Breakthrough (32 page)

Kathryn had landed just minutes ago at McMurdo where she and her team now watched from a large conference room.  The room was deathly silent as they watched the giant wave.

The dark line in the ocean approached a small uninhabited island two hundred miles southeast of Tristan.  This island would provide the best measurement of the tsunami’s energy.  It would be the first island hit full force, and give a visual estimation for what was to come.  

Kathryn and her team knew that if a counter wave could not be generated before the tsunami passed much farther beyond this first island, it would not be able to travel far enough from Tristan to provide the effect they needed or spread wide enough across the ocean.

As the tsunami reached the first island it quickly grew much larger on the monitor as the island’s rising mass beneath the ocean forced the full size of the tsunami up to the surface.  Kathryn and her team gasped.  It was
enormous
.

In one smooth movement the giant wave struck and quickly wrapped itself around enveloping the entire island.  Part of the island’s southern facing cliffs could be seen crumbling into giant pieces before the water engulfed everything.  The total shock however, felt both from the White House and McMurdo, came when the island completely disappeared from view.  Over twenty five square miles of solid rock reaching hundreds of feet high was completely destroyed in less than a minute.  It was as if the top of the island had been simply wiped way.

“Oh my god!”  Kathryn Lokke gasped.  It was so much bigger than any of them were expecting.  Her hopes of stopping this thing, even with a counter tsunami, began to melt. 

In the White House, President Carr’s face, as well as the others, went completely white.

The giant wave of destruction continued its relentless push north.

A blue dome covered The Settlement as t
he intercontinental ballistic missile approached Tristan at over 3,000 miles per hour.  Its coordinates were exact.  The missile dove and detonated less than 300 feet above the south end of the island.  Even with the island’s peak blocking some of the impact, the entire sky turned bright white as the incredible force of the nuclear reaction was unleashed.  Much of the rocky slope instantly turned to glass and the downward impact against the giant mountain caused the structure beneath the island to shift and then buckle altogether.  A line formed and cut its way across the southern slope, breaking the glass and rock into millions of giant fragments and sending them upward in every direction.  A deep rumbling followed shaking the entire island violently.  Then in one giant motion, a third of the island slid away from the mountain and off its underwater base, plunging straight into the ocean.  The energy released in the warhead was just a fraction of that which was released when the slide displaced an enormous mass of water and pushed it forward into a second giant wave.

The wave raced southward, almost instantly washing over the smaller islands of the archipelago and taking every bit of loose soil or life form with it.

Everyone watched as two waves of unimaginable power sped towards each other.  It took less than ten minutes for them to cover the distance.  When they reached each other, the impact was easily visible as the dark lines on the satellite suddenly turned white.  The white line of impact became thick and began to grow wider and wider, becoming a mile wide, then five miles, then ten.  The pressure pushed the water into the air forming a giant white wall which
rippled out almost half way across the Atlantic.  The wall of water grew taller and taller reaching nearly three hundred feet above the surface before it began to slow.  The wall finally stopped and dropped back toward the ocean.  When it hit the surface, a giant depression was formed which was quickly covered by the incoming surge from both directions.  When both sides of the surge smashed into one another, the force created another smaller wall, which itself dropped down to make another depression and one last small and final surge. 

From the satellite, they could see the thick line of water begin to disperse and return to its normal bluer color.

Everyone at McMurdo screamed and jumped up and down hugging each other.  Kathryn stood motionless, feeling the energy drain from her body and at the same time her eyes filling up with tears.  She couldn’t believe it.  She simply could not believe it.  It worked, it actually worked.

In Washington, the President fell back into his chair exhausted.  The rest of the men clapped wildly and Stevas, still off to the side, clapped harder than anyone.  They all stared at the monitor watching the water swirl and blend back in with the rest of the ocean.  Carr covered his face with his hands and just shook his head.  He had no words.  No words at all.

