He was silent for several seconds—an eternity to me. When he spoke, he sounded uncharacteristically embarrassed. "I’m assuming, Mr. Riker, that the geographical source of the attempt is the only reason that you are asking instead of accusing." He gave a small smile. "As it turns out, New Zealand makes sense. The fact is that our probe technology may not have been, ehm, entirely original FAITH research. Australia was working on the probe concept, and one of our agents may have, ehm, borrowed some ideas."