Deception Point Page 77

And you agreed.No, I refused But an hour later, the executive was rear in my office-with the smock House senior adviserWhat Gabrielle looked astounded by this. Marjorie Tench?An awful creature, harper theory, nodding. She and the administrator sat me down and told me my flaw had quite liter wholey put NASA and the President on the brink of replete(p) collapse. Ms. Tench told me ab protrude the senators plans to privatize NASA. She told me I owed it to the President and space mission to make it all right. Then she told me how.Gabrielle leaned forward. Go on.Marjorie Tench informed me that the White House, by sheer good fortune, had intercepted strong geologic evidence that an vast meteorite was buried in the Milne shabu Shelf. cardinal of the biggest ever. A meteorite of that size would be a major find for NASA.Gabrielle looked stunned. Hold on, so youre saying approximatelyone already knew the meteorite was there before PODS discovered it?Yes. PODS had nothing to do with the disco very. The administrator knew the meteorite existed. He simply gave me the coordinates and told me to reposition PODS over the ice shelf and take in PODS made the discovery.Youre kidding me.That was my reaction when they asked me to participate in the sham. They refused to tell me how theyd found come forward the meteorite was there, but Ms. Tench insisted it didnt matter and that this was the ideal opportunity to salvage my PODS fiasco. If I could pretend the PODS satellite come outd the meteorite, then NASA could praise PODS as a much needed success and boost the President before the election.Gabrielle was awestruck. And of hang you couldnt claim PODS had detected a meteorite until youd announced that the PODS anomaly-detection software was up and running.Harper nodded. Hence the crushed leather assemblage fraud. I was forced into it. Tench and the administrator were ruthless. They reminded me Id let everyone down-the President had funded my PODS project, NASA had spent years on it, and directly Id ruined the whole thing with a programming blunder.So you agreed to help.I didnt spend a penny a choice. My career was essentially over if I didnt. And the pragmatism was that if I hadnt muffed the software, PODS would have found that meteorite on its own. So, it seemed a small lie at the time. I rationalized it by telling myself that the software would be touch on in a few months when the space shuttle went up, so I would simply be announcing the fix a little early.Gabrielle let out a whistle. A tiny lie to take advantage of a meteoric opportunity.Harper was feeling ill just talking slightly it. So I did it. Following the administrators orders, I held a press conference announcing that Id found a work-around for my anomaly-detection software, I waited a few days, and then I repositioned PODS over the administrators meteorite coordinates. Then, following the proper chain of command, I phoned the EOS director and report that PODS had located a hard density anomaly in the Milne Ice Shelf. I gave him the coordinates and told him the anomaly appeared to be dense enough to be a meteorite. Excitedly, NASA sent a small team up to Milne to take some drill cores. Thats when the operation got very hush-hush.So, you had no idea the meteorite had fossils until tonight? zip here did. Were all in shock. Now everyone is canceling me a friend for finding proof of extraterrestrial bioforms, and I dont know what to say.Gabrielle was silent a long moment, studying Harper with firm black eyes. But if PODS didnt locate the meteorite in the ice, how did the administrator know the meteorite was there? someone else found it first.Someone else? Who?Harper sighed. A Canadian geologist named Charles Brophy-a researcher on Ellesmere Island. Apparently he was doing geologic ice soundings on the Milne Ice Shelf when he by chance discovered the presence of what appeared to be a gigantic meteorite in the ice. He radioed it in, and NASA happened to i ntercept the transmission.Gabrielle stared. But isnt this Canadian furious that NASA is taking all the credit for the find?No, Harper give tongue to, feeling a chill. Conveniently, hes dead.91Michael Tolland shut his eyes and listened to the drone of the G4 jet engine. He had given up difficult to think anymore about the meteorite until they got back to Washington. The chondrules, according to Corky, were conclusive the vibrate in the Milne Ice Shelf could only be a meteorite. Rachel had hoped to have a conclusive answer for William Pickering by the time they landed, but her thought experiments had run into a dead end with the chondrules. As suspicious as the meteorite evidence was, the meteorite appeared to be authentic.So be it.Rachel had obviously been shaken by the trauma in the ocean. Tolland was amazed, though, by her resilience. She was focused now on the regaining at hand-trying to find a way to debunk or manifest the meteorite, and trying to assess who had tried to kil l them.For most of the trip, Rachel had been in the office beside Tolland. Hed enjoyed talking to her, despite the trying circumstances. Several minutes ago, shed headed back to the restroom, and now Tolland was surprised to find himself missing her beside him. He wondered how long it had been since hed missed a womans presence-a woman other than Celia.Mr. Tolland?Tolland glanced up.The pilot was sticking his head into the cabin. You asked me to tell you when we were in telephone range of your ship? I can get you that confederation if you want.Thanks. Tolland made his way up the aisle.Inside the cockpit, Tolland placed a call to his crew. He wanted to let them know he would not be back for another day or two. Of course, he had no plan of telling them what trouble hed run into.The phone rang several times, and Tolland was surprised to collect the ships SHINCOM 2100 communications system pick up. The outgoing message was not the vulgar professional-sounding greeting but rather th e rowdy phonation of one of Tollands crew, the onboard joker.Hiya, hiya, this is the Goya, the voice announced. Were sorry nobodys here right now, but weve all been abducted by very large lice Actually, weve taken temporary shore leave to celebrate Mikes huge night. Gosh, are we proud You can leave your name and number, and maybe well be back tomorrow when were sober. Ciao Go, ETTolland laughed, missing his crew already. Obviously theyd seen the press conference. He was glad theyd gone ashore hed abandoned them rather perfectly when the President called, and their sitting idle at sea was crazy. Although the message said everyone had gone ashore, Tolland had to assume they would not have left his ship unattended, particularly in the strong currents where it was now anchored.Tolland pressed the numeric code to walkover any internal voice mail messages theyd left for him. The line beeped once. One message. The voice was the same rowdy crewmember.Hi Mike, hell of a parade If youre hearing this, youre probably checking your messages from some swanky White House society and wondering where the hell we are. Sorry we abandoned ship, buddy, but this was not a dry-celebration kind of night. Dont worry, we anchored her really good and left the porch light on. Were secretly hoping she gets pirated so youll let NBC buy you that new boat Just kidding, man. Dont worry, Xavia agreed to bear on onboard and mind the fort. She said she preferred time alone to partying with a thud of drunken fishmongers? Can you believe that?Tolland chuckled, relieved to hear someone was on board watching the ship. Xavia was responsible, definitely not the partying type. A respected marine geologist, Xavia had the news report for speaking her mind with a caustic honesty.