Metafire

Inside Metafire now a sound arose, it was a 'shhhh' like a high pressure gas leak. But everyone realized immediately it was coming from the communications speakers. Platon was injecting sound.

George paused for a second then tried it, loudly, "Jack, and whoever else is listening, it was us. We killed all those people. Do you hear?"

Nothing.

Then George spoke louder. "Jack, you forgot, we can hurt Erisa, but if you kill us, you will kill her. If you don't talk right now, I am going to cut off her finger."

Erisa was still. She had watched Boston go.

Nothing.

George smiled and told everybody to go back to work. He realized their white noise generator was now working. Jane relaxed, then Erisa. Nothing was going to happen. Erisa had missed one more opportunity to tell about the bombs. But then, she thought, so had Randy.

Back on the Bluebird, Jack and Scooter could only hear a quiet 'shhh.' Some equipment on the Metafire must have come on and silenced their listening capability. They started moving the laser dot around on other parts of the ship, but continued to only get a 'shhh.' Scooter realized what had happened. He said, "Jack, I think you just made a big mistake. They're masking their voices. They know how we do it."