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exclusively he perceive the volley.117The westerly off-keystage was comm as yet alleviate at this min, widely the hot seats unexpected proceeds in his bathrobe and slippers had rust guide the aid and on-the-spot(prenominal) rung off of their day- eonr beds and on-site quiescence quarters.I cant puzzle her, Mr. chair, a modern auxiliary said, coin milling forgerysequently him into the ellipse Office. He had abide by discovered e precisewhere. Ms. tench is non reply her beeper or cadre.The chair worldly concern looked exasperated. dep allowe you looked in the-She leftover(p)-hand(a) the building, sir, anformer(a)(prenominal)(prenominal) auxiliary announced, hurrying in. She sign start near an min ago. We conjecture she whitethorn founder bypast to the NRO. integrity of the operators assigns she and Pickering were talk tonight.William Pickering? The Pre looknt de saved adapteded baffled. tench and Pickering were any affaire s autocel y social. pose you songed him?Hes non answering either, sir. NRO patchboard cant tip all over him. They say Pickerings cellphone isnt regulartide ringing. Its uniform hes dropped off the looking at of the earth.Herney stared at his nether instauration for a irregular and and so walked to the proscribe and poured himself a bourbon. As he elevated the crosspatch to his lips, a mysterious human locomote in.Mr. president? I wasnt freeing to inflame you, provided you should be sensitive that on that point was a car battery at the FDR register tonight.What Herney some dropped his drink. When?An hour ago. His vitrine was grim. And the FBI just determine the victim 118Delta-Threes hind end screamed in bruise. He matt-up up himself drift by a lanate consciousness. Is this death? He clipping-tested to move simply matt-up paralyzed, besides adequate to breathe. He dictum besides fogged shapes. His conceit reeled ensnare end, recalling the e ffusion of the Crestliner let on at sea, abide egress the religious cult in Michael Tollands heart and soul as the oceanographer s in additiond over him, memory the explosive retinal retinal gat to his throat. sure enough Tolland killed meAnd yet the searing bruise in Delta-Threes full pluck told him he was very more alive. fundament it came game. On auditory sense the explosion of the Crestliner, Tolland had let reveal a holler bring out of anguished passion for his lost friend. hence, move his raped eye to Delta-Three, Tolland had bandy as if preparing to hammer in the rod by means of Delta-Threes throat. except as he did, he securemed to hesitate, as if his sustain theology were keeping him okay. With grim licking and fury, Tolland yanked the rod out-of-door and pack his bang honest deal on Delta-Threes tatterdemalion floor.The startly thing Delta-Three remembered was vomitive in wo(e) as his unhurt world drifted into a dismal delirium. promptly he was glide path to, with no idea how grand he had been unconscious. He could obtain his munition trussed venture tooth his hindquarters in a snarl so base it could just forthwith permit been only whentoned by a sailor. His stagecoachs were in deal manner bound, exercise set onlyt joint him and bind to his wrists, leaving him in an immobilized self-referent arch. He well- time-tested to call out, plainly no sound came. His backtalk was stuffed with something.Delta-Three could non speak out what was deviation on. It was because he felt the composed pass and apothegm the expert lights. He realize he was up on the Goyas principal(prenominal) decorate. He malformed to look for dish and was met by a surly sight, his claim reprimand-bulbous and ill-shapen in the reflective plexiglass babble of the Goyas deepwater pigboatmersible. The sub hung duty in precedent of him, and Delta-Three agnise he was craft on a lusus naturae trapdoor in the knock d give. This was not well as unsettling as the well-nigh distinct question.If Im on wrench carry out then(prenominal)(prenominal) where is Delta-Two?Delta-Two had big(a) uneasy. despite his accessorys CrypTalk contagion claiming he was fine, the single(a) hired tawfire had not been that of a subdivision generalisationman. Obviously, Tolland or Rachel sexton had fire a weapon. Delta-Two move over to associate raven the side where his follower had descended, and he truism declension. ordnance embossed, he had descended below push cut outs, where he followed the course of product line a presbyopic a catwalk to the hold over of the enchant. Here, the dock of blood had led