Ken Follett - Code to Zero (2000)

Elspeth looked at Luke and Billie as if she had more to say; but after a long moment she turned away. She got into -her car, slamming the door, and started the engine.

Instead of turning towards the road, she headed for the ocean. Luke and Billie watched in horror as she drove straight into the water.

The BelAir stopped, waves lapping at its fenders, and Elspeth got out In the car's headlights, Luke and Billie saw her begin to swim out to sea.

Luke moved to go after her, but Billie grabbed his arm and held him back.

'She'll kill herself!' he said in agony.

You can't catch her now,' Billie said. You'll kill yourself!'

Luke still wanted to try. But then Elspeth passed beyond the headlights' beam, swimming strongly, and he realized he would never find her in the dark. He bowed his 'head in defeat.

Billie put her arms around him. After a moment, he hugged her back.

Suddenly the strain of the last three days fell on him like a tree. He staggered, about to fall, and Billie held him upright.

After a moment he felt better. Standing on the beach, with their arms around one another, they both looked up.

The sky was full of stars.

.

1969

Explorer 1's Geiger counter recorded cosmic radiation a thousand times higher than expected. This information enabled scientists to map the radiation belts above the Earth that became known as the Van Allen belts, named after the State University of Iowa scientist who designed the experiment.

The micrometeorite experiment determined that about two thousand tons of cosmic dust rain down on the Earth annually.

The shape of the Earth turned out to be about one percent flatter than previously thought.

Most important of all, for the pioneers of space travel, the temperature data from the Explorer showed that it was possible to control the heat inside a missile sufficiently for human beings to survive in space.

Luke was on the NASA team that put Apollo 11 on the moon.

By then he was living in a big, comfortable old house in Houston with Billie, who was Head of Cognitive Psychology at Baylor. They had three children: Catherine, Louis, and Jane. (Luke's stepson; Larry, also lived with them, but that July he was visiting his father, Bern.)

Luke happened to be off duty on the evening of 20 July. Consequently, at a few minutes before nine o'clock, Central time, he was watching TV with his family, as was half the world. He sat on the big couch with Billie beside him and Jane, the youngest, on his lap. The other kids were on the carpet with the dog, a yellow Labrador called Sidney.

When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, a tear rolled down Luke's cheek.

Billie took his hand and squeezed it Catherine, the nine-year-old, who had Billie's colouring, looked at him with solemn brown eyes. Then she whispered to Billie: 'Mummy, why is Daddy crying?

'It's a long story, honey,' Billie said. 'I'll tell it to you, one day.'

Explorer 1 was expected to remain in space for two to three years. In fact, it orbited the Earth for twelve years. On 31 March 1970 it finally re-entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean near Easter Island, and burned up at 5.47 a.m., having circled the Earth 58,376 times and travelled a total of 1.66 billion miles.

.................... The End....................