Glenn Kleier - The Last Day

Lazzlo appeared uncomfortable with this evaluation. “How do we explain the large quantities of raw iron ore debris, then?” he questioned. Having spent most of the day at the ruins supervising the investigation, he was steadfast in his opposition to a retaliatory strike. “Granted it sounds unbelievable, but we can't rule out the possibility of a meteorite impact, as evidence suggests. We're in a period of meteor shower activity!”

“There are just too many damned convenient coincidences,” Goene retorted. “For months, Syria and Iran have been making formal inquiries about the nature of the facility. Even the U.S. has suspicions of our purposes there. And the odds of such a perfectly timed and targeted impact, striking absolutely dead center of the installation during the final phases of activities is beyond calculation! Then there's the trajectory of this ‘meteorite’ — entirely too flat and sustained to have been unpowered, as you claim.”

“Goene is right on all but one account,” Roth concluded. “We were attacked not by missile, but by a super cannon, such as Iraq was developing before Desert Storm. The Jordanians, we presume, discovered what was happening at the center and then, under cover of a meteor shower, propelled an iron ore projectile from a hidden super cannon to destroy it. A cannon would explain the lack of a self-propulsion system. And the Jordanians would have the implausible but defensible argument that we suffered a meteorite hit.”

“All very convincing, gentlemen,” David Lazzlo countered, “except that this projectile is estimated to have weighed over a quarter of a ton at impact. What possible technology exists to hurl an unpowered object of that size over thirty kilometers at such a trajectory?”

“A technology no more incredible than what we had created and what we lost at the laboratory!” an angry Goene snapped back with a forceful logic that shut Lazzlo down completely.

Allowing a moment for claws to retract, presiding General Zerim rendered his judgment. “Reluctantly, I must agree with Ben and Alleza. The meteorite theory is simply not credible. Like it or not, we must support the position of Defense Minister Tamin. The official IDF line, and our preliminary determination, is mat this was an unprovoked attack. We'll continue investigations and determine the source, at which time we'll inflict an appropriate counter-strike. Our forces will stay on full alert until further notice.”

Israeli Negev Research Institute ruins, Negev Desert, southern Israel 9:46 A.M., Sunday, December 26,1999

With Bollinger's blessings, Feldman and Hunter had returned to the desert the next morning to meet their Japanese eyewitnesses. Outside the perimeter lines of the laboratory ruins, there was nothing more to see in the daylight than had been apparent earlier. Most of the millenarians were gone, but the Israeli military were as entrenched and unyielding as ever. The rival media were also on the scene now.

The morning papers added nothing to what Feldman and Hunter had already known, either. As before, the official word of the Israeli Defense Force was that a hostile missile strike had taken place and that no one as yet had claimed responsibility.

“And that damned defense minister, Shaul Tamin, will never hold a press conference when it comes to Israeli security matters,” Hunter complained aloud to Feldman. Watching the Japanese scientists driving up, the cameraman tossed his newspaper in the back seat and swung out of the Rover to meet them. “We need more than a rehash for our follow-up story. Let's see what our scientist friends here can show us.”

Joined by all four astronomers this time, the reporters formed a hasty caravan and, before the other news teams were on to them, motored out into the desert heading due east.

In less than fifteen minutes, the Japanese identified the ravine where they claimed to have discovered the survivor. True to their account, there were discarded bandage wrappers and gauze, trampled brush, tire and cart tracks and footprints in the gravelly sand. But no sign of the survivor or the Bedouins.

Another hour's sweeping search of the vicinity turned up only a few bands of pilgrims and about twenty more kilograms of what the astronomers claimed were meteorite fragments.

“The couple that picked up the survivor are probably headed toward the main highway, and Jerusalem,” Hunter conjectured, and alerted the Japanese that they were breaking off the search.

Still unsure that their evidence had convinced Feldman and Hunter, the scientists were anxious. “Now you go on TV and tell truth?” the older man pleaded once more.

“You've been very helpful,” Feldman told them all. “We'll give it serious consideration.”

The astronomers thanked both men profusely and headed off to search for more fragments.

After they left, Hunter suggested, “How about we return to the ruins and set up our camera in the same spot as before to cut our follow-up?”

“Fine,” Feldman agreed, “only I don't know exactly how we should handle this. You don't buy into the meteorite crap, do you?”

“Hell no, but I think it's a godsend of a follow-up. The Jesus freaks are gonna have a field day with the news.”

Feldman was not convinced. “I got real problems with that, Breck. That's National Inquirer level stuff. If we come out with this meteorite garbage we're just legitimizing the Apocalypse cults. We might as well blow Gideon's trumpet.”

“It's not like we're creating the story here, Jon,” Hunter reasoned. “Those astrologers aren't millenarians, man, they're professionals! And eyewitnesses, no less. Bollinger checked them out. We're only reporting their expert opinion!”

“Astronomers,” Feldman corrected him, although he found the slip of tongue interesting. “I don't know, Breck, we really need to be responsible here.”

Hunter shook his head. “Okay, look. Let's go ahead and tape two cuts, including a meteor version. Then when we get back, we'll have these meteor samples we found checked. If they test out as fresh, we go with the story. Or at least let Bollinger rule on it. Fair enough? Hell, what if it does check out? We might be preventing a war here!”

Feldman shrugged. “God, I hate to take what amounts to the only hard news we've covered in three months and turn it into tabloid journalism.” He rose from his seat in the Rover, stretched and looked out at the smoke still emanating from the smoldering ruins. “I want to know what was going on over there. I want to find that survivor.”

Dyan IDF military base, Jerusalem, Israel 10:00 A.M., Sunday, December 26,1999

Alone in his private office, General Goene's somber mood was interrupted by a knock at the door. An adjutant entered to announce that WNN was telecasting a new development in the Negev Institute story. Swearing, Goene dismissed the assistant with an irritated wave and snatched up his remote control.

Materializing on his TV was a handsome, dark-haired, clean-shaven young man. He was standing in front of the main gate of the shattered Negev installation, a large black rock in his hand, thick smoke twisting up into the sky behind him.

“… substantiated reports from two independent authorities,” the man was saying, and photos of a Tel Aviv University geologist and an Oriental-looking scientist appeared in boxes at the corners of the screen. “The reputed attack on this Israeli research center yesterday may actually have been caused by a natural phenomenon, the impact of a large meteorite.”

The general glowered as the special report cut to taped interviews with the two authorities, who documented their claims with more large specimens of blackened ore.