The Aurora Borealis Keeps Its Lament novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: Played Back
Alba's POV
The tape machine in the data hut was older than I was, and it hissed.
I had set it on the desk between the dial logs and Sabina's draft, with the lamp turned low so Iker could sit in the dark he preferred.
Paloma had brought a pot of coffee and the chief.
The chief stood by the stove with his arms folded.
He had not said a word since I told him what the tin held.
"Night nine," I said, and pressed the key.
Iker's voice came out of the machine, tired and exact.
"Peak at twenty-one forty-one. Strength three point eight. Rising slowly from the east."
I put my finger on the dial log in front of me.
Twenty-one forty-one.
Three point eight.
Then I turned the draft around so the chief could read the table himself.
"Twenty-one fourteen," he read. "Eight point three."
"Two digits swapped in each," I said. "Both in the direction that makes his work look like a careless man's."
"Typing slips," said the chief.
"Once, perhaps."
I played night eleven.
Then night fourteen, and night nineteen.
Four times Iker's voice said a figure that matched my logs, and four times the draft in the chief's hand said something else.
Iker sat on the stool by the door with his face to the window.
He did not interrupt, and he did not look pleased.
At last the chief rubbed his jaw.
"I believe you, Quiroga," he said heavily. "I do. But think how it looks from the Institute. A man whom the doctors call unfit, a tape that only he could have made, and a log that only you could have written."
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