Footprints of Thunder (31 page)

Luis grimaced and groaned but Mrs. Weatherby ignored him.

“By the way, I borrowed the sugar out of your apartment. I left a note for you .and Melinda. I’ll repay you when I can get to a store.”

“Don’t go near a store, Mrs. Weatherby. They’ve all been looted anyway—” Mrs. Weatherby hushed him.

“You lie still. I’ll go up to your apartment and get you a change of clothes.”

Luis didn’t bother to protest. Too tired and sore to manage an argument, he lay on Mrs. Weatherby’s couch with his eyes closed and was soon sound asleep.

When he woke, his mouth was dry. When he was sure he could stand without fainting, Luis walked to the kitchen sink, took a glass from the cabinet, and turned on the faucet. Nothing came out. Then he remembered Mrs. Weatherby and the pan of soapy water. Where had she gotten it? And where was she now?

Luis went back to the living room and spotted a neat pile of his clothes on an end table. Mrs. Weatherby had picked out a pair of blue slacks and a white dress shirt. Luis smiled at her choice and decided to use the bathroom to change, in case Mrs. Weatherby came in. He found the bathroom down the hall and closed the door behind him. When he turned, he noticed the top of the toilet tank had been removed and was sitting on the floor. There was a cup on the countertop next to the toilet tank, which was only half full. Luis said out loud, “Very clever.” Convincing himself it was clean water, he took the cup, scooped up some, and quenched his thirst.

When he was finished changing, the apartment was still empty. He was about to start searching the building when he heard a strange sound. “Aaaaah,” loud and hoarse. He followed it to the living room window. When he looked out he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Mrs. Weatherby was on her knees in her garden, working with her flowers. Luis had seen this a thousand times but never seen it in this setting. The dinosaur that had scared the Ibarras out of their apartment was walking toward Mrs. Weatherby with its head down and its mouth open. “Run, Mrs. Weatherby! The dinosaur, run!” Luis yelled out the window.

Mrs. Weatherby looked up and waved. Then she stood and turned toward the approaching dinosaur, which went down on all fours, its huge head still coming directly at her. Luis yelled again but to no avail. Then, the head stopped with its mouth open wide, “aaaahing” louder as Mrs. Weatherby dug in a big satchel. Then she pulled out a bag and stepped forward and dumped the contents in the dinosaur’s mouth. The mouth immediately snapped closed and the jaw began to grind. Next the lips smacked and its massive tongue slipped between the lips, first cleaning the lower lip and then the upper. Then the mouth opened again and the “aaaahing” started all over.

With another bag, Mrs. Weatherby produced the performance again. When the dinosaur opened its mouth a third time Mrs. Weatherby spoke to it sternly. Luis couldn’t make out the words over the “aaaahing” sound. Then to his surprise Mrs. Weatherby put her hands on the animal’s huge jaw and pushed the head away from her. The head barely moved. Mrs. Weatherby slapped the jaw with her hand and pushed again. This time the dinosaur pulled its head up and stood, then turned and walked into the clearing, pausing twice to turn around and “aaaah” softly at Mrs. Weatherby. Then it pulled up a mouthful of grass and walked off chewing into the distance. Behind the retreating monster Luis saw a misty shimmering cityscape. It was an unsettling sight—a dinosaur as tall as a two-story building walking off toward a shimmering city skyline.

Too stunned to speak, Luis stood in the window, not knowing what to say anyway. Mrs. Weatherby called up to him and waved. Numbly Luis waved back and then went to the couch to lie down. Soon he couldn’t tell if he was awake or asleep. Was he hallucinating? Had the Diablos cracked his skull? He couldn’t have seen Mrs. Weatherby hand-feeding a dinosaur, could he? Luis was still trying to sort reality from fantasy when consciousness folded into sleep.

32. Puglisi

The theory that the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction was caused by a meteorite is gaining credibility. It’s not a good theory, but the best there is to explain what happened to the dinosaurs.

—
Cindy Wong, t
he Cretaceous Mystery

Honolulu, Hawaii

PostQuilt: Monday, 9:30
A.M.
AHT

E
mmett Puglisi reclined in Professor Wang’s new blue executive chair and gently rocked and swiveled, admiring the smooth motion and the deep blue padded armrests. He wondered vaguely if he would someday have this chair too. He’d inherited Dr. Wang’s old chair. When the new one had been delivered, Emmett happened to be walking down the hall. Emmett had asked for the old chair, and she gave it to him. Of course jealous colleagues claimed he kissed up to Dr. Wang for the chair, but it had been a matter of timing, not brownnosing. Dr. Wang had taken pity on him, even though half a dozen associate professors, with seniority on lowly Assistant Professor Puglisi, would have liked the chair. But Emmett had been in the right place at the right time. It had been like that for much of his life.

Emmett had been wait-listed for the graduate program in astrophysics at the University of Hawaii, and only been admitted late in August, just two weeks, before the start of the semester. He fared well in his studies, but as graduation approached his efforts at finding a job had not gone well. He received two phone interviews for instructor positions on the mainland, but no offers and had serious prospects until one of the faculty at the University had taken ill. Then Emmett agreed to fill in on a one-year appointment. That appointment was followed by another to fill a vacancy created by a sabbatical. Another sabbatical followed and another appointment. That year Emmett won a teaching award and co-authored a successful National Science Foundation grant. When a tenure-track position opened up for the next year Emmett had advance information and successfully campaigned for the position.

That was two years ago, and now he found himself in the right place at the right time again. Although this time he wasn’t sure it wasn’t the right place at the wrong time.

Dr. Wang had disappeared along with four of their colleagues. Now there were five empty offices on Emmett’s floor, but only Dr. Wang’s was part of PresNet. Emmett had resisted at first, but the news reports of widespread disaster didn’t ring true to him, and his thirst for understanding grew until he could no longer resist.

