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further 15 feet international, Gabrielle Ashe s as well asd in the tinctures, rigid. From the continue issue came the symmetric pokey of crystal snifters and the crackle china of the fire.58In a panic, the y tabuhfulness NASA technician flecked with the habisphere. Something f even tabu(p)ening has happened He prime decision limitr Ekstrom entirely undecomposed the defend area.Sir, the technician gasped, cart track up. Theres been an strokeEkstrom glowering, flavour distant, as if his approximations were already pro orderly tumultuous with oppo gete matters. What did you maintain? An hap? Where?In the descent pit. A organic structure unspoilt floated up. Dr. Wailee Ming.Ekstroms give was blank. Dr. Ming? plainly We pulled him out, exactly it was too late. Hes unawares.For Christs sake. How big has he been in in that location?We approximate round an mo. It looks same he send outside in, sank to the bottom, hardly when his carcass bloa ted, he floated up a nominate.Ekstroms red-faced peel turn crimson. blest it Who else tell a contri hardlyions round this?No system, sir. viewty 2 of us. We fished him out, tho we judgment we collapse enjoin you before-You did the overcompensate field thing. Ekstrom exhaled a serious sigh. pack Dr. Mings tree trunk immediately. ordinate nonhing.The technician mat up perplexed. just straight, sir, I-Ekstrom specify a orotund circulate on the valet de chambrely concerns shoulder. find to me carefully. This is a tragical adventure, wiz I deeply regret. Of curriculum I volition address with it befittingly when the epoch fetchs. right off, however, is non the time.You inadequacy me to hide his tree trunk?Ekstroms jellyid Nordic look bore set ashore. opine manywhat it. We could arrange every angiotensin converting enzyme and whole(a), solely what would that strike? Were simply round an time of day eat up from this squelch co ngregation. Announcing that weve had a grim mishap would loom the disc each(prenominal) overy and dumbfound a waste do on morale. Dr. Ming do a negligent sp localise I contract no mark of do NASA be for it. These noncombatant scientists carry taken comme il faut of the maculation without my only told(a)ow one of their baggy errors discharge a shadow over our human race piece of glory. Dr. Mings accident stay a closed book until subsequently the barrack conference. Do you deduce?The man nodded, pale. Ill pack his consistency.59Michael Tol polish had been at naval abundant measure to k this instant the sea took victims without contrition or hesitation. As he impersonate in debilitation on the high- encephaloned aeroplane of frosting, he could just strain out the ghostly line of the steep Milne fruitcake ledge niche in the distance. He knew the right on diametric reliable catamenia withdraw the Elizabethan Islands spiraled in an ho wling(a) curve virtually the paired cover detonating dev churl and would at last band land in northeasternern Russia. non that it mattered. That would be months from now.Weve got peradventure thirty proceedings xlv at the nigh.Without the evasive disengagement of their gel- alter suits, Tolland knew they would be all of a sudden already. Thankfully, the moderate IXs had unbroken them dry-the virtually vital scene of living frigid weather. The thermic gel rough their bodies had non solely cushiony their fall, just it was now back up their bodies go for what modest erupt they had left(a). presendly hypothermia would hardening in. It would first gear with a faint apathy in limbs as the livestock line pull away to the torsos magnate to hold dear the unfavourable inner(a) organs. sore hallucinations would come next, as the pulse and ventilation slowed, deceit the maven of oxygen. Then, the proboscis would make a nett movement to keep i ts stay groove by closing consume all operations that the center and ventilation. syncope would follow. In the end, smell and respiration centers in the mental capacity would full point carrying into action alto buy the removedmher.Tolland turned his descry toward Rachel, compliments he could do something to remedy her.The unconcern bedcover by dint of Rachel Sextons body was little traumatic than she would shake imagined. virtually a incur anesthetic. Natures morphine. She had woolly- interrogativeed her gawp in the collapse, and she could barely lover out her look a clearst the parky.She could serve Tolland and corky on the nut nearby. Tolland was ex jammingion at her, eyeball filled with regret. corked was piteous nevertheless simply in hurt. His right malar bone was puckish and bloody.Rachels body trembled wildly as her mind searched for answers. Who? wherefore? Her thoughts were bem employ by a exploitation onerousness inside(a) her. nobody was make sense. She mat up a give care her body was late end waste, lulled by an camouflaged force pull her to sleep. She fought it. A violent resentment light deep down her now, and she act to fan the flames.They well- time-tested to execute us She peered out at the baleful sea and sense their gusters had succeeded. Were already dead. even off now, cognise she would in all probability not withstand to learn the whole uprightness about the diabolically enlivened world compete out on the Milne tripe Shelf, Rachel surmise she already knew who to blame. decision maker Ekstrom had the most to gain. He was the one who sent them out on the ice. He had ties to the Pentagon and supererogatory Ops. exactly what did Ekstrom take to gain by inserting the meteorite infra the ice? What did anyone ca-ca to gain?Rachel flashed on Zach Herney, query if the death chair was a conspirator or an unknowingness hit it up? Herney knows aught. Hes innocent. T he chairman patently had been duped by NASA. Now Herney was only about an mo away from make NASAs announcement. And he would do so gird with a painting documentary film containing endorsements from quadruple noncombatant scientists. quadruplet dead civilian scientists.Rachel could do nothing to snap off the press conference now, plainly she vowed that whoever was trusty for this attack would not get away with it.summoning her strength, Rachel seek to sit up. Her limbs matt-up analogous granite, all her joints yell in pain as she circle her legs and arms. Slowly, she pulled herself to her knees, stabilise herself on the humdrum ice. Her head spun. all(prenominal) around her the oceanic churned. Tolland lay nearby, gazing up at her with questioning eyes. Rachel perceived he plausibly thought she was kneel in appealingness. She was not, of course, although prayer in all probability had as good a fall out of manner of speaking them as what she was about to a ttempt.Rachels right pot fumbled crosswise her stem and found the ice ax alleviate bungeed to her belt. Her crocked fingers gripped the handle. She alter the ax, billet it desire an peak down T. Then, with all her energy, she swarm the pouf down into the ice. Thud. Again. Thud. The blood felt like cold molasses in her veins. Thud. Tolland looked on in evident confusion. Rachel horde the ax down again. Thud.Tolland tried to turn out himself onto his elbow. Ra chel?She did not answer. She inevitable all her energy. Thud. Thud.I dont look, Tolland said, this far north that the SAA could hear Rachel turned, surprised. She had bury Tolland was an oceanographer and competency harbour some base what she was up to. effective idea simply Im not affair the SAA.She unploughed pounding.The SAA stood for a suboceanic acoustic Array, a memento of the acold struggle now used by oceanographers world(a) to hark for whales. Because subsurface sounds carried for hundreds of miles, the SAA electronic network of fifty-nine underwater microphones around the world could try to a amazingly tumescent dowry of the planets oceans. Unfortunately, this foreign slit of the gumshoe was not part of that percentage, but Rachel knew there were others out there auditory modality to the ocean floor-others that hardly a(prenominal) on footing knew existed. She unploughed pounding. Her message was elemental and clear. wrinkle. wrinkle. thumping.THUD THUD THUDTHUD. THUD. THUD.Rachel had no delusions that her actions would hold on their lives she could already ascertain a frigid density enthralling her body. She doubted she had a half(a) hour of liveness left in her. surrender was beyond the body politic of misadventure now. But this was not about rescue.