The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(2)

“Dr. Patel, I must remind you, yes or no answers only.”

“No.”

“Were you paid by a foreign government in the past two years for any services?”

“What? No!”

“Yes or no only, ma’am. Were you paid—”

She was starting to sweat now, why, she didn’t know. She regretted asking them to turn off the air. “No.”

“Did the alien being you spoke with have a foreign accent?”

She had to think for a moment. Were their words accented? Or did they sound very much like her own voice, an echo of something kind and gentle, but in chorus, as if there were hundreds and one, all at the same time? “No.”

“Were you stationed on the International Space Station for six months, beginning in October 2010?”

“Yes.”

“Were you the chief science officer on the mission?”

“Yes.”

“Did you lose your tether on an EVA outside the ISS?”

“Yes.” Her heartbeat spiked, she couldn’t help it. She was hurled back to the moment when she knew her life was ended. She clearly saw the tethers breaking, her gloved hand missing the handhold, felt her body flood with adrenaline. She was in space, floating away from the space station. Her jet pack didn’t respond. She was so royally screwed, she was dead.

Then the strong, gentle hand caught her, and a hundred melodic voices spoke as one in her mind. You are not going to die today. But you must tell them we’re here.

She shook her head, refocused on the room. It happened so often, her drifting back to the moment the Numen had saved her.

The examiner was watching her closely. “Did you encounter an extraterrestrial being on this EVA?”

“Yes.”

“Did you speak with this alien?”

“Yes.”

“Did the alien tell you to come back to Earth and tell us of its existence?”

“Yes.”

“And the alien then led you back to your port so you could rejoin the crew.”

“Yes.”

“Are you forty-nine years of age?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have blond hair?”

“No.”

“Do you believe extraterrestrials are trying to communicate with us?”

“Yes.”

Silence. More scratching, then the man nodded and the machine’s lights went off.

“Thank you. We’ll unhook you now.”

Norgate said, not unkindly, “You can wait in the hall.”

She started to speak, then shook her head and left the room. They thought she was crazy, she’d gone off the deep end and couldn’t be trusted. Space madness. Hallucinations in a stressful moment. They weren’t going to believe her, no matter what she said, no matter what the machine indicated. She could see it in their eyes.

She went to the hallway as instructed. She was good at following orders, it was one of the reasons NASA recruited her in the first place. Brilliant, compliant Nevaeh. So respected for her leadership, so adored by her peers.

She knew everything was about to change.



Norgate said, “So? Did she pass?”

Jim Carstairs, the examiner, said, “Yes. Yes, she did.”

“Let me see it.”

Norgate took the sheets of paper, saw the spikes and flat lines, so much like the EKG he’d had at his last physical.

“I don’t understand. She really passed?”

Jim said, “With flying colors. Either she’s telling the truth, or she’s convinced herself what she saw, what she heard, was truly an alien species. I’ll write it all up for you, but she wasn’t lying to us. Whether she’s relating what really happened is a whole different matter.”

Franklin Norgate raked his fingers through his hair. “The press is going to have a field day with this.”

The door to the exam room opened and Dr. Rebecca Holloway entered. Tall and thin from an extreme running regimen, Holloway was the lead psychiatrist for this NASA facility. In the end, she was responsible for deciding whether Dr. Patel could go back to space or was finished as an astronaut. He was relieved he didn’t have to make the call. He knew he was a coward, but he was grateful it wouldn’t be on his head.

“You saw?”

“I did. Dr. Patel absolutely believes she communicated with aliens.”

Norgate said, “I would hate to lose her, Rebecca. She’s brilliant. Capable. One of the best astronauts we have in the program.”

“She also seems to be suffering from serious delusions, Franklin. You know we’ve seen this happen before. Not to this extent, of course, but we’ve had astronauts topple over into madness. It’s why we screen them so carefully to start with. I can’t believe she made it this long without showing her mental issues. She is brilliant, which is probably why she’s been able to control the visions. Until now, at least. The stress of the incident has made it impossible to hide her problems any longer. I’d say it broke her, irrevocably. Maybe it was inevitable, given who and what she was.”

Norgate rubbed his chin. Given who and what she was? She was an astronaut. What did Rebecca mean? “You’re being awfully harsh, Rebecca. I don’t know if we should give up on her so soon. Maybe some therapy, some time off—”