She smiled up at him. “I’m a professional bureaucrat, Tarik. I’m used to separating suspicion from fact. I don’t jump to conclusions.”
Pursing his lips, he nodded understandingly. “All right, then: here it is. Personnel records show that among those who worked on not one, but both, of the stray skimmers were a service specialist name of Charukande and a parts tech named Dalindidretha.”
The names were sufficient identification. “I didn’t know you had Deyzara technicians working here.”
“Sure. They’re good, too. Although I don’t work directly with any of them, I made sure to check the performance stats on both of these. Nothing but good reports, high-grade evaluations. I haven’t spoken to them about this, or about anything else related to the disappearances. I figured that was your department.” His voice dropped slightly. “Or Security’s.”
As powerfully as the chief mechanic’s words resonated, she knew she had to move slowly on his observations. If word got out among the refugees that two of their own kind were being investigated for sabotage, it would only add one more layer of disruption to an already unruly state of affairs.
“Do you have any definite reason to suspect them?”
Bergovoy didn’t hesitate. “None whatsoever. Like I said, their records are clean.” His expression changed. “Changing the subject a little, I want you to know that I can understand why someone might want to get rid of this Hasselemoga person.”
Her brow furrowed. “You do? Why?”
“Never met him myself, but from what I’ve been told, he’s a pretty disagreeable character. There’s also apparently quite a bit of professional jealousy where he’s involved. Apparently, he’s as good at bioprospecting as he is at pissing people off.” The chief mechanic’s eyes bored into her own. “Two reasons someone, or several someones, might have for seeing to it that he has to try to walk out of the Viisiiviisii.”