Deception Point Page 53

THUD. THUD. THUD.THUD THUD THUDTHUD. THUD. THUD.Theres no time Tolland said.Its not about us, she thought. Its about the information in my pocket. Rachel pictured the incriminating GPR printout inside the velcro pocket of her Mark IX suit. I need to sterilise the GPR printout into the hands of the NRO and soon.Even in her unbalanced state, Rachel was certain her message would be received. In the mid-eighties, the NRO had replaced the SAA with an array thirty times as powerful. Total world(a) coverage Classic Wizard, the NROs $12 million ear to the ocean floor. In the next few hours the Cray supercomputers at the NRO/NSA listening post in Menwith Hill, England, would flag an anomalous sequence in one of the Arctics hydrophones, decipher the lb as an SOS, triangulate the coordinates, and dispatch a rescue plane from Thule Air Force bow in Greenland. The plane would find terzetto bo stops on an iceberg. Frozen. Dead. One would be an NRO employee and she would be carrying a quaint piece of thermal paper in her pocket.A GPR printout.Norah Mangors final legacy.When the rescuers studied the printout, the mysterious insertion cut into beneath the meteorite would be revealed. From there, Rachel had no idea what would happen, but at least the secret would not die with them here on the ice.60Every presidents transition into the White House involves a private play of three heavily guarded warehouses containing priceless collections of past White House furniture desks, silverware, bureaus, beds, and other items utilise by past presidents as far back as George Washington. During the tour, the transitioning president is invited to select any heirlooms he likes and use them as furnishings inside the White House during his term. Only the bed in the Lincoln chamber is a permanent White House fixture. Ironically, Lincoln n invariably slept in it.The desk at which Zach Herney was currently sit downcast inside the Oval Office had once belonged to his idol, Harry Truman . The desk, though small by modern standards, served as a daily reminder to Zach Herney that the buck did indeed stop here, and that Herney was ultimately responsible for any shortcomings of his administration. Herney recognised the responsibility as an honor and did his best to instill in his staff the motivations to do whatever it took to pick up the job done.Mr. President? his secretary called out, peering into the office. Your call just went through.Herney waved. Thank you.He reached for his phone. He would have best-loved just about privacy for this call, but he sure as hell was not going to get any of that right now. Two makeup specialists hovered like gnats, poking and primping at his face and hair. straightway in front of his desk, a television crew was setting up, and an endless swarm of advisers and PR state scurried around the office, excitedly discussing strategy.T minus one hourHerney pressed the illuminated button on his private phone. Lawrence? You there?Im here. The NASA decision makers utterance sounded consumed, distant.Everything okay up there?Storms still moving in, but my state tell me the satellite link will not be affected. Were expert to go. One hour and counting.Excellent. pot liquor high, I hope.Very high. My staffs excited. In fact, we just shared some beers.Herney laughed. Glad to hear it. Look, I treasured to call and thank you before we do this thing. Tonights going to be one hell of a night.The administrator paused, sounding uncharacteristically uncertain. That it will, sir. Weve been waiting a long time for this.Herney hesitated. You sound exhausted.I need some sunlight and a real bed.One more hour. Smile for the cameras, enjoy the moment, and then well get a plane up there to bring you back to D.C.Looking forward to it. The man fell silent again.As a skilled negotiator, Herney was trained to listen, to hear what was being said between the lines. Something in the administrators component part sounded off somehow. You sure everythings okay up there?Absolutely. All systems go. The administrator collectmed eager to change the submarineject. Did you checker the final cut of Michael Tollands documentary?Just watched it, Herney said. He did a fantastic job.Yes. You do a good call bringing him in.Still mad at me for involving civilians?Hell, yes. The administrator growled good-naturedly, his voice with the usual strength to it.It made Herney feel better. Ekstroms fine, Herney thought. Just a little tired. Okay, Ill see you in an hour via satellite. Well give em something to talk about.Right.Hey, Lawrence? Herneys voice grew low and solemn now. Youve done a hell of a thing up there. I wont ever forget it.Outside the habisphere, buffeted by wind, Delta-Three struggled to right and repack Norah Mangors toppled equipment sled. Once all the equipment was back onboard, he battened down the vinyl top and draped Mangors dead body across the top, tying her down. As he was preparing to go after the sled of f course, his two partners came skimming up the glacier toward him.Change of plans, Delta-One called out above the wind. The other three went over the edge.Delta-Three was not surprised. He also knew what it meant. The Delta Forces plan to stage an accident by arranging tetrad dead bodies on the ice shelf was no longer a viable option. Leaving a lone body would pose more questions than answers. Sweep? he asked.Delta-One nodded. Ill recover the flares and you two get resign of the sled.While Delta-One carefully retraced the scientists path, collecting every last clue that anyone had been there at all, Delta-Three and his partner locomote down the glacier with the laden equipment sled. After struggling over the berms, they finally reached the precipice at the end of the Milne Ice Shelf. They gave a push, and Norah Mangor and her sled slipped silently over the edge, plummeting into the Arctic Ocean.Clean sweep, Delta-Three thought.As they headed back to base, he was pleased to see t he wind obliterating the tracks made by their skis.61The nuclear submarine Charlotte had been stationed in the Arctic Ocean for quintet days now. Its presence here was highly classified.A Los Angeles-class sub, the Charlotte was designed to listen and not be heard. Its 42 tons of turbine engines were suspended on springs to dampen any vibration they might cause. Despite its requirement for stealth, the LA-class sub had one of the largest footprints of any reconnaissance sub in the water system. Stretching more than 360 feet from nose to stern, the hull, if placed on an NFL football field, would crush both goalposts and then some. Seven times the length of the U.S. Navys first Holland-class submarine, the Charlotte displaced 6,927 tons of water when fully submerged and could cruise at an astounding thirty-five knots.The vessels normal cruising depth was just at a lower place the thermocline, a natural temperature gradient that distorted sonar reflections from above and made the su b invisible to push through radar. With a crew of 148 and max dive depth of over fifteen hundred feet, the vessel be the state-of-the-art submersible and was the oceanic workhorse of the United States Navy. Its evaporative electrolysis oxygenation system, two nuclear reactors, and engineered provisions gave it the ability to comprehend the globe twenty-one times without surfacing. Human waste from the crew, as on most cruise ships, was cockeyed into sixty-pound blocks and ejected into the ocean-the huge bricks of feces jokingly referred to as whale turds.