January 14, 2030. 12:03 P.M.

At NASA, it took Boling Rutherford more than three hours, spread over four days, to find a way to access the satellite control options. Now he is at his desk and as the time approaches, he does a Yoga breathing exercise to calm down. This is heavy shit …three, two, one,

“Kadundacek!”

explodes Boling under his breath as he hits the key of doom for the smartest, most successful busybodies in all of human history.

Out in space the asteroid turns perfectly on cue. Rutherford has deactivated the program that will flag the change, and now sets it to reactivate after the satellite is within Earth’s atmosphere and eight minutes from the target.

12:59 P.M.

The flag alarm comes on. People back from lunch scramble to their screens. The asteroid point of impact is calculated. A call goes through to the NSA Utah facility…

“How long do we have?”

Too late. The entire building is vaporized. The crater is the size of the Altman Mega Stadium, almost reaching the end of the parking lot.

Rutherford sips the last of his coffee as pandemonium breaks out, with everybody wondering if it was done from inside or outside of NASA.

1:18 P.M.

Ted is delighted. Ebon calls,

“How did you know?”

“If I tell ya, I’ll have to kill ya,”

croons Ted.