Alyson stood up, and hurried out of her office. She didn’t have much time. He could return to the lab looking for the students at any moment.

In the lab, the students had gotten out of the bag, and they stood on the transparent top of the krait cage, looking down at Peter Jansen. Alyson Bender burst into the room. She bent down and stared at them, her face looming over them. “I-won’t-hurt-you,” she said. Her eyes were wide and frightened. She put out her hand, palm flat, and picked up Jenny Linn very gently, and placed her on her palm. She gestured to the others. “Hurry. I-don’t-know-where-he-is.”

“Ms. Bender! Let me talk with Mr. Drake!” Jarel Kinsky shouted at her, waving his arms.

She didn’t seem to hear or understand.

The others, seeing no other option, climbed onto Alyson’s palm. She lifted them into the air, and the room spun around, the wind blew, knocking them off their feet-she carried them swiftly to a desk, and placed them down on it. Then she went over to the snake cage, opened it, and lifted Peter out, and put him on the desk with the others. She stared at them, seeming not to know what to do with them. Her breathing was ragged and loud.

Karen King said, “We should try to talk to her.”

“I don’t know if it will do any good,” Peter said.

Alyson moved away. They saw her go across the room. She threw open a cabinet, looked inside, took out a small brown paper bag, and hurried back to the desk. “Hide-in-this,” she said, speaking slowly. “You-can-breathe.” She opened the bag and laid it down on the desk with its mouth facing them, and gestured to them to get in. They scrambled into the bag. Last of all was the Nanigen man, who couldn’t seem to accept the reality of their desperate situation. He kept shouting, “Ms. Bender! Ms. Bender, please!”

Alyson folded the top of the bag tightly and hurried out of the room. She carried the bag into her office and placed it gently inside her purse, which sat on the floor by her desk. She snapped the purse shut and pushed it with her toe underneath her desk, and ran back to the animal lab, arriving just as Vin Drake walked in.

“What the hell are you doing?” he said.

“I was looking for you.”

“I told you to stay in your office.” Drake went over to the snake’s cage and saw the empty plastic bag. “They’ve escaped,” he said. He spun around and swore, and turned around again, and lunged at a shelf full of chemicals. With one movement he swept everything to the floor, sending broken glass and liquids splashing. “Where are they?”

“Vin, please, I don’t know-”

“The hell you don’t,” he snarled, and peered into the snake tank, where he saw the snake with its head stuck in the plastic tube, and no sign of Peter. “What the-? That Jansen kid is dead, anyway. Snake got him.” He shot Alyson a violent look. “We’re going to find the rest of them. And I swear to God, Alyson, if you’ve been screwing with me it will be the last thing you ever regret.”

She cringed. “I understand.”

“You’d better.” At that moment, two police officers came down the hallway, visible through the lab windows, led by Don Makele. They were both young, not in uniform, which meant they were detectives. Shit.

Drake straightened up and suddenly composed himself, a shift that happened so quickly it seemed eerie. “Hi there, Don,” Drake said, crossing the room and easing out into the hallway with a warm smile on his face. “Introduce me to our guests. We don’t often have visitors to Nanigen. Officers? I’m Vin Drake, I’m the president of this company. How can I be of service to you?”

The paper bag was scrunched up inside Alyson’s purse, and it was pitch-dark. The students and the Nanigen man sat huddled.

“I can’t tell if she means to help us or not,” Karen King said.

“She’s obviously terrified of Drake,” Peter said.

“Who wouldn’t be?” Amar said.

Rick Hutter sighed. “I told you Drake was a corporate slime. Nobody listened.”

“Shut up, damn you!” Karen yelled at him.

“Hey, please,” Amar said in a very calm voice. “Not now.”

“Sorry,” Karen said. Then she added, “But we’re not dealing with an ordinary slime. We’re dealing with a very sick man.” She fingered her knife. It was useless as a defense; it might not even break Drake’s skin.

There came a banging, thunderous noise, and the bag shook, and light suddenly glowed through the bag. The purse had been opened. Then, with a slamming noise, everything went dark again. They waited, wondering what would come next.

The students, Alyson Bender knew, had to be put back in the generator and restored to full size, and quickly. But she didn’t know how to operate the generator herself. The workday was long over, and almost all the employees had gone home, leaving Nanigen deserted.

She found Drake back in the animal room. He had finished talking with the police officers, and now he was searching the animal room carefully, looking into every corner and cabinet, peering into every cage.

He stared at her, his eyes hard. “Did you let them go?”

“No. I swear, Vin.”

“I’m going to have this lab cleaned tomorrow. The animals put to death, the whole room sterilized with gas, then washed with bleach.”

“That’s…that’s good, Vin.”

“We don’t have any choice.” He touched her arm. “Go home and get some rest. I’m going to stay here for a while.”

She gave him a grateful look. Then she hurried into her office, picked up her purse, and headed outdoors. Mirasol had gone home; the reception area was empty. A fat moon drifted in stars dusting the sky, a beautiful night if only her mind hadn’t been in turmoil. She got into the BMW-it was a corporate car for her use. She put the purse on the seat next to her and sped off.

Vin Drake went into the deserted lobby, keeping himself in the shadows. When he heard Alyson’s car start and go down the street, he ran outdoors to the Bentley and started it. Where were her taillights? He got to the Farrington Highway. Left or right? He swung left: the way to Honolulu, the most likely way she’d go. He pulled out into traffic and accelerated, feeling his body pressed into the seat with a surge of power.

There it was, the red BMW, traveling fast. He dropped back, watching her taillights. Her car turned onto the entry ramp to the H-1 Freeway. The midnight-blue Bentley faded into the night: he was just another set of headlights behind her in the flow of traffic.

He had not been able to find the students. There was only one possibility: Alyson had taken them with her in her car. He couldn’t be completely sure of it, but his instincts told him so.

She might have to go. He certainly couldn’t trust her. That was obvious. The woman had lost her nerve. But it was getting complicated, all these people disappearing. Alyson Bender was Nanigen’s chief financial officer, and if she disappeared now, it would provoke a very thorough investigation.

He didn’t want that. An investigation of Nanigen would, sooner or later, turn up something he had done. It was inevitable. Enough time, enough checking…they would find out.

No, no, he didn’t want an investigation.

He began to realize he had made a terrible mistake. He couldn’t kill her. He couldn’t afford to kill her-at least not right now. He needed her on his side for a little while.

How could he get her on his side?

Alyson followed the freeway around Pearl Harbor, trying not to look at her purse on the seat. Maybe Vin was right. Maybe there was no choice. She exited into downtown Honolulu, not certain where to go. She drove to Waikiki. There, she went slowly along Kalakaua Avenue, caught in traffic. The crowds of tourists were thick, people out for the evening. Then she turned onto Diamond Head Road and circled past the Diamond Head Lighthouse. She would take the paper bag to a beach somewhere on the windward side of Oahu or maybe to the North Shore. She would drop the bag in the surf somewhere…no evidence…no survivors…