The Plot

Part 3

      At eight thirty the next morning Brad Sullivan sat down in his office adjacent to the security centre at the Silver Star Research complex. After his dinner the previous night with Tracy, Grace and Shannon he had been going over the problem in his mind. Three unidentified men, presumably staff members, were plotting to destroy the next shuttle to the moon which was due to lift off in four weeks. For what motive? All Shannon said she heard was that it was going to make them rich, and unfortunately she didn't overhear exactly how they planned to do it. So who were they working for? Well that could come later. Right now he had to find who these three men were. He guessed probably one of them was working here in the complex, while the other two were stationed at the launch facility out at North Reef Island. It would take two men to somehow hide an explosive device on the spacecraft, one to set it up and the other to cover for him.

Who was the man here in the complex? He would have to investigate very carefully. His man was probably keeping an eye on Shannon to see if she was talking to anyone about what she had overheard, talking to someone like Brad himself.

He pressed a button on the computer terminal. "I need a list of all male staff working here in the complex involved in spaceflight, logistics and planning, and better throw in engineering as well." Then he muttered, "It's going to be a long list." Then aloud, "Computer also make a list of everyone in the maintenance section at the launch facility."

A minute later the computer had displayed two long lists of staff names. I should be able to narrow this list down to just a few names, Brad thought. "Okay computer, delete everyone from these lists who was not at the main Silver Star complex the night before last between 8pm and 10pm. Now tell me how many on each list.

"There are twenty one names on list one, and seventeen names on list two."

"What? Are you sure? How could so many staff be here at nine o'clock at night?"

"On Monday and Tuesday night of this week several seminars were being given on new techniques and developments in space travel which will affect future spaceflights. Thirty eight staff from the main complex and twenty two staff from the launch facility attended on Tuesday night."

"Okay then, print the lists out."

A few minutes later Brad was carefully going through the lists and managed to cross out five names of staff he personally knew who would never get involved in such a scheme. Now his list was down to eighteen and fifteen. How could he reduce it further without actually questioning each of them which would certainly give the game away?

He had an idea. "Computer, have any of the staff on the lists you just prepared made any complaints or threats against the company or any other staff member in the last twelve months?"

"Please wait. Accessing Human Resources database," the computer responded in its soft monotone female voice, then after about ten seconds, "Dr John Shipley in Space Logistics lodged a complaint about working excess hours without sufficient overtime pay on April 15th this year. The matter was resolved seven days later. No other staff members fit the criteria of your request."

Brad vaguely knew John Shipley. He would keep a discreet eye on him, but he still had thirty two other possible suspects. He was going to need help to narrow the list down. The computer could probably help him. System A was such an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) that it knew the personalities of all the staff who had worked at the complex for more than a few months. But he would still need more help. One person could do that. He had no idea how she had such insights into people, but she was very good at reading them, and sometimes she actually seemed to know what Brad himself was thinking which was a bit scary!

"Computer, please call Dr Tracy Hammond," he said to the AI.

"Sure, I'll go through the list with you," Tracy said, "but I'm really busy today. Let's do it from home tonight. Can you come around for dinner again? Oh, bring dinner with you this time. The girls would love to have Chinese."

*****

That night after dinner Tracy sat down with Brad's list and the computer. She carefully looked at the holographic image of each person while the computer gave her details of their personality profiles. Slowly she crossed eleven names off the list.

An hour later she handed Brad the list with twenty two names left on it. He looked at the list. "Are you sure?" he asked her.

"Yep," Tracy answered sounding confident, "Some of them I personally know, and others just definitely don't fit the personality profile to be a murderer."

"I don't know how you do it," Brad muttered, "but thanks."

Grace, who was sitting on the couch, gave her mother a knowing smile. She knew exactly how Tracy did it.

"If I could question each of them I'm sure I could eliminate more of them," Tracy said, "But that would be dangerous. Our suspects are already on high alert and we can't let them know that we know about their plot, or they may come after Shannon. Hmmm."

Tracy looked at the list again. "There are five names in the Space Logistics section. I often go in there to talk to the director. Maybe I can stop and have an innocent chat with some of our suspects while I'm there. I could narrow the field even further."