Deception Point
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Deception Point | |
 Deception Point book cover |
|
| Author | Dan Brown |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | scientific thriller |
| Publisher | Pocket Books(US) and Corgi (UK) |
| Publication date | 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 589 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-552-15176-4 |
| Preceded by | Angels & Demons |
| Followed by | The Da Vinci Code |
Deception Point (2001) is a scientific thriller novel by Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and Digital Fortress.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Intelligence Analyst Rachel Sexton is in her mid-thirties, is single, and works for the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office). Her father, Senator Sedgewick Sexton, is a popular presidential candidate surpassing the incumbent President of the United States Zachary Herney. The President sends her to the Arctic as part of a team of experts to confirm and authenticate findings made by NASA deep within the Milne Ice Shelf. NASA's new Earth Observation System (EOS,) a collection of satellites constantly monitoring the globe for signs of large-scale change, has found an extremely dense spot in the Milne Ice Shelf. NASA discovers a very dense meteorite. In it are fossils of bugs very similar to--but not the same as--species on earth. NASA claims this as proof of extraterrestrial life. This find is something NASA needs desperately, as the agency’s success rate on other fronts has put it in a bad light. Senator Sexton uses this as an example of government overspending and failure to further his campaign.
A group of four civilian scientists have already been studying the find and have confirmed NASA's claims. It is only hours before the President and NASA plan to go public with the discovery.
However, one of the scientists is startled by something he sees in the icy water in the pit from which the meteorite was removed, and before he has a chance to tell the others, he is killed by Delta Force, a special forces unit of the U.S. Army.
What the experts and scientists don’t realize is that their every move is monitored from a listening post just a few miles away by Delta Force members controlling a tiny flying "microbot."
The other three civilian scientists and Rachel make the same discovery as their murdered comrade. They are unaware of his death. They have found evidence of seawater contamination, suggesting that the ice shelf is not pure freshwater as glaciers are supposed to be. They examine further, discovering that there is a shaft of frozen seawater directly below the extraction pit. It appears that the meteorite has been inserted from below.
During Rachel's and the scientists' excursion out of NASA's temporary settlement to investigate the contamination, they are attacked by Delta Force. One of the scientists is killed, and Rachel and the other two narrowly survive, being rescued by the USS Charlotte.
The three, armed with a strong suspicion of NASA deception, set off to investigate further. Their goal is to either reconfirm or deny NASA's claims before President Herney stuns the world with a possibly false announcement. They fly to the research ship of one of the scientists, investigate the chemical makeup of a meteorite sample, and look up the fossilized organism found in the meteorite. They discover that the organism does in fact exist on earth in the Mariana Trench and that the chemical makeup of the meteorite could prove it to be a terrestrial rock. The scientists come to the conclusion that the meteorite is false well after Herney has publicized the find.
Suddenly, Delta Force tracks down the group and destroys the ship. The three scientists narrowly escape once again, managing to kill the Delta Force team in the meantime. Rachel learns that the NRO head is actually the Delta Force controller for that operation.
They are suspicious of the entire NASA organization and the administration. Rachel faxes the information about the meteorite's makeup and the organism to her father, knowing that he will not be afraid to go public. However, she arrives in time to discover that her father is taking corrupt bribes from private space companies who wish NASA's demise. With help from Sexton's assistant, she replaces envelopes containing NASA's incriminating information meant for the press with ones containing photos of Sexton's lewd sexual encounter with his assistant.
Soon after, Herney makes the announcement to the world, retracting his statement from the night before. This almost guarantees his second term in the White House.
[edit] Main Characters
- Rachel Sexton- the main protagonist, "gister" for the NRO, and daughter of Senator Sexton, who is running for president.
- Michael Tolland- an oceanographer and has a television show called "Amazing Seas".
- President Zachary Herney
- Senator Sedgewick Sexton
- Lawrence Ekstrom- Head Administrator of NASA.
- William Pickering- revealed to be the main antagonist. He is the director of the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), where Rachel Sexton works in the beginning of the story. At first he appears to be a protagonist or an innocent bystander, but his role becomes clear when he is revealed to be the controller of a team of the Delta Force, whose aim ends up being to kill Rachel and her companions.
- Marjorie Tench- political genius and chief advisor to the President.
- Gabrielle Ashe- Chief advisor to the Sexton campaign.
- Corky Marlinson
- Delta-One, Delta-Two, and Delta-Three- members of the Delta Force.
- Norah Mangor
- Dr. Wailee Ming
[edit] Other Characters
- Charles Brophy
- Chris Harper
- Yolanda Cole a friend of Gabrielle Ashe.
- Katherine Wentworth Sexton
- Celia Birch is a woman in her twenties who was Tolland's lover, a civilian scientist who had died in the hospital with Tolland thinking that he couldn't have done anything.
- Diana Pickering
- Xavia
[edit] Agencies involved
- National Reconnaissance Office
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Delta Force
- USS Charlotte (SSN-766)
[edit] Code solution
The code that appears at the end of the book, after the main plot
1-V-116-44-11-89-44-46-L-51-130-19-118-L-32-118-116-130-28-116-32-44-133-U-130
is decrypted by looking at the first letter of the first paragraph on the chapter decided by the number. For example, the first letter of the first paragraph of chapter 116 is "C". The resulting text is
TVCIRHIOLFENDLADCESCAIWUE
Decryption is performed using a columnar transposition cipher, termed a "Caesar Square" cipher in the book (this is unrelated to the Caesar cipher). The letters are arranged into a five-by-five square:
TVCIR
HIOLF
ENDLA
DCESC
AIWUE
and read each column from the top down.
THEDAVINCICODEWILLSURFACE
Add spaces and correct capitalization, and you get the plaintext,
The Da Vinci Code will surface
a reference to the book The Da Vinci Code, also by Dan Brown.
[edit] Artistic license
As is customary with his novels, Brown opens with a statement asserting the veracity of all information in his work. Specifically for Deception Point, it is claimed that "All technologies described in this novel exist." While the author claims no artistic license in regards to fact and technology.
[edit] Marianas Trench
Brown says that the "meteorite" is actually a rock taken from the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest underwater trench in the world. He says that the trench is so deep that no manned craft has ever explored it, and most probes sent to the bottom have been crushed by the pressure. In fact, the trench was explored by man as early as 1960.[1]
[edit] Incorrect attribution of "Chaff"
Half-way through chapter 107, Delta Two jokes that their Radar jammer "Sure beats bales of tinfoil!". This is subsequently explained: "Radar jamming had been invented in WWII when a savvy British airman began throwing bales of hay wrapped in tinfoil out of his plane while on bombing runs. The Germans' radar spotted so many reflective contacts they had no idea what to shoot.". Although the event is true, it was not the savvy British airman's own inspiration, but that of Lady Joan Curran (knighted for this achievement), as related in R.V. Jones history of the development of radar countermeasures "Most Secret War". Its also worth noting that strips of foil were used rather than being wrapped around bales of hay.
[edit] Military Holograms
The holographic projections described as advanced military technology do not exist, despite their prevalence in science fiction. See the main Wikipedia article for an explanation of how true holograms work.
[edit] More Incorrect Statements
Thule Air Force Base is actually Thule AIR BASE. All overseas Air Force installations are referred to as "air bases."
The author mentions Rachel and company "enroute to Bolling AFB (by aircraft)". Bolling AFB has not had a runway since the 1960s (the last aircraft departed Bolling in 1962 with all aircraft transferred to nearby Andrews AFB).
[edit] References
|
|||||
