Deception Point, Page 27

  Pickering knew she was right. Under Title 18, Section 3056 of the United States Code, agents of the U.S. Secret Service can carry firearms, use deadly force, and make "un-warranted" arrests simply on suspicion that a person has committed or is intending to commit a felony or any act of aggression against the president. The service possessed carte blanche. Regular detainees included unsavory loiterers outside the White House and school kids who sent threatening e-mail pranks.

  Pickering had no doubt the service could justify dragging Rachel Sexton and the others into the basement of the White House and keeping them there indefinitely. It would be a dangerous play, but Tench clearly realized the stakes were huge. The question was what would happen next if Pickering allowed Tench to take control. He had no intention of finding out.

  "I will do whatever is necessary," Tench declared, "to protect the President from false accusations. The mere implication of foul play will cast a heavy shadow on the White House and NASA. Rachel Sexton has abused the trust the President gave her, and I have no intention of seeing the President pay the price."

  "And if I request that Ms. Sexton be permitted to present her case to an official panel of inquiry?"

  "Then you would be disregarding a direct presidential order and giving her a platform from which to make a goddamn political mess! I will ask you one more time, director. Where are you flying them?"

  Pickering exhaled a long breath. Whether or not he told Marjorie Tench that the plane was coming into Bollings Air Force Base, he knew she had the means to find out. The question was whether or not she would do it. He sensed from the determination in her voice that she would not rest. Marjorie Tench was scared.

  "Marjorie," Pickering said, with unmistakable clarity of tone. "Someone is lying to me. Of this I am certain. Either it is Rachel Sexton and two civilian scientists-or it is you. I believe it is you."

  Tench exploded. "How dare-"

  "Your indignity has no resonance with me, so save it. You would be wise to know that I have absolute proof NASA and the White House broadcast untruths tonight."

  Tench fell suddenly silent.

  Pickering let her reel a moment. "I'm not looking for a political meltdown any more than you are. But there have been lies. Lies that cannot stand. If you want me to help you, you've got to start by being honest with me."

  Tench sounded tempted but wary. "If you're so certain there were lies, why haven't you stepped forward?"

  "I don't interfere in political matters."

  Tench muttered something that sounded a lot like "bullshit."

  "Are you trying to tell me, Marjorie, that the President's announcement tonight was entirely accurate?"

  There was a long silence on the line.

  Pickering knew he had her. "Listen, we both know this is a time bomb waiting to explode. But it's not too late. There are compromises we can make."

  Tench said nothing for several seconds. Finally she sighed. "We should meet."

  Touchdown, Pickering thought.

  "I have something to show you," Tench said. "And I believe it will shed some light on this matter."

  "I'll come to your office."

  "No," she said hurriedly. "It's late. Your presence here would raise concerns. I'd prefer to keep this matter between us."

  Pickering read between the lines. The President knows nothing about this. "You're welcome to come here," he said.

  Tench sounded distrusting. "Let's meet somewhere discreet."

  Pickering had expected as much.

  "The FDR Memorial is convenient to the White House," Tench said. "It will be empty at this time of night."

  Pickering considered it. The FDR Memorial sat midway between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, in an extremely safe part of town. After a long beat, Pickering agreed.

  "One hour," Tench said, signing off. "And come alone."

  Immediately upon hanging up, Marjorie Tench phoned NASA administrator Ekstrom. Her voice was tight as she relayed the bad news.

  "Pickering could be a problem."

  81

  Gabrielle Ashe was brimming with new hope as she stood at Yolanda Cole's desk in the ABC production room and dialed directory assistance.

  The allegations Sexton had just conveyed to her, if confirmed, had shocking potential. NASA lied about PODS? Gabrielle had seen the press conference in question and recalled thinking it was odd, and yet she'd forgotten all about it; PODS was not a critical issue a few weeks ago. Tonight, however, PODS had become the issue.

