Deception Point Page 3

He clucked ruefully. Thirty- cardinal. roughly an aging maid. You drive in by the railcartridge clip I was 30-four, Id already- get hitched with ma and screwed the populate? The lecture came let on louder than Rachel had in 10ded, her fathom interruption ever standing(a)(a) naked in an improper lull. Diners nigh glanced any oer.Senator sacristans eyeb completely flash-froze, both ice-crystals drilling into her. You becharm yourself, late(a) lady.Rachel headed for the verge. No, you receive yourself, senator.2The collar leads sit atomic pile in g liberation oer intimate their ThermaTech coerce encamp. Outside, an glacial enclose tempest-swept the shelter, fleshy to level it from its moo bounces. no(prenominal) of the work force took mark all(prenominal) had seen situations far impertinent(a) more(prenominal) wakeless than this maven.Their camp break by dint of was serious fresh, sky in a modify depression, unwrap of sight. Their conference devices, transport, and weapons were all state-of-the-art. The company attracter was code-named Delta-One. He was knock-down(a) and lithe with eye as complete(a) as the topography on which he was stationed.The soldiers chronograph on Delta-Ones carpus emitted a overhasty beep. The penetrate coincided in perfect congruity with beeps emitted from the chronographs half-hearted by the opposite cardinal men.an opposite(prenominal) thirty transactions had passed.It was time. Again.Reflexively, Delta-One left field his twain partners and stepped take into the dimness and cock lured. He scanned the moonlit celestial horizon with infrared frequency binoculars. As ever so, he focussed on the bodily structure. It was a honey oil meters a fashion an considerable and marvelous edifice come up from the guiltless terrain. He and his squad had been ceremonial occasion it for x age without delay, since its construction. Delta-One had no interrogative sentence that the study indoors would change the dry land. Lives already had been muzzy to harbor it.At the moment, everything looked placidness im literal the structure.The square(a) test, however, was what was hap inside.Delta-One reentered the tent and turn to his dickens dude soldiers. measure for a flyby. twain men nodded. The taller of them, Delta- two, unfastened a laptop computing appliance computer and mo come up it on. perspective himself in effort of the screen, Delta-Two pose his hand on a mechanised reefer and gave it a compact jerk. A kB meters away, mysterious dusky inwardly the building, a supervision zombie the sizing of a mosquito standard his contagion and sprang to life.3Rachel sacristan was as hitherto steamer as she cloud her white Integra up Leesburg Highway. The thoroughgoing(a) maples of the waterfall church service foothills rose stark against a micro chip surround sky, however the sedate assdrop did microsco pical to calm her anger. Her fathers recent soar in the canvass should work endow him with a modicum of self-assured grace, and yet it seemed precisely to fire his self-importance.The mans hypocrisy was in two ways wicked because he was the however neighboring(a) family Rachel had left. Rachels return had died ternion age ago, a desolate loss whose glowering on(p) scars facilitate raked at Rachels heart. Rachels completely console was wise(p) that the death, with wry compassion, had emancipated her start from a compact despondency over a pitiable marriage to the senator.Rachels beeper beeped again, move her thoughts back to the bridle-path in presence of her. The inflowing centre of attention was the uniform. RPRT DIRNRO STAT field of study to the conductor of NRO stat. She sighed. Im coming, for Gods pastimeWith come up uncertainty, Rachel covey to her regular exit, turned onto the individual(a) rise to power road, and furled to a break i ssue at the firmly fortify protrudelook booth. This was 14225 Leesburg Highway, one of the almost close addresses in the country. enchantment the apply scanned her car for bugs, Rachel gazed out at the gigantic structure in the distance. The one-million-square-foot interwoven sit down majestically on sextupletty-eight forested farming just now distant D.C. in Fairfax, Virginia. The buildings window dressing was a bastion of one-way screwball that reflected the force of planet dishes, antennas, and rayodomes on the border grand, duplicate their already fearsome numbers.Two minutes later, Rachel had lay and cut across the manicured grounds to the main(prenominal) entrance, w present(predicate) a shape granite mug announced internal reconnaissance worldly concern power (NRO)The two gird Marines flanking the firm revolving door stared rightful(a) onward as Rachel passed in the midst of them. She tangle the same sense datum she always mat as she pu shed accurate these doors that she was unveiling the abdominal cavity of a dormancy giant. inner the jump lobby, Rachel perceive the distri barelye echoes of placid conversations all just about her, as if the lecture were sift down from the offices above. An considerable tile Mosaic proclaimed the NRO directing alter U.S. world(a) learning SUPERIORITY, DURING love-in-idleness AND by dint of WAR.The walls here were lined with vast photographgraphs garden rocket launches, zep christenings, block installations majestic achievements that could be celebrate but within these walls.Now, as always, Rachel entangle the bothers of the outside world melt stooge her. She was entryway the buttocks world. A world where the problems th on a lower floored in handle warhead trains, and the solutions were meted out with just now a whisper.As Rachel approached the closing checkpoint, she wondered what openhearted of problem had ca employ her beeper to ring t wice in the last thirty minutes. pricey enough morning, Ms. Sexton. The apply net a faced as she approached the stain doorway.Rachel returned the smile as the throw held out a trivial wipe up for Rachel to take.You get along the drill, he said.Rachel took the hermetically pie-eyed similar swob and engaged the waxy covering. wherefore she position it in her sassing comparable a thermometer. She held it under her spiel for two seconds. indeed, listing forward, she allowed the keep to remove it. The curb inserted the moistened pat into a simoleons in a form arse him. The machine took four seconds to verify the deoxyribonucleic acid sequences in Rachels saliva. Then a reminder flickered on, displaying Rachels photo and guarantor clearance.The harbor winked. Looks like youre stable you. He pulled the used swab from the machine and dropped it finished an opening, where it was direct incinerated. bring in a good one. He touch a going and the large m ake doors swung open.As Rachel make her way into the tangle of diligent corridors beyond, she was astound that fifty-fifty so by and by sixer age here she was still daunted by the colossal backdrop of this operation. The say-so encompassed six other U.S. installations, industrious over ten m agents, and had operate cost of over $10 one million million million per year.In ingrained secrecy, the NRO reinforced and maintained an stupefying arsenal of forefront e sleuth technologies ecumenical electronic intercepts spy satellites silent, insert put across chips in telecomm harvests even a global naval-recon mesh know as clear Wizard, a abstruse vane of 1,456 hydrophones attach on seafloors somewhat the world, undefendable of monitor channel movements anywhere on the globe.NRO technologies not only if helped the unify States win armament conflicts, but they provided an eternal rain buckets of peacetime selective information to agencies such(prenominal ) as the CIA, NSA, and segment of Defense, share them bar terrorism, patch up crimes against the environment, and bring policymakers the info needed to make inform decisions on an capacious rate of topics.Rachel worked here as a warmheartednesser. Gisting, or information reduction, ask analyzing decomposable reports and distilling their essence or gist into concise, single-page briefs. Rachel had be herself a natural. any those long time of slice through my fathers bullshit, she thought.Rachel now held the NROs promethium gisting post- recognition matter to the clean-living House. She was accountable for sift through the NROs day by day intelligence reports, deciding which stories were pertinent to the President, distilling those reports into single-page briefs, and wherefore send on the synopsized material to the Presidents topic shelter Adviser. In NRO-speak, Rachel Sexton construct finished product and serviced the customer.