Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

punctuation marks."Brian shook his head. "The ingenuity of guys during World War II never ceases toamaze me. We're more high tech now, but just as effective.""We hope, anyway. Our friends have assumed that the computer police will let thepictures through.""They'd have no reason not to.""Unless they've done something to create suspicion.""True enough. Let's hope they've been careful.""So you have the pictures deciphered?""You bet," Brian replied. "There are two of them; both are black and white. One'sa picture of some kind of cellular organism, and the other is a diagram of a heifer'sreproductive system. The email was rather innocuously labeled `for tomorrow."Quite an understatement. They obviously were permitted to reach your mailbox.I don't see how these could have raised any eyebrows," he concluded as Brian openedeach picture. "They seem completely relevant," the priest continued, glancing at theimages, "what were the messages?"Brian closed the pictures and tabbed to his word processor, where he'd beenpondering the decrypted messages when Andrew had arrived.The concealed messages together read:Virus is real. Non-digestive. Probable ET origin. Deliberate Infection."Hmmm . . . most interesting," Father Benedict said thought-fully, rising from hisstooped position."What do you make of it?" queried Brian. "I've been wondering what he means by'probable."I would think that he means the presence of the identical virus on the meteoricmaterial is proof that the virus is from space," offered the priest. "But why would heexpress uncertainty then?""He may be doubting that the presence of the virus on the meteor means the virusis extraterrestrial," suggested Brian."How so?" asked Father Benedict. "The correlation seems secure.""Not really. The proof the Colonel offered for extraterrestrial life which, yourecall, was essential for the replication of the virus—was that NASA has in factdiscovered meteorites that contain gaseous compounds that do not occur in combinationon earth. All those compounds prove is that the meteor is extraterrestrial. It doesn't disprovethe possibility that the virus got onto the meteor after it got to earth. The viruscould be of earthly origin.""Yes . . . I see the logic . . . very plausible," noted the priest, rubbing his chin, "butwe have to admit that this reasoning doesn't rule out that the virus is extraterrestrial. Thematch really could be secure.""True enough, but the evidence the Colonel has—""And your friend, Dr. Bandstra, Brian. I know you want to trust him, but he didback up the Colonel."Brian hesitated for a moment. "You're right," he sighed. "The evidence theColonel and Neil have given us to this point doesn't force us to buy their story that the81