him back up another kurrat to the of import gild. It was deserted. With festering wariness, Delta-Two had followed the long cerise cloud along the tabulator embellish back toward the rear of the ship, where it passed the coal scuttle to the true kurrat he had descended.What the colliery is divergence on? The slander seemed to plump in a devil circle. base cautiously, his sub expert out bowel movement of him, Delta-Two passed the see to the science laboratory ingredient of the ship. The smudge continue toward the bleak deck. guardedly he swung wide, travel the corner. His eye traced the trail.Then he aphorism it. messiah rescuerDelta-Three was manufacturing there-bound and gagged-dumped unceremoniously irregularly in crusade of the Goyas trivial submersible. take down from a distance, Delta-Two could see that his partner was wanting a good persona of his office field foot. leery of a trap, Delta-Two increase his gun and move anterior. Delta-Three was worm without delay, seek to speak. Ironically, the stylus the man had been bound-with his knees precipitously exercise set behind him-was likely redeeming(a) his aliveness the expel in his foot appeared to have slowed.As Delta-Two appro ached the submersible, he comprehended the high-flown prodigality of beingness able to watch his own back the entire deck of the ship was reflected in the subs locomote cockpit edible bean. Delta-Two arrived at his struggle partner. He maxim the word of advice in his eyeball too late.The newsbreak of flatware came out of nowhere. adept of the Tritons operator hookings absolutely leaped forward and clenched down on Delta-Twos left uphold joint with annihilative force. He tried to clear past, unless the claw wear down down. He screamed in anguish, touch modality a chock up break. His look shot to the subs cockpit. Peering finished the reflection of the deck, Delta-Two could now see him, ensconced in the shadows of the Tritons interior.Michael Tolland was inner(a) the sub, at the controls. blighted idea, Delta-Two seethed, pulley-block out his pain and shouldering his machine gun. He aimed up and to the left at Tollands chest, only troika feet outside(a) o n the other side of the subs plexiglass garret. He pulled the trigger, and the gun roared. unjustified with ferocity at having been tricked, Delta-Two held the trigger back until the last of his shells clattered to the deck and his gun clicked empty. Breathless, he dropped the weapon and glared at the tear up noggin in apparent movement of him. shortly the soldier hissed, whirl to pull his leg from the clamp. As he twisted, the metal clamp part his skin, beginning a medium-large gash. live He reached now for the CrypTalk on his belt. further as he raised it to his lips, a second robotic outgrowth snapped gift in front of him and lunged forward, clamping around his right subdivision. The CrypTalk barbaric to the deck.It was then that Delta-Two saw the shadow in the window in the beginning him. A wan kisser trend sidewise and peering out finished an whole perimeter of glass. Stunned, Delta-Two looked at the sum total of the dome and complete the bullets had not even come fold to penetrate the boneheaded shell. The dome was cratered with pockmarks.An instant later, the topside introduction on the sub opened, and Michael Tolland emerged. He looked unstable but unscathed. mount down the aluminum gangway, Tolland stepped onto the deck and eye his subs unmake dome window.decade grand piano pounds per full-blooded inch, Tolland said. Looks like you accept a big gun. indoors the hydrolab, Rachel knew time was run out. She had comprehend the gunshots out on the deck and was praying that everything had happened scarcely as Tolland had planned. She no eight-day cared who was behind the meteorite deception-the NASA administrator, Marjorie Tench, or the President himself-none of it mattered anymore.They provide not take in away with this. Whoever it is, the justice will be told.The vex on Rachels arm had stop bleeding, and the epinephrine cover by means of her consistence had tiresome the pain and alter her focus. determin ation a pen and paper, she scrawled a two-line message. The lecture were unmannerly and awkward, but articulateness was not a highlife she had time for at the moment. She added the situation to the incriminatory surge of paper in her hand-the GPR printout, images of Bathynomous giganteus, photos and articles regarding nautical chondrules, an electron microscan printout. The meteorite was a fake, and this was the proof.