bar that was secured to the doorjamb leading into his inner office. He was stretching his back and thinking.
“Mr. Dwyer,” a junior scientist said meekly.
Dwyer glanced toward the voice. He could see a pair of scuffed brown leather shoes over white athletic socks leading to a pair of pants with the hem a touch too high. Arching his back, Dwyer raised his head enough to see who was speaking.
“Yes, Tim?”
“I was assigned something I think is above my level,” the scientist said quietly.
Dwyer reached up with his arms and grabbed the bar across the door. Then he twisted himself around like a gymnast, removed the ankle boots from the bar and dropped to the floor in one smooth motion.
“Saw that move in the last Olympics,” Dwyer said, smiling. “What do you think?”
“Great, sir,” the younger man said softly.
Walking into his office, Dwyer sat down behind his desk then bent over and started removing the boots from his ankles. The younger scientist followed meekly, holding in his hands a file stamped with the words “Echelon A-1.” Dwyer finished removing the boots, tossed them in a corner of his office and reached out so Tim could hand him the file. He removed a sticker from the front, initialed it quickly and handed it back to the junior scientist.
“It’s my problem now,” he said, smiling. “I’ll analyze it and write the report.”
“Thanks, Mr. Dwyer,” Tim said.
“Call me TD,” Dwyer said, “everyone else does.”
THOMAS “TD” DWYER was sitting in his office with his feet up on the desk.
In his hand was a thesis on the natural formation of buckminsterfullerenes, more commonly called buckyballs, on meteorites. The spherical orbs—named for famed American architect R. Buckminster Fuller, who was most noted for designing the geodesic dome—are the roundest and most symmetrical large molecules known to man. Discovered in 1985 during a space experiment with carbon molecules, buckyballs have continued to astound scientists.
When the hollow area inside the sphere is filled with cesium, it produces the finest organic semiconductor that has ever been tested. Experiments with pure carbon buckyballs have created a lubricant with almost no drag. Possible applications included the development of nonpolluting engines, the timed introduction of medicines, and more advanced nanotechnology devices. The field of development was wide open and growing.
Though the future uses were interesting, Dwyer was not concerned with that. He was more concerned with the present. Naturally occurring buckyballs had been found in the location of meteorite craters. When these samples had been examined, both argon and helium gases had been found in the hollow area of the spheres.
Dwyer pondered this for a moment.
First he imagined two geodesic domes placed together to form an orb the size of a kick ball, or about the same size as the meteorite in the photograph. Then he imagined the void inside filled with gases. Next he imagined piercing the orb with a skewer or lopping off the top with a sword. Whatever gas inside would leak out. Then what? Helium and argon were harmless and existed in abundance in nature. But what if these gases contained something else? Something not of this world?
Opening the telephone directory inside his computer, he located a number and entered the command for the computer to dial. Once the computer signaled the line was ringing, Dwyer reached over and picked up his phone.
Across the country, three time zones distant, a man walked toward his ringing phone.
“Nasuki,” a voice answered.
“Mike, you old hack, this is TD.”
“TD, you Mensa reject you, how’s the spy game?” Nasuki asked.
“I’d tell you, but it’s so secret I’d have to kill myself.”
“That’s secret,” Nasuki agreed.
“I have a favor to ask,” Dwyer said.
Miko “Mike” Nasuki was an astronomer with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA is a division of the Commerce Department. The agency had a broad base to conduct scientific research, though they usually worked with hydrography.
“Is this a
“That’s right,” Dwyer said, “all hypothetical and off the record.”
“All right,” Nasuki said, “let me have it.”
“I’m looking into meteorites and particularly the formation of buckyballs.”
“That’s right up my alley,” Nasuki said, “cutting-edge stuff.”
“Have you ever heard any theories about the makeup of the gases inside the spheres themselves?” Dwyer said carefully. “Perhaps why helium and argon are prevalent?”
“Mainly, those are the most common gases that would occur on another planet.”
“So,” Dwyer noted, “the potential is there for the inside of the balls to be filled with other substances. Things not normally found on earth.”
Nasuki thought for a moment. “Sure, TD. I attended a symposium a few months ago where someone presented a paper that made the argument that the dinosaurs had been wiped out from a virus from space.”
“Brought in by a meteorite?” Dwyer asked.
