Published by Nightstand Press
Copyright © 2020 by Richard Aaron
First Edition
Nightstand Press
P.O. Box 178122
San Diego, CA 92177
www.richardaaron.com
Cover & Interior Design: GKS Creative, www.gkscreative.com
Counterplay is a work of fiction. Apart from well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to current events or locales, or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information
in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such
errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.
Library of Congress Case Number TBD
ISBN: 978-1-948792-24-0 (Ingram Spark paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-948792-20-2 (KDP paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-948792-16-5 (ebook)
For media or booking inquiries, please contact:
STRATEGIES Public Relations
P.O. Box 178122
San Diego, CA 92177
858-467-1978
jkuritz@strategiespr.com
First printed in the United State of America.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO…
My Children
Table of Contents
Title Page
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
1
One acre-foot of water is equivalent to a volume of water spread out over one acre, to a depth of one foot. There are 27 million of these in Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the United States. Lake Powell sits at the northern end of the Grand Canyon. When the Glen Canyon Dam failed, this water, traveling at 100 miles per hour, traversed the 292-mile Grand Canyon in under three hours. Over this distance, the Colorado River drops approximately one-half mile.
The water did not flow in a smooth manner. The canyon walls disintegrated in an uneven, discontinuous fashion. The surges of water would be temporarily blocked by a massive bank collapse. Then, with the accumulation of force and pressure from the upstream current, the barrier would blow apart, and the unstoppable, chaotic tsunamis would continue along their downhill course. This process repeated endlessly as Lake Powell emptied itself.
Lake Mead sits at the southwestern end of the Grand Canyon. This lake is the largest reservoir in the United States. It contains almost twenty-nine million acre-feet of water. The pulses of water exiting the Grand Canyon, some 300 to 400 feet high, smashed into Lake Mead creating similar, massive tsunamis.
At the southwest end of Lake Mead lies a small, enclosed canyon called Black Canyon. This canyon is approximately a mile long and a quarter mile wide. The Hoover Dam is situated at the southern tip of Black Canyon. The surges of water entering Black Canyon initially bounced back from the Hoover Dam, which is much more robust than the Glen Canyon Dam. The structure could hold back water up to its crest and remain intact. Such an assessment assumed, however, that the water flow would be even.
This, however, was not the case. At the point where the breakers entered Black Canyon, they were 100 to 200 feet high. Some crashed over the dam, and some crashed into the dam. All four intake towers were destroyed by the first few whitecaps. The Hoover Dam itself withstood this punishment, at first. However, many of the tsunamis were reflected back from the upstream face of the Hoover Dam to the northern end of Black Canyon. There was destructive and constructive interference between the reflected waves and further waves entering the canyon. Destructive interference occurs when the crest of one wave hits the trough of another, reducing the amplitude, in a laboratory setting, to zero. However, when they are in phase, they superimpose on one another, doubling in height. This phenomenon occurred continuously within the walls of Black Canyon. For months. In fact, when such a process occurs for a sufficiently long period of time, there is a high statistical likelihood that two giant waves, created through constructive interference, would themselves superimpose, creating super tsunamis, increasing them to unimaginable heights. Within minutes of the first surges entering Black Canyon, it became a chaotic cauldron of forces; forces not even a dam as solidly constructed as the Hoover could withstand.
Water flows in the Colorado River are completely controlled. The Davis, Parker, Headgate, Imperial, and Morelos dams are all located downstream from the Hoover Dam. Each of these dams created large reservoirs upstream. Large hydroelectric generation facilities were erected downstream. None of these dams were engineered to survive the catastrophic, pulsing water exiting from the two largest reservoirs in the country. In all, seven dams were destroyed, and seven reservoirs were emptied before the US Army Corps of Engineers was able to bring the catastrophe under control. Severe shortfalls in electricity and potable water resulted. Phoenix, Yuma, Las Vegas, and many other desert cities became ghost towns.
2
The Stealth Hawk was hovering, eerily silent, several feet above the roadway near the fortress of Inzar Ghar. While Pakistan claimed dominion over the region, the reality was somewhat different. Inzar Ghar lay in the ungovernable tribal lands that connected Pakistan and Afghanistan. The only real authority there was the Pashtun: a tribal presence amongst whom Yousseff Said al-Sabhan was king.
Two heavily armed men, Richard Lawrence and Zak Goldberg, disembarked. “Don’t go far,” Richard told the pilots. “When we’re done, we’re likely to have a few dozen guys in heavy pursuit.”
The purpose of the mission was straightforward. One of the executive planners of the Colorado River attack, Kumar Hanaman, wanted to talk. His conscience had apparently begun to trouble him. Yousseff had imprisoned Kumar in his private mountain fortress, Inzar Ghar. The American intelligence community wanted to have a chat with Kumar.
“Don’t fret, Rich. We’re patched into the comm-link,” the pilot said. “We won’t be more than five minutes away.”
Richard helped Zak out of the Stealth Hawk. Zak was not yet fully acclimatized to his
