The Cassandra Project by Jack McDevitt & Mike Resnick

Author:Jack McDevitt & Mike Resnick [McDevitt, Jack & Resnick, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781937008710
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

18

“Okay,” said Ray. “I’ve sent Weinstein to talk to him, but I still think it’s a mistake.” He was not happy. “George, we can still back away. If you pursue this thing, it’s going to come back to haunt you. I can see the cartoons now. You’ll be running around the Moon with a flashlight peeking into craters. ‘Hello, anybody there?’”

Cunningham stared across the Oval Office at the pictures of his old friend Ruby O’Brien and himself standing outside an Iraqi schoolhouse, surrounded by kids. They were both in uniform. Ruby had died a few years later in an Afghan helicopter crash. Cunningham knew what it meant to be in combat, and those horrendous years in the Middle East had left him scarred. “So you’re saying there’s no chance it could have happened.”

“What I’m saying is to just stay away from it. If it turns out that there was some kind of plot, you can congratulate Blackstone and give him a medal. If it goes the other way, which it almost certainly will, you’ll be clear.”

“I’ve been trying to do that, Ray. Stay clear. Ever since Culpepper started all this. But it keeps getting worse.”

“Just ride it out.”

“I don’t see how we can do that.”

“George, we’re talking about a very old man. And yes, maybe he has lost his grip on reality. That’s a much more likely event than secret Moon landings. I mean, look, this guy is very likely frustrated because he came so close but didn’t get a chance to go down to the surface. So what happens? It eats at him for a lifetime. After a while, he invents his own reality. Let’s just not get in any deeper. And by the way, you might have the Army tighten security a bit so nobody else can get to him. Do that, and in a few months, when Blackstone makes his flight and doesn’t find a damned thing, the whole business will collapse. and everybody will be laughing at him. You want to be sure you’re on the right side of this. George, let the voters think you’re taking it seriously, and when it comes apart, your reputation will be gone. And I’m sure you noticed this will all be happening during an election season.”

—

Where the hell was the hidden vault containing secrets to which only the president had access? He’d seen it in the movies any number of times. It contained the papers concerning the truth about the Kennedy assassination, what Lincoln had been told about the probable cost of a civil war, what had really brought on the Japanese attack in 1941, and the offstage deal between Kennedy and Khrushchev that had staved off a nuclear exchange during the missile crisis.

There’d been a rumor during the fifties that the Cold War had been a cover. NATO and the USSR were in an arms race, but not against each other. The arsenals were being assembled for use against invading aliens. Yes, they were on their way. The

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