'Ellison, you're our host here today. Would you amid assembling the others?'

'Of course. Let's see — it's Leems, Runyan, Noldt, and Fletcher, isn't it?'

'That's right,' acknowledged Plumps.

Gantt moved into the hallway. Plumps offered Danielson a seat on the sofa, which she took. She realized it put her in full direct view of each new arrival, and she watched with amusement as they filed in over the next several minutes. Each reacted with various degrees of surprise to find an attractive female in the retinue.

Isaacs remained standing, fidgeting at the delay which would be barely excusable by regimented CIA standards. They were all assembled in a few minutes, however. Isaacs conceded even that was admirable for a bunch of prima donna college professors.

Plumps courteously introduced each new arrival and Isaacs checked them off against the files he had studied. earl Fletcher and Ted Noldt arrived together. They were experts in high energy particle physics. Fletcher, a theorist from Princeton , Noldt, an experimentalist from Stanford. They both were in their middle thirties, friends from graduate school. Fletcher was of medium height with shaggy brown hair. He had quick dark eyes set in a square face with the gaunt, tanned cheeks of a long-distance runner. Noldt was a bit taller, but blond and pudgy. A crooked grin and glasses gave him the look of a good-humoured owl.

Harvey Leems, a solid-state physicist from Berkeley , followed in a minute. Leems was tall and bald. His thick, rimless glasses diminished his eyes and contributed to a sour look. He greeted Isaacs and Danielson with a quick nod.

Gantt returned lugging a slide projector and screen which he proceeded to arrange. Last to arrive was Alexander Runyan, an astrophysicist from Minnesota. Runyan's raw— boned frame ran three inches over six feet. Danielson watched him come through the door and stop to be introduced to Isaacs. He was wearing a T-shirt that showed a slight paunch, cut-offs, and flip-flop thongs. He moved slowly, almost shambled, but Danielson sensed in him an energy that could be quickly galvanized. A dark beard going salt-and-pepper, particularly at the sideburns, covered a face she thought might be handsome if she could see it all. He turned towards her then, gave a look of surprise and delight and whipped off the glasses he'd been wearing. He stepped across the room and introduced himself, shaking Danielson's hand and giving her a warm smile. His eyes were light grey or green, hidden in a perpetual sun squint that melded easily into his smile. He squeezed between Danielson and Zicek on the sofa. There was an exchange of knowing looks among the scientists. If there were an attractive woman in the crowd, Runyan would be at her side pouring on the charm.

Phillips moved to the small, clear area before the projection screen which Gantt had placed in front of the lavatory door.

'Gentlemen,' he began, 'we are pleased to welcome Mr Isaacs and Dr Danielson from the Central Intelligence Agency. They have an interesting problem to set before us. It's not on our formal agenda, but I've promised Mr Isaacs we'll lend what insight we can. They'll present us with some details and then lead a general discussion to explore the nature of the situation. Mr Isaacs.'

'Thank you. Professor Phillips,' Isaacs began, looking around the room. 'I want to thank you all for giving up your Saturday afternoon on such short notice. As you will see, we are dealing with a problem so foreign to our experience, that any hint of how to proceed will be most useful.'

Isaacs spent ten minutes giving a general but concise review of the surveillance role of the CIA and the parallel operation in AFTAC with particular stress on the capabilities of the Large Seismic Array and the undersea acoustic monitors. He also described the role of the Office of Scientific Intelligence in guiding and interpreting the surveillance missions. He then turned the floor over to Danielson.

Although nervous, Danielson had maintained her demeanour while watching the group file in. Butterflies struck in earnest, however, as she listened to Isaacs. She was intent on giving a professional presentation. She knew intellectually that she was well versed in her subject, but her emotional reaction was tainted by the knowledge that she, as a woman and an engineer, was about to stand up before an audience of male physicists considered the best in their fields.

As she stepped around next to the projector, she was vividly aware that the all male group was equally conscious of her sex. Her voice broke slightly as she began, and she spoke her first few introductory sentences at a low volume which scarcely carried over the faint traffic noise from the window.

'A little louder for those of us who are hard of hearing, please Dr Danielson.'

