Deception Point (2001), a techno-thriller by Dan Brown: summary

I received this book as a present. The techno-thriller is published by Corgi, Penguin Random House Group in 2016 and it consists of 582 pages.

Since I’ve read The Lost Symbol and Inferno, it’s kind of a little bit weird to read this book. Seemingly Mr. Brown is superb in historical, classical works, and symbology. But overall, the book is well-researched and well-written too. Like the two succeeded novels that I’ve read, the author uses idiomatic expression and grammars which will teach us and explore our vocabulary knowledge.

It’s rich of facts about NASA – the failure and the success, astrophysics, paleontology, glaciology, and technology’s weaponry, White House touring, politics, family, betrayal and love. If you love to read about NASA’s administration with politics in which is linked to astrophysics, paleontology, glaciology, hi-tech weaponry, and action, then you may give this book a try.

Deception Point (2001), Dan Brown: summary

The woman was attractive, in her mid-thirties. Her posture was straight - not arrogant, but just strong. She just stepped into a luxury restaurant, adjacent to Capitol Hill. Few women dined at that restaurant and even fewer who looked liked Rachel Sexton. Senator Thomas Sedgewik Sexton was a regular there, and currently one of the country’s most famous men. He was virtually guaranteed his party’s nomination for President of United States.

When Rachel arrived at her father’s table, the senator was in his cellphone talking loudly. The man was a silver-haired, silver-tounged political animal who anointed with the slick look of a soap opera doctor, seemed appropriate considering his talents of impersonation. Senator asked her about the last proposition and now he offered a new proposition- some prominent divorce looking for a wife.

A reporter asked the senator about the conflict of interest between him and his daughter. Senator Sexton exploded in laughter, he and the President were not opponents, and his daughter was not employed by the President; she was employed by the intelligence community. She complied the intel reports and sent them to White House.

Rachel’s mother had died three years ago, a devastating loss whose emotional scars still raked at Rachel’s heart. The death had liberated her mother from a deep despair over a miserable marriage to the senator.

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), NRO technologies not only helped the U.S win military conflicts, but they provided an endless stream of peacetime data to agencies such as the CIA, NSA, and Department of Defense, helping them thwart the terrorism, locate crimes against the environment, and give policy makers the data needed to make informed decisions on an enormous array of topics. Rachel worked there as a gister. Gisting or data reduction, required analyzing complex reports and distilling their essence in concise, single page briefs. The NRO was defense agency and kept all of its space activities classified, while NASA was academic and excitedly publicized all the breakthroughs around the globe.

PaveHawk helicopter one of the fastest choppers ever made, had waited for her. President invited her to White House, but in fact, the pilot brought her to Wallops Island. Wallops Island was one of NASA’s oldest launch sites. Still used today for satellite launches and testing of experimental aircraft, Wallops was NASA’s base away from the spotlight. The PaveHawk settled onto the runway beside the President’s plane, Air Force One. It was the room used for meetings, entertaining, and dignities, she would get an assignment from President in that space.

A NASA project called EOS (Earth Observation System). It was one of NASA’s most controversial big ticket ventures – a constellation of five satellites designed to look down from space and analyze the planet’s environment: ozone depletion, polar ice melt, global warming, and rainforest defoliation. Unfortunately the EOS project been wrought with failure.

No failure had been more dramatic than that of 12 August 1998, when a NASA/Air Force Titan 4 rocket blew up forty seconds into launch and obliterated its payload—a $1,2 billion.

NASA has just made a discovery of such scientific importance that it validated every dollar American have ever had in space. Rachel was consistently appalled by theories–crashed alien saucers hidden in secret government bunkers, extraterrestrial corpses kept on ice, even unsuspecting civilians being abducted and surgically probed. It was all absurd, there were no aliens. No cover-ups. Everyone in intelligence community understood that the vast majority of sightings and alien abductions were simply the product of active imaginations or moneymaking hoaxes.

To protect NASA, President Zachary Herney asked the discovery under wraps. It was prudent for someone to double-check the NASA data before stepping into the world spotlight with a formal announcement. President put together an external confirmation team – four civilian scientists – non-NASA personnel with big names and serious reputations to protect. They used their own equipment to make observations and come to their own conclusion.

The civilian scientists had confirmed the NASA discovery beyond the shadow of doubt. A press conference at the White House to announce the discovery to the world, and Rachel would be briefed by the administrator of NASA to announce it. Like Rachel’s boss had said President used her as pawn for his political benefit. President had used his opponent’s daughter to win the election.