45

Clay stepped out of the portal behind Palin and into a large blue room.  He looked around and realized that they were standing in a large sphere surrounded by water.  The portal blinked out behind them and the room darkened, allowing his eyes to adjust.  He looked at the nearby wall and walked to it.  The water appeared to somehow be part of the room.  Incredulous, he turned and looked back at Palin who merely smiled.  Clay reached out and touched the wall.  His finger went straight through into the cold water on the other side.  He drew his hand back and looked at his wet finger.  He tasted it, saltwater.

He looked further through the water and could see the distorted shape of the ring, giant and still.  He turned back to Palin.  “This is the city.  Your settlement.”

“Yes.”

“We were here before, right?”  Clay asked, examining the room.

Palin made a humorous expression.  “Yes, but we were unconscious then.”

Clay smiled and nodded his head.  He looked through the wall on the other side and could see hundreds of similar spheres.  Something caught his eye and he turned to see a moving object headed their way. It looked like a tunnel forming from another sphere to theirs.  In the tunnel were several people all walking toward him and Palin.

The tunnel connected to their room and a small group entered, led by a woman dressed in a deep colored blue robe.  On her head was a band with stones embedded in it.  She walked smoothly toward him and stopped a few steps away.

“Hello Mr. Clay.” She said with a smile.  “My name is Laana.”  She reached out her hand and he took it gently.

“
Laana.” He replied with a slight bow.

She continued to smile as she watched him.  “I want to thank you,” she said.  “You have helped us greatly.  Without you, I’m afraid we would not have survived.”

“Well, with all due respect, I think I was also part of the problem.”

Her blue eyes softened at the edges.  “I suppose so, but there
were
others.  Yet in the end, you were our salvation.  You returned Palin in time for us to protect ourselves and the ring.  Without you, both rings would have been destroyed and neither of our people would have survived.”

He accepted the compliment.  “It was my pleasure.”

A loud sound reverberated behind them and Clay turned around to see the ring slowly begin turning again. 

“What now?” he asked. 

She motioned to the others behind her.  “Now we go home.”  She answered his next question before he could ask it.  “We have enough water now to maintain and grow again.”  Behind her, Clay noticed some of the distant spheres begin to move.  They seemed to detach from the rest and float inward toward the ring.  Others also began to detach until dozens were following.  Clay realized that she was still holding his hand.  She gave it a warm squeeze.  “We are thankful that Palin found a good man to trust.”

“I have questions,” he said.  “A lot of them actually.”

She smiled.  “I’m sure you do.”

“Why did you tell us everything?”  He looked over her shoulder at Palin.  “Why reveal everything to us so easily?”

Laana tilted her head.  “Palin agreed to tell you.  He was in your debt.  You see, the man you allowed him to save aboard your vessel…was his son.” 

Clay’s eyes widened.  “I had no idea.”

She smiled.  “Besides, we knew we could not remain undetected for long.” 

Clay contemplated his next question.  He was afraid of what she would say.  He took a deep breath.  “Is there-” he began when
Laana held up her hand and stopped him.

“As for your other questions,” she said, “your people will need to discover the answers for themselves.  It can be unwise for a race to gain knowledge too quickly.”

With that, she let his hand slip from hers and took a step back.  The others behind her, in similar robes, all nodded to him and turned away smoothly.  One by one they left as the tunnel reappeared and traveled back in the opposite direction. 

Only Palin remained.  The tunnel stayed open waiting for him.  He approached Clay and put out his hand.

“Thank you, John Clay.”

“You’re welcome Palin.” Clay replied.  He looked at Palin and smiled.  “Brothers?”

Palin squeezed his hand.  “Brothers.”

46

Alison sat in what was left of her large research room.  The aquarium was officially shut down for three weeks.  The carpet was gone and dozens of workers were repairing the walls.  On the far side, some of the carpet had already been replaced and the servers were being reinstalled with the help of Lee and Chris.  New desks were being carried in through the large hallway and stacked to the side until the floor was ready.  Now, the workers were slowly beginning to file out for the evening.

She looked at the giant tank.  The bullets had been removed from the glass and the holes patched and re-finished.  Inside Sally slowly swam in place healing from the deep wounds that covered her body.  Alison had fared even worse.  Her right arm was in a cast and lacerations covered most of her face.  Her legs had been very badly injured but fortunately the wheelchair she sat in was temporary.

