Gantt's brows knitted in concentration.
'We're ahead of you there, Alex,' Danielson smiled slightly, her voice touched with pride. 'I made up a similar list of sites after we got back from La Jolla. Bob Isaacs had ordered up a photomontage along the trajectory several months ago. The problem was we didn't know what to look for, and there was too much area to cover. He just told me that we are collecting new satellite photos of the spots on my list; they'll be ready tomorrow morning.'
She craned her neck and looked down his list, flipping the pages back and forth.
'I think I've got everything you have here, and a few more. Here in Chile , for instance, north of Santiago. There's a shallow valley there and actually two points, not just one, a few kilometres apart.'
She looked up at Runyan, and he locked her eyes with a long, cool stare. Then he gave her a broad, friendly wink, and her heart jumped.
'You said you had three points?' Gantt prompted him to continue.
'This may be a bit more subtle, but just as important.' Runyan leaned forward and put his stack of computer printout on the ground. He retrieved his cup from Gantt rod poured himself a small bit of bourbon. Resting his upper forearms on both knees and rotating the cup between his palms, he looked up at Danielson from beneath his brows. 'Let me ask you, why is there such a small motion with respect to the surface?'
'But you just answered that!' objected Danielson. 'Its motion at its highest point is set by the initial conditions with which it's released. If it moved with the surface at first, it always will.'
'Always?'
Danielson stopped and stared at the bewhiskered scientist, her eyes shifting back and forth between his. Finally she said, 'You said earlier there must be perturbations, friction. The orbit can't be perfect, it must shift slowly with time.'
'Now I'm with you,' broke in Gantt. 'The orbit must shift slowly with time, but it hasn't shifted much.' He looked at both of them. 'So it hasn't had time.'
'That's just the sort of dung I've been trying to compute,' fold Runyan. 'My model isn't perfect yet, but I have some Feeling for the scale of dungs. I would have to say this thing couldn't have been around for more than ten years, and probably less.'
'What you're saying,' said Danielson, 'is that we only picked up a record of it recently because it's only been around recently.'
'Let me get this straight then,' Gantt said slowly. 'You're arguing that someone or something, somehow, made a black hole of about ten million tons not more than a few years ago, releasing it at rest from a point on the earth's surface about six thousand feet above sea level.' His forehead wrinkled in consternation.
'When we examine those places,' Danielson said, pointing at the computer paper at Runyan's feet, 'do you expect to see something definite?'
'Maybe not,' said Gantt, looking at Runyan. 'Granted that we're dealing with a small black hole, and that it was created artificially, which seems to follow.'
Runyan nodded assent.
'Then,' Gantt continued, 'we're also talking about something beyond our technological feasibility. Suppose the only thing remaining at the "launch site", if I may call it that, is a burned spot and the impression of three round pods — I believe that's the classical imprint of a UFO.'
'If we know where to look, we can find that too,' said Danielson, 'if not with satellites, then a direct fly-over.'
'I suppose we must keep an open mind,' said Runyan, 'but I have a feeling that the clues will be more definite.'
They lapsed into silence. Gantt broke it with a shake of his head. 'I'm sorry,' he said, 'but despite the evidence, I find the whole thing too incredible to believe. An artificial black hole planted here in the earth — I mean, my god!' He raised his hands and eyes in an imploring salute to the skies.
'Alex,' he continued, 'you said a while ago you were relieved the issue was now out in the open. I must say I don't feel that way at all. After all, proving that we are dealing with a black hole is only the tip of the iceberg. Until we know who and why, we've barely begun to plumb the mystery. The most stupendous, terrifying, and profound aspects of this situation would seem to be before us.'
He was silent for a moment and muttered, 'Christ,' and poured himself another jigger of bourbon and drank it off.
Runyan had slumped in his chair, chin on his chest. 'I suppose you could be right, Ellison,' he said. 'I have a hazy idea of what's going on that suggests to me that, conceptually anyway, we're over the hump.'
'How could we be? What in the world are you thinking?' Gantt demanded.
Runyan waved him off with a hand. 'It's too vague. I'm probably being naive or stupid or both.'
Gantt glared at him, uncomfortable with this dismissal. At last he said, 'Well, I don't know about you, but I'll go nuts if I just sit here and think about it. I've got to do something.' He stood up and looked around impatiently.
'Should we have another look for a hole in the ground?' asked Danielson. 'I really wasn't very thorough.'
'We could do that,' agreed Gantt. 'We don't really want to attract too much attention to what went on here. On the other hand, if we don't look now, any sign may get covered up by people shuffling around.'
The moment of tenseness forgotten, they discussed the problem of security for a while and finally decided they would stage a reenactment. This would show who was knocked down by the passage of the hole, thus showing where to look without giving away their object. Gantt would then order some rearrangement of equipment which would occupy most of the members of the entourage. This would give Runyan and Danielson a chance to search the ground for signs of penetration without drawing notice.
They put this plan into action with Runyan noting the vicinity where the hole had come up and Danielson several hundred feet away locating where it had descended.
Then Gantt gave orders to set up a fourth instrumentation site outside of camp and prepare accommodations for Runyan and Danielson, a legitimate task postponed earlier. Danielson joined Runyan. For the next few minutes they assiduously searched the several square yards just outside the main tent, Runyan erect and Danielson in a low crouch.
'Let's try something else,' Runyan finally said. He directed Danielson to stand against the tent wall.
'Now I'm going to jump and stamp — you look for some sign of settling dirt.'
He launched himself upward and came down with a satisfying thud. He looked at the ground as Danielson peered around. They looked up at one another and shrugged. Runyan repeated the faintly ludicrous operation, working systematically across the suspect area.
On the fifth try, Danielson pointed, 'There, just by your left foot.'
Two small stones were wedged in a depression, but as they looked a trickle of loose dirt sifted beneath the stones and disappeared.
Runyan crouched and carefully plucked away one of the stones in each hand. Beneath them was a hole in the sun— baked clay soil the size of a finger. Danielson jogged over to Gantt's tent and returned with a coat hanger under her arm and another she busily untwisted. When she straightened the hanger, she lowered it slowly into the hole. It met only minor resistance and sank to the hook which remained on the-edge, marking the spot.
They walked to the second location and after a brief search found another hole. Again, they straightened a coat hanger and embedded it to mark the spot. Runyan rummaged up a tape measure he had spotted in the main instrumentation tent, and they marked off the distance between the two holes, which Runyan recorded in a small notebook in his pocket.
'Alex,' Danielson asked as they headed back to Gantt's tent, 'is there a special significance to the fact that it came down a bit further to the east? Is that related to the earth's rotation from west to east?'