Double Dose, page 32
They followed the arrow and turned even deeper into the desert toward a small mountain range.
“Those hills have a name?” Tom said.
Without looking up, Lucy said, “According to the map they’re the Sawtooth Mountains, part of the Peninsular Range.”
About ten miles later another sign welcomed them to Nespodee Springs itself. The pavement improved as they passed neat rows of mobile homes lining both sides.
“The clan all left Wales for this?” he said. “I can see wanting a better climate but this is nowhere.”
Deep in her tablet, Lucy made no reply.
A windfarm rose on the right—small compared to the one they’d passed in the San Gorgonio Pass, but still impressive. And then a vast array of solar panels gleamed to the left. Talk about energy independence. But how did they put all this power to use? And further south, beyond the panel farm, a tall, skeletal, mushroom-capped tower poked into the sky.
Tom jabbed Lucy on the arm. “Hey. Check out the Tesla tower.”
She surfaced from cyberspace and said, “You know Tesla? I’m impressed.”
“You’re not the only one with a trivia arsenal.”
As she followed Tom’s point, her eyes snapped wide. “Oh. My. God. They built one—actually built one. The clan keeps mentioning a tower in their notes, but I had no idea. Tesla’s was almost two hundred feet tall and that looks like it’s built exactly to scale.” She looked at Tom, her face shining with wonder. “They’re really serious about this. They’re really going to try to breach the Veil and open the Void.”
He could see her hopes soaring. The higher she flew, the harder she’d crash.
“Hey, easy now. The key word there is ‘try.’ That doesn’t necessarily mean—”
“I’ve got to talk to Elis Pendry!”
Tom couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You? Talk to a stranger?”
“Well, no. You’ll talk to him. I’ll tell you what questions to ask.”
Okay, that was more like it.
They entered something that resembled a town. A row of one- and two-story buildings lined each side of the road. A planked boardwalk acted as a sidewalk, giving it an Old West look. A sign pointed ahead toward the Nespodee Springs Hotel and Spa, farther up the slope.
“Where would we find the Pendrys?” she wondered aloud as they passed a market—not super by any stretch.
Here and there among the scattered pedestrians Tom spotted a pair of young girls in long-sleeved, high-collared, low-hemmed gingham dresses, worn over tights. Though varied in color and pattern, both dresses were uniform in style.
“I bet they belong to a clan,” Lucy said. “Ask them.”
He slowed and stuck his head out the window. “Do you happen to know where I can find the Pendry clan?”
They squealed and ran away.
“Was it me or just mentioning the Pendry clan?”
“Definitely you,” Lucy said.
Moving on they passed a café, a bar, a liquor store, a doctor’s office, a place called “Healerina,” and then—
“Here we go,” Tom said as he spotted Tadhak Realty on the left. “If anyone knows, the local realtor does.”
He’d just nosed in to park when a stocky man with his arm in a sling stepped through the door and onto the boardwalk.
“I’m looking for Elis Pendry,” Tom said from the Hummer.
The local’s expression was grim, and he looked as if was going to ask why Tom wanted to know. Instead he pointed up the slope.
“He lives up there but he’s not home. He’s down at his tower.”
“The Tesla tower?”
His expression stayed grim but added a soupçon of suspicion. “You know about that?”
“Just saw it for the first time.”
“Well, stay away. He’s cranking it up and things are going to get nasty around here.”
So saying, he swiveled and limped to an old station wagon with Tadhak Realty on the side.
“Not exactly a friendly sort,” Tom said as his window slid up.
“Did you hear that?” Lucy said. “He said he’s ‘cranking it up’! That means the game is on!”
“The game? What game?”
“The Void game. The clan is going to try to open a passage.” She jabbed a finger at the dashboard clock. “It’s almost two. We’ve got to get back to the Salton Sea. Pronto.”
“We just came from there.”
“But that’s where the passage is going to open.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“I just put it together. The Visitors like water. They left here millions of years ago because the water dried up. If the clan is going to bring them back, there has to be water. And where’s the only water around here?”
All very logical, but all based on shaky premises. Tom figured if he were an alien crossing over from another dimension to frolic in water, the Salton Sea did not have the kind of water he’d be looking for. But then again, maybe the Visitors liked toxins.
Not that any of it mattered. No breach would occur, no transdimensional beings would arrive, Lucy would be crushed, Tom would pick up the pieces and cart them home. He consoled himself with the knowledge that this whole fiasco would be over in a couple of hours when the equinox passed. Until then he’d simply keep playing along.
Elis
Elis stared at the switch that would power up the base of the tower. He’d been chafing to throw it but had needed to give the other Elders time to reach the Elmore area where the boat was docked. He’d dialed the power feed to MAX. All the voltage from the solar array plus the excess from the Tadhak windfarm would funnel down into the Earth with a simple flip of that switch.
Now the time had arrived—three o’clock on his phone—but he couldn’t pull it. His hands had gone sweaty and shaky.
He had to pull it.
