Hoffman passed a sheet of paper down to him. "We've studied the material you brought with you. We've already made our final report to the President."

"Before Vasquez tells us anything?"

"I doubt she'll tell us what we'd like to hear. Call it instinct, but I think we're in deep trouble." Hoffman's eyes focused on an empty space over Lanier's shoulder. "We've verified some of the information from the library."

Lanier inspected their faces intently. They were all unhappy; even trying to hide their emotions, they revealed that much. "And?"

"There are divergencies."

"Thank God," he said. Hoffman raised a hand.

"Not broad divergencies. The consensus here is, given the information from the library and what we've discovered since—from the second ABE and elsewhere—war is a definite possibility. We've verified the historical references to Party Secretary Vasiliev. He has restructured the Defense Council just as the library said he would. The Russians are deploying SS-45's on their Kiev-class carriers and Kirov-class guided missile cruisers, and of course the Typhoon and Delta IV supersubs, to match our Sea Dragon program. They do indeed know how to foil our multi-spectra laser communication systems, which puts them in violation of the 1996 Arms Elimination Accords. . . not that that is in itself important, since no arms were ever eliminated.”

Lanier nodded.

"We had to get tough to pry the information about the multi-spectra systems out of the Joint Space Force," Cronberry said. "That's one reason why the DOD and Joint Chiefs have no rep here."

"That's not the worst," Hoffman continued. "Congress is beginning inquiries on our budget. We've been well within appropriations, so that doesn't make sense, unless we take into account a push to discredit the library, the Stone, all of us. The President is convinced—has been convinced by several members of his cabinet—that the Stone is either fraudulent or irrelevant."

Lanier's clenched his jaw tightly, making his cheeks ache. "Why?"

"I suspect the President is incapable of understanding what you've found on the Stone. He's a solid midwestern liberal, very weak on science and technology. An administrator, no imagination. He's never been comfortable with space matters, and this is simply beyond him."

Cronberry pulled a copy of a letter on White House stationery out of her briefcase and handed it to Lanier. It said, in effect, that the President was considering launching an investigation into the way research was being conducted on the Stone. "That was written after we began passing reports to the White House from the Second ABE imaging team, and after confirmation of the library evidence."

"We wanted to get the Vice-President up to the Stone by week's end, but he's declined the invitation," Hoffman said.

"What's the Russian position on the Stone?" Lanier asked.

"They secretly launched their own asteroid belt probe two years ago. That probe returned confirmation to them before or about the same time as ABE. They know that there is indeed a very large asteroid which precisely matches the Stone."

"Juno?"