“Let’s go with them,” Dane urged, feeling exposed and understanding their desire to get out of this area.
The leader of the samurai hurried off, going down into the fold in the ground where he had been hidden. Dane followed, Shashenka and Ahana right behind him, the rest of the samurai flanking them.
Dane noted that the samurai kept to low ground, keeping ridges of the black material on either side as much as possible and traveling in the draws between the ridges. It was the way soldiers in hostile territory moved.
After about five minutes, Dane noticed a change in the land. The black gave way to patches of brown soil in places, each small pocket carved out of the side of the gully. Plants struggle to grow in these spots. As they passed between the junction of two gullies, a thin trickle of water cut a path through the very bottom, in the direction they were heading.
He glanced over his shoulder at Ahana and Shashenka. They were following quietly, absorbing all they saw. When Dane returned his gaze forward, he momentarily stopped when he saw the wall directly ahead in the haze, stretching up and to either side as far as visibility would allow. Dane hurried to follow the samurai. They turned the corner of the gully, and a wall was two hundred meters in front of them, disappearing upward into the haze. Etched into the black wall were shallow caves, and in those were people. Dozens and dozens of people.
Before Dane could take in the variety of men and women who were before him, a woman came striding forward. She was tall, with curly brown hair and striking features. Dane felt as if he had met her or at least seen her before. She held up a hand, indicating for the people who were pressing forward to see the newcomers to back off.
“Do you speak English?” she asked.
Dane nodded. “Yes.”
“You’re American?” the woman asked.
“Yes.” Dane turned as his partners came up. “I’m Eric Dane. This is Ahana, a scientist from Japan, and Colonel Felix Shashenka from the Russian Army.”
The woman extended her hand. “Pleased to make your acquaintance Mr. Dane. I’m Amelia Earhart.”
Ariana looked at the large monitor that displayed the computer simulation Jordan’s people had developed to show Mount Erebus. It not only mapped out the exterior of the mountain but the crater and as much as they had been able to tell about the interior from their various monitors, sensors, and probes. They were inside one of the buildings that made up McMurdo Station. People were hustling about, grabbing essential material for the evacuation while Ariana, Miles, and Jordan were in the eye of the storm.
“The main force vector is here,” Jordan tapped the screen with a pencil. “There’s a lava tube that extends down at least four miles and is almost a quarter mile wide. It extends laterally also, underneath the sea below the Ross Ice Cap. According to the data you sent, the muonic activity from the Devil’s Sea gate is also centered in that tube.”
“How do you know about the tube?” Ariana asked.
“We’ve got two aces up our sleeves,” Jordan said. He flipped a photo on the desk. “That’s Dante III.” The image was that of a mechanical spider with eight metal legs. In the picture, Jordan was standing next to the robot, giving an idea of its size, about three meters high, two and a half meters wide, and three and a half long. The body was a metal frame with various electronic sensing devices loaded on board. A metal arch made up the majority of the height, with an antenna bolted on top.
“We use Dante to go down into the crater itself. We’ve made three trips in, the latest just two days ago to update our data. That’s what’s prompted the evacuation. Dante analyzes the high-temperature gases on the crater floor. We also can get video images, which are helpful?”
“Where’s Dante now?” Ariana asked.
“On the rim. It requires someone on site to operate it as it’s a tethered device.” He slid another photo onto the desktop. “This is our other ace and the one that found the main tube.”
It looked like a remotely operated submersible to Ariana, something she had used before.
“That’s called TROV — telepresence remotely operated vehicle. It was designed by NASA, and they let us use it to test it out. We sent it under the ice cap at the base of the volcano. It located a vent line off the tube, and we fired a probe in that relayed data back to us.”
“Is there any way to stop Erebus from erupting?” Arian asked. She had her own ideas that she’d been contemplating and researching on the flight down, but she wanted to get feedback from the on-site expert first.
“Stop a volcano from erupting?” Jordan shook his head. “No one’s really attempted that. Everything has always been in reaction after the volcano erupted and mostly to stop the lava flow. There are three major methods for that. One is detonating explosives to divert the flow, another is constructing barriers to also divert the flow, and lastly there has been some success using water to cool the lava at the leading edge, in effect using cooled lava as a barrier against the flow behind it.”
“Stopping the lava is the least of our concerns,” Ariana said. “We have to stop the detonation. It’s the initiator to everything the Shadow is doing on the Pacific Rim.”
“When I had Dante in the crater, it confirmed what we had long suspected,” Jordan said, “The lava lake in the crater has been acting like a large plug since the last eruption, containing the power. If that plug blows, it’ll take out most of the top of the mountain, which in turn will devastate everything within a five-hundred-mile radius. Most importantly, and dangerous, is the effect on the Ross Ice Shelf. My calculations estimate that eighty percent of the shelf will either be melted or broken off.
“Given the data you sent me, Erebus will start a chain reaction up the Ring of Fire,” Jordan continued. “It’ll make the destruction of Iceland seem minor by the time the Ring has been activated.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” Ariana said. “I know it has never been done, but do you have any theories on how we can stop it from erupting?”
Jordan sighed. He tapped the screen. “If we can stop or divert this main channel from being forced up against the lava lake plug in the crater, we might be able to minimize the effect.” He shrugged. “But I don’t see how we can do that.”
“I have an idea,” Ariana said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Falco had the Naga staff at the ready as he went through the portal. He stumbled slightly, then regained his balance. Kaia was right behind him, and they both paused to take stock of the new environment they were in. The ground was black and grainy. The air was still hazy, making visibility poor. To Falco’s relief, there was no sign of the Valkyries, just rolling black hills all around as far as he could see. Behind them, the black triangle hovered in the air.
“Where did they go?” Kaia asked.
Falco shrugged. “I don’t know. Is this where they live?” he asked in turn.
Kaia was slowly turning, looking about, but Falco knew she was doing more than simply looking; she was projecting her mind outward. Throughout the journey, he had picked up much from her, and he knew her powers were far greater than his, especially with regard to working over a distance.
“There are others here,” Kaia finally said. “Other people.”
“Where?” Falco could sense none of that. All he knew was that this place was dangerous.
Kaia pointed. “That way.”
Falco didn’t like the idea of leaving the portal. There was no way to tell direction in the strange place, and once it was out of their sight, it might be hard to find again.