20 IRRATIONAL FEAR

20 IRRATIONAL FEAR Lunar day 190 Really early in the morning Everyone turned to me at once. "Who?" they demanded. "Well," I hedged, "I'm not one hundred percent sure—" "Great," Nina muttered. "—but there's a way to check it out," I finished quickly. "You see, Dr. Holtz tried to name his killer the other night—only we didn't understand what he was saying."

Everyone asked questions at the same time. "When?" "Why?" "How do you know?" "Hold on!" Dad told them all. "Give Dashiell time to explain himself." He then looked to me expectantly, as eager to hear my thoughts as everyone else. I suddenly found myself very nervous, wondering if I was right. But I pressed on anyhow. "Kira found footage of Dr. Holtz inside the air lock, right before he went out onto the moon. He was using sign language in it, but neither of us speaks sign language, so we asked the computer to translate it for us. Unfortunately, I think the computer got something wrong, though at the time we didn't realize it. We assumed the computer was right—and that we just didn't understand what Dr. Holtz meant. Or that he had space madness or something." "What did he say?" Nina asked. "That he was being murdered. And that earth had killed him." When everyone looked at me quizzically, I said, "That's the part the computer screwed up. I have the footage right here." Despite the fact that I'd been smacked around by

a giant robot arm, my space suit had protected my watch well (not to mention myself), so it was in much better shape than Dr. Holtz's phone had been. I touched it to the computer in front of Chang, transmitting the video file, which popped up on the screen. "You can still speak sign language, can't you, Mom?" "Oh," Mom said. "I could never speak it fluently, Dash. I only tried to learn it to communicate with my grandfather when he was sick." "But you know some, right?" I pressed. "I suppose," Mom said. "It's been a long time, though." "Well, try," Nina ordered. I scanned through the footage until I got to Dr. Holtz signing inside the air lock. "Here," I said. "This is where he says he was being murdered." We all watched as he pointed beneath his open hand. "That's the sign for murder, all right," Mom said. Dr. Holtz began to make the quick series of movements with his hands. "This is where I think the computer got it wrong," I told her. "Where it translated "earth killed me.'" Mom watched and nodded. Then she paused the

footage. "You're right," she said. "That's not the sign for "earth." He's making letter signs." "You mean he's spelling?" Dad asked. "Yes," Mom said. "In American Sign Language there isn't a sign for every name. Instead you spell them out, letter by letter." "Then why did the computer say "earth'?" Kira asked. "It must have thought Dr. Holtz was spelling "earth,'" Mom suggested. "And it simply interpreted that as a name. So it said "earth killed me" in the same way it would have said "Jim killed me." Only Dr. Holtz was probably spelling something else and the computer misread it." "So what was he spelling instead?" Chang asked. "Let's see." Mom scrolled the footage backward to the point where Dr. Holtz began spelling. The first thing he did was raise his hand with a finger pointing to the side. "Oh my," Mom said. The color drained from her face. "That wasn't an E, was it?" I asked. "No." Mom still seemed to be in shock. "Was it a G?" Everyone looked to me, surprised, then to Mom

for confirmation. She nodded. "Dr. Holtz wasn't spelling "earth." He was spelling "Garth.'" Everyone in the room reacted at once. I saw astonishment, disbelief, and betrayal. "Mr. Grisan?" Kira asked, shocked. "He's a spy for the military?" "I guess, if that's what Dr. Holtz thought," I said. "Whoever he works for definitely has some power over NASA. Dr. Marquez told me Mr. Grisan was the only person here who didn't have to sit with him every week." "Computer," Nina demanded, "where is Garth Grisan right now?" "Dismantling the main air lock," the computer replied calmly. Everyone gasped in alarm. Nina was the first to race out the door. The rest of us were right behind her. "Stop right there," Mr. Grisan ordered. As the computer had said, he was standing by the main air lock. The control panel had been ripped off, and wires dangled out of it. Mr. Grisan was wearing a full space suit, helmet and all. He no longer looked like the reserved, meek

man we knew. That had all been an act. The real Garth Grisan was a daunting presence with a cold look in his eye and a commanding voice. He warned, "If anyone comes a step closer, I'll open both doors at once and depressurize the whole moon base." "That's not possible," Nina said. "It is now," Mr. Grisan told her. "I overrode the safety protocols. Although I won't do anything unless you force me to." He placed a thumb on the keypad and shook his head sadly. "I was really hoping things wouldn't come to this." It was twenty feet to the air lock from where we all stood. There was nothing but open space in between us. There was no way to get ahead of Mr. Grisan. Nina raised her hands, signaling him to calm down as she edged closer to him. "Take it easy..." "Stop!" Mr. Grisan ordered. "I'm not bluffing!" Nina froze where she was. I noticed Zan Perfonic wasn't with us anymore. I had no idea how long she'd been gone—or how much she'd witnessed in the control room. I could only hope that she was circling around to get the jump on Mr. Grisan somehow.