Old Earth (45 page)

In 2008, the head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences announced that the Church would honor the work of Galileo by erecting a statue within the walls of the Vatican. A month later, the plans were suspended.

• • •

VENICE, ITALY
WINTER BREAK

Pete DeMeo was vacationing with Lucia Solera. She’d managed to seduce him in every shape and manner, including finding out about the discovery in Montana and what they had done to keep it a secret. Of course she passed along what she learned in a detailed report. That was her job. Falling in love wouldn’t change anything.

• • •

THE FOLLOWING SPRING

The news was hardly reported. Two research spelunkers escaped with minor injuries after a catastrophic collapse within a two mile section of Western Kentucky’s remarkable Mammoth Caves. They’d been mapping the one thousand mile cave system for National Geographic. Some six hundred miles had remained unexplored. Now it appeared a good section would be inaccessible forever because of the massive internal rock slide, perhaps triggered by unstable earth.

The Associated Press
gave it two paragraphs.
USA Today
, the fifth page. The cable news channels didn’t cover it at all. But in London, Simon Volker, Martin Gruber’s successor, considered it business as usual.

• • •

YALE UNIVERSITY
ONE YEAR LATER

McCauley’s phone rang. “Jesus, who the hell… ?”

He picked up his cellphone from the nightstand and answered in a whisper, hoping not to wake Katrina. “Hello.”

“Hey there, Dr. McCauley, it’s Robert Greene.”

“Oh man, do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Sorry. I never do. Anyway. I finally got great info for you. Don’t ask how I tracked it down, but the book you were asking about led to a… .”

“Stop! Bury it!” McCauley said. “Trust me. Bury it now and forget you ever saw it.”

“You’re serious?” Greene asked.

“Beyond serious.”

“But you’ve got my juices going.”

“Turn them off. Not this.”

“Okay, if you say so. Consider it buried, deleted, erased, and expunged from the record.”

“Thank you,” Quinn said. “Now may I please go back to sleep?”

“Wait! I have to tell you about something else I’m onto. Ever hear of
mokele-mbembe
?”

“Sure. It's rumored to be a living dinosaur stalking somewhere in west central Africa. About as real as the Loch Ness Monster.”

“Maybe you'll think differently after I tell you what I have. Up for an exploration, Dr. McCauley?”

Acknowledgments

I have so many people to thank for their help and support through the research, writing, editorial, and marketing stages of
Old Earth.
I’ll start with Bruce Coons, my oldest friend and retired Army Officer with a distinguished 40 year military career. Once again, he gave me true guidance on technical detail. Special thanks also go to Brian Aubrey for his attention to earthly issues. Where I bent geological history for the sake of suspending disbelief, he helped me maintain a sense of reality and, dare I say, grounding.

To Jan Greenhawt, Barbara Schwartz, and Chuck Barquist for their assistance reviewing the manuscript. To Debbie and Mark Masuoka and Stan and Debbie Deutsch. To Susan Mitnick and all my friends from Hudson, NY, for their unending support for my latest work.

Of course, thanks to my family. To Helene for her help and excitement in the project, Sasha for her infinite curiosity that always inspires, Zach for our fossil hunting some years back where the idea for
Old Earth
began to gestate, and Jake for introducing me to a key element in the novel, which by now you’ve read: Vantablack.

Additional thanks to the executives, members, and the community of writers and fans of the International Thriller Writers Association, the great Michael Palmer who launched me in the mystery and thriller genre, and Kimberly Howe for her ongoing attention at ITW convention time. Added thanks to friends and colleagues Jeffrey Davis, Dick Taylor, Robb Weller, along with researcher/investigator/producer John Greenewald, Jr., KTLA Entertainment Anchor/Reporter Sam Rubin, WBZ Radio talk show host Jordan Rich, and thriller author WG Griffiths. To esteemed PBS television host Barry Kibrick for booking me again and again on his remarkable Emmy Award winning series
Between the Lines
, and to Adam Cushman at Red14Films for his company’s creative approach to my book trailers. Thanks as well to Lake Arrowhead Jurassic Fossils, Lake Arrowhead, CA.

