There was an obvious conclusion, but he was reluctant to draw it. It had no business on the Norwegian continental slope. 'Architheuthis,' he said. 'Giant squid.' Lund nodded. 'It makes you wonder, doesn't it? But it'd be the first time anything like that showed up in these waters.'

'More like the first time it showed up anywhere.'

That wasn't strictly true. For a long time stories about Architheuthis had been dismissed as sailors' yarns. Then some enormous corpses had washed ashore, which seemed to prove its existence – or would have done, if it weren't for the fact that normal squid flesh was amazingly elastic and could be stretched to almost any size, even when it was decaying. Then a few years ago a team of scientists working off the coast of New Zealand had caught some juvenile specimens whose genetic profile demonstrated conclusively that in less than eighteen months they would grow into twenty-metre squid, weighing a tonne each. But no one had ever seen such a monstrous creature. Architheuthis lived in the ocean depths, and there was no reason to believe it might be luminescent.

Johanson's brow furrowed. 'No.'

'What do you mean, "no"?'

'Think of all the evidence against it. For a start, it's the wrong place for giant squid.'

'That's all very well,' Lund waved her hands in the air, 'but we don't know where they live. We know nothing about them at all.'

'They definitely don't belong here, though.'

'Nor do those worms.'

They fell silent.

'OK, suppose you're right,' Johanson said eventually. 'Architheuthis are shy creatures. No one's ever been attacked by one, so what have you got to worry about?'

'That's not what people who've seen them say.'

'For heaven's sake, Tina, maybe they've capsized the odd boat, but you can't seriously be suggesting that they're a danger to the oil industry.'

Lund closed down the screen. 'All right. So, what have you got for me? Any new test results?'

Johanson brandished the envelope at her and opened it. Inside was a fat parcel of closely typed documents.

'God!' she exclaimed.

'Don't worry, there'll be a summary… and here it is.'

'Let me see!'

'Just a moment.' He glanced over the sheet of paper. Lund got up and walked over to the window. Then she started pacing round the room.

Johanson frowned and leafed through the bundle of documents. 'Interesting.'

'Spit it out!'

'They say the worms are polychaetes. This isn't a taxonomical report, but they mention similarities with Hesiocaeca methanicola. They're puzzled by the size of the jaws. They also found… hmm, details, details… OK, here we go. They examined the jaws. Powerful mandibles, designed for boring or burrowing.'

'We knew that already,' Lund said impatiently.

'That's not all. Next come the results from the isotope ratio mass spectrometry and the scanning electron microscope. Our friend is minus ninety parts per thousand.'

'Would you care to translate?'

'It's as we thought. The worm is methanotrophic. It lives symbiotically with bacteria that break down methane. It. . . I'm not sure how to explain this… You see, depending on the isotope – you do know what an isotope is, don't you?'

'Any two or more atoms of a chemical element with the same atomic number but with differing atomic mass.'

'Ten out of ten! So, take carbon. It doesn't always have the same atomic mass. You can have carbon-12 or carbon-13. If you eat something with more of the lighter form of carbon in it – that is, with more of the lighter carbon isotope – your isotopic ratio will decrease too. Do you see?'

'No problem.'

'Now, take methane. Methane contains both isotopes of carbon, so when worms live symbiotically with bacteria that feed on the lighter form, the bacteria start to get lighter and so do the worms. Our worm is very light indeed.'

'You're an odd lot, you biologists. What the hell do you have to do to a worm to figure that out?'

'It's a most unsavoury process. It means grinding it into powder, then measuring its mass. Now, the results from the scanning electron microscope… They dyed the DNA … All very rigorous…'

Lund strode over to him and tugged at the documents. 'I don't need a lecture. All I want to know is if it's safe for us to drill.'

'There's no-' Johanson snatched back the summary and reread the final lines. 'Fantastic.'

'What is it?'

'They're coated with bacteria, inside and out. Endosymbiotic and exosymbiotic bacteria. It seems your worms are transporting bacteria by the busload.'

'And what does that mean?'

'Well, it doesn't add up. The worm lives on gas hydrates and is bursting with bacteria, so it doesn't hunt and it doesn't bore. It just lies there on its fat belly, lazing around on the ice. Yet it's equipped with enormous jaws that are perfect for boring. And the worms on the shelf looked anything but fat and lazy. I'd say they were distinctly agile.'

Neither said anything for a while. In the end Lund asked, 'What are they doing down there, Sigur?'

Johanson shrugged. 'I don't know. Maybe they really have crawled straight up from the Middle Cambrian. But I've no idea what they're up to.' He passed to consider. 'And I'm not sure if it matters. I mean, what's the worst they can do down there? They'll wriggle all over the place, sure, but they're hardly going to chew through a pipeline.'

'Well, what are they chewing, then?'

Johanson stared at the summary. 'There's one more place that might help us,' he said, 'and if they can't, we'll have to wait for a revelation.'

'I'd rather it didn't come to that.'

'I'll send off a few specimens.' Johanson yawned. 'You know what would be ideal? If they sent out their research vessel to take a proper look. At any rate, you're going to have to be patient. There's nothing we can do for the moment so, if you don't mind, I'd like some breakfast. Besides, I need to give Kare a piece of advice.'

Lund smiled, but it was clear from her expression that she wasn't satisfied.

5 April

Vancouver Island and Vancouver, Canada

Business was picking up again. Under any other circumstances Anawak would have shared wholeheartedly in Shoemaker's rejoicings. The whales were returning. The manager of Davie's could talk of nothing else. Slowly but surely they were all coming back: grey whales, humpbacks, orcas and even some minkes. Of course Anawak was pleased to see them – it was what he'd been hoping for – but he would have liked them to show up with a few answers to his questions, such as how they'd eluded the satellites and probes. He kept thinking back to his encounter with the humpbacks. He'd felt like a rat in a laboratory: the two whales had examined him as coolly and thoroughly as though he'd been laid out for dissection.

Were they spies? And, if so, what were they looking for?

It was a ridiculous idea.

He closed the ticket desk and went outside. The tourists were waiting at the end of the jetty. They looked like a Special Forces unit in their orange overalls. Anawak made his way over to them.

Someone was running after him. 'Dr Anawak!'

He stopped. Alicia Delaware was beside him, red hair scraped into a ponytail and wearing trendy blue sunglasses.

'Can I come too?'

Anawak glanced at the hull of the Blue Shark.

'We're full.'

'But I ran all the way to get here.'

'Sorry. The Lady Wexham's got a tour in half an hour. She's more luxurious, with heated indoor seating and a snack-bar. . .'

'I don't need a snack-bar. Come on, there must be room for me somewhere. How about at the back?'

'There are two of us in the cabin already – Susan and me.'

'I can stand.' Alicia smiled at him. Her large front teeth made her look like a freckled rabbit. 'Please, Dr Anawak. You're not still mad at me, are you? Your tour is the only one I want to go on.'