Marvin grabs the VP’s wrist. “They’re trying to tell you that something is down there, Ennis. Something more important than your war. Brian, the vice president’s a busy man. Why don’t you skip the gravity gradiometric readings and pull up the acoustic tomography images.”

Dodds changes the hologram. The blotches of color dissolve into a black-and-white image of the seafloor. A deep, well-defined tunnel-like aperture shows black on the fractured gray background of the bottom.

“Sir, acoustic tomography is a remote sensing technique which passes beams of acoustic radiation, in this case, ultrasonic pulse echoes, through the seafloor, allowing us to see objects buried below.”

Chaney watches in amazement as a massive, three-dimensional ovoid object begins to define itself beneath the larger hole. Dodds manipulates the image, pulling the shape out and away from the seafloor so that it hovers freely above their heads.

“What in the hell is that?” Chaney rasps.

Marvin grins. “Only the most magnificent discovery in the history of mankind.”

The ovoid-shaped mass hovers just above Chaney’s head. “What are you yapping about, Marvin? What the hell is this thing?”

“Ennis, sixty-five million years ago, an object seven to eight miles in diameter, weighing about a trillion tons and traveling at a speed of thirty-five miles per second smashed into a shallow tropical sea of what is now the Gulf of Mexico. What we’re looking at are the remains of the very object that struck our planet and killed off the dinosaurs.”

“Come on, Marvin, this thing’s huge. How could anything that large survive such an impact?”

“Most of it didn’t. The mass you’re looking at is only about a mile in diameter, about an eighth of its original size. Scientists have been debating for years whether the object that struck Earth was a comet or an asteroid. But what if it was neither?”

“Stop talking in riddles.”

Marvin stares at the rotating holographic image as if mesmerized. “What we’re looking at is a uniform structure, composed of iridium and God-knows-what other composite materials, resting over a mile beneath the seafloor. The outer casing is far too thick for our satellite sensors to penetrate—”

“Outer casing?” The raccoon eyes are bulging. “Are you saying this buried mass is a spaceship?”

“The remains of a spaceship, perhaps even a separate, internal pod, positioned within the vessel like a cork in a golf ball. Whatever it is, or was, it managed to survive while the rest of the craft disintegrated upon impact.”

Dodds holds up his palm. “Wait a moment, Dr. Teperman. Mr.Vice President, this is all just supposition.”

Chaney stares at Dodds. “Yes or no, Director Dodds—is this thing a spaceship?”

Dodds wipes the sweat from his brow. “At this point, we just don’t know—”

“This hole in the seafloor—does it lead into this vessel?”

“We don’t know.”

“God dammit, Dodds, what the hell do you people know?”