Norse had signed the necessary forms. He had allowed inspection of his gear. Which meant, according to the records of Gabriella Reid, that Norse had been at the Auckland airport, dealing with logistics, at the same time the newspapers said he'd already disappeared into the country's wilderness.
Yet Norse hadn't emerged from his ordeal for another week. How could he have been lost at Mount Aspiring and back in Auckland at the same time? How could he have been in two places at once?
Had he gone astray on a vacation hike, popped out to check in his luggage, and then disappeared back into the woods again? Damn unlikely.
What else, then?
Lewis stared at the number. 1-29.
What if there were two Robert Norses, one going missing on January 23, another checking his gear six days later? Odd coincidence. Maybe the newspaper stories he dug up referred then to another man entirely…
Two Robert Norses going to the Pole?
No way.
How did Antarctic authorities know a person was who he said he was? Nobody had asked Lewis for I.D. once he'd cleared customs. He'd shown up in New Zealand, identified himself to warehousing authorities, been checked off a list and issued the necessary paperwork and polar gear. Was the second man really Robert Norse? Or someone claiming to be him? And which Norse had emerged from the New Zealand wilderness two weeks later, too rushed to answer any questions?
What if the man under the dome wasn't the real Robert Norse at all? What if the hiking disappearance had allowed an impostor to take his place, that somehow their Norse had followed the other Norse to New Zealand, cleared customs under his real name and passport, made sure of Norse's disappearance, assumed his role, boarded the plane to the Pole…
Lewis flipped off the computer and stood up, dizzy, excited, and still bewildered. Who, then, was Doctor Bob?
And how to prove that he and the real Norse weren't the same man?