The space shuttles landed on the tarmac of seven of the twenty-four designated airports around the world simultaneously.
The coordination teams stepped off the platforms and went to work.
***
At JFK, the coordination session had been running for forty minutes.
Clarke sat at the head of the conference table with his operations team beside him. Mendez was there. Hahn was there with his legal pad.
Across from them sat five members of the Nova Technologies coordination team — a nurse from Nairobi named Thomas, a medical data analyst from Warsaw named Aleksandra, a translator from Manila named Reyes, a physical therapist from Accra named Kwame, and an occupational therapist from Buenos Aires named Sofia.
Thomas was leading. He had a printed checklist on the table in front of him and worked through it methodically.