The admonition came from Plumps, but it was delivered with a warm supportive smile. Danielson heartened and her tone strengthened. She turned on the first slide which drew her attention away from the audience and to her subject matter. Soon she was caught up in the precise intricate web of analysis which, through her deep involvement, was an extension of her own personality.

Danielson's reading of her small audience was largely accurate. Before she began to speak and establish some grounds for an intellectual bond, the instinctive response was to react to her as a female. Not a man in the room failed to run a glance from her softly curled hair down to trim ankles and back and say to himself, 'not your standard CIA type' or variations on that theme. There was a communal embarrassment and the reinforcement of some prejudice as she began so softly, but by and large they were a sophisticated and open-minded group prepared to relate on an intellectual level. Once Danielson got involved in her subject, she commanded their attention, and a growing respect. When she reached her major point, that the seismic signal kept sidereal time, time with the stars, there was a muffled commotion of gestures and excitedly whispered comments that told Danielson that she had established the desired rapport with her audience.

When Danielson finished, Ellison Gantt spoke from his seat in the swivel chair at the desk.

'This is a very strange situation, but let me say for the information of my colleagues that Dr Danielson seems to have a good command of the basics of seismology in general and the nature of the Large Seismic Array in particular. I'd like a chance to study the data she's presented in more detail, but at first sight I have to concur that the signal's a genuine one. I've never seen one like it. It's certainly not the result of normal seismological activity.'

Danielson knew Gantt by reputation. She was pleased by his gesture of support.

Harvey Leems spoke up from his seat near the door. 'Do you have other independent evidence of the existence of this phenomenon — something other than this seismological record, that is?'

'Yes, let me speak to that,' replied Isaacs. 'The seismic data is crucial because it told us that something systematic was occurring and led us to look for corroborative evidence. That's the other half of the story.'

He gave a quick smile and nodded at Danielson. As he rose, she took his chair which was more convenient than the sofa. The remnant state of intense nervous involvement with her own presentation persisted. Several minutes passed before she could concentrate adequately on Isaacs's remarks. Isaacs outlined the associated sonar data and the behaviour it portrayed. Whereas the seismic signal was lost in the mantle, the sonar signal proceeded along the extrapolated path to the ocean surface, disappeared for about forty seconds and then retraced its path to the ocean bottom where the seismic signal was picked up once more.

'On the basis of such data,' Isaacs continued, 'about three weeks ago a Navy destroyer was sent to investigate a site of the predicted surfacings. At its first station it recorded and relayed a signal typical of the one I just described. It then took up a position near a second predicted point of surfacing.'

Isaacs paused and looked around at his audience. 'Our data is incomplete, but at approximately the predicted time of surfacing, the ship exploded, capsized and sank. Two hundred thirty-six of the crew were lost.'

Most of the men to whom he spoke stared down at their hands or off to various spots in the room. Only Leems and Runyan kept their eyes on Isaacs.

'There's some evidence that the turbines exploded. There's no proof that the sinking of the ship was related to its mission, but the circumstantial evidence and other events suggest to me that that possibility must be strongly considered.

'We have seen in hindsight that a related event probably occurred to the Soviet aircraft carrier Novorossiisk last April. It was in the Mediterranean on the trajectory Dr Danielson described and at the right time, as nearly as we can tell. Something punctured a small hole through it vertically a few millimetres to a centimetre across and triggered extensive fire damage. There was an associated sonar signal. We suggested a meteorite, but the Soviets rejected the idea: we're not sure why. In any case, that event began an escalating and very dangerous conflict with the Soviets. We needn't go into that here, but to say that the Soviets mistakenly blamed us for the damage to the carrier. Besides direct physical damage, ignorance of the true nature of this phenomenon threatens us with other indirectly related, but very real perils.'

Isaacs paused and scanned around the group.

'It's imperative that we understand this phenomenon for its intrinsic menace, and to contain this related confrontation with the Soviets.'

