'A high degree of correlation would suggest that passengers remained seated through most of the crash sequence. A poor correlation would mean either they were not in their assigned seats, or they became separated from their seats fairly early in the sequence.'

I felt a chil thinking of the terror-filed final moments of those passengers.

I felt a chil thinking of the terror-filed final moments of those passengers.

'The docs wil also give us data on anterior-versus-posterior injuries, which we'l correlate to fore-versus-aft seat deformation.'

'Why?' Ryan.

'It's assumed that the forward motion of the plane combined with the protective effect of the seat at the occupant's back result in predominantly anterior injuries.'

'Unless the passenger is separated from the seat.'

'Exactly. Also, in crashes with forward velocity, forward-facing seats are deformed in the forward direction. In midair breakups, that pattern may not occur, since portions of the plane may have tumbled prior to impact.'

'And?'

'Of the seats recovered so far, over seventy percent show detectable deformation in the fore-aft plane. Of those, less than forty percent were deformed in the forward direction.'

'Meaning in-flight destruction.'

'No doubt about it. Susan's group is stil studying the mode of breakup. They'l try to reconstruct the exact sequence of failure, but it's pretty clear there was a sudden, catastrophic midair event. That means that parts of the fuselage tumbled prior to ground impact. I'm a little surprised there isn't more variation among the various sections, but these things never folow the book. What is clear is that the seats in each section show nearly identical impact loading.'

He worked the keys, and the original diagram filed the screen.

'And there's little doubt where the blast occurred.' He pointed to the splotch of fiery red at the left rear of the cabin.

'An explosion doesn't necessarily mean a bomb.'

We swiveled to see Magnus Jackson standing at the cubicle entrance. He looked at me a long time but said nothing. The screen glowed rainbow bright behind us.

'The rocket scenario has been given some new credibility,' Jackson said.

We al waited.

'There are now three witnesses claiming to have seen an object shoot into the sky.'

Ryan crooked an arm over the back of his chair. 'I've talked to the Right Reverends Mr. Claiborne and Mr. Bowman, and I'd estimate a combined IQ in the wooly worm range.'

I wondered how Ryan knew about wooly worms but didn't ask.

'Al three witnesses give times and descriptions that are virtualy identical.'

'Like their genetic codes,' Ryan quipped.

'Wil these witnesses take lie detector tests?' I asked.

'They probably think a microwave wil fry their genitals,' Ryan said.

Jackson almost smiled, but Ryan's jokes were beginning to annoy me.