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have checked all the measurements in both these photos, sir. I think this is the
same woman.
Aldridge had to sit down. His head felt like it might explode. Are you sure?
he asked, stalling for time. It was obvious, actually, as soon as Malek had laid the
photographs next to each other. Jesus! At last!
Yes, sir. The photogrammetry, that is, the main measurements, are the same.
The hair and the nose are different, but those are easy to change. The pupillary
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distance and pinaform, that is the shape of her ears, everything else, is the same.
It s her, sir. I m certain of it. I would testify to it in court.
Aldridge shook his head. Well, I ll be God damned, he said. I ll be flat God
damned! You re right; it s gotta be her. Wow, excellent work, Daniel! He
thanked Malek effusively, patted him on the back and shook his hand and eased
him out of his office as soon as possible. He d put Malek in for a commendation
on this& but later.
How in the bloody hell did she turn up in Ireland, anyway, at the flaming
Olympics? And why, for the love of God? Could anything be more bizarre? Some
of the Bureau s analysts had argued that she couldn t have come from earth, but
whether she had or not& to turn up in the Olympic games? What in the holy hell
could that be about?
Well, no matter, really. As long as she was out of the country, she was not his
problem or the Bureau s. She was someone else s. By George, it was time to
notify that someone else and see if they could grab her. The Bureau might not get
the credit, but he would know they deserved it. He would always remember, by
damn. If he ever wrote his memoirs& .
He reached for his phone. Gloria, get me the Director, right now. Use a
secure line, please.
C H A P T E R 36
The third observance of the partners Olympic-watching parties looked like it
would be the last. The closing ceremony wasn t for another three or four days,
but the two events they most wanted to see were being broadcast live, today: the
finals of the women s 10 meter platform event, followed by the women s mara-
thon. The former took place in midmorning, Dublin time, and the latter in the
afternoon.
They assembled in the meeting room in the middle of the afternoon, feeling
not the least bit guilty about pooling all the firm s otherwise lucrative billable
hours in watching television. Sports was their business too, at the moment, big
business. Benning generously pronounced happy hour open, but only Bynum
joined him at the bar. Braithwaite and Caxton said they d wait. It promised to be
a long afternoon, and maybe evening as well. Everyone was a little on edge. There
was a lot of checking of watches.
The coverage began with several segments devoted to Darcy. The network s
prime-time sports anchor man, Eric Bradley, opened the broadcast: The Barba-
dian athlete Ana Darcy has set the athletic world on its ear over the course of the
games in Dublin, with record-shattering performances in cycling and track and
field. Tonight, we are going to take a look at Ana Darcy from several perspectives.
Her personal life and history remain almost entirely a mystery, but our staff has
been doing some digging and we have put together several special reports for you
tonight. First, Peter Briscoe, in New York, has been looking into Ana Darcy s
achievements and comparing them to those of the great athletes of yore. Peter?
Briscoe s report was built around an interview with a prominent sports physi-
ologist. He averred that performances like Darcy s were practically inconceivable.
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In view of the demonstrable fact that the world had seen them happen, then she
must have been drawing on finite reserves of strength that could not possibly con-
tinue. He claimed to have observed signs of stress in her. She would, he thought,
very likely experience a total collapse early in the marathon, the most grueling of
Olympic events.
After a long commercial break, Bradley conducted the second segment him-
self, interviewing the sports doctor the network called on regularly for the Tour
de France and other major events. Dr. Fergus, a middle aged, bearded gent in a
white lab coat, pointed out that the drug testing in this particular Olympics had
been especially rigorous, and that Darcy had tested drug-free from the beginning.
He could not rule out, however, some heretofore unknown regimen or agent. He
closed by pointing out It s obvious, Eric, after a little reflection, that even ath-
letes in the past who were known to have been using performance-enhancing
drugs have not been able to achieve even one of the records that Ms. Darcy has in
this Olympics. The fact that she has done so not once but four times so far! is
simply unexplainable. Hers is a totally extraordinary accomplishment.
The third segment was narrated by one of the network s long-time reporters, a
genial elderly fellow known for his puff pieces about odd or engaging characters.
His theme seemed to be Darcy mania, a phenomenon he illustrated with many
video clips: crowds of excited girls carrying signs in New Delhi; Rastafarians sing-
ing her praises worshipfully through clouds of smoke; Irish women lighting can-
dles in churches; French school children in an auditorium gathered before a large
television on a stage; man and woman on the street encounters in Melbourne,
and so forth.
There followed yet another commercial break, interrupted in the middle by a
teaser showing the diving platform looming over the glass-like, blue water of the
pool, the stands packed with spectators. A voice said, When we come back, the
gold medal round of the women s 10 meter platform diving& .
Did I tell you that we ve been contacted by nineteen different parties inter-
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