Deception Point Page 83

Tolland turned to her. You okay? You could have stayed onshore. I told you that.I should have stayed onshore, Rachel thought, cunning pride would never have let her. No thanks, Im fine.Tolland smiled. Ill keep an pith on you.Thanks. Rachel was surprised how the warmth in his voice made her incur more secure.Youve imagen the Goya on television, right?She nodded. Its a um an interesting- attend toing ship.Tolland laughed. Yeah. She was an extremely progressive paradigm in her day, hardly the design never quite caught on.Cant imagine why, Rachel joked, visualize the ships bizarre profile. in a flash NBC is pressuring me to use a newer ship. Some liaison I dont know, flashier, sexier. Another normalize or two, and theyll make me part with her. Tolland sounded melancholy at the thought.You wouldnt love a brand-new ship?I dont know a lot of memories onboard the Goya.Rachel smiled softly. Well, as my mom used to say, sooner or later weve all got to let go of our past.Tollands eyes he ld hers for a long moment. Yeah, I know.98Shit, the literary hack driver said, looking everyplace his shoulder at Gabrielle. Looks akin an calamity up ahead. We aint going nowhere. Not for a while.Gabrielle glanced out the window and sawing machine the twistning lights of emergency vehicles piercing the night. Several policemen stood in the road ahead, lame traffic around the Mall.Must be a hell of an accident, the driver said, motioning toward some flames near the FDR Memorial.Gabrielle frowned at the flickering glow. Now, of all times. She needed to bother to Senator Sexton with this new information active PODS and the Canadian geologist. She wondered if NASAs lies about how they shew the meteorite would be a big enough saydal to breathe bearing back into Sextons campaign. Maybe not for most politicians, she thought, but this was Sedgewick Sexton, a world who had built his campaign on amplifying the failures of others.Gabrielle was not always proud of the senators co mpetency to put negative ethical spin on opponents political misfortunes, but it was effective. Sextons mastery of innuendo and indignity could probably turn this one compartmentalized NASA news report into a sweeping question of character that infected the entire lay agency-and by association, the President.Outside the window, the flames at the FDR Memorial seemed to climb higher. Some nigh trees had caught fire, and the fire trucks were now hosing them down. The taxi driver turned on the simple machine radio and began channel-surfing.Sighing, Gabrielle closed her eyes and felt the exhaustion roll all over her in waves. When shed first come to Washington, shed dreamed of working in authorities forever, maybe someday in the White House. At the moment, however, she felt like shed had enough politics for a lifetime-the duel with Marjorie Tench, the lewd p fervidographs of herself and the senator, all of NASAs liesA newscaster on the radio was saying something about a car assail and possible terrorism.Ive got to get out of this town, Gabrielle thought for the first time since approaching to the nations capital.99The ascendency seldom felt weary, but today had taken its toll. Nothing had gone as anticipated-the tragic discovery of the insertion tool in the ice, the difficulties of keeping the information a secret, and now the growing listen of victims.Nobody was supposed to die except the Canadian.It seemed ironic that the most technically difficult part of the plan had turned out to be the to the lowest degree problematic. The insertion, completed months ago, had come off without a hitch. Once the anomaly was in place, all that remained was to wait for the Polar Orbiting Density Scanner (PODS) satellite to launch. PODS was slated to scan enormous sections of the Arctic Circle, and sooner or later the anomaly package package onboard would detect the meteorite and give NASA a major find.But the damned software didnt work.When the dominance learned t hat the anomaly software had failed and had no chance of be fixed until after the election, the entire plan was in jeopardy. Without PODS, the meteorite would go undetected. The controller had to come up with some way to surreptitiously alert soulfulness in NASA to the meteorites existence. The solution involved orchestrating an emergency radio transmission from a Canadian geologist in the general vicinity of the insertion. The geologist, for obvious reasons, had to be killed straightway and his death made to look accidental. Throwing an innocent geologist from a helicopter had been the beginning. Now things were unraveling fast.Wailee Ming. Norah Mangor. Both dead.The bold kill that had just taken place at the FDR Memorial.Soon to be added to the list were Rachel Sexton, Michael Tolland, and Dr. Marlinson.There is no other way, the controller thought, fighting the growing remorse. Far too much is at stake. ampere-secondThe Coast Guard Dolphin was still two miles from the Goyas c oordinates and flying at three thousand feet when Tolland yelled up to the pilot.Do you have NightSight onboard this thing?The pilot nodded. Im a rescue unit.Tolland had expected as much. NightSight was Raytheons marine thermic imaging system, capable of locating wreck survivors in the dark. The heat minded(p) off by a swimmers head would appear as a red speck on an ocean of black.Switch it on, Tolland said.The pilot looked confused. wherefore? You missing someone?No. I want everyone to see something.We wont see a thing on thermal from this high up unless theres a burning oil slick.Just switch it on, Tolland said.The pilot gave Tolland an odd look and indeed adjusted some dials, commanding the thermal lens under the chopper to survey a three-mile swatch of ocean in front of them. An liquid crystal display screen on his dashboard lit up. The image came into focus.Holy grime The helicopter lurched momentarily as the pilot recoiled in surprise and then recovered, staring at the sc reen.Rachel and Corky leaned forward, looking at the image with twin surprise. The black background of the ocean was illuminated by an enormous swirling loop of pulsating red.Rachel turned to Tolland with trepidation. It looks like a cyclone.It is, Tolland said. A cyclone of warm currents. About a half mile across.The Coast Guard pilot chuckled in amazement. Thats a big one. We see these now and then, but I hadnt heard about this one yet.Just surfaced last week, Tolland said. Probably wont last more than another(prenominal) few days.What causes it? Rachel asked, understandably perplexed by the huge vortex of swirling wet in the mediate of the ocean.Magma dome, the pilot said.Rachel turned to Tolland, looking wary. A vent-hole?No, Tolland said. The East Coast typically doesnt have active volcanoes, but occasionally we get rogue pockets of magma that well up under the seafloor and cause hot spots. The hot spot causes a reverse temperature gradient-hot water on the piece of tail and cooler water on top. It results in these giant spiral currents. Theyre called megaplumes. They spin for a couple of weeks and then dissipate.The pilot looked at the pulsating spiral on his LCD screen. Looks like this ones still going strong. He paused, checking the coordinates of Tollands ship, and then looked over his shoulder in surprise. Mr. Tolland, it looks like youre parked fairly near the middle of it.Tolland nodded. Currents are a little slower near the eye. Eighteen knots. comparable anchoring in a fast-moving river. Our chains been getting a real workout this week.