Marjorie Tench was an avid supporter of high-tech government R&D programs, and most important –NASA. Many believed it was Tench’s behind-the scenes pressure that kept the President positioned staunchly behind the failing space agency.

Gabrielle Ashe, his twenty-four-year-old personal assistant’s perfect read him his daily schedule. Sexton was barely listening. She was African–American, but her tawny coloring was more of a deep cinnamon or mahogany, the kind of comfortable in between that Sexton knew bleeding heart ‘whites’ could endorse without feeling like they were giving away the farm. Gabrielle had been tremendous asset to his campaign since he had promoted her to personal assistant. Sexton described Gabrielle to his cronies as Halle Berry’s looks with Hillary’s Clinton’ brains and ambition, although sometimes he thought even that was understatement. Gabrielle had been a tremendous asset to his campaign since he’d promoted her to his personal campaign assistant. Their relationship had been strictly on business ever since.

Sexton would have preferred to meet the man in his suite upstairs, but he certainly understood the precautions. As he moved toward the van, he felt familiar edginess that he always experienced before those encounters. The man who almost seventy years old, but his leathery complexion excluded a toughness appropriate to his post as figurehead of an army brazen visionaries and ruthless entrepreneurs. Those meetings, Sexton had come to understand, were less strategy sessions than they were monthly reminders of just beholden the senator had become to his benefactors. These men were expecting a serious return on their investment.

The US Delta Force is the sole fighting squad whose actions are granted complete presidential immunity from law. Delta Force soldiers are trained killers—experts in SWAT operations, rescuing hostages, surprise raids, and elimination of covert enemy forces. Because Delta Force missions usually involve high level secrecy, they had monocaput management-- a single controller who holds the authority to control the unit as he or she fits. Regardless of the identity of the controller, Delta Fore missions are classified at the highest level, and one mission is completed, Delta Force soldiers never speak of it again.

Delta team has used a flying microbot to induce a lethal heart attack in a particularly malicious South American drug lords. More recently, another microbotic stationed inside a prominent senator’s office to monitor his personal meetings had captured images of a lurid sexual encounter. Delta-One had been trained never feel any emotion regarding his assignments. The briefings had been faceless- every phase explained via secure electronic channels. Delta-One had never met the controller responsible for the mission.

Rachel was sent the Milne Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island, a remote landmass located above the Eightieth Parallel in high Arctic Ocean, as a White House intelligence liaison. She would give a private briefing to president’s staff. When the President had told Rachel he had recruited top-notch civilian scientists to authenticate NASA’s discovery, she had imagined a group of wizened nerds with monogrammed calculators. Michael Tolland was the antithesis. One of the best known‘science celebrities in America, he hosted a weekly documentary about oceanic phenomena- underwater volcanoes, ten-foot sea worms and killer tidal waves. The media hailed Tolland as a cross between Jacques Cousteau and Carl Sagan, crediting his knowledge, unpretentious enthusiasm, and lust for adventure.

The famous Corky Marlinson was legendary among NRO satellite engineers. Prize-winning astrophysicist showed Rachel and Tolland three small rock samples. All appeared spheroids about the size of golf balls.

All meteorites consist of varying amounts of nickel-iron alloys, silicates, and sulfides. The first sample had a light-greenish tint, the second rock looked like a collage of colorful angular fragments resembling a kaleidoscopic puzzle, and the third and the final sample resembling granite. The meteorite contained the fossil of a bug that hardly to call it insect from space, since insects have three pairs of legs not seven legs. The bug was a proof of life elsewhere in the universe.

Insects were members of the phylum Arthropoda—creatures having hard outer skeletons and jointed legs. With over 1.25 million known species and an estimated five hundreds thousand still be classified, earth’s bug outnumbered all of the other animals combined. They made up 95 percent of all the planet’s species and astounding 40 percent of the planet’s biomass.

Dr Wailee Ming, chairman of paleontology at UCLA. His paleontology specialty was extinct Arthropoda and Mygalomorphae. The most impressive characteristic of organism was that it fit perfectly into Darwinian system of terrestrial taxonomy and classification. Earth’s bugs stay relatively small because gravity keeps them in check. They can’t grow larger than their exoskeleton can support. Howewer, on a planet with diminished gravity, insects could involve to much greater dimensions.

The species came from entirely different environment. Panspermia is the theory that life was seed here from another planet. Earth was once lifeless planet. Many biologists think the explosion of life was the magical result of an ideal mixture of elements in the primordial seas.

