"We think so. Our measurements aren't so precise we can be sure at the moment."

Post removed an electronic notepad from his pocket. "That's probably deceleration because of drag."

"And the second object ... ?" Arthur prodded.

Somebody knocked at the door. "That's Sand, probably," Samshow said. Post got up to open the door.

Sand came in clutching a thick bunch of computer printouts. "Naval Ocean Systems just came through. I pulled these off the conference printer after setting up a data link." He spread the sheets out on the table. "There's half a dozen folks downstairs who can't wait to look these over, but since Mr. Gordon made the arrangements, I thought he should be the first. I've also got more on the oxygen figures, and Coomaraswami in Sri Lanka has distributed a paper on ..." He pulled a stack of copies from his briefcase and handed them around the room. "On reduction of mean sea levels."

"Jesus," Samshow said. He took a copy and scanned it, quickly. "Jesus H. Christ."

Arthur hefted the printout and pursed his lips. "What about the second object?" he asked again.

"Actually, that's shown . . ."- Sand stood beside his chair and riffled through the sheets. "Right here. Wave analysis of the microseisms. There are two objects, orbiting around the center of the Earth—within the mantle and the inner and outer cores. They are slowing down at the rate of about one percent a day . . . and," Sand said, almost triumphantly, "the supercomputers at UCSD have duplicated the effects using several different models. The best model requires an object less than a few centimeters wide, very long—hundreds of meters long—traveling at between two and three kilometers a second."

"What in hell would do that?" Samshow asked.

Nobody answered.

"Eventually, because of drag the objects will settle down at the center, right next to each other, right?" Arthur asked.

"Inevitably," Sand said.

Samshow finished his glass of water and set it on the table. He held a cube of ice in his mouth, bouncing it back and forth from the hollow of one cheek to the other with his tongue. "Would the President understand this, Mr. Gordon?" he asked.

"I don't understand it," Arthur replied.

"Two objects," Samshow said, "orbiting inside the Earth, missing each other, I presume, their harmonic motions being damped until they meet at the center. What does that remind you fellows of?"

Kemp didn't answer. Sand shrugged. Post's expression was one of extreme puzzlement, then slow enlightenment. "A fuse," he said. "It's like a timer. Is that what you're thinking?"

"I don't know what I'm thinking. We're all running around so fast, we're bound to fall flat on our butts . . . But yes, I suppose, a fuse or a bomb comes to mind."

"A timer powered by gravity," Post mused. "That's elegant."

"So what happens when they meet?" Kemp asked. "You might get one black hole. Nothing more exciting about one black hole, compared with two ..."