Chapters 16 - 20 Summary

Rachel is flying over the Atlantic. She has a fear of open water from an accident as a child, where she fell through the ice and was saved by her mother. Her mother died a few years earlier, and Rachel blames her father for her mother's death. Since the death, the rift between Rachel and her father has increased. Rachel lands on the Milne Ice Shelf, a glacier in the far north, and is transported to a large NASA-made structure called a habisphere. Here, she is greeted by NASA administrator Lawrence Ekstrom, who informs her that he would prefer that she not be part of the announcement and NASA's victory. He explains to Rachel that a discovery has been made by NASA's Polar Orbiting Density Scanner, part of the EOS constellation. PODS scans the ice looking for indications of global warming...