He looked at them again, satisfied he had made the point. 'To summarize the picture we currently have, then,' said Isaacs, 'some influence moves along a line fixed in space. It travels through the earth or the ocean where its passage can be detected with seismographs or sonar, respectively. It seems to reverse just above the earth's surface and then return on a parallel path. There is evidence that this influence is responsible for puncturing a hole several millimetres across through solid steel. And there is every reason to think that it is something that is an immediate threat to life and property and, indirectly, to our political stability.'

Leems had listened carefully to this extended reply to his first question and raised another.

'If this phenomenon is as dangerous as you indicate, why haven't there been widespread reports of damage? If it really surfaces regularly, that's about eighteen times a day somewhere on earth.'

'I agree that's a point of interest,' replied Isaacs, 'and Dr Danielson has had another important insight in that regard which she just told me about this morning. We think the answer is that, for the most part, the damage is of a curiously limited nature, and the locus on the earth's surface passes through relatively sparsely occupied territory. You've noticed, I suppose, that we are very nearly on the track here in La Jolla. From Son Diego the path stretches across the southwest United States , where there are few people, although it does pass through Dallas/Fort Worth. The southeast United States is also not too densely populated. The nearest big cities to the path are Macon , Georgia and Charleston , South Carolina , both somewhat to the north. From there the path goes across the Atlantic, intersecting Africa south of Casablanca then cutting across North Africa and into the Mediterranean. It passes through the Middle East, but again misses the big cities, going south of Haifa and Esfahan. From there it goes across Afghanistan and Pakistan and through the Himalayas. The path cuts through the heart of China , but misses major population centres. If there were incidents in the rural areas there, as for many of the other affected countries, we might very well hear nothing of it. The path intersects Nagasaki and then proceeds across the Pacific. The story is very much the same for the locus in the southern hemisphere. Lots of ocean, relatively little population density.

'So I suspect most events go unobserved, and that many which are observed go unreported. The probability of a surfacing twice in the same place is small. To any single witness it would be an isolated event with little meaning.

'What Dr Danielson has pointed out is that the seismic signal should come up within a region of high population density occasionally, increasing the chances of observing some associated phenomena. She predicts that the trajectory of the seismic wave will intersect a position within the city of Nagasaki this coming Thursday, July 8, Japanese time. On July 26 a similar event should take place in Dallas.'

'Well, you clearly want to put some observers at those sites,' said Leems, coldly. 'Aren't you jumping the "gun, talking to us now without that data?'

Isaacs stared at Leems for a long moment, then replied in an equally cool tone. 'As I said, the predictions were made after this trip was scheduled. I'm hoping the events which have already transpired will give you some clue to tell us what to look for.'

'Well, what about this business of sidereal time then: what do you make of that?' asked Gantt, attempting to head off Leems's negativism.

'That's one of the crucial issues we would like to raise with this group,' Isaacs replied to him. 'The timing seems to be so special that it must be an important clue, but we haven't been able to utilize it. Perhaps we could get some comment now from you.' He swung his hand in invitation around the room.

'Well, Alex — what the hell?' Gantt turned to address Runyan on the sofa.

Runyan scratched his thick beard. 'I'm working on it,' he replied in a testy tone overlaid with humour, picking up the cue from Gantt. There was a general chuckle. 'The sidereal tune would normally indicate an extraterrestrial source. That seems outlandish in this context, but I guess we should kick it around. I deduce we're under attack by an extraterrestrial army stationed on Alpha Cancri aiming tachyonic earthquake beams at us.' The chuckles turned to guffaws. Isaacs smiled wryly, recalling his own fatigued fantasy.

Noldt asked, 'How about a Jupiter effect? Is there an alignment of planets that would cause a tidal or some other effect which would be associated with a fixed direction in the sky?'

'Jupiter effect?' Isaacs queried and Gantt turned to answer him.

'The Jupiter effect is supposed to be a terrestrial upheaval associated with an alignment of the great planets every two hundred years. One version has it that this alignment causes solar storms which eject particles affecting the polar atmosphere. Associated changes in air pressure are supposed to trigger earthquakes.'

'I don't believe any of that,' Gantt went on, 'and have even more difficulty seeing how it could enter here. The regular tides should swamp any such effect. I suppose this might be a resonance of some kind, but it would have to be completely unprecedented.'

