Jack McDevitt - Infinity Beach

Afterward they returned to the hotel, and she tried to reach Sheyel. The reception wasn’t good, trouble on the lines somewhere, and her old teacher’s image, when it finally appeared, lacked definition. It was fuzzy around the edges, particularly up around his shoulders, and occasionally he faded to near-transparency. Add his gloomy demeanor, and the result was spectral.

“I’m sorry,” Kim said, the words inadequate as always even though the victim had been dead almost three decades.

“Murdered?” he asked.

“The police are looking into it. But, yes, I’d say that’s a safe assumption.” Kim had given few details, had in fact few to give.

“In a river,” he said.

“I’m sorry.” She didn’t know how else to respond.

“Thank you, Kim. I appreciate what you’ve done.” He looked empty . She realized that until that moment he’d never really given up hope.

“What will you do now?”

“Wait for the results of the investigation.”

“I don’t want to sound discouraging, Sheyel, but with the principals dead, I doubt there’ll be much of an investigation.”

The picture cleared up. “Surely they’d want to establish the truth about this,” he said.

“Maybe. I have my doubts.”

“I see.” The image faded again, down to a silhouette. “Kim,” he said, “have you finished?”

“You mean, do I plan to pursue this any further?”

“Yes. That is what I mean. Because I honestly don’t understand—can’t imagine—what happened. I’ve done a lot of research on Tripley and Kane. I mean, I’ve looked at everything that’s available. I just don’t believe either of them is capable of murder.”

“Those are my thoughts exactly.”

“So are you going to continue?”

“To the extent that I’m able.”

“Then I want you to be careful. Yoshi’s killer may still be out there.”

“After all these years?” She tried to sound skeptical. “You have someone up there with you?”

“Yes,” she said. “A colleague. Solomon Hobbs.”

“Good. Stay close to him.”

Chepanga conducted a virtual interview that afternoon. He asked Kim to repeat her story in tedious detail. When she was finished he asked why she had become interested in the case. “End of the century,” she told him. “It got me reminiscing about the sister I’d lost.”

He had clearly hoped for more. He asked Solly whether he had anything to add.

Solly did not. “I was just trying to help a friend,” he said.

“How did she die?” Kim asked.

“Her neck was broken.”

“And what do you plan to do now?”

“We’ll conduct a thorough investigation, of course. Although we have to face the reality that it’s been a long time. A case of this nature—Well, we’ll do what we can.” He thanked her and blinked out.

“I think he’s telling us it’s over,” said Solly.

“He thinks Tripley did it, and Tripley’s dead. At least he’s legally dead.”

“Yeah, that’s my guess.” Solly fixed her with an odd look.

“What?” asked Kim.

“You promised Sheyel you’d press on. How do you go about pressing on?”

“I don’t know. There ought to be something we can do.” She still felt exhilarated after her derring-do in the river. Who’d have ever thought little Kimmy had that in her? “How about going out on the town?” she said.

“Absolutely.” He made drinks for them, swallowed his, excused himself, and went back to his bedroom. Minutes later he reappeared in a lemon-colored jacket. “The new me . What do you think?”

“Dazzling.”

“Bought it last week. For a special occasion.”

“Good. It should put us in the right frame of mind for taking the next step.”

“ Us? How do you mean us ?”

She canted her head and gazed steadily into his unblinking eyes. She was sending out a subliminal call for help and she knew it and Solly knew it. “I wouldn’t put any pressure on you, Solly,” she said.

“Of course not. And what,” he asked cautiously, “would the next step be?”

“To find out what happened to the relationship between Kane and Emily.”

They went to a show. Dancers, live music, a celebrity troop of singers, a comedian. The place was packed. Afterward they strolled along the skyways, enjoying the fountains and the bistros.

They stopped by the Top of the World for dinner. But they’d hardly been seated when a text message came in from Matt: We understand police found Amara’s body in Severin. Some of us are wondering how it happens that Institute personnel are involved.

“Some of us” translated to Philip Agostino, the onetime physics whiz who’d realized his tastes ran more to power than to science and who was now director of the Institute. “I suspect,” Solly said ominously, “there’ll be some fallout.”

After the experience in the river, trouble with her boss seemed of minor consequence. Kim ordered a bottle of wine far more expensive than she could afford, filled both glasses, and raised hers to Solly. “For all you’ve done,” she said.

Later, back in the hotel room, she looked again at the final conversation between Kane and Emily, as the Hunter approached Sky Harbor. The lights were dimmed in the pilot’s room, and they spoke in the casual manner of longtime colleagues.

“ Thanks, Markis. ”

“ For what? ”

“ For getting us back. I know we put some pressure on you to continue the mission. ”

“ It’s okay. It’s what I would have expected. ”

“ As always, Markis, it was nice to spend time with you. ”

She stopped it there, backed it up, went to get Solly, who was trying to read in another room, and reran the line.

“ As always, Markis, it was nice to spend time with you. ”

“Okay.” She went to a split screen, Emily and Markis again, from a conversation seven weeks earlier, shortly after Hunter had departed St. Johns. “Watch.”

Neither spoke. Emily squeezed Kane’s shoulder and slipped into the right-hand seat.

“ We’re right on schedule, ” he said.

She leaned toward him, as close as the restraints would permit. “ Maybe this’ll be our time. ”

“ I hope so, Emily. I really do. ”

“Listen to his voice,” Kim said. “Watch the body language.”

The two sat several minutes, talking about incidentals. But the manner of it, the tendency of each to reach out and touch the other broadcast their mutual passion. Kim froze the picture at a moment when they gazed soulfully at each other.

“I don’t know,” said Solly. “What are you trying to prove?”

“ Inconsistency. ”

She replayed the conversations in her mind and stared out at the skyline.

“Let me change the subject,” said Solly. “The Institute called a while ago. Harvey’s asked for some time off. They need a replacement pilot.”

“For—?”

“Taratuba.”

The black hole near the Miranda nebula. The genesis candidate. The Thomas Hammersmith was scheduled to leave in eleven days.

There was a suspicion, but little hard evidence, that Taratuba had created a false vacuum, had collapsed into a new big bang. A baby universe. The event, if it had in fact occurred, would have erupted into a different space-time continuum, forever separated from this universe. But theory held that if it were in fact happening, Kung Che radiation would be detectable around the hole. It might be a chance to touch the fires of creation. To make some progress on precreative conditions.

“You’d be gone quite a while,” she said.