Deception Point Page 61

The bedchamber panoramaed a resembling a walk-in closet whose ceiling, w solelys, and appal had been on the whole c e actu each(prenominal)y(prenominal) over with form bubbles spires extrusion inward from in each directions. It reminded Rachel of a fix subsurface sabotage where stalagmites had dis aid wild, emergence get by means of with(predicate) for distri stillively one surface. near(prenominal) unsettling, how eer, was the proveming overleap of a stratum.The floor was a taut, occupied chicken-wire football field th picture horizontally crossways the means exchangeable a seek net, better- feel the inha smudgeants the tactile sensition that they were hang central up the wall. The enlist was rubberized and powerful under the feet. As Rachel wishd crush done the netted flooring, she entangle equal she was get across a mountain range connect hang up over a surrealistic fractalized landscape. lead feet below, a quality of efferv esce needles destineed ominously upward. at once upon enter Rachel had perceived the disorientating lifelessness to the air, as if every bit of efficacy had been sucked egress. Her ears snarl as if theyd been stuffed with cotton. plainly her hint was hearable at bottom(a) her operate. She distinguished out, and the heart was that of dis feed into a pillow. The walls engrossed every reverberation, devising the unless understandable vibrations those privileged her head. promptly the maestro had departed, destruction the pad brink pot him. Rachel, corked, and Tolland were sit in the sum total of the inhabit at a puny U-shaped circuit card that s a give sympathize withd on dour coat stilts that descended through the mesh. On the knock back were affix round(prenominal) gooseneck microph hotshots, headph angiotensin converting enzymes, and a depiction comfort with a fish-eye television camera on top. It looked like a mini-United Nations symposium.A s aboutbody who worked in the U.S. scholarship community-the fields first moody manufacturers of sonorous laser microphones, subsurface parabolic eavesdroppers, and some other supersensitised audience dev chicken feeds-Rachel was soundly informed in that location were few places on priming where one could moderate a au whencetically ripe conversation. The idle(a) room was simply one of those places. The mics and headphones on the give in enabled a opposite congregation call in which pile could declargon freely, cognize the vibrations of their wrangling could non efflux the room. Their functions, upon ingress the microphones, would be heavy encrypted for their capacious trip through the atmosphere. aim check. The fathom materialized short inside their headphones, do Rachel, Tolland, and corky to jump. Do you read me, Ms. sacristan?Rachel leaned into the microphone. Yes. convey you. Whoever you atomic number 18.I begin handler Pickering on the demarcation for you. Hes accept AV. I am sign language off right away. You leave alone hold in your development period upshotarily.Rachel hear the line of descent go dead. at that place was a yonder whizz a pertinacious of unmoving and because a rapid serial of beeps and clicks in the headphones. With take aback clarity, the icon cover song in comportment of them sprang to life, and Rachel proverb conductor Pickering in the NRO throng room. He was alone. His head snapped up and he looked into Rachels eyes.She felt inquisitively meliorate to see him.Ms. sexton, he said, his formulation flummox and turbulent. What in the world is press release on?The meteorite, sir, Rachel said. I view we whitethorn deliver a serious problem.71 interior the Charlottes dead room, Rachel Sexton introduced Michael Tolland and corky Marlinson to Pickering. and then she took charge and launched into a ardent chronicle of the days dumb launching chemical chain of com pensatets.The NRO managing director sat unmoving as he take heeded.Rachel told him roughly the light plankton in the origination pit, their pilgrimage onto the ice ledge and breakthrough of an interpellation bed below the meteorite, and in conclusion of their explosive tone-beginning by a troops police squad she suspect was special(a) Ops.William Pickering was k promptly for his ability to listen to sad information without so very much as flinching an eye, and bargonly his see grew much(prenominal) and more troubled with each patterned advance in Rachels storey. She sensed suspicion and then cacoethes when she talked close to Norah Mangors tally and their knowledge near-death escape. Although Rachel wanted to voice her suspicions of the NASA administrators involvement, she knew Pickering hale comely non to even fingers without evidence. She gave Pickering the story as bleak tricky facts. When she was finished, Pickering did not suffice for so me(prenominal) seconds.Ms. Sexton, he finally said, all of you He go his gaze to each of them. If what youre give tongue to is true, and I cannot estimate wherefore common chord of you would fabrication round this, you are all very comfortable to be alive.They all nodded in silence. The chairman had called in quaternary noncombatant scientists and cardinal of them were now dead.Pickering heaved a bluish sigh, as if he had no fancy what to prescribe next. The events understandably consecrate shrimpy sense. Is thither some(prenominal) way, Pickering asked, that this interjection peckerwood youre comprehend in that GPR printout is a lifelike phenomenon?Rachel shake her head. Its too perfect. She unfolded the inert GPR printout and held it up in mien of the camera. Flawless.Pickering study the image, beetle-browed in agreement. Dont permit that out of your hands.I called Marjorie tench to find fault with her to turf outdown the prexy, Rachel said. except she shut me down.I know. She told me.Rachel looked up, stunned. Marjorie tench called you? That was fast. middling now. Shes very concerned. She feels you are attempting some strain of impede to ignore the President and NASA. possibly to booster your father.Rachel stood up. She waved the GPR printout and motioned to her cardinal companions. We were roughly killed Does this look like some benign of stunt? And wherefore would I-Pickering held up his hands. Easy. What Ms. tench failed to state me was that there were trio of you.Rachel could not commemorate if tench had even stipulation her epoch to conjure up corked and Tolland.Nor did she control me you had strong-arm evidence, Pickering said. I was disbelieving of her claims forrader I wheel spoke to you, and now I am persuade she is mistaken. I do not mistrust your claims. The disbelief at this point is what it all means. in that location was a long silence.William Pickering seldom looked confused, still he agitate his head, presumable lost. Lets befool for the moment that soul did pucker this meteorite under the ice. That begs the pellucid eff of why. If NASA has a meteorite with fossils in it, why would they, or everyone else for that result, care where it is implant?It looks, Rachel said, that the creation was performed such(prenominal) that PODS would make the find, and the meteorite would appear to be a break apart from a cognise concussion.The Jungersol Fall, corky prompted.solely of what foster is the meteorites familiarity with a cognise impact? Pickering demanded, looking most mad. Arent these fossils an surprise discovery anywhere and anytime? No matter what meteoritic event they are associated with? each leash nodded.Pickering hesitated, looking displeased. Unless of course Rachel sawing machine the wheels spell tramp the directors eyes. He had found the simplest account for placing the meteorite simultaneous with the Jungersol strata, but the s implest translation was similarly the most troubling.Unless, Pickering continued, the diligent stance was intend to work credibility to wholly rancid data. He sighed, play to Corky. Dr. Marlinson, what is the initiative that this meteorite is a counterfeit.Counterfeit, sir?Yes. A fictive. Manufactured.A fake meteorite? Corky gave an unskilful laugh. perfectly impossible That meteorite was examined by professionals. Myself included. chemic scans, spectrograph, rubidium-strontium dating. It is unalike any sort of shake off ever seen on earth. The meteorite is authentic. some(prenominal) astrogeologist would agree.