Infamous 1997 NASA discovery ALH84001- a Mars meteorite that NASA claimed contained fossil traces of bacterial life. Only after weeks after NASA’s triumphant press conference, several civilian scientists stepped forward with proof that the rock signs of life were really nothing more than kerogen produced by terrestrial contamination. NASA realized the true potential of Hollywood as a public relations powerhouse. NASA quietly began offering film companies free filming access to all dramatic facilities- launchpads, mission control, training facilities.

Dr Norah Manor, Glaciologist from University New Hampshire, was the fourth and final civilian scientist recruited by President. Mangor drilled her own cores, ran own tests, and confirmed NASA’s work.

The meteorite was dated on 1716, the exact same year meteorite Jungersol Fall landed, and seemingly it was coincidental moment. The meteorite was under thousands of tons of ice. It’s been the ice untouched and unaffected since it landed over northern Canada in 1716. The meteor named the Jungersol Fall, after the name of exploration’s leader.

Norah examined the glacier is a snow pack, pure freshwater. The ice data is showing a three percent saltwater mix in the meteorite shaft which contradicted the glaciology report that the meteorite was encased in a pristine freshwater glacier. There were frozen plankton in the glacier meanwhile saltwater and plankton in the pool.

The Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) was the union for private space companies. It represented aerospace contractors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists- any private entity that wanted to go into space. They tended to be critical of NASA, arguing that the U.S space program employed unfair business practices to prevent private companies from launching missions into space. It represented over a hundred major corporations. For obvious reasons the SFF was a vocal supporter of Sexton’s campaign. Sexton would pass the commercialization bill and privatized NASA if elected.

Marjorie Tench held photos revealed secret meetings with organization that represented private meetings with an organization. Senator Sexton was engaged in illegal campaign financing. Some photos of Gabrielle and Sexton’s affair, Marjorie used them as the blackmail. The photos wouldn’t be publicized if Gabrielle gave an affidavit admitting that she slept with Senator by eight o’clock before the President’s press conference.

The instrument looked like three miniature snowplow blades that had been affixed in parallel to an aluminum frame. The entire device was no more than a yard long and was connected by cables to a current attenuator and a marine battery on the sled. GPR was far more equipped to see brine ice than PODS was. The GPR transmitter sent pulses of electromagnetic energy through ice. From Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) printout data, four civilian scientists learned a body in a pit.

The Milne Ice Shelf was floating over the ocean with plenty of clearance for a submersible. Dr. Mangor found the meteorite wasn’t part of Jungersol Fall. The printout of GPR captured Ming’s body in the extraction pit. Ming accidently fell on the pit.

GPR printout was the evidence of the mysterious insertion tunnel beneath the meteorite. It was inserted in the ice recently. They were tricked. President was about to go to public with all wrong data. NASA tricked him.

Someone with military clearance almost shot Rachel. The three scientists and Rachel ran and there was no option except a frigid sea. The attackers had positioned themselves high on the glacier. Calmy as if knowing they had already won the battle, the figures coasted to a stop beside their closest victim- unconscious Norah Mangor. One of the IM ice rifles had found its mark and knocked her unconscious.

Packing the snow, Delta-One opened her mouth and began stuffing it down her throat. The technique, invented by Russian mafia, was called the byelaya smert- white death. The victim would suffocate long before the snow in her throat melted. Her body would stay warm long enough to dissolve the blockage. Even if foul play were suspected, no murder weapon or evidence of violence would be apparent immediately.

Rachel held no thoughts for the meteorite, the mysterious GPR printout in her pocket, Ming, the horrific attack on ice sheet. Somewhere ahead them, the balloon billowed, fat with wind, like a parachute on the back of a dragster. The Millar balloon, as if angered at having been momentarily restrained, lurched forward now, pulling even harder, dragging them down the glacier toward the Arctic Ocean.

The nuclear submarine Charlotte had been stationed in the Artic Ocean for days. The Charlotte was designed to listen and not to be heard. The navy submarine crew had saved them. Corky, Mike, and Rachel. The president was about to give a live press conference, he was about to make a terrible mistake. Rachel insisted to call him. Marjorie Tench was doubtful to identify the caller since Rachel used unsecured line to interrupt a major presidential broadcast. Although Rachel had said meteorite data was wrong. Tench assumed Rachel Sexton was obviously intent in destroying the credibility of discovery and President. She confirmed William Pickering.

