Read Online Wave by Wil Mara - Free Book Online

again, she said, “That’s what I thought.”
    Dolan may have been nearly a year short of his master’s, but he knew enough to get what she was talking about. “It’s prime landslide area,” he said.
    “That’s right. This is one of the regions the Garrett Group was concerned about in ’99, remember? That’s where this map came from.”
    “But…it’s more than five hundred feet down. Wouldn’t a bomb have to—”
    “If it exploded on impact, nothing would happen. But if it exploded well below the surface the shock waves could trigger a landslide.” She shook her head. “It wouldn’t even have to be a particularly powerful bomb.”
    They looked at each other, awash in the faint hope that this was nothing more than wild speculation; an academic exercise.
    “I’m gonna check the readings one more time.”
    “Okay. You didn’t run the diag, did you?”
    “No, not yet. Let me do it right now.”
    He turned the unit back on. Green LED characters came to life, at first in meaningless formations while the receiver waited impatiently for a signal from a satellite that floated thousands of miles above them in frigid space. He ran the diagnostic, which took no more than a minute. As they both feared, the unit appeared to be working just fine.
    And then the tide gauge reading arrived—confirming the wave’s four-foot spike.
    Dolan’s face paled as if all the blood had been drained out of it. “Christ, that’s just about right, isn’t it?” When he received no response, he said, “Sarah?”
    She was back in her office already; he heard the sound of a wooden drawer being opened.
    He found her at her desk with a tiny pocket calculator. She mumbled to herself as she tapped the keys and worked out the numbers. Then she stopped.
    “My God,” she said, her voice merely a whisper, “the waves will begin striking in about two and a half hours.”

{ FIVE }
02:23:00 REMAINING
    Sarah Collins had always prided herself on her ability to remain calm in tight situations. As a youngster, she awoke one summer morning to the screams of her mother when the tall stockade fence that surrounded their backyard had somehow caught fire. She called the fire department and held the blaze at bay with a garden hose until they got there. When she was just thirteen, she successfully applied the Heimlich to an elderly man at a restaurant. And at twenty she not only saved a small boy from drowning off the beach in Point Pleasant, but also the inexperienced lifeguard who had gone out to rescue him.
    But those incidents were meaningless compared to the crisis that lay before her now, and she knew it. For the first time in her life, she had to expend a conscious effort to locate the required calm within herself. She thought of her late father, who had the ability to turn stone-cold when necessary. He had told her, “If you find yourself in the heart of the storm, you must be the one to lead.” She focused on that—on the notion that it was her duty to take control. And her objective was obvious—tell as many people as you can.
    She took her cell phone from her purse.
    “What’s that for?”
    “I’ll tell you in a min—Danny? It’s Sarah.”
    Dr. Daniel Kennard had been Collins’s professor when she was pursuing her doctorate. Like so many students before her, she eventually fell in love with him, platonically. He had white hair, a kind and grandfatherly manner, and a seemingly endless supply of patience. He gave generously of himself and treated his students as equals. Collins cried the day she left him to return to the East Coast, but they never lost touch.
    His voice was groggy and confused. “Sarah? Sarah Collins?”
    “Yes, Danny. It’s me.”
    “What the hell time is it?”
    “It’s just after nine o’clock over here,” she replied, not bothering to add that that meant it was just after six Seattle time. “I’m really sorry to call so early, but there’s a tsunami heading toward us.”
    He sounded immediately