| President Zachary Herney is losing ground it the polls to challenger Senator Sedgewick Sexton. Sexton's main issue is government waste, with a special focus on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The discovery near the Arctic Circle of a meteorite buried in ice that apparently has evidence of life on it could scuttle Sexton's campaign. A special embarassment is that his daughter, Rachel Sexton, works for the National Reconaissance Office – the aerial spy agency that ostensibly found the first evidence of the meteorite. As a team of respected scientists is assembled to announce the find – with Rachel among them to brief the White House staff – one of the scientists sees a discrepancy in the data. He is killed by a microbot – a flying robot about the size of a mosquito – controlled by a mysterious Delta Force team hidden near the site. As other scientists become aware of the descrpancy, a team of four – including Rachel and popular television science show host Michael Tolland – heads out over the ice to check data that requires that they be some distance from the site. One of the scientists is killed and Tolland, Rachel and Corky Marlinson escape miraculously. They have the evidence to prove that the meteorite was placed under the ice, and that it may be a sham. The Delta Force team is ordered by it's mysterious controller to kill them. The list of victims grows. Rachel's boss, NRO Director William Pickering is apparently the victim of a car bomb when he goes to a secret meeting with the president's chief of staff. Several further attempts are made to murder Rachel, Tolland and Marlinson. If the discovery of life from outer space cripples Sexton's campaign, his campaign manager's discovery that he is taking money under the table from corporations that want NASA's mission privatized is a killer. He has every interest in proving that the meteoriate is a fake. The president and his tough-as-nails chief of staff have every interest in making sure the doubts don't surface until after the election. Apparently trapped, Rachel has no one to turn to but her father, from whom she has been estranged for many years. And by the time she does so, it may be too late. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear) Time/era of story: Spying/Terrorism Thriller Yes Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book descript. of violence and chases - 20 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 % Who's the terrorist enemy here? Search for technology? Main Character Gender - Female Profession/status: Ethnicity/Race Main Adversary Identity: - an organization The antagonists are: - evil politicians Setting United States Yes The US: - Mid-Atlantic states Ice Caps/Sea? Yes Where? - North Pole Misc setting - scientific labs Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths A lot of techno jargon? Yes Kind of jargon? - astronomy Unusual forms of death - exploded into bits Unusual form of death? Yes Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog |
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