James P Hogan. Giant’s Star. Giant Series #3

“I don’t think we have to search very far for the answer to that question,” Danchekker informed them airily, drawing himself upright and tightening his hold on his lapels. “We know that the Ganymeans migrated to Thurien from Minerva approximately twenty-five million years ago. We also know that by then they had acquired numerous species of terrestrial life, including primates as advanced as any of the period. Indeed we discovered some of them ourselves in the craft on Ganymede, which we have every reason to believe was involved in that very migration.” He paused for a moment as if doubting that the rest needed spelling out, then continued. “Evidently they took with them some representatives of early prehuman hominids, the descendants of which have since evolved and increased to become a human population enjoying full cocitizenship within the society of Thurien, as is evidenced by the fact that VISAR accommodates both them and Ganymeans equally.” Danchekker dropped his hands to clasp them behind his back and thrust his chin out with evident satisfaction. “And that, Dr. Hunt, unless I am very much mistaken, would appear to be the simple and obvious missing factor that you were looking for,” he concluded.

chapter eighteen

Norman Pacey held up his hand in a warning gesture and closed the door to cut off the room from the secretary giving directions to two UNSA privates who were loading boxes onto a cart in the outer office. Janet watched from a chair that she had cleared of a stack of papers and document holders waiting to be packed in preparation for the delegation’s departure from Bruno. “Now start again,” he told her, turning away from the door.

“It was last night, maybe early this morning . . . I’m not sure what time.” Janet fiddled awkwardly with a button on her lab coat. “Niels got a call from somebody-I think it was the U.S. European, Daldanier-about something they needed to discuss right away. He started saying something about somebody called Verikoff, it sounded like, but Niels stopped him and said he’d go and talk to him at his place. I pretended I was still asleep. He got dressed and slipped out. . . kind of creepily, as if he were being careful not to wake me up.”

“Okay,” Pacey said with a nod. “Then what?”

“Well . . ~. I remembered he’d been looking at some papers earlier when I came in. He put them away in a holder, but I was sure he hadn’t locked it. So I decided to take a chance and see what they were about.”

Pacey clenched his teeth in the effort not to let his feelings show. That was exactly the kind of thing he had told her not to do. But the outcome sounded interesting. “And,” he prompted.

Janet’s face took on a mystified look. “There was a folder among the things inside. It was bright red around the edges and pink inside. What made me notice it was that it had your name on the front.”

Pacey’s brow creased as he listened. What Janet had described sounded like a standard UN-format document wallet that was used for highly confidential memoranda. “Did you look inside it?”

Janet nodded. “It was weird. . . the report criticized the way you’d been obstructing the meeting here and stated in a Conclu

sions section that the delegation would have made more progress if the U.S. had shown a more cooperative attitude. It didn’t sound like you at all, which was why I thought it was weird.” Pacey was staring at her speechlessly. Before he could find words to reply, she shook her head as if feeling a need to disclaim responsibility for what she was going to say next. “And there was this part about you and-Karen Heller. It said that you two were . .

Janet hesitated, then raised a hand with her index and second fingers intertwined, “. . . like that, and that such-how was it put?

-such ‘blatant and indiscreet conduct was not becoming to a mission of this nature, and possibly had some connection with the counterproductive contribution of the United States to the proceedings.” Janet sat back and shook her head again. “I knew the report simply wasn’t true. . . . And coming from him, well. .

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