In a brief time the President announced the discovery. NASA administrator Lawrence Ekstrom really knew the President told lies.

The Roswell incident in 1947 –the alleged crash of an alien spaceship in Roswell, New Mexico, which now the shrine to millions of UFO-conspiracy theorist even today. The Roswell incident had been nothing more than a military incident during a classified operation called Project Mogul-the flight test of a spy balloon being designed to listen in on Russian atomic tests. A prototype, while being tested, had drifted off course and crashed in the New Mexico desert. Unfortunately, a civilian found the wreckage before the military did. Newspapers carried the story of the bizarre wreckage, and public interest grew fast. They grab alien story and ran with it. In fact, there is no alien spaceship. The simple deception was still working today. It’s pathetic that countless tourists still made pilgrimages to New Mexico desert.

Rachel felt no sympathy for her father, and yet she now realized that beneath the warm and the fuzzy exterior of President Zach Herney, a shrewd shark lurked.

William Pickering had been devastated. His daughter, Diana, had died in the Red Sea while stationed abroad a small navy escort ship, training to become a navigator. Diana and thirteen other young soldiers had been killed that day.

Senator Sexton found NASA lied about Polar Orbiting Density Scanner Satellite (PODS). Now Sexton needed inside information. Gabrielle Ashe was sent to NASA to investigate it. Chris Harper, Section Manager PODS, admitted PODS had nothing to do with the discovery. The NASA administrator knew the meteorite existed, he simply gave him the coordinates and told him to reposition PODS over ice shelf and pretended PODS made the discovery.

NASA could praise PODS located the meteorite, then NASA praise PODS as much needed success and boosted the President before the election. PODS didn’t locate the meteorite in the ice, a Canadian geologist named Charles Brophy. He was killed by the storm. He radioed it in, NASA happened to intercept the transmission. The meteorite was originally discovered by a Canadian geologist.

Employing NRO assets, William Pickering had discreetly or Sexton obtained enough dirt on senator campaign-scandalous sexual photos of senator with his aide Gabrielle Ashe, incriminating financial records proving Sexton was taking bribes from private space companies. Pickering anonymously sent all the evidences tote Marjorie Tench, assuming the White House would use it wisely. But Herney, upon seeing data, had forbidden Tench use it. Although Herney knew he could destroy Sexton with the scandal, the cost would be besmirching the dignity of the U.S. Senate, something Herney refused to do. The NRO director’s attempts to help Herney’s campaign were simply fears over the fate of NASA. NASA was desperate for a triumph.

Sexton’s fax machine suddenly ringing, he couldn’t believe on Rachel’s message. Meteorite was fake, NASA and White House were trying to kill her. No day in Sexton career had been filled with such extreme high and lows. He would go public the information, the presidency was his. In his upwelling the celebration, Senator Sedgewick Sexton had momentarily forgotten his daughter’s claim that she was in trouble. William Pickering called him, told him Rachel was in extreme danger. If he went public the information, Rachel would die. Gabrielle had warned him to save his daughter, he needed to accomplish his dreams. Nothing could stop him now- not claims of bribery, not rumors of sex.

Mike and Rachel were prisoners to Pickering in deck of a ship named Goya. A grafting howl of failing metal tore up from beneath the ship like a massive table losing one of its four legs. The Goya began collapsing under its own weight. A chopper brought Tolland and Rachel from the wreckage ship. Looking out, they could see William Pickering kneeling in his black coat at the upper railing of the doomed ship.

Rachel arrived and asked her father to cancel the announcement. Sedgewick Sexton had already forgotten his daughter by the time he turned back toward the jostling media. Surprisingly, one of the reporters handed him the scandalous pictures. In horror, Sexton’s head snapped up to the crowd. President owed his thanks to Gabrielle Ashe. Zach Herney was in his way to admit the biggest mistake of his, life. The Coast Guard chopper at the President’s command, had transported an exhausted Michael Tolland, Rachel Sexton and Corky Marlinson to the White House.

Sekapur Sirih

Tekno-thriller ini adalah hadiah Natal dari seorang sahabat pada Desember 2016 silam, terima kasih padanya. Ini ketiga kali menikmati, sekaligus menjadi postingan ketiga karya novelis handal Dan Brown. Edisi ini, buku setebal 582 halaman, diterbitkan Corgi Books yang merupakan grup Penguin, New York 2016, sedangkan cetakan pertamanya pada tahun 2001.

