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“Look at that poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” Cantrell said. “Years of service, and he’ll die horribly.” The diver tilted his head to the right, toward Edmund, who lay in his bed and would never wake again.

“Or him,” Cantrell said. “Good to know that the f.u.c.king navy can heap disgrace upon misery and use our bodies like we’re laboratory mice. I mean, doesn’t all this just make you want to sign up?”

“Already did,” Clarence said.

Cantrell raised his eyebrows, nodded. “Oh, that’s right, your little spat with Doc Feely. You enlisted. You’re one of us, right? Let me guess … Marines?”

“Rangers,” Clarence said. “Then Special Forces. Got shot at plenty, but no one strapped me to a table. I need to talk to you.”

Cantrell shrugged. “It’s not like my calendar is all that full at the moment.”

The man seemed different than he had just a little while earlier. He was calmer. Relaxed. He hadn’t exactly been freaking out earlier, nothing like that, but he’d seemed tense, jittery.

Clarence tilted his head toward Clark. “Sorry about your friend.”

“A real shame,” Cantrell said. “Seems inevitable, though. The pathogen obviously had some kind of reservoir that allowed it to maintain viability all these years. The Los Angeles likely found that reservoir. Clarkie drew the short straw.”

Clarence raised his eyebrows. “You seem to have a good grasp of what’s going on. At least I think you do, because I’m not entirely sure I understand what you just said.”

Cantrell shrugged. “I know me some biology. I was premed at Duke.”

“Jesus. Not the typical life story of a serviceman. How the h.e.l.l did you wind up in the navy?”

“Fighting, I’m afraid,” Cantrell said. “I was an angry young black man raging against the inequities of life, even though I’d grown up in the suburbs and had a full ride.”

“You had a full ride to Duke? You must have been one h.e.l.l of a baller. Point guard?”

Cantrell laughed. “If you were white, I’d call you racist. It was an academic full ride.”

“Oh.” Clarence actually did feel a little racist, which was a strange sensation. “What did you do to get the academic full ride?”

“Perfect score on the SAT.”

Clarence hadn’t even known that was possible. He’d taken the SAT once upon a time. His score was less than perfect, to say the least.