The Cassandra Project Read Online Free PDF Page A

eighty-six.
    But Frank Kirby, the CAPCOM, was still around.
    The CAPCOM, or capsule communicator, was the principal ground connection with an in-flight mission. An astronaut was usually selected for the assignment, on the assumption that no one was better qualified to handle a problem in space than somebody who’d been there.
    Jerry had met Kirby about a year ago, when he’d sponsored a visit to NASA by a group of elementary-school students from Orlando, where he lived. It had been no more than an introduction, and Jerry had carried away no memory of the man save that he’d seemed happy surrounded by the kids. Kirby had been retired more than twenty years, but he’d apparently stayed active in the community. He was a member of the Friends of the Library, he’d led an effort to improve recreational facilities for children throughout the city, he’d been involved in a campaign to promote safety for the blind by upgrading traffic-light technology. And he was a volunteer at a shelter for battered women.
    When, the following morning, Jerry mentioned his name to Mary, she said yes, that she’d had a chance to talk with him when he’d been at the Space Center. “He’s a decent guy,” she said. “But I hope you’re not leading up to what I think you are.”
    “It would be interesting,” Jerry said, “just to sit down and talk with him. Hear what he has to say.”
    “I think,” she said, “it would be a good idea to leave it alone. You show up out there, and he’ll know exactly what you’re after. If there was anything going on, I don’t think he’s likely to open up to a guy who just appears on his doorstep. Let it go, Jerry.”
    But Jerry wasn’t going to be put off that easily. “I was going to suggest,” he said, “that we bring him here. Give him an award of some kind. It would be a very nice public-relations move. In fact, it’s something we should have done years ago. We’d get a lot of good publicity by recognizing the community work of someone connected with NASA. We could bring him in for an award luncheon, give him a plaque, and it would cost nothing. This is a difficult time for us, Mary, and it would remind the public of the kind of people we have working here.”
    They were in her office. The blinds were pulled against a bright sun. Mary sat for a moment without moving, then literally snickered at him. “Jerry, do you think Kirby would be so dumb that he wouldn’t know what it was all about?”
    “Well, you’d be surprised what people will buy into when you tell them stuff they want to hear. No, I think we’d have no trouble getting away with it.”
    “Okay, let’s say this guy, who used to be a Navy pilot, who was one of our astronauts, doesn’t have a brain in his head. He comes up here to accept an award. Do you think he might figure it out when you start asking him about Myshko?”
    “I’ll be careful. I can manage it so
he
brings up the topic.”
    She clearly did not approve of the idea. “Jerry, may I ask you a question?”
    “Sure.”
    “Are you saying that you think Myshko might actually have landed on the Moon? And then, for reasons unknown, they kept it quiet? Is that your theory?”
    “Of course not. But
something
happened.”
    “
What?
What could possibly have happened?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “If they landed, if they actually went down, what possible reason could they have had for covering it up?”
    Jerry started thinking again about Blackstone. Maybe he should reconsider. Maybe he should jump over to Bucky’s outfit. It would be easier if Blackstone himself weren’t so despicable. “Maybe they were embarrassed that Myshko took things into his own hands. It would have been a public humiliation.”
    She shook her head. “Preposterous. They’d have been embarrassed, yes. But landing somebody on the Moon would have far outweighed that.”
    “What’s wrong with giving ourselves a chance to find out? You want to spend the rest of your life wondering whether,