SPLIT SECONDS

Wheelchair-bound since he fell off a roof in 1986, Nick Foster writes a column for the Melbourne Sun Coaster, a Florida newspaper- -and when NASA staffer James Woods is found enmeshed in a crab-line and Propjob the porpoise salvages a computer disk from the site, he's sure he's onto a big story. What's on the disk? No one seems to know, but assorted Mafia types are lurking; Woods's beautiful, somewhat mysterious fiancÇe (none of her background stories checks out) is edgily distraught; and Nick ``Stick'' Foster gets close enough to the answer to be shot at and wind up in Titusville General Hospital. Appealing to friendly computer whizzes for help, Stick pieces together what Woods learned: someone has locked a virus into a NASA system, guaranteeing an unpreventable disaster. The Least Likely Suspect and the Most Implausible Motive are the culprits here, and diminish an otherwise satisfactory first effort. Nicely handled asides about life in a chair and a low-key narration are plusses. If Robinson can work harder on plotting, the outlook for book two will be brighter.