"Mac" was McCauley Stokes, the sixtysomething cable talk show moderator popularly known for his folksy interviewing style, ever-present ten-gallon hat, and gold clasped string tie, as well as his string of twentysomething silicon-enhanced wives--all of which served as trademark reminders of his virile, high-in-the-saddle Texas cowboy heritage. The rough-rider routine, however, was as ersatz as his current bride's outrageous bustline. For while Stokes had been born in Texas, it was to parents who had been the third-generation beneficiaries of an oil family fortune, migrated to the exclusive blue blood community of Greenwich, Connecticut, when he was four years old, and raised and educated him in an atmosphere of pampered gentility, where the closest he'd ever gotten to a horse had been the viewing stands of the local polo grounds.

"Hey, I'm not just being polite, Annie, you really are something else. A woman to be admired in every way." He tipped his hat. "We're gonna cover a lot of ground with you tonight, a whole lot, I say ..."

My God, he's doing Foghorn Leghorn.

"... but before we get to Orion, let's play catch-up, hear how you been holding up on the home front. Last time you were a guest, you'd just returned from six weeks in space, remember? That was back in, what, late '99?"

"I believe so, Mac. It was after my third and final mission."

"And since then we know you've suffered the loss of your husband, Mark."

She inhaled, looking at Stokes in the monitor that, in this particular instance, had been provided to her by the studio technicians.

"Yes, that's true. Mark died just over a year ago."

"A woman like yourself--two children, high-octane career--it must be tough trying to lead an active social life. Have you dated anyone since Mark passed?"

Deep, deep breath.

"My professional and maternal responsibilities are very fulfilling, Mac. And about all I care to handle right now."

"But a lady with your beauty, smarts, and class, with all your verve, catch me, has gotta have scores of young bucks locking antlers--"

Bucks? I don't believe this.

"Mac, forgive me for interrupting, but I'm sure my personal affairs are of less interest to your viewers than the progress we at NASA are making with regard to the Orion investigation."

"Then I just better put my tongue in a tooth corral and let you do some talking. But first, how about the lowdown how NASA's gonna convince Roger Gordian to change his mind about bailing out of Brazil ... ?"

The place where Orion had been delivered into the world had become its morgue.