She's nuts. Capisce?

Clearly Johanson hadn't understood.

No one understood at first. They didn't get what was wrong with Li: her tendency to see conspiracies everywhere and her obsessive ambition meant that she overreacted. She lied, deceived and was willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to achieve her goals. That was the real Judith Li. She was the President's darling, and even he didn't see her for who she really was. The most powerful man in the world had no idea who he was fostering.

We should all watch out, thought Vanderbilt. Unless someone grabs a gun and solves the problem – when the time comes.

They hurried along the passageways. In loitering on the external platform, Johanson was doing them a big favour. How had that mad bitch put it? A gust of wind…

CONTROL ROOM

Vanderbilt was barely out of the room when Li was summoned to one of the consoles. The man at the desk pointed to the monitor. 'Looks like funny business in the lab,' he said.

Li watched the action on the screen. Weaver, Oliviera and Rubin were standing in a huddle. Weaver had an arm round Rubin's shoulders and was pressing him to her chest. Since when had those two been such good friends?

'More sound,' said Li.

They heard Weaver talking. Her voice was faint, but clear. She was interrogating Rubin about the hidden lab. On closer inspection, Rubin's eyes were filled with fear, and Weaver was holding something that glinted in the light. It was uncomfortably close to Rubin's throat.

Li had seen and heard enough. 'Sal, I need you and three men with machine guns – at the double. We're going in.'

'What do you intend to do?' asked Peak.

'Restore order.' She turned away from the screen and went to the door. 'That question just cost us two seconds. Waste any more time, Sal, and I'll shoot you myself. Get your men. You've got one minute. Then we're going to straighten out a thing or two with Weaver. The closed season for scientists is over.'

LAB

'You worthless bastard,' said Oliviera. 'You knocked Sigur unconscious. What the hell were you thinking?'

There was blind panic in Rubin's eyes. He scanned the ceiling.

'That's not true, I-'

'Don't bother looking for cameras, Mick,' Weaver said softly. 'You'll be dead before anyone gets here.'

Rubin started to shake.

'I'm going to ask you again, Mick, what's going on up there?

'We've developed a toxin,' he stuttered.

'A toxin?' echoed Oliviera.

'We used your work, Sue. I mean, yours and Sigur's, of course. Once you'd worked out the formula for the pheromone, there was nothing to stop us manufacturing as much of it as we liked and… Well, we coupled it to a radioactive isotope.'

'You did what?'

'We contaminated the pheromone – the yrr-cells can't tell the difference. We ran some trials and-'

'Do you mean you've got a deep-sea chamber up there too?'

'Only a small one… Karen, please. Put the knife away. It's futile. They can hear and see everything-'

'Stick to the point,' said Weaver. 'And then what?'

'Well, the pheromone kills defective yrr-cells. They die because they don't have special receptors – it's just like Sue said. Once it was obvious that programmed cell death is part of yrr-biochemistry, we had to find a way of inducing it in healthy yrr as well.'

'Via the pheromone?'

'It's the only way. We can't mess with the DNA directly because we haven't fully decoded the genome, and that would take years. We coupled the scent to a radioactive isotope that the yrr can't detect.'

'And what does it do?'

'It shuts down the special receptor. It means the pheromone is deadly. It can kill healthy cells too.'

'Why didn't you tell us?' said Oliviera. 'None of us actually likes these creatures. We could have come up with a solution together.'

'Li's got her own plans,' squawked Rubin.

'But it won't work.'

'It has worked. We trialled it.'

'It's madness, Mick. You don't know what you're unleashing. What if you wipe out the yrr? They control seventy per cent of our planet. They're the force behind a sophisticated form of biotechnology that's been around since the year dot. They live in other creatures too. I mean, for all we know, they could be present in every single marine organism. And what if they're breaking down methane or carbon dioxide? God knows what will happen to the planet if you destroy them.'

'But why should it kill all of them?' asked Weaver. 'Doesn't the toxin just kill individual cells? Or collectives?'

'No, it starts a chain reaction.' Rubin was wheezing now. 'Programmed cell death. As soon as they start to aggregate, they all destroy themselves. Once the pheromone docks on to them, it's too late. There's nothing they can do to stop it. We're recoding the yrr. It's like a deadly virus. They all infect each other.'

Oliviera grabbed Rubin by the collar. 'You've got to stop these trials,' she said urgently. 'You can't go down that route. For God's sake, Mick, don't you see that they're the ones in charge? It's their planet. They are the planet. They're a superorganism. Thanks to them, the oceans are intelligent. You've got no idea what you're doing.'

'And if we don't use the toxin?' Rubin gave a croaky laugh. 'Don't give me all that self-righteous crap about ecosystems. We're going to die, that's what. Do you think we should wait for the next tsunami? I suppose there's always the methane build-up or the ice age to look forward to.'

'We haven't been here a week yet, and we've already made contact,' said Weaver. 'Why can't we keep trying for an agreement?'

'It's too late,' rasped Rubin.

Weaver's eyes darted over the ceiling and walls. She didn't know how much time she had left before Li or Peak showed up. Maybe Vanderbilt would come running. It couldn't be long. 'What do you mean, too late?'

'It's too late!' screamed Rubin. 'We're releasing the toxin in less than two hours.'

'You're crazy,' Oliviera whispered.

'Mick,' Weaver said, 'I need you to tell me exactly how you're going to do it. Otherwise my hand might slip.'

'I'm not authorised-'

'I mean it.'

Rubin was trembling all over. 'We're using two torpedoes on Deep-flight 3. We've packed the radioactive pheromone into projectiles.'

'Are they on the sub already?'

'No, it's my job to load them and-'

'Who's taking them down?'

'I'm going with Li.'

'She's going herself?'

'Well, it was her idea. She doesn't leave anything to chance.' Rubin managed a smile. 'You won't be able to stop her, Karen. There's nothing you can do. We're the ones who're going to save this planet. Our names are the ones that people will remember-'

'Shut up, Mick.' Weaver began to push him towards the door. 'You're going to take me to your lab. That toxin isn't going anywhere. The script's just changed.'

WELL DECK

'So is anything going on between you and Karen?' asked Greywolf, stowing equipment in crates.

Anawak was taken aback. 'Er, no. Not really.'

'Not really?'

'As far as I know, we're just good friends.'

Greywolf gave him a look. 'It's about time one of us started to do things right,' he said.

'What if she's not interested?' As soon as he'd said it, Anawak realised what he'd confessed. 'I'm hopeless at that kind of thing, Jack.'

'Evidently,' said Greywolf, sarcastically. 'You didn't join the world of the living until your old man died.'

'Hey…'

'Calm down, buddy, you know I'm right. Why don't you chase after her? She obviously wants you to.'

'I came down here to see you, not because of Karen.'