oil rig and an awkward model of the Eiffel Tower. Rachel studied the device, unable to fathom how it could be used to extract the enormous meteorite.
Beneath the tower, several winches had been screwed into steel plates affixed to the ice with heavy bolts. Threaded through the winches, iron cables banked upward over a series of pulleys atop the tower. From there, the cables plunged vertically downward into narrow bore holes drilled in the ice. Several large NASA men took turns tightening the winches. With each new tightening, the cables slithered a few inches upward through the bore holes, as if the men were raising an anchor.
I'm clearly missing something, Rachel thought, as she and the others moved closer to the extraction site. The men seemed to be hoisting the meteorite directly through the ice.
"EVEN TENSION! DAMN IT!" a woman's voice screamed nearby, with all the grace of a chain saw.
Rachel looked over to see a small woman in a bright yellow snowsuit smeared with grease. She had her back to Rachel, but even so, Rachel had no trouble guessing that she was in charge of this operation. Making notations on a clipboard, the woman stalked back and forth like a disgusted drillmaster.
"Don't tell me you ladies are tired!"
Corky called out, "Hey, Norah, quit bossing those poor NASA boys and come flirt with me."
The woman did not even turn around. "Is that you, Marlinson? I'd know that weenie little voice anywhere. Come back when you reach puberty."
Corky turned to Rachel. "Norah keeps us warm with her charm."
"I heard that, space boy," Dr. Mangor fired back, still making notes. "And if you're checking out my ass, these snow pants add thirty pounds."
"No worries," Corky called. "It's not your woolly-mammoth butt that drives me wild, it's your winning personality."
"Bite me."
Corky laughed again. "I have great news, Norah. Looks like you're not the only woman the President recruited."
"No shit. He recruited you."
Tolland took over. "Norah? Have you got a minute to meet someone?"
At the sound of Tolland's voice, Norah immediately stopped what she was doing and turned around. Her hardened demeanor dissolved instantly. "Mike!" She rushed over, beaming. "Haven't seen you in a few hours."
"I've been editing the documentary."
"How's my segment?"
"You look brilliant and lovely."
"He used special effects," Corky said.
Norah ignored the remark, glancing now at Rachel with a polite but standoffish smile. She looked back at Tolland. "I hope you're not cheating on me, Mike."
Tolland's rugged face flushed slightly as he made introductions. "Norah, I'd like you to meet Rachel Sexton. Ms. Sexton works in the intelligence community and is here at the request of the President. Her father is Senator Sedgewick Sexton."
The introduction brought a confused look to Norah's face. "I won't even pretend to understand that one." Norah did not remove her gloves as she gave Rachel's hand a half-hearted shake. "Welcome to the top of the world."
Rachel smiled. "Thanks." She was surprised to see that Norah Mangor, despite the toughness of her voice, had a pleasant and impish countenance. Her pixie haircut was brown with streaks of gray, and her eyes were keen and sharp-two ice crystals. There was a steely confidence about her that Rachel liked.
"Norah," Tolland said. "Have you got a minute to share what you're doing with Rachel?"
Norah arched her eyebrows. "You two on a first-name basis already? My, my."
Corky groaned. "I told you, Mike."
Norah Mangor showed Rachel around the base of the tower while Tolland and the others trailed behind, talking among themselves.
"See those boreholes in the ice under the tripod?" Norah asked, pointing, her initial put-out tone softening now to one of rapt fervor for her work.
Rachel nodded, gazing down at the holes in the ice. Each was about a foot in diameter and had a steel cable inserted into it.
"Those holes are left over from when we drilled core samples and took X rays of the meteorite. Now we're using them as entry points to lower heavy-duty screw eyes down the empty shafts and screw them into the meteorite. After that, we dropped a couple hundred feet of braided cable down each hole, snagged the screw eyes with industrial hooks, and now we're simply winching it up. It's taking these ladies several hours to get it to the surface, but it's coming."
"I'm not sure I follow," Rachel said. "The meteorite is under thousands of tons of ice. How are you lifting it?"
Norah pointed to the top of the scaffolding where a narrow beam of pristine red light shone vertically downward toward the ice