Chapter 20

‘Hello – is that the NASA press centre?’

The person on the other end of the line – in her middling forties by the sound of it – confirmed that, yes, it was the NASA press centre.

‘And can I ask who you might be?’ she said.

‘Ah, yes – my name is Steve Philips. I’m the foreign affairs and technology correspondent for the New York Times.’

Steve Philips was indeed the correspondent for foreign affairs and technology at the New York Times, but that wasn’t making the pretence of being him any easier. S...