The Inner Circle (28 page)

"What about that one?"

"That one is called Vega. Do you see that star right there? It's up a little bit farther and to the left."

He pointed to yet another dot in the night sky.

"Yeah."

"And that one right over there? Even further left and below Vega."

"Yeah, the three of them look like a big triangle."

Neil smiled. Even though she was so young, Emily seemed to be very perceptive and it made Neil feel good to know that she figured out what he was going to say before he even said it.

"Very good, you took the words right out of my mouth. Those two stars are called Deneb and Altair. Together with Vega, those three are referred to as the Summer Triangle. Do you know why?"

"Because you can see them best in the summer?"

"That's right. Where do you get all of those brains? If you had a very powerful telescope and looked through the middle of the summer triangle, you would be able to see hundreds of little stars that all make up part of the Milky Way."

"Wow, that's pretty neat. Mom got me a telescope. We’ll have to use it one night so you can show me," Emily said, still looking up at the sky, not seeing the pained expression on Neil's face.

They sat there for a while longer, staring at the night sky. Neil knew that this time next week, he would be part of the night sky instead of just an onlooker.

"Are you mad that you never got to go to space?" Emily asked, as if she was reading Neil's mind.

"Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. Mommy just always used to say that you were mad because you didn't get to go. She used to say that you loved thinking about going to space more than you loved us."

Neil sat up in his chair, suddenly very angry that his wife had spewed hateful things about him.

"When did she say this?" he asked.

"Before you came back. I don't even know how I still remember it," Emily said, still lying back in her chair, looking up.

Nasty thoughts about his ex-wife came to Neil's mind and he wanted to tell Emily that her mother had just been lying. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Susan had probably told the truth. His anger quickly turned to embarrassment and shame, as for the millionth time over the past few years, Neil wished he had made better decisions in his life.

"Emily, I love you more than anything else in this entire world. And especially more than anything else outside of this world," Neil said. She glanced at him for a second and smiled shyly before looking back toward the stars. "And yes, your mother was right about one thing. I used to be very angry that I missed my chance to go into space. At one time, I used to think that my life would be worthless unless I reached the only goal I'd ever had, which was going to space. But not anymore. Now I realize that being your father is the most important thing I could have ever accomplished."

He leaned back in his chair again, looking back up at the sky as tears streamed down his face.

"If it was a perfect world, I would stay right here and be your Daddy forever."

This time, Emily stopped looking at the sky and she sat up in her chair. Neil knew she sat up, but he did not want to look at her, did not want her to see the tears he was crying. He knew that if he looked at her angelic little face, he would only start to cry harder.

"What's wrong, Daddy? Why are you crying?"

Neil did not answer. She moved over to Neil's lawn chair and sat down, grabbing his hand. Neil thought it quite ironic that his 7-year-old had to do the counseling and consoling.

"I have a secret I want to tell you," Neil said. "But you aren't allowed to tell anyone in the whole world. Not your mother, not your friends. Nobody. Ever." He sat up in the chair and wiped the tears away, trying to be as strong as possible so his daughter understood the importance of secrecy. "Can you promise me that?"

Emily nodded, a sad look of worry now in her precious little eyes.

"I have to go away for a very long time," he said with a trembling voice.

He saw his daughter's nose quiver and her eyes began to fill up.

"Where?" she asked quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I have to go on a secret mission for the president and I could be gone a very long time."

Anybody his own age would have thought Neil was lying, but Emily did not even show the hint of skepticism on her face.

"Why do you have to go now? Mommy was just starting to let me sleep over whenever I wanted," she said, keeping her voice strong even though tears began to leak down her face.

"I can't tell you, but I promise that one day you’ll find out. One day you will know and you will be very proud of me. And if you ever remember anything that I say, remember this: The only reason I am going on this mission is because of you."

"Because you don't love me anymore and you want to leave me?"

Neil was apparently much weaker than his daughter, who at least tried to hold back her tears. His eyes were like a faucet turned on full power.

"No, because I love you more than life itself."

"Please don't go," she whispered, her voice finally beginning to crack.

"I'm sorry, baby. I have to. I don't want to lie to you and say that I'll stay because you deserve to know the truth."

"Fine, go then. I don't care," she said, her sadness finally turning to anger. She stood up from her chair and ran inside the house, leaving Neil alone to look up at the stars that he now cursed.

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For months, Peter Mansfield hadn’t gotten a whole night's worth of sleep without being interrupted by one thing or another. Being the president's Chief of Staff was a very demanding job, one that required him to be on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. His life revolved around whenever Marshall decided he wanted to be in his office and it was completely normal for Mansfield to receive a phone call from Marshall's secretary at all hours saying the president wanted to start his day.

Recently though, sleep was even harder than normal to come by. While the thoughts of many job-related tasks could interrupt his slumber, the one thing that stopped him from sleeping the most was his own overactive mind. Comet Clement was a weight on his mind greater than anything he could have ever imagined and there were long nights of restlessness that he contributed to its imminent arrival. Added to this was the recent stress of having his life threatened by one of the 'Inner Circle' members, as well as the worry about Earl talking to the wrong person at Mimosa Grove. Peter did not think he would ever feel fully rested.