  Now Sexton needed inside information, and he needed it fast. He was relying on Gabrielle's "informant" to get the information. Gabrielle had assured the senator she would do her best. The problem, of course, was that her informant was Marjorie Tench, who would be no help at all. So Gabrielle would have to get the information another way.

  "Directory assistance," the voice on the phone said.

  Gabrielle told them what she needed. The operator came back with three listings for a Chris Harper in Washington. Gabrielle tried them all.

  The first number was a law firm. The second had no answer. The third was now ringing.

  A woman answered on the first ring. "Harper residence."

  "Mrs. Harper?" Gabrielle said as politely as possible. "I hope I haven't woken you?"

  "Heavens no! I don't think anyone's asleep tonight." She sounded excited. Gabrielle could hear the television in the background. Meteorite coverage. "You're calling for Chris, I assume?"

  Gabrielle's pulse quickened. "Yes, ma'am."

  "I'm afraid Chris isn't here. He raced off to work as soon as the President's address was over." The woman chuckled to herself. "Of course, I doubt there's any work going on. Most likely a party. The announcement came as quite a surprise to him, you know. To everyone. Our phone's been ringing all night. I bet the whole NASA crew's over there by now."

  "E Street complex?" Gabrielle asked, assuming the woman meant NASA headquarters.

  "Righto. Take a party hat."

  "Thanks. I'll track him down over there."

  Gabrielle hung up. She hurried out onto the production room floor and found Yolanda, who was just finishing prepping a group of space experts who were about to give enthusiastic commentary on the meteorite.

  Yolanda smiled when she saw Gabrielle coming. "You look better," she said. "Starting to see the silver lining here?"

  "I just talked to the senator. His meeting tonight wasn't what I thought."

  "I told you Tench was playing you. How's the senator taking the meteorite news?"

  "Better than expected."

  Yolanda looked surprised. "I figured he'd jumped in front of a bus by now."

  "He thinks there may be a snag in the NASA data."

  Yolanda let out a dubious snort. "Did he see the same press conference I just saw? How much more confirmation and reconfirmation can anyone need?"

  "I'm going over to NASA to check on something."

  Yolanda's penciled eyebrows raised in cautionary arches. "Senator Sexton's right-hand aide is going to march into NASA headquarters? Tonight? Can you say 'public stoning'?"

  Gabrielle told Yolanda about Sexton's suspicion that the PODS section manager Chris Harper had lied about fixing the anomaly software.

  Yolanda clearly wasn't buying it. "We covered that press conference, Gabs, and I'll admit, Harper was not himself that night, but NASA said he was sick as a dog."

  "Senator Sexton is convinced he lied. Others are convinced too. Powerful people."

  "If the PODS anomaly-detection software wasn't fixed, how did PODS spot the meteorite?"

  Sexton's point exactly, Gabrielle thought. "I don't know. But the senator wants me to get him some answers."

  Yolanda shook her head. "Sexton is sending you into a hornet's nest on a desperate pipe dream. Don't go. You don't owe him a thing."

  "I totally screwed up his campaign."

  "Rotten luck screwed up his campaign."

  "But if the senator is right and the PODS section manager actually lied-"


  "Honey, if the PODS section manager lied to the world, what makes you think he'll tell you the truth."

  Gabrielle had considered that and was already formulating her plan. "If I find a story over there, I'll call you."

  Yolanda gave a skeptical laugh. "If you find a story over there, I'll eat my hat."

  82

  Erase everything you know about this rock sample.

  Michael Tolland had been struggling with his own disquieting ruminations about the meteorite, but now, with Rachel's probing questions, he was feeling an added unease over the issue. He looked down at the rock slice in his hand.

  Pretend someone handed it to you with no explanation of where it was found or what it is. What would your analysis be?

  Rachel's question, Tolland knew, was loaded, and yet as an analytical 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 fossils was profoundly biased by a singular premise-that the rock in which the fossils were found was a meteorite.

