“Yes.” She was having a difficult time breathing. “Yes, he’s one of the ones I know.”
“You okay, Administrator?” Kamis looked suddenly alarmed. “You don’t look so good.”
“Swallowed some juice the wrong way. I’m all right, Clif. I’m just wondering. As long as we’re talking about this. What reason could Mr. Case have for sabotaging those two skimmers? What possible motive could he have?”
Kamis sat back in his chair. “Hey, that’s not something for someone like me to speculate on, Administrator.”
“Go ahead, Clif.” She spoke more sharply than she intended. “Go ahead and speculate.”
“Well . . .” He scratched at the fine blond hair that barely veiled the pale flesh of his skull. “You listen, you hear a lot of things around the port. There’s a lot of competition among prospectors.”
“I know,” she snapped. Seeing him flinch at her tone, she hastened to reassure him. “Sorry. This is—it makes one angry, you understand?” How angry, her guest could not imagine.
“Sure, I understand. If it’s true and I were in your position, I’m sure I’d feel the same way.”
You have no idea, she thought bleakly. “You were speculating?”
“Yeah. Like I said, lots of competition, to find valuable growths and stuff. I don’t pretend to understand everything that’s being talked about, but I understand about the competition clear enough. Everyone understands about competition.
“Case, he was pretty jealous of this Hasselemoga’s successes. And this Hasa guy, I never met him, but I get the feeling he wasn’t real well liked by his opposite numbers.”