“There was a black hole in the area. What was its designator?”
“Do you have a message from Charlotte Hill?”
“What is the subject?”
“Do you have anything referring to a person named Poliks?”
“Who are the persons who were communicating with you during your time there?”
“Was there any indication of tension among them?”
“Did you hear any disagreements? Arguments? Anything like that?”
“What were the disagreements about?”
“Did they get emotional?”
“You mention the disturbance created by the black hole. Are you talking about the tunnel? The wormhole?”
“Who were the participants in the emotional discussions?”
“Did you have access to the discussions in both the station and the cannon?”
“How did you learn about what was happening in the station?”
“Herman was the AI in the station?”
“Did Herman ever indicate there was any serious level of anger by anyone in the station?”
Alex was beginning to look frustrated. “What can you tell us about the most common disagreements? What were they about?”
“Those were between whom?”
“Would you describe, in general terms, what happened?”
“Why? Did she say?”
“What was the outcome of all this?”
“And was she successful? Did she find the pods?”
Alex sat back in his chair. “None of that,” he said, “is in the essay Housman submitted to . He mentions that Hill was the pilot of the shuttle when the discovery was made, but there’s nothing more. She must have been furious when she saw it.” He shook his head. “Chase, do you have any questions to ask?”
“Yes.” I needed a moment to organize my thoughts. “Is there anything else connected with this that we should know? Did either of these people ever issue any threats?”
“I understand they both saw the edition that had Housman’s prizewinning paper. Is that correct?”
“Verona, were you ever aware of a conversation concerning who got credit for the success in locating the wormhole?”
“After they’d succeeded in finding the pods, did they continue the experiment?”
“What did they do?”
I thanked her and Alex stepped back in: “After the disappearance, did you speak to the investigators? From DPSAR?”
“Did you tell them what you told us?”
“Have they removed anything that was on the original record?”
Alex frowned. “They had this, but they never bothered to see that Hill got any credit.”
“It sounds,” I said, “as if they were trying to protect Housman’s reputation. If this got out, maybe the people who make the award would have canceled Housman and given it to somebody else, somebody not associated with DPSAR.”
“It’s possible, Chase.” His eyes were looking directly through me. Then he turned back toward the table. “Verona, what other questions did the investigators ask you?”
“And did you?”
“At some point you must have been aware that something had gone wrong.”
“You never heard anything from any of them again?”
“When was that last day?”
We stayed another hour, repeating questions, rephrasing them. But we got nothing more. And we were back to the original issue: If Charlotte was going to leave a message that was specifically for Karen Randall, and she couldn’t send it directly because the black hole was in the way, how would she have done it? We’d searched the cannon. What was left? Was there someone else named Poliks?
I had no idea.
More to the point: What was the message? That Charlotte had taken offense that she’d received no credit for her work? That she was planning to take out the station? Did that make any sense at all?
We sat for several minutes staring across the table at each other. Finally Alex signaled for Lashonda. The director’s voice requested we go to her office. “Did you learn anything?” she asked.