“Alexa, get Bob Schwartz from Pollard Research on the phone,” Senator Bechtel ordered as she entered her office in the Hart Office Building. She stopped and looked out the window in the direction of the White House. “Something’s about to blow up in our face and I need to know what it is.”
“Bob Schwartz, line two,” Alexa announced. Alexa was Senator Bechtel’s executive secretary.
Bechtel picked up the phone. “Bob, can we meet in the usual place? Yeah, ten minutes? Thank you.”
As Bechtel entered the small coffee shop located on H Street, she spotted Bob Schwartz at a small table. Bob was five-ten, sixty pounds overweight with heavy glasses, puffy cheeks and prematurely graying long hair pulled back in a ponytail. She smiled when she saw that he sat with his back to the front door. She always sat facing the door so she could see anyone that might approach. She looked around suspiciously before speaking.
“So what do you need to know?” he asked.
“I need some deep research on the recent Sichuan earthquake and how anything we have going on may be connected.”
“What is it you suspect has happened?”
“That’s just it. We have the earthquake in China, we send in a freighter full of relief supplies and our ship is the only one turned away. In addition, all visas for U.S. citizens in China have been cancelled. Everyone needs to leave in the next 48 hours.”
Bob sat back in his chair. “So it’s personal.”
“And serious,” she replied. “Dig into everything — not just the official side, look at the fringe stuff too. I need answers and I need them now.”
“Sounds like you want this off-book.”
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll see that you get the regular back-channel funding for this. How long?”
“The easy stuff I can get right away, but you probably already know what I will find. The deep stuff is going to take a week, maybe more, depending on what I find and what needs to be found under that. I’ll make it a priority.”
She smiled. “I knew I could count on you.”
CHAPTER 11
Willa was talking with Betty in the Gift Shoppe when Jason strolled in.
“Nice place,” Jason stated. “I like the color combinations. I’m Jason Roberts,” he said as he offered his hand to Betty. As she shook his hand he continued, “I’m here to revise the evacuation plan for Dolphin Beach in case of a tsunami. I noticed a second story set back from the front of the Gift Shoppe. You live upstairs?”
Betty seemed taken aback by Jason’s question and took a step backwards.
“I checked on him,” Willa explained. “Caltech, genius, honest, exceptionally good at mechanical systems.” Jason blushed and then smiled at Betty.
“I didn’t see an outside stairway,” Jason said.
Betty studied him for a moment. “It’s storage.”
“Good,” Jason said. “No need for alternative egress.” He tapped on the screen of his tablet. “Thank you for helping. I apologize for the intrusion.” He turned and left.
Willa followed him to the next building and watched as he used his laser measuring device to measure the width, length and height of the front of the building. He stepped back to look at the roofline and tapped several more times on his tablet. He entered the barber shop next. Willa followed him in.
“Hi, I’m Jason Roberts. I’m here to revise the evacuation plan in case of a tsunami.” Jason shook hands with the barber. “I’ve got a few questions you can help me with.”
Willa watched as Jason asked about the age of the building and checked the general interior layout. He thanked the barber and turned to leave.
“I was thinking a presentation like you described would take months to prepare,” Willa said. Jason seemed surprised to see her standing there.
“Normally, it would,” he replied, “if you did it from nothing. But I’ve spent a year and a half developing this program. I’ve got 827 different types of buildings programmed in with different types of construction. All I have to do is select the building type, the size, the age, the soil conditions, the spacing from other structures and roof type. I also input the surrounding geography. From there I can select the magnitude of the earthquake, the earthquake type, proximity to water, distance from the epicenter and depth of the quake. The program generates the graphics and effects based on the mathematical model I developed.”
Willa felt overwhelmed with the scope of the information. “So, Saturday?”
“Saturday’s good,” he said as he turned his attention to the next building.
Over the next few days Willa saw Jason from time to time as she made her rounds talking with business owners about Saturday’s presentation. Jason spent Friday taking measurements of the streets, the side of the hill that surrounded Dolphin Beach and the sea shore. When he headed out on the wooden pier Willa followed him. She stopped and looked into the bucket next to one of the locals.
“Henry, how is the crabbing today?” Willa asked.
Henry turned. His face brightened as he saw Willa. Henry had retired two years ago. He was five ten with a small pot belly, a scruffy beard, and had an old pipe stuck in the corner of his mouth. He wore an old, worn, red and blue plaid flannel shirt, faded blue jeans and an ancient, army drab denim floppy hat. Pulling the pipe from his mouth with his right hand, he smiled.
“Willa, how are you doin’ today?”
“Good,” Willa replied. “You?”
“Oh, fine, fine,” he replied. “Crabs are hungry today. Doin’ real good. I’ll have plenty for Carla’s Catch of the Day.” Carla’s was one of the more popular restaurants in Dolphin Beach, located on Main Street, half a block north of the Village Center, specializing in seafood. “With a catch like this, she’ll fix me a nice crab dinner for free.”
“Oh, I think there’s more to her dinners than the crabs you catch.”
He blushed and looked down at the crab bucket. “Maybe. I really like her.”
“She likes you, too,” Willa replied. “You should ask her out.”
Henry fussed a bit, looking nervous. “Yeah, maybe, but I couldn’t really take her out for dinner, now could I? I mean she owns a restaurant and all.”
“She just might enjoy a dinner she didn’t have to cook, Henry. Think about that.”
Rather than wait for Henry to answer, Willa headed down the pier toward Jason.
The pier was a popular place for both tourists and locals. Blue Crabs were in abundant supply and catching them was the most popular sport in Dolphin Beach. She passed several more people with Blue Crabs in their buckets. The local restaurants would cook and prepare the crabs anyone brought in for a small fee. It was one of the nice touches that made Dolphin Beach a favorite and drew people from Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
“You have different pier types in your program?” Willa asked.
Jason had been looking down into the water at the end of the pier and spun around in surprise.
“Oh,” he replied. “Thirteen types of piers, 187 different types of bridges, which you don’t have, and 82 types of water towers, which you also don’t have.”
“We have the Three Sentinels,” Willa said, pointing to the three large rocks that stood their silent vigil over Dolphin Beach. ”Would they break up a tsunami?”
Jason looked at the three large rocks protruding out of the water. “Depends on the wave,” he said. He pointed the camera lens on his tablet toward the Three Sentinels and tapped the screen. “Do you happen to know how high they are?”
“Sure, the center one is eighty feet high, the one on the right is sixty five and the one on the left is sixty feet. But that depends on the tide. Each one has navigational lights mounted on it and the center one has a radio navigational beacon on top.”