Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [29]
Kim couldn’t resist suggesting they fly back over the Severin valley. Solly complied and they followed the river south again, this time in broad daylight. It was a bright, cloudless morning, already unseasonably warm. They watched a train come out of the Culbertson Tunnel, southwest of the city. At twenty-six kilometers, the Culbertson was the longest maglev tunnel in the world.
They stayed low so they could observe the countryside, gliding over canyons and through rifts. The previous night’s snow had coated everything. Just before passing the dam, they saw a pair of deer strolling casually through a glade. At Kim’s insistence, Solly took the Starlight around, but they were gone.
They came down low over the lake. Just offshore from Cabry’s Beach, they saw a raft, left from the days when Severin was alive with swimmers. It was. bobbing gently, as if waiting for someone to return.
They zeroed in on Tripley’s villa and spent several minutes inspecting it from the air. It looked even more bleak by day.
The surrounding area was lonely and beautiful, adorned with its fresh coat of snow, its spruce and oak trees, its towering peaks. The surface of Lake Remorse gleamed in the sun. The skeletal houses provided a grotesque mixture of transience and majesty. Kim wondered what it was about desolation that inevitably seemed so compelling.
“Seen enough?” asked Solly, for whom flying in circles held no charms.
She nodded and he directed the AI to take them back to Seabright.
They rode in silence for the first several minutes. Then Solly reached behind him for the coffee, poured two cups, and handed her one. “How did we get the spot with the Star Queen?” he asked.
Her mind was picking again at the missing footprints, trying to construct an explanation, anything that was possible. Channeled wind. Local hoaxers. Solly’s question consequently didn’t immediately register and she had to replay it. “Matt has friends everywhere,” she said. “There’ll be a lot of VIPs on hand, and he thought it would be a good PR spot for us.” The old liner was being converted into a hotel. The grand opening was Saturday.
“Have you reconsidered my suggestion?”
Lake Remorse drifted off the scopes. “What suggestion is that?”
“Talk to Benton Tripley. Since you’re going to Sky Harbor anyhow, it should be no trouble. And he might be able to tell you something about his father and about the Hunter.”
“You think he’d consent to talk to me?”
“Sure. Why not? He has a reputation for being pretty open to people.”
“Yeah,” she said. “What’s to lose? I’d have to leave a day early, but I’ll try it.” She looked up the number for Interstellar executive offices and punched it into the commlink.
A male voice answered: “Interstellar. General Administration.”
“Hello,” she said. “My name’s Dr. Kim Brandywine. I’m with the Seabright Institute. I’m going to be at Sky Harbor next Friday. Would it be possible to speak with Mr. Tripley? If he has some free time.”
Solly rolled his eyes.
“And what would that concern, Dr. Brandywine?”
“I’d like to talk with him about the Mount Hope incident.”
“I see. And you say Friday?”
“Yes.”
After a pause: “I’m sorry. That really won’t be possible. His schedule is booked for quite a while in advance. I can pencil you in for August eleventh.”
“August?”
“Yes. That’s really the best I can do.”
“Let it go.” She disconnected, turned and glared at Solly. “What?”
He shrugged.
“No,” she continued. “You have something to say, say it.”
“Kim, he is a CEO. You have to do better than suggest that maybe if he’s free, you’d like to see him. If possible.”
“What would you suggest?”
“Be a little less tentative. And have a better story than Mount Hope. You’re writing a book and you need his input.”
She pointed at the link. “Talk’s cheap. You want to try your luck? See if you can get me in?”
“It’s too late,” he said. “You’ve blown it. You’re going to have to take another tack.”
She looked at him, waiting.
“Give him an award,” Solly said.
“What?”
“Give him an award. Think public relations. Look at this as