Ennis Chaney begrudgingly follows the NASA technician down the antiseptic, white-tiled corridor.

The vice president is not in a good mood. The United States is on the threshold of war, and his place is with the president and his Joint Chiefs of Staff, not racing to the beck and call of the director of NASA. Goddam one-eyed Jack, no doubt sending me on another one of his goddam wild-goose chases …

He is surprised to find a security guard posted by the conference-room door.

Spotting Chaney, the guard types in a security code and opens the door. “Go ahead in, sir, they’re waiting.”

NASA Director Brian Dodds is seated at the head of the conference table, flanked by Marvin Teperman and a woman in her late thirties wearing a white lab coat.

Chaney notices the dark circles under Dodds’s eyes.

“Mr.Vice President, come in. Thank you for coming on such short notice. This is Dr. Debra Aldrich, one of NASA’s top geophysicists, and I think you already know Dr. Teperman.”

“Hello, Marvin. Dodds, this better be important—”

“It is. Sit down, sir—please.” Dodds touches a switch on the keypad before him. The lights in the room dim as a holographic image of the Gulf of Mexico appears above the table.

“This image comes from NASA’s SEASAT oceanographic observation satellite. At your request, we began scanning the Gulf in an attempt to isolate the origins of the black tide.”

Chaney watches the image jump, refocusing on a stretch of sea framed by a superimposed dotted white circle.

“Using X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar, we were able to trace the black tide back to these coordinates, an area located about thirty-five miles northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula. Now watch.”

Dodds presses another switch. The holographic sea dissolves into bright blotches of greens and blues, at the center of which is a brilliant white circle of light, its outer borders fading to cooler shades of yellow, then red. “We’re looking down on a thermal image of the targeted area. As you can see, something very large is down there, and it’s radiating tremendous amounts of heat.”

“At first, we thought we had located an underwater volcano,” Dr. Aldrich adds, “but geological surveys completed by Mexico’s National Oil Company confirm there are no volcanoes present in the area. We ran a few more tests and found the site to be radiating high amounts of electromagnetic energy. This in itself isn’t particularly surprising. The site lies almost dead center of the Chicxulub impact crater, an area containing strong magnetic and gravitational fields—”

Chaney holds up his palm. “Excuse me for interrupting, Doctor. I’m sure this subject is fascinating to you people, but—”