"Forget it and tell us," suggested Stacey.
"This is a political battle," said Nora. Then she went on to explain, as Huston had explained to Paul. When she finished, Paul smiled knowingly.
"What?" she asked him.
"Hoagland's gang bumped off the guy that clipped me because he flopped. But on Proxima there was another guy made up to resemble me—and he was clipped by someone else."
Paul looked at Nora. "Probably the same guy that so conveniently provided a recording of your voice to convince me that I'd solved the problem of Z-wave transmission," he said sharply.
Nora shrugged. "That was Ed Link," she said simply. "What happened?"
"Someone dropped what looked like a meteor shower on the bird."
"That sounds like Link's idea of handling it," she said.
"But the deceased?" asked Stacey. "Upon whose side was he aligned?"
"Not on Hoagland's."