Kritik sosial Brown terhadap kemunafikan politikus, NASA, teknologi senjata dan telekomunikasi, pengaruh politik dalam sains, teknologi kelautan, ilmu sains tentang es, persenjataan, diwarnai kasih serta penghianatan dalam keluarga. Banyak mengandung fakta-fakta menarik termasuk pencucian otak berhasil dilakukan para peraup keuntungan (Hollywood) tentang sosok alien dan UFO.

Fakta sesungguhnya makhuk Extraterrestrial (ET) itu berbentuk serangga bukan sosok hijau bermata besar. Teori panspermia yang mendukung serangga yang diduga menyelip dalam meteor ketika terhempas ke bumi, seirama juga dengan Darwinian. Tentu saja para ilmuwan NASA menganggap teori alien dan UFO adalah hoax. Manusia sudah dicuciotak dengan sosok alien yang dipergunakan untuk mendulang keuntungan oleh sekelompok orang.  UFO juga tidak pernah ada, piring terbang yang dipercaya selama ini adalah pesawat NASA yang sedang  latihan.

Awal dari mitos: sebuah pesawat luar angkasa NASA saat percobaan jatuh di daerah New Mexico tahun 1947, sekarang dikenal sebagai Area 51. Seorang sipil mendahului menemukan pecahan pesawat sebelum pihak NASA, dan ia langsung menghubungi media. Walau sudah diluruskan NASA, itu adalah mereka akan tetapi media dan Hollywood lebih memilih memercayainya, mencuciotak penontonnya, bahkan Area 51 dijadikan tujuan wisata orang-orang.

Setelah menikmati dua karya Brown sebelumnya; the Lost Symbol dan Inferno, beralih pada novel ini, serasa ada cita rasa yang kurang, sepertinya penulis Brown lebih jitu dan bernyawa pada thriller berbasis sejarah, budaya, dan sastra klasik dibanding berbasis tema tekno-sains.

Mengesampingkan hal tersebut, riset dalam penulis tentang NASA, astrofisika, paleontology khususnya antropoda, dan glaciology, dan teknologi komunikasi dan senjata. Dari segi bahasa dan penulisan, Dan Brown selalu berhasil menganyam rangkaian kalimat berkualitas, cerdas, berbobot, serta indah.

Terjemahan (Ringkasan) dalam Bahasa Indonesia: Deception Point (2001), Dan Brown

Wanita berpemanpilan menarik dan bertubuh padat baru saja memasuki sebuah restauran mewah di bilangan Capitol Hill, Washington DC. Sosok elegan yang menjadi sorotan kamera, mendekati meja ayahnya, seorang politisi besar yang telah berhasil menyisihkan kandidat lain dalam partainya, calon kuat sebagai Presiden Amerika. Pertemuan yang jarang antara ayah dan anak, baru beberapa menit polah ayahnya sudah membuat Rachel kesal, apalagi ketika ayahnya menanyakan lelaki terakhir yang dijodohkan padanya. Kembali ayahnya, menyodorkan seorang duda mapan yang tengah mencari istri.

Jurnalis telah mencium jika Senator pasti akan meminta putrinya untuk mundur dari pekerjaannya, demi mendukung pencalonannya. Rachel sendiri lebih mencintai pfofrsinya. Senator Thomas Sedgewik Sexton dengan lugas menegaskan dua hal: Presiden bukanlah musuhnya dan putrinya hanya sebagai pekerja pada lembaga penyimpanan data intelijen negara dan tidak pernah direkrut langsung oleh Presiden.

Bila sudah menyinggung NASA, suhu politik akan selalu memanas. Serangan Senator Saxton di berbagai media menentang NASA. Salah satu kelemahan terkini Presiden, kegagalan proyek-proyek NASA yang telah menghabiskan timbunan dolar tanpa hasil jelas, memicu kemarahan pembayar pajak. Presiden sangat mendukung NASA, sebaliknya Sexton akan mengakhiri NASA bila ia terpilih kelak. Perdebatan seru pun terjadi pada acara debat di CNN, rupanya Presiden juga terpancing dan menurunkan stafnya dan penasehat senior Marjorie Tench, sosok wanita cerdas, tangguh, dan pendukung NASA. Ia  mantan reporter sains dan teknologi.

