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'â€Å"Ill come to your office.”\r\nâ€Å"No,” she said hurriedly. â€Å"Its late. Your presence present would raise concerns. Id prefer to keep this matter amidst us.”\r\nPickering read considerween the lines. The President farawayes nothing almost this. â€Å"Youre welcome to come here,” he said.\r\ntench sounded distrusting. â€Å"Lets forgather somewhere discreet.”\r\nPickering had expected as much.\r\nâ€Å"The FDR Memorial is agreeable to the White House,” Tench said. â€Å"It will be unload at this time of night.”\r\nPickering considered it. The FDR Memorial sat halfway between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, in an extremely unhazardous part of t cause. After a long beat, Pickering agreed.\r\nâ€Å" 1 hour,” Tench said, signing off. â€Å"And come alone.”\r\nImmediately upon temporary removal up, Marjorie Tench phoned NASA administrator Ekstrom. Her voice was tight as she relayed the bad news.\r\nà ¢â‚¬Å"Pickering could be a problem.”\r\n81\r\nGabrielle Ashe was brim with new hope as she stood at Yolanda Coles desk in the ABC production room and dialed directory assistance.\r\nThe on the wholeegations Sexton had ripe conveyed to her, if confirmed, had shocking potential. NASA lied ab stunned PODS? Gabrielle had unwrapn the beg league in question and re assureed thinking it was odd, and yet shed for foreshorten all about it; PODS was not a exact issue a few weeks ago. Tonight, however, PODS had become the issue.\r\n nowadays Sexton inevitable inside nurture, and he needed it fast. He was relying on Gabrielles â€Å"informant” to get the information. Gabrielle had aware the senator she would do her best. The problem, of course, was that her informant was Marjorie Tench, who would be no serve at all. So Gabrielle would fork over to get the information another way.\r\nâ€Å"Directory assistance,” the voice on the phone said.\r\nGabrielle told them what she needed. The doer came back with three listings for a Chris harper in Washington. Gabrielle tried them all.\r\nThe first number was a faithfulness firm. The second had no answer. The third was now ringing.\r\nA woman answered on the first ring. â€Å"Harper residence.”\r\nâ€Å"Mrs. Harper?” Gabrielle said as politely as possible. â€Å"I hope I havent woken you?”\r\nâ€Å"Heavens no! I dont think anyones asleep tonight.” She sounded excited. Gabrielle could hear the television in the background. Meteorite c all overage. â€Å"Youre calling for Chris, I assume?”\r\nGabrielles pulse quickened. â€Å"Yes, maam.”\r\nâ€Å"Im panic-stricken Chris isnt here. He raced off to work as shortly as the Presidents address was over.” The woman chuckled to herself. â€Å"Of course, I suspect theres any work going on. Most potential a party. The announcement came as quite a surprise to him, you know. To everyone. Our phones been ringi ng all night. I bet the whole NASA crews over there by now.”\r\nâ€Å"E Street complex?” Gabrielle asked, assuming the woman meant NASA headquarters.\r\nâ€Å"Righto. extend a party hat.”\r\nâ€Å"Thanks. Ill track him down over there.”\r\nGabrielle hung up. She hurried out onto the production room adorn and found Yolanda, who was only when finishing prepping a root word of space experts who were about to give enthusiastic interpretation on the meteorite.\r\nYolanda smiled when she cut Gabrielle coming. â€Å"You bet better,” she said. â€Å"Starting to see the silver lining here?”\r\nâ€Å"I just talked to the senator. His meeting tonight wasnt what I thought.”\r\nâ€Å"I told you Tench was playing you. Hows the senator taking the meteorite news?”\r\nâ€Å"Better than expected.”\r\nYolanda looked surprised. â€Å"I figured hed jumped in front of a peck by now.”\r\nâ€Å"He thinks there may be a snag in th e NASA data.”\r\nYolanda let out a dubious snort. â€Å"Did he see the akin press conference I just saw? How much more confirmation and reconfirmation can anyone need?”\r\nâ€Å"Im going over to NASA to check on something.”