"But, Julia-"

"Julia isn't here."

"But she said-"

"I don't care what she said, Ricky."

"But the company-"

"Fuck the company. Ricky." I grabbed him by the shoulders, shook him once hard. "Don't you get it? You won't go outside. You're afraid of this thing, Ricky. We have to kill it. And if we can't kill it soon, we have to call for help."

"No."

"Yes, Ricky."

"We'll see about that," he snarled. His body tensed, his eyes flared. He grabbed my shirt collar. I just stood there, staring at him. I didn't move. Ricky glared at me for a moment, and then released his grip. He patted me on the shoulder and smoothed out my collar. "Ah hell, Jack," he said. "What am I doing?" And he gave me his self-deprecating surfer grin. "I'm sorry. I think the pressure must be getting to me. You're right. You're absolutely right. Fuck the company. We have to do this. We have to destroy those things right away."

"Yes," I said, still staring at him. "We do."

He paused. He took his hand away from my collar. "You think I'm acting weird, don't you? Mary thinks I'm acting weird, too. She said so, the other day. Am I acting weird?"

"Well…"

"You can tell me."

"Maybe on edge… You getting any sleep?"

"Not much. Couple of hours."

"Maybe you should take a pill."

"I did. Doesn't seem to help. It's the damn pressure. I've been here a week now. This place gets to you."

"I imagine it must."

"Yeah. Well, anyway." He turned away, as if suddenly embarrassed. "Look, I'll be on the radio," he said. "I'll be with you every step of the way. I'm very grateful to you, Jack. You've brought sanity and order here. Just… just be careful out there, okay?"

"I will."

Ricky stepped aside.

I went out the door past him.

Going down the hallway to the power station, with the air conditioners roaring full blast, Mae fell into step beside me. I said to her, "You really don't need to go out there, Mae. You could tell me over the radio how to handle the isotopes."

"It's not the isotopes I'm concerned with," she said, her voice low, so it would be buried in the roar. "It's the rabbit."

I wasn't sure I'd heard her. "The what?"

"The rabbit. I need to examine the rabbit again."

"Why?"

"You remember that tissue sample I cut from the stomach? Well, I looked at it under the microscope a few minutes ago."

"And?"

"I'm afraid we have big problems, Jack."

DAY 6

2:52 P.M.

I was the first one out the door, squinting in the desert sunlight. Even though it was almost three o'clock, the sun seemed as bright and hot as ever. A hot wind ruffled my trousers and shirt. I pulled my headset mouthpiece closer to my lips and said, "Bobby, you reading?"

"I read you, Jack."

"Got an image?"

"Yes, Jack."

Charley Davenport came out and laughed. He said, "You know, Ricky, you really are a stupid shmuck. You know that?"

Over my headset, I heard Ricky say, "Save it. You know I don't like compliments. Just get on with it."

Mae came through the door next. She had a backpack slung over one shoulder. She said to me, "For the isotopes."

"Are they heavy?"

"The containers are."

Then David Brooks came out, with Rosie close behind him. She made a face as she stepped onto the sand. "Jesus, it's hot," she said.

"Yeah, I think you'll find deserts tend to be that way," Charley said.

"No shit, Charley."

"I wouldn't shit you, Rosie." He belched.

I was busy scanning the horizon, but I saw nothing. The cars were parked under a shed about fifty yards away. The shed ended in a square white concrete building with narrow windows. That was the storage unit.

We started toward it. Rosie said, "Is that place air-conditioned?"

"Yes," Mae said. "But it's still hot. It's poorly insulated."

"Is it airtight?" I said.

"Not really."

"That means no," Davenport said, laughing. He spoke into his headset. "Bobby, what wind do we have?"

"Seventeen knots," Bobby Lembeck said. "Good strong wind."

"And how long until the wind dies? Sunset?"

"Probably, yeah. Another three hours."

I said, "That'll be plenty of time."

I noticed that David Brooks was not saying anything. He just trudged toward the building. Rosie followed close behind him.

"But you never know," Davenport said. "We could all be toast. Any minute now." He laughed again, in his irritating way.

Ricky said, "Charley, why don't you shut the fuck up?"

"Why don't you come out and make me, big boy?" Charley said. "What's the matter, your veins clogged with chicken shit?"

I said, "Let's stay focused, Charley."

"Hey, I'm focused. I'm focused."

The wind was blowing sand, creating a brownish blur just above the ground. Mae walked beside me. She looked across the desert and said abruptly, "I want to have a look at the rabbit. You all go ahead if you want."

She headed off to the right, toward the carcass. I went with her. And the others turned in a group and followed us. It seemed everybody wanted to stay together. The wind was still strong. Charley said, "Why do you want to see it, Mae?"

"I want to check something." She was pulling on gloves as she walked.

The headset crackled. Ricky said, "Would somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?"

"We're going to see the rabbit," Charley said.

"What for?"

"Mae wants to see it."

"She saw it before. Guys, you're very exposed out there. I wouldn't be waltzing around."

"Nobody's waltzing around, Ricky."

By now I could see the rabbit in the distance, partially obscured by the blowing sand. In a few moments, we were all standing over the carcass. The wind had blown the body over on its side. Mae crouched down, turned it on its back, laid open the carcass.

"Jeez," Rosie said.

I was startled to see that the exposed flesh was no longer smooth and pink. Instead, it was roughened everywhere, and in a few places looked as if it had been scraped. And it was covered by a milky white coating.

"Looks like it was dipped in acid," Charley said.

"Yes, it does," Mae said. She sounded grim.

I glanced at my watch. All this had occurred in two hours. "What happened to it?" Mae had taken out her magnifying glass and was bent close to the animal. She looked here and there, moving the glass quickly. Then she said, "It's been partially eaten."

"Eaten? By what?"

"Bacteria."

"Wait a minute," Charley Davenport said. "You think this is caused by Theta-d? You think the E. coli is eating it?"

"We'll know soon enough," she said. She reached into a pouch, and pulled out several glass tubes containing sterile swabs.

"But it's only been dead a short time."

"Long enough," Mae said. "And high temperatures accelerate growth." She daubed the animal with one swab after another, replacing each in a glass tube. "Then the Theta-d must be multiplying very aggressively."

"Bacteria will do that if you give them a good nutrient source. You shift into log phase growth where they're doubling every two or three minutes. I think that's what's happening here."

I said, "But if that's true, it means the swarm-"

"I don't know what it means, Jack," she said quickly. She looked at me and gave a slight shake of the head. The meaning was clear: not now.

But the others weren't put off. "Mae, Mae, Mae," Charley Davenport said. "You're telling us that the swarms killed the rabbit in order to eat it? In order to grow more coli? And make more nanoswarms?"

"I didn't say that, Charley." Her voice was calm, almost soothing. "But that's what you think," Charley continued. "You think the swarms consume mammalian tissue in order to reproduce-"

"Yes. That's what I think, Charley." Mae put her swabs away carefully, and got to her feet. "But I've taken cultures, now. We'll run them in Luria and agerose, and we'll see what we see."