Blog 6A

Book: Deception Point
Author: Dan Brown
Pages read this week: 297
Pages read this semester: 940
Weekly Style: Fan Fiction

Summary
Corky Marlinson and Michael Tolland inform Rachel Sexton that the meteorite underneath the ice shaft has a fossil of a bug, which confirms the notion about Extra Terrestrial life. The other two civilian scientists present there are Dr. Norah Mongar and Dr. Ming. However, what nobody knows is that a secret team of special ops is keeping an eye at them. Their motive is secret. They have hi-tech equipment to watch the scientists at the discovery site. The rock was taken out using laser to melt the ice. In CNN debate, President Zach Herney’s top aide, Marjorie Tench appeared against Senator Sexton and the Senator promised to kill NASA as it was draining funds. Someone from inside the White House was providing details about NASA to Sexton’s aide Gabrielle Ashe. After the debate, the informer asked her to meet him outside the White House. Rachel was asked to debrief the White House staff about the discovery by the President. Wailee Ming found that something was wrong with the meteorite. While collecting the water sample, he was hit with microbot by the assassins (Secret Team) and fell into the extraction pit and died. Meanwhile, Gabrielle Ashe was shocked to find that her benefactor was Marjorie Tench. She asked Ashe to confess her affair with Senator Sexton because the White House did not want to do negative campaigning by revealing illegal campaign contributions by private Space companies to Senator. Ashe was given proofs of both the affair and the contributions. She did not answer one way or the other.
Norah Mangor decided to use Ground Penetrating Radar after Tolland reported the presence of plankton in meteorite. It confirmed that the rock was not a meteorite since the shaft continued all the way to the ocean. It seemed the rock was inserted there. Before they could report that to the President, they were attacked by the assassins. Norah died, but the high wind took Corky, Rachel and Michael to the ocean where they were saved by USS Charlotte before they succumbed to cold. Rachel tried to stop the press conference by the President but Marjorie Tench did not let her talk to him. Senator Sexton was shocked to learn about the discovery. His dreams came crashing to ground. NRO Director William Pickering ordered the three survivors to be picked up from the submarine. The NASA Director, Lawrence Ekstrom, was surprised when the NASA radar caught a submarine off coast.

Story
Michael Tolland, 16, lost his family in Hurricane Katrina. He was left alone in the world. He decided to move with his aunt, Rachel Sexton, to California. Michael had nothing left. Rachel had been a very nice aunt. Every time she visited her sister in New Orleans, she brought many gifts for Michael. Michael hoped that his grief will be halved if he stayed with his aunt and pursued his studies there. However, things took a sharp turn when he soon realized that his aunt was not what he had imagined. His aunt imposed severe restrictions on him. Michael was allowed to use computer for not more than an hour. Her son, Zach, was friendly with him as always, but he could feel the heat of his mother also. Rachel always kept a strict eye on both of them. Michael was not allowed to go out for community service because nobody could drive him. He was new, but soon found a trustworthy and close friend in Norah Mangor. As Michael opened up slowly, Norah realized he needed help. Norah decided to give him a ride wherever the duo went together. Soon, they became very close friends. They would always make fun of each other. Their bonding prompted talks and rumors about them being together, but Norah would always call it rubbish. Actually, Norah did not want to get between Michael and his Louisiana sweetheart, Gabrielle Ashe. They had limits, which were unspoken. When Michael neglected Norah for some time to put a full stop on the rumors, it hurt Norah a lot. She accepted Michael’s clarifications that he was just trying to stop those talks. They decided that they will continue being friends, but there will be again unsaid limits. It was a sense of belief and trust which kept them together. And they decided to continue like that, no matter what happens.