The Cassandra Project Read Online Free PDF

maybe, something
did
happen?”
    She took a deep breath. Put her tongue in the side of her cheek. “All right,” she said, “set it up. But, Jerry—”
    “Yes?”
    “Don’t do anything to embarrass us.”
    —
    The first task was to find a name for the award. Jerry spent several days googling NASA personnel, active and retired, looking for someone who had made a serious contribution to the public welfare. Mary suggested he limit the search to astronauts, but he couldn’t see any reason to do that. Aside from those who had landed on the Moon, or those who had died in the performance of their duties, no one else, not even among the remaining astronauts, was familiar to the public. The reality was that the public had never shown any interest in flights that didn’t get beyond Earth orbit.
    He considered naming the award for Kirby, but that would have been
too
obvious.
    Then he found Harry Eastman, the perfect pick. Harry was a retired computer expert who’d spent thirty years with the Agency while simultaneously doing yeoman work for disabled children in Texas. Harry had set up a foundation to raise public awareness of the issue. He’d brought in film and sports celebrities and had accompanied them when they visited hospitals and special needs centers to talk to the kids, shake their hands, and give out souvenirs. The Eastman Foundation became a major fund-raiser for eight or nine charitable organizations. Jerry also liked the name: The Eastman Award had a ring of elegance.
    He called Eastman and told him how much he admired what he’d been doing. “NASA would like to promote this kind of work, Harry,” he said. “We’d like you to support an annual prize, the Eastman Prize, to someone connected with us. For outstanding contributions to special needs kids. Or battered women. Whatever fits. “
    “I’d be honored,” Harry said, speaking from Houston, “but the foundation doesn’t really have money to spare. How much would it cost?”
    “Just the price of the plaque, Harry. In other words, zero.”
    “That’s very kind of you, Jerry.”
    “Well, I wouldn’t kid you that we’re being entirely selfless. We expect to get good publicity out of it. And we’ve a few people who’ve been doing the kind of work you have. Not on your scale, but—”
    “Let’s make it happen,” he said.
    “Excellent. We’ll want you to come in for the first presentation. On our dime, of course.”
    Harry laughed. He was lean, with gray hair and the kind of narrow, introspective features Jerry associated with people who’d been through painful experiences and hadn’t quite gotten past them. He wondered how all the time Eastman had spent with damaged kids had affected him. “I’ll be there. When’s it happening?”
    —
    Jerry asked his deputy, Vanessa Aguilera, to make the call to Kirby. Best was to keep his distance from the project and not let Kirby know he was involved. “Tell him,” he said, “that we wanted to do something special during the opening weeks of the Hall of Fame. And Mary suggested recognizing people associated with the Agency who’ve been doing public service. Something not having to do with space technology. So we came up with the Eastman Award.”
    Vanessa was gone about ten minutes, then came back to tell him that Kirby had accepted. “He was excited,” she said.
    “Excellent,” said Jerry.
    Vanessa had soft brown hair and large blue eyes. She loved her job and was worried, like everyone else, that the organization was going under.
It’s nice
, she was fond of saying,
to be doing work that matters
. If the Agency shut down,
when
it shut down, she didn’t want to land eventually with a lumber company or in an Amtrak office doing accounting or answering phones. “He doesn’t look well, though,” she said.
    “How do you mean?”
    “Well, he’s pretty old. He’s in a wheelchair, and he was having a hard time breathing.”
    “I’m sorry to hear it. Sounds as if he’s gone downhill