Kosmik.'
The monitor glowed, and Harvey Sill's image appeared. 'Dr. Jacobi, please. Director Truscott wishes to speak with him.'
'Dr. Jacobi is not available. Director Truscott may speak with me if she wants. I'll be happy to relay her message. Or if you prefer, I can have Dr. Jacobi return the call.'
'Oh, for God's sake.' Melanie Truscott replaced Sill. 'We don't have time for bureaucratic nonsense, young lady.' She paused, and lifted her eyes above Andi, as if she were searching the room. 'Henry, I know you're there. Please talk to me. We have an emergency.'
Henry sighed, and walked around in front of the screen. 'Hello, Melanie,' he said wearily. 'What seems to be the problem?'
'We've had an accident.'
Henry glanced sharply at Andi, a gesture delivered primarily for Truscott's benefit. 'What happened? Do you need help?'
'No. But you might be in some danger.'
'What do you mean?'
'We lost control of one of the snowballs. An orbiting piece of ice. It fell into the Yakata three minutes ago.'
He smothered his anger. 'Where?'
'Roughly sixteen hundred kilometers south of you. It impacted at seventy-two point five south, one-fifteen point two west.'
Andi brought up a map of the region, and marked the location.
Truscott's eyes fastened on Henry. 'A tsunami has formed,' she said.
'Melanie, you are a bitch.'
'I'm sorry you think so, Henry. But I hardly think that's the issue.' She looked guilty. She tried to stare him down, but the fire had gone out of her eyes.
'How big is the wave?'
'We don't have a measurement yet.'
'Please let me know when you do.'
'I will. And, Henry—I'm sorry about this. If we can help—'
'Yes. Of course. Temple out.' He broke the link. 'We'll need to evacuate the Temple. How fast do tidal waves travel?'
Andi was already consulting the data banks:
TSUNAMI. (SEA WAVE, SEISMIC WAVE, TIDAL WAVE.) AN OCEAN WAVE RESULTING PROM AN UNDERSEA EARTHQUAKE, VOLCANIC ERUPTION, OR OTHER SUBMARINE DISTURBANCE. THE TSUNAMI MAY REACH OVERWHELMING DIMENSIONS, AND HAS BEEN KNOWN TO TRAVEL ENTIRELY AROUND THE EARTH. (Cf., THE ARGENTINEAN PLATE SLIPPAGE, 2011.) IT PROCEEDS AS AN ORDINARY GRAVITY WAVE. THE WATER FORMING TSUNAMIS TENDS TO BUNCH UP BEHIND THE WAVE WHILE IT IS TRAVELING THROUGH DEEP WATER. ON APPROACHING SHALLOW AREAS, VELOCITY DECREASES, BUT THE WAVE WILL INCREASE SHARPLY IN HEIGHT. LOW-LYING AREAS MAY BE ENGULFED. TSUNAMIS DO NOT RESULT IN ANY WAY FROM TIDAL ACTION. THE POPULAR TERM 'TIDAL WAVE' IS A MISNOMER.
She scanned ahead.
VELOCITY OF THE WAVE EQUALS THE SQUARE ROOT OF GRAVITATIONAL ACCELERATION TIMES THE DEPTH OF THE WATER.
'Do we have the sea depths south of here?' Henry asked.
Andi shook her head. 'I don't think they've been measured very exactly.' Her fingers danced across the keyboard. 'Best guess is that it will be traveling at five or six hundred kilometers per hour. But it's only a guess.'
'Son of a bitch.' She listened to Henry's harsh breathing.
Hutch was riding her cart, carrying six containers toward the sub bay when Henry broke in on the common channel. 'We've got an emergency,' he said softly.
She turned a comer and saw Eddie Juliana coming out of one of the storerooms. He was scribbling on a lightpad.
Henry outlined the situation briefly. Hutch thought it was probably a false alarm, a maneuver in a war of nerves. But Eddie was staring at her, eyes wide.
'We don't know yet how fast it's coming,' Henry continued, 'or where it is, or how big it is. But it could be here in a couple of hours. Everyone is to leave the Temple. Return immediately to Seapoint.'
'My God,' said Eddie, 'we'll lose it all.'
George broke in: 'Henry, we're in the middle of something.'
'Now, George. I want everybody back here within thirty minutes. Please acknowledge to Andi. Don't worry about securing equipment. Frank, what's the status on the sub?'
Carson was enraged. 'It's loaded. We were just getting ready to head for the pier.'
'Forget it. Is-Tommy with you?'
'Yes.'
Eddie climbed onto the cart. 'Get going,' he said to Hutch.
'Tommy.' Henry sounded calm. 'Take the sub and head straight out to sea. Go as far as you can.'
'Why not leave it where it is?' asked Carson.
'Because it's safer in deep water. We don't know what'll happen here. Frank, I need you and Hutch to find the wave. I want to know where it is, how big it is, and how fast it's coming.'
Carson acknowledged.
'One more thing. It's going to be hard to see. Tidal waves are small when they're in deep water. Maybe only a meter or two high. But it's long. There might be a kilometer or two between the crest and the trough.'
Hutch and Eddie rolled into the sub bay.
'I'm not sure what constitutes safe cover for something like this,' Henry continued. 'If we have time, I'm going to get everybody ashore, out of the way of this goddam thing.'
'Then you'll need the sub,' Carson said.
'It'll take too long. We'd need time to unload it, and then a couple of trips to get everyone out. And then another three quarters of an hour to get to high ground. No, we'll use the jetpacks if there's time. You find out what the situation is. Where is it? How bad? When will it get here?'
'Don't forget,' Andi added, 'to get both shuttles away from the dock.'
Eddie jumped off the side of the cart as Carson closed the cargo hatch. 'What are you doing?' he asked.
Carson blinked at the question. 'Getting underway.'
'You've got room for more.' He was trying to direct Hutch to pull closer to the sub.
'Forget it, Ed.'
'Anyway,' added Hutch, 'the sub's going out to meet a tidal wave. Last thing you want is a lot of ballast. It's probably already overloaded.'
That brought a worried reaction from Tommy. 'Maybe we should unload some of this stuff.'
'Listen,' said Eddie, 'this place might get wrecked. We've got to save what we can.'
'Seapoint'll be fine,' said Carson, but he threw a worried glance toward Hutch. 'Let's get going.'
Before they were clear of the base, Hutch had used her remote to start Alpha inland. Five minutes later, she and Carson rode the Temple shuttle into a dripping sky.
Below, Tommy, frightened and alone, headed out to sea.
George, deep in the Lower Temple, was also reluctant to adjust his priorities. 'Henry,' he pleaded, 'we can have it out of here in an hour.'
Maggie, wherever she was, joined in: 'Henry, this is critical. We can't take a chance on losing it.'
They were on the common channel. Hutch had been distracted, hadn't heard enough to know what it was. 'We may not have an hour,' Henry said. 'Don't argue with me; I've got too much to do. George, get back here.'
Hutch stared at the ocean. It looked peaceful enough. 'This kind of screw-up,' she said to Carson,
