TSUNAMI STORM (9 page)

He stopped eating and looked at her. “All officers? No wonder you were born to go to Annapolis. It runs in the family. Power struggles at home?”

“Hell no,” she said. “Mama’s in charge at home. Nobody even questions that.”

He pointed a fork at her. “Great role model for you.” He took another bite of steak. “Run your torpedo room like your mom runs the family and you’re home free.”

“You think so?”

“Know so. Now eat your dinner; it’s getting cold.”

She laughed out loud. “Now you sound like my mother.”

“I probably do, I learned it from you at Annapolis, so eat.”

She smiled and dug into her meal. He made her feel so much better about her failure in the room and how she had felt so overwhelmed. It felt good to have a friend.

Dolphin Beach, Oregon

Willa sat at the desk in her office with her head lowered, face covered with her hands.

“This is horrible,” she said as she lowered her hands. “I can’t believe that will happen to Dolphin Beach.”

“It will happen,” Jason replied. “It’s just a matter of time.”

“I’ve lived here all of my life,” she said. “All I’ve ever known is Dolphin Beach. I can’t even imagine it not being here.”

“I know you feel overwhelmed,” Jason said. “That’s understandable. Everyone is when faced with the destructive force of a 9.0 Magnitude earthquake, let alone the tsunami that would certainly follow. It makes you feel helpless,” Jason said softly. “That’s why I suggested that you do a practice run for the evacuation. Doing something, even something simple, helps people reclaim some confidence in the face of overwhelming events.”

“Not everyone believes this earthquake and tsunami is going to happen,” she said.

“I know,” Jason replied. “The people of Pompeii didn’t believe the volcano would erupt either. Their belief didn’t change the eventual outcome. They still died a horrible death, simply because they made no preparations for survival and evacuation. The practice run is essential for people to survive. You feel overwhelmed now; think of what people are going to be feeling when it actually happens. People won’t be able to think, they will revert back to what they have done before. That’s why the practice run is so critical. Once they go through the motions of the practice run, they will follow what they have done before, and most of the people of Dolphin Beach will survive.”

“I hear what you’re saying,” Willa said. “You’re being practical, and I appreciate that, but this thing is also political. You already met Frank. He will oppose a practice run. Not everyone will participate.”

“Not everyone has to participate,” Jason replied. “Look, there’s a key factor operating here that most people don’t want to hear. The largest portion of the human brain is the mammalian brain. It functions on a herd mentality. Forgive the expression, but most people are a lot like sheep. In cases like a disaster of this magnitude, very few people will be able to think, but they will follow. If you get 51% of the people to participate in the practice run, when the time comes the remaining 49% will follow the majority without thinking.”

“Fifty one percent?” Willa questioned.

“Yep,” Jason replied. “That’s all it will take. If you can get 51% of the people of Dolphin Beach to participate in the practice evacuation, it will work. You will save the people of Dolphin Beach.”

Willa tapped her fingers on her desk nervously as she thought, her eyes unfocused as her mind imagined the practice run and how many people would actually take part. “It might work.”

“It
will
work,” Jason confirmed. “We need to make it a fun event. We can have traffic cones placed where debris fields will be. Some areas will be taped off where dead ends will form. We can have a picnic at the safety place – reward everyone who participates.”

Willa sat back in her chair, looking at the ceiling. “A picnic as a reward?” She sat up and looked directly into Jason’s eyes. “You should be in politics.”

Jason laughed. “It’s my dad,” he replied. “You don’t get to be the biggest architectural firm in L.A. without being political and knowing people inside and out. I grew up with all of the motivational events my dad’s company put together. It’s just how you get things done.”

“Okay,” Willa said. “This can work. I’m going to need Chief Dolan and the pastor of the local church on board, plus the ladies from the quilting bee circle and the ceramics club. We can do this. I’ll need about two weeks to get it all set up. Will that work for you?”

“Sure,” Jason said. “That’ll give me time to get the next two towns analyzed and their presentations made. Just as here, I make my presentations on a Saturday, so can we have the practice run on a Sunday afternoon?”

“A practice run, a walk up the hill and a picnic?” she said. “Perfect plan for a Sunday afternoon.” She shook hands with Jason to seal the deal. The only remaining problem was what she was going to do about Frank.

Office of Covert Operations, the Pentagon

Billingsly watched the daily reports for the new facility in China with trepidation. The heavy rain had to be slowing them down, but the cloud cover also meant that clear visuals of what was being built couldn’t be seen. It cut both ways. What did work were the Infra-red scans of the area. They weren’t focused like a true visual image was, but it did show hundreds of heat producing machines and equipment in use around the clock.

After ten days of clouds and rain, Billingsly sent an order to the Alaska A4 facility to change the weather pattern over the Chinese facility and let the clouds clear out. He needed to see exactly what the Chinese were accomplishing. The original HAARP facility in Gakona, Alaska consisted of 180 phased array antennas spread out over 35 acres of gravel covered land. The new A4 facility was in the wilderness area southwest of Fort Yukon, Alaska, and covered 3500 acres with 18,000 antennas. The antenna field measured 2 and 3/16 miles by 2 and 1/2 miles. It was the largest, most powerful facility of its kind in the world. Twenty-four hours later, Billingsly got his first visual of the Chinese facility.

His hands shook and his heart pounded in his chest. It was a good thing he had been sitting; otherwise Rod Schneider from the NRO might have had to pick him up off the floor. What appeared to be laid out as the antenna field was four miles by five miles, nearly four times the size of the A4 facility in Alaska. The entire perimeter was being cleared and foundations were being dug for two rows of what were probably power generating plants. A third area was being blasted out of the side of a mountain, with 80 rock-crushing machines in full operation to produce the gravel for the antenna field.

