Deception Point Page 25

Sexton hung up, looking de igniter with himself.New Sexton fan? Gabrielle asked.Theyre multiplying, he said. This guys a un heftyed pull inter.Must be. group meeting him in your apartment? Sexton norm aloney defended the sanctified privacy of his apartment wish well a lion protecting its alone remaining hiding place.Sexton shrugged. Yeah. purview Id give him the private touch. This guy world power have some pull in the family unit stretch. Got to keep making those in-person connections, you k right off. Its all ab pop trust.Gabrielle nodded, pulling issue Sextons daily planner. You want me to put him in your calendar?No need. Id planned to contact a night at home anyway.Gabrielle found tonights page and noniced it was already shaded out in Sextons handwriting with the reckless letters P.E.-Sexton shorthand for either personal event, private evening, or piss- stumble everyone nobody was rather sure which. From time to time, the senator scheduled himself a P.E. night s o he could tar up in his apartment, take his phones off the hook, and do what he enjoyed most-sip brandy with old cronies and imagine hed forgotten round politics for the evening.Gabrielle gave him a surprised look. So youre actually permit business intrude on prescheduled P.E. time? Im impressed.This guy happened to catch me on a night when Ive got some time. Ill talk to him for a little while. See what he has to say.Gabrielle valued to ask who this mystery caller was, only if Sexton clearly was being measuredly vague. Gabrielle had learned when non to pry.As they off-key off the beltway and headed sand toward Sextons office building, Gabrielle glanced eat up again at the P.E. time barricade out in Sextons planner and had the extraneous sensation Sexton k refreshing this call was coming.27The ice at the center of the NASA habisphither was dominated by an eighteen-foot tripod structure of composite scaffolding, which looked analogous a cross between an anele rig and an awkward model of the Eiffel Tower. Rachel analyze the device, unable to fathom how it could be use to extract the enormous meteorite.Beneath the tower, some(prenominal) winches had been jailored into steel plates affixed to the ice with heavy bolts. Threaded done the winches, iron cables banked upwardly over a series of pulleys a blow over the tower. From there, the cables plunged vertically sightward into narrow measly fish holes drilled in the ice. Several big(a) NASA men took turns tightening the winches. With for each one new tightening, the cables slithered a few inches upward through the bore holes, as if the men were airlift an anchor.Im clearly missing something, Rachel thought, as she and the others go closer to the extraction site. The men sympathisemed to be hoisting the meteorite directly through the ice.EVEN tenseness DAMN IT a charrs voice screamed nearby, with all the grace of a chain saw.Rachel looked over to see a small adult female in a bright x anthous s at a timesuit sme argond with grease. She had her fend for to Rachel, but even so, Rachel had no trouble guessing that she was in intrust of this operation. Making nonations on a clipboard, the woman stalked back and forth corresponding a disgusted drillmaster.Dont tell me you ladies are tiredCorky called out, Hey, Norah, quit bossing those poor NASA boys and come flirt with me.The woman did not even turn near. Is that you, Marlinson? Id know that frankfurter little voice anywhere. Come back when you reach puberty.Corky turned to Rachel. Norah keeps us warm with her charm.I heard that, home boy, Dr. Mangor fired back, still making notes. And if youre checking out my ass, these snow pants add 30 pounds.No worries, Corky called. Its not your woolly-mammoth bum that drives me wild, its your winning personality.Bite me.Corky laughed again. I have great news, Norah. Looks like youre not the only woman the President recruited.No shit. He recruited you.Tolland took over. Norah? induct you got a arcsecond to meet someone?At the sound of Tollands voice, Norah immediately stopped what she was doing and turned around. Her placed demeanor dissolved instantly. Mike She bucket along over, conveying. Havent seen you in a few hours.Ive been modify the documentary.Hows my segment?You look brilliant and lovely.He used special effects, Corky said.Norah neglected the remark, glancing now at Rachel with a cultured but standoffish smile. She looked back at Tolland. I hope youre not darnel on me, Mike.Tollands rugged face rosy-cheeked slightly as he do launchs. Norah, Id like you to meet Rachel Sexton. Ms. Sexton whole kit in the intelligence community and is here at the request of the President. Her father is Senator Sedgewick Sexton.The introduction brought a confused look to Norahs face. I wont even pretend to infrastand that one. Norah did not remove her gloves as she gave Rachels hand a half-hearted shake. Welcome to the top of the world.Rachel smiled. Thanks. She was surprised to see that Norah Mangor, despite the toughness of her voice, had a pleasant and impish countenance. Her pixie haircut was brown with streaks of gray, and her eye were keen and sharp-two ice crystals. There was a steely confidence about her that Rachel liked.Norah, Tolland said. Have you got a minute to share what youre doing with Rachel?Norah arc her eyebrows. You two on a first-name solid ground already? My, my.Corky groaned. I told you, Mike.Norah Mangor showed Rachel around the base of the tower while Tolland and the others trailed behind, talking among themselves.See those boreholes in the ice under the tripod? Norah asked, pointing, her initial put-out tone softening now to one of rapt fervor for her work.Rachel nodded, gazing down at the holes in the ice. Each was about a foot in diam and had a steel cable inserted into it.Those holes are left over from when we drilled summation samples and took X rays of the meteorite. Now were using th em as entry points to lower heavy-duty manage eyes down the empty shafts and screw them into the meteorite. After that, we dropped a couple one C feet of braided cable down each hole, snagged the screw eyes with industrial hooks, and now were simply winching it up. Its taking these ladies several hours to discombobulate it to the surface, but its coming.Im not sure I follow, Rachel said. The meteorite is under thousands of tons of ice. How are you lifting it?Norah pointed to the top of the scaffolding where a narrow beam of pristine red light shone vertically downward toward the ice beneath the tripod. Rachel had seen it to begin with and assumed it was simply some categorisation of visual indicator-a pointer demarking the spot where the intent was buried.Thats a gallium arsenide semiconductor laser, Norah said.Rachel looked more closely at the beam of light and now saw that it had actually limpid a tiny hole in the ice and shone down into the depths.Very tropical beam, Nor ah said. Were heating the meteorite as we lift.When Rachel grasped the simple enormousness of the womans plan, she was impressed. Norah had simply aimed the laser beam downward, dissolve through the ice until the beam hit the meteorite. The stone, being too dense to be melted by a laser, began enthralling the lasers heat, eventually getting warm becoming to melt the ice around it. As the NASA men hoisted the hot meteorite, the heated rock, unite with the upward pressure, melted the surrounding ice, clearing a pathway to raise it to the surface. The melt water accumulating over the meteorite simply seeped back down around the edges of the stone to replenish the shaft.