were private affairs.
He stared at the pristine smoothness of the airlock cover, coming up so fast. Soon it would open, and something terrible would face his team. He clenched his fists; his fingernails dug into the palms of his hands. He desperately wanted to know what, and how many, and—
A soft chime sounded as his detectors sniffed a new offering on the Angels' realtime prizeboard. Somebody wanted one of the Angels to throw a rod against the cover while another Angel listened on the floor. The prize-holders were willing to pay Earth Defense a thousand dollars to do so.
The thousand dollars was an infinitesimal handful of change for the Earth Defense budget, of course, but you'd only make such a serious offer if you could get some serious insight from it. And whoever offered the prize claimed they could glean the insight that struck to the core of Morgan's most desperate concern—they thought they could tell him what lay beyond the cover.
Could they really do it? The offerer's brand had links to past successes; Morgan's forecast-assessment team traced the links and found a solid reputation.
There was only one way to find out if the anonymous someone, somewhere on the Web, could answer his prayers. He clucked his tongue again as he thought about it.
* * *
Along with CJ and several billion other participants, Selpha listened as Morgan pondered the prize she had offered. She allowed herself a small smile; she was pretty sure she knew what would follow.
It was delightful to have the resources
He stared at the pristine smoothness of the airlock cover, coming up so fast. Soon it would open, and something terrible would face his team. He clenched his fists; his fingernails dug into the palms of his hands. He desperately wanted to know what, and how many, and—
A soft chime sounded as his detectors sniffed a new offering on the Angels' realtime prizeboard. Somebody wanted one of the Angels to throw a rod against the cover while another Angel listened on the floor. The prize-holders were willing to pay Earth Defense a thousand dollars to do so.
The thousand dollars was an infinitesimal handful of change for the Earth Defense budget, of course, but you'd only make such a serious offer if you could get some serious insight from it. And whoever offered the prize claimed they could glean the insight that struck to the core of Morgan's most desperate concern—they thought they could tell him what lay beyond the cover.
Could they really do it? The offerer's brand had links to past successes; Morgan's forecast-assessment team traced the links and found a solid reputation.
There was only one way to find out if the anonymous someone, somewhere on the Web, could answer his prayers. He clucked his tongue again as he thought about it.
* * *
Along with CJ and several billion other participants, Selpha listened as Morgan pondered the prize she had offered. She allowed herself a small smile; she was pretty sure she knew what would follow.
It was delightful to have the resources