Kate Kwitney was sitting in Vance Holcomb's huge office. The doors were closed tight, the big windows were shuttered, and she knew without having to be told that he'd activated and rechecked all of his safeguards against electronic surveillance. The room was cool, silent, relatively comfortable, and disturbingly silent. She waited for Holcomb to speak.
"What do you make of this?" he asked.
"I couldn't really say," she told him. "I only know what I've told you so far. Who do you think killed him?"
"I could conjecture, but I'd only be guessing."
"The studio. It was the studio, wasn't it?" She shrugged. "I can't think that they would be so upset over his little articles, which his editors were probably about to stop running, anyway. I really don't think anyone would kill him over that."
Holcomb snorted. "Do you have any idea how much money is involved in Salutations USA? Do you?" There was a razor-like anger in his voice.
"No, sir. A lot, I know."
"We're talking profits in the billions of dollars. Long term, in the many billions of dollars. These are just the profits, Kate. Not gross."
"I understand," she said.
"No. I don't think that you do understand." He moved from his post behind his desk. "Listen. I grew up with these people. My father was one of them. He earned hundreds of millions of dollars doing whatever it took to earn it." Vance looked over at Kate, his face all but in shadow. "Do you hear me? Whatever it took.
"These kinds of men put no value on a human life. A man like Dodd is a minor detail. An extra decimal point misplaced on a page, and to be done away with. Erased. Whited out.
"Do you understand?" He pointed at her.
"Yes. I understand. But what kind of danger would he have posed?"
"I think he saw something," Holcomb said.
"What do you think he saw?"
"I think he's seen what we've seen."
"How? I don't believe it. There's just no way. No way, at all."
Holcomb turned his back on her. "What about the dogs missing from Salutations? I think there's something to that. I think what your Mr. Riggs told you confirms it." He sighed. "Damn. I wish we'd been able to have a look at that dog's foot."
"I don't know if that's enough evidence that they're coming into the city, Vance."
"I think so. The red one. The scarlet one. It isn't with the rest, anymore. It's so big, maybe they chased it out of the group."
"God. I hope not. He's so huge. He could be spotted too easily."
Holcomb moved from behind his desk and walked slowly toward Kate. Finally, he stopped just in front of her. "I think Dodd saw one of them. Maybe the red one. I think he may have taken photographs."
"Why would you say that?"
"Because of the bullet in his head. I think they killed him because he had proof of something out there. I think they killed him to keep him from being able to prove it." He remained where he was and continued to stare down at Kate.
"Then…" Her hands moved up to her chest. She could feel her heart suddenly pounding at her ribs.
"Then, if they'd kill Tim Dodd, they might as well kill us, too," he finished for her.
"Do you think they know? I mean, that we're aware of what's living in this wilderness?"
"That would depend on whether or not Dodd had any proof, and whether or not they recovered it from him. And I think the answers to both of those questions are yes. Just taking the images from him would not have prevented him from telling anyone, nor would it have prevented him from coming back, with help, to get more proof.
"That's why the bullet in the head."
"Jesus." Kate swallowed. The idea of being shot or even the chance of it happening was not something she thought that she could deal with. "What should we do?"
"I think…" He stopped short. "I'm not sure, just now. But it might almost be time for us to go public."
Kate came out of her chair, standing up to face her employer. She was almost as tall as he was. "No. You know what will happen. This place will be crawling with people. We can't have that. Not now. Who knows how they'll react to other humans in their habitat? I mean…the only reason they haven't reacted to us is that our studies have no impact on their lives."