“No imposition at all.” He put the salmon back into the cooler. “You may decide to cut your stay short after you see your cabin.”

The cabin was slightly bigger than the two up-and-down bunks it contained. After Throckmorton left them to get settled, Paul tried to ease his six-foot-eight length into the lower bunk, but his legs hung over the side.

“I've been thinking about what Dr. Throckmorton told us,” Gamay said, trying the mattress on top. “Suppose you were Dr. Barker and you were working for Oceanus on this biofish thing. Would you want anyone testing genetic material that could be traced to your doorstep?”

“Nope. Judging from our own experience, Oceanus is ruthless when it comes to snoops.”

“Any suggestions?”

"Sure. We could suggest that Throckmorton find another location to anchor for the night. Fake a toothache, or make some other ex- cuse.

“You don't really want to do that, do you?”

“As you recall, I whined the whole trip up here because I couldn't go play with Kurt and Joe.”

“You don't have to remind me. You sounded as if you hadn't been picked for the Little League team.”

“Dr. Throckmorton is a fine fellow, but I wasn't prepared to baby- sit him away from the action.”

“And now you think the action may have moved to our doorstep.”

Paul nodded and said, “Got a Loony?” Gamay dug out a Cana- dian dollar coin with the picture of a loon on one side.

Paul tossed it in the air and caught it on the back of his cast. Heads. I lose. You get to choose which watch you want."

“Okay, you can take the first two-hour shift, starting as soon as the fest of the crew turns in.”

“Fine with me.” He extracted himself from the bunk. “I wouldn't get much sleep in this torture rack.” He lifted his injured arm in the air. “Maybe I can use this cast as a weapon.”

“No need,” Gamay said with a smile. She dug into her duffel bap- and pulled out a holster that held a.22 caliber target pistol. “I brought this along in case I wanted to brush up on my target shooting.”

Paul smiled. As a girl, his wife had been taught by her father to shoot skeet, and she was an expert marksman. He took the pistol and found that he could aim it if he propped up the cast with his other hand.

Gamay looked at his shaky aim. “Maybe we should both stand watch.”

The ship dropped anchor about a mile from shore. The silhouettes of rooflines and a communication tower marked the Oceanus facil- ity, which was located on a rocky hill overlooking the water. The Trouts had dinner in the small galley with Throckmorton, his stu- dents and some crew. Time went by quickly, hastened by talk about Throckmorton's work and the Trouts5 NUMA experiences. Around eleven, they called it a night.