MICHAEL CRICHTON

2. Piggyback SlurpTRAVIS FELT LIKE A FOOL.He stared at the hard copy from Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,Maryland.ERTS WHY ARE YOU SENDING US ALL THIS MUKENKO DATA WE DON’TREALLY CARE THANKS ANYWAY.That had arrived an hour ago from GSFC/Maryland, but it was already too lateby more than five hours.“Damn!” Travis said, staring at the telex.The first indication to Travis that anything was wrong was when the Japaneseand Germans broke off negotiations with Munro in Tangier. One minute they hadbeen willing to pay anything; the next minute they could hardly wait to leave. Thebreak-off had come abruptly, discontinuously; it implied the sudden introductionof new data into the consortium computer files.New data from where?There could be only one explanation—and now it was confirmed in the GSFCtelex from Greenbelt.ERTS WHY ARE YOU SENDING ALL THIS MUKENKO DATAThere was a simple answer to that: ERTS wasn‘t sending any data. At least,not willingly. ERTS and GSFC had an arrangement to exchange data updates—Travis had made that deal in 1978 to obtain cheaper satellite imagery fromorbiting Landsats. Satellite imagery was his company’s single greatest expense.In return for a look at derived ERTS data, GSFC agreed to supply satellite CCTsat 30 percent below gross rate.It seemed like a good deal at the time, and the coded locks were specified inthe agreement.87