"News? I haven't heard any news."
"It just came over the radio. The _Comet_ disappeared three days out
from Ganymede. She was escorted by a corvette of the Martian Navy, too."
The _Comet_, he knew, was a semi-passenger freighter of Martian
register. "But the corvette?" he echoed blankly, feeling suddenly a bit
frightened and confused.
"It vanished too." She snapped her fingers. "Just like that. But before
they disappeared, they reported three flashes in space dead ahead. Then
their signals stopped."
He opened his mouth.
"Wait," said the girl. "You haven't heard it all. The Observatory on
Ganymede had them in sight all the time. A short while after the ship's
radio messages stopped coming through, they noticed that the _Comet_
was disappearing just as if she were disintegrating. The disintegration
started at the stern and slowly worked forward until the ship was
completely gone." She shuddered. "When I heard the news coming over the
caster it reminded me of an old, old story of a grinning cheshire cat.
The cat disappeared tail first until even the grin was gone."
"Alice in Wonderland," said Norman mechanically. "That was written by
Lewis Carroll, a famous writer of antiquity."
"What do you think it is?"
He shook his head. "I'm no scientist, Jennifer. It sounds like atomic
disintegration."
"But why?"
Again he shook his head. His food, he realized, was growing cold. He
began to eat mechanically. He thought that if he ever reached Ganymede,
he'd never venture into space again.
The girl said, "Vermeer was right about one thing. The Empire's
crumbling. This never could have happened a hundred years ago." She
hesitated, then added with a rush, "I wasn't going to tell you because
I'm not sure, but Mr. Vermeer's stateroom is next to mine. When I first
came aboard and was putting away my things, I noticed a man leave his
stateroom. Norman, it wasn't Mr. Vermeer. I think it was that T.I.S.
agent who was murdered."
"By Jupiter," ejaculated Norman, "do you think the T.I.S. man could
have been making an investigation of this Vermeer?"
She nodded her head, wide-eyed.
"Have you told the Captain?"
"No," said the girl.
"But he should know."
She shook her head. "He'd think I was imagining things. The passengers
have been reporting all sorts of nonsense since the murder. If I could
only be sure." She bit her lip. "Norman, the dance tonight. He'll be
there. We could search his room."
He looked at her aghast. "Search his room? Me? Suppose he walked in on
us?"
"We could pretend we'd entered by mistake. My cabin is next door."