PROLOGUE
"Have you found the Astromite?"
The voice on the phone spoke angry and coarse, like the sound of rubber grinding roughly over gravel.
"Well yes, but…no," the well-dressed man on the other end of the phone replied, staring uneasily at the dark wall in his office. "Not exactly. We were able to detect the asteroid near orbit, but…"
"You don't know where it'll land yet, do you?" the voice guesses, obviously agitated. "Director, you know the value of this meteorite. If it falls into the wrong hands-"
"I do recognize the costs, sir, but you've got to understand; this is just one rock among a billion in space – finding the right one is like finding a single needle in a hundred haystacks."
"Is that what you wish for me to tell the board?"
"No. Simply remind the board that we've already found four of the lost meteorites," the man implies. "I've put out a twenty-four hour obtainment crew, we've got hackers crawling the web, as well as an entire team of investigators scanning global satellites for its current location. It's just a matter of time before we find it."
"Time isn't on our side, director," the voice replied sharply. "That Astromite is already too unstable, and you know just how difficult these cover-ups get, especially after its crash."
"I know better than anyone," the well-dressed man says, tapping his silver-capped pen on his desk. "But we always make it through. And even if we don't get to it first…there's always Xennare Islands."
There was a long pause from the other end, and then the voice on the phone answered darkly, "Yes, there's always Xennare Islands."