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“Who is this?”

Wolffe glowered at me and said, “It’s Pike Logan. Sorry, you’re on speaker.”

“So this is his idea?”

“No, it’s mine. Look, we can save that capsule but we need more time.”

“The president isn’t available right now. He’s in a prescheduled meeting with the president of Lebanon. They have a state dinner tonight.”

“Get him out of the meeting!”

“I can’t. Not without alerting everyone that something’s amiss.”

I said, “Then you make the call. Contact their mission control and countermand the order.”

“I don’t have that authority.”

What is it with these people afraid tomake a decision? No wonder they’re always wetting their pants when I’m on the ground.

I said, “Look, sir, this isn’t hard. Just countermand the order for time. Tell them to hold off until the last moment, then abort.”

He said, “How do I know you’ve actually got anything?”

“You don’t, but you do know something.”

“What?”

“You sit on your ass and the deaths of those four people are on your head.”

Chapter68

Gordon Dillard watched the debate inside mission control intently. As NASA liaison, he could give his opinion, but he wasn’t involved in the ultimate decision.

The lead engineer from Auriga said, “I can’t believe I just got a call from the president of the United States ordering us to abort. He can’t tell us what to do with our company.”

A female engineer said, “But he has a point. The farther the capsule gets from the orbital plane, the less are their chances of survival.”

“The chances are less than fiftypercent as it is. Waiting a bit isn’t going to make that much of a difference.”

Gordon felt his phone vibrate and stepped away.

“Hello?”

“Gordon Dillard, from NASA?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“It’s Alexander Palmer. I’m the national security advisor to the president. I know he just called to tell Auriga to abort. I need you to tell them not to.”

“What? Why?”

“Things have changed. We think we have a lead on the ransomware. We think we can turn it off.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, but it’s worth a wait.”

“Not really. They’re debating the issue right now. The problemis the farther they leave from the orbital plane, the less the chance of survival.”