'Deception Point Page 33\r'

'â€Å"Advanced stages of lymphoma,” the doctors explained. â€Å" rare in people her age, alone surely non unhear of.”\r\nCelia and Tolland visited countless clinics and hospitals, consulting with specialists. The pract trash was always the same. Incurable.\r\nI will not accept that! Tolland immediately quit his transaction at Scripps Institute, forgot all ab bring out the NBC documentary, and cogitate all of his energy and love on helping Celia brace well. She fought hard too, stroller the pain with a grace that however made him love her more. He took her for gigantic walks on King adult male Beach, made her healthy meals, and told her stories of the things they would do when she got better.\r\nBut it was not to be.\r\nOnly vii months had passed when Michael Tolland found himself sitting beside his dying wife in a stark hospital ward. He no longer recognise her event. The savageness of the cancer was rivaled altogether by the brutality of the chemother apy. She was left a ravaged skeleton. The final hours were the hardest.\r\nâ€Å"Michael,” she said, her voice raspy. â€Å"Its time to let go.”\r\nâ€Å"I cant.” Tollands eyes welled.\r\nâ€Å"Youre a survivor,” Celia said. â€Å"You take away to be. Promise me youll find another love.”\r\nâ€Å"Ill neer want another.” Tolland meant it.\r\nâ€Å"Youll throw to learn.”\r\nCelia died on a crystal clear Sunday good morning in June. Michael Tolland felt equal a ship torn from its moorings and thrown rudderless in a raging sea, his stove smashed. For weeks he spun out of control. Friends tried to help, but his pride could not bear their pity.\r\nYou mystify a choice to make, he in the long run realized. Work or die.\r\nHardening his resolve, Tolland threw himself game into Amazing Seas. The program quite literally saved his life. In the four eld that followed, Tollands show took off. Despite the matchmaking efforts of his frie nds, Tolland endured only a handful of dates. All were fiascos or joint disappointments, so Tolland in the long run gave up and goddamn his busy travel schedule for his want of social life. His best friends knew better, though; Michael Tolland scarce was not ready.\r\nThe meteorite extraction pit loomed originally Tolland direct, pulling him from his painful reverie. He shake off the chill of his memories and approached the opening. In the change dome, the melt water supply in the maw had taken on an almost phantasmagoric and magical beauty. The surface of the pool was shimmering analogous a moonlit pond. Tollands eyes were worn-out to specks of dim on the top story of the water, as if someone had sprinkled blue-green sparkles onto the surface. He stared a long moment at the shimmering.\r\nSomething about it seemed peculiar.\r\nAt first glance, he thought the gleaming water was precisely reflecting the glow of the spotlights from across the dome. Now he saw this was n ot the case at all. The shimmers possessed a greenish tinct and seemed to pulse in a rhythm, as if the surface of the water were alive, illuminating itself from within.\r\nUnsettled, Tolland stepped beyond the pylons for a closer look.\r\nAcross the habisphere, Rachel sexton exited the PSC trailer into darkness. She paused a moment, disoriented by the shadowy vault around her. The habisphere was now a gaping cavern, lit only by incidental effulgence radiate out from the stark media lights against the north wall. enervate by the darkness around her, she fountainheaded instinctively for the illuminated press area.\r\nRachel felt cheerful with the outcome of her briefing of the White foretoken faculty. Once shed recovered from the Presidents little stunt, shed swimmingly conveyed everything she knew about the meteorite. As she spoke, she watched the expressions on the faces of the Presidents staff go from incredulous shock, to hopeful belief, and finally to awestruck acceptance. \r\nâ€Å"Extraterrestrial life?” she had heard one of them exclaim. â€Å"Do you know what that gist?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes,” another replied. â€Å"It means were going to win this election.”\r\nAs Rachel approached the dramatic press area, she imagined the imminent announcement and couldnt help but adore if her fuss really deserved the presidential steamroller that was about to blindside him, curtailment his campaign in a superstar blow.\r\nThe answer, of course, was yes.\r\nWhe neer Rachel Sexton felt every(prenominal) buggy spot for her father, all she had to do was ring her mother. Katherine Sexton. The pain and shame S coastwick Sexton had brought on her was reprehensible… coming home late every night, aspect smug and olfaction of perfume. The feigned religious zeal her father hid behind-all the while lying and cheating, knowing Katherine would never leave him.\r\nYes, she decided, Senator Sexton was about to get exactly what he deserved.\ r\nThe crowd in the press area was jovial. Everyone held beers. Rachel moved by the crowd feeling like a coed at a frat party. She wondered where Michael Tolland had gone.\r\n corky Marlinson materialized beside her. â€Å"Looking for Mike?”\r\nRachel startled. â€Å"Well… no… sort of.”\r\n bad shook his head in disgust. â€Å"I knew it. Mike on the dot left. I think he was headed vertebral column to go grab a hardly a(prenominal) winks.” corky squinted across the dusky dome. â€Å"Although it looks like you can still catch him.” He gave her a puggish smile and pointed. â€Å"Mike becomes magnetize every time he sees water.”\r\nRachel followed Corkys extended finger toward the center of the dome, where the silhouette of Michael Tolland stood, gazing down feather into the water in the extraction pit.\r\nâ€Å"Whats he doing?” she asked. â€Å"Thats kind of dangerous over there.”\r\nCorky grinned. â€Å"Probably taki ng a leak. Lets go push him.”\r\nRachel and Corky crossed the darken dome toward the extraction pit. As they displace close to Michael Tolland, Corky called out.\r\nâ€Å"Hey, aqua man! Forget your swimsuit?”\r\nTolland turned. Even in the dimness, Rachel could see his expression was uncharacteristically grave. His face looked oddly illuminated, as if he were macrocosm lit from below.\r\nâ€Å"Everything okay, Mike?” she asked.\r\nâ€Å"Not exactly.” Tolland pointed into the water.\r\nCorky stepped over the pylons and joined Tolland at the bounds of the shaft. Corkys mood seemed to cool instantly when he looked in the water. Rachel joined them, stepping past the pylons to the edge of the pit. When she peered into the hole, she was surprised to see specks of blue-green light shimmering on the surface. Like neon sparge particles floating in the water. They seemed to be pulsating green. The operation was beautiful.\r\nTolland picked up a shard of ice off the glacial floor and tossed it into the water. The water phosphoresced at the point of impact, glowing with a sudden green splash.\r\nâ€Å"Mike,” Corky said, looking uneasy, â€Å"please tell me you know what that is.”\r\nTolland frowned. â€Å"I know exactly what this is. My question is, what the stone pit is it doing here?”\r\n39\r\nâ€Å"Weve got flagellates,” Tolland said, staring into the light water.\r\nâ€Å"Flatulence?” Corky scowled. â€Å" talk for yourself.”\r\nRachel comprehend Michael Tolland was in no joking mood.\r\nâ€Å"I dont know how it could have happened,” Tolland said, â€Å"but in some manner this water contains bioluminescent dinoflagellates.”\r\nâ€Å"Bioluminescent what?” Rachel said. Speak English.\r\nâ€Å"Monocelled plankton capable of oxidizing a luminescent gas pedal called luceferin.”\r\nThat was English?\r\nTolland exhaled and turned to his friend. â€Å"Corky, there any c hance the meteorite we pulled out of that hole had victuals organisms on it?”\r\nCorky burst out laughing. â€Å"Mike, be serious!”\r\nâ€Å"I am serious.”\r\nâ€Å"No chance, Mike! Believe me, if NASA had any inkling whatsoever that there were outlander organisms living on that rock, you can be damn sure they never would have extracted it into the open air.”\r\n'