The lights were turned down. Most of the people Evans had seen earlier were gone. The rooms were being stripped, the furniture stacked up, the documents packed into legal storage boxes. Movers were carrying out stacks of boxes on rolling dollies. Evans said, “What’s going on?”

“Our lease is up,” Jennifer said.

“So you’re moving?”

She shook her head. “No. We’re leaving.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we’re leaving, Peter. Looking for new jobs. This litigation is no longer being actively pursued.”

Over a loudspeaker, they heard Balder say, “We fully expect to seek an injunction within the next three months. I have complete confidence in the forty brilliant men and women who are assisting us in this ground-breaking case.”

Evans stepped back as movers carried a table past him. It was the same table he had been interviewed at just three hours before. Another mover followed, lugging boxes of video equipment.

“How is this going to work?” Evans said, hearing Balder over the loudspeaker. “I mean, people are going to know what’s happening…”

“What’s happening is perfectly logical,” Jennifer said. “We will file a request for a preliminary injunction. Our pleading has to work its way through the system. We expect it will be rejected by the district court for jurisdiction, so we will take it to the Ninth Circuit, and then we expect to go to the Supreme Court. The litigation cannot proceed until the issue of injunction is resolved, which could take several years. Therefore we sensibly put our large research staff on hold and close our expensive offices while we wait with a skeleton legal team in place.”

“Is there a skeleton team in place?”

“No. But you asked how it would be handled.”

Evans watched as the boxes rolled out the back door. “Nobody ever intended to file this lawsuit, did they?”

“Let’s put it this way,” she said. “Balder has a remarkable winning record in the courtroom. There’s only one way to build a record like that—you dump the losers long before you ever get to trial.”

“So he’s dumping this one?”

“Yeah. Because I guarantee you, no court is going to grant injunctive relief for excess carbon dioxide production by the American economy.” She pointed to the loudspeaker. “Drake got him to emphasize abrupt climate change. That nicely dovetails with Drake’s conference, which starts tomorrow.”

“Yes, but—”

“Look,” she said. “You know as well as I do that the whole purpose of this case was to generate publicity. They’ve got their press conference. There’s no need to pursue it further.”

She was asked by movers where to put things. Evans wandered back into the interrogation room and saw the stack of foam core graphs in the corner. He had wanted to see the ones she hadn’t shown him, so he pulled a few out. They showed foreign weather stations around the world.

Alice Springs, Australia 1879–2003

Clyde, NWT 1943–2004

Christchurch, NZ 1864–2003

Kamenskoe, Siberia 1949–1998

Of course, he knew that these particular charts had been chosen to prove the opposition’s point. So they showed little or no warming. But still, it troubled him that there should be so many like these, from all around the world.

He saw a stack marked “Europe” and shuffled through them quickly:

Rome, Italy 1811–1989

Paris, Le Bourget 1757–1995

Milano-Linate, 1763–1986

Stuttgart, Germany 1792–1999

Navacerrada, Spain 1941–2004

Göteborg, Sweden 1951–2004

There was another stack marked “Asia.” He flipped through it.

Choshi, Japan 1887–2004

Lahore City, Pakistan 1876–2003

Takayama, Japan 1900–1990

Tokyo, Japan 1876–2004

“Peter?”

She was calling him.

Her own office was already packed up. She had only a few boxes of things. He helped her carry them out to her car.

“So,” he said, “what’re you doing now? Going back to DC and your boyfriend?”

“I don’t think so,” she said.

“Then what?”

“Actually, I thought I’d go with you.”

“With me?”

“You’re working with John Kenner, aren’t you?”

Evans said, “How did you know that?”

She just smiled.

Heading out the back door, they heard the loudspeaker from the conference. Drake was talking now, thanking the press for coming, urging them to attend his forthcoming conference, and saying that the real danger from global warming was its potential for abrupt climate change.

And then he said, “Excuse me, but I regret to say, I have an extremely sad announcement to make. I have just been handed a note that says the body of my dear friend George Morton has just been found.”