“Of what?” General Pickler had watched the entire interview from a camera mounted behind a mirror in the corner of the slightly deceitful office they had met in. For unbeknownst to Neal and Madeline, they had not met in the admiral’s office at all, but in one of many interview spaces in the building, this one designed to put people at ease by being set up as the office of the interviewer.

After Neal and Madeline had left, the admiral had picked up his brass desk nameplate and the two photos of his family and walked back to his own, notably less wired office. As he had done so, the ‘secretary’ stationed outside had disabled the cameras and microphones in the room and removed the admiral’s name from the door.

“I don’t know what has them scared, probably just seeing a boyfriend and a respected colleague die while in a very foreign country. Either way, we weren’t going to get anything more out of them today, so I figured it best to send them home.”

The general was silent for a while he pondered this, then he said, “And recommending this Danielson to the advisor’s job? Are we sure that is wise?”

“Dr. West brought something unique to that team, a combination of extreme intelligence, rare creativity, and the balls to combine the two. She will be near impossible to replace, but if we can find it, we need someone who doesn’t store his head up the scientific community’s ass to make sure the president stays informed. Something tells me Neal is ready to be that guy.”

“He’s certainly got the smarts, I can’t deny that.” The general had been part of the review team for the probe and had seen the amount that Neal had brought to that effort, as well as being the only person who had correctly predicted the meteors’ landing spots.

The general continued, “And I concur that he seems much more mature than when he was bumbling his way through my operations meetings. And anyway, I’ve got no one I’d rather have in there right now, so I’ll guess support your nomination … for now.”

“Thanks, Michael, I owe you one. You’ll let me know if I can get you anything else on this.” said the admiral, wrapping up the conversation.

“I know I’ll let you know when you can repay me for supporting your boy.” said the general smarmily, “Bar that, I think this whole project is better forgotten for a year or two. You don’t think Neal and Madeline will push for another expedition to retrieve one of the meteors?”

“Something tells me neither of them plans on raising that topic again for a while. And I’ll certainly dissuade them with some vigor if they try.”