  What if I had NOT been told about the meteorite? he asked himself. Although still unable to fathom any other explanation, Tolland allowed himself the leeway of hypothetically removing "the meteorite" as a pre-supposition, and when he did, the results were somewhat unsettling. Now Tolland and Rachel, joined by a groggy Corky Marlinson, were discussing the ideas.

  "So," Rachel repeated, her voice intense, "Mike, you're saying that if someone handed you this fossilized rock with no explanation whatsoever, you would have to conclude it was from earth."

  "Of course," Tolland replied. "What else could I conclude? It's a far greater leap to assert you've found extraterrestrial life than it is to assert you've found a fossil of some previously undiscovered terrestrial species. Scientists discover dozens of new species every year."

  "Two-foot-long lice?" Corky demanded, sounding incredulous. "You would assume a bug that big is from earth?"

  "Not now, maybe," Tolland replied, "but the species doesn't necessarily have to be currently living. It's a fossil. It's 170 million years 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."

  "Not to be the physicist here, Mike," Corky said, "but there's a serious 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 large sizes despite the earth's gravity. But this fossil… " He took the sample and held it up. "These guys have exo skeletons. They're arthropods. Bugs. You yourself said that any bug this big could only have evolved in a low-gravity environment. Otherwise its outer skeleton would have collapsed under its own weight."

  "Correct," Tolland said. "This species would have collapsed under its own weight if it walked around on earth."

  Corky's brow furrowed with annoyance. "Well, Mike, unless some caveman was running an antigravity louse farm, I don't see how you could possibly conclude a two-foot-long bug is earthly in origin."

  Tolland smiled inwardly to think Corky was missing such a simple point. "Actually, there is another possibility." He focused closely on his friend. "Corky, you're used to looking up. Look down. There's an abundant antigravity environment right here on earth. And it's been here since prehistoric times."

  Corky stared. "What the hell are you talking about?"

  Rachel also looked surprised.

  Tolland pointed out the window at the moonlit sea glistening beneath the plane. "The ocean."

  Rachel let out a low whistle. "Of course."

  "Water is a low-gravity environment," Tolland explained. "Everything weighs less underwater. The ocean supports enormous fragile structures that could never exist on land-jellyfish, giant squid, ribbon eels."

  Corky acquiesced, but only slightly. "Fine, but the prehistoric ocean never had giant bugs."

  "Sure, it did. And it still does, in fact. People eat them everyday. They're a delicacy in most countries."

  "Mike, who the hell eats giant sea bugs!"

  "Anyone who eats lobsters, crabs, and shrimp."

  Corky stared.

  "Crustaceans are essentially giant sea bugs," Tolland explained. "They're a suborder of the phylum Arthropoda-lice, crabs, spiders, insects, grasshoppers, scorpions, lobsters-they're all related. They're all species with jointed appendages and external skeletons."

  Corky suddenly looked ill.

  "From a classification standpoint, they look a lot like bugs," Tolland explained. "Horseshoe crabs resemble giant trilobites. And the claws of a lobster resemble those of a large scorpion."

  Corky turned green. "Okay, I've eaten my last lobster roll."

  Rachel looked fascinated. "So arthropods on land stay small because the gravity selects naturally for smallness. But in the water, their bodies are buoyed up, so they can grow very large."

  "Exactly," Tolland said. "An Alaskan king crab could be wrongly classified as a giant spider if we had limited fossil evidence."

  Rachel's excitement seemed to fade now to concern. "Mike, again barring the issue of the meteorite's apparent authenticity, tell me this: Do you think the fossils we saw at Milne could possibly have come from the ocean? Earth's ocean?"

  Tolland felt the directness of her gaze and sensed the true weight of her question. "Hypothetically, I would have to say yes. The ocean floor has sections that are 190 million years old. The same age as the fossils. And theoretically the oceans could have sustained life-forms that looked like this."

  "Oh please!" Corky scoffed. "I can't believe what I'm hearing here. Barring the issue of the meteorite's authenticity? The meteorite is irrefutable. Even if earth has ocean floor the same age as that meteorite, we sure as hell don't have ocean floor that has fusion crust, anomalous nickel content, and chondrules. You're grasping at straws."

