The security team, including Scott, start to move in. They stop when they see Cole’s raised hand. Maybe Cole’s small but satisfied smile also calms them.

“I was hoping we could talk alone,” Cole says, “but if you’re in a tantrum-prone mood . . .”

“What do we have to talk about?” Noah asks.

“Since you’ve made clear you reviewed the footage, do you have anything interesting to say about it?”

“Nothing earth-shattering. I could have given you my analysis over the phone.”

“This is more secure, obviously.”

Noah’s grumble sounds pregnant with unspoken profanity. He throws himself down onto the nearby sofa. Then his focus lasers in on Scott.

“Who are you?” he asks Scott.

“He’s my new director of security,” Cole says.

“What happened to Mr. Clean?”

“He’s moved on.”

“Why?”

“I’m not here to discuss personnel issues with you.”

Noah glares at Scott. Scott glares back. “I bet the job interview was long and hard.”

“Would you like me to stay?” Scott asks. “Or would you like to be alone with Mr. Wizard here?”

“Lazy,” Noah mumbles, “I hate lazy jokes. Why make a joke at all? Just make a face, pretty boy. It’ll earn you more points with this one.”

“Why don’t you step out for a bit, Scott? Noah seems aroused to distraction by your presence.”

Scott nods, gives Noah a fierce, lingering look, then gestures for the two house security guards to follow him outside.

Once they’re gone, Noah says, “This is good strategy. I approve.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Sleeping with your security director. It gets him more invested in you.”

“You used to be direct, Noah. Now you’re just crude. Have you had lunch?”

“Come on. You know I don’t subscribe to the puritanical separation of sex and profession. Some of the greatest warriors in history fucked their comrades. It’s what made them fight to the death for them in battle.”

“Not everyone’s a warrior.”

“You better hope he is. For your sake.”

“Noted. I’d like to talk about the—”

“I am. I was, at least.”

“For what, though? That’s never clear.”

“Zypraxon.” He smiles. “And paradrenaline. Which you’ve had preserved since the Pemberton takedown, but you’re still not giving me access to.”

“You don’t own the contents of Charlotte Rowe’s blood, and you never will. That’s not how this is going to work. Once we get started, your focus will be the drug.”

“The drug works because it manufactures paradrenaline in the bloodstream, and so far that process has killed everyone except for her. I can’t make a study of one without the other, Cole.”

“Your area of focus will be where I say it is, and it will commence when I say so. That’s the deal.”

“Fine, then. You have the drug’s new formula. What do you need me for? If you’re going to wall me off from the real miracle in all this, you might as well just bury me in a shallow grave.”

“You disappeared for three years. If it takes longer than five months to get the island back up and running, I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it.”

“How much longer? I’m sick of this place.”

“My labs, which I built for you, cost millions to operate, secure, and keep secret, and I can’t come up with that money overnight, as you well know. If you wanted to put all of this on a timetable of your choosing, you should have consulted me before you involved Charlotte without her consent.”

“I did.”

“You did nothing of the kind.”

“I told you I wanted to test it on women, and you freaked out and pulled the plug.”

“We’d already killed four people. I was pulling the plug anyway.”

“So what? I still consulted you.”

“This is childish nonsense, and it’s beneath a man of your intelligence.”

“No, you coming here every few weeks with another crumb, pretending you’re consulting me when really you’re just keeping me from the most important work, that’s childish nonsense, Cole. For Christ’s sake, at least let me shave.”

“What’s your opinion of the footage?”

“My opinion? I’d like to know how you disposed of Richard Davies.”

“That’s not an opinion. That’s a question about something that’s none of your business.”

“My opinion is that nobody should be surprised by her speed of regeneration. It’s in keeping with everything else we’ve learned about the trigger zone. The only reason we’ve never seen it before is because we’ve never subjected her to trauma that severe. I don’t know how you could in a lab, and I wouldn’t recommend it. But obviously the healing agent is paradrenaline, which you still won’t let me analyze, even though there was a time when you and I would have killed to get a single vial stable and under control.”

“We did kill, and we still didn’t get it.”