The Andromeda Evolution by Michael Crichton

Author:Michael Crichton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

Dawn Strike

IN THE HOT, HUMID AIR A THOUSAND FEET ABOVE THE Ucayali region of the western Amazon jungle, the gleaming skins of four F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter aircraft blazed pink with the first rays of dawn. Headed east, the jets roared at roughly the speed of sound directly toward a breathtaking orange-red eye rising over a vista of roiling green jungle. A thin expanse of mist rose over it all. The early-morning dew was evaporating, beading the silver jets with streaks of moisture.

The labyrinthine interior of the jungle below had remained impenetrable to wave upon wave of human civilization. It was a place where countless explorers had spent centuries searching in vain for mysterious artifacts.

Now, one had finally appeared.

No mist rose near the anomaly, only a foreboding pall of smoke trickling up from smoldering tree branches. After a series of mitotic growth events, the structure had stabilized on satellite footage as a long, slightly curved wall soaring nearly three hundred feet high at its center. On its northern side, a stagnant brown lake had formed where the river was blocked. A narrow shaft rose straight out of the water, a surreal sight at more than three-quarters of a mile tall. To the south, a stream ran out from under the obstacle, tracing a glittering trail along the wide banks of its former route.

Over six thousand miles away, General Stern stood in the wings of the launch control center in Peterson Air Force Base. The room had been built to accommodate the occasional public performance, with a viewing area for dignitaries or politicians to be photographed triumphantly overseeing a successful launch. At the rear, a pair of discreet doors allowed such celebrities to disappear without photo opportunities if things were to go explosively wrong, as they so often did.

It was after 3:00 a.m., yet the control center was crowded with experts of all kinds. Each of them had been called in to ensure the maximum probability of success for what was admittedly a desperate plan.

To that end, Stern had seized dedicated clearance from the CIA for the spectacularly expensive NIX-3 series reconnaissance satellite cluster. So far, the sensors had detected alarming levels of growth from the anomaly, and no trace of the Wildfire field team. The scientists had been lost somewhere between their last contact with the ISS and the anomaly perimeter.

Lost . . . and now, eighteen hours after a missed rendezvous, categorically presumed dead.

With a live view of the dark anomaly, the plan was to drop stripes of napalm along its outer edges. The infected area would be cauterized, isolated from the living jungle. Napalm would be followed by a payload of classified inhibitor substance—with the hope that it would shrink the structure, or at least ensure it didn’t start growing again.

The plan was desperate for a variety of reasons.

First, it broke quarantine and potentially exposed the aircraft and pilots to a highly infectious strain of Andromeda. Second, executing an airstrike on foreign soil was the definition of an

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