Metafire

Angela thought to herself that George just didn't seem like he intended to blow up New Boston. "If he was going to blow up New Boston, would he be trying to have communications restored?" Then, it dawned on her. He could still intend to blow up New Boston, but perhaps only in the last days of the Metafire colony. This could take years given the analyses by Andrei and Jane. She realized the situation was not nearly as clear as she thought it was an hour before. George seemed much too sane. Could it be that it was not George? Could Erisa be a part of an elaborate FBI scheme to set one Metafire person against another? If the bomb was destroyed, then the FBI could destroy Metafire. She had sent the message that caused a tug, with a laser gun on it, to meet them! Could it be that she had compromised Metafire? Could it be that, after all Metafire had achieved, she would cause it's demise, and she would be doing this in a vain attempt to save her daughter?

She stored the release code. She didn't have to use it for another few hours. She told George that she had to be excused and went back to Frank. With Frank, alone, she said, "Frank, George said he is just going to make demands of the FBI to re-establish communications, once the killer satellite is removed. This doesn't sound like he's planning to explode the nuclear bomb. I think we have more time than we thought."

"What are you saying?" Frank had also grown concerned, but his concerns were not clear, even to himself.