The last century-plus of the clan’s existence had pointed toward this moment, leaving its entire future resting on his shoulders.
But pulling the switch was like stepping into an abyss. No turning back, no undoing.
But it’s going to happen anyway, he told himself for at least the thousandth time today. He wasn’t changing the big picture, only the details. The Visitors were going to return no matter what, and when they were back they would flood the whole Imperial Valley. So Elis’s doing it for them changed nothing but the timing…and the clan’s future. They would be linked to the Visitors, be part of the coming new order.
“Damn it!” he shouted and pulled the switch.
Done. Flashes from below lit the shaft as the resonant transformer—a large Tesla coil around the base of the shaft—began to spark in the depths, generating standing waves in the Earth’s crust.
We need a big one, he thought. Really big. But not so big as to bring down the tower itself. He’d closely overseen its construction, steel-bracing it to within an inch of its life, quadruple bolting each support to the foundation, and fitting each support with isolators to reduce the severity of any shaking it suffered. It must not come down. That would bring all his plans to an abrupt halt.
And he prayed the all clan was outside as he’d instructed.
Because now it begins…
Becky
Mark Hendry fairly lunged through Becky’s office door. He sounded out of breath.
“Doctor Heuser! Those weird sine waves are back!”
Dr. Rebecca Heuser leaped up from behind her desk and started toward him.
“Show me.”
Immediately prior to the February 26 and March 5 quakes, the seismic sensors down in the Imperial Valley had picked up odd sine waves running through the desert floor. Their origin was unclear and the sensors couldn’t localize them to a specific fault. Yet on both occasions they were followed by significant earthquakes of 3.6 and 5.5 intensity. Monday’s quake had shown no sine waves, however. Yes, it had been a minor tremblor, but still…a baffling situation.
She followed Hendry to the data analysis room where the big seismic network monitor high on the wall showed three lines of sine waves running through the lower feeds—large sine waves.
“Did you up the gain on those feeds?”
Hendry shook his head. “I did nothing. As soon as I saw them, I ran for your office.”
These waves were so much bigger than the last two incidents. Did that predict a bigger fault slip?
As other members of Caltech’s seismology lab crowded in behind her, she said, “Issue a ShakeAlert.”
“But it’s not showing P waves,” Cheatham said.
“I’m well aware of that. But these same waves appeared before the five-point-five on March fifth and I held off until the P waves showed. I could have given folks lots more warning if I’d listened to my gut. So I’m going with my gut today. I’ll take full responsibility. ShakeAlert—now!
Daley
A couple of hours after lunch, as a pair of security guards were making a path through the second-floor hallway for her and Milton and Nurse Ames, Daley’s skin began to tingle.
“You feel anything?” she said to Ames. “On your skin?”
She shook her head. “No. You?”
“Yeah. A weird tingle.”
(“This is similar to what you felt before the first two of the three recent quakes,”) Pard said.
I remember. Is it me or is it stronger this time?
(“It’s not you, but—say, isn’t that…?”)
Daley was surprised to see Juana standing in the crowded hallway outside one of the patients’ rooms.
“What are you doing here? Is someone sick?”
“A cousin came down with the horrors. They brought him here last night. I just got here.”
“How’d you get through that traffic?”
“Almost didn’t. Had to leave my sidecar at a gas station.”
Daley pointed to the room. “Let’s get to it then. I—”
A faint alert signal began to sound from a number of directions. Ames pulled out her phone and thumbed the screen.
“Oh, shit! The MyShake app. It’s sending an alert. We’ve got a quake coming—a big one, from the looks of it—right in this area!”
She wasn’t the only one with the app. Lots of phones were chiming, and the hallway filled with cries of dismay as people rushed for the stairwells.
“How long have we got?” Daley said.
Ames shook her head. “It doesn’t say. Get in a doorway or get outside.”
Dr. Milton grabbed Daley’s arm and pulled her toward an exit sign.
“I want you out of here. We can’t have you getting hurt. You’re not replaceable.”
“But the patients—”
(“Do as he says, Daley,”) Pard said.
You’re sure you don’t just want to save you skin?”
(“I don’t have any. I want to save yours. I definitely don’t want to be on the second floor of this building during ‘a big one.’ I want even less to be on the first floor. I want to be outside.”)
“Let us worry about the patients,” Milton said. “We go through drills for this.” He pointed straight ahead. “That door there will take you to an outside stairway down to the rear parking lot by the emergency room.” He pulled off his white lab coat and wrapped it around her. “Cover up with this.” Then grabbed a surgical cap from the head of an OR tech hurrying by. “And this. I don’t want you mobbed out there.”
“But—”
“Go.” He pushed her toward the door. “Please.”
So Daley went, Juana beside her—out the door and onto the exposed, external metal-frame stairway. As she hurried down, a thought occurred to her, but Pard said it first.
(“Do you think this could be Elis Pendry’s doing?”)
Just wondering that. The equinox could have been his target date all along.
