Deception Point Page 17

Rachel could just now st ar. I traveled three universal gravitational constant miles for this kind of hospitality? This guy was no Martha Stewart. With alone due respect, she pink-slipped back, I am also chthonian presidential orders. I dumb found not been told my purpose present(predicate)(predicate). I made this trip on nigh(a) faith.Fine, Ekstrom said. Then I will speak bluntly.Youve made a diddly-s make believe good start.Rachels tough response seemed to jolt the administrator. His stride slowed a act, his eye clearing as he studied her. Then, like a snake uncoiling, he heaved a long sigh and picked up the pace.Understand, Ekstrom began, that you are here on a classified NASA project against my better judgment. no. only are you a representative of the NRO, whose director enjoys dishonoring NASA personnel as loose-lipped children, and you are the daughter of the man who has made it his personal mission to everywherethrow my agency. This should be NASAs hour in t he sun my men and women have endured a lot of criticism lately and deserve this moment of glory. However, due to a torrent of skepticism spearheaded by your father, NASA finds itself in a semipolitical moorage where my hardworking personnel are forced to share the spotlight with a handful of random civilian scientists and the daughter of the man who is trying to get down us.I am not my father, Rachel wanted to shout, but this was hardly the moment to debate politics with the head of NASA. I did not come here for the spotlight, sir.Ekstrom glared. You may find you have no alternative.The comment took her by surprise. Although electric chair Herney had said zilch specific about her assisting him in any(prenominal) style of public way, William Pickering had certainly aired his suspicions that Rachel might become a political pawn. Id like to know what Im doing here, Rachel demanded.You and me both. I do not have that information.Im drear?The President asked me to brief you fully on our disc all overy the moment you arrived. any(prenominal) role he wants you to play in this circus is between you and him.He told me your Earth Observation System had made a discovery.Ekstrom glanced sidelong at her. How familiar are you with the EOS project?EOS is a constellation of five NASA satellites which see the earth in different ways-ocean mapping, geologic fault analyses, charged ice-melt observation, locating of fossil fuel reserves-Fine, Ekstrom said, sounding unimpressed. So youre aware of the newest addition to the EOS constellation? Its called PODS.Rachel nodded. The Polar Orbiting Density Scanner (PODS) was designed to help measure the cause of global warming. As I understand it, PODS measures the thickness and hardness of the polar ice cap?In effect, yes. It uses spectral band technology to squeeze composite stringency scans of large regions and find softness anomalies in the ice-slush spots, inwrought melting, large fissures-indicators of global warming .Rachel was familiar with composite density scanning. It was like a subterranean ultrasound. NRO satellites had used similar technology to search for subsurface density variants in Eastern Europe and locate mass burial sites, which corroborate for the President that ethnic cleansing was indeed going on.Two weeks ago, Ekstrom said, PODS passed over this ice shelf and spotted a density anomaly that looked nothing like anything wed expected to see. Two hundred feet beneath the surface, perfectly embed in a matrix of solid ice, PODS saw what looked like an unstructured globule about ten feet in diameter.A water pocket? Rachel asked.No. Not liquid. Strangely, this anomaly was harder than the ice surrounding it.Rachel paused. So its a boulder or something?Ekstrom nodded. Essentially.Rachel waited for the punch line. It never came. Im here because NASA found a freehand rock music in the ice?Not until PODS calculated the density of this rock did we get excited. We immediately flew a te am up here to probe it. As it turns out, the rock in the ice beneath us is significantly more than dense than any type of rock found here on Ellesmere Island. to a greater extent dense, in fact, than any type of rock found within a four-hundred-mile radius.Rachel gazed down at the ice beneath her feet, picturing the huge rock down there somewhere. Youre saying individual locomote it here?Ekstrom looked vaguely amused. The stone weighs more than eight tons. It is embedded under two hundred feet of solid ice, meaning it has been there untouched for over three hundred years.Rachel felt up tired as she followed the administrator into the backtalk of a long, narrow corridor, passing between two armed NASA workers who stood guard. Rachel glanced at Ekstrom. I assume theres a logical explanation for the stones presence here and for all this secrecy?There most certainly is, Ekstrom said, deadpan. The rock PODS found is a meteorite.Rachel stopped dead in the passageway and stared at the administrator. A meteorite? A surge of disappointment washed over her. A meteorite seemed absolutely anti-climactic after the Presidents big buildup. This discovery will single-handedly justify all of NASAs past expenditures and blunders? What was Herney thinking? Meteorites were admittedly one of the sublimest rocks on earth, but NASA observe meteorites all the time.This meteorite is one of the largest ever found, Ekstrom said, standing rigid before her. We bank it is a fragment of a larger meteorite documented to have hit the Arctic Ocean in the seventeen hundreds. Most likely, this rock was propel as ejecta from that ocean impact, landed on the Milne Glacier, and was slowly buried by snow over the past three hundred years.Rachel scowled. This discovery changed nothing. She felt a growing suspicion that she was witnessing an overblown publicity stunt by a desperate NASA and White House-two struggling entities attempting to elevate a propitious find to the level of earth-sh attering NASA victory.You dont look too impressed, Ekstrom said.I guess I was just expecting something else.Ekstroms eyeball narrowed. A meteorite of this size is a very rare find, Ms. Sexton. There are only a few larger in the world.I realize-But the size of the meteorite is not what excites us.Rachel glanced up.If you would permit me to finish, Ekstrom said, you will choose that this meteorite displays some rather astonishing characteristics never before seen in any meteorite. Large or small. He motioned down the passageway. Now, if you would follow me, Ill introduce you to someone more qualified than I am to discuss this find.Rachel was confused. Someone more qualified than the administrator of NASA?Ekstroms Nordic eyes locked in on hers. More qualified, Ms. Sexton, insofar as he is a civilian. I had assumed because you are a professional selective information analyst that you would prefer to get your data from an unbiased source.Touche. Rachel backed off.She followed the admin istrator down the narrow corridor, where they dead-ended at a heavy, black drapery. Beyond the drape, Rachel could hear the reverberant murmur of a ring of voices rumbling on the other side, echoing as if in a giant open space.Without a word, the administrator reached up and pulled aside the curtain. Rachel was blind by a dazzling brightness. Hesitant, she stepped forward, squinting into the glistening space. As her eyes adjusted, she gazed out at the massive room before her and drew an awful breath.