  Tolland knew Corky was right, and yet imagining the fossils as sea creatures had robbed Tolland of some of his awe over them. They seemed somehow more familiar now.

  "Mike," Rachel said, "why didn't any of the NASA scientists consider that these fossils might be ocean creatures? Even from an ocean on another planet?"

  "Two reasons, really. Pelagic fossil samples-those from the ocean floor-tend to exhibit a plethora of intermingled species. Anything living in the millions of cubic feet of life above the ocean floor will eventually die and sink to the bottom. This means the ocean floor becomes a graveyard for species from every depth, pressure, and temperature environment. But the sample at Milne was clean-a single species. It looked more like something we might find in the desert. A brood of similar animals getting buried in a sandstorm, for example."

  Rachel nodded. "And the second reason you guessed land rather than sea?"

  Tolland shrugged. "Gut instinct. Scientists have always believed space, if it were populated, would be populated by insects. And from what we've observed of space, there's a lot more dirt and rock out there than water."

  Rachel fell silent.

  "Although…," Tolland added. Rachel had him thinking now. "I'll admit there are very deep parts of the ocean floor that oceanographers call dead zones. We don't really understand them, but they are areas in which the currents and food sources are such that almost nothing lives there. Just a few species of bottom-dwelling scavengers. So from that standpoint, I suppose a single-species fossil is not entirely out of the question."

  "Hello?" Corky grumbled. "Remember the fusion crust? The mid-level nickel content? The chondrules? Why are we even talking about this?"

  Tolland did not reply.

  "This issue of the nickel content," Rachel said to Corky. "Explain this to me again. The nickel content in earth rocks is either very high or very low, but in meteorites the nickel content is within a specific midrange window?"

  Corky bobbed his head. "Precisely."

  "And so the nickel content in this sample falls precisely within the expected range of valu
es."

  "Very close, yes."

  Rachel looked surprised. "Hold on. Close? What's that supposed to mean?"

  Corky looked exasperated. "As I explained earlier, all meteorite mineralogies are different. As scientists find new meteorites, we constantly need to update our calculations as to what we consider an acceptable nickel content for meteorites."

  Rachel looked stunned as she held up the sample. "So, this meteorite forced you to reevaluate what you consider acceptable nickel content in a meteorite? It fell outside the established midrange nickel window?"

  "Only slightly," Corky fired back.

  "Why didn't anyone mention this?"

  "It's a nonissue. Astrophysics is a dynamic science which is constantly being updated."

  "During an incredibly important analysis?"

  "Look," Corky said with a huff, "I can assure you the nickel content in that sample is a helluva lot closer to other meteorites than it is to any earth rock."

  Rachel turned to Tolland. "Did you know about this?"

  Tolland gave a reluctant nod. It hadn't seemed a major issue at the time. "I was told this meteorite exhibited slightly higher nickel content than seen in other meteorites, but the NASA specialists seemed unconcerned."

  "For good reason!" Corky interjected. "The mineralogical proof here is not that the nickel content is conclusively meteoritelike, but rather that it is conclusively non-earth-like."

  Rachel shook her head. "Sorry, but in my business that's the kind of faulty logic that gets people killed. Saying a rock is non-earth-like doesn't prove it's a meteorite. It simply proves that it's not like anything we've ever seen on earth."

  "What the hell's the difference!"

  "Nothing," Rachel said. "If you've seen every rock on earth."

  Corky fell silent a moment. "Okay," he finally said, "ignore the nickel content if it makes you nervous. We still have a flawless fusion crust and chondrules."

  "Sure," Rachel said, sounding unimpressed. "Two out of three ain't bad."

  83

  The structure housing the NASA central headquarters was a mammoth glass rectangle located at 300 E Street in Washington, D.C. The building was spidered with over two hundred miles of data cabling and thousands of tons of computer processors. It was home to 1,134 civil servants who oversee NASA's $15 billion