(“I’m willing to bet it was. And what better misdirection than to make us believe it was the solstice, leaving us to think we had three months to stop him.”)
He scammed us. The bastard! I can’t believe I fell for it.
(“You didn’t, exactly. You got a clue from Jason who knew the truth but let us go on believing the lie. But then, he was been pretty up front about wanting the same thing as Elis.”)
But only up to a point.
Daley reached the ground with Juana close behind. She tightened Milton’s coat around her black outfit and kept her head down as she wound her way through the milling crowd in the parking lot to an empty spot between two cars near the carport.
She’d just turned to Juana when the ground heaved and jumped, rocking the cars around them, literally bouncing a couple of the smaller ones. It would have knocked them off their feet had they not been able to brace themselves against the cars. And then the ground began to shake, knocking them almost to their knees. The crowd screamed as many of them were thrown flat. Some jumped up and ran only to be knocked down again. People were thrown from the crowded external staircase as some of the facing on the hospital’s main building began to crack and fall off. Then part of the staircase pulled free of the wall and tilted at a crazy angle, dumping dozens of people onto the ground.
“This is a big one!” Juana shouted.
No kidding, Daley thought.
Finally, after a seemingly interminable interval, the ground settled down. And Daley knew immediately what she had to do.
“Juana—I’ve got to get to Nespodee Springs.”
“What? Why?”
“I’ll tell you on the way.”
(“Really?”)
Well, as much as she needs to know.
“I don’t have my side car.”
“That might be a good thing. I’ll sit behind you. But we’ve got to get there fast. I’ll need you to drive more like a maniac than you usually do.”
Juana grinned. “Flattery will get you anything. I’m parked over near the carport. What’s the rush?”
“I’ve a very bad feeling that this one is just the first in a series of quakes.”
“Then why go to Nespodee?”
“That’s where they’re originating.” As Juana opened her mouth to speak, Daley pushed her toward the carport—its roof had fallen onto the vehicles it had been sheltering from the sun. “I already told you I’d explain on the way.”
Tom
During the hour-plus drive back to the Salton Sea, Lucy located a small motorboat to rent in Salton City at a place called the Western Shores Marina and RV Park. Of course, she handed the phone to Tom to make the arrangements as they drove. God forbid she spoke to a stranger, even on the phone.
They approached Salton City from the south on 86. Tom didn’t know what he was expecting, but this was no city. Hardly a town, it seemed. From the highway he saw lots of streets but not many houses on them. And what houses he saw looked like converted trailers. So…a city that wasn’t a city on the shoreline of a sea that wasn’t a sea.
And suddenly something jolted the car, knocking it off course. Luckily no one was coming the other way because the Hummer veered into the oncoming lane before Tom could straighten it out.
Lucy said, “You hit something.”
Tom was pretty sure he hadn’t. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw nothing in the road, but then the Hummer started jittering and bumping along.
“More like a blowout,” he said. “Feels like we’ve got a flat.”
He pulled to a quick stop on the shoulder but the car kept shaking.
“It’s a quake,” Lucy said like someone else might say it’s raining.
A bad one. They had to cling to their grab handles to keep from being banged about the interior. It seemed to last twenty minutes but probably less than one. As a lifelong California resident, Tom had been through a lot of quakes, but never one like this.
Finally the ground stopped moving and they sat there, catching their breath, staring at each other.
“That was bad,” he said. “Lucky we’re in a car. If we’d been home…”
Lucy nodded. “We might be under the house now.”
Tom said what he was pretty sure they both were thinking: “You don’t think the clan’s Tesla tower did that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re supposed to be breaching the Veil into the Void. What’s an earthquake got to do with it?”
He pointed to her tablet. “Get online and see what you can find. Meanwhile…”
He tuned Sirius to its news channels and landed on HLN. The newsreader said a major quake had shaken California’s Imperial Valley. Well, hell, they already knew that. He wanted details. Maybe he’d tuned in too early. It had just happened. He dialed up and down in the news channels but wasn’t finding much.
“Here’s something,” Lucy said. “Found the SCEC website. They say it was a seven-point-eight magnitude quake in the Mexicali region. They’re blaming the Cerro Prieto fault.” She looked up from her tablet. “We need to get to our boat.”
“You can’t be serious.”
Now she looked at him. “What?”
“There’s just been a major earthquake. There’ll be aftershocks—big ones.”
“So? We’ll be safer on the water than on land.”
“Did you happen to see our swimming pool during the last quake—all the waves and the water sloshing out?”
“The Salton Sea isn’t a swimming pool, dear brother. It’s thirty-five miles long and fifteen wide and fifty feet deep. And for sure nothing can fall on us if we’re out there.”
“You’re crazy!”
“If you don’t want to go, I’ll go alone. Just get me to the marina. You said you’d take me to the Void. A deal is a deal.”
Shit-shit-shit! He’d figured this would be just a sightseeing trip. They’d drive around aimlessly while the equinox came and went, then head back to Pasadena. He hadn’t figured on a fucking earthquake.
He got the car rolling again.
