Where it isn't

In the middle section of The Ark Lords, after Rome and Rei recovered the useless communication beacon placed within the Perepelkin Crater on the far side of the Moon, MINIMCOM transported back to its original spot once they determined it had been rendered useless. As predicted (and necessitated by a plot twist later in the book), the probe disintegrated, leaving, as Rei called it, "just a small pile of space junk."

But now they were in a quandary. The probe could not reveal the location of the store of the Darwin Virus Strain 5. Our heroes would have to use their deductive powers to figure out where the virus was stored. Rei couldn't figure out where it was but he thought he might be able to figure out where it wasn't:

     Rome turned to Rei. “I am drawing a blank. You know your people better than I do. Do you have you any thoughts or guesses as to where they stored the virus?”
     Rei shrugged. “I have no idea where they put it but I can tell you where they didn’t.”
     “What do you mean?”
     “Well, they were heinous individuals but they weren’t stupid. They would store it someplace that was not readily accessible. Like underground as opposed to in the trees somewhere.”
     “Trees?” Rome asked, confused.
     “Naw,” Rei said. “And they’d have to store it someplace that was geologically stable. No way they’d store it someplace just to have some earthquake knock it loose. And away from the ocean, away from hurricanes. Plus it would have to be fortified. You wouldn’t want somebody stumbling across it, not knowing what it was. So I’m guessing it’s in a bunker somewhere, pretty deep underground, somewhere in the middle of the country. They were Americans so they wouldn’t store it in Mexico or Canada or Europe.”
     “That does not seem to narrow it down all that much,” Rome said.
     “I know,” Rei replied. “But it’s all we’ve got to work with right now.”
     Rome cocked her head. “Maybe not,” she said.
     “What?”
     “We know that these Darwin people successfully placed the probe on the Moon.” Rome pointed out the windshield. “In the ensuing 14 centuries, a meteorite came down and destroyed it. There’s no way to know exactly when. It might have been the day after it landed or it might have been last week.”
     Rei turned to her. “What’s your point?”
     “If we play the odds and guess that it happened later rather than sooner, then it’s possible that the Erklirte picked up the coordinates of the storage vessel before the probe was destroyed. Even if that were not true, it is obvious that your Captain and his people were briefed on Virus 5. They may have been informed of the virus’ location before they left on their mission. I would assume the Erklirte received similar instructions.” Rome pointed to the pile of space debris that had been the probe. “They may not have even needed the probe. When they got to the Earth, perhaps, eventually they might have tried to retrieve the virus containment vessel. Their actions may give us a clue as to where it’s stored.”

Ah, don't you love it? This line of thinking opens up a whole new avenue of research. On Earth. Unfortunately, Rome and Rei were banished from the planet at the end of Rome's Revolution. They would have to think of a clever way to retrieve the information they required.