Breakthrough (30 page)

42

President Carr walked into his oval office and slammed the door behind him.  He turned to the men waiting for him as angry as anyone had ever seen him.

“Who did it?!” he yelled.

Miller, Mason, Stevas,
Langford, Bishop, and Bullman, all stood before him quietly.

“I said who did it?!” he yelled again.  He pointed at them angrily.  “We all know that I’m going to find out soon
, and the longer I have to wait the more I will want someone in jail!”

The men all looked at each other.  Clearly some of them had no idea what he was talking about.  Some however did.  Stevas stepped forward and came out swinging.

“I did.” He said in a low growl.  “I did what you wouldn’t do!  I did what you
couldn’t
do.”

Carr was not the least bit surprised.  “You set off a nuclear bomb less than a hundred miles outside of a major metropolitan city.  And you did it against my direct orders!” he yelled again.

“I did what had to be done.” Stevas spat back.  “Our country, our entire world, was on the brink of annihilation.  The U.N. was bringing in the mother of all bureaucracies, and our time to control the situation was almost up.  If we hadn’t done it then, we wouldn’t have been able to do it at all!”

“I gave you a direct order!” the President growled.

Stevas stepped towards him in defiance.  “And I did what had to be done!  I stopped it, and I stopped
them
!  If you want to arrest me for saving this planet, then go ahead.  I’ll gladly sit by while I type out the whole story and explain that our President didn’t have the guts to act when it was clear that we were under attack!”

“Under attack?” the President asked looking at Stevas with disdain.

“That’s right!” Stevas sneered.  He looked at Miller.  “What’s wrong, didn’t your servant here tell you that those bastards destroyed all twelve of our subs?  Every single one!  And if you want to stand here and act like we still had time for some kind of diplomacy then you go right ahead, but I know what happened, and in the end, I did what you should have done!”

The President remained still, glaring at the smaller Stevas with a look that said he was contemplating punching him out.  The room fell silent with both men staring at each other, chests heaving.

“And you didn’t care,” the President said trying to control himself, “what the risk of blowing up that ring was to us or them.”

Stevas shook his head.  “Lawrence was confident there was no threat.”  He paused for effect.  “And guess what, we’re
still here
.”

Kathryn Lokke sat inside the small inflatable habitat sitting at a small desk with her laptop computer.  She was surprised at how well it worked at retaining the heat and giving them all some semblance of normality considering the accommodations during their last stay.   In one brisk movement, she closed her laptop,
then stood up and put her parka and gloves back on. 

The day was off to a good start she thought
, as she stepped outside.  Not far away, one of her teams were examining the ice, making deep holes and testing for density.  The area had to be strong enough to support the weight of the drilling machines, but not so hard that it would impede their drilling speed.  Her other two teams were one and then two miles ahead of them also looking for ideal areas for those holes. 

One of the big mobile drilling machines rolled past Kathryn on its way to meet up with one of the forward teams.  The tiny ice crystals kicking up behind the machine
stung her face momentary before she turned away.  After it passed, she walked behind it and crossed the small working area.  Steve Anderson, the head of the New Zealand team, was standing next to her old pal Andrew, the guide who virtually saved her the last time here.   They both looked up when she approached.

“G’day Ms. Lokke.”  They said, almost in unison.

“I told you, it’s Kathryn.”

“
Roight.” they said in their Kiwi accent.

“How are my charges coming?” she asked, referring to the explosives that would be placed at the bottom of the drilled lines.

“They should be here any minute,” Steve confirmed.  “Just spoke with the crew a couple minutes ago.”  He nodded past Kathryn’s shoulder and she turned around.  “The airstrip is ready.”

She could see Manly coming back toward them in his giant red plow, bumping up and down inside his cab.  He had one of the toughest jobs.  After this job, he was headed forward to the end of the line where he would have to plow yet another strip next to where they would camp for the night.  Between gas, food, the explosives, and additional people and equipment, they would be getting a drop off nearly every morning for the next two weeks.  Fortunately next week would bring another plow and one of Manly’s partners which would make it easier and provide some backup.

Kathryn looked back when she heard the sound of the plane.  It took her some time to find it in the bright sky even though she had now seen more of these C130’s then she ever wanted to.  As the plane grew closer and lowered its landing gear, she and the two others began walking toward the strip.

The two men were talking about where they planned to put the supplies, when Kathryn stopped to tie her right boot which had come loose.  She bent down and pulled the lace taught again and began to tie the knot but stopped when she saw something appear next to her boot.  It was a tiny crack.  She looked at it curiously without moving.  A few seconds later another crack appeared, this one slightly bigger.  Was she standing on a week spot?

Kathryn slowly stood up and looked around.  Small cracks were appearing everywhere.  She turned back to Steve and Andrew who were still walking toward the plane that was now less than fifty feet above the ground.

“Hey.” she said, but neither of the men heard her.  “HEY!” she called out.

Steven and Andrew turned and looked back at Kathryn.  She was standing still looking at the ground.  “Yeah?”

“Look!” she yelled to them.

“Look at what?” Steve answered.

“Look at the ICE!” her voice was trembling.

Both men looked around them and saw the tiny cracks forming all around.  They looked back at Kathryn and their eyes opened wide when they saw what was behind her.  Kathryn turned to see a giant crack forming and pieces of ice shooting up from the ground.  Farther in over the ice shelf, she could see many more pieces exploding into the air.