Of course, special thanks go to the wonderful team at Diversion Books in New York, led by Publisher Scott Waxman, Editorial Director, Mary Cummings, Editor Randall Klein, the Marketing team of Hannah Black and Brielle Benton, Production Manager Sarah Masterson Hally, and Caroline Teagle for her inspired cover design. Thank you. You’re all amazing!

Finally, my interest in the area goes back to my parents, Stanley and Evelyn Grossman, who encouraged me to be a rock hound. I dug and scraped for fossils in limestone quarries left behind by the Columbia County, NY cement factories and chiseled great finds out of the cliffs that overlooked my high school athletic field. I’m sure this will resonate, too: I have to point to those classic Random House
All About Books
and
Landmark Books
on earth sciences, dinosaurs, and history. They were fascinating reads as a kid, that definitely created a through-line to my writing today.

More from Gary Grossman

G
ARY
G
ROSSMAN’s
first novel,
Executive Actions
, propelled him into the world of political thrillers.
Executive Treason
, the sequel, further tapped Grossman’s experience as a journalist, newspaper columnist, documentary television producer, reporter and playwright. The third book in the series,
Executive Command
, brought his trilogy to a conclusion…or has it? He has written for the
New York Times
,
Boston Globe
, and
Boston Herald American
. He covered presidential campaigns for WBZ-TV in Boston, and has produced television series for NBC News, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and 40 cable networks. He is a multiple Emmy Award winning producer, served as chair of the Government Affairs Committee for the Caucus for Television, Producers, Writers and Directors, and is a member of the International Thriller Writers Association. Grossman has taught at Emerson College (where he is a member of the Board of Trustees), Boston University, USC, and Loyola Marymount University, and is a contributing editor to
Media Ethics Magazine
.

For more information on
Old Earth
and other works by Gary Grossman visit
www.garygrossman.com

Follow Gary Grossman on Twitter
@garygrossman1

The Executive Series
Available now!

Executive Actions

An assassin’s bullet changes the course of the Presidential election—not by killing Democratic candidate Teddy Lodge, but his wife. Riding a wave of popular sympathy, Lodge surges forward as the man to beat for incumbent President Morgan Taylor. Secret Service Agent Scott Roarke is ordered by President Taylor to investigate the assassination, and unravels a deadly Soviet plot that has incubated for more than 30 years. Now in the hands of a power hungry Middle Eastern heir to the throne, Agent Roarke must stop a sleeper agent poised to change the course of American policy in the Middle East.
Executive Actions
is a tense political thriller, where both the Presidency and the Constitution are at stake.

Executive Treason

The secret terrorist organization that came within a heartbeat of installing its agent as President of the United States in
Executive Actions
is back with a new—and deadlier—plot to destabilize the U.S. government. It all begins with what appears to be a simple mugging and murder of a female White House staffer. Secret Service agent Scott Roarke discovers the truth: that the murder was committed by his secret nemesis, the mysterious assassin who had managed to always stay one step ahead of him during the presidential campaign. This time Roarke has found clues about the assassin's past that give him the tools he needs to hunt the hunter, but the clues can only go so far. Roarke needs all his skill, and a huge amount of luck as well, if he's going to catch his quarry.

Executive Command

The clock is ticking down to an attack on America’s most vulnerable natural resource: Water. Our nation’s water resources are high on terrorist target lists, but low on America’s consciousness. Water sources are largely unprotected, providing open access to any enemy with chemicals and biotoxins.

So far we’ve been lucky. But that luck won’t last.

This is the all-too-real-and-present danger facing President Morgan Taylor and Secret Service Agent Scott Roarke as they desperately try to prevent hell-bent terrorists from destroying America and its infrastructure city by city, and state by state.

Fact-based in frightening detail,
Executive Command
is a political thriller that will leave you pondering its strong possibility the next time you pour a glass of water.

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