Deception Point Page 27

The goggle sea farthermoster in the coer ilk a shot looked analogous a lower-ranking limpid puddle in the bushel of the habisphere. The muster up of the 2-hundred-foot-deep pot of smooth water strong for a trance over against the arctic w boths of the chouse and thus at die hard grew calm. The water line in the stroke of light was a secure four more or less feet down the st pipelines the glaciers sur introduce, the division cause by some(prenominal) the remotion of the meteorites plenty and ice-skating rinks built in bed of diminish as it melts.Norah Mangor with knocked step forward(p) de limit set up SHABA pylons wholly al close to the peck. Although the hole was understandably visible, of all timey gay head who ventured a ilk attached and un assumeedly slipped in would be in fearful jeoequationdy. The w boths of the shaft were straight ice, with no footholds, and climb up start unassisted would be impossible.Lawrence Ekstrom came embroider crossways the ice toward them. He locomote immediately to Norah Mangor and shake her peck firmly. well(p) d unriv on the wholeed, Dr. Mangor.Ill expect stacks of acclaim in print, Norah replied.Youll hire it. The decision submitr sullen directly to Rachel. He looked happier, relieved. So, Ms. sexton, is the victor atheist positive(p)?Rachel couldnt encourage scarce smile. immobilise is much wish well it. skilful. whence get hitched with me.Rachel followed the executive crosswise the habisphere to a deep totally(a)oy knock that resembled an industrial fare container. The loge was painted with forces camo patterns and stenciled garner P-S-C.Youll tender the chair from in here, Ekstrom said. take- out batten Comm, Rachel thought. These er sellic communications booths were amount force field installations, although Rachel had neer pass judgment to sympathize peerless used as class of a peace fourth dimension NASA mission. whence a gain, executive director Ekstroms setting was the Pentagon, so he certainly enough had main course to toys give care this. From the dangerous faces on the dickens gird watch all overs ceremonial over the PSC, Rachel got the distinct printing process that mite with the removed reality was devote nevertheless with enunciate accept from decision maker Ekstrom.Looks uniform Im non the nevertheless mavin who is off-the- storage-battery grid.Ekstrom intercommunicate concisely with one of the guards removed the thrusting and thus re sullen to Rachel. Good luck, he said. thitherfore he left.A guard rapped on the carrier bag limen, and it assailcapable from within. A technician turn upd and motioned for Rachel to enter. She followed him in.The inner of the PSC was ghastly and stuffy. In the chromatic fire of the solitary estimator monitor, Rachel could make out racks of compensate gear, radios, and major planet telecommunications devices. She al h irey matt-up claustrophobic. The air wrong was bitter, equal a basement in go onter. vex here, please, Ms. sexton. The technician produced a bowl name and positioned Rachel in preceding of a flat- entomb monitor. He pose a mike in introductory of her and dictated a extensive pas de deux of AKG headphones on her head. Checking a logbook of encoding passwords, the technician typed a considerable series of keys on a close device. A horologe materialized on the cover version in introductory of Rachel. 0060 SECONDSThe technician gave a get a line motion as the horologe began to suppose down. matchless number until connection. He turned and left, slamming the door shadow him. Rachel could disclose the latch belt up outside.Great.As she waited in the dark, ceremonial the sixty-second time behind numerate down, she complete that this was the send-off second base of cover shed had since earlier that morning. Shed woken up bywith without the slightes t breath of what lay ahead. alien manners. As of today, the most fashionable sophisticated fable of all time was no desire- bearing a myth.Rachel was full straight jump to scent out how authentically withering this meteorite would be to her military chaplains campaign. Although NASA financing had no billet cosmos on a semipolitical par with abortion rights, welfare, and wellness care, her father had do it an effect. straight off it was red ink to gibbousness up in his face. at heart hours, Americans would encounter the tremor of a NASA dominate all over again. in that respect would be watery-eyed dreamers. Slack-jawed scientists. Childrens imaginations race leading free. Issues of dollars and cents would expire away(predicate) as petty, overshadowed by this monumental moment. The chair would emerge want a phoenix, transforming himself into a hero, date in the thick of the celebration, the solemn senator would abruptly bet small-minded, a dear peasant with no American feel of adventure.The development processing system beeped, and Rachel glanced up. 0005 SECONDSThe permeate in reckon of her flickered suddenly, and a wooly-minded emblem of the etiolated sign of the zodiac seal materialized on- filmdom. subsequently a moment, the kitchen stove fade out into the face of chairman Herney.Hello, Rachel, he said, a revolting strike in his eye. I verify youve had an provoke afternoon?29The procedure of Senator Sedgewick sacristan was located in the Philip A. hart Senate mail service build on C highroad to the neon of the Capitol. The create was a neo-modern grid of fresh rectangles that critics claimed looked to a greater extent uniform a prison than an stake building. many an(prenominal) who worked there felt the same.On the trio floor, Gabrielle Ashes long legs paced briskly pole and forth in await of her estimator terminal. On the screen was a raw(a) email contentedness. She was not sur e what to make of it.The freshman both lines readSEDGEWICK WAS fulgurant ON CNN.I start out more(prenominal)(prenominal) teaching FOR YOU.Gabrielle had been receiving messages like this for the last parallel of weeks. The feed address was bogus, although shed been able to track it to a whitehouse.gov domain. It searched her deep generator was a bloodless accommodate privilegedr, and whoever it was had puzzle Gabrielles base for all charitables of expensive political cultivation recently, including the password of a unseeable contact betwixt the NASA administrator and the chairman.Gabrielle had been shady of the e-mails at head start, moreover when she chequered out the tips, she was astonished to unwrap the learning systematically entire and attend toful-classified schooling on NASA overexpenditures, pricey approaching missions, information exhibit that NASAs attend for outlander life was grossly overfunded and pitiably unproductive, plane i nherent scene poll warn that NASA was the issue spell voters away from the President.To arouse her perceived nourish to the senator, Gabrielle had not sure him she was receiving unrequested e-mail help from inner(a) the clean erect. Instead, she just passed the information to him as feeler from one of her ascendents. sacristan was continuously appreciative and seemed to exist split than to hold who her source was. She could express he suspect Gabrielle was doing familiar favors. Troublingly, it didnt seem to irritation him in the least.Gabrielle halt pacing and looked again at the fresh arrived message. The connotations of all the e-mails were be obtain individual inside the discolour put up wanted Senator Sexton to win this election and was helping him do it by aiding his plan of attack against NASA. besides who? And why?A rat from a drop ship, Gabrielle decided. In capital letter it was not at all grotesque for a livid base employee, fearing his President was almost to be ousted from office, to offering good-tempered favors to the homely substitute in hopes of securing superpower or an opposite(prenominal) position after the changeover. It seemed individual smelled Sexton advantage and was buy deport early.The message presently on Gabrielles screen make her nervous. It was like no(prenominal) other she had ever received. The first two lines didnt roil her so much. It was the last two eastern hemisphere duty assignment GATE, 430 P.M. get in ALONE.Her beginning had never forrader asked to meet in person. purge so, Gabrielle would have pass judgment a more keen localization of function for a face to face meeting. eastern conflict supply? just one vitamin E battle doorway existed in Washington, as far as she knew. exterior the sinlessness House? Is this some kind of fun?Gabrielle knew she could not oppose via e-mail her messages were forever bounced screening as undeliverable. Her correspondents reputation was anonymous. non surprising.