Maybe once the probe is launched successfully and on its way I'll be able to sleep better...

After going to bed at two in the morning and then lying awake in bed for three hours – staring at the ceiling and wondering why he couldn't fall asleep – Peter finally nodded off an hour before sunrise.

A ringing phone awakened him just as the sun was wiping away the darkness in the sky. He had slept for only eighty minutes.

I hope this isn't Mimosa Grove again
.

Peter had told the people in charge of the rehab facility to call him if there were ever any problems associated with Earl. In less than a week, they had already called three times, every single instance in the dead of night when he was sleeping.

"Why do they have to call so early?" his wife moaned, turning away from Peter and putting a pillow over her head.

That's the price you pay for being married to one of the most powerful men in the country,
Peter thought, knowing better than to say it out loud.

"This better be good," he said when he picked up the phone.

The voice on the other end didn't sound familiar.

"I have some important information that I thought you would want to know," the man's voice said.

"What? Did Earl escape from his room again? Look, just make sure he doesn't talk to anyone," Peter said, assuming this call was another one concerning Earl's stay at the rehab facility. He was careful to keep his voice down so his wife would not hear.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir."

"Who is this?" Peter asked, now confused.

"I don't think you’d want me to give my name, sir. I'm sure you’ll understand why."

Mansfield had a number of contacts keeping an eye on dozens of different people he had deemed a threat over the past two years. Nothing had come from most of these people, as Peter knew that he was sometimes overly cautious when it came to watching people. But he was apparently right about someone this time.

"No, I don't want to know who you are, you're right," he said. "But I do want to know what you've found out."

"Sarah Rose, name ring a bell?" the voice asked.

She was the sister of one of the comet's discoverers. Peter had gone to see her a few years back, soon after the comet's discovery. Pretty girl, very sad story.

"Sure, what about her?"

Once he heard her name, Peter got out of bed and walked out of the bedroom. The last thing he needed was for his wife to hear him on the phone talking about some other woman. Explaining that it was work-related wasn’t likely to make that situation any better.

"I found out something that wasn't in the report you have on her. I don't really know how important it is, but it seemed pretty strange that you had so much about her life story in the report but not this."

"Will you just tell me what it is already?" Peter said, annoyed that he was woken up so early and this guy was skirting around the issue.

"Well, I found out what she did when she dropped off the face of the Earth eight years ago."

"And that is...?"

"She had a kid."

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Long after Emily cried herself to sleep that night, Neil stood at the foot of his daughter's bed, watching her sleep peacefully. When she slept, her face still resembled when she was much younger and all Neil could picture was the way she looked when she was a baby, before he’d lost focus on what was most important in his life. Neil used to sneak out of bed and watch Emily sleep in her crib, watching his innocent child for hours at a time. He wasn't sure just how long he'd been standing there tonight, but before he knew it, the sky outside had changed from black to dark blue and eventually became even lighter.

Neil walked next to his daughter and scooped her up in his arms.

"What are you doing, Daddy?" she moaned.

"Nothing, just wanted to bring you outside."

She threw her arms around his neck and Neil carried her the same way he did when she was a baby. He opened the window in his bedroom and placed her outside on the shallowly slanted roof of the garage, warning her not to move until he climbed out.

When they were together on the roof, they sat and watched the sunrise together, Neil's arm around Emily, who was snuggled up against his side.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"No. I just missed you for so long, I don't want to miss you more."

"I know what you mean. But remember, I'm doing this all for you. It's hard to understand now, but one day you will."

"Does Mommy know you're leaving?"

Neil shook his head. He could not tell Susan what he was doing, she would never believe him.

"You're the only one I'm telling," he said.

"Don't worry, I'm good at keeping secrets."

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"How does it feel to be back?"

"Not so great, I have to admit."

Armour was waiting for Neil at the hangar when he arrived the next morning. Besides the few visits over the past two years, Neil had not been to the NASA compound on a regular basis since the day he was fired. The hangar where he used to be a test pilot was only a few hundred yards away and Neil hoped he would not run into any of the people with whom he used to work.

"Don't worry, we've taken care of that possibility," Armour explained to him. "That hangar is under construction and everybody was transferred across the compound."

The NASA compound was quiet this morning and the whole scene felt more surreal to Neil than he had expected. Everything seemed a little too quiet, a little too calm for his liking. His arrival at the compound – where he would be spending a few days before liftoff – was a moment he had been dreading for two years, but a moment he somehow expected to be much different than it turned out. He was about to go on the most important mission in Earth's history, yet his arrival was met by a single man, who did nothing but shake his hand and ask how his flight was. This just seemed to emphasize the secrecy of the entire comet situation.

"How did your daughter handle everything? Does she have any idea where you're going?"