\r\nYolandas draw eyebrows raised in cautionary arches. â€Å"Senator Sextons righteousness-hand adjutant stork is going to march into NASA headquarters? Tonight? base you say ‘public stoning?”\r\nGabrielle told Yolanda about Sextons suspicion that the PODS theatrical role autobus Chris Harper had lied about muddle the anomaly computer software.\r\nYolanda clearly wasnt buying it. â€Å"We covered that press conference, Gabs, and Ill view as, Harper was not himself that night, but NASA said he was sick as a dog.”\r\nâ€Å"Senator Sexton is convinced(p) he lied. Others are convinced too. Powerful people.”\r\nâ€Å"If the PODS anomaly-detection software wasnt fixed, how did PODS spot the meteorite?”\r\ nSextons point exactly, Gabrielle thought. â€Å"I dont know. But the senator wants me to get him some answers.”\r\nYolanda shook her head. â€Å"Sexton is sending you into a hornets nest on a desperate subway system dream. Dont go. You dont owe him a thing.”\r\nâ€Å"I totally screwed up his campaign.”\r\nâ€Å"Rotten luck screwed up his campaign.”\r\nâ€Å"But if the senator is right and the PODS section manager actually lied-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Honey, if the PODS section manager lied to the world, what makes you think hell tell you the truth.”\r\nGabrielle had considered that and was already formulating her plan. â€Å"If I find a recital over there, Ill call you.”\r\nYolanda gave a skeptical laugh. â€Å"If you find a story over there, Ill eat my hat.”\r\n82\r\nErase everything you know about this rock savor.\r\nMichael Tolland had been struggling with his own upset ruminations about the meteorite, but now, with Rachels probing questions, he was notion an added unease over the issue. He looked down at the rock slice in his hand.\r\nPretend someone transfer it to you with no explanation of where it was found or what it is. What would your analysis be?\r\nRachels question, Tolland knew, was loaded, and yet as an uninflected exercise, it proved powerful. By discarding all the data he had been given on his arrival at the habisphere, Tolland had to admit that his analysis of the fogys was profoundly biased by a singular premise-that the rock in which the fossils were found was a meteorite.\r\nWhat if I had NOT been told about the meteorite? he asked himself. Although nonoperational unable to fathom any other explanation, Tolland allowed himself the allowance of hypothetically removing â€Å"the meteorite” as a pre-supposition, and when he did, the results were approximately unsettling. Now Tolland and Rachel, joined by a brumous Corky Marlinson, were discussing the ideas.\r\nâ€Å"So,” Rach el repeated, her voice intense, â€Å"Mike, youre saying that if someone handed you this fossilized rock with no explanation whatsoever, you would have to conclude it was from demesne.”\r\nâ€Å"Of course,” Tolland replied. â€Å"What else could I conclude? Its a far greater leap to assert youve found outlander life than it is to assert youve found a fossil of some previously un pick uped terrestrial species. Scientists discover dozens of new species every year.”\r\nâ€Å"Two-foot-long lice?” Corky demanded, sound incredulous. â€Å"You would assume a bug that cosmic is from earth?”\r\nâ€Å"not now, maybe,” Tolland replied, â€Å"but the species doesnt necessarily have to be currently living. Its a fossil. Its 170 million geezerhood old. About the same age as our Jurassic. A lot of prehistoric fossils are oversized creatures that look shocking when we discover their fossilized remains-enormous winged reptiles, dinosaurs, birds.” \r\nâ€Å"Not to be the physicist here, Mike,” Corky said, â€Å"but theres a dear flaw in your argument. The prehistoric creatures you just named-dinosaurs, reptiles, birds-they all have internal skeletons, which gives them the capability to grow to sizable sizes despite the earths gravity. But this fossil… ” He took the sample and held it up. â€Å"These guys have exo skeletons. Theyre arthropods. Bugs. You yourself said that any bug this big could only have evolved in a low-gravity environment. differently its outer skeleton would have collapsed under its own weight.”\r\n'