'Where's Jupiter now?' asked Runyan. 'Would you have noticed a change due to its motion over the time base you have?'

Isaacs deferred to Danielson. 'Jupiter is about forty degrees away from the direction we're talking about,' Danielson replied. 'That may not mean anything if a resonance is involved. A preferred direction that's a mean of the moon and the sun and Jupiter might be involved. Over the last three months the earth has moved far enough to rule out a preferred direction with respect to the sun, but Jupiter moves more slowly. I'm not sure we could rule that out.'

'Jupiter would have moved through two or three degrees,' Runyan stated, having done a quick mental calculation.

'That's a shift of over a hundred miles along the earth's surface,' Danielson replied. 'If that's the case, we can just about eliminate the possibility of alignment of the trajectory we see with the position of Jupiter.'

Runyan continued thinking out loud. 'The twenty-three degree angle of the earth's equator with respect to the ecliptic is purely random — there's no other solar system or astronomical connection — ruling out the accidental location of Polaris. A fixed angle of thirty-three degrees with respect to the earth's equator means even less. This thing has to be basically terrestrial. And yet sidereal. I'll put it back to Ellison. What the hell?'

'How do you know the Russians aren't behind this somehow?' Leems asked. 'It seems like some kind of beam technology could be involved, and they invented the techniques. A satellite could be rigged to fire at a precise point in orbit so that it would look as if it always fired from the same position with respect to the stars. As Alex just said, terrestrial, but sidereal. They might do such a thing just to throw us off the mark. I point out that the eighty minute period you report is very close to the time for a satellite to orbit the earth.'

'That's short, though, Harvey ,' said Runyan. 'A satellite takes closer to ninety minutes.'

'Use an array of satellites then.' He turned to Isaacs.

'You have checked the location of Russian satellites, haven't you?'

'No, that hadn't occurred to me -'

'I'm sure you'll remedy that oversight at the first opportunity, ' Leems interrupted.

Isaacs gritted his teeth and Danielson came to his defence.

'But that doesn't make any sense,' she said. 'Why would they use any such weapon on their own ship? And wouldn't we know if they had some technique for generating seismic tremors deep inside the earth?'

'I don't suppose we know everything the Russians are up to,' said Leems with a patronizing tone. 'Perhaps they shot their own ship to embroil us in the very scandal you alluded to.'

Danielson leaned slowly back in her chair, her face flushed. Isaacs shook his head slowly.

Quiet fell on the group momentarily, then Fletcher spoke. 'Alex, you were joking a while ago, but it got me thinking.' He looked around at his colleagues. 'Apparently, none of us can propose a natural explanation to account for the evidence presented: the seismic signals, the sonar signals, the suggestion that something is boring small holes through the earth itself. I can't buy Harvey 's suggestion that it is some Russian plot. There are too many weird aspects. I think we must seriously consider another possibility. Suppose that we aren't dealing with either a natural or a man-made phenomenon?' A deep silence filled the room. 'Suppose there is a, well, an external intelligence behind this?'

The silence continued as Fletcher's words probed a queasy, sensitive spot in each member of Jason. Trained as scientists, they sought to explain the world around them with the simplest rational extension of previous knowledge, but each knew their knowledge had bounds, limits. Each knew the rules of the game could be changed and their carefully honed intuition would be of little use. Each looked for and craved a simple solution, but each knew there was a chance, however small, that Fletcher could be right. They could be facing a situation so fundamentally different than anything they had encountered previously that their training and experience could be meaningless.

'Are you suggesting that there's an extraterrestrial intent behind these occurrences?' asked Plumps. His tone was incredulous. There were mutterings of dissatisfaction around the room.

'None of us here are UFO fanatics,' pressed Fletcher, 'least of all me. But we all know you can't prove a negative; we can't prove other intelligent civilizations don't exist. We know there are a few standard clichй concerning how such civilizations are to be discovered, radio emissions and all that. But I convinced myself long ago that guessing at the character of an extraterrestrial civilization by extrapolating the human condition is an exercise in futility. We have no basis for estimating the sociological and cultural evolution of an alien society even if we all obey the same physics.

