Herbert Morch began, “This is all very well, but the main—” then stopped as a commotion of rising voices culminating in protests from his secretary came from the outer office. Moments later, Sarda burst in, bulging-eyed and purple-faced. He glared around the room for a second, and then leaped at Balmer, seizing him by the lapels with both hands. “It was a trick!” he shouted. “The whole thing was a setup! Where is it? You’ll tell me, Balmer, or I’ll wring your neck!”
Perrel stepped forward to separate them, while Herbert jumped up and came around the desk. Delia, Herbert’s secretary, watched helplessly from the doorway. “Get Sam Eason up here,” Herbert called to Max. Max nodded, white-faced, and pulled out his comset.
“He’s mad! Get him off!” Balmer yelled.
Herbert and Perrel pulled at Sarda’s arms. “Let go of him, Leo!” Herbert barked. They dragged Sarda off, but he lunged back again as soon as they loosened their grip. Herbert forced himself between Sarda and Balmer, planting both hands restrainingly on Sarda’s chest. “What are you raving about, Leo? What’s gone?”
Sarda pointed an accusing finger over Herbert’s shoulder. “The five million advance money that I banked! He knew about it! It’s gone! He got the codes out of me while I was under. That’s what it was all about!”
“You’re insane! I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Balmer bellowed back over Herbert’s other shoulder. The duplicate Sarda who had vanished would already have known about that, of course. This one had evidently only just found out. That must have been another item included in the lost memories. The whole thing was preposterous. Sarda had robbed himself and didn’t even know it.
“Well, this isn’t the way to solve anything,” Herbert said, half turning between them to address both. “Calm down, Leo. If it’s true, I know it must be a shock. But I don’t think Dr. Balmer would have appeared here like this if he were responsible, do you? Now why don’t we sit down and discuss this like civilized people?”
“Who else could have done it?” Sarda seethed, but drew back grudgingly. Herbert had a point.
“Now,” Herbert said, “tell us from the beginning, Leo. What’s happened?”
Sarda glanced balefully at Balmer, who was edging away. “You know what the arrangement was, Herbert. Long before the experiment took place, we acknowledged that there were certain unique risks involved that . . .” He broke off as Sam Eason, Quantonix’s security officer, appeared in the doorway behind Delia.
“What have we got? Some kind of a problem here?”
“Oh, I think everything’s under control now, Sam,” Herbert said. “There was some misunderstanding for a moment. Perhaps, if you’d just stick around outside with Delia for a few minutes . . .”
“Sure thing.” Sam gave Sarda and Balmer a stern look to let them know the situation was entrusted to his department now, and withdrew, leaving the door ajar.
“If we—” Herbert began again, but Balmer put up a hand.
“It’s no good trying to go over what we know,” he said. “The answers are in the huge gaps of missing things that Leo doesn’t know.”
“It’s going to take a lot of time and patience, Leo,” Perrel told Sarda.
That was the last thing Balmer needed. He shook his head. “Not here. I was on the right track before the experiment happened and brought about the crisis. We need to get him away from here, back to my office—a different environment and associations, away from all the negative triggers that are operating here.”
Herbert looked at Sarda appealingly. “Will you do that, Leo? It sounds as if it might be the best chance of getting a lead on what happened to your money.”
“It might work . . . I guess.” Sarda looked suspicious but apparently couldn’t argue.
“Maybe Stewart should go too—to keep us involved, as it were,” Max suggested. It was a veiled way of asking if Balmer would feel safe working with Sarda alone.
Balmer raised a hand hastily. “I appreciate the offer, gentlemen, but I have my own methods. They work best when fully removed from extraneous influences.” Perrel seemed a bit disgruntled but left it at that.