“Why does it have to be sides?” she asked, leaning forward and willing him to keep making eye contact with her. “If this is a company planet and the inhabitants are company employees, isn’t the company interested in the potential above and beyond the usual? This may be something entirely new here, Torkel. Something that would be useful without the expense of reterraforming a planet.” She could see that “expense” was a key word, and he was definitely mulling over the “entirely new” notion. “At any rate, we’ll need to delay any evacuation or even the transfer of a single Petaybean until we’ve developed some means to compensate for their dependency on the planet.”
“Fresh air, freezing temperatures, and no microbes to attack their disabled immune systems.” Torkel shrugged. “That should be easy enough.”
“If that’s all there is to it,” she said darkly. ‘That’s what I know now, and I’m only scratching the surface. Please go carefully here.”
“Oh, we’re being careful okay. Since you’re so concerned, you’ll be glad to know that my father has been following all of the events here, too, and he’s seen the Maloney woman’s autopsy report, as well. Since he understands the brief evolution of this planet better than anyone, he’s decided to personally conduct an investigation to rule out any malfunction in this planet’s development resulting from the terraforming process as a cause for the aberrant occurrences you mention. That’s Dad-nothing if not conscientious. And he likes nothing better than a new scientific mystery. Me, I’m a simple, practical kind of guy. I think the explanations for all of this are probably traceable to fairly uncomplicated sources.”
There was a knock on the door. Torkel stood and walked over to it, stepped into the hall, had a few low words, then opened the door wider.
Giancarlo stood there, along with Terce, the snocle driver. Torkel shrugged.
“I’m sorry, Yana. And very disappointed to have to say this to you. However, Terce here corroborates Giancarlo’s suspicions that you’ve entered into a secret pact with the guerillas and betrayed the company. I’m afraid we’re going to have to hold you for questioning, pending complete physical and psychological examinations and testing, as well as the standard interrogation.”
“Torkel-” she began. “Captain Fiske. That young man is one of the fai-”
“In light of our conversation,” Torkel said, cutting her off midword, “I’ll see to it that the investigation is conducted here on Petaybee for as long as possible, but it may be necessary to move you to more sophisticated facilities.”
She stood and did an about-face, forbearing to tell him that being moved would probably not harm her in the same way it would the Petaybeans.
Giancarlo glared as she started past him. She kept her eyes straight ahead, focusing slightly over his left shoulder, as if he weren’t there. With a hand jarring against her shoulder, he stopped her in her tracks, his expression guarded but hostile.
“We’re also looking for Dr. Shongili, Major Maddock. You could save yourself an extra charge of obstructing investigations if you’ll give us some idea where he might be found.”
She said nothing.
Bunny Rourke’s snocle was her dearest prerogative, if not possession, but she didn’t bat an eyelash when she saw it was gone from the place where she had parked it.
She had been all set to take Diego and Steve Margolies back to the village, to let Steve meet Clodagh and the others and talk with them about what had happened to the Metaxoses. Steve had the same specialty as Dr. Metaxos and, if only he could be convinced to keep an open mind, that would give them one more ally to avert what Bunny knew in her gut was going to be a catastrophic change in Petaybean lives.
She had felt it in the cave during the night chant-just the least tremor, nothing someone unacquainted with the planet, like Yana, would notice, but the planet was worried, fearful. Sean had felt it, too, she knew, but she was also sure he had been clearing his mind of any negativity to help Yana. They were waiting for Steve to finish talking with Dr. Metaxos’s doctor, so she and Diego had gone to start the snocle while they waited.