October 17, 2007
Takeoff in the C-130 transport was uneventful and Griggs soon returned to Smith's profile, hoping to find some clue which would explain his alleged duplicity. He selected a photocopy of a sidebar article from "Scientific American" which bore the title, "Doctors Smith to Receive 1995 Elliot Goodman Award for Science In The Public Interest."
His estimation of Smith went up several notches as he read how the couple's work had resulted in practices which had greatly improved outcomes for heart and kidney transplant patients. Stasis was becoming widely accepted as standard procedure in cases where patients were forced to wait months and even years for a suitable organ.
"Doctor Smith, I never knew ye.", he murmured to himself as the layers of Smith's life were peeled away. How could he have become the cold and bitter man than Major West later described? The answer came as he flipped over to the next page in the set of documents.
As it turned out, it was nothing so complex as having a life's work called into question by an envious colleague. Rather it was simple, random act of senseless violence that brought their halcyon days to a tragic end.
Zachary had flown ahead to New York for the Goodman acceptance ceremony. Rachael was tied up with some last minute projects in the lab and had booked a flight to join him, accompanied by Phillip in a couple of days.
They never arrived.
The details of Seaboard Airlines Flight 755 to New York were, by now, burned into the collective consciousness of the nation. Griggs audibly groaned as the realization hit him full force. The flight had left Austin, TX without incident.
Unbeknownst to the passengers and crew, members of the Global Resources Coalition, a radical sect committed to raising awareness of the worsening situation in less fortunate nations, had planned to hijack the flight and present a list of demands to U.S. officials. While they had brought just enough C4 aboard to present a credible threat, they never intended to use it. When it comes to explosives in the hands of the inexperienced, however, the worst possible outcome is usually a self-fullfilling prophecy.
Air traffic controllers could only listen to the distraught voices of the crew as they fought to keep the 767 airborne; a large hole having been blasted in the side of the jet. All 326 passengers and crew were lost. A peaceful stretch of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia were transformed into a graveyard. Doctor Zachary Smith's life was torn to shreds. He had tasted ashes on the eve of his greatest achievement.
Later peer evaluations told the story of a man who had lost his raison d'etre. Project proposals, which used to flow in a torrent from Smith's team had been reduced to the merest trickle. He grew increasingly unstable, given to vicious outbursts for the smallest of errors in precision. His most promising protégé resigned from PAMS; protective of her professional reputation, she knew better than to hitch her wagon to a falling star. Zachary was on a downward spiral no less fatal than the one which took his family, his dreams, away from him.
An angry outbust at at NASA press conference all, but sealed his fate. Within a week, Smith had been dismissed from the very team that he had founded. He sequestered himself at his home in Austin, a broken man.
"Dear God". Griggs rubbed his fatigued eyes and shifted their focus to the small window to his right. The landscape passing beneath the plane was probably not much different than that which the Smith's witnessed as their plane spiraled to the Earth. Any questions that remained about Doctor Smith's transformation to the man the West had described were quashed. His sense of vague dread in interviewing the man had been replaced by a regret in having to subject him to such treatment.
He sat up straight and stretched his athletic six foot-one frame as best he could in the cramped quarters of the plane and chided himself silently. Had to remember that this man might have conspired and carried out a crime no less horrific.
Closing the folder, he tried to catch a few fitful moments of rest, but his mind refused the offer. Each revelation brought new questions bubbling to the surface. What had brought Smith back from the edge to participate in a project that was bound to a constant reminder of his wife's work? For that matter, why had UESPA placed their highest confidence in a man whom NASA rejected as a liability?
As tempted as he was to dig back into the dossier for the answers, he also needed to prepare a strategy for dealing with the Doctor, lest the General's warning be brought to fruition. His mind turned to this task as the flight crossed the last thousand miles to New Mexico.
