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have been exposed to a rare disease?”
    Adams shook his head. “I’m not sure.… It’s extremely unlikely that one of the organisms could mutate into something that could affect humans. And containment was never broken—that is, unless”
    â€œUnless?”
    â€œOne of the researchers down there—Yoshi Takhumara. He he went insane.”
    â€œWhy?”
    Adams became suddenly irritable. “How should
I
know? Sometimes it happens, for God’s sake. You obviously don’t trust me.”
    â€œSorry,” Kirk said shortly, without trying to sound as if he meant it. “Keep talking.”
    â€œHe murdered the other researcher there with us” He stopped, as if unable to say the name, and then hurried past the thought. “I think it was a case of unrequited love. It would have been possible for him to sabotage the alarm and the instant seal-off of the lab that would occur in the case of a break in containment.” He paused briefly, considering. “Yes, that would make sense. After all, he sabotaged the lighting system.”
    â€œI heard about that. No lights. Why would he want to do that?”
    â€œSo he could stalk us more easily, I suppose.” Adams turned his head toward the wall. “Don’t ask me what happened to him, Captain, because I don’t understand it myself.”
    â€œThe other researcher”
    â€œI assume Yoshi killed her. I stumbled over her body in the dark.” He looked back quickly, his voice stronger and more passionate. “If you don’t believe me, if you want to arrest me, go ahead.”
    â€œThere’s hardly any need for me to do that,” Kirk answered. He had already decided that McCoy was right: the man seemed too lucid to be a murderer, but not too lucid to be involved in something illegal. “After all, you’re confined to isolation until McCoy can figure out what’s wrong with you.” He paused. “What I’d really like to hear is your explanation of why your colleague suddenly decided to take leave of his sanity.”
    â€œHow am I supposed to know?” Adams’ voice rose in sudden anger, but he continued. “After I found Lara’s body”
    â€œAnother microbiologist?”
    â€œDr. Lara Krovozhadny, physician and microbiologist,” Adams said miserably, in a way that let Kirk know she had been more than just a colleague. “The three of us had been working together for two years. After I found Lara’s body I went to her office and sealed it off with the manual controls. Thank God Yoshi hadn’t thought to sabotage those.… That’s when I signaled for help. I left the intercom on so that when your people came, I heard and came out.”
    â€œI see. Would you be willing to tell all this to the computer?”
    â€œYou think I’m lying, don’t you?” For the first time, Adams’ tone hardened. “What do you want from me?”
    â€œThe truth.”
    â€œDid it occur to you that I might not know what the hell is going on myself?” Adams grimaced suddenly, so that Kirk could see his pale gray gums, so receded that the teeth appeared hideously elongated. “You think I’m lying, don’t you?”
    â€œI have no idea,” Kirk said smoothly, though he felt repulsed by the sight of the man. “Would you be willing to tell your story to the computer?”
    â€œOf course.” Adams’ head dropped back on the pillow as if he were suddenly weary from the outburst. “I haven’t done anything illegal, Captain. I certainly haven’t killed anyone, and as far as our research on Tanis, we were doing work approved by the Federation and Starfleet. Go ahead and check it out.”
    â€œI’ll do that,” Kirk said. “One last question. Can you explain why Starfleet told us
not
to respond to your distress signal? And why Tanis is listed as uninhabited—if you’ve