Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [96]
As usual, she played her audience well and when she was finished she got an enthusiastic ovation. The emcee thanked her heartily for corning, a number of individuals lingered to ask questions or deliver compliments, one tried to ask her out, and the organization’s president took her aside: 50 percent of the proceeds from the Mariners’ spring fund drive, he explained, were customarily donated to a worthy organization, usually an educational institution. He wanted her to know that he had been impressed by her presentation, that the other board members shared his feeling, and that the Institute could expect to be the recipient of this year’s gift.
It would be no small amount, she knew, and she was delighted to carry this piece of good news back to the Institute.
Matt was waiting. Kim knew it wasn’t good news by the general mood in the office. Something had happened. She suspected her coworkers didn’t know the details, but they felt the boss’s tension.
“You wanted to see me?” she asked, standing in his doorway.
He’d been talking to the AI, something about anticipated cost-benefits, and they continued the conversation while he waved her in. He managed not to look at her while doing so, but his voice took on a cooler note. When he’d finished he turned, shook his head in a gesture that suggested he lived in a universe that was out to get him, signaled for her to close the door, and without a word started the VR.
Kim sat down as an image of Ben Tripley took shape.
“This was received about an hour ago,” Matt said.
Tripley was seated on the edge of his desk. He looked unhappy. “Phil,” he said, apparently speaking to Philip Agostino, the director, “I asked you to request Dr. Brandywine to stop involving herself in my affairs. She has now caused a police interrogation, and has unfairly called the character of my father into question.” Over Tripley’s shoulder, Kim could see the forward section of the Valiant. “I have to inform you that I am reevaluating my support for the Institute, as your organization seems to have too much free time on its hands, and a propensity for chasing down discredited rumors. Be advised that if any damage comes to either my property or my reputation as a result of this incident, I will regrettably have no choice but to seek legal redress.”
It blinked off.
“Want to see it again?” Matt asked.
“Yes,” she said. “But kill the sound.”
He stared at her, taken off guard, waiting for her to cancel the request. When she didn’t he reran it. She went over to the desk where she could stop it at the point she wanted.
“The director has instructed me,” Matt said angrily, “to ask for your resignation.”
“Tripley’s a crank,” she said.
“He’s an important crank, Kim.”
She froze the image, Tripley leaning forward, mouth open, index finger jabbed in their general direction. “Matt,” she said, “look at this.” She tried to adjust the image so they’d get more of the Valiant, but it was already full frame.
“Yeah. Looks like a bookend. So what?”
“It’s a model starship.”
He shrugged. “And—?”
“Matt, I’m pretty sure the Hunter did have an encounter with a celestial.”
“Kim—”
“I can’t prove it, but I’d bet on it.” She pointed at the Valiant. “And this is what it looked like.”
“The model.”
“Yes. Look, I know it sounds goofy but I’m almost positive it’s so.”
“If it’s so, why is Tripley keeping it quiet?”
“I don’t think he knows anything about it. Not about the mission. Not about the model. I think his father had it made in one of the local tech shops immediately after he got back. After the explosion, Ben’s grandmother found it at the villa, thought it was only a toy and gave it to him.”
Matt looked as if his shoes were too tight. “What evidence do you have?”
She told him about the fraudulent log and showed him the pictures of Kane’s submerged wall. She said nothing about the vision in the passageway.
“How do you know the log is fraudulent?”
“We had