Peak was the first to desert from Vanderbilt's team. Frost, Shankar and Roche followed suit.

In the end, an exhausted Vanderbilt suggested they take a break.

They left the room and headed for the buffet, where fresh juice, coffee and cake awaited them. Weaver squeezed in next to Anawak. 'You didn't take much persuading,' she said. 'How come?'

Anawak looked at her and smiled. 'Coffee?'

'Yes, please. And milk.'

He poured it and handed her the cup. Weaver was only marginally smaller than him. Suddenly it struck him that he'd liked her ever since he'd set eyes on her, when he'd seen her on the forecourt of the Chateau.

'I suppose not,' he said. 'It's a well-reasoned theory.'

'Is that all? Or does it have something to do with you believing in animal intelligence?'

'I don't I just believe in intelligence in general. Animals are animals and people are people. If we could prove that dolphins are as intelligent as we are then, logically, they wouldn't be animals.'

'Do you think that's so?'

'No. And if we judge them by human criteria we'll never know. Do you think humans are intelligent?'

Weaver laughed. 'If you're talking about one human, yes… but lots of them together make an unenlightened mob.'

That was his kind of answer. 'Exactly! And the same applies to-'

'Dr Anawak?' One of the intelligence agents was hurrying towards him. 'You're Dr Anawak, aren't you?'

'Yes.'

'You're wanted on the phone.'

Anawak frowned. They weren't directly contactable in the Chateau, but there was a number for relatives to call in case of emergencies. Li had asked the delegates to distribute it with caution. Shoemaker had the number. Did anyone else?

It's in the lobby,' said the man. 'Or would you like me to have the call transferred to your room?'

'No, that's fine. I can come right away.'

'See you later,' Weaver called after him.

He followed the man through the lobby. A row of makeshift telephone booths had been erected in a side aisle.

'Take this one, right here,' said the man. 'I'll get the call put through to you. The phone will ring. Answer it, and you'll be connected with Tofino.'

Shoemaker.

Anawak waited. It rang. He picked up. 'Leon,' said Shoemaker, 'sorry to disturb you. I know you've got important stuff to do but-'

'No problem. Thanks for dinner last night. It was great.'

'Oh, yes… Right. . . Well, I'm afraid this is important too. It's, urn…' Shoemaker sighed. 'Leon, I've got some sad news. We had a call from Cape Dorset.'

It was as though someone had pulled the carpet from under his feet. He knew what was coming.

'Leon, your father's died.'

He stood motionless in the phone booth.

'Leon?'

'It's OK, I…'

But it wasn't OK at all.

LI

'Extra-terrestrials?' The President seemed remarkably composed.

'Not exactly,' said Li. They'd been through this countless times already. 'Not extra-terrestrials, inhabitants of our planet. A rival species, if you like.'

The Chateau was hooked up via satellite link to Offutt Air Force Base. In addition to the President, the delegation in Offutt was made up of the defense secretary, the assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the secretary of Homeland Security, the secretary of state and the director of the CIA. There could no longer he any doubt that Washington would suffer the same fate as New York. The city had been evacuated, and practically the entire cabinet had decamped to Nebraska. The retreat inland had gone largely to plan: this time they'd been prepared for it.

Li, Vanderbilt and Peak were participating in the briefing from the Chateau. Li could tell that the Offutt contingent loathed being stuck at the air base. The CIA director longed to be back in his office on the sixth floor of the agency's headquarters on the Potomac River. He secretly envied the director of Counter-terrorism who had flatly refused to evacuate his staff.

'Get your people to safety,' he'd ordered him.

'This isn't a natural disaster, this is a planned attack,' the reply had come. 'A terrorist attack. We need those guys in the Global Response Center to stay at their computers and keep working. Their role is crucial. They're our window on terrorism, and they're not going anywhere.'

'New York is under siege from biological killers,' the CIA director had countered. 'Don't you know what's happening there? Washington won't be any different.'

'The Global Response Center wasn't created so that it could close its doors at the critical moment.'

'Sure, but those guys could die.'

'Then they'll die.'

The defense secretary was also wishing himself back in his spacious office at the Pentagon, and the President was by nature the sort of person who had to be held down to prevent him commandeering a plane and flying back to the White House. People could say what they liked about him, but he wasn't a coward. In fact, he was so unflinching that some of his critics suspected he was simply too stupid to experience fear.

Offutt Air Force Base had all the facilities to serve as a seat of government, but they'd had to flee there. And that, Li figured, was why the idea of intelligent oceanic beings had met with instant approbation. The thought of fleeing from a human adversary, whose offensive had left them stymied, was too much of a humiliation for the administration to bear. Johanson's theory cast events in a different light. Retrospectively it cleared the intelligence agents, the Department of Defense and the President of blame.

'So what do you think,' the President asked the council, 'is this possible or not?'

'What I personally believe doesn't matter either way,' the defense secretary said tersely. 'The scientists at the Chateau are the experts. If they think this is the explanation, then we need to take it seriously and consider our next step.'

'Take it seriously?' Vanderbilt echoed incredulously. 'Aliens? Little green men?'

'They're not aliens as such,' Li put in patiently.

'I guess it presents us with an entirely new dilemma,' said the secretary of state. 'Supposing the theory's right. How much do we divulge to the public?'

'To the public?' the CIA director queried. 'Nothing. The whole world would be plunged into chaos.'

'It already is in chaos.'

'That's not the point. The media would hang us out to dry. They'd say we'd gone nuts. They'd never believe us. They wouldn't want to believe us. The existence of another intelligent species would shake the foundations of what it means to be human.'

'That's a religious issue.' The defense secretary made a dismissive gesture. 'Politically speaking, it's irrelevant.'

'Politics are irrelevant,' said Peak. 'There's nothing out there but suffering and fear. You should take a trip to Manhattan and see for yourself. People who've never been to church are praying on their knees.'

The President gazed thoughtfully at the ceiling. 'We need to reflect,' he said, 'on what the Lord's intention might be.'

'With all due respect, sir, I wasn't aware He was part of this council,' said Vanderbilt. 'He isn't even on our side.'

'That's a pretty bad attitude, Jack.' The President frowned.

'Good, bad, what does it matter? I judge an opinion on whether it makes sense. Everyone here seems to think there's some truth to this theory. Which makes me wonder if I'm the dope or-'

'Jack,' the CIA director warned him.

'Oh, I'd be happy to concede that it's me – once I've seen some proof. I'm not going to believe in this gang of bad guys in the water until I've spoken to the little schmucks in person. But until then you need to think seriously before you dismiss the possibility of a large-scale terrorist attack. We can't afford to let down our guard.'