NRO, lembaga intelijen yang bertugas menyimpan data rahasia, bila NASA dengan bangga mengumumkan keberhasilannya maka NRO adalah tim yang solid meyimpan kerahasiaan dan meringkas hasil penemuan NASA ke Presiden. Rachel Sexton adalah seorang gister, atau penganalisa dan perangkum data rahasia untuk dilaporkan ke Presiden. Kepala NRO menaruh curiga, ketika Presiden meminta stafnya ke Gedung Putih, sebagai direktur NRO, William Pickering, berpesan agar Rachel berhati-hati dan jangan sampai dijadikan pion politik Presiden.

Helikopter terbaru dan tercepat menjemput Rachel yang dipertemukan dengan Presiden Zachary Herney dalam pesawat kepresidenan Air Force One. Wanita berusia tiga puluh empat tahun itu sangat terkagum akan ruangan pertemuan dalam pesawat itu. NASA telah baru saja berhasil dengan penemuan baru, sesuatu yang akan menggemparkan, namun sebelum diumumkan ke publik dan dunia, Presiden meminta empat ilmuwan sipil untuk mengobservasi temuan tersebut.

Pada faktanya, NASA pernah salah dalam melakukan analisa temuannya. Kejadian tahun 1998, NASA mengklaim sebuah temuan, namun hanya beberapa minggu kemudian kelompok saintis sipil mematahkan dan sekaligus mempermalukan NASA. Demi melindungi NASA, Presiden meminta empat orang ilmuwan luar dan Rachel sebagai wakil Gedung Putih yang akan menganalisa terlebih dahulu, merangkumnya, serta mengumumkan secara langsung hasilnya pada staf kepresidenan.

Hatinya bergejolak menerima tugas Presiden, mengingat pengkhianatan ayahnya, ia seperti ingin balas dendam. Ayahnya telah melukai ibunya sepanjang waktu. Khaterine Sexton telah meninggal dunia, tewas dalam sebuah kecelakaan tiga tahun sebelumnya. Ia meratapi kepergiannya, tapi satu sisi ia senang, kematian yang mengakhiri penderitaan ibunya. Selain sifat opurtunisnya, silih berganti wanita menjadi koleksi Sexton, ibunya mempertahankan pernikahannya. Saat Rachel mendesak perceraian, Khaterine sangat teguh pada janji suci mereka: dalam susah dan senang harus bersama hingga maut memisahkan.

Delta Force One adalah orang cekatan yang dilatih seperti SWAT dan memiliki manajemen monocaput yakni manejemen terselubung, bahkan siapa ketua dan pemberi instruksi tidak saling kenal, perintah dilakukan dengan lewat pesan dan kabel, pekerjaan pun tidak pernah diungkapkan pada siapapun. Tanpa pernah bertemu muka.

Delta Force menggunakan teknologi terbaru monorobotik, yakni alat yang mampu masuk ke wilayah target dan membunuh target. Mereka baru-baru ini menempatkan alat pemantau di kantor Senator Sexton, tanpa sepengetahuan. Dengan bebas mereka mengetahui semua informasi tentang pergerakan kampanye Senator Sexton bahkan hal bersifat pribadinya. Tim Delta-Force hanya bisa menggelengkan kepala menyaksikan aktifitas seks Senator Sexton dengan asistennya Gabrielle Ashe.

Gabrielle Ashe, gadis muda berkulit hitam, baru saja diangkat menjadi asisten untuk kampanye Senator Sexton. Kepada kroninya, Senator Sexton menggambarkan Gabrielle sebagai gadis menawan bak Halle Berry dan kecerdasan bak ambisi Hillary Clinton. Sang Senator sempat terlibat asmara, namun mereka sepakat profesional masalah pekerjaan.

Setumpuk data transfer, dan foto-foto bukti Senator Sextor mengadakan pertemuan dengan pengusaha kaya antariksa, anggota dari organisasi pengusaha swasta antariksa SFF, ada ratusan perusahaan yang tergabung. Delta-One berhasil mengintai kegiatan Sexton dengan teknologi terbaru mereka. Kelompok pengusaha yang menginginkan privatisasi NASA, sederetan kegagalan NASA, ditambah telah menyedot dana besar menjadi sorotan.

Kelemahan ini dimanfaatkan para pengusaha tesebut agar NASA ditutup dan yang dikelola swasta. Tentu saja mereka pendukung sejati Sexton dengan kesepakatan. Dana besar dari SFF telah banyak masuk membiayai kampanye Sexton. Lain pemikiran, Presiden Herney menilai apabila pengelola antariksa dikelola swasta akan berbahaya, mereka akan mengomersilkan dan mengeksploitasi antariksa, selain itu juga bisa membawa ancaman bagi negara-negara di dunia.

