Breakthrough(105)

Clay looked at the President who nodded and moved back, giving him the phone. Clay walked across the giant rug and sat slowly down in the seat. Palin followed and stood next to him. Clay exhaled slowly and spoke into the phone.

“Ms. Lokke, this is John Clay. We spoke a few days ago.”

“I remember.” Kathryn replied. “You said you were going to stop the explosion. What the hell happened?”

“Well,” Clay said, “some people had other plans.” He softly put a hand to his chest and scooted forward in his chair. His wound was still extremely painful. “Ms. Lokke, I understand this cannot be stopped by conventional means…but there are other islands that are also at risk of a massive collapse correct?”

“Yes.” She replied quickly.

“Isn’t Tristan Island one of those high risk locations?”

“Uh yeah,” she said with a touch of sarcasm, “although Tristan is medium risk. There are dozens of them around the world.”

“Ms. Lokke,” Clay continued slowly. “Isn’t Tristan’s slide zone on the south side of the island?”

“Well yes.” She answered and then suddenly gasped. “Oh my god! Yes it is!”

“Is this possible?” Clay asked her.

“Yes!” she said almost yelling into her headset. “Yes, it’s possible! We’d have to check some things but it might work.” She paused. “But we would need something to start it.”

Everyone seemed to close in around Clay and Palin at the desk. “What?” said the President. “What might work?!”

Clay turned to Carr. “These land mass collapses have happened throughout history and are very infrequent, but as we know the effects are devastating. Tristan is a large island in the South Atlantic and is one of the locations where part of the land mass is slowly separating. It’s not due for a very long time but we may be able to help it happen, and create a tidal wave traveling in the opposite direction.” He looked at everyone as he spoke. “If we can’t stop the tsunami headed this way, perhaps we can block it.”

Everyone looked eager. “Ms. Lokke?” asked Carr.

“We need to verify our data,” she said, “but we would have a good chance at reducing the size of the wave traveling north. It may mean the difference between thousands of lives instead of millions.”

Carr looked back to Clay. “And how would we start it?”

“It would take something big.” He said. “Like a nuclear impact.”

The President shook his head. “Wait a minute. We’re talking about another nuclear bomb?”

The irony was not wasted on Clay, or the President for that matter, that without the first nuke they would not have needed the second. But more importantly, this would be the first time a nuclear explosion was used to save lives. The President stepped back shaking his head. How on earth was he going to explain two nuclear explosions?

Langford placed his hand gently on Clay’s shoulder. “How did you know that, John?”

Clay shrugged innocently. “I read up on Ms. Lokke and her work after we met her at JAX.”

Miller looked at the President. “Sir for this we are going to require launch codes. And the Vice President.”





“Mr. President, we have a visual on the tsunami.” Mason turned on a large monitor on the wall. “It’s a live satellite.” The picture in the monitor showed a wide angle view of the South Atlantic Ocean. When Mason zoomed in, a small, almost faint line could be seen moving up the picture.

“It looks smaller than I thought.”

“Tsunamis cannot be seen in deep water.” Clay said. “They grow when they reach the shore.”

The phone rang and Carr answered immediately. “Go ahead.”

Kathryn’s voice came over the speaker. “Mr. President, we’ve just gone over the data with some colleagues in D.C. We think this is our best option.”

Carr sighed. “And what happens if we unleash another wave in the wrong direction?”

“Mr. President,” came Kathryn’s voice over the loud engines, “I honestly don’t think we can make this situation worse.”

He looked at Mason. “Get the Chinese and the Russians on the phone. We better make damn sure they know what this is when it shows up on their radars.” Mason nodded and ran for the door. He opened it just as Miller and Vice President Bailey were coming in. Miller was carrying the infamous briefcase called ‘the football’, which carried the country’s nuclear launch codes. He placed it on the table in front of the President.

Carr skipped to his second phone line. When the female voice answered he said “Get me NORAD.” He then moved to the metal briefcase, turning the tumblers to the correct combination and then pressing the buttons in to release the locks. The lid popped open quietly.