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Months before the event.
Dean Whitmore wasn’t a pleased woman. Her administrator told her one of the professors and a grad student had to see her. She said they’d said it was a matter of life and death. “Do I have to see them?”
“I would suggest it. If you didn’t, and they really did have something that was a life and death situation, and they went public that you refused to see them, it could ruin you, and the board would fire you.”
“Okay, send them up.”
Two hours later, a stunned Dean Whitmore shook her head. Her blue blouse was already stained from perspiration, which had soaked her back and ran down her sides from her armpits. Her embroidered handkerchief was drenched from wiping the dampness from her forehead. She rechecked the charts and numbers the two had placed on her conference room table six times. “You ran these through the supercomputer in the science building’s basement?”
“For the fifth time, yes, which is the data you’re holding,” replied the professor.
“The size of the asteroid, you’ve checked that?”
Imus replied, “As best I could. I really need more data before I’m sure…”
“Shit, if your discovery is correct, we’re looking at an extinction-level event. Who else knows? We don’t want to cause a massive panic. We have to be one hundred percent sure before anyone else knows.”
Imus nodded, “Ma’am which is why we’re here. We need more time with the large telescope at Lick, or…”
“I can get you some more time, and I can arrange time on a large radio telescope will that help? I can make some calls and get you time on the VLA (Very Large Array) in New Mexico. Are you familiar with them?”
“Of course, you can really do that?”
“Of course, I can, but you have to promise to keep your mouth shut until I tell you, you can go public. Please leave the reports with me. I have a number of calls to make. Robert, please leave your number with my admin and leave your phone on around the clock and keep it with you. I may need to contact you in the middle of the night, and I don’t want to reach your voice mail. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Damn, it, this isn’t the way I thought today was going to unfold. You two go and work on the data and a presentation. Assume the person you’re going to give the presentation to isn’t technical. In fact, write it as you would for a teenager. Oh my God, I don’t think I wanted to know this. GO, as you’ve pointed out, time isn’t on our side.”
The Dean tapped her iPhone 15, “I know I have Rick’s number in here. Oh, here it is. I never thought he’d make it all the way to be one of the science advisors to the President. I thought his last book sucked. But I guess the President read it and liked it. I wasn’t aware he could understand the book. “Rick, this is your old friend…”
“Katherine Whitmore, how are you? What’s up, and why haven’t you called earlier?”
“Rick, I have something very sensitive I need to discuss with you, something too sensitive I can’t talk about on the phone.”
“Huh? I haven’t read anything about campus uprisings on your campus…”
“If it were that I could handle it and I wouldn’t bother you, but this is really something else.”
“I’m really busy with the President’s new space program initiative. You know, the one I sold him on spending billions because it would throw off new technology as the moon race did. Can you give me a hint?”
“Okay, combine what you just said to me with my one word, dinosaurs.”
“I assume you mean the end of?”
“I can’t say any more on the phone.”
Rick sat in his office in the basement of the White House. His office was so small, only his desk and chair fit. People walking by would think his office was a closet until they saw the name plaque. Richard Weinstein, Assistant Science Advisor. There wasn’t even room for a guest chair or file cabinet. His large monitor took up all of his desk space. He thought about what he’d heard. What do dinosaurs and space have in common? Oh my God, a meteor. Did she discover a meteor? Shit, I better arrange for a trip out west. I can tell the science director I need to check the progress of the new space plane at Area 51, then I’ll jump over to the university. I’ll tell the director they were working on some data for us.
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The Coats family was jammed into their 2014 Denali with every square inch around the four of them was taken up with supplies. Canned and boxed foods were packed to the roof of the SUV. They took everything they thought they’d need. Since they didn’t know where they’d end up, they brought both winter and warm weather clothing. Jon had decided not to take their trailer since he didn’t think the road conditions would be good and towing it through the storms might be a big problem. So they filled every inch of their SUV with everything they could pack into it.
Jon’s gut was right. The roads weren’t cleared of the ever-falling snow and the chains on the four tires caused the SUV to ride very rough. It also meant the vehicle’s speed had to be held to no more than 60 Kpm, which was a slow 35 Mph. Only one lane on each side was semi plowed. The other was covered in very high drifted snow, which blew across the open lane quicker then it could