The place felt like an opened tomb.  She thought of the people who had died.  She thought of Dirk who had innocently
swam right into the middle of it all, thinking he was helping.  Dolphins were so much more beautiful than humans she thought.  They deserved to be here more than we did.

She lowered her head.  Dirk and Sally felt like her children and losing him hurt her heart more than she ever thought possible. 

Suddenly there was a bright flash.  Alison looked up and around the room.  After exchanging curious looks with Chris and Lee, she looked back and froze when her eyes fell on the tank.  There in the water, next to Sally, was Dirk slowly moving his tail back and forth.  Sally burst with excitement, circling him over and over, wounds and all.  Dirk nudged her affectionately as she passed.  After several moments, he turned his attention to Alison and swam to the edge of the tank.  He opened his mouth and said something, but without IMIS it would go unheard.

He looked at her curiously, not sure why she was shaking.  It would be some time before she could explain to him human crying.

President Carr stepped up to the lectern.  He looked like he had aged rapidly in the last week.  With his normal prose, he smiled and began the press conference.

“My fellow Americans, I am both troubled and proud to report to you the extraordinary efforts of our men and women in uniform in stopping not just one but two nuclear terrorist attacks. 
As you know avoiding a nuclear strike on American soil is our upmost priority and today we have done precisely that.  Two airplanes, one coming from the Middle East and one coming from Africa, were both identified and destroyed before they could reach our shores.  And while we can be glad that they were stopped, the bombs were, in fact, armed and detonated on impact.  Fortunately, the lives lost were minimal.  We believe these two warheads were stolen from Russia’s stockpile which we will…”

Clay watched the President from his barstool at the end of the counter.  The spin was better than he expected.  He reached for his beer which had hardly been touched.  Governments lie
, he thought.  They always have and they always will.  He raised the glass to his lips but stopped short and put it back down.  He sighed and stood up slowly, holding his side.  It was going to be a long recovery.

He pulled a bill from his wallet and dropped it onto the counter.

Out on the street, he decided to go for a walk and headed toward Constitution Avenue.  Within a few blocks
, he could see the tip of the Washington Monument over the rest of the buildings.  At the park, he found and sat down on a bench, admiring the monuments to our forefathers.

“Next time you have one of your bright ideas,” a voice said behind him, “you can count me out.”

A startled Clay whirled around to see Steve Caesare standing behind him.  He blinked several times.  “What…how?”  He stood up without turning around, wondering if he were hallucinating.

Caesare, with a load of bandages under his clothes, stood smiling at Clay.

“I don’t understand,” Clay said walking toward him.

He shrugged.  “Back in the lab when you went through that portal thing, I managed to crawl through before it closed.  I don’t really remember much after that.”

Clay simply stood there shaking his head.  His eyes began to well up.

“Aw,” Caesare said.  “I hope you’re not gonna cry right here in front of everybody.”

Clay smiled and wiped the tears away.  He walked forward to Caesare and hugged him causing both of them to groan in pain.

“Hey,” Caesare said stepping back.  “Did you hear about Stevas?”

Clay shook his head.  “No.”

“Nobody’s seen him,
”  Caesare said.  “Sounds like his wife called in a missing person’s report and nobody can find him.  What a shame, huh?”

“Carr probably threw him in jail.”

“Uh uh,” Caesare said shaking his head.  “From what I hear they don’t know where he is either.”

The two exchanged a puzzled look.  After a long moment
, a grin began to spread across both their faces.  They turned and began walking away from the park.  “So what now?” asked Caesare.  “I still get my pension right?”

Clay stopped and
frowned at him.  “Man, I’m sorry, I told Borger he could have it.”

Caesare laughed.  “Damn John, I wasn’t even cold yet.”

Clay smiled at him and looked up at the setting sun.  “Actually, I thought I might take a drive south to Miami.  Maybe check out the aquarium.  I hear they’re doing some interesting things down there.”