Pilot yang menerbangkannya sama sekali tidak memberi informasi apapun, Rachel baru menyadari jika ia berada di Artik. Dalam perkiraan Rachel ia akan bertemu dengan empat saintis paling hebat, tetapi bertolak belakang. Michael Tolland dikenal dengan selebriti sains, pembawa acara dan pemilik sebuah acara televisi program dokumenter tentang gempa dan kehidupan bawah laut. Lelaki tampan dan menawan itupun mengaku admisitrasi NASA juga meragukannya, Presiden memintanya meliput dan menjadikan temuan NASA menjadi sebuah dokumenter.

Raut kegembiraan wajah Rachel tak bisa disembunyikan ketika bertemu pemenang penghargaan astrofisika Dr Corky Marlinson. Sang ilmuwan juga pernah terlibat perancangan satelit NRO, Rachel mengaguminya. Saintis yang masih menyimpan kesedihan ditinggal mati istrinya, mencurahkan pikiran dan waktunya pada penelitian. Ia membawanya dan menunjukkan sampel tiga buah batu yang sudah diiris. Batu pertama berwarna hijau, yang kedua berwarna coklat dan yang ketiga seperti granat.

Menurut para ilmuwan pada dasarnya batu meteor mengandung unsur yang sama yakni nikel, silikat, dan sulfide. Dalam salah satu batu ditemukan fosil serangga, yang diduga menjadi serangga dari planet lain. Sebenarnya bila digolongkan serangga juga sulit karena biasanya serangga berkaki tiga dan ini berkaki tujuh. Saintis ketiga adalah Norah Mangor ahli dalam es, dan terakhir Wailee Ming paleontologis, membidangi makhuk langka yakni antropoda, serangga.

Setelah melewati uji lab oleh para ilmuwan dan analisa data yang dilakukan Rachel sebagai wakil Gedung Putih, Presiden Herney pun dengan bangga mengumumkan  penemuan meteor yang spektakuler. Hanya beberapa menit sebelum pengumuman Rachel menelpon langsung ke Gedung Putih, memberitahu bahwa penemuan itu palsu.

Bagi Marjorie Tench, telepon Rachel diragukan- siapa yang dapat memastikan itu suara Rachel- kenapa tidak lewat bosnya- kenapa melalui telepon yang tidak aman. Bisa saja Rachel ingin menjatuhkan Presiden dan menguntungkan ayahnya. Resah dan tidak tenang, Tench membiarkan. Dengan bangga Presiden mengumumkan penemuan spektakuler fosil serangga berkaki ganjil terselip pada meteor, membuktikan pada dunia bahwa ada kehidupan di luar bumi, ektraterristrial (ET).

Tench mengonfirmasi laporan koreksi Rachel pada pejabat tinggi NRO, Pickering malah mengaku tidak tahu-menahu keberadaan Rachel. Pickering meminta bertemu Tench, sejak itu pula tidak satu pun yang mengetahui keberadaan Tench.

Di satu sisi, Sexton menerima video dari anggota SFF yang membuatnya menyimpulkan NASA bagian deteksi satelit, PODS, telah berbohong. Gabrielle Ashe pun menyelinap ke kantor PODS di gedung NASA, menemui manajernya. Ashe berhasil membuatnya bicara dan mengakui bahwa ia disuruh berpura-pura mendeteksi lewat sateli bahwa meteor itu ada di Artika. Padahal sesungguhnya meteor itu adalah temuan dari penelita asal Kanada yang tewas dalam expedisinya, namun sinyalnya masuk tertangkap satelit NASA. Kini Ashe mengantongi kebohongan PODS NASA, tetapi ia masih juga penasaran dengan uang penyuapan.

Sesosok tubuh mengambang, Weilee Ming terpeleset, terjatuh ke dalam lubang es. Selain itu ditemukan juga data ganjil. Dr Mangor menyimpulkan fosil serangga yang diduga dari planet lain telah sengaja dimasukkan ke dalam es, padahal diklaim berumur 300 tahun. Umur batu meteor sama persis dengan Meteor Jungersol Fall, nama yang diambil dari penemunya yakni peneliti Canada, menambah rasa kesangsian, apakah sebuah kebetulan usia meteornya sama. 

