"Barricade an earthquake?"
"Yeah, I know how it sounds-but it's the only idea I've got."
"Hey-what's that about an earthquake?" The man in the colored suit was still there. "By gosh, I can feel it-the whole damned bridge is shaking!"
"Off, mister-now!" Reynolds jerked a thumb at the traffic lanes where a steady stream of cars were hurtling past. "Dan, take us over to the main track. We'll have to warn this traffic off-"
"Hold on, fellow." The man unlimbered his camera. "I represent the New Devon Scope. I have a few questions-"
"I don't have the answers." Pete cut him off as the car pulled away.
"Hah!" The man who had questioned Reynolds yelled after him. "Big shot! Think you can…" His voice was lost behind them.
4
In a modest retirees' apartment block in the coast town of Idlebreeze, forty miles from the scene of the freak quake, an old man sat in a reclining chair, half dozing before a yammering Tri-D tank.
"… Grandpa," a sharp-voiced young woman was saying. "It's time for you to go in to bed."
"Bed? Why do I want to go to bed? Can't sleep anyway…" He stirred, made a pretense of sitting up, showing an interest in the Tri-D. "I'm watching this show. Don't bother me."
"It's not a show, it's the news," a fattish boy said disgustedly. "Ma, can I switch channels-"
"Leave it alone, Bennie," the old man said. On the screen a panoramic scene spread out, a stretch of barren ground across which a furrow showed. As he watched, it lengthened.
"… up here at the Intermix we have a fine view of the whole curious business, lazangemmun," the announcer chattered. "And in our opinion it's some sort of publicity stunt staged by the Port Authority to publicize their controversial port project-"
"Ma, can I change channels?"
"Go ahead, Bennie-"
"Don't touch it," the old man said. The fattish boy reached for the control, but something in the old man's eye stopped him…
5
"The traffic's still piling in here," Reynolds said into the phone. "Damn it, Jim, we'll have a major jam on our hands-"
"He won't do it, Pete! You know the Circular was his baby-the super all-weather pike that nothing could shut down. He says you'll have to handle this in the field-"
"Handle, hell! I'm talking about preventing a major disaster! And in a matter of minutes, at that!"
"I'll try again-"
"If he says no, divert a couple of the big ten-yard graders and block it off yourself. Set up field arcs, and keep any cars from getting in from either direction."
"Pete, that's outside your authority!"
"You heard me!"
Ten minutes later, back at ground level, Reynolds watched the boom-mounted polyarcs swinging into position at the two roadblocks a quarter of a mile apart, cutting off the threatened section of the raised expressway. A hundred yards from where he stood on the rear cargo deck of a light grader rig, a section of rock fifty feet wide rose slowly, split, fell back with a ponderous impact. One corner of it struck the massive pier supporting the extended shelf of the lay-by above. A twenty-foot splinter fell away, exposing the reinforcing-rod core.
"How deep, Jim?" Reynolds spoke over the roaring sound coming from the disturbed area.
"Just subsurface now, Pete! It ought to break through-" His voice was drowned in a rumble as the damaged pier shivered, rose up, buckled at its midpoint, and collapsed, bringing down with it a large chunk of pavement and guard rail, and a single still-glowing light pole. A small car that had been parked on the doomed section was visible for an instant just before the immense slab struck. Reynolds saw it bounce aside, then disappear under an avalanche of broken concrete.
"My God, Pete-" Dan started. "That damned fool news hound…!"
"Look!" As the two men watched, a second pier swayed, fell backward into the shadow of the span above. The roadway sagged, and two more piers snapped. With a bellow like a burst dam, a hundred-foot stretch of the road fell into the roiling dust cloud.
"Pete!" Mayfield's voice burst from the car tadio. "Get out of there! I threw a reader on that thing and it's chattering off the scale…!"
Among the piled fragments something stirred, heaved, rising up, lifting multi-ton pieces of the broken road, thrusting them aside like so many potato chips. A dull blue radiance broke through from the broached earth, threw an eerie light on the shattered structure above. A massive, ponderously irresistible shape thrust forward through the ruins. Reynolds saw a great blue-glowing profile emerge from the rubble like a surfacing submarine, shedding a burden of broken stone, saw immense treads ten feet wide claw for purchase, saw the mighty flank brush a still-standing pier, send it crashing aside.
"Pete, what-what is it…?"
"I don't know." Reynolds broke the paralysis that had gripped him. "Get us out of here, Dan, fast! Whatever it is, it's headed straight for the city!"
6
I emerge at last from the trap into which I had fallen, and at once encounter defensive works of considerable strength. My scanners are dulled from lack of power, but I am able to perceive open ground beyond the barrier, and farther still, at a distance of 5.7 kilometers, massive walls. Once more I transmit the Brigade Rally signal; but as before, there is no reply. I am truly alone.
I scan the surrounding area for the emanations of Enemy drive units, monitor the EM spectrum for their communications. I detect nothing; either my circuitry is badly damaged, or their shielding is superb.
I must now make a decision as to possible courses of action. Since all my comrades of the Brigade have fallen, I compute that the fortress before me must be held by Enemy forces. I direct probing signals at them, discover them to be of unfamiliar construction, and less formidable than they appear. I am aware of the possibility that this may be a trick of the Enemy; but my course is clear.
I reengage my driving engines and advance on the Enemy fortress.
7
"You're out of your mind, father," the stout man said. "At your age-"
"At your age, I got my nose smashed in a brawl in a bar on Aldo," the old man cut him off. "But I won the fight."
"James, you can't go out at this time of night…" an elderly woman wailed.
"Tell them to go home." The old man walked painfully toward his bedroom door. "I've seen enough of them for today." He passed out of sight.
"Mother, you won't let him do anything foolish?"
"He'll forget about it in a few minutes; but maybe you'd better go now and let him settle down."
"Mother-I really think a home is the best solution."
"Yes," the young woman nodded agreement. "After all, he's past ninety-and he has his veteran's retirement…"
Inside his room, the old man listened as they departed. He went to the closet, took out clothes, began dressing…
8
City Engineer Eaton's face was chalk-white on the screen.
"No one can blame me," he said. "How could I have known-"
"Your office ran the surveys and gave the PA the green light," Mayor Dougherty yelled.
"All the old survey charts showed was 'Disposal Area,'" Eaton threw out his hands. "I assumed-"
"As City Engineer, you're not paid to make assumptions! Ten minutes' research would have told you that was a 'Y' category area!"
"What's 'Y' category mean?" Mayfield asked Reynolds. They were standing by the field comm center, listening to the dispute. Nearby, boom-mounted Tri-D cameras hummed, recording the progress of the immense machine, its upper turret rearing forty-five feet into the air, as it ground slowly forward across smooth ground toward the city, dragging behind it a trailing festoon of twisted reinforcing iron crusted with broken concrete.