“The area that is being blasted out is considerably deeper than anything else,” Rod Schneider said. “At first we thought they just needed that amount of gravel, but it would be easier to take down more of the mountain than to go deeper. We think they are building an underground tank farm to store fuel oil for the generators.”

“Yeah,” Billingsly replied. “It makes them a lot more secure against attacks, or just plain accidents.”

“They’re also building a railroad,” Schneider noted. “Probably for tank cars transporting fuel.”

“Of course they are,” Billingsly replied dryly. “What’s your estimate for completion of the facility?”

“Well, they’ve gotten this far in thirteen days. Best guess is they will be operational in another two months.”

Billingsly shook his head. “It took us two years to build our new facility, and that was a priority project. You’re saying the Chinese will build something four times the size in less than three months?”

“They’re pouring every resource they have into this. My personal assessment is that they have north of 30,000,000 people involved in this project. I don’t know what happened, but I can tell you the Chinese are extremely motivated. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“The two month time frame: How much longer will it take them with the heavy rain they have been getting?”

“The two months is
with
the rain. Six weeks with dry weather.”

Billingsly was lost in his own thoughts when Schneider left. He hated to be the bearer of bad news, but some things just had to be done, no matter what. He pressed the button on his intercom. “Judy, get me a face-to-face with SecDef, ASAP.”

“Yes, Sir,” she responded.

There was never a good day for a high level ass chewing, and today wasn’t going to be an exception.

Dolphin Beach, Oregon

Willa didn’t know exactly why she came into the office today; it was Saturday. She fussed with some papers on her desk and went over the plans for the practice evacuation one more time. Mostly she was nervous. Several of her friends had informed her that Frank Gillis was planning a huge demonstration tomorrow during the evacuation practice. Why he couldn’t just leave well enough alone she didn’t know. The thought of another emotional confrontation with Frank was just too upsetting. The frustration she was experiencing in having to battle Frank in addition to running the administration of Dolphin Beach was getting to be too much to handle. She looked out the glass window in her office across the main room in City Hall and saw Chief Dolan in the Police Office looking back at her. He looked concerned. Feeling self-conscious, she left.

She turned to her right as she left City Hall and headed north through the Village Center. She stopped at Saundra’s Bakery and picked up a Cherry Pie. She continued north and a little east to the corner of Conifer Street where her bungalow was located on the southeast corner. Her home was a small, two bedroom structure built just after World War II with a single bath, small kitchen and moderately-sized living room.

She unlocked the door, went in, closed the door and walked straight to the kitchen. She took the pie out of the box and popped it into the oven, setting the timer and the heat to warm it. She checked the freezer and pulled the half gallon of French Vanilla ice cream out to soften up. It should be just right about the time the pie was warmed through. She started a pot of coffee, went into the living room and turned on the TV. She watched for thirty seconds and turned the TV off. She went back into the kitchen to check on the pie and the ice cream. Still not ready.

Willa was startled by the knock on her front door. She took a peek out her front window. It was Chief Dolan. She opened the door and welcomed him in.

“I decided to come by and check on you,” he said. “You’re a lot like my mom. She would be a nervous wreck right now, so I thought you could use someone to talk to.”

“I don’t know what to do,” she replied. “I just get so upset with Frank that I can’t think straight.”

Chief Dolan nodded. “He does that intentionally. He baits people to get them angry, and then he uses their anger to manipulate them. Frank understands anger; it’s his primary emotion. What you have to do is remain calm in the face of his anger.”

“I don’t think I can do that,” she replied. “He’s just… just so frustrating that I can’t help myself.”

“I understand,” Chief Dolan said. “Both my parents were the same way. It’s just that my police training and experience gives me a different view of situations like this.”

“Frank is going to ruin our practice evacuation tomorrow.” The timer on the oven rang. She looked into the kitchen. “I’ve got cherry pie, French vanilla ice cream and coffee if you’re interested.”

Chief Dolan smiled. “An offer I can’t refuse.”

She served the pie ala mode and poured two cups of coffee. They sat at the kitchen table.

“Yeah, when I heard about Frank’s demonstration tomorrow I thought you could use some support,” he said.

“I could,” she replied. “Thanks.”

“I know you think you have to handle Frank tomorrow because you’re the mayor,” he said. “But I want you to consider that even though his demonstration tomorrow is political in nature, the way to handle it is through public safety. It becomes political only if you make it political.”

“But it
is
political,” she replied. “That’s the only reason he’s doing this.”

“And that’s the reason you need to stay out of it. Look, the election in November isn’t his to win; it’s yours to lose. The people like you, the season’s going well, and he can’t beat you unless you give it away to him. I’m just suggesting that you don’t cooperate with him. Stay out of it. Let me handle Frank.”

She tapped her fork against the plate several times, thinking. “You don’t think people will see me as being weak if I don’t confront Frank?”

“No,” he replied. “I think people will see you as being stronger than Frank if you ignore him.”

She sliced off a slender piece of ice cream and slid it on top of the cherry pie, “That would be stronger?” she asked, cutting off a piece of pie and putting it in her mouth.

“Anger is easy,” he said. “Inner peace is difficult. It’s one of the things they taught us in the police academy. The way to control an angry person isn’t to join him in his anger; it’s to balance out his anger with peace and calm. The angrier the person is, the calmer we have to be in response. It’s not an issue of force – it’s an issue of control. The one with the most self-control wins.”

“So you think Frank is doing this just to get me upset so he can be in control?”

“That’s exactly what I think,” he replied.

“And you think this is going to work?”

“It has for the last dozen or so years. It’ll work tomorrow. Just you wait and see.”