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people.
Depends, the gunman managed. Where are we now?
Maklovitch saw what he meant. All of this region looked pretty much alike,
even more so in the dark, and nothing much was left down there that might
provide a landmark.
I ve got the position from Science Three, the pilot called back. Call it,
oh, a hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty kilometers south-southeast from the
Campos air-strip.
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The Peruvian nodded. Then there were some Indians down there. Now?
Can we get in closer? Gus asked the pilot. I d like to go straight over
that crater if I could.
I could try, but with these storms and downdrafts all over the place there s
no predicting anything. You can feel her shaking now, the pilot replied.
I ve been circling out some fifteen miles, and you feel what it s like. If I
did it, it would have to be at a fairly fast speed.
Well, the clouds and smoke are obscuring everything, the cameraman
complained. Either we get in there or we wrap, people. I m for giving it a
try.
Terry nodded, giving a quick satisfied glance at the ter-rified face of Juan
Campos strapped in the back.
Welcome to the news business, she thought acidly. One pass, as low and slow
as you dare, she told the pilot. That s it. Gus will have to make do with
what he can get.
Lori wasn t much more thrilled than Campos, as much as she wanted to see the
sight closer up. With the tremendous turbulence, she found herself thinking
less of the view than of headlines in the paper.local scientist and news crew
die covering asteroid.
Hang on, everybody! the pilot called, and circled first out, then back in
toward the glow, climbing and increasing speed. The vapor, rising now mostly
from the rainfall strik-ing the still extremely hot object, obscured clear
view, and the ride was the scariest any of them could remember. Then the
turbulence subsided, and the fear and tension drained from all of them like
water through a sieve, leaving them all more or less limp except Gus, who was
muttering that he hadn t really gotten a decent pass.
One s enough, I think, Terry told him. It s only going to get smokier for a
while down there. She paused for a moment as someone far away asked her a
question. Gus? Can you replay that last pass, the straight-down shot, through
a monitor here? They got it back at the studio, but they say there s something
weird about it.
Huh? Yeah, I guess, if you re finished shooting.
We are for now. We re heading back to the ranch to uplink the tapes as
backup. They want us, and particularly Doctor Sutton, to look at it and see if
she can explain it. You, too, Gus, since it might be a trick of the light or
some-thing with the camera.
Yeah, okay. Hold on. That s . . . lemmesee . . . three. Rewind. All right.
Wait. There. Okay, it may have to run a little, but I think it s in the
neighborhood. I ll switch it to the overhead monitor.
They all looked, and for a moment there was a jiggly freeze-frame of the
crater and smoke cloud. Then they saw the picture flip, angle dizzyingly from
one side to the other as the plane got into position, then zoom straight in.
The picture was bouncy but clear enough. They saw the smoke flash past and,
for a very brief moment, were looking straight down through billowing white
smoke and rain.
There!
Did you all see it? Terry asked them. It looks like something dark,
something black, straight down as we went over, with bright stuff all around
it.
Sorry, it was so fast, Lori responded apologetically.
The picture stopped, and Gus rewound the tape.
Hold it! Terry shouted. No, up a little more. Frame advance.
There!
Hold it!
The picture was still jumpy and distorted, but they could now all see just
what the control room back in the States had noticed. Through the smoke, the
red and yellow glow of the crater was visible, if not completely clear. Right
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in the center of the glowing mass was a black shape, distorted and indistinct
but still some sort of regular form.
I couldn t guess, Lori told them. I d need a much clearer photo than that
to really say much of anything about it. It could be a different mineral, much
harder than the sur-rounding rock, that has a higher melting point and maybe
is already cooled down, or a fissure in whatever s left of the meteor, or a
trick of the light.
I don t know meteors, but pictures
I know, Gus said firmly. That s no trick of the light. Something s down
there.
Maklovitch looked back at Campos. Any way in there? To land, I mean.
This plane? No, senor. Nothing, even if it would have survived that blast.
And there are no roads in this region of any sort. On foot days under the best
of conditions.
You have a helicopter at the ranch, the pilot called back. I saw it on the
field back there. What about that?
Campos shook his head. No, no, no. That is our private helicopter. Besides,
if you could not even safely fly this plane through that smoke and the storms,
flying a helicopter in there close would be suicide!
I flew choppers in hairier conditions than that in the Marine Corps, the
pilot replied. Thunderstorms, sand-storms, and under fire. It wouldn t be a
big deal, I don t think, particularly if we re allowing another hour or two
for things to calm down.
No, no, no! Juan Campos shouted. It is out of the question!
It may be, Terry said, but even as we speak, my boss is on the phone to
your father, and it looks like we might just have a deal. She paused. Of
course, you don t have to come if you don t want to.
Even Lori thought the idea bordered on madness. It s pretty dangerous, she
noted, and you ll get better pic-tures, as well as better conditions, after
daylight.
That s true, Terry agreed, but we don t know how long after daylight the
first choppers will be arriving from elsewhere, full of geologists and
astronomers and military people and bureaucrats
Not to mention NBC, ABC, CBS, CBC, the BBC, and maybe Fox, God help us,
Maklovitch put in.
In this busi-ness being first is everything. That s why folks watch us and
advertisers pay top dollar we can do things like this the others can t. Nobody
remembers the second newsman into Kuwait City.
Forrest Sawyer, ABC, Terry responded instantly. We were third!
Okay, nobody outside the business remembers. But we remember most that we
were third. It s the name of the game. Not that we re trying to commit
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