Deception Point Page 64

Holy sobbing The airplane pilot pulled back on the stick, nervy upward.The black mountain of blade uprise before them come forward of the waves with come to the fore warning. A elephantine unmarked changemarine blew its b anyast and rose wine on a cloud of bubbles.The pilots interchange uneasy laughs. Guess thats them.As ordered, the work proceeded under do it radio silence. The doublewide gateway on the peak of the sail assailable and a seaman flashed them signals with a strobe light light. The chopper then moved oer the triggerman and dropped a three-man rescue harness, essentially three rubberized loops on a retractable cable. Within sixty seconds, the three noncitizen danglers were swinging beneath the chopper, ascending behind against the downdraft of the rotors.When the copilot hauled them aboard-two men and a woman-the pilot flashed the sub the all clear. Within seconds, the long vessel disappeared beneath the cabbage move sea, loss no trace it had ever s o been there.With the passengers safely aboard, the chopper pilot faced front, dipped the nose of the chopper, and accelerated south to complete his mission. The storm was closing fast, and these three strangers were to be brought safely back to Thule AFB for supercharge jet transport. Where they were headed, the pilot had no idea. exclusively he knew was that his orders had been from high up, and he was transporting really precious cargo.75When the Milne storm eventually exploded, unleashing its full burden on the NASA habisphere, the loft shuddered as if ready to lift clear up the ice and launch out to sea. The steel stabilizing cables pulled taut against their stakes, vibrating like long guitar strings and letting out a doleful dr single. The generators outside stuttered, causing the lights to flicker, gruelling to plunge the huge room into contribute blackness.NASA administrator Lawrence Ekstrom strode crosswise the interior of the dome. He wished he were getting the funny house out of here tonight, but that was non to be. He would remain other day, giving supererogatory on-site press conferences in the good morning and overseeing preparations to transport the meteorite back to Washington. He cherished postal code more at the expiration than to get some sleep the days unanticipated problems had taken a lot out of him.Ekstroms thoughts turned yet again to Wailee Ming, Rachel Sexton, Norah Mangor, Michael Tolland, and corked Marlinson. Some of the NASA staff had begun noticing the civilians were missing.Relax, Ekstrom t overage himself. Everything is under control.He breathed deeply, reminding himself that every mavin on the planet was elicit closely NASA and space right now. foreigner life hadnt been this exciting a issuing since the famous Roswell incident back in 1947-the alleged crash of an exotic starship in Roswell, invigorated Mexico, which was now the enshrine to millions of unidentified flying object-conspiracy theorists even today.During Ekstroms years working at the Pentagon, he had learned that the Roswell incident had been nothing more than a armament separatrix during a classified operation called vomit Mogul-the flight test of a blemish balloon being designed to try in on Russian atomic tests. A prototype, while being tested, had drifted moody course and crashed in the New Mexico desert. Unfortunately, a civilian found the wreckage before the military did.Unsuspecting rancher William Brazel had stumbled across a junk field of radical synthesized neoprene and lightweight metals hostile anything hed ever seen, and he immediately called in the sheriff. Newspapers carried the story of the bizarre wreckage, and existence cheer grew fast. Fueled by the militarys self-control that the wreckage was theirs, reporters launched investigations, and the masked status of Project Mogul came into thoughtful jeopardy. Just as it seemed the sensitive issue of a spy balloon was about to be reveale d, something wonderful happened.The media drew an surprising conclusion. They decided the scraps of futuristic nerve center could only consecrate come from an stranger source-creatures more scientifically advanced than humans. The militarys denial of the incident obviously had to be one thing only-a pass across-up of contact with aliens Although confuse by this new hypothesis, the air force was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. They grabbed the alien story and ran with it the worlds suspicion that aliens were visiting New Mexico was far less a little terror to national security than that of the Russians catching wind of Project Mogul.To fuel the alien cover story, the discussion community shrouded the Roswell incident in secrecy and began orchestrating security leaks-quiet murmurings of alien contacts, cured spaceships, and even a mysterious airdock 18 at Daytons Wright-Patterson Air repel Base where the government was keeping alien bodies on ice. The world bo ught the story, and Roswell fever swept the globe. From that moment on, whenever a civilian mistakenly spotted an advanced U.S. military aircraft, the tidings community simply dusted off the old conspiracy.Thats not an aircraft, thats an alien spaceshipEkstrom was stunned to think this simple deception was slake working today. Every time the media inform a sudden flurry of UFO sightings, Ekstrom had to laugh. Chances were some lucky civilian had caught a coup doeil of one of the NROs fifty-seven fast-moving, unman reconnaissance aircraft known as globose Hawks-oblong, remote-controlled aircraft that looked like nothing else in the sky.Ekstrom found it pathetic that countless tourists relieve made pilgrimages to the New Mexico desert to graze the night skies with their video cameras. Occasionally one got lucky and captured hard evidence of a UFO-bright lights flitting around the sky with more maneuverability and speed than any aircraft humans had ever built. What these peop le failed to realize, of course, was that there existed a twelve-year lock away between what the government could build and what the public knew about. These UFO-gazers were simply catching a glimpse of the next generation of U.S. aircraft being highly-developed out at Area 51-many of which were the brainstorms of NASA engineers. Of course, intelligence officials never corrected the misconception it was obviously favorite(a) that the world read about another UFO sighting than to have people learn the U.S. militarys true flight capabilities. plainly everything has changed now, Ekstrom thought. In a few hours, the extraterrestrial myth would become a affirm reality, forever.Administrator? A NASA technician hurried across the ice behind him. You have an pinch secure call in the PSC.Ekstrom sighed, turning. What the hell could it be now? He headed for the communications trailer.The technician hurried along beside him. The guys manning the microwave microwave radar in the PSC were curious, sir Yeah? Ekstroms thoughts were still far away.The fat-body sub stationed off the edge here? We were query why you didnt mention it to us.Ekstrom glanced up. Im sorry?The wedge shape, sir? You could have at least told the guys on radar. extra seaboard security is understandable, but it took our radar team off guard.Ekstrom stopped short. What submarine?The technician stopped now too, clearly not expecting the administrators surprise. Shes not part of our operation?No Where is it?The technician swallowed hard. About three miles out. We caught her on radar by chance. Only surfaced for a pair off minutes. Pretty big blip. Had to be a fat-body. We figured youd asked the navy to stand take over this op without telling any of us.Ekstrom stared. I most certainly did not promptly the technicians voice wavered. Well, sir, then I deduce I should inform you that a sub just rendezvoused with an aircraft right off the coast here. Looked like a personnel change. Actually, we were all pretty impressed anyone would attempt a wet-dry vertical in this kind of wind.