Tiba-tiba ada serangan dari pasukan terlatih menyerang dan mengejar mereka. ketiga ilmuwan:  Corky, Mike, Norah dan Rachel berada dalam ancaman serius. Sebelumnya mereka sempat memperoleh hasil print dari data GPR, alat canggih kecil mendeteksi transmisi dan menangkap gambar aktifitas. Bukti tunggal yang memperlihatkan aktifitas penyelipan meteor. Mangor terbunuh, ketiga lainnya berhasil selamat. Tidak banyak pilihan, Laut Artika menjadi tujuan. Kapal Angkatan Laut Amerika Charlotte yang tengah berada di Laut Artic menyelamatkan ketiga penyintas dan Rachel berhasil mengirimkan fax ke Senator Sexton. Pesan meminta pertolongan dan data ganjil NASA.

Mereka tidak berhenti bertanya siapa kelompok bersenjata yang telah membunuh Norah Mangor dan menginginkan kematian ketiganya. Awalnya tudingan pada Presiden Zachary Herney dan administrasi NASA di balik konspirasi itu. Sungguh tidak menyangka jika Kepala NRO, William Pickering-lah adalah otak semua penipuan penemuan meteor dan penyerangan terhadap para ilmuwan. Mangor tealh dibunuh, kini targetn Rachel dan kedua ilmuwan, namun ketiganya berhasil melarikan diri dari Pickering dan tim terlatih Delta-nya.

Suasana di kantor Sexton tengah tegang, Ashe berhasil membuka komputer Senator Sexton, mendapati bukti transfer dari berbagai perusahaan swasta antariksa yang tergabung dalam SFF, dengan dana yang besar. Mulanya Gabrielle Ashe sulit memercayai tindakan kotor Senator Sexton. Menerima dana ilegal demi ambisinya memenangkan kursi Presiden. Gabrielle tertangkap basah berada di ruang kerja sang bos, saat menyelidiki ruang kerja bosnya. Sexton menerima fax Rachel, dengan sangat ambisius ingin mengadakan konfrensi pers, kesempatan emas menjatuhkan lawan politiknya.

Pesan Rachel berisi permintaan tolong, ia tepiskan. Pemalsuan data oleh NASA dan Gedung Putih lebih menarik perhatiannya ketimbang nyawa putrinya, sekaligus anak satu-satunya. Isu penipuan untuk kemenangannya dengan menggelar jumpa pers, kesempatan tajam menjatuhkan NASA dan Presiden Herney. Wartawan begitu antusias. Walau Ashe telah mendesak Sexton selamatkan nyawa Rachel, dan menghentikan pengumuman fax Rachel.

Sangat di luar dugaan, Rachel muncul tiba-tiba, dan memohon pada ayahnya agar tidak mengumumkannya, Rachel menegaskan faxnya itu keliru. Bosnya sendiri, orang yang dinilainya sebagai sosok pelindung, Kepala NRO William Pickering, berada dibalik penipuan penemuan meteor. Faktanya, Presiden dan NASA tidak bersalah. Sexton menghiraukan desakan putrinya. Salah seorang wartawan  menyodorkan sebuah gambar dua orang tanpa busana, Sexton sangat malu melihat foto telanjang dirinya, sejak itu pula tidak ada kabar tentangnya.

Presiden mengaku kelicikan William bak ular, dan membuatnya terpaksa menandatangani sejumlah kesepakatan merugikan. Ketua NRO pernah mengutarakan rencana busuknya, tetapi Presiden tidak setuju menggunakan kampanye negatif apalagi dengan membeberkan foto skandal seks. William mengakui pada Rachel bahwa ia adalah otaknya. Tidak ingin dana NASA berkurang, apalagi ditutup.

Pickering membuat konspirasi penemuan itu. Delta Force dipakai untuk mengintai Sexton, membunuh siapa saja yang menghalangi rencananya; Mangor dan Tench adalah korbannya. Kesalahan NASA: mengklaim penemuan ilmuwan Jungersol Fall milikinya, melakukan deteksi pura-pura. Ilmuwan Kanada itu terbunuh oleh badai dan sonarnya terdeteksi satelit tertangkap NASA. Rachel, Corky, Michael berhasil lolos dari upaya pembunuhan dan Pickering ikut tenggalam dalam sebuah kapal di Laut Artik. Ketiganya dan Gabrielle Ashe pun diundang ke Gedung Putih. Luapan ketertarikan Michael dan Rachel tidak tertahankan, keduanya pun menikmati momen romantis mereka di Gedung Putih.