

“I've read a number of papers, but I can't say I'm an expert on the subject. From what I understand, genes are spliced into fish eggs to make them grow faster.”

“That's right. The genes come from other species, even from in- sects and humans.”

“Humans?” “I don't use human genes in my experiments. I agree with the Chinese, who are heavily into biofish research, that using human genes in this manner is unethical.”