It was still risky, though.

Ten metres below him, the waves rose up from the ocean.

The light was weak, but the icy rain had stopped. The sea rose and fell, slate-grey, with veins of white. A watery desert. For more than half of his life he'd lived in the temperate climate of the Canadian west coast, and now, for the second time in a few months, Fate had sent him back to the ice.

The wind tugged at his hair. Gradually he could feel his skin becoming numb with cold. He cupped his hands in front of his mouth, and puffed warm air inside them.

Then he went back into the bay.

LAB

Johanson had promised to treat Oliviera to some real lobster when the crisis was over. He used the Spherobot to fish out a crab from the chamber, then bring it back to the garage, where hermetically scalable PVC-coated containers were ready and waiting. The robot dropped the crab into one of the boxes and closed the lid.

The container was moved through a sluice gate and into a dry area, where it was sprayed with peracetic acid, rinsed, blasted with sodium hydroxide and conveyed out of the chamber through a second sluice. Now it didn't matter how toxic the water was inside the deep-sea chamber: the outside of the container was clean.

'Are you sure you can manage on your own?' asked Johanson. He'd already scheduled a phone conversation with Bohrmann, who was about to lower the suction tube in La Palma.

'No problem.' Oliviera picked up the box that contained the crab. 'If anything goes wrong, I'll scream. Hopefully you'll hear me and not that jerk Rubin.'

Johanson chuckled. 'Do I detect a shared antipathy?'

'Oh, I've got nothing against the guy,' said Oliviera. 'If only he wasn't so hung up on winning a Nobel Prize.'

'I know what you mean. How about you, though? Aren't you interested in a bit of glory? We'll all be vaguely famous, if we get out of this alive.'

'Oh, I wouldn't say no to a few groupies. Life in the lab can be desperately dull.' Oliviera stopped short. 'Which reminds me, where is he anyway?'

'Rubin?'

'He was determined to be around for the DNA tests.'

'You should be grateful.'

'Oh, I am. But I'd still like to know what he's up to.'

'It's bound to be something constructive,' Johanson said soothingly. 'I mean, he's not a bad guy. He doesn't smell, he's not an axe-murderer, and he's got a whole stack of medals in his drawer. We don't have to like him as long as he's useful.'

'Well, is he? Name me one useful thing he's done so far.'

'My dear lady,' Johanson spread his arms, 'if an idea's worth having, what does it matter who came up with it?'

Oliviera grinned. 'That's how second-rate people try to kid themselves. Fine. Let him do what he wants – but I'm not convinced that it's useful.'

SEDNA

Anawak walked to the edge of the basin. The deck was still flooded. Delaware and Greywolf, in neoprene suits, were knee-deep in water, unharnessing the dolphins. The room was filled with noise. Aft, one of the Deepflight submersibles was being lowered from the rail, Roscovitz and Browning overseeing the process from the control desk. Slowly the vehicle sank towards the basin, touched down and rocked gently on the water. Light from the sluice shone up to the rippling surface.

'Taking the subs out again?' Anawak called.

'No.' Roscovitz pointed to the Deepflight. 'This baby's developed a quirk – a fault with the vertical steering.'

'Is it serious?'

'We need to check it over.'

'That's the one we were in, isn't it?'

'Don't worry. It's not your fault.' Roscovitz laughed. 'It's probably a glitch in the software. We'll have it ironed out in a couple of hours.'

A tide of water swept over Anawak's feet.

'Leon!' Delaware beamed up at him. 'Come and join us.'

'Excellent idea,' said Greywolf. 'I'd like to see you do something useful.'

'I have been,' Anawak protested.

'I bet.' Greywolf stroked one of the dolphins, as it nuzzled up to him and made chattering noises. 'Grab yourself a suit.'

'I only wanted to see how you are.'

'Very kind of you.' Greywolf patted the dolphin and watched it speed away.

'Any news?'

'We're about to send out MK7,' said Delaware. 'MK6 haven't noticed anything unusual since this morning when they warned us of the orcas.'

'And that was before any of the sensors noticed they were there,'

Greywolf added with pride.

'Yeah, their sonar is-'

Anawak got another soaking, this time from one of the dolphins, as it shot out of the water like a torpedo and showered him with spray. It seemed to be enjoying itself. It squeaked, poking its beak out of the water.

'I wouldn't bother if I were you,' said Delaware to the dolphin. 'Leon won't come in. He's not prepared to freeze his butt off because he's not a real Inuk. He's just a show-off. If he was a real Inuk he'd have-'

'OK, OK!' Anawak made a gesture of defeat 'Where's the damn suit?'

FIVE MINUTES LATER he was helping Delaware and Greywolf fit the second fleet with cameras and tags when he remembered something. 'Why did you think I was a Makah?' he asked Delaware.

'I knew you had to be some kind of Indian – you're not exactly blond and blue-eyed. But now I know the truth, well…' she beamed at him '. . . I've got something for you.' She fastened the strap round the dolphin's chest. 'I found it on the web. I thought you might be pleased. I learned it by heart. It's the history of your world.' She said it with a flourish.

'Wow.'

'Not interested?'

'Oh, he is,' said Greywolf 'Leon's dying to hear about his beloved homeland. He just hates to admit it.' He swam towards them, flanked by two dolphins. In his padded suit he looked like a sea monster. 'He'd rather be taken for a Makah.'

'You can talk!' Anawak protested.

'Don't argue, boys!' Delaware lay on her back and drifted. 'Do you know where whales, dolphins and seals really come from? Shall I tell you?'

'The suspense is killing me.'

'Well, it all started when people and animals were still one. Many years ago, a girl lived near Arviat.'

Now she had Anawak's attention.

'Where's Arviat?' asked Greywolf.

'It's the southernmost settlement of Nunavut,' Anawak replied. 'Was the girl called Talilajuk?'

'Yes,' Delaware said. 'She had beautiful hair, and all the men courted her, but the only one who could win her heart was a dogman. Soon Talilajuk became pregnant, and bore all kinds of children, Inuit and canine. One day, while the dogman was out hunting, a dashing birdman arrived in his kayak at Talilajuk's camp. He invited her to climb into his boat and, to cut a long story short, they eloped.'

'The usual.' Greywolf was inspecting the lens of one of the cameras. 'And when do the whales come into it?'

'All in good time. One day Talilajuk's father came to visit them, only to find the dogman howling because Talilajuk had gone. The old man paddled back and forth across the ocean until he found the birdman's camp. While he was still out to sea, he spotted his daughter sitting outside her tent. Well, he ordered her to go home, so she followed her father dutifully to the kayak, and they set off. It wasn't long before they noticed that the ocean swell was rising. The waves grew steadily higher, and a fearsome storm broke out. The waves washed over the boat, and the old man worried that they might drown. It was the revenge of the birdman, but Talilajuk's father had no desire to die. Since he was furious with his daughter, he reached over, grabbed her and flung her overboard. Talilajuk clung to the side of the kayak, but her father told her to let go. She held on all the more tightly. The old man went crazy with fear. He picked up his axe, swung it and chopped off her fingertips. They had barely touched the water when they turned into narwhal, her nails forming their tusks. Talilajuk still refused to let go, so the old man hacked her fingers down to the joints, and they turned into white whales – belugas. Still his daughter clung to the side. She paid for her stubbornness with the last of her fingers, and a pod of seals appeared. Talilajuk wouldn't give in. Even though her hands were stumps, she clung to the kayak, which was filling with water. The old man was terrified. He struck her in the face with the paddle, and she lost her left eye. She let go slowly, and sank beneath the waves.'