Emmett wasn’t authorized to access the PresNet, but he knew Dr. Wang’s computer was networked and would automatically access the system. Once into the system he could read the posted messages, but to send you needed a security code. He had ransacked Dr. Wang’s office until he found it taped to the bottom of her new chair. The little news the islands were getting was confused and impossible to believe. Floods, avalanches, disappearing cities; none of it made sense. As far as he knew, Hawaii had been spared a disaster like those described on the network.

Emmett had hoped the PresNet would have more information, something that could make sense of it. He was disappointed. It was filled with the same kinds of reports being carried on the news, but with more detail and in more variety. The mystery was only getting bigger.

So he sat in total frustration, watching the scientific parade pass him by, his self-pity interrupted only when he heard a tapping at the partially closed door.

Associate Professor Carrollee Chen-Slater came through the door holding two paper cups of coffee. Emmett had his usual mixed reaction. He was happy to see her again, but also a little apprehensive.

She was the only woman in the botany department and was highly regarded for her competence. Carrollee was also valued because of her multicultural background. Her mother was half Nez Perce and a quarter each of Polish and Hispanic, and her father was a mix of Chinese and Swedish. The Slater name came from his stepfather, who adopted him. On her office desk was a sign that read simply
MELTED POT
.

Carrollee was as popular with students as Emmett was. She’d won a campus teaching award and two departmental awards. Carrollee was also popular among the faculty. She was friendly toward everyone, and everyone appreciated her ready smile and sense of humor. The faculty was also generally amused by the outlandish clothes she wore. Today her brown curly hair was pushed to the right side of her face and held in place with a large silver barrette. Under her unbuttoned lab coat, Emmett could see a one-piece black jumpsuit with an oversize silver belt with a huge oval buckle. He often wondered if those cover-up lab coats weren’t keeping Carrollee on tenure track.

“You know, Emmett, it’s customary to wait until a person is declared dead before you move into their office. Have you no respect?”

Emmett took Carrollee’s coffee and comments as she meant them, good-naturedly. Carrollee was as amiable a person as Emmett had ever met. He knew she had personally called the families of the missing faculty, and visited some. She was respectful and somber when proper, and genuine tears of empathy came readily. But Carrollee preferred to live her life with a smile and rarely lost it when she was with Emmett.

“I respect the dead, but I covet the position and power of this office.”

“I wouldn’t say that to too many people. The way it looks you’ll become department head by default. They start putting two and two together and you could end up at the top of the suspect list.”

“Suspect? You think some lowly assistant professor wreaked worldwide havoc to become department chairman? I’m flattered you think I have the wherewithal to accomplish this.”

“I don’t think you have the wherewithal to remember to keep your fly closed. Others just don’t know you as well as I do.”

“Thanks, Carrollee,” Emmett said, surreptitiously checking his zipper. “It’s nice to know that no matter how bad things get, you can always make them worse. Of course this time I may have made things worse by myself. Take a look at this.” Emmett swiveled the monitor around to make it easier for Carrollee to read. Her eyebrows went up when she realized he was on the PresNet. Then she clucked her tongue and shook her head.

“Let me summarize the situation,” she said, plopping down into one of the visitors’ chairs. “You’ve broken into a private office, accessed a computer network you are not authorized to use—that’s theft of services, I think—and are in possession of sensitive information you’re not cleared for. And now you are impersonating someone with enough brains to be part of PresNet. Did I leave anything out?”

“Yeah, I ate a package of Tic Tacs I found in Dr. Wang’s desk.”

“Of course. I was wondering why I could get this close to you. I don’t suppose a busy lawbreaker like you has time to lend a hand to a lady? I had a proposition for you.”

“You really shouldn’t make a habit of propositioning people.”

“Hey, it keeps me from streetwalking.” Carrollee looked around the room. “Does Dr. Wang have a radio in here? No, then you may not have heard the news.”

Emmett rocked forward. Had something new happened?

Carrollee began. “First, there have been some ugly incidents at grocery stores throughout the islands. I drove by a Safeway on the way in and they’ve got police stationed all around it.”

Even a big island like Oahu was overstocked with people and understocked with resources. Without supplies from the mainland there wasn’t enough food to last thirty days. Pineapple, sugar, and fish would only go so far among a million people. Gas and oil would dwindle just as fast. The implications of being cut off from supplies were staggering, and the consequences could be ugly. But they weren’t cut off completely, were they? Only interisland flights were still operating because of what had happened to the three flights from the mainland, but for how long? What of shipping? Emmett realized he needed to come back to reality.

“You want me to help you get stocked up on food?”

Carrollee briefly looked hurt, and Emmett regretted his suggestion. She was one of the most capable people he knew.

“Not a problem. Richard’s navy, remember? But thanks for the offer,” she continued. “No, there’s another thing you might be interested in. You know how we thought Hawaii had been untouched by what happened? I mean by all the disasters. Well something strange has been drifting ashore. Mostly plants and a few dead fish. Nothing spectacular, but a friend of mine said it wasn’t the usual kind of seaweed and grasses. Thought you might like to come along.”

“You need an astrophysicist?”

“You don’t have to come, it’s just for company.”

Carrollee made no attempt to leave and sat uncomfortably. Maybe there wasn’t chaos outside of the campus, but Emmett knew Carrollee, and he understood her request wasn’t for company, it was for safety, Emmett wasn’t a big guy, actually only five seven, so he wasn’t being asked to come along for muscle, only numbers. He realized he might need to make the same request of her one day.

“How long will we be gone?”

“A couple of hours, tops. You’ll be back to committing crimes in a jiff.”