"Right. So now I am going to open the hives, one by one, and spray the bees inside. But first, of course, I want to protect myself." You go to the rack and put on a beekeeper hat and gloves.

"Just like Clara did," Jorge points out. Clara shoots him a sharp look.

You grab a spray bottle and aim it at Hive One. "This worked on the first hive," you say, "and the second. But then, on the third hive, something went wrong."

"How can you be sure?" Mosca demands.

"The bees are not dead in there," Jorge says. "They absconded. The door was ajar when we arrived here."

"And the other hives are still alive," Clara adds. "Why kill only some of the bees? He must have been interrupted."

"And then there is this," you say, scooping up a handful of dead bees. "Hundreds of Africanized bees, all without their stingers. Where did those stingers go?"