the question of where they had come from.
"I suspect that they came into the general area of the Marianas through one of the Mattin Links," he concluded. "The question is, which one? We have twenty to choose from. I don't believe there is any way they could have come in from an off-Earth origin, otherwise I'd have thought they were aliens."
"With human chromosome ID's? That would take some explaining, Bey."
John Larsen went over to the wall display, which Bey had tuned to show the locations of the Mattin Link entry points.
"No, I agree with you, Bey, they've come from a lab here on Earth. If they came through the Links, we can rule out a few of them—they're open ocean and they only act as transfer points. Have you correlated the big form-change labs with the Mattin Link entry points?"
"I started to do it, but it's a big job. I'm waiting for more output on that to come back from the computer. I'm still waiting for the full identification of the three bodies, too. I don't know why it's all taking so long. I slapped a top priority code on the inquiry."
He joined Larsen over at the wall screen. Working together, they reviewed the locations of the Mattin Links that formed the pivot points for Earth's global transportation system. They were deep in the middle of their work when the communicator beeped for attention. Larsen went over to it, leaving Wolf to record the analysis of the wall outputs. As the first words of the message scrolled onto the communicator display, Larsen whistled softly to himself.
"Come over here and get a look at this, Bey," he called. "There's the reason that Central Records took so long to get you an answer. Are you still as sure that the forms didn't come from off-Earth?"
The message began "ID Search completed and identification made. Individuals of inquiry are as follows; James Pearson Manaur, age 34, nationality USF; Caperta Laferte, age 25, nationality USF; Lao Sarna Prek, age 40, nationality USF. Biographical details follow. Continue/Halt?"
Wolf pressed 'Continue' and the detailed ID records appeared: education, work, history, family, credit ratings. Bey noted with surprise that all three of the men had spectacular credit, up in the multimillionaire class, but his mind was still mainly occupied with the first item of background. The three men were all members of the USF, and that made for a real mystery. Since the USF had declared its sovereignty fifty years earlier, in 2142, its citizens had always been a relative rarity down on Earth. Surely the disappearance of three of them should have roused a loud outcry long before their bodies had been found off the Guam shore.
The two men looked at each other. Larsen nodded in response to Wolf's raised eyebrows.
"I agree. It makes no sense at all. The USF still have their ban on form-change experiments. If they won't accept the C-forms, I doubt if they'd be playing with completely new forms, even as part of their defense programs. And it's still harder to believe that they'd bring their failures down to Earth."
"Even if they could get them here—you know how tight quarantine is since the Purcell spores." Wolf shook his head. "Well, we don't have much choice about what to do next. We have to get a USF man in on this—it's too sensitive for us to handle on our own."
He had a reason to look gloomy. The investigation had just grown two orders of magnitude in complexity. To go further without USF concurrence would create an interplanetary incident.
"I'll put a request in," said Larsen. "The less we can get away with telling them at this point, the better. I'll shove the bare facts at them, and let them decide who they want to send down from Tycho City. I hope they send somebody who at least knows how to spell 'form-change.' "
While they talked, the communicator continued to pump out the information, in display and hard copy form. It had reached the point where the requested correlation between Link entry points and form-change labs was being
"I suspect that they came into the general area of the Marianas through one of the Mattin Links," he concluded. "The question is, which one? We have twenty to choose from. I don't believe there is any way they could have come in from an off-Earth origin, otherwise I'd have thought they were aliens."
"With human chromosome ID's? That would take some explaining, Bey."
John Larsen went over to the wall display, which Bey had tuned to show the locations of the Mattin Link entry points.
"No, I agree with you, Bey, they've come from a lab here on Earth. If they came through the Links, we can rule out a few of them—they're open ocean and they only act as transfer points. Have you correlated the big form-change labs with the Mattin Link entry points?"
"I started to do it, but it's a big job. I'm waiting for more output on that to come back from the computer. I'm still waiting for the full identification of the three bodies, too. I don't know why it's all taking so long. I slapped a top priority code on the inquiry."
He joined Larsen over at the wall screen. Working together, they reviewed the locations of the Mattin Links that formed the pivot points for Earth's global transportation system. They were deep in the middle of their work when the communicator beeped for attention. Larsen went over to it, leaving Wolf to record the analysis of the wall outputs. As the first words of the message scrolled onto the communicator display, Larsen whistled softly to himself.
"Come over here and get a look at this, Bey," he called. "There's the reason that Central Records took so long to get you an answer. Are you still as sure that the forms didn't come from off-Earth?"
The message began "ID Search completed and identification made. Individuals of inquiry are as follows; James Pearson Manaur, age 34, nationality USF; Caperta Laferte, age 25, nationality USF; Lao Sarna Prek, age 40, nationality USF. Biographical details follow. Continue/Halt?"
Wolf pressed 'Continue' and the detailed ID records appeared: education, work, history, family, credit ratings. Bey noted with surprise that all three of the men had spectacular credit, up in the multimillionaire class, but his mind was still mainly occupied with the first item of background. The three men were all members of the USF, and that made for a real mystery. Since the USF had declared its sovereignty fifty years earlier, in 2142, its citizens had always been a relative rarity down on Earth. Surely the disappearance of three of them should have roused a loud outcry long before their bodies had been found off the Guam shore.
The two men looked at each other. Larsen nodded in response to Wolf's raised eyebrows.
"I agree. It makes no sense at all. The USF still have their ban on form-change experiments. If they won't accept the C-forms, I doubt if they'd be playing with completely new forms, even as part of their defense programs. And it's still harder to believe that they'd bring their failures down to Earth."
"Even if they could get them here—you know how tight quarantine is since the Purcell spores." Wolf shook his head. "Well, we don't have much choice about what to do next. We have to get a USF man in on this—it's too sensitive for us to handle on our own."
He had a reason to look gloomy. The investigation had just grown two orders of magnitude in complexity. To go further without USF concurrence would create an interplanetary incident.
"I'll put a request in," said Larsen. "The less we can get away with telling them at this point, the better. I'll shove the bare facts at them, and let them decide who they want to send down from Tycho City. I hope they send somebody who at least knows how to spell 'form-change.' "
While they talked, the communicator continued to pump out the information, in display and hard copy form. It had reached the point where the requested correlation between Link entry points and form-change labs was being
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