'All I want to do is to raise the possibility. If we can rationally rule it out, or develop a preferred alternative, then so be it.'

'It doesn't make sense,' proclaimed Ted Noldt. 'If there were an intelligence at work, we should be able to discern a purpose. What we've heard about here, holes drilled through ships, is no benign attempt at communication. It's certainly not overwhelmingly destructive either, an overt act of aggression. What could the purpose possibly be?'

'That's just my point,' retorted Fletcher. 'You're not asking a question of physics, but one of motivation. I submit we're unlikely to fathom any but the most transparent of motives — as you said, peaceful communication or war. The true possibilities are limited only by our imaginations. Suppose they're prospecting? Suppose we're seeing the effect of some probe and our existence here is totally immaterial to them? We could be like an anthill which is accidentally in the way of a geologist's test well as he searches for oil. Your first reaction was to think they must be for us or against us. Maybe they don't give a damn.

'Or maybe it's a test,' Fletcher continued, trying to think of unorthodox possibilities. 'Maybe we're dealing with a bunch of extraterrestrial behavioural psychologists who just want to provoke us in a certain way and study our reactions.' Fletcher looked from man to man, defensive but determined to make his point.

'How can we possibly know what their purpose is? I certainly don't.'

Ellison Gantt then spoke up. 'l. think earl feels backed into a corner. Let me take a different tack. I agree with him that we should at least consider this possibility, and that an attempt to fathom motives may be premature. Suppose we assume for the moment that some influence is being boomed at us from a fixed point in space. Is there any way to determine what that influence is and where it's coming from? Could it be something with which we are basically familiar, like a laser or a particle beam?'

'I can speak to that. In fact, I'd been mulling over that very question,' said Vladimir Zicek, his speech hissing with East European sibilants. 'Any orthodox beam device would have a different signature than what has been described here. That is, one can imagine boring a hole from one side of the earth to the other with an exceedingly powerful beam, but one of the characteristics of the present phenomenon is that for half the cycle it goes from north to south, but on the other half it proceeds in the opposite direction. No external beam can do that. A beam must always propagate away from its source.'

'Hmmm, perhaps not a beam in that sense then,' said Fletcher thoughtfully. 'What if some focusing principle is involved? A diffuse source of energy which is brought to a concentrated focus along a certain path. Maybe the source of energy isn't along the line of the trajectory, but transverse to it.'

Fletcher lifted an imaginary rifle to his shoulder and strafed back and forth a few times. Several of those along his line of sight lunched involuntarily. Fletcher stopped squinting through the sight.

'Maybe a neutrino beam?'

There were several loud voices raised in simultaneous assent and dissent. A general hubbub ensued.

Wayne Plumps sensed that it was necessary to assimilate all that they had heard and called for quiet.

'Perhaps this is a good time to take a break for refreshments, ' he said. 'Let's resume our deliberations in half an hour.'

Against a rising background of chatter, the group stood, filed into the hall and down the stairs to a room where coffee, tea, and some cookies were set out.

Phillips escorted Isaacs and Danielson as they queued up. He made a small ceremony of preparing a cup of coffee for Danielson, ensuring she had the desired ingredients, a couple of cookies, and a napkin. She thanked him and then moved off by herself, motivated partly by a desire to be alone to contemplate the afternoon's developments and partly by a suspicion that Isaacs and Plumps would appreciate a chance to converse privately. She stood by a window looking over the parking lot and the playing field beyond, cradling her cup and saucer and munching on the cookies.

'That's crazy,' she heard Leems's voice rising disdainfully over the chatter. 'All the more reason to look to satellites in orbit, one to fire one direction, and another to fire a return shot in the opposite direction. That would solve Zicek's objection.'

A bit later she made out Runyan in a more conversational tone.

' — good idea, Carl, couldn't hurt to have astronomers look in that direction. Very deep photographs taken with telescopes on Mauna Kea and in Chile. Who knows what we might see. Maybe I'll call some friends, see what they can do.'

Runyan, speaking to earl Fletcher and Ted Noldt, lowered his voice to a conspiratorial level.

'In fact, the first step is to make sure I have the precise coordinates.'

