“That may well be so. But before you make up your mind, let me read you one of the two predictions.” The letter rustled in Dana Lje’s hand. ‘“At 03:16:10, on Year Day, 2090, the Hess-type interstellar liner Brindisi will be attacked in the neighborhood of the Three Ghosts system by four’ “
Weinbaum sat bolt upright in his swivel chair. “Let me see that letter!” he said, his voice harsh with repressed alarm.
“In a moment,” the girl said, adjusting her skirt composedly. “Evidently I was right in riding my hunch. Let me go on reading: ‘by four heavily armed vessels flying the lights of the navy of Hammersmith II. The position of the liner at that time will be at coded co-ordinates 88-A-theta-88-aleph-D and-per-se-and. It will’ “
“Miss Lje,” Weinbaum said. “I’m sorry to interrupt you again, but what you’ve said already would justify me in jailing you at once, no matter how loudly your sponsors might scream. I don’t know about this Interstellar Information outfit, or whether or not you did receive any such letter as the one you pretend to be quoting. But I can tell you that you’ve shown yourself to be in possession of information that only yours truly and four other men are supposed to know. It’s already too late to tell you that everything you say may be held against you; all I can say now is, it’s high time you clammed up!”
“I thought so,” she said, apparently not disturbed in the least. “Then that liner is scheduled to hit those co-ordinates, and the coded time co-ordinate corresponds with the predicted Universal Time. Is it also true that the Brindisi will be carrying a top-secret communication device?”