"Alan Dean Foster - The Tessellated Tetrahexahedral Yellow Rose of Texas" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

said nothing, but his cheeks turned slightly darker. Knowing the signs, the three specialists worked faster.

It was Garcia who spoke up excitedly. "No path yet, but I've got something else, Lieutenant. The object
is no larger than three meters in 'diameter and not less than point eight. Its general shape is spherical." He
hesitated, added, "That's all only a guess, but it's a good guess."

Mobler nodded once, reported the new information to whoever was on the other end of the line.
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Meanwhile Matthews completed a final check of her instruments.

"If it doesn't burn up and if it maintains its present general heading, sir, it's going to strike somewhere in
the southwest or south central states," Matthews called out.

"Can you pin it down any better than that, Matthews?" Mobler asked. She chewed her lower lip, made
some hurried calculations.

"I'd estimate somewhere betweenEl PasoandDallaslongitudinally and Tulsa-Galveston latitudinally."

"Thank you, Matthews," Mobler said gratefully. This prediction was relayed dutifully across the phone.
The lieutenant put a palm over the receiver, spoke to the technician hopefully. "BothColorado Springsand
Washingtonwould like to know if you can narrow it down a little more. They'd like even a preliminary
impact point prediction."

Maybe it was the excitement of the situation, but more likely it was the almost indifferent mention of
those two names that spurred the specialist's abilities. After several minutes of frantic computer work, she
turned and declared guardedly, "I'd say anywhere in an area up to three hundred kilometers east ofDallas
. That's a general radius, sir."

Mobler reported this to the phone. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Yes, we'll notify Point Mugu also and relay
what we have. They'll send it on to White Sands and Houston. Very good, sir. Yes, sir. Good-bye."

Hanging up, the lieutenant spared a casual glance for the room. Everyone returned instantly to his or her
assigned tasks, which were quite as important as what had just happened. He said nothing, simply stood
thinking. Then he leaned back and stared upward, trying to see through the triple-reinforced ceilings of
the tracking station.

Somewhere up there, above the palm trees and sands devoid of tourist hotels, far above thick Hawaiian
clouds, something almost surely not of this Earth was speeding past.

As soon as Point Mugu picked up the rapidly dropping object, fighters -near White Sands scrambled in
hopes of intercepting it visually before impact. Unfortunately, that entire area of theUnited Stateswas
awash in winter thunderstorms. The few planes aloft had enough to do fighting buffeting winds and
instrument distortions engendered by lightning. The object was never sighted.

Worse still, when it finally went tropospheric, all contact was lost. Important people in paces
far from one another raged impotently at the uncooperative weather and chain-smoked many substances