Chapters 17-20 Summary

Hatch walks away from the lobster bake after his confrontation with Clay. He has to return for the speeches but meets Professor Horn as he is walking back. They discuss the confrontation, and Horn warns Malin not to underestimate Clay. Malin asks Horn his opinions of the Rugged Island project and finds he is not in favor of it and tells Hatch that he is a fool. Horn tells him to return to Boston before he is ruined like the others before him were.

Chapter Eighteen begins the next morning. Hatch is in his medical office on the island. Wopner and St. John are talking about the problems with the code breaking and the computer. Wopner says one of the computers has chips that have been altered. The system is functioning properly now but failed before. St. John is more concerned...