After climbing over Bimini’s islands, the wall of energy approached North Cat Cay at over two hundred miles per hour. Sally was now upon the breakwater and, with all of her might, she jumped as high into the air as she could with Alison desperately holding on. In what felt like slow motion, they traveled over the giant rocks and hit the water on the other side just as the shock wave smashed into the north side of the island.
42
President Carr walked into his oval office and slammed the door behind him. He turned to the men waiting for him as angry as anyone had ever seen him.
“Who did it?!” he yelled.
Miller, Mason, Stevas, Langford, Bishop, and Bullman, all stood before him quietly.
“I said who did it?!” he yelled again. He pointed at them angrily. “We all know that I’m going to find out soon, and the longer I have to wait the more I will want someone in jail!”
The men all looked at each other. Clearly some of them had no idea what he was talking about. Some however did. Stevas stepped forward and came out swinging.
“I did.” He said in a low growl. “I did what you wouldn’t do! I did what you couldn’t do.”
Carr was not the least bit surprised. “You set off a nuclear bomb less than a hundred miles outside of a major metropolitan city. And you did it against my direct orders!” he yelled again.
“I did what had to be done.” Stevas spat back. “Our country, our entire world, was on the brink of annihilation. The U.N. was bringing in the mother of all bureaucracies, and our time to control the situation was almost up. If we hadn’t done it then, we wouldn’t have been able to do it at all!”
“I gave you a direct order!” the President growled.
Stevas stepped towards him in defiance. “And I did what had to be done! I stopped it, and I stopped them! If you want to arrest me for saving this planet, then go ahead. I’ll gladly sit by while I type out the whole story and explain that our President didn’t have the guts to act when it was clear that we were under attack!”
“Under attack?” the President asked looking at Stevas with disdain.
“That’s right!” Stevas sneered. He looked at Miller. “What’s wrong, didn’t your servant here tell you that those bastards destroyed all twelve of our subs? Every single one! And if you want to stand here and act like we still had time for some kind of diplomacy then you go right ahead, but I know what happened, and in the end, I did what you should have done!”
The President remained still, glaring at the smaller Stevas with a look that said he was contemplating punching him out. The room fell silent with both men staring at each other, chests heaving.
“And you didn’t care,” the President said trying to control himself, “what the risk of blowing up that ring was to us or them.”
Stevas shook his head. “Lawrence was confident there was no threat.” He paused for effect. “And guess what, we’re still here.”
Kathryn Lokke sat inside the small inflatable habitat sitting at a small desk with her laptop computer. She was surprised at how well it worked at retaining the heat and giving them all some semblance of normality considering the accommodations during their last stay. In one brisk movement, she closed her laptop, then stood up and put her parka and gloves back on.
The day was off to a good start she thought, as she stepped outside. Not far away, one of her teams were examining the ice, making deep holes and testing for density. The area had to be strong enough to support the weight of the drilling machines, but not so hard that it would impede their drilling speed. Her other two teams were one and then two miles ahead of them also looking for ideal areas for those holes.
One of the big mobile drilling machines rolled past Kathryn on its way to meet up with one of the forward teams. The tiny ice crystals kicking up behind the machine stung her face momentary before she turned away. After it passed, she walked behind it and crossed the small working area. Steve Anderson, the head of the New Zealand team, was standing next to her old pal Andrew, the guide who virtually saved her the last time here. They both looked up when she approached.
“G’day Ms. Lokke.” They said, almost in unison.
“I told you, it’s Kathryn.”
“Roight.” they said in their Kiwi accent.
“How are my charges coming?” she asked, referring to the explosives that would be placed at the bottom of the drilled lines.
“They should be here any minute,” Steve confirmed. “Just spoke with the crew a couple minutes ago.” He nodded past Kathryn’s shoulder and she turned around. “The airstrip is ready.”
She could see Manly coming back toward them in his giant red plow, bumping up and down inside his cab. He had one of the toughest jobs. After this job, he was headed forward to the end of the line where he would have to plow yet another strip next to where they would camp for the night. Between gas, food, the explosives, and additional people and equipment, they would be getting a drop off nearly every morning for the next two weeks. Fortunately next week would bring another plow and one of Manly’s partners which would make it easier and provide some backup.
Kathryn looked back when she heard the sound of the plane. It took her some time to find it in the bright sky even though she had now seen more of these C130’s then she ever wanted to. As the plane grew closer and lowered its landing gear, she and the two others began walking toward the strip.
The two men were talking about where they planned to put the supplies, when Kathryn stopped to tie her right boot which had come loose. She bent down and pulled the lace taught again and began to tie the knot but stopped when she saw something appear next to her boot. It was a tiny crack. She looked at it curiously without moving. A few seconds later another crack appeared, this one slightly bigger. Was she standing on a week spot?
Kathryn slowly stood up and looked around. Small cracks were appearing everywhere. She turned back to Steve and Andrew who were still walking toward the plane that was now less than fifty feet above the ground.
“Hey.” she said, but neither of the men heard her. “HEY!” she called out.
Steven and Andrew turned and looked back at Kathryn. She was standing still looking at the ground. “Yeah?”
“Look!” she yelled to them.
“Look at what?” Steve answered.
“Look at the ICE!” her voice was trembling.
Both men looked around them and saw the tiny cracks forming all around. They looked back at Kathryn and their eyes opened wide when they saw what was behind her. Kathryn turned to see a giant crack forming and pieces of ice shooting up from the ground. Farther in over the ice shelf, she could see many more pieces exploding into the air.
She looked at the two men in front of her. “Run!” she shouted. “RUN!” The people working behind her, including Manly who was just getting out of the giant truck turned and looked at her curiously. “RUN!” she yelled again waving them toward her. Kathryn looked further on to the group of inflated structures serving as sleeping quarters. There were at least several more people inside, but she felt sick as she realized they were too far way to hear her over the noise.
She turned back and saw the large plane rolling past them a few hundred yards away. She pointed to the aircraft and starting running. Steve and Andrew were already ahead of her. They were all running and yelling to anyone else they could see. They all stopped and called to the others again. “RUN!”