He winked at them and crossed over towards where Danielson was standing, his thongs flapping on the floor.

Fletcher leaned over to whisper to Noldt.

'Doesn't take him long, does it?'

Noldt smiled into his coffee and shook his head.

As Runyan approached her, Danielson finished her last cookie and wiped her fingers awkwardly on the napkin which she held under the saucer. The gesture attracted Runyan's eyes to her waist where she held the cup. Out of habit, his gaze continued down her legs and then back past her breasts to her face which was in profile to him. Taking pleasure from the innocent voyeurism, he stopped at arm's length from her.

'A pretty little problem you've posed for us here.'

Danielson turned, a reflex smile of recognition brightening her face. She took a sip of cooling coffee and glanced out the window before replying.

'I thought we were on to something significant from the beginning, but I have to confess I don't know what to make of some of the ideas we just heard.' She faced him again. 'Beams from outer space. Could that possibly be true?'

'What do you think?'

She laughed lightly, chiding herself.

'I suppose that somewhere in the back of my mind that possibility had been flitting around since I first discovered the fixed orientation in space. I've been refusing to recognize it because it seems so outrageous, but not unthinkable.'

'I suspect most of us feel the same way,' he returned her laugh and laid two fingers on her forearm, a small intimate gesture. 'But we're taking a break here. Tell me about yourself. How did you get into the intelligence game?'

Danielson looked down at his hand. The fingers were those of a craftsman, large and gnarled, ungainly to look at, but capable of deft, intricate movement. She raised her eyes to his face and enjoyed the way his grey-green eyes reflected a sense of humour and well-being.

'Not much to tell -' she began.

While Runyan entertained Danielson with small talk, Isaacs and Plumps discussed the developments of the afternoon and their options for the remainder of the day. Isaacs was not pleased by any of the ideas he had heard. Plumps suggested gently that they should allow the brain— storming to continue until they either ran out of ideas or found one on which there was some consensus. They were interrupted by a woman who announced a phone call for Isaacs. He raised his eyebrows at Plumps and followed the woman out.

He returned several minutes later and headed for Danielson, his face grim. He interrupted Runyan in the middle of a funny story, and addressed Danielson.

'There's an emergency,' he said brusquely. 'We've got to get back to Washington.'

As Danielson looked at Runyan with uncertainty, Isaacs turned to Phillips.

'I'm very sorry, but we must go. Something has come up. I'm grateful for your time today.'

'We're happy to be of service, of course. Your problem has intrigued us, and I'm sure we'll continue to discuss it.' 'I hope you will. I'll be in touch as soon as I can.'

Isaacs hustled Danielson around as they gathered up their things and escorted her to the car.

He drove quickly in great concentration for several minutes until he was sure of his course. Then he glanced at her.

'That was Bill Bans. The Russians have made their next move. They've surrounded our nuclear satellite with a pack of hunter-killer satellites.'

'What will they do?'

'Not clear. Bans has called the crisis team for this afternoon to try to get the basic facts together. We'll meet again first thing tomorrow morning and try to anticipate them. If they hold off that long. Damn! McMasters will wonder where the hell I am.'

He drove in silence again for a while.

'That was a very good presentation you gave today,' he said, keeping his eyes on the road. 'You convinced them we've got a real problem. And thanks for coming to my defence when that bastard Leems got on my back.'

'This can't really be a Russian weapon, can it?' she asked. 'Sure doesn't smell right to me, but we should check satellite locations just as Leems said.'

Danielson began to contemplate how she could obtain and sort Soviet satellite positions. They were quiet the rest of the way to the airport.

There were problems getting their reservations changed. They spent an hour and a half in the terminal amid crowds that prevented any discussion of their mission. Danielson could tell Isaacs was tense and fretful. The visit with the Jason team had been intriguing, but inconclusive, and the move of the Russians had caught him up short. If he had been in Washington he would have assembled the crisis team, not left it to Saris. Danielson sympathized with the anxiety she knew Isaacs felt. CIA officials had a right in principle to their free time, but they had better be on the spot when an emergency cropped up, never mind off on another coast suborning Agency policy. Danielson felt exposed herself.