She looked at the two men in front of her.  “Run!” she shouted.  “RUN!”  The people working behind her, including Manly who was just getting out of the giant truck turned and looked at her curiously.  “RUN!” she yelled again waving them toward her.  Kathryn looked further on to the group of inflated structures serving as sleeping quarters.  There were at least several more people inside, but she felt sick as she realized they were too far way to hear her over the noise.

She turned back and saw the large plane rolling past them a few hundred yards away.  She pointed to the aircraft and starting running.  Steve and Andrew were already ahead of her.  They were all running and yelling to anyone else they could see.  They all stopped and called to the others again.  “RUN!”

When she turned around
, she saw her four man team, who had just been measuring the ice, were now running as fast as they could toward her.  Far off in the background, she could see the familiar white fog rising into the air, but this time it was much, much bigger.  In the far distance, she could see mud slides beginning against the base of the giant glacier.  It was happening!   The glacier was collapsing!

Now Manly was running toward her with his arm behind one of the drillers.
  Kathryn turned to Steve and Andrew and shouted, pointing at the plane.  “Don’t let the plane stop!”  They both nodded and ran after it.

The shaking began under her feet.  She kept waving the others in to her and looked for anyone else.  Tadri was one of the
team members running toward her.  She stopped to pick up someone who had fallen and helped her to her feet.  Kathryn kept looking at the living quarter huts, praying that they would come out.  She looked back at the plane and watched Steven and Andrew jump up through the rear door as it slowed to a stop.  A moment later the engines which were winding down suddenly roared back to life.  The plane quickly began to turn around to face the other direction.

The others finally caught up to Kathryn, and they all ran for the plane together.  She looked over her shoulder and finally saw the others coming out of the living quarters.  They looked around and then at Kathryn and the rest running toward the plane.  At that moment, a wide crack appeared and spread in a long jagged line between Kathryn and the camp.  It was too late.

The shaking was growing stronger and everyone tried to keep from stumbling sideways.  They covered the distance to the strip as the plane was slowly passing them.  Stumbling back and forth, they rounded the back of the plane and chased after the side door.  Both men were waiting and holding onto each side of the door.  They grabbed Tadri’s hand and pulled her off her feet and inside.  They reached out for the driller and then for Manly and the rest until finally they grabbed Kathryn and hauled her in.

The engines roared again and the plane accelerated.  Everyone in the back looked out the side windows as the ice sped past, watching as the cracks grew larger and larger.  The wheels of the plane hit a big crack
and everyone flew up hitting the metal ceiling then fell back down.  They all looked at one another rubbing their heads. 

The plane was really moving.  Outside, most of the ice became a blur, but all of the supplies were still onboard and with the added weight of its new passengers, the plane was struggling to take off. 
Boom
.  They felt another impact against the wheels that sent everyone into the air and then fumbling for a better hold after they crashed back to the floor again.

Kathryn looked out one of the side windows.  The glacier was barely visible and had turned dark brown from all the slides.  The plane suddenly became smooth as it lifted off the ice just as she watched the glacier collapse in the distance under its own weight.

At that moment, several billion tons of rock and ice separated and slid beneath the shelf.  The collapse displaced an unimaginable amount of water, forcing it out and up into a giant tsunami.  As the tsunami rose, it forced the entire ice shelf up with it, rising hundreds of feet within seconds. 

Kathryn’s team on the plane watched the ice shelf rise up, pushed skyward by the force of the tsunami.  Their eyes grew wide and their breathing increased with every foot the shelf rose under them.  As it climbed higher and higher, everyone instinctively tightened their grip waiting for the giant land mass they had all just been standing on to smash into the bottom of the airplane. 

The plane climbed as quickly as it could, but the speed of the rising shelf was much faster.  No one in the back heard the pilots shouting in the cockpit and giving the engines everything they could.  It was at that moment that Kathryn remembered all of the drilling explosives that were still onboard.  The ice below looked like it was now just inches away.  Several of them closed their eyes and waited for the impact, but it never came. 

President Carr was glaring at Stevas when the phone on his desk beeped three times.  He left the men standing in front of him and walked across the room and around his desk, pushing the speaker button on his handset.  The voice of one of Mason’s female assistants came on.  “Mr. President, I have an urgent message for you from a Ms. Lokke.”

Carr looked at the phone and squinted curiously.  He looked at the other men and replied.  “Put her through.”  There was a short click and the President spoke up loudly.  “Hello Ms. Lokke, what do I-”

“It’s happening!” she screamed through the phone.  “It’s collapsing right now!”

Panic filled the room as Carr looked at the others.  “The shelf?”

“The glacier!” she answered.  “The glacier has collapsed and destroyed the shelf!”

“Oh god.” the President said, trying to think.  He lowered himself close to the phone.  “Is it as bad as you thought?”

“Yes!” she answered immediately.  The sound of the plane’s
engines in the background were drowning out her voice.  “The tsunami is enormous and it’s headed north!”

“How fast?” Carr asked.  The other men quickly crowded around his desk.  “How much time do we have?”

“I don’t know.” She said, yelling over the background noise.  “Probably three or four hundred miles an hour which means it would hit Florida in,” she paused, “something like twelve hours.  But it will hit South America long before that!”

Carr closed his eyes and hung his head.  “What are our options, Ms. Lokke?”

“I told you there were no options.” she said.  “We can’t stop this.  The only thing we can do is evacuate!”

“Hold on.” The President said and muted the line.  He looked at the men around him.  “Jesus Christ.  Is that even possible?”

“Evacuate the entire Atlantic seaboard, in both North and South America?” Miller said shaking his head.  “No, not in twelve hours.”