"Any possibility of forgery in those letters?" asked Heidekopfer at the same time.
Unterbaum turned to the girl. "No to your question. As for the other one, Carmenilla Baio's private code was certainly no forgery."
Heidekopfer said, "It appears that the Tolstoians compel them to stay there, and if they argue, bump them off. Is that it?"
"That would be a charge of genocide. I do not think—" began Lanzerotti.
"I don't either," said Unterbaum. "The Tolstoians wouldn't expose themselves to such a thing, especially in view of their origins. No, I'm convinced they have been quite honest, leaning over backward—as witness the preserved suicides—but there's some factor in the equation we don't know. And I won't deny that there's danger in the trip."
"Then I'm going," said Rosa Lanzerotti, decisively. She was a small woman with vivid Italiote coloring.
Ann Starnes said, "Might as well square the party off, hadn't we? It would be nice to have someone to handle the recording tapes and films."
Unterbaum frowned. "The Intercolonial Office—" he began.
Lanzerotti said, "I believe that psychologists recognize it as a temperamental danger to send two men and one woman on a protracted expedition."
"I ought to know better than to argue with a diplomat," said Unterbaum.