How does Dan Brown use imagery in Deception Point?

Imagery:

"Keeping information from the director of the NRO was like keeping Vatican secrets from the Pope. The standing joke in the intelligence community was that if William Pickering didn't know about it, it hadn't happened." p.15, Ch. 4

"Marjorie Tench had been blessed with all the brains of a supercomputer - and the warmth of one too." p.72, Ch. 17

"With its bow proudly in the air, the Goya slipped backward over the watery ledge, sucked down the steep spiraling wall of water. Her lights were still glowing as she disappeared beneath the sea." p. 540, Ch. 130

"Then, like a meteorite striking the dark side of the moon, the rock crashed into a vast plain of mud on the ocean floor, kicking up a cloud of silt. As the dust settled, one of the ocean's thousands of unknown species swam over to inspect the newcomer." p.558, Epilogue